The Brevard Technical Journal

Lighting the Way
Software producer Precision Lightworks hoping to find success in land of 3D giant

by Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

As Mark Boss and Ellery Chan look over their computerized demo model of a city's downtown, they notice something is missing. "We need to get a monster in there," Chan offers.

That's the kind of freedom afforded two engineers capitalizing on their know-how to start their own company. Each makes up half of Precision Lightworks LLC, a Downtown Melbourne maker of three-dimensional modeling software.

Boss and Chan left the relative security of a large company two years ago, when they got the idea for their firm when working at Melbourne-based Harris Corp. Their jobs involved creating large-scale, detailed 3D models for defense applications. They realized there would be a market for a less-powerful, affordable product that would cater to the private sector.

They spent the first year writing code, financing the venture themselves. "After a year, it was time to make money. Peanut butter and jelly for lunch gets old. We like Meg O'Malley's," said Boss, referring to the Downtown Melbourne restaurant.

Most of their clients so far have been architects who use their software to create urban backdrops to showcase their projects. Precision Lightworks software fills in a realistic, accurate background of a particular city quickly and cheaply, so that architects can devote their time to creating their proposed addition.

Mark Boss, left, and Ellery Chan are the owners of Precision Lightworks. Photo by Craig Rubadoux, © 2002.

The software requires an approximately $1,000 investment. "If they can win a $100,000 job, that's very enticing," Boss said.

Precision Lightworks' main product, called Nverse Photo, uses two flat photo images and performs the calculations to identify camera locations and create a 3D model reflecting accurate sizes and distances. The software saves an architect the hassle of obtaining dimensions from a city planner and then figuring the geometry to create a model. It also adds texture on the building and fills in the ground, saving hours of using other programs to tweak the final product.

"What this allows me to do is show the new facility alongside the existing in a true 3D image. It saves me a tremendous amount of time," said Gary Rackliff, director of 3D for R. Miller Visualization in Maitland. Rackliff has used the product twice, to make models for jobs the firm already had won.

"What it did was excited the clients because it helped them get approval for their designs. Now we can advertise this as an additional service. Before, it wasn't a viable option," he said.

Rackliff hopes to market a service to city building officials: His firm could create 3D models of their city to keep on file for use when developers apply for permits. The city could then look at how the proposed building would impact the existing landscape in a digital form, replacing the old days of big cardboard models.

The idea is cost-effective because of Precision Lightworks' software, which can create a landscape of a couple hundred buildings in half a workday. "They've managed to extract this one powerful feature and make it available in an accessible way," Rackliff said.

Precision Lightworks does not release sales figures. It is competing in a market dominated by industry giant AutoDesk, which holds at least an 80 percent share in the professional architecture/CAD-CAM design market, according to the Software & Information Industry Association. AutoDesk's $947 million in revenues last year implies a larger professional design market of at least $1.2 billion, said Anne Griffith, director of research and publications for the industry group.

Software startups like Precision Lightworks always have fared best in focused niche markets where potential customers are in the same industry, such as construction, architecture, or restaurants, Griffith said. "Competition is usually lower in those spaces, with new entrants liable to introduce new approaches or features that the market can use," she said. "Their likelihood of success is greater than a new company attempting to introduce a word-processing package."

Architects have proven a good start, but are just one market Precision Lightworks has identified for its products and services.

Customers have used the software to make a model of a city and see whether a new building would throw too many shadows. A harbor master at the port of Galveston, Texas, uses a computerized model to train tug boat pilots on the harbor before going out and burning gas on practice runs. Precision Lightworks made a video for one client to give a virtual tour of the company facility.

The company has identified other potential uses, such as a movie producer planning where to send planes for sweeping aerial shots, a computerized game maker customizing chase scenes to the user's hometown, or a wireless company determining lines of sight for networks.

At a software convention in Las Vegas last month, the two got a lot of interest from international customers that want to use the software for urban planning. Precision Lightworks made contacts with software resellers that the two expect to generate significant overseas sales. Hiring their first employee probably is not far off.

"We're small, and it's kind of nice just to have to worry about ourselves," Boss said, noting that growth will bring adjustments to a company that's not afraid to quote Monty Python on its web site. "We'll make more money, but will the work be as fun?"

On the Web: www.precisionlightworks.com.