Okino Releases v5.6.1 "PLM" (Product-Lifecycle-Management) 3D File Conversion Pipeline

The 'JT' converter modules allow geometry, hierarchy, materials and texture mapping data (assembly data) to be imported and exported to native JT disk-based MCAD files (otherwise called "DirectModel" files). At no additional cost, the JT importer module also allows PMI graphical data to be imported and then re-exported to such compatible Okino export file formats as SketchUp and U3D (for further import into Adobe Acrobat^®-3D), among others. The modules are built upon the official "JT Open" Toolkit which has been licensed from Siemens AG. The use of the official "JT Open" toolkit ensures consistency of JT files across the enterprise and throughout the PLM supplier chain.

 "Having been one of the early adopters of the JT Open toolkit, our v5.6 release of the bidirectional JT converter modules are a real gem in our line-up of Okino CAD modules and of our dedicated CAD software development," said Robert Lansdale, president and CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "Using our long standing JT solution, end-users are able to bring together a wide range of 3D data file sources into one cohesive work environment, add optional materials/lights/cameras/textures, add complex animation data (such as via PolyTrans-for-3dsMax/Maya/Softimage/Lightwave/CINEMA-4D), reduce the data size by 80-95%, optimize the parts count and hierarchy, then optionally re-export to top quality 3D file formats and WEB streaming formats. This end-to-end CAD repurposing concept and pipeline has been pioneered by Okino over the last 23 years. The JT import and export converters are also directly accessible from within the user interfaces of 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, CINEMA-4D and any other third party vendor products which support Okino's integration API."

"JT" is the predominant and lightweight 3D visualization file format for PLM. It is in production use by thousands of companies worldwide. Compact and accurate, JT is used throughout the product development life cycle in all major industries to communicate the critical design information typically locked up inside a CAD file.

The JT data representation is:

• A rich data model with robust entity support.
• A high-performance, compact persistence archive format for graphics data.
• The best-in-class for supporting large assembly / model interactive capabilities.
• CAD-neutral supporting all major MCAD applications.

JT data can be very lightweight, holding little more than facet data, or it can be richer and hold associations to the original CAD information, assemblies, product structure, geometry, attributes, meta data and PMI. It supports multiple tessellations and level-of-detail generation.

Features of the Okino "JT" Importer

• A multi-panel wizard importer interface, common amongst the best of Okino CAD importers, provides much flexibility to control the import of JT files.
• Allows transfer and import of complex MCAD data from upstream application packages, used typically by  large corporate users.
• Imports and retains assembly hierarchy information and assembly structure of the source model. Can query accurate vertex normals, uv texture coordinates and UV tangent vectors (when available).
• The quality of the model (the number of polygons) and imported LOD levels can be controlled through various sliders.
• Intelligent import of JT texture mapping information, including automatic extraction of embedded texture images to new disk-based TIFF images, and uv texture coordinate import.
• Okino's "CAD Scene and Hierarchy Optimization System" has been integrated right into the JT importer. This is most important when importing large CAD models into 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, CINEMA-4D, Lightwave and hundreds of other downstream 3D programs and file formats. These packages tend to have performance problems when the source CAD model is large, and/or has a large number of individual parts (which is often the case with the BREP model topology of data provided by JT).
• The native PolyTrans plug-in systems for 3ds Max (PolyTrans-for-3dsMax) and Maya (PolyTrans-for-Maya) have been refined since 1998 specifically for importing large CAD assembly models from JT.
• Complete control over material parameter modification on an automatic basis. Many MCAD file formats like JT have basic material parameters (like color, ambient + diffuse shading coefficients, opacity, etc), but when they are transferred over to a rendering and animation system they often look "too bright" or "highly ambient". This can be expected and is quite normal. The material tweak parameters easily allow such saturated shading values to be automatically compensated.

• Allows import of JT PMI graphical data as vector data and then re-exported to such vector-line compatible Okino destinations as 3ds Max, Maya, Collada, DWF-3D, SketchUp, X3D and U3D.  JT's PMI data consists of:
  1. Geometric and linear dimensioning and tolerancing information.
  2. Additional manufacturing information such as surface finish and weld information.

• The JT import/export system works with third party plug-ins and integrations of Okino software for programs such as Act-3D/Quest-3D, CATS/Pytha, Maxon/Cinema-4D, Realicon/VirTools-Exporter and Visual Components/3Dcreate.

Features of the Okino "JT" Exporter

• A plethora of options across 8 panels to provide you with great control over the JT scene export process.
• All main JT geometry types supported: NURBS surfaces, NURBS curves (exported as a BREP "wire" object), 3D polylines, 3D point sets and polygonal meshes with vertex normals, (u,v) texture coordinates and vertex colors.
• Automatic cross conversion of NURBS curves, spline curves and spline shapes into either JT NURBS curves or JT polylines. Control is provided through dialog box options. Closed curves marked as "renderable" can also be output as either trimmed NURBS surfaces or meshes.
• Exports point, spot and directional light sources and their related parameters. 18 predefined light configurations are made available, which allows lights to be automatically added to the exported JT scene if none are available in the source scene.
• Embedding of almost every possible 2D bitmap file format inside JT files. If you do not wish to embed the 2D bitmap images, then support exists for automatic bitmap conversion to a desired 2D file format for file referencing from within the JT file.
• Material export including ambient/diffuse/specular/luminous colors, shading coefficients, associated diffuse texture map, opacity, Phong shininess and dozens of options to override or tweak any of these parameters prior to exporting.
• Export of "meta data" (JT object properties) information on JT nodes.
• Mesh geometry tweaking, modification and transformations via automated operations made available by Okino's suite of polygon reduction and transformation routines. Ideal as a means to "clean up" the source meshes and apply 80-95% pre-polygon reduction to the models prior to export to JT.
• Fine control over the JT compression methods used to take the polygonal mesh data and apply lossy or lossless compression techniques prior to file creation.
• Direct control over all of the major JT toolkit options used to create the final JT file.