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Design and Make companies prioritize workforce, sustainability, digitization

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Leaders and experts from industries that design and make places, objects, and experiences report more business resilience amid an increasingly uncertain global landscape, according to Autodesk’s 2023 State of Design & Make report, released earlier this year.

Globally, 79% of respondents said the world feels more uncertain than it did three years ago.

The State of Design & Make report names the most pressing drivers of change shaping today’s business decisions to help leaders make informed, strategic choices for the future. Image: Autodesk

To compile the report, Autodesk conducted a sweeping global study of more than 2,500 business leaders and experts across Design and Make industries, including architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO); product design and manufacturing (D&M); and media and entertainment (M&E).

The top three challenges facing Design and Make companies today are attracting and retaining talent, managing costs, and responding to the volatile global economy and global events. The report also revealed striking differences in resilience and performance for companies classified as digitally mature or further along in using digital tools to transform their businesses.

  • More than half of respondents said their companies have hired employees who lack key skills but plan to train them.
  • Digitally mature companies are outperforming less digitally mature companies and the performance gap has widened since the start of 2020.
  • Nearly 95% of respondents said they expect their industry or organization to make sustainability-focused changes in the coming years.

“Autodesk has uncovered universal challenges and opportunities among industries that design and make the world around us,” said Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk president and CEO. “Across the globe, businesses large and small have made major operational changes over the last three years to stay resilient and relevant. Notably, those businesses which have embraced digitization and data to drive decision making find themselves better positioned to thrive – even against the backdrop of continued global economic uncertainty and turmoil.”

Navigating uncertain times

Globally, 79% of respondents said the world feels more uncertain than it did three years ago. An even greater share of European respondents (86%) felt this way. Factors contributing to the overall sense of unease included war, inflation, Europe’s energy woes, the pandemic, and ongoing refugee crises.

Encouragingly, nearly 6 in 10 respondents considered their company well prepared to handle unforeseen future crises. And leaders of digitally mature companies were 20 percentage points more likely to say they were prepared for future challenges than less digitally mature companies.

“The digital and AI processes are the driving force, allowing us to be personalized and agile,” said Matteo Barale, co-CEO of PIX Moving, an autonomous vehicle start-up.

Talent shortages lead all challenges and impede growth

The workforce has evolved more in the past three years than in the previous 25, said nearly 3 in 4 respondents. This is a startling assertion considering the previous quarter century included the rise of the internet, email, smartphones, mobile apps, and mobile computing, but shows how daunting workforce changes caused by the pandemic have been for employers. Attracting and retaining talent is the top challenge for 48% of respondents. Access to skilled employees is posing a barrier to business growth for 64% of respondents. Leaders of digitally mature organizations reported taking more active steps to address the problem.

A total of 93% of respondents said upskilling was important to their companies. Skills of the future included those related to technology, collaboration, and regulatory knowledge.

“In hiring, we’ve been able to attract a lot of people because of our technology infrastructure, which allows us to hire people around the globe,” said Jeremy Smith, CTO for visual effects company Jellyfish Pictures.

Sustainability goals increasingly important

The report showed a consensus emerging on the importance of sustainability. Some respondents said taking sustainability measures will eventually account for a substantial part of their revenue.

Among the findings:

  • 80% of respondents said improving sustainability practices is a good long-term business decision
  • 82% said customers are influencing their sustainability activities
  • Nearly 90% said their industry or organization has made changes to improve sustainability

Decreasing waste, using more recycled materials, and designing with sustainability in mind were among the top changes respondents reported their companies making.

“If we’re digitized, we’re at an advantage,” said Dr. Amy Hochadel, executive director of Global Business for Connected Places Catapult, the United Kingdom’s innovation agency for cities. “I think that’s going to become more and more critical as we deal with climate issues and changing environments.”

Digitally mature companies primed for growth

Digital transformation is boosting business by reducing costs, increasing innovation, improving performance, and enabling products and services to launch faster. Indeed, 79% of respondents said that the future growth of their company will depend on digital tools.

When Autodesk looked at business metrics including customer satisfaction, profit margin, and revenue from 2019-2021, overall:

  • More digitally mature companies outperformed less digitally mature companies
  • The performance gap between more and less digitally mature companies appears to grow

More digitally mature companies planned to increase investments over the next three years in:

  • Technology to improve project outcomes
  • Product or service innovation
  • New product or service development

Download the complete findings in the free, 55-page 2023 State of Design & Make report.

Autodesk
autodesk.com

Clinker coolers get an agile twist

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Claudius Peters makes the machines that make cement. Applying agile processes to product design calls upon CAD systems to optimize those machines.

By Jean Thilmany, Contributing Writer

Once used mainly to speed up software development, the agile method — which proponents say can slash product development time and costs — is making inroads into product development and manufacturing.

The goal of an agile product development process is to explore as many design options as possible during the prototyping stage.

“The idea is to find and qualify myriad ideas quickly. Computer-aided design software is a boon to the prototyping stage, where designers use CAD to quickly generate potential designs based on customer requirements,” said Thomas Nagel, operations director and chief digital officer at Claudius Peters, which designs and manufactures large materials handling systems for the cement and other industries. “Agile replaces the siloed work done by engineers for the past decades and calls for collaboration at all steps in the agile process.”

