Technical illustration - The Future Webinar

Technical Illustration
The Future
November 7th 2019
11am Eastern Time, USA
Presenters:
Don Larson, CEO
David Manock, VP Sales & Marketing
Welcome to the Webinar
We will begin shortly
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Copyright Larson Software Technology (c) 2019

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Agenda
• Housekeeping
• Company Profile
• Introduction
• History of Illustration
• Present and Future Overview
• 2D and 3D graphics
• Technology
• Summary
• Q & A
SVG: Scalable Vector Graphics
a modularized language for describing
two-dimensional vector and mixed
vector/raster graphics in XML.
CGM: Computer Graphics Metafile
an ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) standard for vector
and composite vector/raster picture
definition since 1987.
X3D
an ISO-ratified, royalty-free open
standards XML file format and run-time
architecture communicating 3D scenes
and objects.
VRML: Virtual Reality Modeling Language
is a standard file format for
representing 3-dimensional
interactive vector graphics,
designed particularly with the
World Wide Web in mind. It has
been superseded by X3D

Webinar: Housekeeping
• If you’ve experienced problems when joining the webinar,
please use the questions function to communicate
• All attendees will be muted for the duration of the Webinar
• Computer Audio is the recommended option
• Associated materials are available in the Handouts section,
drag and drop to download to your computer, at anytime
• Post your questions during the webinar using the panel
• Questions will be answered following the main presentation
or by email
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www.cgmlarson.com
Larson Software Technology
• Based in Houston, Texas, USA – New Location
• Founded in 1984, graphic technology experts for 30 years
• We develop powerful, innovative graphics software and toolkits,
based on open standards
• Promoted CGM usage, by providing a free CGM & TIFF viewer,
replaced by a subscription version available online
• The Larson online store is now open, the address:
• www.cgmlarson.com/store
• Developer of the first HTML5 CGM viewer, no plug in!
• Member of the CGM Open Foundation
• Larson technology simplifies the graphics workflow for Technical
Publications Professionals, Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists
• www.cgmlarson.com www.svglarson.com

Introduction
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• Where did technical illustration begin, history, origins?
• Provide some context for the presentation
• What is the future of technical illustration creation and delivery?
• The facts:
• There is a vast amount of 2D legacy data
• This will be continued to be used and revised
• We still require 2D software to perform the revision task
• The conversion of 3D CAD data to 2D illustrations is a common task when creating new
illustrations
• The use and delivery of 3D data will become more common, as the cost of hardware and
software reduces
• The use of AR (Augmented Reality) will increase, predominantly in the maintenance area
• The webinar will focus on the creation and delivery of 2D & 3D data

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The History of Technical Illustration

History Overview – Part 1
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• Pictures have always been used for
communicating information
• Cave paintings
• Perhaps not just decorative, also instructional?
• Hieroglyphics
• Pictorial communication
• One of the first people to use graphics
to illustrate complex mechanical
devices, Leonardo Da Vinci

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• Traditionally illustrations were created on the drawing board
• 3-point perspective, pencil illustration created from engineering drawings
• The Illustration was then traced and inked on translucent film
• The artwork was photographed before insertion into the master artwork
• The first major change was electronic
• The illustration could be scanned for insertion into desktop publishing
(Pagemaker)
• There were also the beginnings of creating the illustration electronically
• Adobe Illustrator and Coreldraw
• The introduction of specialized illustration software was a game
changer
• The first software was very expensive and only available on Unix Workstations
• The introduction of ITEDO IsoDraw on Apple Macintosh changed the market,
certainly from a cost paradigm

Technical Illustration - Examples
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Credit: Roy Scorer
Website: www.royscorer.co.uk
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/roy-scorer-83251a48
Email: scorerr770@hotmail.com

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• Today, technical illustrations are created, revised and delivered
electronically
• Primarily the illustrations will be black and white, using a
simplified perspective projection, isometric
• They could have some technique, thick and thin lines, but if technique
increases the cost it could be sacrificed
• The creation of new illustrations would usually by reusing CAD
data
• Legacy illustrations, if they were scanned from hardcopy are
also edited electronically, image editor
• A hybrid file is possible containing vector and raster information
• Delivery file formats will vary dependent on the industry
• Aerospace, Defense and Automotive will primarily be CGM

