Cadmatic eBrowser & eGo 2015Q3

S O F T W A R E S O L U T I O N S

Cadmatic eBrowser & eGo 2015Q3

The ultimate project review tool allows users to walk through the model, easily locate and check details about any object, check dimensions and make markups.

Cadmatic eBrowser & eGo | 32

Contents

Model review .....................................................................33Navigation in the 3D model ................................................33Scenes in the model ...........................................................34Maps in eBrowser ...............................................................34Object details .....................................................................35Measurements ...................................................................36Hierarchies .........................................................................36Search box ..........................................................................37Clip the model view box .....................................................38Visualizations in the model ................................................39Project coordination and collaboration ..............................41Markups .............................................................................42Merging models .................................................................43Comparison of models .......................................................43Importing models from other CAD formats .......................44Point clouds in eBrowser ....................................................44eGo – eBrowser on Windows tablet ...................................45


Model review

Cadmatic eBrowser is extremely easy to use and doesn’t require any training. The user can walk through the model, navigate and locate objects and check details by using the mouse. eBrowser is available in two versions, a Light and a Licensed mode. You can download the eBrowser Light version free from the Cadmatic website. The Light ver-sion contains just the basic model browsing function-ality. The licensed version includes more helpful tools, such as markups, measuring, snapshot images, locate object, x-ray examination and more.

Navigation in the 3D model

While navigating in the model the user can walk through it, zoom and pan, turn around and look in different di-rections. For classic navigation hold down the left mouse but-ton to move around the model. You can walk forwards or backwards by moving the mouse cursor up or down. Turn by moving the mouse cursor left or right. It is pos-sible to move forwards or backwards and turn at the same time. The cursor’s distance from the center of the 3D view controls the speed of movement. With the “back” and ”forward” buttons you can re-turn to the previous position of the view.


Scenes in the model

You can “jump” from one location in the model to an-other using scenes. From the drop-down list, select one of the predefined scenes. A scene defines a location and also other settings like lighting and the properties of the camera. It is up to the publisher of the model to decide what settings are in use in each scene. It is also possible to create and save scenes locally. Just type the name of the new scene in the drop-down list’s header section and press the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard.

Maps in eBrowser

Locate what part of the model you’re browsing using the project. You see your location marked with a small red arrow. It indicates your current position and the di-rection of movement while navigating. Also by simply clicking on an interesting place in the map you are re-located to that part of the model. This way you can see what level you’re at and in what area. eBrowser automatically shows a map from a model where 3D spaces are defined (see advanced settings for publishing eBrowser)


Object details

With a simple left mouse botton click the user can check any object properties: information about the object and component, coordinates, etc.

Configurable property tip - when enabled the tooltip provides vital information about the object when mouse hovers for a moment over the object in the 3D view.


Measurements

The user can check distances between objects in the model and snap to e.g. centerlines, edges and other points in the model. In addition to measuring distanc-es between the points, users can see the coordinates of any point – in local and global coordinate systems and see the current location coordinates while brows-ing the model.

Hierarchies

Hierarchies in the model are dedicated to present the structure of the model, standard structures present systems and pipelines. However, it can be easily cus-tomized to present e.g. different model locations (sites, buildings or rooms for example). The structure can also be made according to the modification time. The hier-archy tree can be used to easily manipulate the visibil-ity of big groups in the models.


Search box

In eBrowser you can search and locate objects and ob-ject groups easily. To search for an object with a (part of a) position id or object groups with (a part of) the groups name, just type the search string in the search box and click the magnifier. If only one object or object group matches your search string, it is immediately dis-played in the examine mode. If multiple matches are found, the eBrowser shows you a list of all matching objects and object groups.


Clip the model view box

The user can clip the eBrowser model using the sides of the clip box that are parallel to model’s main planes (normal to main axis X, Y and Z). Only the objects and the portion of objects which fit in the clip box are shown.


Visualizations in the model

Objects’ visibility and highlighting are changed in the model tree. Changing objects’ and object groups’ vis-ibility, highlighting and x-ray modes is easy. Just left click the eye icon to make the object or object group invis-ible and click it again to make it visible again. Chang-ing highlighting is done the same way; you just have to click the lightbulb icon. To enable x-ray mode for an object or object group, just right click the eye icon. To disable the x-ray mode, left click the eye icon and the object or an object group will return to normal mode

(visible). You can change the shown hierarchy from the drop-down menu above the model structure tree. The drop-down menu also contains all the defined sets and also an ‘All Sets’ view, in which you can see all the de-fined sets at a glance. The examine mode allows the user to have a closer look at the selected object group. You can highlight and x-ray the object group and also dim or hide other ob-jects. Right-click an item in the sidebar and select com-mand Locate and Examine System (or Pipeline etc…) to access the Examine mode. Click Exit on the toolbar to resume the Basic mode.


