Viewing Alibre models on Android

[simlab]

SimLab CAD Viewer on Android supports viewing geometries, colors, textures, scene states and animations.

The new SimLab CAD viewer for Android will be compatible with the iOS version (for iPad/iPhone) it will support the same SimLab Archive files (*.zim), which can be created using SimLab Composer or SimLab iPad exporter for Alibre.

The application is free, and will be free when released at Google play.

The application is currently tested on Samsung Note II phone, and Samsung tablet.
The viewer requires Arm7 or a newer processor (which should be in most modern Android machines).

Be the first to submit screen shots from a new device to get a free version of SimLab Composer (3D PDF edition) or the iPad exporter plugin. To be eligible, please send screenshots, and let us know the device and the Android version used.

The release candidate can be downloaded from the following link

Step be step instructions for installing the application can be found here

Working with scene states



For models that include scene states, clicking on the camera button, will show the included scene states, click on any of the scene states to view the selected state.

Working with animations



If the model includes animation, clicking the play button will start playing the included animation

 

[TimoCAD]

Ok, tried to test it on an Android HTC Wildfire S but the application gets cancelled. The installation has worked.

 

[jhardy1]

Installed fine on Asus Nexus 7, running stock Android 4.2.1. Now I just need to have a play with it.

It seems to load models quite slowly - is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

I have exported a model that I created in Alibre and rendered / textured in SimLab Animator 2.4. (And I made an actual physical model of this thing on my RepRap 3D printer - but that's another story!)

 

[jhardy1]

OK - I realise this is early "Beta" software (which is why I guess you are posting here rather than on the Google Play store!), and you are seeking end-user feedback.

On my Nexus 7, models seem to be slow / unreliable to load. E.g. sometimes I will see a blank screen, but the status bar shows a model file name which indicates a model has loaded:

It can take several attempts to load the file successfully before I can see it, and I have seen a few crashes as well, but once it loads, it seems to work fine, including any animations.

Here's another model of a Raspberry Pi motherboard that I created in Alibre and exported to SimLab Animator 2.4. This one had an animation saved (a simple 360 degree rotation), and this plays back nicely on the Nexus 7.

 

[jhardy1]

Also works on LG Nexus 4 - running stock Android 4.2.1.

Similar results to the Nexus 7 - occasional crashes, slow / erratic loading of files, needs some "polish" to make it more stable before it is really ready for general release. However, it works fine once a model has finally been loaded. I'd give it a 7 out of 10 right now, but it looks like it has a lot of potential if you can improve the stability issues. Here's the same Raspberry Pi model as seen on my Nexus 4:

I would suggest that for the Android version, you might want to work on stability issues, and file management / file system integration. Remember that Android has a "proper" file handling system (unlike iOS), so you should be able to browse using the file manager of your choice, select any ZIM file, and just launch into SimLab Viewer. When I try to open a ZIM model from Simlab Viewer using the DropBox file picker, it does not recognise the ZIM files by default when I navigate to the appropriate folder - I need to manually check the "Show All" box to be able to even see the ZIM files - this caused me a bit of confusion until I worked it out:

 

[beastro]

Hi,

It does not work on my Samsung 10.1 tablet with ICS. Opens with a black screen and closes down after a minute without further message.

Regards

 

[simlab]

Thank you very much for taking the time to test the the new Android viewer.

You are correct it is in the Beta stage, your help will enable us to finalize the application in a great way.

Our testing was mainly done on Samsung note II, and Samsung 7.0 tablet, and on those machines the loading time is fast and the application is stable.

How is loading time for the sample model included, it should take less than 2 seconds, is this the case?
Can you try the model with reduced textures to see if this is due to large texture images?

most of the testing was done with SimLab Composer 2013, if you are interested on testing with the new version, please send a private message and I will send you the needed details.

While Android is a more open platform which s great, covering a large number of possible hardware sets, makes it more difficult to cover all the models.

Regards,

Ashraf

 

[jhardy1]

Our testing was mainly done on Samsung note II, and Samsung 7.0 tablet, and on those machines the loading time is fast and the application is stable.

How is loading time for the sample model included, it should take less than 2 seconds, is this the case?
Can you try the model with reduced textures to see if this is due to large texture images?

Ashraf,

Both of my devices (Nexus 4 & Nexus 7) are current generation devices, with multi-core processors and plenty of RAM (1 GB in the N7, 2 GB in the N4), so should have plenty of “grunt” to be able to run the application smoothly, and both are running the very latest pure Android 4.2.1 (no rooting or special ROMs loaded on either device).

On both devices, more often than not, the model simply doesn’t appear in the viewing pane, even though the status bar shows a loaded zim file. The file loading indicator typically looks like it takes about 2 seconds before the “in progress” indicator disappears, but sometimes it is somewhat longer - maybe 4 to 5 seconds or more. 4 times out if 5 (maybe 9 times out of 10), when the “file loading" process is complete, the status bar indicates a file is loaded, but nothing is visible on screen. If I try to re-load the file several times in succession, it will usually load eventually. Once loaded successfully, the App seems to function fine.

