Autodesk – Page 3

Autodesk Aims to Tackle Collaboration Challenges with A360

September 9, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Despite advances in nearly every area of product development technology, effective collaboration still seems to be a struggle for manufacturers. The tools that enable safe and efficient collaboration–both internally and externally–between design teams and their partners, suppliers and internal design participants have been sorely lacking. As a result, engineers and designers have used a hodgepodge of tools (DropBox, FTP sites, email, etc.), most of which have their own shortcomings.

The cloud seems to offer an ideal platform for design collaboration. People can access it anywhere, at anytime, and from nearly any device, both desk-bound and mobile. Cloud-based platforms also offer infinite storage capabilities so even the biggest of design files can be stored, saved and shared.

A Gartner study on collaboration among manufacturers found cloud-based tools to be the fastest growing category of collaboration tools—both for internal collaboration as well as working with external partners. Another recent study found that 50% of makers “make things with others,” while 41% indicated that “others use what they make.”

These studies underscore two things: 1) how commonplace collaboration has become when it comes to making things; and 2) how the tools that aid collaboration have evolved beyond the project management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems of yesteryear, and migrated to the cloud.

The A360 dashboard gives users a view of recent activity streams for all active projects.

Autodesk rolls out new release of A360

Autodesk last week released updates to its A360 project-based collaboration tool and rolled out A360 Team in North America. Ideal for hardware starts-ups, small and medium-sized business professionals who need a way to work together more efficiently, A360 is a tool that brings together people, design and project data, ensuring everyone is informed and involved. Unlike other collaboration or communication tools, A360 is the only design and engineering collaboration solution that puts the project at the center, enabling teams to work together effortlessly.

New features in A360 include the ability for users to view more than 100 2D and 3D design file formats within their browser without downloads or plug-ins, and an advanced search that goes far beyond text search and lets users easily locate components embedded within models, assemblies and designs.

With the A360 mobile app, you can view large 3D and 2D models, easily track what’s happening on your project and collaborate with other members of your team anytime, anywhere from any device. A360 mobile supports both online and offline workflows, allowing teams to stay on track with recent changes and updates.

In addition, Autodesk is introducing A360 Team in North America for $10/month/user (free for students), as well as a basic free version of A360 for individuals.

Opening up Design Collaboration to Non-Engineers

Autodesk has targeted mostly designers and engineers, but there are all kinds of other people who contribute to making the whole project successful. A360 provides the tools to enable all stakeholders to be involved in a project – content creators, collaborators and consumers.

“A360 has been a really accessible tool for us,” said Calvin Domenico III, president of DGF Technologies. “Team members that were not previously involved in design are now coming on board and beginning to not only contribute to existing projects, but to take on new initiatives and expand our entire team’s skill set.”

Some of the main pain points that A360 addresses for project teams include:

* Project coordination: A typical employee is involved in five different projects at a time; larger projects can have upwards of 50 people from the same company involved in a project
* Change tracking and design rework: Designers and engineers need to be able to perform quick iterations, keep track of changes, and maintain version control – ~60% of designers and engineers recreate models due to incompatible software or miscommunication
* Scattered communications: Communication is largely informal and disconnected – A typical employee uses an average of 2-3 communication tools (does not include f2f meetings, instant messaging, and phone)
* Sharing project information and viewing design data: Not all contributors to a project are designers or engineers. Non-engineers use different tools that create different outputs and types of data.
* Sharing large files: According to a recent customer survey, 77% of designers and engineers rely on PDFs for red marking and commenting on designs
* Finding data in complex design assemblies and archives: Not all data is available through basic search and important details are often inaccessible or extremely hard to find. Results of that same survey showed that designers spend 43% of their time on finding and aggregating information

Do you struggle from some of these same challenges? Sign up for a free trial of A360 Team by signing up here.

Barb Schmitz

Autodesk Ships Nastran 2015, Nastran In-CAD 2015

August 12, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

There’s been a big push by simulation software vendors to get engineers and designers to start incorporating analysis tools into their product development processes. High-end simulation tools have traditionally been used by specialists or analysts who’s jobs are to run design geometry–created by engineers–through their paces using analysis tools to validate that designs will be structurally sound and will operate as intended once built.

The motive is obvious. There are many more design engineers than there are analysts so making their products more engineering-centric opens up much bigger potential markets for simulation vendors. There are also, however, many compelling reasons for engineers to use analysis tools early in the design process. Doing so speeds up development, cuts time to market, and helps them identify potential design flaws long before costly physical prototypes are built.

Autodesk Nastran is an industry-recognized FEA solver for analyzing linear and nonlinear stress, dynamics and heat transfer characteristics of structures and mechanical components.

New versions of Nastran solver released

One of these high-end tools is Nastran, finite-element analysis (FEA) software now sold by Autodesk after its acquisition of NEi Software back in May. The goal of the acquisition was to expand the company’s structural analysis capabilities, and it follows similar strategic technology acquisitions in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD), plastics and composites solutions spaces.

