• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

3D CAD World

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

  • 3D CAD Package Tips
    • Alibre
    • Autodesk
    • Catia
    • Creo
    • Inventor
    • Onshape
    • Pro/Engineer
    • Siemens PLM
    • SolidWorks
    • SpaceClaim
  • CAD Hardware
  • CAD Industry News
    • Company News
      • Autodesk News
      • Catia News & Events
      • PTC News
      • Siemens PLM & Events
      • SolidWorks News & Events
      • SpaceClaim News
    • Rapid Prototyping
    • Simulation Software
  • Prototype Parts
  • User Forums
    • MCAD Central
    • 3D CAD Forums
    • Engineering Exchange
  • CAD Resources
    • 3D CAD Models
  • Videos

PTC News

Look up in the sky, it’s CAD software

May 14, 2020 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

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

By Jean Thilmany, Senior Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PTC
www.ptc.com

Designairspace
www.designairspace.com

Filed Under: CAD modeling, Onshape, PTC News Tagged With: PTC

Accelerate spatial AR programming of machines and robots

April 24, 2020 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

PTC
spatialtoolbox.vuforia.com

Filed Under: PTC News Tagged With: PTC

PTC to acquire Onshape

October 24, 2019 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

PTC announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Onshape, creators of Software as a Service (SaaS) product development platform that unites computer aided design (CAD) with data management and collaboration tools, for approximately $470 million, net of cash acquired.
The acquisition is expected to accelerate PTC’s ability to attract new customers with a SaaS-based product offering and position the company to capitalize on the inevitable industry transition to SaaS. Pending regulatory approval and satisfaction of other closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in November 2019.

Located in Cambridge, MA, Onshape was founded in 2012 by CAD pioneers and tech legends, including Jon Hirschtick, John McEleney, and Dave Corcoran, inventors and former executives of SolidWorks. Onshape has secured more than $150 million in funding from leading venture capital firms and has more than 5,000 subscribers around the world. The company’s software offering is delivered in a SaaS model, making it accessible from any connected location or device, eliminating the need for costly hardware and administrative staff to maintain. Distributed and mobile teams of designers, engineers, and others can benefit from the product’s cloud nature, enabling them to improve collaboration and to dramatically reduce the time needed to bring new products to market – while simultaneously staying current with the latest software.

This acquisition is the logical next step in PTC’s overall evolution to a recurring revenue business model, the first step of which was the company’s transition to subscription licensing, completed in January 2019. The SaaS model, while nascent in the CAD and PLM market, is rapidly becoming industry best practice across most other software domains.

Onshape will operate as a business unit within PTC, with current management reporting directly to PTC President and CEO Jim Heppelmann.

Barclays acted as exclusive financial advisor to PTC on the transaction.

PTC
www.ptc.com

Filed Under: News, Onshape, PTC News Tagged With: PTC

ThingWorx 8.5 coming in late summer 2019

June 21, 2019 By wpengine Leave a Comment

ThingWorx 8.5 combines new capabilities with domain-specific solutions to serve the digital transformation needs of industrial enterprises worldwide.

Among the new and enhanced capabilities are tools that simplify the composition and deployment of solutions. Customers will be able to configure applications faster and deploy them across multiple sites and geographies. For those who want more readymade solutions, ThingWorx also offers pre-built, pre-configured capabilities for engineering, manufacturing, and service. This latest version of ThingWorx brings enhanced integration with Microsoft Azure IoT and includes additional tools for rolling out solutions at an enterprise scale.

The new ThingWorx Navigate Digital Change Management Application enables internal and external users to actively participate in change management. The series of ThingWorx Navigate Contribute Apps will expand on NavigateView suite, which makes information easily available and facilitates collaboration across the enterprise. Powered by the digital thread, engineers have real-time access to connected product data in ThingWorx to drive the design of next-generation products.

Manufacturing
ThingWorx 8.5 is now compatible with Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk Analytics. Additionally, PTC will be releasing ThingWorx Kepware Edge to provide flexible deployment of reliable and secure connectivity for dispersed equipment.

Service
PTC’s service solution suite enables service organizations to transform from cost centers to profit centers and drive product and service innovation through new IIoT-enabled business models. The service optimization solution allows companies to improve margins by minimizing truck rolls and increasing first time-fix rates. With ThingWorx 8.5, digital
service delivery is enhanced through a deepened integration with Microsoft Azure,
enabling manufacturers to now use the ThingWorx Software Content Management App
with the Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Edge.

