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 tens of thousands of... Read More
Solving the CAD concurrency problem
Earlier this week, I was doing some software testing on my lab machine. It’s a really nice Z1, on loan to me from HP. It has an 8-core high-end Intel processor. I brought up the process monitor as I worked, and watched, somewhat amused, as Autodesk Inventor pegged one core at 100% for several minutes, while the other cores sat there, doing almost nothing. This is a really... Read More
Why Solid Edge matters, part 2: It’s the best SolidWorks alternative
Solid Edge ST5 is an exceptionally competent CAD system. If you’re looking for a new CAD system, based solely on its merits, Solid Edge should be on your list of tools to consider. Yet, there is one case where Solid Edge is not just an alternative, but is the obvious alternative. And that is if you’re considering migrating away from SolidWorks. This is not a value judgment,... Read More
Why Solid Edge matters, part 1: A little history
Siemens PLM Software has announced that Solid Edge ST5 will be available soon. Is this just another update of another mainstream CAD package? Yes. But Solid Edge matters more than you may realize. Let me start with a little history of Solid Edge. The product started out as a part of the Jupiter project, a next-gen CAD initiative at Intergraph Corp, in the early 1990s. If you’re... Read More
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 important customers use Fibersim. To say... Read More
Active Workspace: Big news for Teamcenter users
Siemens PLM just announced Active Workspace, a new product in the Teamcenter software portfolio. There are three general groups of people who are going to be interested in Active Workspace: those who use Teamcenter, those who’ve thought about adopting Teamcenter, but haven’t made the jump yet, and those who are using competing PLM solutions, who will likely be telling... Read More
Should you buy your CAD software—or rent?
CAD software isn’t cheap. A mainstream 3D CAD program will set you back thousands of dollars upfront, and a bunch more in annual maintenance charges. The cost can be daunting. But what if there was a way to spread it out, and pay as you go? Rental: An idea that’s been tried. A dozen years or so ago, a relatively new CAD vendor, Think3, started offering their CAD software... Read More
Fast design process supports rapid growth
As its name implies, Giant KONE Elevator Co., Ltd., is big in the elevator industry. Founded in 1910 in Finland, the company has become one of the world’s largest elevator and escalator manufacturers. KONE first entered the Chinese market in 1996. KONE entered into a joint venture agreement with Zhejiang Giant Elevator Co., Ltd., the leading Chinese elevator manufacturer. The... Read More
Boots for the boundary-free skier
Black Diamond Equipment Ltd. makes equipment for climbing and skiing that regularly wins awards for its innovation and quality. Several years ago, Black Diamond decided to apply its expertise to a new area – free-ride ski boots. These boots are used in a certain niche of skiing known as “boundary-free” skiing. Boundary-free skiers strap their skis to a backpack, hike up a... Read More
Analysis linked to CAD
Comsol’s latest update to its flagship multiphysics software Comsol 4.2a includes enhanced LiveLink capability. The new associativity to between Comsol and Creo packages means any changes to a feature in the Creo CAD model automatically updates the geometry in Comsol Multiphysics while retaining physics settings. All parameters specified in Creo can be interactively linked with... Read More