Autodesk Nastran offers an industry-recognized FEA solver for analyzing linear and nonlinear stress, dynamics and heat transfer characteristics of structures and mechanical components. Nastran provides real-time results and changes in solution parameters while solving, which helps engineers and analysts gain accurate results to complex simulations.

Autodesk Nastran In-CAD 2015 is a CAD-embedded, general-purpose FEA tool powered by the Autodesk Nastran solver. The new Nastran In-CAD offers a wide range of simulation spanning across multiple analysis types, delivering another high-end simulation in a CAD-embedded workflow. The software works within both Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks 3D CAD software systems.

Taking FEA to the Cloud

Autodesk Nastran Solver is available to customers using the Autodesk Simulation Mechanical and Autodesk Simulation Flex product offerings. Autodesk Simulation Flex, formerly Autodesk Sim 360 Pro with Local Solve, consists of:

* Autodesk Simulation Mechanical with cloud-enabled FEA tools for static stress, linear dynamic analysis and mechanical event simulations;
* Autodesk Simulation CFD Motion including Design Study environment and 3D CAD connectors with cloud-enabled CFD tools for fluid flow and thermal simulations; and
* Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis with cloud-enabled simulation for detailed analysis and code checking on a range of structures, including buildings and frame structures.

“We’ve been working with Autodesk tools since the acquisition of Algor and CFDesign and have seen first-hand how incredibly powerful the combination of strong numerical solvers and Autodesk’s advanced visualization, cloud and user interface tools can be,” said Dmitriy Tseliakhovich, Co-founder, CEO and CTO at Escape Dynamics. “Nastran is a great solver with very powerful non-linear and dynamic simulation capabilities so its integration with Autodesk’s front end and elastic cloud computing platform is extremely exciting.”

Autodesk Nastran and Autodesk Nastran In-CAD are now available. For more details about both products and licensing and pricing options, click here.

Barb Schmitz

How Engineers are Collaborating Today

June 7, 2014 By Barb Schmitz 2 Comments

By Barb Schmitz, Senior Editor

The highly dispersed and globalized nature of product development has drastically changed the way products are developed. It has also dramatically increased the need for effective and safe ways to collaborate on product designs from the earliest concept phases through to final detailed design.

Product design and development today is largely a global effort. Global design teams must work together and collaborate on designs across times zones as well as geographical, cultural and functional borders. Though global design efforts can yield long-term benefits, they also add new communication, control and collaboration challenges as well as increased risk of IP theft.

As a result of these changes, the ability to efficiently and securely collaborate with design participants and supply chain partners has become increasingly critical. Without the right tools and standardized processes in place, effective collaboration between global design teams becomes nearly impossible.

Challenges in collaboration
Collaboration needs vary from company to company and depend upon the complexities of the product development process and supply chain. Increased outsourcing has lead to a greater need for collaboration tools as has the extension of design teams to non-engineering members.

Without effective tools for collaboration, organizations take longer to make decisions, waste money on repetitive tasks, make more errors, and have less visibility into design processes. Conversely, collaboration enables companies to increase accountability for tasks, maintain control over flexible processes to ensure quality compliance and reduce or more accurately understand costs.

The most common collaboration challenges include the need to:
• Manage manufacturing partners in disparate geographic locations
• Coordinate distributed product design teams with external customers, consultants and suppliers
• Maintain specification and model version control throughout design cycle
• Overcome challenges of coordinating efforts of multidisciplinary teams
• Find ways of communicating in lieu of face-to-face meetings
• Protect design IP while sharing design data

If manufacturers use unreliable communication methods, such as the manual transfer of design data between disparate systems, then effective collaboration cannot happen, resulting in confusion, mistakes and costly delays. In addition, using antiquated means of collaborating, such as email attachments, FTP sites, or DropBox can open up organizations to IP security issues and miscommunication.

Despite these issues, many organizations are still relying on those tools in order to collaborate with those outside of their firewall. Kevin Schneider, director of Fusion 360 at Autodesk, has talked to many Autodesk customers to determine some of the business challenges they were having and found that the means by which companies were collaborating was in his words “flabbergasting.”

Schneider described a common scenario of how companies are using a menagerie of tools to collaborate and share data with others. “Some companies actually use PowerPoint and FTP sites for redline and markup processes,” said Schneider. “They put pictures of the various designs in slides and use PowerPoint between manufacturing, the contractor and the design firm to mark up the images as ways of documenting decisions.”

Stephen Endersby, senior Product Portfolio Manager at SolidWorks, has also seen many of these same shortcomings when file-sharing tools are used for collaboration. “With pressure on time during the product development process, collaboration has to be dynamic and interactive between team members,” said Endersby. “File sharing tools cannot meet this collaboration need.”

GrabCAD’s Workbench is a cloud-based collaborative product development platform that enables users to manage, share, view, and edit CAD models with no upfront—or ongoing—IT investment. Recipients don’t need to own or know how to use CAD software.

