3D CAD World

Over 50,000 3D CAD Tips & Tutorials. 3D CAD News by applications and CAD industry news.

3D CAD World

Update for IRONCAD 2020 improves productivity and manufacturing workflows

By Leave a Comment

IronCAD introduces the first update for IRONCAD 2020, the latest release from a leader in design productivity of 3D CAD programs and preferred software of machine designers and engineers globally. The IRONCAD 2020 Product Update #1 (PU1) features enhancements and capabilities that enable IronCAD users to accelerate productivity and improve product development, from conceptual design to manufactured products, and create value for their organizations.

Designed with a focus on performance, quality improvements, and design productivity, IronCAD’s research and development team delivered IRONCAD 2020 PU1 in response to enhancement requests from the IronCAD community around the world. With the many new capabilities and enhancements in PU1, users can benefit from an array of options and opportunities to improve system performance in their daily operations, streamline workflows and seek new levels of collaboration and agility to more quickly and cost-effectively deliver products to their customers.

Among the many new improvements and capabilities in IRONCAD 2020 Product Update #1 are:

–Open/Save/Import Performance: Continued improvements have been performed in this area to reduce the load/save times of extremely large assembly data sets to improve the overall performance when designing with large assembly files.

–IronCAD Drawing (ICD) View Creation/Update – Improvements have been made to improve the view creation and view update speed in the drawing environment, especially with large assembly files.

–IronCAD Drawing (ICD) View Camera Performance – New options to control functions additional performance settings have been added to aid in the overall camera interaction performance when interacting and detailing drawings.

Further improvements within Product Update #1 also include enhanced general quality improvements to the 2D Technical Drawing Area. Aligned with IronCAD’s position as a productivity leader for CAD software, PU1 also boasts improvements to the Bulk View Creation for automated drawing creation, including new search capabilities and creation from a selected set of parts/assemblies. Additional productivity improvements in PU1 improve the Sheet metal capabilities for Out/In Bend Automatic alignment to the angled stock, Quick Access commands added to right-click menus to improve speed and visibility in accessing commands as well as improvements to now create singled drawing sheets quickly from the selected elements in the scene.

IronCAD
www.ironcad.com/whatsnew
www.ironcad.com/free-online-trial

Online COMSOL Conference 2020 is announced for October 7-8

By Leave a Comment

COMSOL-53-release-3-croppedCOMSOL has announced that the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America will be held on October 7–8, 2020 in a virtual format. The annual Conference, a meeting focusing on advancing skills and furthering collaboration among engineers and scientists in the area of multiphysics simulation, will for the first time run online. Participants, from the comfort of their own workstations, will be able to experience event highlights, including:

• Invited speakers from industry and academia sharing their experiences using multiphysics modeling and simulation apps
• COMSOL keynotes featuring news and software product announcements
• User presentations showcasing research achievements and innovative design projects
• Panel discussions on simulation apps, heat transfer modeling, and electromagnetics simulation
• Tech Cafés, interactive sessions where software developers and technical product managers take modeling questions directly form COMSOL users
• Minicourses offering learning opportunities for any level of simulation expertise, from introductory to advanced
• Virtual exhibition and poster session

“With recent travel restrictions and social distancing in mind, moving the conference online this year is clearly the best option,” said Lauren Sansone, marketing and events director at COMSOL Inc. “The COMSOL Conference North America will be easy to join online, without travel time or time away from home. We believe that the online conference will be attractive to many, as it will also be easier to fit with a busy schedule and other obligations. As we will miss out on in-person meetings, we will be placing extra emphasis on providing interactive, small group sessions, and one-on-one discussions. An added benefit is that we will also have access to COMSOL’s global pool of engineers, as it will be equally easy for them to join the conversations, from anywhere.”

For event details and registration, please visit: COMSOL Conference 2020 North America.

Abstract Submission for Posters and Papers
The Program Committee for the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America is now inviting abstract submissions for posters and papers on simulation work and applications from users of COMSOL Multiphysics to present at the conference.

The papers and posters accepted for presentation will later be shared with the community through the open-access Technical Papers and Presentations database Technical Papers and Presentations database, with a global reach.

The abstract submission deadlines for the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America are: Early Bird submission by July 17th; Final Abstract submission by August 21st. For information and guidelines for abstract submission, please visit: Call for Papers and Posters.

The conference presentations have a broad scope, and the call for papers includes topics such as:

• AC/DC electromagnetics
• Acoustics and vibrations
• Batteries, fuel cells, and electrochemical processes
• Bioscience and bioengineering
• Chemical reaction engineering
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Electromagnetic heating
• Geophysics and geomechanics
• Heat transfer and phase change
• MEMS and nanotechnology
• Metal Processing
• Microfluidics
• Multiphysics
• Optics, photonics, and semiconductors
• Optimization and inverse methods
• Particle tracing
• Piezoelectric devices
• Plasma physics
• Porous Media Flow
• RF and microwave engineering
• Simulation methods and teaching
• Structural mechanics and thermal stresses
• Transport phenomena

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

 

Look up in the sky, it’s CAD software

By Leave a Comment

A major CAD vendor is betting the modeling software’s future is in the cloud

By Jean Thilmany, Senior Editor

Onshape set off ripples across the computer-aided design community five years ago when it announced its computer-aided design software would exist completely in the cloud. Last fall, PTC acquired Onshape.