PTC
ptc.com

Filed Under: News, PTC News Tagged With: PTC

PTC adds AI and generative design to its CAD portfolio with acquisition of Frustum

November 20, 2018 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

PTC announced that it has acquired Frustum Inc., an advanced generative design software company, for approximately $70 million. Frustum’s technology for generative design leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to generate design options. PTC says it is a transformative addition to the PTC Creo portfolio.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Frustum offers patented desktop and cloud-based engineering software that enables designers and engineers to go beyond the limits of their personal experience by leveraging powerful AI capabilities that guide the discovery of high-performance, next-generation product designs.

“PTC is pushing the boundaries of innovation with this acquisition,” said Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC. “Creo is core to PTC’s overall strategy, and the embedded capabilities from ANSYS and, later, Frustum will elevate Creo to a leading position in the world of design and simulation. With breakthrough new technologies such as AR/VR, high-performance computing, IoT, AI, and additive manufacturing entering the picture, the CAD industry is going through a renaissance period, and PTC is committed to leading the way.”

Frustum complements PTC’s strategic relationship with ANSYS, which was announced at LiveWorx in June 2018, and will bring analysis upstream to the very start of the design process. With embedded Frustum and ANSYS capabilities, Creo will be able to recommend design approaches using generative design, guide the user through the iterative design process using ANSYS Discovery Live, and ultimately validate the full product design at scale using the broader ANSYS Discovery suite. With these capabilities embedded in Creo, engineers will have unmatched capabilities to rapidly drive product innovation.

“This acquisition is a natural step for PTC and its customers,” said Jeff Hojlo, program director, product innovation, IDC. “AI and machine learning (ML) are widely discussed as two of the most impactful technologies of the future. For design, engineering, and R&D, the potential positive impacts of complementing the development process with AI and ML are astounding: lowering cost of quality (which is currently 20-25 percent of annual revenue at the average manufacturer), improving product success rate (which remains very low with more than 80 percent of products failing), and improving time to market and time to revenue by meeting customer needs accurately the first time.”

PTC
www.ptc.com/en

 

 

Filed Under: PTC News Tagged With: PTC

PTC Announces Creo 4.0 for Smarter Design

November 18, 2016 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

PTC (NASDAQ: PTC)  announced the release of the latest version of its Creo 4.0 3D CAD software. Creo 4.0 introduces new capabilities for Internet of Things (IoT), additive manufacturing, augmented reality, and model-based definition (MBD). Creo 4.0 aids smarter design with an array of core modeling enhancements and new functions.

creo-4-0-variable-lattice-copy

With this latest release of Creo, product designers can design smart, connected products and capitalize on new technologies, such as additive manufacturing and augmented reality.

Key enhancements include:

Smart Connected Product Design

For the IoT, Creo 4.0 provides the ability to pull real-world information into the design process. It enables a design for connectivity strategy where developers proactively design products with custom data streams by integrating sensors into the design process.

Said Chad Jackson, Lifecycle Insights, “Connecting Creo’s 3D model with ThingWorx’s sensor model is key, as it allows organizations to virtually prototype sensor placement and emulate data streams without having to build anything physical.”

Additive Manufacturing
Creo 4.0 removes barriers to the efficient design of production parts built with additive manufacturing techniques. It delivers “design for additive manufacturing,” enabling designers to design, optimize, validate, and run a print-check in a single environment. With the ability to create parametrically controlled lattice structures, it helps designers optimize models to meet multiple design objectives or constraints.

Augmented Reality

Creo 4.0 allows for more engaging and informative visual experiences of designs by bringing the digital product into the physical world. Designers can seamlessly reuse CAD data to easily create engaging and informative visual augmented reality experiences of a design with a realistic sense of size, scale, and context.

 Model Based Definition

Creo 4.0 enables designers to implement MBD and increase efficiency in product development by reducing dependency on 2D drawings. Designers can reduce errors that result from incorrect, incomplete, or misinterpreted information by guiding and educating designers in the proper application of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerance (GD&T) information. Creo 4.0 also validates that the GD&T is captured in the 3D CAD model in a fully semantic way, that the model is compliant with ASME and ISO standards, and that it constrains model geometry to enable efficient and error-free downstream use in manufacturing and inspection.