Jon Stevenson, the VP of Technology at GrabCAD, saw first-hand the problems engineers were having with current collaboration tools—or a lack thereof—when developing the company’s Workbench product. “We were seeing companies using tools such as DropBox, FTP sites or email attachments to share files,” said Stevenson. “Engineers need to be able to communicate and collaborate in the context of the 3D model.”

Requirements for collaboration
Safe and effective design collaboration requires digital environments that support communication and coordination as well as facilitate leveraging cross-disciplinary ideas, knowledge transfer between design team members, and the secure sharing of digital design data between parties.

Maintaining control of who can see and/or modify product data is also an extremely critical component of collaborative design tools. “You must be able to control the access and visibility of the data and conversations that go on in your collaborative spaces,” said Endersby. “This control has to be easy to manage and deploy on a day-to-day basis. Security and accessibility go hand in hand with collaboration tools.”

In addition, the data must be accessible 24/7. With today’s geographically dispersed design teams spread over multiple zones, the ability of design participants to access design data anytime from anywhere takes on paramount importance. “The modern work period is no longer limited to the traditional 9-5 Monday to Friday, so this information has to be available at anytime from anywhere,” said Endersby.

Establishing a single data source for design data is also essential. Enabling all design team members to have instant and secure access to the data they need—when they need it—keeps projects on schedule and streamlines review cycles.

PDM systems provide a digital infrastructure that facilitates collaboration among cross-disciplinary team members and provides a way to trace sharing of product data, maintaining version control and keeping IP secure. Expense, however, is often cited as a reason why the majority of small- to mid-sized companies still have no data management system in place.

“PDM can be expensive and hard to deploy and administer,” said Stevenson. “That’s a cost that a lot of engineering departments can’t absorb. If you only have 5-10 seats of CAD, it’s hard to justify spending $50K on PDM software.”

Collaboration in the cloud
More and more software is now being ported to the cloud. Cloud implementations offer many benefits, such as lower costs, faster deployment, lower maintenance costs and increased scalability. Via the cloud, design participants can access, download and edit shared models (even really large models) anytime from anywhere with Internet access.

Several vendors have ported solutions to the cloud that can be used for design collaboration. GradCAD’s Workbench is a cloud-based collaborative product development platform that enables users to manage, share and view CAD models with no upfront—or ongoing—IT investment.

Autodesk 360 is a cloud-based collaboration workspace that enables users to store, share and collaborate on design projects. Users can invite others to view, comment or edit designs and get notified of any resulting comments or changes.

Approximately 35,000 users are already signed up and are using Workbench to collaborate and share CAD models with suppliers, customers and partners. Stevenson says that product’s functionality was developed in direct response to the shortcomings of the tools being used today for collaboration.

“We set out to build a system that was low risk, easy to get up and running within a day without the assistance of IT department, was secure and one that enables you to easily share files with people outside of engineering within your company or outside of your corporate firewall,” said Stevenson.

Autodesk 360 is another cloud-based platform that can be used for collaboration purposes. Users simply upload a project file to Autodesk 360 with any type of data—not just design of Autodesk file types. The person who sets up the project can determine who has access, where it resides, and how it is retrieved.

There are concerns regarding hosting intellectual property on the cloud and outside the confines of the corporate firewall. Autodesk’s Schneider believes that these fears regarding security will lessen as people become more educated about the cloud.

“I’ve visited with customers who will berate me with security concerns regarding the cloud, and yet that very same engineer will take a model and attach it to his Gmail account and email it to me,” said Schneider. “So there’s a bit of education that will happen over time. People are afraid of change but I think over time, people will get more comfortable with it. We’re not seeing security as a barrier to success.”

SolidWorks has also introduced a collaborative design environment with its Mechanical Conceptual product, which shipped in April. This cloud-based, secure collaborative environment enables users to work together on the same assembly design simultaneously, with automatic locking and real-time updates to ensure version control. Users collaborate through chat, screen capture and on-screen annotation. Project authors can define access permissions to secure IP.

SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual offers a secure, cloud-based collaborative design environment in which design participants can work together on assemblies simultaneously. Design changes and feedback can be captured in real-time and fed back into the design process.

“Mechanical Conceptual enables ‘unstructured’ collaboration through the online communities where all stakeholders can comment and the design ‘story’ is captured in chronological order so you have a single document that describes and details any design decision or review,” said Endersby. “The review process is now no longer a roadblock to design but rather a benefit. By embedding the online communities within the design environment, designers can see and incorporate feedback into their designs on the fly resulting in rapid design progression.”

Engineers Using Mishmash of Tools to Collaborate

Design teams are currently using a combination of tools to share files, all of which are inadequate for various reasons. Let’s look at each one:

DropBox.
Pros: Easy and fast way to share files with others.

Cons: Typically not approved by IT departments; people commonly make mistakes when using, which can lead to inadvertent file sharing. Renaming files can corrupt the CAD assembly since many CAD programs rely on files having specific names.