Pioneered in 2001, the agile method is ideal for companies that want to develop products quickly. It allows for product development while simultaneously gathering requirements and information. The method calls upon a five-day “sprint” to quickly find a new product that can subsequently be designed and built.

“The design sprint is an example of how you can define a new idea or fail efficiently in five days,” Nagel said.

CAD software helps the “sprinters” isolate the best design within one day. And a feature in some CAD packages, which Autodesk calls “generative design,” is particularly useful here.

“The feature generates several potential models based on design inputs and pairs well with the agile method,” said Nagel. “Essentially, designers enter their requirements, and the CAD package generates a number of designs that fit that parameter. Engineers then choose the best design to move forward with.”

Claudius Peters uses agile and generative design to make parts faster
Engineers at Claudius Peters redesigned a transport bottom for a conveyor system, cutting its weight and reducing its cost. Image courtesy of Claudius Peters and Autodesk.

Cloud-based CAD packages allow engineers to collaborate and see others’ designs in real time. This is important for another part of the agile sprint, in which engineers bring their designs to the table and meet to discuss which ones to move forward with.

When designers find a “viable” design — noting that it doesn’t need to be perfect or fully realized within the CAD software — they present it to a five-member team of professionals pertinent to a given field. If reviewers give it the thumbs up, the prototype is presented to the customer, who vets the product’s feasibility for their market. Only if the customer chooses to go forward do engineers get to work fully designing and detailing the product in their CAD system.

“The idea is to find a prototype of a viable product, with no bells or whistles, then show it to your customer,” said Nagel. “Then you go through different iterations until you have a product that might be good enough to develop.”

But what if the product doesn’t get past the review stage? Or what if the customer doesn’t approve? The agile method allowed designers to “fail efficiently” rather than spending a lot of time designing a product that was bound to fail.

“Get the failure over with and start the agile process again,” said Dave Martin, a configuration manager for Elroy Air, which develops autonomous aerial vehicles.

Replacing the waterfall

Many engineering companies stick to rigid product development structures, such as the waterfall method. Traditional waterfall development is a step-by-step process like the automobile assembly line, where employees are situated along the conveyor line and add the individual part for which they are responsible. Eventually, the automobile can be driven off the line. But there’s a catch: The next step on the conveyor line can’t be taken until the previous step has been completed.

“Think of a Gantt chart, where you have distinct, heavily planned sequential phases, such as concept, design, prototype, test, and product,” said Martin. “A design review gates each phase.”

With the agile method, only a “realistic façade” is needed for customer testing. This is where CAD, and generative design, comes in.

“You define how you will build the prototype and then get good, validated feedback from the customer,” said Nagel. “If the customer understands the meaning or purpose of your product, then it’s good enough to get the first feedback. The product doesn’t need to be ready or do everything you think. You’re just making a realistic approach.”

Engineers use agile for more than physical products. They also create digital twins, 3D-printed prototypes, and virtual-reality demonstrations.

Collaborating on a clinker cooler

Could the agile method be used to make improvements to a vast structure? Claudius Peters found the answer when its engineers were tasked to modify a giant clinker cooler.

A Claudius Peters clinker cooler.
Claudius Peters performed agile sprint cycles to measure the effects of modifications to a clinker cooler, a giant industrial machine used in cement production.

Clinker coolers are huge industrial machines — about half the size of a football field — that cool molten rock, called clinker, from 2,550° to 212° F. The molten rock is then used to make cement. The first step for the company is to scan the cooler, and the next step is to upload the file. Nagel’s team uses CAD, BIM, and analysis tools on Autodesk’s 360 platforms.

“We can upload this huge amount of data from all over the world directly to the BIM 360 platform. It could be a 20-gigabyte file from China, and the design engineer here in Germany can immediately start to work with this 3D scan,” said Lars Heidler, lead engineer at Claudius Peters.

“Today, when we start a new project, we normally start with a 3D scan of the existing plant. Those contain huge amounts of data that need to be transferred,” said Nagel. “Then we take what could be called a hybrid engineering approach.”

The engineers transferred the scans to Autodesk’s Navisworks simulation software. They then edited the designs within the Inventor 3D CAD software, also from Autodesk.

“All of a sudden, we could really measure and do everything,” said Nagel.

This information was vital, of course, when implementing an agile sprint to update and perfect a part of the system. The team could collaborate internally, and everyone could look at the 3D models and compare versions. Engineers could also background themselves using the 3D model as they prepared for an agile sprint.

“When I was an automation engineer, I could go into the model and see my switchboard and devices in the field and my cabling and know what I had to do before I rolled out another sprint for a client,” said Nagel.

For instance, his team performed a sprint for a client that sought a way to measure the effects of modifications to the cooler.

With internal tools, the engineers spent the week creating a prototype web page that allowed the customer to see how changing certain parameters would affect how the cooler functions.