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2D and 3D Graphics

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Poll #1
How does your organization currently display graphics in
your published technical manual?
 2D only
 2D and 3D
 3D only
 2D at the moment but we intend to publish 3D in the future

2D or 3D, that is the question?
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• The overriding driver in technical publications will always be cost
• In the near term 2D will continue to dominate, still the most cost
effective and proven solution
• 2D also has the support of trusted open data formats, CGM, SVG,
PDF
• 3D is a more convoluted topic especially with respect to file
formats
• There are so many formats available, proprietary and open
• In standards driven publications (S1000D) is there a requirement
for an open 3D format?
• X3D a contender?
• It has the credentials being based on XML

XML Technical Publications - World View?
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• Are we moving towards a technical publications industry
dominated by XML?
• Text and Graphics
• Text is already there after the move from SGML to XML
• Could graphics also now standardize on XML?
• Work required in definition
• 2D = SVG
• 3D = X3D
• The vision is certainly powerful from a data management and
delivery perspective
• Benefits
• Structured - Consistency
• Validation – Schema
• Appearance - Stylesheets

Technical Illustration – As is
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• Today we are still in a 2D creation and delivery paradigm
• There is a huge archive of 2D illustrations
• It is unlikely the 2D illustrations will be converted to 3D
• Even when 3D CAD data became more easily accessible, it was converted 2D
• 3D graphics are predominately being used in spare parts catalogs
• There is a definite benefit, however, the creation cost is a factor
• The delivery and display of the 3D data is more problematic
• Currently there is no specified 3D file format for the S1000D and ATA
specifications
• In Aerospace and Defense the CGM format still dominates
• SVG is also being used mainly as a display format

Technical Illustration – To be
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• So what does the future of technical illustration look like?
• Is it going to continue as predominantly 2D?
• Or a combination of the 2D and 3D?
• 3D, what are the benefits, dependencies, pitfalls and cost to deliver 3D
data?
• The benefits of 3D:
• Visually, easier to identify parts, view from any angle
• Animate parts in 3D, ideal for removal, repair and maintenance procedures
• Easily reuse CAD data, and update as the model changes
• The dependencies include:
• Does the 3D data exist and is it accessible?
• Is the software available to repurpose the CAD data?

Technical Illustration – To be (2)
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• 3D pitfalls:
• Will the information display on the target devices?
• Does the customer still require hard copy information?
• 3D cost:
• Will it take more time to author the data?
• Do I have the correct the software to create the data, if not what is the cost?
• 2D, do we continue down the path of creating and delivering 2D data?
• In the short term it is still likely the majority of data will be 2D illustrations
• However, new illustrations will be originated from 3D data

Technical Illustration – To be (3)
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• Legacy 2D illustrations:
• It is very unlikely the 2D legacy illustrations will be updated to 3D
• There are a vast amount of existing 2D illustrations, there will be a significant
cost to convert and validate
• Also the current delivery mechanism will need to be accounted for, either
electronic or hard copy
• There will need to be a compelling business case for a 3D conversion of this scale
to take place
• The probable future is a combination of the two, with 3D becoming
more common

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The Formats 2D & 3D

Historical – The 2D formats
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• CGM – A 2D graphics format with a long history of publishing quality graphics in
different environments
• The WebCGM profile was developed to deliver Vector Graphics on the Web
• Visit CGM Open for more information www.cgmopen.org
• SVG - Objective to deliver high quality vector graphics for the Web
• The development of SVG was influenced by other submissions to the W3C (World Wide Web
Consortium)
• VML - Vector Markup Language (Microsoft)
• PGML - Precision Graphics Markup Language (Postscript)
• The final decision was to base SVG on XML
• More information on the origins:
• Secret Origin of SVG