FTP sites.
Pros: Fast and efficient way to transfer large amounts of data; enables some control over transfer; and has an automatic backup.

Cons: Not designed to be a secure protocol; no encryption of data; requires IT assistance.

PDM.
Pros: Enables easy access, safe sharing and file version control for engineering departments.

Cons: Expensive; can be hard to deploy and administer. Requires IT assistance.

Reprint info >>

Autodesk
www.autodesk.com

GrabCAD
www.grabcad.com

SolidWorks Corp.
www.solidworks.com

Autodesk Adds CAM Capabilities to Fusion 360

May 22, 2014 By Barb Schmitz

Advances in digital design and rapid fabrication technology coupled with crowd funding are pushing the edge of what’s possible and empowering more people to transform their innovative designs into products. Autodesk has been quick to respond to this so-called “maker” trend and last week introduced Spark, an open software platform for 3D printing. The goal of Spark is to make it easier to 3D print your designs and control the printing process.

The company also announced plans to roll out its own 3D printer that will serve as a reference implementation for Spark. Together the company hopes this technology bundle will provide the building blocks that product designers, hardware manufacturers, software developers and materials scientists can use to continue to explore the limits of 3D printing.

Read more on Spark and the company’s overall 3D printing strategy in a blog, “Accelerating the Future of 3D Printing,” written by Carl Bass, Autodesk’s president and CEO. Also, check out Design World’s 3D printing expert, Leslie Langau’s take on the Spark announcement here.

Fusion 360: one-stop destination for design and manufacturing for entrepreneurs

Following on the heals of its 3D printing product announcements is Autodesk’s release of new CAM capabilities for Fusion 360. With the addition of CAM, users are another significant step closer to having a single, integrated tool with everything they needed to bring a product to market — from concept to manufacture.

Ideal for hardware starts-ups, small- and medium-sized businesses and students, Fusion 360 is a single cloud platform for form, function and fabrication, which enables users to design, test and fabricate all in one environment. Because it resides in the cloud, users can access design data in Fusion 360 anytime and anywhere from multiple devices, such as mobile devices, PCs or Mac.

Fusion 360 also makes collaboration easy by providing a common place and a single tool to collaborate on projects. Built-in data management tools help capture project history so users don’t have to worry about losing or recreating data.

By adding new CAM capabilities to its cloud-based Fusion 360 product, Autodesk hopes to become the single destination for product design and manufacturing for entrepreneurs.

What’s new on CAM side?

The new CAM functionality will consist of 2.5 and 3-axis CAM on Windows 8. Additional enhancements include:

* Rendering: Improved render experience with new workspace, ray trace command and better performance.
* Better Output Options: Users are now able to export their Fusion 360 designs in OBJ and DFX file formats, and prep them for 3D printing with the power of Autodesk Meshmixer.

What makes this design platform ideal for smaller and mid-size companies and startups is the fact that it’s offered by monthly subscription. Check out information regarding the monthly subscription pricing here.

PartMaker Releases 3D CAD for CAM Software

April 22, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Problems and errors often arise when 3D CAD models are moved into the manufacturing environment. For years the various software systems used in design and manufacturing spoke different languages so 3D CAD models often needed to be translated or dumbed down before being used as input by CAM software, which often resulted in errors on the shop floor.

Bridging the CAD-to-CAM divide

PartMaker, a division of Autodesk’s Delcam unit, hopes to change all that by creating 3D CAD modeling software that generates the 3D engineering data that precision part manufacturers need to be productive without cluttering their work flow with tools they don’t need or use.

PartMaker Modeling 2014 is 3D CAD for CAM software that provides users with the ability to create 3D solid models from scratch as well as repair and modify any 3D engineering data. Touted to be the most powerful 3D CAD system available alongside a production-oriented CAM product, this new version offers a unique radial cut wizard for creating cylindrically wrapped part features as well as improved direct modeling and feature recognition functionality.

PartMaker Modeling 2014 is a 3D modeling tool developed specifically for the needs of CNC machinists.

What’s new?

The new functionality in PartMaker Modeling 2014 was designed specifically for users that make parts on turn-mill centers and Swiss-type lathes as it includes a wide variety of functionality for creating milled features on parts that are cylindrical in nature.

Other new features include:

* Unique radial cut wizard. This new feature allows for very quick and intuitive creation of solid cut features on cylindrical surfaces, which is particularly helpful for creating “wrapped” features on cylinders that typically require cylindrical interpolation programming when machined.

* Automated snapping both geometry and solid features to existing faces. This makes creating both milled and drilled features such as hexes, flats and holes of any orientation much faster than previous versions.

* Enhanced direct modeling functionality. Used for altering “dumb” solid models, or 3D models with no feature history created in other solid modeling systems.

* Merge faces command. This direct modeling feature allows a number of coincident but separate faces to be merged into a single face automatically, which makes altering or removing features attached to these faces much faster and more automated.