A website depiction of Claudius Peters' clinker cooler design using agile methodology and 3D CAD software.
Using agile processes, Claudius Peters engineers created a web page with a simple CAD model so that customers could see how modifications to their machines would affect output. Image courtesy of Claudius Peters and Autodesk.

“They could enter some optics and operational data into the web page and get calculations and clinker cooler flow sheets,” said Nagel. “The feedback included technical data about factors such as, ‘What fans do they need and then how much heat would be recovered and what is the ROI.’”

The web page also included a simple 3D CAD model through which customers could get an up-close look at modifications to the space to give them an idea if this modification would make sense.

The web information wasn’t completed on the back end before the team presented it to the client. The presentation comprised a mock web page, which designers knew could be populated with pertinent information. They’d developed the prototype on Thursday — the fourth day of the one-week sprint — which is typically handed over to prototype creation.

“A realistic façade is all we need for customer testing,” Nagel stressed. “If the customer understands the meaning or purpose of your product, then it’s good enough to get the first feedback. The product doesn’t need to be ready or do everything you think it needs. You just make a realistic approach.”

Quick generation

Claudius Peters also used a piece of the agile philosophy to reinvent parts of the clinker cooler using generative design. Generative design is a little agile, only the CAD system quickly finds design alternatives based on input parameters. Then, engineers select the best design to continue to work on.

While the transport bottom for the conveyer system obviously had to carry a lot of weight, Nagel and his team knew the part could be made lighter and smaller to reduce cost and material use. They had already taken a stab at redesigning the part and cut between 30 and 40% of its weight.

“After just one generative design session of a few hours, the team created a handful of new designs, including for one component they called ‘the alien part,’” said Nagel.

The CAD design for the alien part was up to 70% lighter than the model design department had previously optimized.

But the alien part would require 3D printing, which was not a production method for Claudius Peters. So, the team figured that they could implement key elements of the generative designs in a way that could be fabricated through casting and welding.

In the end, the team settled on a design that reduced the part’s weight by 44 lb through material reduction. The new design also translates into around $100 savings per part. Because there are often 60 to 100 of these parts in a clinker cooler, that weight and cost savings make a big difference.

“The generatively designed part was lighter, simpler, more easily available, and more cost-efficient,” said Nagel.

Claudius Peters was founded in 1906. Nagel points out that if a 117-year-old company that makes enormous products for traditional uses can undergo a digital transformation using agile and generative design, younger companies that make smaller, less complicated products can undoubtedly follow suit.

Claudius Peters
claudiuspeters.com

Utilities for Autodesk software

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IMAGINiT Technologies’ customers who subscribe to Autodesk software have complimentary access to several new IMAGINiT Utilities for Autodesk Revit, Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk Vault Client. With more than 40 individual IMAGINiT utilities now available, building information modeling (BIM) coordinators and computer aided design (CAD) managers can increase team efficiencies and reduce human error by automating redundancies.

“IMAGINiT utilities extend the power of your Autodesk software, and each year, our development team releases new utilities to ensure customers spend their time focused on the design process instead of manual tasks,” says Bill Zavadil, senior vice president of professional services, IMAGINiT Technologies. “Our utilities aim to automate those time consuming, manual tasks, thereby freeing up design teams so that they can accomplish more in less time.”

IMAGINiT Utilities for Autodesk Revit

Now with 27 tools that run directly inside Revit software, IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit include three new utilities.

New Utilities for Revit 2019 include:

Annotation Font Update scans the model for all font references and, through an easy-to-use wizard, allows users to update fonts throughout the entire model.

Family Placement looks at families that are in a folder structure and – with just a few clicks – allows users to load and place them so they are available in the current model. Running as a Palette inside Revit, it is available to users whenever needed.

Shared Parameter Check scans your model for the shared parameters that should be migrated to your centralized file or for inconsistent shared parameter identifiers and type/instance settings.

IMAGINiT Utilities for AutoCAD Civil 3D

With the addition of this latest tool, IMAGINiT Utilities for Civil 3D now includes a total of 10 tools designed to help BIM coordinators, infrastructure project managers and CAD champions to increase collaboration by leveraging new design workflows.

KML/KMZ Import brings geometry from Google Earth/Google Maps into the model allowing the creation of new workflows and collaboration with individuals who do not need access to Civil 3D. Individuals can mark out areas for development in Google Earth/Google Maps and engineers can import the KML file into Civil 3D to create a baseline for the design.

IMAGINiT Utilities for Autodesk Vault Client

IMAGINiT Utilities for Vault Client help CAD managers and non-CAD users better manage data workflows. New tools for 2019 are:

Create Local Folders allows users to generate folders in their Windows working folder hierarchy to match the Vault folders.

Visual Lifecycle Tab provides a visual description of the current file’s lifecycle definition, including its current state as well as the available transitions to other states.

Link Generator easily sends information to others by retrieving links to the Vault Thin Client for selected items or files.

Auto-Update Folder Properties to File offers a way to quickly synchronize properties applied at the folder level to corresponding properties at the file level.

