TGN is a nascent open source development project with currently 5 volunteer developers and some others thinking about it. Some pointed questions were asked recently and I tried to answer them sensibly:
Purpose:
TGN is a set of definitions and an open source codebase (nascent this year, volunteer development team is growing) embodying 8 features that act coherently together to express, within AEC digital models, the sustained articulate act of visual close study (V.C.S.). TGN is an evolution in FORM of technical drawing. TGN does for digital models (and mental) what technical drawing traditionally has done for mental (and digital) models.
When people are using (and or creating) digital models, they need equipmemt that expresses these functions:
1. Expression of visual close study (V.C.S.), sustained articulate expression of the act of narrowed attentive focus within the wider expansive environment of a project’s model (mental, physical, and digital models)
2. Physical Evaluation, of the model at V.C.S. locations, primarily a check against omission of physical items, and development of good fit among the physical items present.
3. Affirmation of (2. Physical Evaluation)
4. Building The Engine of Thought, an interplay between two poles: wide and narrow, environment and focused close study. In the interplay, thought happens and understanding grows. With either of the two poles diminished, the engine shuts down, or evaporates along with thinking itself and understanding, which fails to develop.
5. The courtesy of drawing attention to things not to be missed, in the model.
These can be handled by technical drawing in its centuries old form, or by ‘TGN’ which is an evolution in FORM of technical drawing, within digital models, V3.0 here: https://tangerinefocus.com/visual-engagement-with-modeled-worlds/
Is it a 3d Modeler or more a 3D/BIM annotation Tool with 3d to 2d cut capabilities?
The AEC industry has plenty of modelers. And new ones coming online. TGN is an open source codebase that is intended for implementation within any, and ultimately ALL, digital modeling apps, platforms, and formats. Properly done, in the future we will see TGN rig portability such that users can create TGN rigs in one modeler, and share them with other users using other modelers, with graphics fidelity intact at least to the extent defined in TGN OPEN CODE (of course there is complexity in this but we specify a way of managing that).
What do you exactly want to achieve?
In general we have two goals:
1. find support for standing up our TGN VCS (visual close study) project with the steering of a new or existing foundation or consortium that will manage the development of TGN OPEN CODE to make it available and acceptable as an industry standard codebase that can be implemented in any and all model-handling software apps and platforms.
2. Extending VCS development beyond the bounds of the open source definitions of TGN and TGN OPEN CODE. To work with software development companies who want to extend VCS development much further. Our TGN team can contribute productively to that work.
We foresee leading companies implementing TGN OPEN CODE in their modeling apps and then carrying on from there into a VCS terrain that’s much larger than TGN OPEN CODE.
Do People no more need to do 2D Plans because they can generate them with TGN out of 3D?
From my own experience building extremely elaborate models and accompanying sets of drawing documentation, my position is that the appropriate, useful, and usable tech in this area will force no one.
Those who rely on technical drawing in its traditional form can continue to do so, AND they can see those drawings optionally expressed in TGN form, within the models, automatically without effort.
Those fortunate enough to have a very good implementation of TGN OPEN CODE implemented within their favorite modeler will have the option on the other hand, to rely on TGN rigging within models to express the necessary V.C.S. functions without any need for drawing in its traditional form.
HOWEVER I hasten to add, that TGN includes within itself a ‘node’ at which the TGN expression looks and feels exactly like a traditional drawing. AND automated output, of a set of TGN rigs, to layout on sheets, in the form of traditional drawing, is included in our TGN specification and we anticipate that people will want that. In the latter case, there is nothing preventing a developer from implementing TGN layout on sheets in such a way that the full TGN visual interactivity is presented there on the sheets the same way it operates within the 3D model.
Is it possible to bring TGN to a point where I could genetate Fabrication plans for steel/timber/reinforced concrete – what a about fabrication data?
TGN is designed to operate within YOUR favorite modeler, so, all the data that’s there is still there. We just add TGN features into the modeler. Yes absolutely, I am certain that TGN rigs in Tekla models for example would ideally make real the future form of expression of fabrication drawings for steel, timber, and concrete.
If you like we can make a video meeting where you can tell me more about your intentions to develop the software.
YES! Thank you. It would be, I hope, the start of working together over the long term. Actually I’m thinking of that line in Casablanca 😊
Let’s meet any time.
On the open source software market there is a lot of new developments taking part.
For my domain:
ThatOpenCompany and Calcpad is pretty interesting. (ThatOpenCompany only if a 3D Modeling API in best case with NURBS support could be accessed)
I agree. TOC and their TOE are extremely inspiring. I’ve been waiting for our TGN work to reach a presentable state. We are very close now. If you decide you want to join our project the timing is great because we need help, and you could push us where needed.
TGN could be useful implemented in the following most common AEC software: Catia, SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Fusion360, Tekla, Brics CAD, AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, Allplan, Archicad, Vectorworks, Rfem, Sofistik, SAP200, GSA, Scia etc.
Tekla+(little API), Revit+(little API), Autocad, Sofistik+CADINP language, RFem+(little API), Frilo, Rhino+Grasshopper+API, Idea Statica, AviCAD (Reinforcmend Fab), Hundegger Cambium (Timber Fab), Visual Studio and VS Code
You might like the fact that my earlier V2.0 work was implemented by Tekla in Tekla, and by Graphisoft in ArchiCAD BIMx, and by 9 (that I know of) software companies in total now, some years after my team did it first in MicroStation. That story is here: https://tangerinefocus.com/tgn/earlier-media-innovations/. The videos are mine, from the development we built at Bentley based on my spec (I lead the developer team there).
My main question is, where in these software capabilities, software chains and processes TGN takes its place.
Yep. TGN is for implementation in YOUR favorite modelers. That’s true for everyone.
Can I clone and compile the sources from Github to view current project status?
YES. I invite you to our next meeting. We are demonstrably weak at onboarding new developers so far. But we’re learning. We do have some good developers working already. But they have day jobs. And we are not yet properly organized. But, we have progress and a great outlook. And this space we are defining is actually very large. It’s no small niche. There is a long path ahead with great opportunity.
greetings
Greetings! Welcome!
Thank you for the high quality questions. I hope it’s the start of decades of discussion and work 😊 I mean, I’m not presuming anything. I just mean in general, there is a very long runway of useful work and development in front of V.C.S. from here on.
It’s going to require some pioneers to set the course.
A connection says my profile headline is true:
Robert, the headline quote, is true, the fusion is the product of parts, not the sum. Like common sense, it’s not always there, or understood. The technical, digital, information form an amalgam. Analogous, Workable, easy to place and use, durable and replaceable. Too often, the analogy is lost in the practical. I like the inclusion of Traditional, in the Contextual, address real things and deliverables; using technology where it enables, sketches and pencil/pens at others. Talking often. Listening mostly. Just some plain and simple ways. But I do like technology for some of its capability, and craft.
Thanks. Yes. Film is a great example. Two very different kinds of media (arguably with different purposes), recorded sound, and silent film, were put into fusion a hundred years ago. Some people opposed the fusion on principle at the time:
In AEC and similar domains, drawing and modeling (with intact data) likewise are two very different media with arguably different purposes, both of which are better in fusion with their complement that supplies what they lack. And the sum is greater than the parts.
I see drawing-model fusion in three states, V1.0, V2.0, and V3.0 that I describe here:
Headline:
TGN stitches together technical drawing and digital modeling. Not only a fusion, but also an evolution in form that surfaces the best of both media, in a new form of expression greater than the sum of its parts.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robsnyder3333
OPEN VCS, a lens for looking at models 