* Smart feature manager Allows solid features to be extracted automatically from dumb solids. Using the smart feature manager, you can also control and filter which feature sets, such as just holes, are extracted from a dumb model.

* New extrude functionality. Improved functionality for extruding multiple regions with hollow shapes automatically.

To get more information on PartMaker Modeling 2014, check it this page on the PartMaker web site.

Barb Schmitz

Autodesk Ships Integrated CAM Package For Inventor

April 8, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

There has been a real need in the manufacturing industry among users to have a tightly integrated CAM package that works hand in hand with users’ CAD systems. Users wanted CAM functionality but didn’t want to learn a whole new tool. Today, Autodesk announces that Inventor users now have such a package.

Autodesk got to this point after a key acquisition in October 2012 of HSMWorks technology, which was originally developed for SolidWorks users. Though there was skepticism in the market–and fear among HSMWorks users–regarding what the company’s real intentions were with the technology, Autodesk committed to continue development of the technology and announced plans to integrate it into the entire portfolio of desktop and cloud-based products.

An integrated CAM product for multiple users

HSM 2015 will help machinists, designers and engineers turn their Inventor models into manufacturable parts by generating machining tool paths from directly within Inventor.

Inventor HSM 2015 includes a full license of Inventor 2015 software, so users would have a complete CAD/CAM package with integrated design-to-manufacturing capabilities.

Inventor HSM includes the following features:

* Flexible 2.5D, 3D, and 3+2 toolpath options and settings for the best possible surface finish
* Simulation tools that help users verify the machining process before CNC programs are run on a machine * Highly customizable post-processors and a powerful CNC editor that enable users to tailor their programs to their CNC machine.

Autodesk Releases 2015 Design Suites

March 28, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

This week Autodesk rolled out its new Autodesk 2015 Design Suites. What’s new? This release is said to be more tightly integrated with Autodesk cloud services, facilitating users’ ability to collaborate, simulate, analyze–all with just one click from within the suite. The company reports that the 2015 Design Suite includes the most advanced AutoCAD yet, which offers a new interface and better productivity tools.

Another newsworthy aspect of this announcement is the fact that Autodesk users can now purchase the software suite via pay-as-you-go subscriptions. Logic being that they can access the tools they need, when they need them without being locked into annual licensing agreements. Subscription customers will get frequent software updates, services and support. Customers going this route can choose from monthly, quarterly or annual options.

Autodesk’s 2015 Design Suite includes what’s said to be the most advanced version of AutoCAD yet and can now be purchased monthly via a subscription plan.

What’s new?

Here’s a quick run-down of the features and functionality that are new to this release.

* Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite offers a refined visual interface, better point cloud support to bring the real world into the AutoCAD canvas, and easier ways to work with online maps and other geographic location information.

* Autodesk Building Design Suite delivers better integration with BIM 360 cloud services, enhanced point cloud capabilities, and numerous customer requested improvements for Autodesk Revit, including a new sketchy lines feature, ability to include imagery in schedules, enhanced hidden lines capability and more.

* Autodesk Factory Design Suite introduces easier moves from 2D AutoCAD drawings to 3D factory layouts with streamlined transitions from legacy workflows; point cloud support for “as is” facility capture; extended use of Factory Design data; and enhancements to Factory Design Mobile app.

* Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite includes major enhancements to AutoCAD Civil 3D software, including improved user interface, greater flexibility for corridor modeling, more efficient creation of profiles layouts, better production drafting, and simpler ways to create custom subassemblies.

* Autodesk Plant Design Suite rolls out significant enhancements to AutoCAD Plant 3D software, including center of gravity, bill of materials (BOM), fixed length pipe modeling, piping and instrumentation drawing (P&ID), and isometric improvements.

* Autodesk Product Design Suite launches with exceptional modeling capabilities, a new user experience, and workflow enhancements. This software provides tools for 3D design, simulation, collaboration, and visualization.

Improvements in the cloud

Customers in the manufacturing industry will benefit from new offerings such as Process Analysis 360, a cloud-based service that helps engineers and system designers model, study and optimize manufacturing processes. This accessibility – combined with other feature enhancements and refinements – removes the barriers to entry so that everyone can design and engineer better products.

Autodesk 2015 Design Suites are available now. Check out the details here.

Barb Schmitz

Will CAD Subscriptions Shatter Cost Barriers to Entry

February 12, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

By Barb Schmitz, Senior Editor

New monthly subscription plans make high-end CAD tools accessible to companies with low-end budgets

CAD software has gotten more and more sophisticated. As new versions of CAD software are released, users are gifted with a bounty of new bells and whistles that they can use to design more innovative products at faster than ever speeds. What hasn’t necessarily changed over the years is the high price tag and resulting inaccessibility associated with 3D CAD software.

To even purchase a 3D CAD software license will set you back anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000, not including any required hardware upgrades—either a higher-end PC or 3D graphics acceleration—to run the software efficiently. That figure also doesn’t include the necessary training costs to become proficient at the tool as well as additional annual licensing maintenance fees. Anyway you look at it, 3D CAD continues to be an expensive endeavor.