X-ray mode allows user to see through other objects in the model. In com-plex model this facilitates for example examination of pipelines. The user can optimize work in the model with various settings: selecting measurement units, control of view distance (how far you see from each point), moving and turning speed, level of optimization (frames per second).


Additionally there are visualization settings for better representation of the model: background image, highlighting materials, transparency intensity.

Project coordination and collaboration

eBrowser enables effective communication between all parties involved in design projects by linking partners through the same 3D model. Designers, engineers, subcontractors and end cli-ents are linked to a mutual 3D model allowing easy and concurrent project reviews, facilitated by the ability to virtually walk around the design area and access all design data. The use of smart visualization techniques

means that the 3D models are very light. This makes it very easy to distribute by email or through the inter-net for example. The eBrowser is a useful maintenance and project follow-up tool as it provides easy access to equipment-, pipeline- and instrumentation data by clicking on ob-jects viewed in the eBrowser. Measurements can be taken in the project model and systems and objects can be located, visualized and isolated in the model with full linkage to related databases and documents.


Markups

Transferring information between eBrowser users is easy. In markup mode you can use a small set of draw-ing tools to point out the problematic points. You can also include measurements and coordinate labels with the tools. The color of the markups can be changed from the drop down menu. Current markup can be sent to another user via e-mail as an image attachment eas-ily by clicking “E-mail drawing as image”.

The tree buttons on the right hand side of the mark-up toolbar let you control what you see:

– Current means, that you see the 3D model as it is in the current .ebm file with current object visibilities

– Original means, that you see the model the way it was saved as an .ebx file

– Mixed means, that you see both blended on top of each other

Make markups with comments and additional informa-tion with just a few mouse clicks, show the area of in-terest to all project parties exactly the way you see it. Equip your drawings with:

– measurements, coordinates– labels, clouds, text, and– other 2D graphics to make your point

To email a markup as a picture there is a drop-down menu available. You can choose the desired format and size of the image.


Merging models

The user can load several models, relocate models and save the merged models.

Comparison of models

The comparison functionality in eBrowser allows users to load different models at the same time so that they can be compared. A list of differences can be output from eBrowser. This facilitates the visualization of dif-ferent design solutions and simplifies the evaluation of model changes at different review intervals. The differences are shown in the sidebar in a Differ-ence Tree (tightly related to the model tree). It shows the differences with color coded circles. The difference colors are shown in the difference tree and 3D view

with regards how objects have changed. There are six different colors for differences:

– Identical objects– Objects only in the first model– Objects only in the second model– Different (first version)– Different (second version)– Different (Attributes only)

The differing items list shows all the sub-items that have changes in examined models. For example, if we examine the differences in a system, we might see all the changed lines and for every line with changes we see the difference type and the changed attributes. The changed attribute list contains all the attributes that have changed in any of the objects in the item (line etc). If the user selects an item from the list, the attribute dif-ference list shows the attribute differences in the item. The user can more closely examine items by right-clicking them and selecting “Examine differences”. This targets the difference examination to the chosen item.


Importing models from other CAD formats

Ebrowser supports opening models, generated from Cadmatic Plant Design software, files with extension *.ebm. eBrowser files can also be generated via Cad-matic eXchangers (PDMS, PDS, SmartPlant 3D). In this case the project originating from these programs can be opened in eBrowser with all the intelligence includ-ed – colors, attributes, coordinates etc.

Point clouds in eBrowser

In a design project where laser scanning is utilized, there are many occasions when point clouds need to

be viewed in an easy way – for example, when analyz-ing the initial material, when doing design reviews and when presenting the design to the customer. eBrowser is the natural tool to support these activities, and it can view point clouds in native Laser Scan Modeller format directly, together, or without a 3D model. Two viewing modes are available: the normal eBrowser walkthrough mode where you can move freely within the 3D mod-el and point clouds and the bubble view that shows a single scan with superb quality. Switching between the modes is smooth and intuitive. The point clouds can be either scanner-based clouds that allow the bubble view to be used or processed clouds with no scanner information.


eGo – eBrowser on Windows tablet

Benefit from using eBrowser on the go – browse the 3D models on your Windows tablet. You could use almost all eBrowser functionality on your tablet, navigating in 3D with the map, touch screen and zooming. This pos-sibility make on site trips more effective and design projects mobile.

Key facts:– Use Windows tablets and almost full eBrows-

er functionality– Small size files containing whole model and

details about any objects– Walk around the project, check all the details

about any object in the model

Documents

Cadmatic eBrowser & eGo 2015Q3