The purchase signals PTC’s conviction that engineering companies are ready to embrace CAD in the cloud. The SaaS model, while nascent in the CAD and PLM market, is rapidly becoming the industry’s best practice across most other software domains, said Jim Heppelman, PTC president and chief executive officer.

By bringing Onshape in-house, the software maker has placed itself ahead of the pack in what the engineering software maker sees as the inevitable industry transition to SaaS, Heppelmann said.

“Today, we see small and medium-sized CAD customers in the high-growth part of the CAD market shifting their interest toward SaaS delivery models, and we expect interest from larger customers to grow over time,” he said.

In the future, CAD sellers may reach unique arrangements with resellers to bring CAD in the cloud to a wider user base, according to one potential reseller.

But PTC isn’t going all-in with the cloud. It will continue to offer its on-premise CAD software, Creo.

With CAD in the cloud, designs reside on the software provider’s secure server —rather than on individual workstations. Because the software is accessed and managed online, engineers and designers can work on their models from any location and on any device. The SaaS refers to a provider’s capability to deliver everything needed to run CAD in the cloud—including the cloud infrastructure and the CAD software itself.

Though other CAD makers do offer some type of cloud capability, it’s generally the capability to check files into and out of an application on a cloud-based server; engineers don’t design directly with cloud-based software on other applications, said Jon Hirschtick, president of SaaS, PTC. Onshape differs in that its software exists fully in the cloud and can be used by multiple users in real-time, he added. (Hirschtick founded SolidWorks in 1993 and then went on to co-found Onshape with another former SolidWorks chief executive officer, John McEleny.)

The everyday cloud
You’re already using cloud technology. That’s almost certain. If you have an email account ending in gmail.com or yahoo.com, if you’ve checked a social media account from your desktop or mobile device, if you’ve streamed a movie via Netflix or Amazon or any other provider, you’re a cloud user. The email, social media, and streaming software exist on the software owner’s server (let’s say Google), as does your little piece of it—like your Gmail email address.

Though it’s been possible to run CAD as a SaaS for the past few years, CAD has always been slower than other large, graphic-intense and complex applications to pivot to new platforms, says Len Williams, content manager at designairspace, which gives engineering companies the capability to run any CAD system in the cloud.

“Last year’s acquisition is a very clear statement that vendors like PTC see cloud as a platform of the future for CAD and for all their other software,” Williams added, calling the acquisition a “Windows-level” move.

“CAD systems were originally based on UNIX running on silicon graphics workstations. Then Windows came along and people were laughing at the thought of using CAD on Windows,” he says. “Now most of the major CAD systems run only on Windows.”

Likewise, the way companies buy their CAD software has evolved, he said.

“We went from the old perpetual model, where you buy the software for a workstation, to today’s subscription-based model, where you rent the software,” Williams said. “The next step is when a CAD vendor is running it for you so don’t have to buy hardware or worry about upgrades.”

Large companies already run CAD in the cloud because of the benefits the delivery method offers, Williams added. The difference is, those companies—the French automotive manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen is one example—have the funds to build their own, private clouds. Designers, engineers, and suppliers at those companies can access CAD on the private cloud whatever their location: Tulle, France; Brussels, Detroit, or elsewhere.

Working remotely and sharing with suppliers
For the smaller guys, the cloud can bring the same benefits their larger counterparts already enjoy; mainly real-time working together and version management, Hirschtick said.

“Versioning” is built-in, which means file changes are tracked in a central database in real-time. Because any engineer with permission can access the software from any device with internet connection, engineers in different places can work together on a design, such as a power supply, for example. There’s only one power supply file; Onshape doesn’t copy it. But with cloud, everyone in the world accesses real-time single source of truth database. We’re not passing around copies all over the place, he added.

“If multiple engineers happen to be working on that file at the same time, it’s not a problem. If one engineer rounded a corner and another one drilled a hole, both changes get captured,” Hirschtick said. “If we’re both rounding a corner at the same time, you would see my hand there in real-time—at the same table—and a box around the corner would indicate that another engineer is editing that right now.”

The bigger the team is, the quicker the product development process, as everyone—even suppliers—has visibility into the real-time database rather than a copy of something emailed a week ago.

When the workflows are quicker, engineers have more design time and are more willing to innovate to try new things, he added.

