AERYS TESTS SCALABILITY OF THEIR SMARTSHAPE™ 3D COLLABORATION PLATFORM

Aerys’ SmartShape™ is a 3D model/CAD visualization platform with an integrated annotation and messaging system that allows workers to collaboratively upload and view models of projects or equipment from a smartphone or a Web browser. In this project, Aerys leveraged CENGN’s infrastructure to identify the compute performance required of their SmartShape™ server based on scaling the number of active and passive users accessing the application.

CENGN MEMBERS

Figure 2. Actual 3D Model from SmartShape Platform

THE SOLUTIONAerys’s SmartShape™ excels in 3D design and providing a shared visualization and messaging platform, enabling synchronized knowledge of construction and manufacturing processes for its customers. SmartShape™ digitizes its customers’ work environment, bringing all departments up to speed through communal and augmented documentation via its proprietary streaming technology.

THE PROJECTThe goal of the project was to find the user capacity of the application and calculate the compute performance as the number of users accessing the server was scaled. Users were classified as active or passive. Active users were those considered to be online exploring the same 3D model. Passive users were those online streaming any other model within the same account or not online at all. Discovering the number of active and passive users, SmartShape™ gave Aerys the information needed to provide a benchmark of the capabilities of their solution to its clients. The SmartShape™ platform was deployed on a CENGN-provided bare metal server with 20 virtual machines (VMs) being used to simulate users within Aerys’s cloud tenancy on the CENGN cloud infrastructure. These virtual machines represented 61 active users streaming the same 3D model, while other simulated users were streaming different models or were not active. CENGN provided SmartShape™ with the ability to determine not only the number of active and passive users who can access their application, but also the CPU utilization as the number of users was increased and decreased.

THE CHALLENGECompanies conducting large building/manufacturing projects — such as producing ships, buildings, and vehicles — often have large workforces made up of many employees and departments that coordinate the implementation of designs and tasks. In construction and manufacturing, employees working on the manufacturing floor need access to the designs and status of parts, while employees in central offices like project managers and engineers need constant updates on what stage of construction the project is at. Severe and costly inefficiencies and mistakes result from a lack of communication between office/engineering departments and on site workers. The current need to convert 3D models into paper blueprints, annotate paper plans, and reintegrate such information in the CAD/management environment is alleviated by SmartShape™ : teams can share and explore the actual 3D model and collaborate on it directly.

Aerys has found a simple and intuitive way to share and explore complex 3D CAD models through their platform, SmartShape™. To use this application, a user uploads a computer-aided design (CAD) image through their SmartShape™ account. The 3D CAD model can then be viewed from multiple consumer-grade computers, smartphones, and tablets simultaneously. CAD files and accounts are stored on Aerys’ SmartShape servers (private or public cloud), and 3D models are streamed across the secure network so any approved users can access them when needed.

Colour-coded graphics show the completion status of the project by department and design details like types of metals, screws, and doors. Workers can see the up-to-the-minute design of what they are building — right down to the last bolt. Moreover, SmartShape™ has the ability to simultaneously stream multi-GB CAD models through multiple mobile or desktop devices, resulting in synergies between departments, efficiency gains, and lower error rates.

Figure 1. 3D Design Sharing Across Devices

Figure 3. The SmartShape Project Setup

RESULTSSmartShape™ was initially provided one project space within CENGN’s cloud tenancy, giving them 20 vCPU, 20 GB, and a 200GB Disk. After deployment of the simulated users, it was quickly discovered that Aerys’s cloud tenancy would need to be doubled to 40 vCPU, 40 GB, and a 400GB Disk to provide the number of simulated users its application could support. Three tests were done on the simulated users: 1. Testing the server capacity to manage simultaneous streams on a single file 2. Monitoring the CPU usage, RAM, and network performance 3. Reaching the maximum server capacity while simultaneously quantifying the number of stable active streams

Beyond gaining the information needed to provide account requirements for clients, Aerys had four major takeaways from their results: • Aerys discovered the number of active and passive users that increases the benchmark loading speed to their maximum server CPU utilization rate. • Aerys learned that RAM consumption would not be an issue when scaling as the amount of RAM necessary leveled out after 51 users were active. • The API maintained performance during the project and model complexity did not impact CPU loading times. • For the first time, Aerys was able to test and witness first-hand that they can deliver gigs of 3D models and data in secondsCONCLUSIONMany new discoveries were brought to the attention of Aerys through scalability and stress tests of SmartShape™ on CENGN’s infrastructure. This will enable Aerys to better market SmartShape™ to both large and small-scale customers by understanding the level of resources their servers will require based on customer needs. Aerys also took advantage of the opportunity to deploy their solution and validate its use and functionality in an OpenStack environment, which is an open-source platform for managing cloud resources. This could lead to new developments for their product and the organization’s market scope.

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN NEXT GENERATION NETWORKS

Rick Penwarden, Marketing Manager

rick.penwarden@cengn.ca

cengn.ca/projects

Jordan Janisson, COO

jordan.janisson@aerys.in

https://smartshape.io/en/home/