All this explains why the majority of engineers still aren’t using 3D CAD software, despite the fact that industry analysts and editors—including myself—are always writing about these tools as if everyone is using them. It is estimated that approximately 25 million engineers worldwide would benefit from the use of 3D CAD tools, though many for myriad of reasons do not have currently have access.

While the expense of implementing CAD might not be an issue for larger, more established companies with gargantuan engineering departments and like-size budgets, smaller companies and startups don’t have the large IT budgets to support expensive CAD software. In addition, there are many companies who need CAD software on a short-term basis for a specific project, or perhaps need an additional seat for an intern or an outside consultant, but don’t want to get roped into an annual contract.

App-hungry, price-conscious market lead to changes in pricing
Several factors have affected how software is sold today. The growing popularity and prevalence of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) has lead to the emergence of a new concept: free software. As the number of free apps surpasses the million+ mark, a hyper-price-conscious culture has been cultivated, and users—on the consumer and business sides—are increasingly balking at paying high prices for software of any type.

Certainly these factors have come into play in the CAD world, right? One might think, however, prices of CAD and related engineering software remain relatively high. The question becomes how do CAD vendors respond to the changing market dynamics for software without it eating into their profit margins? Let’s face it: CAD software is expensive to develop so giving it away for free isn’t an option.

Some vendors revamp sales model for CAD
Last year, an interesting thing happened in the CAD world. CAD vendors took a long look at the sales model of CAD software and decided it was time for a change. Subscription sales models allow users to pay for CAD software on a monthly basis or on an as-they-need-it basis; some require an annual commitment, some don’t.

This does two things: it eliminates the high upfront cost of CAD and it helps companies move CAD from a capital expense to an operating expense. When purchased as a subscription, the CAD software is typically downloaded from the web. The goal is to open up high-end 3D CAD tools to users at smaller companies with low-end budgets as well as those in more cyclical businesses, somewhat untapped markets.

Autodesk offers Fusion 360 by subscription
Autodesk, following the lead of Adobe with its Creative Suite, was the first of the CAD vendors to offer subscription-based licensing of its Fusion 360 cloud-based modeling environment. Benefits to users include lower costs of implementation, easier scalability, simplified implementation, and improved collaboration.

Autodesk seems committed to this new sales model, moving its customers away from annual licensing to monthly subscriptions. Fusion 360 currently has 30,000 users. By 2018, Autodesk expects 70% of its income to be recurring (cloud, rental and maintenance subscriptions) as opposed to 40% currently. Current pricing for Fusion 360 is $40 per month per user with an annual commitment or $300 per year.

This Fusion 360 car model was created by Guangnan Wei, a designer in Chicago. He says he chose Fusion 360 for the project because it was the first software that combined surfacing and solid modeling. The body of the car was created with t-splines and the mechanical parts were created with solid modeling.

Kevin Schneider, director of Fusion 360 at Autodesk, believes that the changing sales model for CAD will significantly alter the relationship between vendors and their customers. Traditionally, users work with resellers or direct salespeople who help them understand the benefits and where to go for training. After that, however, the burden shifts to the user to be productive with the software or not.

With the traditional CAD sales model, “the investment for getting you to buy is all upfront,” says Schneider. “Once that’s done, the risk to make it successful was largely your own.” With subscription-based pricing, however, the rules have changed. “The customer has to renew, which is an expression that they have gotten value from using your product and are willing to continue paying for it. It really incents us as provider to make sure we earn that renewal each month from the customer. If they don’t renew, we’re not doing out job.”

Siemens opens up Solid Edge to monthly subscribers
At the end of last summer, Siemens became the first CAD vendor to offer a full-fledged version of its Solid Edge software on a monthly basis. The company tested the waters of subscription-based pricing back at the end of 2011 when it offered Solid Edge CAD software to members of the Local Motors community, a car company built around the concept of co-creation, or “crowdsourcing.”

Unlike Autodesk’s Fusion 360, Solid Edge is not cloud-based. Users access monthly subscriptions through the Solid Edge online store, then download a full version of the software and run it on their own computers. Users get a full professional version of the software, not a new version developed for the cloud or a ported version of the software simplified to run over the web. The flexibility of the Solid Edge licensing model enables users to ramp up engineering resources when they need it.

“The subscription option enables established companies to cost-effectively ramp up to meet peaks in demand, or to address short-term increases in user headcount,” says John Fox, vice president of Marketing for Solid Edge. “In smaller more cash-constrained organizations like startups, subscriptions are a great, affordable way to get access to professional grade CAD without a big upfront investment.”

The subscription license doesn’t require an annual commitment, making it one of the most flexible plans on the market to date. Users can select from four different versions of the software based on the features that best fit their needs, and subscriptions can be purchased on a month-to-month basis or renewed automatically. Pricing ranges from $130-$350 per month, depending on the functionality required.