Most cloud service providers automatically update their programs. Thus, IT staff can focus on other tasks and engineers know they are working with the latest version of the applications.

Also, engineers aren’t bound to their workstations. The software exists at one central server while engineers work from many. They can be globally dispersed and can work from home or other locations outside the office.

Smaller companies that scale their workforce and supplier base up and down as projects change also stand to benefit from SaaS CAD software. When suppliers move away from a project, the company can easily suspend their CAD license and use of the CAD system, Williams said.

When the coronavirus began making headlines in early 2020, engineering companies running one Onshape customer with offices in three major Chinese cities particularly welcomed the remote-work capability, Hirschtick said.

“Using Onshape analytics, they showed us where people were working before the virus situation in China,” Hirschtick said. As expected, employees worked at the offices in the three major cities.

“Then they showed a map of activity of first two weeks of virus quarantines and lockdowns in China,” he added. “This time there were 20 little circles in regions all over in China. They could see where their employees logged in remotely.

“It doesn’t matter if employees are caught at home with only an Android tablet, they can still do their work,” Hirschtick said. “Even with the phone they can even do some of their work.

There are cases where running CAD in the cloud just doesn’t make sense. Some companies may use CAD only a small amount of time and will do better essentially renting a CAD program, perhaps through the cloud, Williams said.

With cloud-based systems, issues of total cost of ownership and return on investment are generally murky because companies want to see how cloud applications compare to traditional on-site infrastructure.

“But there are so many intangibles wrapped up in the cloud that it makes it hard to put calculations on it,” said Andrew Sroka, CEO at Fischer International Systems, which helps companies manage identities for on-premise and cloud-based applications. “It’s important to factor in expenses like utility costs and power requirements.”

If you can’t buy, rent
With CAD in the cloud being not if, but when, designairspace has new ways to bring benefit to users and CAD makers; reselling vendor software in the cloud. The company would offer customers workstations with major CAD vendor’s programs already installed. Designairspace can track use, which allows the vendors to charge based on time spent using the programs.

“It would be just like mobile phone plans back in the day, where you buy a plan based on minutes. We can do this with CAD in the cloud,” Williams says. “Let’s say you buy a plan with 500 minutes. If you need it for only one or two days a week, you can buy it in a small, affordable plan that’s a small portion of what it would cost you to buy the software.

“Why limit CAD-in-the-cloud to large companies? In the olden days, only big companies could afford 3-D CAD systems. We want small companies to have cloud benefits,” he added. “They would still need to buy their own licenses, but at least they can run it in the cloud, like the big guys.”

The pricing model would benefit companies with project managers or suppliers who don’t design in CAD but log onto the program intermittently.

“These people use the software only a little bit at a time, so we can price it so it’s not so expensive for them,” Williams said. “This is a whole new market for major vendors.”

Becoming a CAD-in-the-cloud reseller and offering online training in those CAD programs is the “next step” for designairspace, he added. With the business model, potential customers can also receive on-the-spot, specialized training if needed and can test the software to see if it’s right for their needs before buying a priced plan, he said.

Or, engineering companies might choose to run hybrid CAD, in which they host some CAD systems at workstations on-premise and buy CAD in the cloud subscriptions for intermittent users, Williams said.

“That way you can gradually move more and more users to the cloud. You can move one or two and see if it works and if it does move more to the cloud,” Williams said. “The heavy users will never move to the cloud.”

That brings up another point. Workstations that run CAD will always be with us, he added.
Companies that do work for the defense department or for the military must do their engineering work on company workstations. They cannot work remotely, Williams said.
For his part, Hirschtick is dreaming big. He expects widespread cloud adoption for CAD as users begin to see the advantages.

“People think cloud tools don’t have the power or speed but that’s an old fable. Cloud tools have more advantage and speed, it’s not a fair fight,” he said. “With desktop tools, you have one CPU sitting on the desktop. With the cloud, we’re able to use unlimited amounts of CPUs. I gave a demo and opened up ten models with thousands of thousands of parts on Macbook in Chrome on a web browser. There’s no CAD workstation that could open them that fast, even the best desktop configuration.

“In a few years, people will be saying ‘how did you ever do CAD on a desktop. How was it fast enough?’” Hirschtick says.

While the future remains cloudy, PTC is backing clearing skies for CAD in the cloud. With a large CAD maker backing SaaS, expect to see a flurry of news and updates. In other words, don’t delete your desktop program.

PTC
www.ptc.com

Designairspace
www.designairspace.com

Additive manufacturing used for local PPE solution in Belgium

By Leave a Comment

Bruce Jenkins | Ora Research

“Over the last month or so, the Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic has captured our collective consciousness across the globe and forced us to rethink every aspect of our professional and personal lives,” says Kaustubh Nande, Global Marketing Director at Hexagon’s| MSC Software. “Hexagon too has taken some concrete steps to protect our workforce and to minimize risk to the supply of our products and our services to our customers. For instance, we put in place a work from home program to use our smart manufacturing software packages and put together additional online learning options for manufacturing professionals.

