Teigha Cloud offers an independent cloud platform to build web-based applications.
The Open Design Alliance (ODA) has introduced a production release of Teigha Cloud, its framework for visualizing engineering data on the Web. This new platform offers CAD developers a new platform for developing Web-based CAD-related applications.
Teigha Cloud allows engineering drawings to be rendered within any WebGL-compatible browser. Rendering is in 3D with support for zoom, pan, 3D rotate, render mode, layout selection, and layers. Entity selection and data inquiry are also available.
Teigha Cloud works with all file types supported by Teigha on the desktop, including .dwg and .dgn files. Drawings can be stored on a web server and accessed in a browser or thin client using a standard client-server framework. ODA says Teigha Cloud is provided as a technology rather than a service, allowing ODA members to customize and adapt it to meet their specific needs.
The initial release of Teigha Cloud is optimized for small to medium drawing files, in the range of 10-20 MB depending on model complexity. “This initial production release is a significant milestone for us, but it’s only the start of our plans in this area,” says Sergey Vishnevetsky, ODA Development Director. “In the coming months we will continue our focus on performance and usability, and we will also be working on extending the solution to support web-based editing.”
What do we think?
Developing targeted online applications using CAD technology just gets easier and easier, thanks to the Open Design Alliance. The release of Teigha Cloud means there is a standard platform for visualizing engineering data on the Web. Teigha Cloud uses the same code base as Teigha on the desktop, allowing developers to provide consistent results across desktop and cloud-based applications.
Teigha Cloud is not offered as a service, but a technology to ODA members. This means it is not a black box, but a toolkit, which developers can extend or modify as they see fit. The developer of a land survey application may have different needs than someone creating a Web viewer for manufacturing plans; Teigha Cloud allows programmers to customize the application as required.
No doubt we will see new applications running on Teigha Cloud coming very soon from some of the ODA’s most prolific members. Two of the largest independent CAD software developers offering .dwg compatible CAD products, Bricsys and Graebert, both have their developer conferences in October and will no doubt be showing off new features based on Teigha Cloud.
