[freearchitecture] Intro / Narya Project

[Terry Hancock]

Hi all,
I just discovered this list via a search for XML-based CAD 
file format standards.

I've been working for sometime on an idea that seems quite 
similar to yours, and I think you may find that we are 
natural allies. ;-)

Please have a look at:  http://www.narya.net for an 
introduction to what the Narya project is all about.  We 
are doing this specifically because of it's applicability 
to doing space development, but much of the functionality 
will apply to many trades and professions, including 
architecture.

The project is also hosted at SourceForge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/narya-project

In particular, you will note that we need graphics support
in our work.

The need for a versionable CAD format that allows for rapid
internet collaboration is something we share with you.  I'm 
not myself much of a CAD user (I do occasional design work,
but not much), and I know virtually nil about "professional"
grade CAD systems like AutoCAD.  I am aware of a few 
attempts to write Free CAD systems, but none of them is
"mature" as far as I can tell.  Still, here's a couple of 
interest:

PythonCAD: http://www.pythoncad.org/
* note that PythonCAD includes a native XML CAD format!

JCad: http://javacad.sourceforge.net/
* A Java 2-D CAD system

The closest things to an open standard that I'm familiar 
with are SVG (XML based vector graphics, but not really 
CAD),  and DXF (not XML based, and probably a rather poor
archive format).

So far I'm talking mostly about 2-D CAD, but there will 
eventually be a need for 3-D models, too.  I am currently 
thinking that a good client viewer option will be to take
advantage of the existing Blender plugin (which became
free along with the rest of Blender in the historic 
open-source community purchase).  Since it is scriptable
with Python, it should be fairly simple to use it to 
interpret a 3D CAD file and display it:

http://www.blender.org

For use with Narya, I want a system which can be pretty 
easily distributed to user/developers -- either as a plugin 
(better) or as a stand-alone client application 
(acceptable).

I'll probably lurk for awhile now, but I wanted to 
introduce myself and my project.  Clearly my development 
priorities are on making the server work, and the CAD 
system is mostly a clientside problem (from a development 
perspective, anyway), but I would really like to 
collaborate and/or integrate with an existing project -- 
especially when it comes to the clientside.

OTOH, Narya (when it works) seems like a natural repository 
and collaboration site for architectural data files, along 
with many other types of data.

Cheers,
Terry

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com