“One interesting project undertaken by our team in Belgium was about using in-house knowledge and available material and tools to solve a specific issue posed by the COVID-19 outbreak. Across the globe, there have been several reports of hospital workers suffering from shortages in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), due to the unprecedented demand across the world.”

The Hexagon | e-Xstream team at Belgium “heard about a requirement for PPE, specifically face shield holders, in a nearby hospital. The team decided to chip in and do its bit by conceptualizing an additive manufacturing solution to the problem. The team had access to a 3D printer and suitable material within the office. The team first found an open CAD model that was available online and plugged it into the 3D printer and used the design to 3D print some face shield holders right at the Hexagon office.”

The company says that, “backed by a thorough understanding of additive manufacturing techniques and knowledge about the use of Digimat and e-Xstream in plastic printing, the team was able to think smart and deliver on what the doctors required. In the coming weeks we will also be increasing the production count. The finished product met the need for equipment that could protect hospital staff. The key thing is these plastic PPE liners can be disinfected easily and reused by the hospital. Depending on material available you can print in various colors for easy identification.”

MSC concludes, “This gesture by our Belgium team stands out as a great example of how the right hardware and software tools combined with the proper knowledge can bring in quick, practical solutions to solve real-life issues quickly and effectively.”

Work-from-home information

MSC adds: “Our customers, employees, and partners are at the heart of what we do. Our concerns and well wishes go out to all those directly and indirectly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are taking the threat very seriously by protecting our workforce and minimizing the risk to the supply of our products and services to you during this time. Across the globe, the measures being put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 means that many companies are asking their employees to work from home.

“Our goal is to offer the level of responsiveness and support that you have come to expect from MSC. If there is anything we can help you with, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please visit mscsoftware.com/work-from-home/assistance-programs for complete details on our current assistance programs, as well as check back for additional announcements in the coming days.”

Kaustubh Nande

Hexagon’s COVID-19 information page

xNURBS Rhino/SolidWorks Plugin v4 released

By Leave a Comment

xNURBS announces the availability of xNURBS SolidWorks and Rhino Plugin V4. V4 includes a number of enhancements and provides new capabilities, e.g., producing better surfacing quality, editing a xNURBS surface created with Rhino History and achieving smaller tangent deviation (less than 0.04 degree) etc.

Key Features of xNURBS V4:

  • Unlimited capacities for solving NURBS: Its optimization algorithm can solve virtually any NURBS surface in a matter of milliseconds (regardless of how complex the constraints are.)
Blending dozens of edges with one watertight G2 NURBS surface.

High-quality surfaces: For a given set of constraints, xNURBS’ optimization algorithm uses energy-minimization method to generate the smoothest NURBS surface among all possible solutions. The generated surface quality is outstanding.

 

xNURBS is one super powerful NURBS tool that fixes virtually all surfacing issues for existing CAD software.

 

Easy-to-use: It uses one simple UI for all kinds of NURBS modeling.

Super robust: xNURBS is rock solid and works flawlessly.

GTR Car: Most surfaces of the GTR model are generated by xNURBS.

Native CAD surfaces: xNURBS is based on NURBS, i.e., the native CAD surfaces, which can be directly used for any CAD modeling operations without any geometry translation.

Watertight Jet Ski Hull: All surfaces are generated by xNURBS with G2 continuity.

 

Fully support editing and rebuilding.

 

For more information, visit https://www.xnurbs.com

Reduce overall simulation time

By Leave a Comment

Siemens Digital Industries Software announces the latest release of its Simcenter FLOEFD software, a CAD-embedded computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool. Simcenter FLOEFD is part of the Simcenter portfolio of simulation and test solutions that help engineers simulate fluid flow and thermal problems quickly and accurately within their preferred CAD environment. The latest version offers new modules and improvements that can improve accuracy and solve rates.

The software helps users frontload CFD simulation early into the design process to understand the behavior of their concepts and eliminate the less attractive options. The software can reduce overall simulation time by as much as 65-75% and offers up to 40 times user productivity enhancement. Part of the Xcelerator portfolio, Simcenter FLOEFD also helps design engineers contribute to the creation of a highly accurate digital twin.

The new Electronics Cooling Center module combines existing best electronics-specific capabilities and integrates new ones from Simcenter Flotherm software inside the CAD-embedded interface to enhance electronics cooling functionality. A second new module helps users create a compact Reduced Order Model (ROM) that solves at a faster rate, while still maintaining a high level of accuracy. The Power Electrification module can now simulate an electrical device as an electro-thermal compact model, which can save significant user and computational time.