Markets targeted with new pricing model
As mentioned previously, subscription-based pricing is ideal for smaller companies and startups with limited resources. Autodesk has clearly targeted this burgeoning market with its Fusion 360 offering. “We’re laser-focused on very small businesses, 50 people or less,” says Autodesk’s Schneider. “That’s the sweet spot for what we’re trying to do, what we are offering and where the best fit to customers needs is.”

Subscription pricing also benefits those companies whose business is cyclical in nature; meaning, they need CAD tools on a per-project, not daily, basis. “This type of pricing also has the added benefit for these companies working on contract basis,” says Schneider. “They don’t use it everyday so this allows them to move from a capital expense to an operating expense, allowing them to turn it off and turn it on, add or move seats really flexibly.”

One of Siemens’ customers utilizing the monthly subscription of Solid Edge is Hutton Technologies, a startup that designs Flexipump, a line of low-cost pumps for farmers in developing countries. The company’s founder, David Hutton, started the company while still in college, using a free student edition of Solid Edge. “Companies like Flexipump need access to top-notch engineering and design tools to bring their products to life, but they don’t have a lot of cash available to spend on software,” says Fox.

This Flexipump low-cost pump, which was designed using Solid Edge purchased monthly, provides affordable irrigation for farmers in remote areas of developing countries. The company’s founder, David Hutton, started the company while still in college, using the free Student Edition of Solid Edge.

Another example Fox cites is Edison2, a long-term Solid Edge customer that designs workable and sustainable vehicles. The company has been able to leverage the subscription license of Solid Edge to expand their engineering resources while managing cash flow.

Edison2, a company that designs sustainable vehicles, leverages a subscription license of Solid Edge to expand their engineering resources while managing cash flow. This electric Very Light Car broke the EPA fuel economy record, according to Consumer Reports.

“They’ve been able to accelerate their production process by making Solid Edge available to one of their machinists for editing designed parts and were able to provide an additional seat to a short-term intern during a peak period,” says Fox. “The cost savings can be significant, but there can be top line benefits as well. The subscription model enables a customer to free up cash to make more investments and grow their business.”

The Bottom Line
The question of whether the remaining CAD companies will join Autodesk and Siemens in offering CAD software on a monthly subscription basis is still lingering. It will require a significant change in the way in which CAD software has been traditionally sold and marketed, but the increased accessibility of these tools to smaller companies and startups—and the potential of a new untapped market –should be incentive enough for vendors to consider it.

For users, especially those at smaller companies with limited budgets, monthly subscription plans may open by a world of CAD and other high-end engineering tools (see sidebar) that were previously inaccessible. By leveling the playing field, smaller companies and startups will be better equipped to compete with their bigger brethren in the marketplace.

Cloud Implementations Lower Sky-High Software Prices

Thanks to the cloud, other high-end, previously prohibitively expensive engineering software is now being offered at a lower cost to users. By moving software from a client-server architecture to a web-hosted structure, vendors can now offer software at much lower costs. These Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscriptions bring price points for solutions for PLM, simulation and CAM down to levels that even the smallest companies can afford.

Autodesk is clearly leading the pack with the most cloud-based, engineering-related offerings, including its PLM 360, but they weren’t the first in the PLM market. Arena Solutions first offered a PLM cloud-based solution in the mid-90s. Startups Infobix and Kenesto are also now offering cloud-based PLM platforms.

Each offers a unique piece of the PLM pie to users; Kenesto focuses on business process automation, Infobix focuses on search and retrieval of product data, while Arena Solutions specializes in bill of material (BOM) management. Though not the first, Autodesk is the first to offer a more general PLM offering that includes change management, BOM, business process, incident reporting, and more—all for $25-$75 per month with annual subscriptions.

Simulation software, both FEA and CFD, has also been traditionally prohibitively expensive to implement, both on the software and hardware sides. Simulation software requires significant processing horsepower, so being able to tap into more powerful computers via the cloud speeds processing time and eases to the computing requirement for the user.

Autodesk’s SIM 360 is cloud-based simulation software that enables users to perform mechanical simulation on their components at a fraction of cost of traditional simulation. Includes static stress (shown here), modal< frequency, fatigue analysis as well as thermal stress analysis.[/caption] Autodesk’s SIM 360, which offers structural mechanical, thermal and fluid flow simulation, is priced based on usage. Users are allotted a certain amount of Cloud Credits (CCs) that are included in the annual fee, but can purchase more as needed. The SIM 360 Pro Unlimited offers an unlimited number of simulation runs during the license term. Other players in the simulation in the cloud market include Simscale, Cydesign and Ciespace. The cost benefit of simulation in the cloud is that companies wishing to deploy the software don’t need to invest in the pricey high-end computers needed to run the simulations and avoid the high upfront software investments by paying as they go. For companies that just need simulation capabilities from time to time or those who need it regularly but can’t afford it, these hosted applications make perfect sense.