I’m not sure what you mean about using “reduced textures”. I have attached the two zim files for you to take a look at and see how they load on your devices.

 

[simlab]

I downloaded the models you sent and they work fine.

We updated the apk file, I hope that the updated version will run on your Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices

the updated apk can be downloaded from following link

I will truly appreciate it, if you can let us know, if this fixed the issue on those devices.

just a small comment on the IES model, I believe it will look better if you did a caped box texture generation on it, and centered the camera on the box before exporting.

Please find the updated zim file attached

 

[jhardy1]

I downloaded the models you sent and they work fine.

We updated the apk file, I hope that the updated version will run on your Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices

the updated apk can be downloaded from following link

I will truly appreciate it, if you can let us know, if this fixed the issue on those devices.

just a small comment on the IES model, I believe it will look better if you did a caped box texture generation on it, and centered the camera on the box before exporting.

Please find the updated zim file attached

Ashraf,

It's better, but it's not quite "fixed". Load time seems faster, but when I load a new model, it displays the new model name in the status bar, but still shows the previous model in the graphic display. (See first screenshot below.) If I exit and restart the application, it seems to load and display the new model which was last loaded, so maybe the graphics display needs some sort of "Forced Refresh" applied after loading a new model file?

I am still getting a few crashes as well, if I try to load new models to force a display refresh (see second screenshot below).

I see the same behaviour on both my Nexus 4 and my Nexus 7.

(Thanks also for your comments on better presentation of my "IES Logo" model - this was just an existing model that I happened to have which I used for testing purposes. My original model is un-textured, as it is manufactured using a RepRap printer which will only "print" with a single colour - I just added a random texture to test the Viewer app.)

 

[neilr]

CAD Viewer does not run on my device, after hitting start it just goes straight to a "Program has stopped running" and forced closed message. I am using a HTC T-Mobile G2 phone, android version 2.3.4.

 

[ajayre]

Julian - I hope I don't come across as being cheeky - but would you be able to share your Raspberry Pi model for personal use? It would be helpful to me with custom case design.

Thanks, Andy

 

[isaacb]

CAD Viewer does not run on my device, after hitting start it just goes straight to a "Program has stopped running" and forced closed message. I am using a HTC T-Mobile G2 phone, android version 2.3.4.

I'm having the same problem on my phone, HTC Inspire 4g, running Android version 2.3.5. As far as I know, the HTC Inspire uses the ARM7 instruction set. (It has a Snapdragon 1GHz processor)

Are there any other requirements to run the software?

 

[jhardy1]

Julian - I hope I don't come across as being cheeky - but would you be able to share your Raspberry Pi model for personal use? It would be helpful to me with custom case design.

Thanks, Andy

I'm sure not clever enough (or patient enough!) to do this myself - I got the model from here:

http://www.raspberrypiforums.com/forum/ ... ard-Render

Hope this helps! (Have you done anything cool with your Pi yet?)

 

[ajayre]

Thanks!!

My RPi controls my RepRap 3D printer and I am going to set up another one to receive data from a WH1080 weather station and upload/tweet using pywws. Currently I have that running on a server but I turn it off when I go on holiday.

Andy

 

[beastro]

Hi,

Still does not work on Samsung Tablet 10.1 with ICS! Shows black screen and then exits without further notice.

Regards

 

[simlab]

I truly appreciate your kind testing

The large diversity of Android devices is what delayed this viewer for some time, but what we decided is to start with a small number of devices and to start adding devices with time.
Currently we know it works with

Samsung Note II, and Samsung Note I
Samsung tablet 7
Samsung S3
HTC Evo

All with Android 4.0 +

We will start working on expanding the list with the devices you reported, and we will appreciate feedback on any device that works fine with the viewer.

According to Google play number of supported devices (supporting Arm7 architecture) is 1593.

We added the application to Google play to expedite testing, it can be found at the following link

 

[beastro]

Ashraf,

Google play claims it to be compatible with Samsung GTP7510 Tablet. However it does not work at all. I am on Android 4 ICS and the 10.1 Tablet normally never fails in terms of compatibility.

Regards

Berthold

 

[jhardy1]

Ashraf,

I un-installed the side-loaded apk version, and re-installed from the Play store, which recognised that it was compatible with both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. Both of my Nexuses (Nexi?) are 8 GB versions, running the latest stock 4.2.1. (As un-rooted, stock Nexus devices, these are really the current official "reference" devices for Android.)

It installed fine on both. I notice it reports a later version - the side-loaded copy was listed as 1.0, whereas the Play store version is shown as 1.0.1.

I have automatic updates switched on, so I will get notification of any available updates, which I will install and report back here.

Same symptoms as before, though - it runs fine, but when I load a new model, the old model stays on screen (on both devices). I have to exit the App and then re-enter it in order to see the new model; after that, everything seems to work fine, until I try to load another new model.