Siemens Digital Industries Software
www.sw.siemens.com

Accelerate spatial AR programming of machines and robots

By Leave a Comment

PTC announced the release of the Vuforia Spatial Toolbox platform. Created by the PTC Reality Lab. This open-source platform helps developers create, innovate, and solve spatial computing problems in a new way. Innovators can explore Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and Spatial Computing, accelerate prototyping for machines, and develop leading-edge spatial Augmented Reality (AR) and IoT use cases to support digital transformation initiatives.

With this spatial computing platform, teams can improve the operation of complex manufacturing environments and make IoT-enabled machines easier and more intuitive to control with on-the-fly programming. Robots can be operated and controlled through more intuitive user interfaces (UIs), and intuitive Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) can be quickly built, enabling improved human-machine interaction and merging the digital world and physical screens.

“Many developers, innovators, and researchers recognize that AR can help democratize the programming and control of connected machines,” said Mike Campbell, executive vice president and general manager, AR, PTC. “What they need are solutions that help alleviate development overhead for prototyping these innovative, next-gen AR tools. PTC is helping them develop tools and interfaces to spatially interact with and program the world of interconnected things around them.”

As the newest addition to the Vuforia AR product portfolio, Vuforia Spatial Toolbox complements the current commercial Vuforia offering. The Vuforia Spatial Toolbox is a system consisting of two components which combine to provide an industrial AR/Spatial Computing prototyping environment with pre-built UI/UX elements, spatial programming services, an intuitive UI app, and simplified connectivity to IoT with the Vuforia Spatial Edge Server. The open-source environment is designed to drive further exploration around the convergence of the physical and digital worlds and help to push the boundaries of innovation.

To enable users to take advantage of the new Vuforia Spatial Toolbox while working from home during this crisis, PTC created a basic hardware interface add-on that allows them to connect the Vuforia Edge Server with Arduino projects, children’s LEGO® BOOST and LEGO® Education WeDo 2.0 sets, and the Philips Hue smart lighting system.

The technology is the brainchild of Valentin Heun, Ph.D., vice president, Innovation Engineering, PTC, and former scientist at the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group, where he led the Reality Editor human-machine interface research. Dr. Heun is a leader in the AR industry, and an active author and speaker on topics related to AR.

PTC
spatialtoolbox.vuforia.com

Design and Drawing Tool CorelDraw Graphics Suite Now Includes AI to Speed Workflows

By Leave a Comment

The updated CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2020 helps designers quickly get from the original concept to output. The tool includes a collection of professional applications for vector illustration, layout and typography, and photo editing. The graphics software is compatible with macOS and Windows operating systems as well as a CorelDraw.app for the web.

The tool is from Corel Corp. in Ottawa, Canada.

The latest update includes artificial intelligence, performance enhancements, and access to cloud-based collaboration to accelerate the creation of complex projects and graphics.

“With the update, teams and clients can now access a centralized collaboration hub to get everyone on the same page in real-time; while designers can discover the power of machine learning to create striking results, faster than ever. Make no mistake — this isn’t AI for AI’s sake, “says John Falsetto, senior director of products, CorelDraw and Productivity. “We’ve leveraged artificial intelligence across the suite to make the biggest impact on your professional graphics workflow.

Designers using the app can work with their files almost anywhere. Subscribers can now use the app’s new collaboration features to simplify the entire review and approval process.

The drawing and design tool CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2020 now includes machine-learning and AI capabilities to speed design workflow.

The AI-integrated tools expand design capabilities and accelerate workflows.

  • Image upsampling and artifact removal: Enlarge images with AI-based upsampling options that create high-quality results with clean edges, sharpness, and fine details. Get more out of lossy JPEG images with machine learning techniques that remove JPEG compression artifacts and recover color details, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual editing.
  • PowerTrace: The bitmap-to-vector trace included in the new AI-assisted image-optimization technology improves the quality of a bitmap as it’s being traced.
  • Art Style effects: When working in CorelDraw and Corel Photo-Paint, you can choose from a range of AI presets inspired by the techniques of different artists and genres to produce a stylized version of an image or object.
  • Masks in Corel Photo-Paint: Quickly and accurately select an image with the new Smart Selection Mask, which intelligently expands the selection by finding edges. The Mask Transform tool now enables transformations to be applied to pixels within a mask.

Collaborative tools boost productivity by taking advantage of a collaboration workflow in CorelDraw.app. The workflow is available with a CorelDRAW Graphics Suite subscription, licensing with maintenance, or an additional CorelDraw.app Pro subscription for perpetual license customers. With it, users can:

  • Easily share files for collaborative review and approval: This feature gives users a potential better way than they had been using to connect with colleagues and clients in real-time. The CorelDraw.app can now act as the central hub to share CorelDRAW (CDR) files with clients and contributors. The new workflow makes design changes, reviews, and approvals easy by enabling the designer to manage feedback from one or many contributors in a single working file.
  • Comment and Annotate: This feature keeps everyone on the same page because they can view, respond to, and resolve feedback with new comments docker/inspector. The tool can save time and screen space by adding detailed comments and mark-up annotations, including note icons, arrows, rectangles, ellipses, as well as straight and free-form lines directly on the document.
  • Sign In Easily: Collaborators can access shared design files and make suggestions and remarks in CorelDraw.app by signing in as a guest or with a Corel customer account in the web browser, on any device.