IMAGINiT Utilities Availability

IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit, IMAGINiT Utilities for AutoCAD Civil 3D and IMAGINiT Utilities for Vault Client are available to customers maintaining their annual Autodesk subscription through IMAGINiT. These free software utilities can be accessed via IMAGINiT’s ProductivityNOW Portal. Those who are not already IMAGINiT customers may purchase these utilities directly from the IMAGINiT eStore.

IMAGINiT Technologies
www.imaginit.com

Cloud Invent launches Cheetah Solver for AutoCAD

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Cheetah Solver for Autodesk AutoCAD is a plugin that replaces the built-in parametric of AutoCAD with the enhanced parametric technology developed by Cloud Invent to enable much more efficient sketching, design modification and motion simulation. Cheetah Solver is a robust and powerful parametric tool that boosts user productivity and lowers engineering costs and errors.

Cloud Invent is moving Cheetah Solver to a full commercial release after a successful beta test, which lasted for six months and included 1500 users from 20 countries.

“We built a world-class product that revolutionizes the way users work with AutoCAD,” said Nick Sidorenko, founder and CEO for Cloud Invent. “We are extremely excited to have reached to the point of our commercial launch. Rest assured we will continue improving Cheetah Solver bringing new functions and benefits to AutoCAD users.”

Cheetah Solver is available for download on Autodesk Apps Store and Cloud Invent website.

Cloud Invent
www.cloud-invent.com

If you draw it, can you print it?

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by Jean Thilmany, Contributing Editor

3D printing enables you to reduce part weight, raw material used and cut total energy used in production. But to truly take advantage of 3D printing, engineers need updated, intuitive, easy-to-learn CAD tools.

To keep pace with advances in 3D printing, CAD technology must move into the cloud, become easier to use, and be better able to support eccentric, not-yet-dreamed-of designs, say several design experts.

If CAD technology can evolve, in the not-too-distant future, everyday objects like your blender, electric toothbrush or even the engine within your automobile, will take the shape of nothing you’ve ever seen before, said Hod Lipson, a mechanical engineering professor and director of the Creative Machines Lab at Cornell University.

Lipson has written extensively about 3D printing and helped develop Fab@Home, inexpensive 3D printers. He published the paper “Is CAD Keeping Up?” in the December 2014 edition of the journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

That question—is CAD keeping up with 3D printing—is one he asks himself as additive manufacturing continues to gain popularity. Most 3D printers take their printing instructions from 3D CAD files. Because the 3D printer receives its instructions from CAD files, the printers are limited in the shapes they print that those CAD systems generate, Lipson said.

The 3D printers themselves can print objects with geometries as yet unimagined. Any shape, no matter how twisting, undulating or odd, is fair game, he said. So the future could feasibly resemble a Dr. Seuss-style landscape rather than boxy squares of today’s laptops, ovens and refrigerators.

But CAD software only allows for designers to work with recognized geometries: circles and ovals, squares and rectangles, and so on.

fusion360-keyshot
Products will be designed in a more collaborative way, moving through 3D modeling, then on to simulate, analyze and test, and then on to integrated CAM or 3D printing.

Guided by the design file, a 3D printer lays down layer after layer of a material to print an object in three dimensions. Some of today’s printers and materials can create objects that can immediately be used, doing away with the need for another manufacturing step, Lipson said.

While CAD continues to evolve, changes to that software are mainly seen in the way engineers interact with the software rather than in the shapes and designs they can create with the software.

Take, for example, sketching applications that allow engineers to draw their designs as they would on paper, rather than pulling or piecing together existing geometries. Catchbook, from Siemens PLM, is one example. While these aren’t CAD applications, in some cases, such as with Catchbook, these designs can serve as precursors to CAD designs.

“It’s freehand ink, not just dead ink on a page, so you can edit and manipulate it, can erase and insert images and share content with other people,” said Ken Hosch, director of strategy at Siemens PLM.

Other examples of freehand-drawing-style applications include SketchUp, Sketches and Drawing Pad. Though SketchUp can be used on a desktop, most of these drawing applications are intended for the tablet, with your finger or a stylus acting as the pencil.

But even these freehand design programs come with drawbacks that mean they can’t be used—yet—to print odd and eccentric shapes on a 3D printer.

The industrial drawing engine behind Catchbook, for instance, automatically turns the individual parts of a drawing into recognized geometries. If a Catchbook user sketches a lopsided circle, the engine creates a perfect circle, Hosch said.

What we need to see for the printed shapes of tomorrow to be possible, Lipson said, are programs that allow freehand drawings to be printed in 3D without the need to change drawings into recognizable geometrical shapes. If you can draw it, you can print it, he said.

What’s more, conventional CAD software imposes its own limitations on designers, who may not be able to think outside the “because it’s a computer it must resemble a box” box, Lipson said. So even as CAD changes, designer mentality may be slow to catch up.

Which is a particular lag at a time when 3D printing allows many advantages to large and small manufacturers, including the capability to build one-off and custom parts at remote locations, he added.

Another recent trend in 3D printing has been from printing prototypes to printing end-use parts, according to Terry Wohlers, president of Wohlers Associates, a Colorado-based additive manufacturing consulting firm.