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Commonality
• 2D Open formats accredited by the W3C (Not Proprietary)
• Suitable for the creation and maintenance of technical illustrations
• The only open graphical files that can be hybrid
• Both formats can contain editable Vector and Raster Data
• They have the potential to be validated
• CGM already has a defined profile, WebCGM adopted by the ATA and S1000D
specifications
• Metadata can be included in both file formats
• Provides the ability for interactive graphics
• SVG has the additional ability for animation and can be data driven
• Display of vector graphics in a web environment with out a plug-in technology
• The SVG support is native
• CGM display can be achieved using the Larson VizEx View HTML5 technology
• No Plugin required

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SVG is XML encoded
• Benefits:
• Based on the international open standard
• Structured information based on a schema
• In theory could be validated against a schema
• Caveats:
• The Off-the-shelf schema covers the whole
specification
• A new profile schema would be required to
validate against specific attributes/elements
• No rules for file creation could lead to
interoperability issues

Where is SVG used? – Industry Sector
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• Aerospace & Defense and Automotive
• Over the past year, we’ve experienced a significant growth in the use of SVG
• Mainly for the display of vector graphics in a web environment
• GIS (Geographic Information System)
• Maps on the web
• But not Google maps!
• GIS Software Vendor
• https://www.esri.com
• Graphic Arts
• Graphics on the web, when vector will provide benefit
• Data Visualization
• Data driven images, animation, dashboards etc. One benefit of XML
• https://bl.ocks.org/kerryrodden/7090426
• Data Driven Documents
• https://d3js.org/

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2D – The Future
• In the specifications driven environment CGM will continue to be the
primary format
• However, SVG will continue to grow as a viable display format
• Will SVG replace CGM in the specifications?
• This can only happen if SVG is supported by a profile
• It will also require the ability to be validated against the profile
• There would also be a requirement to amend the S1000D specification to
include SVG
• This is possible, but it would take some time and effort to achieve
• Is this likely? it is possible especially if the XML element of SVG is attractive
• SVG will not replace CGM, more likely you will have the choice of formats
• The first requirement will be the creation of an SVG profile

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Standardization

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• What is TECH SVG?
• A subset of the Full and Tiny Specification’s
• We’ve documented and published the supported
elements
• How will TECH SVG help?
• Defining a standard method of exporting and importing SVG
elements
• Improve data exchange quality
• What else are we doing?
• Socializing our strategy and encouraging 3rd parties to
participate
• Specifically talking directly to the Aerospace and Defense
communities
• Work in Progress
• Developing our products to be TECH SVG compliant
• Work in Progress
TECH SVG
SVG - Full
SVG - Tiny

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SVG - additional steps
• Now we have TECH SVG profile:
• We can create the schema and validate the SVG’s
• This will also provide the ability to roundtrip SVG files
• What else could do we do?
• There is also the potential to create stylesheets
• Perhaps stylesheets applicable to the device being used, or the context
of the illustration
• Resizes, rotates, etc.
• The other possibility is data driven graphics,
where the illustration would change
applicable to certain criteria
• A good example could be instrumentation

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2D – In conclusion
• 2D Illustrations will continue to dominate, mainly because of the
volume of legacy data
• In the near term, new illustrations will still be created in 2D
• Where it makes sense 3D will be used, providing it adds value and
the creation is cost effective
• We still require good 2D editing software to maintain the legacy
archive of illustrations
• The use of SVG will continue to grow, but will require effort
to refine
• The SVG format will require work to produce a format you can rely
on for data exchange

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Poll #2
What 3D CAD Systems do you work with?
 CATIA
 Creo
 Solidworks
 Inventor
 Other..