Creative tools and significant upgrades to text, including customizable multilevel lists, inspire users to broaden their design horizons and work more efficiently.

  • Work with Variable fonts: Leverage the latest font technology with support for OpenType variable fonts that make it easy to manipulate text appearance and achieve a range of unique looks all from a single font. In many cases, this leads to smaller file sizes when creating files with multiple font styles.
  • Inner Shadow tool: Apply inner shadows to design elements to give them 3D depth. The new inner shadow tool lets users simulate light falling on an object and then fine-tune the inner shadow.
  • Bitmap effect lens: Apply bitmap effects as lenses in CorelDraw and Corel Photo-Paint. Position bitmap effects with precision by moving or manipulating the lens and apply a feather effect to seamlessly blend vector and bitmap objects into an existing design.
  • Non-destructive effects in Corel Photo-Paint: The new effects docker/inspector makes it easy to apply, modify, and experiment with effects, all without altering the source object. Get different looks by adding multiple effects, reordering them in the list, or toggling them on and off.

Availability and Pricing

CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2020 for Windows and CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2020 for Mac are available in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Japanese. Subscription is $249 U.S. dollars per year. Perpetual licenses are available at the suggested retail price of $499 USD.

CorelDraw.app collaboration features are available exclusively with a CorelDraw Graphics Suite subscription, licensing with maintenance, or an additional CorelDraw.app Pro subscription for perpetual license customers.

Generative design for flow applications

By Leave a Comment

Flow driven generative designer is a new application from Dassault Systèmes. Its intended use is to give users or designers access to simulation capabilities for fluid optimization.

As many designers know, the process of creating a part is typically based on experience and intuition. Generative design, however, offers a different approach. Generative design programs use boundary conditions, set by the designer, to drive and simulate how a part should look. Applications for flow driven generative design include powertrain design, HVAC, jet propulsion, injection molding, and valve and piping design.

Within the program, designers are encouraged to ask different questions. For example, rather than ask, ‘Does this shape meet the requirements?’, the question changes to ‘Which shape best meets the requirements?’

According to Colin Swearingen, generative design expert at Dassault Systèmes, “optimizing fluid flow for a particular component is a difficult process as it incorporates a number of aspects of engineering.” These aspects create an “over-the-wall” process where various engineering disciplines such as CAD, analysis, simulation, manufacturing, PLM and so on, are siloed and there is little collaboration.

One of the risks of siloed engineering is an increase in the number of data translation errors that can compromise a design. Another drawback is the lack of expertise in more than one engineering discipline. Few companies have designers who are experts in CAD, CFD, and analysis.

Thus, in a typical traditional design process, a designer begins with a design space and sets up boundary conditions. In the case of fluid, what are the inlet conditions and what are the outlet conditions? Are there any other restraints that need to be applied to the model?
Then the design is handed off to an analyst, who must then mesh the data and prepare it for a CFD model run.

The new shape also needs to be validated. In a typical design process, that’s a different tool that is used to compute the flow analysis as opposed to optimizing the shape to begin with.
So, designers do their best version of the design. However, it quickly becomes an iterative process every time a change is made.

The flow driven generative program is in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which also includes other engineering tools, such as CAD, simulation, analysis, optimization, and manufacturing. All of these are unified into one environment so that a designer can streamline the design process. This platform makes the process intuitive, helping users optimize the design earlier and eliminates all the data translations required in other tools and platforms.

In Flow driven generative, once the designer is satisfied with the initial iteration of the design, they simply click a button to begin a simulation. Then, they can run a flow analysis without leaving the design program.

File exchange is not needed in this process, and no data translation is necessary. Said Swearingen, “It’s intuitive, easy to use, and we really streamline the process. What we see is about a 10-times faster turnaround time.”

The program includes a design assistant that prompts the designer to answer specific boundary questions that help the program create a design.

Noted Swearingen, the program leverages best in class TOSCA fluid technology in the background. Tosca fluid and many of the Tosca applications are typically known as an expert tool. However, that’s being run in the background here. The designer is getting access to this simulation capability without needing to be a full-fledged expert in the program.

The goal of the Flow driven generative program is to remove the bottlenecks that make it cost prohibitive to explore optimized parts. Another goal is to develop a seamless collaboration with design and simulation departments. “In a unified environment,” said Swearingen, “it’s enabling collaboration and opening doors for users in a much more streamlined and efficient manner, to tackle the problems that arise with this type of workflow.”