Recently, for example, GE Aviation announced plans to include 3D-printed parts in its CFM Leap aircraft engine platform beginning in 2016. The engines, produced jointly by GE and partner Snecma, will include 19 3D-printed fuel nozzles in the combustion system.

Last May, printer manufacturer Stratasys announced that its printers had been used to produce more than 1,000 flight parts for the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, delivered in December 2014. Similarly produced components are also included within in-service jetliners in the A300 and A310 family, according to Airbus.

Autodesk_Fusion360
The recently released Fusion 360, from Autodesk, is a CAD, CAM and CAE tool that exists in the cloud. It can be connected to have 3D printing capabilities.

The parts weigh 30 to 55% less than traditionally manufactured parts, reduce raw material used by 90% and cut total energy used in production by up to 90% compared to traditional methods, according to Peter Sander of Airbus’s Innovation Cell, which investigates and promotes emerging technologies.

But for these trends to continue, engineers need updated, intuitive, easy-to-learn CAD tools, Lipson said. And without them, it will be even harder for mainstream designers and consumers to fully adopt 3D printing, even as desktop printer prices drop, according to John Darlington, a computing professor at Imperial College, London.

“While there is little doubt 3D printing technologies will have a highly transformative effect in the coming decades, consumer adoption of these technologies still remains rather low,” Darlington and his colleagues wrote in an August 2015 paper in the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management.

“Making an object requires more than just a 3D printer and advanced knowledge of 3D modeling software,” the researchers wrote in the paper “Co-creation and User Innovation: The Role of Online 3D Printing Platforms.” Darlington fellow authors are Ludmila Striukova, senior research associate in the University College, London, school of management, and Thierry Rayna, a professor of economics at Novancia Business School of Paris.

One area in which 3D printing and CAD technologies are both moving forward are within the cloud. This tandem momentum will help small manufacturers take advantage of 3D printing, said Amy Bunszel, Autodesk VP of AutoCAD products.

3D printers, along with CAD software that exists “in the cloud” (that is, not on users’ networks but on remote servers into which they can tap), will allow for small-scale, custom manufacturing, Bunszel said. Because they don’t need to maintain expensive software and hardware in house, companies, small designers and hobbyists can quickly and easily design and print parts.

3D printers may not strictly exist within the cloud, but they could be—and often are today—housed at service bureaus, away from the engineer or manufacturer, but can still be used to print their files. Printed pieces can then be sent to the original engineer or manufacturer, or could be sent directly to a customer.

With access to 3D printers and to CAD programs in the cloud, engineers could also design a part and have it printed in small batches of many variations rather than manufacture parts—as is done today—using CAM files in a mass-produced, one-size-fits-all method, Lipson said. “That was not economically viable before,” he added.

Or, as Bunszel put it, “The cloud changes everything; mobile, social, everything.”

Her company, CAD-vendor Autodesk, recently released Fusion 360 a CAD, CAM and CAE tool that exists in the cloud.

“So it could be connected to have 3D printing capabilities. It connects your entire product development process,” Bunszel said. “You have 3D modeling capabilities, then can simulate, analyze and test, and then take into integrated CAM functionality or to 3D printing.”

Products in the future will be designed in a more collaborative way, she predicted. “People are designing things together with access to new techniques, like 3D printing, which are accessible to all of our customers, not just big manufacturers.”

The tools designers have used in the past need a refresh to be useful in the future, she added. The cloud offers an easier way to access and work with CAD technology, she said.

For his part, Lipson wants to see CAD and 3D printing technologies work together for a future in which engineers can create in 3D anything they can envision—and even shapes and objects that can’t be envisioned today. In other words, the computer of the future won’t be square in shape.

Reprint info >>

Autodesk
www.Autodesk.com

Siemens PLM
www.plm.automation.siemens.com

Stratasys
www.Stratasys.com

Autodesk Fusion 360 uses the cloud to facilitate collaboration, add upgrades

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by Diane Sofranec, Contributing Editor

Your photos, music and movies are stored on the cloud, so why not your CAD designs, too?

Autodesk’s Fusion 360 is a cloud-based mechanical CAD solution. Officially released at Autodesk University in 2012, Fusion 360 was launched in 2009 through Autodesk Labs as Inventor Fusion.

But it’s not software you install on your computer. A $300 yearly subscription gets you a mechanical, industrial and conceptual design tool, plus frequent updates.

Autodesk-Fusion-360-1
Fusion 360 is a highly collaborative design tool that can take designers from concept to prototype.

Using a cloud-based design tool means every change you make on your design is saved on the cloud and becomes part of a version history. You have the ability to access each version of your design, so every time you open your design, you will see which version you are getting.

Keeping the application on the cloud allows Autodesk to provide quick fixes and add new capabilities. Updates typically occur every eight weeks; some are minor, whereas others are significant. As a result, Fusion 360 has evolved into a highly collaborative design tool that takes you from concept to prototype, providing you have a decent Internet connection.

Since its initial release, Autodesk has added considerable functionality. Several of the latest updates are worth noting.