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3D – As is
• The ability to deliver 3D data is increasing
• The hardware device component, desktop, laptop and mobile are
more capable of 3D data display
• The software and file format options are numerous
• 3D data is readily available from CAD systems:
• CATIA
• CREO
• Solidworks
• Inventor
• Etc.
• The main challenge is choosing the file format and repurposing
the data for an end-user

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3D – As is - S1000D Authoring
• The Chapter provides basic guidelines for the use of 3D interactive
graphics
• The production of 3D content must be produced from verified and
authoritative engineering information
• 3D information usage is recommended where procedures are
complex, and users will benefit from the visualization
• The 3D graphics must contain appropriate warning's and cautions
when parts are removed
• 3.9.2.5 – Interactive 3D Content

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3D – To be
• The mechanisms for creating and delivering 3D data in technical
publications is already in place
• The use of 3D at this time can be considered limited
• It is inevitable that the use will grow as solutions to create and
deliver are refined
• However, unlike 2D data there is no specified 3D file format
• If the S1000D community were to recommend a 3D format the
use could increase
• Larson would encourage the use of open 3D formats, preferably
based on XML, the core format of the specifications

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Poll #3
What 3D file formats do you use for data interchange or
publishing/display?
 STEP
 DWG
 VRML
 3D PDF
 Other..

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3D Open - Publishing Formats
• There are many 3D formats, however the proprietary ones
should be excluded
• What formats are available:
• X3D
• X3D is a royalty-free ISO/IEC standard for declaratively representing
3D computer graphics using XML
• PRC
• PRC is a 3D file format that can be used to embed 3D data in a PDF
file. This highly compressed format facilitates the storage of
different representations of a 3D model.
• U3D
• Universal 3D is a compressed file format standard for 3D computer
graphics data.

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Why select X3D?
• An open format based on XML
• The ability to create a specific profile for the format
• Same idea as the TECH SVG profile
• An X3D schema will provide the ability validate files
• No plugin required to view in a web browser
• https://examples.x3dom.org/cadViewer/sceneGraphEngine/index.html
• https://examples.x3dom.org/CAD_Explosion/index.html
• Caveat:
• How do author the X3D files?
• Add the interactivity, hotspots
• Connection to parts lists
• Animations, procedural, assembly, disassembly
• Do we use existing software and export to X3D?
• Work will be required to develop a 3D standards compliant solution

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Technology
The Solutions - Today and Future

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2D – Editing and Conversion - VizEx Edit
• VizEx Edit, native CGM editing
• Import and Export of SVG files, TECH SVG compliant
• Uses the TECH SVG profile for the export SVG files
• CGM, fully complying to international specifications, S1000D, ATA.
• Add hotspot’s manually or automatically
• Hotspots created in VizEx Edit preserved in the SVG
• View the interactive graphic in VizEx View HTML5
• http://www.cgmlarson.com/demos/jsViewer/table_cgm_example/index.html
• Or, view as SVG in a popular web browser

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2D - Batch conversion support of CGM & SVG
• Larson develops two batch conversion products
• Enabling the conversion of graphic files to CGM and SVG
• VizEx Transform – Multiple formats
• Convert CGM to Vector – SVG, PDF and EPS
• VizEx Transform
• Supports import and export of files, including SVG
• Enables batch auto-hotspotting
• Supports the TECH SVG profile when exporting an SVG graphic
• CONVERT CGM to Vector
• Batch conversion
• Exports SVG using the TECH SVG profile

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New 2D Software - SVG Product Development
• SVG Viewer SDK
• Viewing environment for SVG graphics
• TECH SVG compliant
• Documented API
• Toolbox replicating CGM viewer environment
• SVG Illustration Software
• SVG graphics editing software
• TECH SVG compliant
• Leverage the SVG format using the power of XML
• Open, Data driven, Validation, Styling

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New 3D Products – Product Development
• VizEx Edit - 3D to 2D conversion
• VRML to X3D conversion software
• We see this as a requirement to repurpose exiting 3D data
• X3D Viewing Toolkit
• As with SVG we want create an easy way to implement a 3D viewing
environment
• Supporting the X3D format
• Develop X3D Profile
• Develop X3D Schema

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Summary
• Larson continues to make significant progress in supporting all graphic
formats
• Conversion, Compatibility and Compliance are the keywords
• Larson will continue develop standards compliant technology
• We employ a lessons learned strategy when supporting our software
• Benefiting the market and our customers
• The Larson product roadmap continues to mature, 2D and 3D
graphics is a significant part of the strategy
• We will be pleased to work with companies or organizations
interested in implementing 2D and 3D graphics solutions

Q&A
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