Dassault Systèmes
www.3ds.com

Mechanism design using geometric constraints

By Leave a Comment

Use the power of geometric constraints within parametric CAD software to turbocharge development of synthesizing mechanisms.

Dr.  Jody Muelaner, PhD CEng MIMechE,  Muelaner Engineering Ltd

Many CAD programs provide tools for analyzing and refining mechanisms. However, these assume that you already have an initial design. Classic graphical methods of synthesizing mechanisms provide methods of determining link lengths and joint positions to produce a particular motion.

These methods can be turbocharged using the power of geometric constraints within parametric CAD software. Taking this approach, it is also often possible to synthesize a mechanism to meet a particular design intent using a first-principles approach, without any knowledge of the traditional graphical methods.

Whether adapting traditional graphical methods or taking a first principles approach, mechanism synthesis within CAD software uses the built-in geometric constraint solver. This is the tool at the heart of the sketching functionality within any parametric CAD program such as SolidWorks, CATIA or Inventor. When you draw a line, set it to be perpendicular, equal length and so forth, and then watch it snap into position, a geometric constraint solver is performing the calculations to determine its position in the background. Fundamentally, this involves solving a set of simultaneous equations. Creative use of sketching tools can, therefore, provide a highly intuitive way of leveraging the powerful mathematical solvers to determine the precise link lengths joint positions required for a mechanism to move through some specified positions or orientations.

The generic methodology used to synthesize any mechanism, using the geometric constrain solver, is the same regardless of whether it is applied to traditional graphical methods or a first principles approach. It involves the following steps:

  1. Sketch a link in a number of positions or orientations describing the required motion
  2. Sketch an approximate mechanism at each of these positions, with the unknown joint positions and link lengths unconstrained.
  3. Set the grounded joints to be coincident for each position.
  4. Set the link lengths to be equal for each position.
  5. Allow the geometric constraint solver to determine link lengths and grounded joint positions that satisfy these constraints.
  6. Constrain any remaining unconstrained degrees of freedom in the model to create an optimal mechanism.

Fundamental theory of mechanism design

Most mechanism design involves rigid body kinematics, with the assumption that each link is a rigid body that cannot bend. In three-dimensional space, a rigid body has 6 degrees of freedom (DOF): translation in x, y, and z; and rotation about each one of these axes. However, most of the time mechanisms are designed in 2D, even apparently 3D mechanisms are often simply the combination of these planar 2D mechanisms. In this case, the motion of each link is constrained to a single plane and has 3 DOF: translation in x and y; and rotation in the plane of motion. If a 4-bar planar linkage, which is made up of four rigid bodies, had no joints joining the links together it would have 12 DOF, but this would not be a mechanism, it would simply be a collection of parts.

When links are connected together by joints a mechanism is formed. There are three types of kinematic joint possible for a 2D planar mechanism, these are a pin joint, a full sliding joint which acts like a piston, or a half slider which acts like a pin in the slot. A pin joint removes 2-DOF (both translations), full slider also removes 2-DOF (a translation and a rotation), and half slider removes 1-DOF (a translation). Because mechanism synthesis is not concerned with the motion of the whole mechanism through space, one link is considered to be grounded and acts as a reference frame about which motion takes place, it, therefore, has no degrees of freedom. Gruebler’s equation gives the degrees of freedom for a mechanism:

 

 

where L is the number of links (including ground),
JP is the number of pin joints,
JFS is the number of full sliding joints
JHS is the number of half sliding joints.

Most mechanisms require one degree of freedom, constraining motion to a single dimension moving backward and forwards along a known path. If structure has exactly zero degrees of freedom then it is known as a truss, while structures with negative degrees of freedom can be seen to be statically indeterminate or preloaded. Gruebler’s equation can provide a useful check for complex mechanisms that it is not entirely reliable as Gruebler’s paradox can result in certain mechanisms having more degrees of freedom than the equation suggests.

Types of mechanism synthesis

Mechanism synthesis is often categorized according to its aims into:

  • Path generation moves a single point through a prescribed path.
  • Motion generation moves a line through a number of prescribed positions.
  • Function generation attempts to map an input function to an output function. This is something of a catchall for any problem which isn’t a simple path or motion generation.

Transmission angles and toggles

Transmission angles are a way of quantifying how freely a mechanism can move and whether it will lock, or ‘toggle’ into a particular position. The transmission angle gives the angle between two links, one of which is applying force to the other through a joint which connects them. If the force applied by the first link acts in the direction that the joined point on the second link is traveling, then all of the force is applied to moving the second leg. If the force acts perpendicular to the direction of possible motion then there will be no component of force to produce a motion and the mechanism will lock. Although this provides a first principles explanation, transmission angle is not defined quite like this.