Collaboration
The ability to access data and share designs no matter where you are, regardless of the device you are using is what Fusion 360 is all about. Because your data is housed on the cloud, you can look at it whether you’re on a Mac, PC, tablet or smartphone and work with your design team from anywhere as long as you’re online.

A Fusion 360 mobile app that works on iOS and Android devices lets you view, mark up and comment on your CAD models. You can easily collaborate by adding others to your project so they can see your progress anytime. The app includes support for more than 100 file formats, and allows you to store and view just as many data formats. To make viewing easier, you can isolate and hide the model’s components and use your touchscreen to zoom, rotate and pan. It also gives you access to design properties and parts lists, and tracks project activities and updates. You can share project information by posting messages, photos and comments. You can also take and share screenshots of any markups made to your design.

If you’re an Apple aficionado, Fusion 360 employs Handoff, which lets you resume what you were doing exactly where you left off as you switch devices. So as long as you’re signed in to the same iCloud account, you can look at your design on your iPhone and then, when you open your MacBook Pro and launch your browser, a simple click will take you to that same design so you can continue working.

Animations
Sometimes you need to show all the components of a product, or how it goes together and comes apart. That’s what makes animations, or exploded views, indispensible. You can add notes, too. This capability works on all iOS devices, so you can share this aspect of your design with clients, manufacturers and the design team.

Autodesk-Fusion-360-exploded-views
Animations, or exploded views, let designer show how products go together and come apart.

Distributed design
Fusion 360’s Distributed Design capabilities allow you to create a couple of different designs and insert one of them into another design. It’s a convenient way for multiple users to work on a design together.

Drawings
The Fusion 360 creators leveraged the AutoCAD Mechanical 2D design tool. In addition, the past few upgrades added mechanical annotations and 2D symbols, making it easier to create patent drawings or communicate with the manufacturing team.

Standard parts libraries
Looking for parts to put in your model? Look no further than the parts library that is built into Fusion 360. Simply find the part you need; one click brings it directly into your design. Autodesk has been working with such companies as McMaster-Carr and Cavenas to create standard parts libraries. The McMaster-Carr parts library is the default and already included; however, you can choose from many others to add.

Application programming interface
Late last year, Autodesk introduced application programming interface (API) support for Fusion 360, and continues to open it up to more and more third party companies. For instance, although CAM capabilities are built in, you can now easily integrate the CAM tools of your choosing.

CAM
Speaking of CAM, 2.5- and 3-axis capabilities make it possible for you to turn your designs into parts. HSMWorks, a company Autodesk acquired three years ago, is fully integrated into Fusion 360 (as well as its Inventor software). This CAM functionality makes it possible for designers to take their products to market, whether they are seasoned professionals working for major corporations or hobbyists launching their dream inventions.

Autodesk-Fusion-360-2
Fusion 360 includes 2.5- and 3-axis CAM capabilities for turning designs into parts.

3D Printing
3D printing capabilities are integrated through Spark, an open software platform just for that. Spark can generate supports for designs that need them. Plus, it lets you control the printer you’re using as well as the outcome. A layer-by-layer preview shows exactly what you can expect.

Autodesk-Fusion-360-3d-printing-capabilities
The 3D printing capabilities in Fusion 360 let designers generate supports when needed.

Training
For a product that’s updated every eight weeks, training is definitely necessary. Autodesk constantly updates its help section with new tutorials to ensure ease of use. Built-in tutorial videos and links are designed to help you get up to speed quickly.

For those who need to learn the basics, there’s Fusion 101, detailed instructions on nine different capabilities. You can learn how to sketch, sculpt, model, manage and collaborate, render, and get the basics on assemblies, drawings, CAM and animations. Each training module takes an hour to two to explore and includes videos for those who learn by watching and printable documents for those who prefer written instructions.

In addition, if you were a SolidWorks user, you can check out videos with more advanced content designed to help make the switch to Fusion 360 go smoothly. Because you already understand 3D design concepts, these videos simply show how the tools and workflows differ in an effort to make the transition easier.

Education
Autodesk worked with the Apple Education team to offer the Autodesk Design Academy iTunes U course. Students and others new to CAD can check out iTunes U for a course in Fusion 360. Autodesk is one of the few businesses with educational content in this space. But because it’s a cloud-based design tool natively written for the Mac, a partnership with Apple seems natural.

Longtime professional CAD users, inexperienced hobbyists and students just launching their careers can easily learn how to use Fusion 360 to create and collaborate.

The road ahead
Collaboration isn’t limited to the members of your design team. To learn what’s next for Fusion 360, its developers include a roadmap in the Autodesk Community section of the application’s website that details the upgrades you can expect to see soon. Such transparency also provides an opportunity to weigh in on what you would like to see in future versions. Sometimes, proposed features include links with more detailed information. Simulation is coming soon, for instance, and Fusion 360 developers have shared what it will encompass and why. They also put out a call for feedback. It’s not everyday you can collaborate with the developers of your CAD application just as you would with the members of your design team.

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Autodesk
www.autodesk.com

New Technologies Ushering in the Maker Movement

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by Barb Schmitz, Senior Editor

Over the past several years, there’s been a confluence of new technologies that have given birth to a trend referred to as the “maker” movement, or the democratization of design. Members of this movement, the so-called “makers,” are people who can conceive, design and build products, with a healthy assist from advances in both software and hardware.

