OverviewΒΆ

Geometric Search is simple in its interface and complex in the details. All operations work on model URIs which are universally unique identifiers for 3d geometry. The system is built this way to work harmoniously with tools that manage secure storage and versioning of assets like 3DIAX’s Secure Model Storage. The first operation when working with Geometric Search is to index the model. This is the process of accessing the 3D model data and extracting its essential features to insert into a searchable geometry database

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The user provides the model URI and some simple properties about the model such as a name and description. Geometric Search then securely accesses the model data and runs the feature extraction process. This process isolates the signature of the model and its essential features. The total data extracted is on the order of 100Kb. This can become a factor of 1000 reduction in total data as opposed to storing the entire model. The essential feature data is then inserted into the database along with the provided properties. This will become the basis for future queries against the system. The final step is that the system provides a URI that can be used to point to the extracted model data. This is to allow updating properties or removing the model data from the index

The process of searching for models is quite similar.

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The input for searching is only slightly different from indexing. Rather than providing a model URI and some properties the user instead provides a model URI for comparison and some search paramters. These include settings for how the searching algorithm will determine the geometric distance between two models. Different types of models in different design domains will respond differently to these paramters, so it’s usually best to tweak search paramters by hand based on your specific assets and use case to get the best performance.

The Geometric Search module still securely accesses the data on the model that is the basis of the search and extracts the features. Those features along with the search paramters become a query for the the geometry database. The result of the search is a list of model URIs sorted by percent match and the amount of the match. The user can then use the URIs along with 3Diax to update an asset in Version Control, render images of the model with Rendering, or get a quote for printing the model with Quoting.

Technical details on how to build systems involving Geometric Search can be found in the Geometric Search Tutorial. Developers may also be interested in the Geometric Search.

Geometric Search is powered by Siemens Geolus technology and is available both in 3Diax Cloud and on-premises deployments.