Reprint info >>

Autodesk
www.autodesk.com/proudcts/fusion-360/overview

Siemens PLM Software
www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/

ArenaSolutions
www.arenasolutions.com

Kenesto
www.kenesto.com

Infobix
www.infobix.com

Simscale
www.simscale.de

Cydesign
www.cydesign.com

Ciespace
www.ciespace.com

Autodesk Partners with FOX Sports on Wind Simulation for Super Bowl Broadcast

January 31, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

To give fans an idea of how tough the conditions will be on the field for this year’s Super Bowl on Sunday, FOX Sports has partnered with Autodesk to use simulation software to calculate possibly adverse weather conditions–specifically wind–inside MetLife Stadium during the big game. The New Jersey Meadowlands, home of MetLife Stadium, has long been know for its unpredictable, swirling winter winds. Traditionally fans have relied on goal-post flags to gauge the direction and speed of the wind during critical moments.

Simulation technology will let at-home fans “see the wind”

Simulation software from Autodesk will enable fans watching from home to see actual, precise weather conditions inside the stadium. Visual representations of wind direction via the wind simulation results will be superimposed by FOX Sports over the actual broadcasted view. The technology, dubbed FOX WEATHER TRAX for the game, will illustrate dynamic in-stadium dynamic airflow patterns using Autodesk Flow Design simulation software.

Fans watching this year’s Super Bowl will be able to “see” wind conditions on the field, thanks to Autodesk simulation technology.

“Wind is obviously an invisible factor that can directly affect the outcome of a game,” said Zac Fields, vice president, Graphics & Technology, FOX Sports, who is working directly with the Autodesk team on the project. “Since the wind has a notorious reputation in the New Jersey Meadowlands, and given the magnitude of the game, we looked for and found a great tool to depict this phenomenon in excellent detail which should help the more than 100 million viewers actually ‘see the wind.'”

Simulation technology is regularly used by designers, architects and engineers to investigate “what-if” scenarios, explore new ideas and gain deeper insight into how an everyday product, a building or stadium behaves during day-to-day use.

This new and easy-to-use technology has radically improved the design process by allowing Autodesk customers to test and analyze designs digitally before physical production and perhaps best of all, the digital computation takes place unobtrusively behind the scenes – similar to spellcheck in a word processing application.

How it Works

For the first time ever, home viewers will have an insider’s view of the wind and airflow patterns at the stadium, but how exactly does it work?
Step 1 – A digital model of the stadium is constructed using 3D modeling software.
Step 2 – Simulation software interacts with the digital stadium model. The user alters wind speed and direction to suit the game day conditions and sees how the air flow patterns inside the stadium are affected.
Step 3 – The simulation graphics are then played out over a live camera to show the viewer the wind paths in relation to the field.

For more information on Autodesk’s line of simulation solutions, check out the company’s web site.

Barb Schmitz

Autodesk Unveils Fusion 360 V2.0

January 23, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

During a noon-time webinar today, Autodesk unveiled V2 of its Fusion 360, a tool that combines mechanical, industrial and conceptual design into one easy-to-use, cloud-based tool. The company reports that Fusion 360, which is purchased on a monthly subscription basis, now has over 30,000 users.

Getting started in Fusion 360 is relatively simple. Users start by either using direct modeling intuitive push-pull commands to create a shape or can drag and drop an existing model created in any CAD format from their desktop. Pretty simple. When users are working on a design, they can create and add new components to quickly make that design an assembly.

Data management is done in the cloud. Once users start creating geometry, every iteration or change is “saved” and maintained in a version history that sits in the cloud. When users open up an existing design, they can access any iteration of it. Each design and iteration has a visual snapshot so users know what they are opening.

What’s new?

The product was released with direct modeling tools built in, but was noticeably lacking in parametric modeling tools. V2 offers a variation of history-based iterative design as well. With this version, users can still perform direct modeling, but can also capture key commands in a historical, dynamic and editable design timeline.

Here’s how that works: users can start by bringing in a reference image, a sculpt body or start modeling with solid primitives. The timeline captures their commands as they progress; direct manipulations (edit form and patch commands) are not. If users need to make a change to the original sculpt body, they right click on the body creation instance and select edit to make the changes. The design as a whole will update and make the necessary changes.

The new version also touts a revamped version of the dashboard for design collaboration. Design participants no longer have to switch from hub to hub; they are now all organized in their Projects section, and activities in those projects will all show up in their activity stream. Users can also now take advantage of the Rendering as a Service (RaaS) technology, which enables them to see how their design will look in various background environments, and to set custom resolutions for direct download.

Users can also now input text as a sketch, which is then selectable for all profile-consuming commands, such as extrude, revolve, etc. A new joint command, As-Built Joint, gives users the option of joining two components based on their current location, and not their snap points. A Sculpt pipe command has also been added that enables users to define a T-Spline body based on a set of sketch elements or T-Spline edges.

Get more information on Autodesk Fusion 360 here.

Barb Schmitz