Shapr3D, Siemens PLM, Tech Soft Team Up to Develop Mobile CAD Application

This week, Shapr3D released Shapr3D 3.0, a mobile CAD application developed in a collaboration with Siemens PLM Software and Tech Soft 3D.

CAD modelers have historically been relegated to Windows-based workstations, but in the recent years, largely as a response to the growing popularity of mobile devices, CAD began migrating to thinner, lighter mobile platforms.

AutoCAD and Onshape are currently available as mobile apps on the Apple App Store. Beginning with the 2018 release, SolidWorks will officially support touch interfaces, allowing users to install and run the program on powerful tablets such as Microsoft Surface.

Shapr3D’s upcoming program adds to the growing list of CAD modeling applications targeting the mobile devices and tablets.

Shapr3D releases mobile CAD application developed with Parasolid kernel and HOOPS SDK (image courtesy of Shapr3D).

Parasolid and HOOPS to Power Mobile

Shapr3D’s modeler is powered by Siemens PLM’s Parasolid engine and Tech Soft’s HOOPS Exchange translator.

Siemens PLM’s Parasolid is the 3D geometry modeling kernel for a number of mainstream CAD programs, including Siemens PLM’s Solid Edge and NX software, and Dassault Systemes’ SolidWorks. HOOPS Exchange software developer kit (SDK) enables competing CAD programs to read and edit one another’s formats.

Shapr3D wrote, “By integrating these two technologies with Shapr3D’s precision touch screen interface, engineering and design professionals now have the power of desktop modeling on a tablet, the iPad Pro.”

Pen-based CAD modeling on iPad Pro, from Shapr3D (image courtesy of Shapr3D).

Pen-Friendly CAD

A key feature of the iPad Pro how the device works with the Apple Pen. With support for a precision pen tip, the iPad Pro departs from its predecessors that could only support fingertip and blunt-tipped stylus interactions.

“After years of research, we found that touch screens are not optimal for precise engineering. Detailed 3D CAD design on tablets only became a reality after Apple released the iPad Pro line in early 2016, which uses a pressure sensitive, active stylus. The key to success was to integrate the Apple Pencil’s pixel‑perfect precision and the touch-based user interface. We were the first company to do this successfully,” said István Csanady, Founder and CEO of Shapr3D.

“Finding a way to do professional-grade 3D modeling natively on a mobile app has been something that so many in the industry have been striving for,” said Gavin Bridgeman, CTO at Tech Soft 3D. “The team at Shapr3D has taken mobile 3D CAD modeling to a new level, and the feedback we’ve seen from users so far is indicative of just how powerful this new app will be.”

Shapr3D mobile app is now available in Apple App Store. It’s available as both a free version and a fee-based pro version.