The act of “making”—the next generation of inventing and do-it-yourself—is creeping into everyday discourse, with the emerging maker movement. As maker communities spring up around the globe, a plethora of physical and virtual platforms to serve them have emerged—from platforms that inspire and teach, to those that provide access to tools and mentorship, to those that connect individuals with seed capital and potential customers.

What’s a maker?
So what exactly is a maker? It appears there are multiple definitions. Some define a maker as a person who enjoys tinkering with technology and wants to design something for fun or personal use, but not for profit. There are several consumer-level, low-cost design software tools and hardware aimed specifically at capturing the imaginations of these makers.

The second group of makers is made of those who perhaps start out as tinkerers or hobbyists, but conceive of an idea that they think is worthy of commercializing. This group might also include small groups of people—some who might work in design-related fields in their day jobs—that come together with the specific purpose of creating a new product for commercialization.

Once these promising new products cross the threshold into commercialization, the game changes and these makers require higher-end tools. Diego Tamburini, Manufacturing Industry Strategist at Autodesk, said, “The moment you start selling your product to the public, you have to be much more careful about what you design, you have to simulate it more, because you are immediately liable for your products. As a result, you need more professional-grade tools.”

Tools of the Trade
Let’s take a look at some of the key enabling technologies that are making it possible for this new generation of makers to take their ideas and turn them into real products, and what role these tools are playing in the democratization of design.

The Internet
There are many significant, life-altering trends being fueled by the Internet. Forums, social networks, email lists, and video publishing sites, such as YouTube, allow these “makers” to form communities and ask questions, collaborate, solicit feedback, and reach out to potential customers. E-commerce distribution services, such as Etsy, and crowdsourcing sites, such as Quirky, are all helping makers commercialize their creations.

Aros-smart-air-conditioner
Aros is a smart air conditioner that learns from your budget, location, schedule, and usage to automatically maintain the perfect temperature and maximize savings for your home.
garthen-leslie
Aros was invented by Garthen
Leslie and developed by crowdsourcing site Quirky’s online community and partners at GE.

Seed capital from crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com, provide the needed economic resources to get projects off the ground. In addition to funding, these sites enable would-be inventors to assess the commercial viability of new products long before they reach the market. “For the makers, crowdfunding is especially important,” said Tamburini. “It not only helps people get funded but provides a very powerful marketing research tool because people are voting with their pledges, so if you get a Kickstarter campaign that is very successful, it’s basically telling you that if you develop this product, you’re going to sell it.”

The Cloud
In addition to the infinite computing and data storage resources offered by cloud computing, the cloud also gives software vendors a way to deliver professional-grade tools at much lower entry price points, putting these tools for the first time into the hands of non-professional users.

While hobbyists certainly aren’t going to be picking up simulation tools and conducting FEA analyses on their products anytime soon, it does open up the possibility for more casual users to experiment with design software.

Several CAD vendors are offering their CAD tools on a monthly subscription basis, ideal for small startups and individuals who might just need them on a short-term basis or those who want to try them out without committing to an annual license.

mojo-desktop-3d-printer
The Mojo low-cost desktop 3D printer prints professional-quality models in nine colors using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) Technology

3D printing
While design software has enabled products to be conceived and designed in digital form for several decades, bringing those designs into the physical world has presented a serious roadblock for smaller startups and individuals. 3D printing has removed that barrier and enabled these makers to quickly create prototypes of their ideas so they can take that next step towards commercialization.

The costs of the printers and associated materials have dropped significantly in recent years, putting 3D printers within the grasp of nearly every home-based inventor today. Home Depot just recently announced that it would start selling MakerBots at some of its stores in July. Marketed for home use, these 3D printers can be used for fast, inexpensive production of replacement parts, prototypes, art projects, or many other items.

Tom Mueller, design engineer at PDX Effects by day and design hobbyist by night, foresees a future in which 3D home printers are commonplace. “The house of the future has a central computer, but also has a central 3D printer cataloged with all the 3D files that make up the home environment,” said Mueller.  “Along with these files, there will be a custom 3D file directory where the members of the house have added purchased or custom-made 3D files. 3D printing is the second most important innovation following the home computer introduction in the 80s. Today anybody, any age, can be an inventor.”

T-Wheeler-by-Tommy-Mueller
This fully rendered model of the T-Wheeler Sportbike was created by design engineer and hobbyist Tom Mueller using Solidworks software. The model can be found in GrabCAD’s free project library.

Open-source hardware
Open-source hardware is electronic or computer hardware built from design information that could be copyrighted or licensed but has instead been made available for public use at no charge. This could include documentation, schematic diagrams, parts lists, and entire project libraries. No longer considered cheating, this information enables people to reuse other’s work as a basis for a new product.

Autodesk’s Tamburini believes that the new mentality brought on by the availability of open-source hardware will foster more creative design. “This new mentality and the ability to use open-source hardware enables a lot of innovation because it’s freeing people from having to develop the same thing over and over and over again,” said Tamburini.