In a 4-bar linkage the four links are conventionally labeled according to where the force is applied:

  • Ground link: The fixed point of reference to which stationary joints are fixed.
  • Driver: The link to which force is applied, causing it to rotate about the ground link. Also known as the input link or, for certain types of linkage, the crank
  • Output link: The other link which rotates about a fixed point on the ground, due to forces transferred through the other links.
  • Coupler: The linkage which connects the moving ends of the driver and output links.

 

In this example of a 4-bar linkage, the four links are conventionally labeled according to where the force is applied. Ground link refers to the fixed point in which stationary joints are fixed. Driver refers to that link that experiences and applied force so that it rotates about the ground link. It is also known as the input link or, for certain types of linkage, the crank. Output link is the link that rotates about a fixed point on the ground due to forces transferred through the other links. Coupler is the linkage that connects the moving ends of the driver and output links.

 

In this case, the transmission angle is defined as the acute angle between the coupler and the output link. A transmission angle of 90 degrees means that all of the force transferred by the coupler is applied as a moment to rotate the output link about the ground link. When the transmission angle is zero, all of the force is transferred directly through the grounded joint at the other end of the output link, there is no resulting moment to cause movement of the output link and the mechanism does not move. This is called a toggle position.

If free movement is required, small transmission angles should be avoided. The minimum value for a particular mechanism will depend on the force being applied, frictional forces and accelerations. Generally, transmission angles below 30 degrees should be avoided.

Free movement is not always the aim of mechanism design. Often, mechanisms are deliberately designed to lock, or toggle, in a particular position. For example, a shelf which locks in its open position, such as the tailgate of a truck. When the shelf is lowered it reaches a toggle position so that it cannot be lifted back up again, as shown below. When force is applied to the tailgate, in its open position, the force is transferred through the coupler into the output link with a zero-transmission angle because the coupler and output link are in line with each other. The tailgate will be closed if a force is applied to one of the aligned links. If the force is applied to the upper link, as shown below, the coupler acts with a transmission angle of 45 degrees, allowing the tailgate to close.

Free movement is not always the aim of mechanism design. One example is a shelf that locks in its open position. When the shelf is lowered it reaches a toggle position so that it cannot be lifted back up again. When force is applied, in the shelf’s open position, the force is transferred through the coupler into the output link with a zero-transmission angle because the coupler and output link are in line with each other.

 

When using geometric constraint-based sketching within CAD software, constraints can be added to limit or define transmission angles at specified positions.

CAD based mechanism design

The process of synthesizing a mechanism using geometric constraint based sketching is best understood with a simple example. Consider the design of a compact mechanism to produce a motion path 100 mm long with a radius of approximately 10 m. This can be achieved using a 4-bar linkage. The first step is to sketch the 4-bar linkage mechanism in three approximate positions, each constrained to a point on the motion path, which may conveniently be located in another reference sketch. The point on the ‘floating link’ which actually follows the motion path is known as the ‘coupler point.’ For simplicity the midpoint of the floating link has been used as the coupler point in this example. For more complex motions the coupler point may be easily offset from the axis of the floating link by creating a triangle instead of a single line to represent the floating link. If you do this just make sure to use make each side of the triangle the same length in each position. Each of the three moving linkages is then constrained so that it is of equal length in each position.

Here is an example of synthesizing a mechanism using geometric constraint-based sketching. This compact mechanism can produce a motion path 100 mm long with a radius of approximately 10 m using a 4-bar linkage. The first step is to sketch the 4-bar linkage mechanism in three approximate positions, each constrained to a point on the motion path, which may conveniently be located in another reference sketch. For simplicity, the midpoint of the floating link has been used as the coupler point in this example. Each of the three moving linkages is then constrained so that it is of equal length in each position.

 

By simply adding equal to constraints, the CAD software has automatically generated a mechanism that will pass through the defined positions. The sketch is not fully constrained at this stage. Different link lengths or joint positions could be used to satisfy the constraints. It, therefore, makes sense to add additional dimensions to constrain the mechanism in a way that fits the design intent. Since the aim was for a compact mechanism, the link lengths are important. It is also intended to produce a motion and so small transmission angles should be avoided. The fully defined mechanism synthesis sketch is shown below.

By simply adding equal constraints, the CAD software has automatically generated a mechanism that will pass through the defined positions. The sketch is not fully constrained at this stage. Different link lengths or joint positions could be used to satisfy the constraints. It, therefore, makes sense to add additional dimensions to constrain the mechanism in a way that fits the design intent.

 

It is important to validate the mechanism. In a separate sketch the mechanism is sketched again, using the same ground joint positions and link lengths but without constraining it to any point on the motion path. This can then be dragged through the range of motion to validate that it functions as intended.

To validate the mechanism, sketch the mechanism again, using the same ground joint positions and link lengths but without constraining it to any point on the motion path. This can then be dragged through the range of motion to validate that it functions as intended.

 

This is only a simple example but with some thought, the method can be applied to solve complex mechanism synthesis problems involving both planar and 3D mechanisms.