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Sunday May 19, 2013

3D CAD Tips

COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b Offers Breakthrough Analysis Tools

Curvilinear_Coordinates_COMSOL_DesktopTH

COMSOL announced the release of major new additions to the COMSOL simulation platform. The latest version of COMSOL Multiphysics, version 4.3b, introduces five new application-specific modules and expanded modeling and analysis tools. A model of an anisotropic s-shaped material was generated using the automated curvilinear coordinates feature in COMSOL Multiphysics. Simulation results reveal highly directed heat conduction through the material with heat originating at the center... Read More

MSC at 50: A CAE pioneer reinvents itself

MSC Software founders Robert Schwendler (left) and Richard MacNeal (right), 1963 MSC Software is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It was literally one of the first software companies, and though its been through some changes over the years, it’s still in the business of creating tools for engineers to simulate and analyze complex systems. Last week, I spent a couple of days with MSC, at their user conference in Irvine, California. While small in scale compared to the massive... Read More

Why Jon Hirschtick loves CAD

COFES, the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software, is “meet by the pool” kind of conference. It’s a place where you have the chance to chat with really interesting people, who are otherwise quite busy. A few weeks ago, at COFES 2013, I sat down with Jon Hirschtick, and recorded a six minute video, where he talked about the complexities of creating great CAD software — and why he loves working in the CAD industry. You may know that Jon and some... Read More

Alibre becomes Geomagic Design

Almost 2 years ago—in July, 2011—3D Systems acquired Alibre, a developer of budget 3D parametric MCAD software. It was just one of a large number of acquisitions that 3D Systems made over the last several years, and, for awhile, it appeared that Alibre was getting lost in the shuffle. Alibre has now found a new home, and a new name. It has been folded into the 3D Systems Geomagic group, and its suite of products, formerly known as Alibre Design, is now known as Geomagic Design.... Read More

Five presentations on Model-Based Development

The term “Model-Based Development” (MBD) has been around for more than a few years. So far as most CAD users can tell, it means getting rid of 2D drawings, and putting 3D-GD&T and PMI into the 3D models. That’s probably a pretty good working definition, but it’s not really quite right. I went back to a 2010 U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command presentation, and found a more complete definition: A 3D annotated model and its associated data... Read More

Cooper Crouse-Hinds adds 3D CAD Configurator to Meet the Growing Needs

CADENAS PARTsolutions announce the launch of Cooper Crouse-Hinds’ online 3D CAD configurator. Cooper Crouse-Hinds is now utilizing the 3D CAD and online product catalog technology powered by CADENAS PARTsolutions. With their new embedded configuration platform, Cooper Crouse-Hinds is able to grow their product reach as well as improve customer experience by placing the latest tools and technology in the hands of their customers. With the CADENAS PARTsolutions online configurator,... Read More

Russian CAD

It’s robust and powerful, and someday, you may be using it. For engineers and designers in the United States, Russia doesn’t often come to mind when thinking about sources of CAD software. Yet, Russia is one of the global centers for the development of advanced CAD software. Russia’s rise to preeminence in CAD software development was spurred by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, after which many of Russia’s top minds in the physical and theoretical sciences found themselves... Read More

Bertrand Sicot: Seriously, we’re not going to mess up SolidWorks.

A few days ago, SolidWorks CEO Bertrand Sicot posted a blog, reiterating yet again that, no, they’re not going to mess with the SolidWorks program that so many people count on. Just as since it was first written, it will continue to use Parasolid as its geometric modeling kernel. While I think it’s healthy for SolidWorks to periodically remind its customers that it still loves them, in this case, the message was made a little bit more urgent, as Dassault Systemes head... Read More

Jennifer Herron on managing mass properties in CAD assemblies

There are times when you really need to know the mass properties of a design, before you build it. In this Design World editorial Webinar, Jennifer Herron discusses best practices in managing mass properties in CAD assemblies. Jennifer is the owner of Action Engineering, a company that specializes in the promotion, process development and standardization of 3D CAD Model Based Design. With over 16 years of experience creating and building complex hardware systems for the aerospace... Read More

2D conceptual design, 50 years later

Many years ago, an MIT graduate student named Ivan created a 2D conceptual design program that allowed users to interactively sketch out their ideas, and by applying constraints and dimensions to the sketch, have the computer calculate the ideal solution for their design. He never even tried to commercialize his program, because, at the time, computers that could run it were way too expensive. Some time later, a new MIT graduate named Jon founded a software company to develop... Read More

Siemens PLM

How was the Mars rover Curiosity designed? With Siemens PLM software

Last Sunday night, I watched the live video feed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as the rover Curiosity descended through the Martian atmosphere, and landed on the planet’s surface. NASA called the process of landing the Curiosity “7 minutes of terror.” The whole process was completely automated—and all that the people at JPL (or the [...]

Pro/Engineer

PTC: The importance of design agility

Here’s an interesting term: Design agility. PTC defines it, generally, as “the power to make late-stage design changes quickly and easily .” They define it more specifically as “the ability to rapidly recognize features and patterns in imported models, enabling seamless modifications; design intelligence for dumb models.” You might expect that more specific definition from PTC, [...]

SolidWorks

CAD in the pursuit of art: Shane McKenna

As an engineer, I often think about CAD as a tool for the engineering and design of technological products. But, every once in a while, I’m reminded that CAD can can be used in ways its makers never anticipated. Shane McKenna is an engineer, designer, craftsman, and artist. I recently talked to Shane about how [...]

Catia

Now that Siemens PLM has acquired Vistagy, will Dassault Systemes play nice?

You may know that Siemens PLM recently acquired Vistagy, whose Fibersim software has been used to design 80% of the composites currently flying in today’s aircraft. Vistagy has been a long-term third-party partner not just to Siemens PLM, but also to Dassault Systemes. Though DS has its own composite design solution, many of its most [...]

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