GrabCAD is one of the early pioneers of the Open Engineering movement. The GrabCAD community helps users accelerate design by tapping into the knowledge and resources of the site’s enormous library of free CAD models. One of the GrabCAD community members, Tom Mueller, creates CAD models using Solidworks software, and many of his designs, including the T-Wheel Sportbike, are included in the company’s project library.

“The maker movement has a strong software flavor to it, using online platforms to generate ideas or find help in a way that professionals have historically been reluctant to do,” says Rob Stevens, vice president of Marketing and Business Development at GrabCAD. “The success of these efforts is making companies realize that they need to look at these more ‘open’ platforms, and that there are ways to be ‘open’ without giving up all your intellectual property.”

More flexible design tools
Traditional CAD software that employs a parametric approach to design offers a powerfully automated way to design products, but requires significant expertise to be proficient. New breeds of design software that use a direct modeling approach offer a more intuitive and flexible way to design products. SpaceClaim was the first to introduce direct modeling technology but other vendors, such as Siemens PLM Software and PTC, are now offering direct modelers.

To meet the needs of the expanding pool of designers, PTC has retooled its product portfolio, breaking it up into different apps, based on the level of expertise and task at hand. “PTC Creo offers users a variety of ways to capture their new design ideas,” said Brian Thompson, vice president of PTC Creo Product Management, “whether you prefer hand sketching, building organic, freeform 3D shapes, designing in 2D, or building new designs using direct modeling tools.”

PTC-creosuite
PTC’s Creo suite of apps enable designers to use multiple ways to model designs, from hand sketching, building organic, freeform 3D shapes, designing in 2D, or building new designs using direct modeling tools.

Autodesk is making its Fusion 360 software free for non-commercial use, with the goal of attracting the hobbyist who might eventually become a professional user. The software, available for a monthly subscription price to all other users, also uses direct modeling so it’s flexible and easier to learn and use.

Factory in the Cloud
Also referred to as fabrication services or manufacturing as a service (MaaS), this important enabling technology is still in its infancy but is one to watch in the future because it will provide a much-needed link between design and manufacturing for the maker community.

Just as online sites, such as Shapeways.com, enable people to send their designs to be 3D printed, these services will provide designers with a link to more traditional fabrication services. These services tap a network of reputable manufacturing centers that they have worked with in the past and vetted, sort of an Angie’s List for manufacturing.

“For the entrepreneur or the maker population, they don’t have the knowledge to deal with manufacturing, sourcing, inventory management, supply chain, and all that stuff,” said Tamburini. “It’s overwhelming for them. They just have an idea and they want to be able to mass produce it.”

Looking into the future
With startups and individuals now better able to compete with larger, more traditional manufacturers, thanks to all of these new technologies, the manufacturing game is going to be played by new rules. “The incumbents—or the traditional manufacturers—are going to be impacted,” says Tamburini. “Innovation is no longer an option for them with all these new players popping up left and right. They have to innovate. It’s no longer an option.”

Mueller believes that technologies, such as 3D printing, and open engineering resources, such as GrabCAD, are going to continue to inspire more people to design. “I’m 38 years old and each year that I use 3D, I become more of a visionary, and this is a direct result of the 3D printing advantage,” said Mueller. “The maker community can now actualize ideas using resources like GrabCAD or by learning the skills necessary to 3D model themselves. The traditional means of fabrication using several pieces of machinery and personnel is phasing out as 3D printing quickly gains momentum.”

These new technologies are also evening out the playing field for new companies and startups to compete with larger, more established companies. Groups of very smart people are forming small startups that are appearing out of nowhere and creating truly disruptive products. It is no longer a requirement to be a big established company to find success in the market, as economies of scale have been forever disrupted.

The future calls for companies to design new products and services with the help of the people who will ultimately benefit from them. “If you’re a traditional manufacturer, you have to learn how to play with teams outside of your walls,” said Tamburini. “You have to consider crowdsourcing, involving customers, and involving certain players that might seem transient.”

One of the biggest winners in this new era of democratized design will be the consumer who will benefit from more choices and greater personalization. “For consumers, it’s a win-win. There’s going to be more choices and more personalization because it’s more cost-effective for smaller entrepreneurs to address the long tail of demand,” said Tamburini. “And, consumers can invest and support the products they want by directly supporting the projects in crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo.”

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Autodesk
www.autodesk.com

GrabCAD
www.grabcad.com

PTC
www.ptc.com

Siemens PLM Software
www.siemens.com

Shapeways
www.shapeways.com

Stratasys
www.stratasys.com

Quirky
www.quirky.com

Kickstarter
www.kickstarter.com

Indiegogo
www.indiegogo.com

How Engineers are Collaborating Today

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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.

solidworks-mechanical-conceptual

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-workbench
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.”

bulldozer

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.

autodesk-360-b

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
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-b
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.

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Autodesk
www.autodesk.com

GrabCAD
www.grabcad.com

SolidWorks Corp.
www.solidworks.com

Autodesk Ships Integrated CAM Package For Inventor

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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

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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.
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

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