“Realizing the potential of the IoT is not just about getting more product usage data, it means you can use, refine, and analyze that data to design better and smarter,” said Brian Thompson, senior vice president, CAD segment, PTC. “Creo 4.0 helps designers replace assumptions in the design process with real-world data to make better product design decisions, and along with model-based definition, give designers a more complete digital definition of a product. The enhancements in Creo 4.0 not only enable designers to increase productivity, but also help designers leverage the IoT to support their digital engineering journey.”

PTC
www.ptc.com

Filed Under: Creo, News, PTC News Tagged With: PTC

Design Must “Get Smart” in the IoT World

October 14, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Once upon a time, products consisted of mechanical components. Much thought and brainstorming went into the best ways to design these components to make them function better than competing products. Life for product designers and engineers became more complicated when products began including electrical parts, as mechanical design and electrical design are often done on disparate systems that typically don’t speak common languages.

Today, in the era of the Internet of Things, products are not only becoming more complex but “smarter.” Products have evolved into complex systems that encompass hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software, along with the means to “connect” to the outside world via wireless connectivity to the Internet. Complex? You bet.

These smart, connected products are demanding sea changes in the way companies do everything, from how they design products to how they use and manage all of the “big data” that will be captured by these smart devices. The expanded capabilities of smart, connected products and the data they capture is creating disruption in how companies operate and compete.

Information technology (IT) has now become a key player in new product design. Embedded sensors, processors, software and connectivity in products, combined with cloud-based platforms where product data is stored and analyzed, are driving major boosts in product functionality and performance. These improvements have and will continue to be driven in large part by the product-usuage data captured by the “smarts” (sensors, software, processors) now embedded in products.

What Are Smart, Connected Products?

Smart, connected products have three core elements: physical components, “smart” components, and components that enable connectivity. Smart components amplify the capabilities and value of the physical components, while connectivity improves upon the capabilities and value of the smart components and enables some of them to exist outside the physical product itself.

Verizon's line of smart home products enable customers to lock and unlock doors and windows, watch home video cameras remotely, and manage thermostats and lighting.
Verizon’s line of smart home products enable customers to lock and unlock doors and windows, watch home video cameras remotely, and manage thermostats and lighting.

In the November issue of the Harvard Business Review, an article entitled, How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition, uses a car as an example to illustrate the core components of a smart, connected product. The article explains that the physical components comprise the product’s mechanical and electrical parts. In a car, these include the engine block, tires, and batteries.

Smart components comprise the sensors, microprocessors, data storage, controls, software, and, typically, an embedded operating system and enhanced user interface. In a car, these smart components include the engine control unit, antilock braking system, rain-sensing windshields with automated wipers, and touch screen displays. Connectivity components comprise the ports, antennae, and protocols enabling wired or wireless connections with the product.

Connectivity takes three forms, which can be present together:

* One-to-one: An individual product connects to the user, the manufacturer, or another product through a port or other interface. For example, when a car is hooked up to a diagnostic machine.
* One-to-many: A central system is continuously or intermittently connected to many products simultaneously. For example, many Tesla automobiles are connected to a single manufacturer system that monitors performance and accomplishes remote service and upgrades.
* Many-to-many: Multiple products connect to many other types of products and often also to external data sources. An array of types of farm equipment are connected to one another, and to geolocation data, to coordinate and optimize the farm system. For example, automated tillers inject nitrogen fertilizer at precise depths and intervals, and seeders follow, placing corn seeds directly in the fertilized soil.

Connectivity serves a dual purpose. First, it allows information to be exchanged between the product and its operating environment, its maker, its users, and other products and systems. Second, connectivity enables some functions of the product to exist outside the physical device, in what is known as the product cloud.

How IoT will affect product design

Smart, connected products dramatically expand the ways in which manufacturers can differentiate their products. Knowing how customers actually use the products enhances a company’s ability to segment customers, customize products, set prices to better capture value, and extend value-added services. Smart, connected products also allow companies to develop much closer customer relationships.

These so-called smart products will also enable companies to tailor products to more-specific niche markets, and even customize products for individual customers.

Though smart products offer manufacturers a better way to differentiate their products and meet more specific needs within their user base, it also brings a host of challenges. These include the higher fixed costs of more-complex product design, embedded technology, and multiple layers of new IT infrastructure that will be required to manage the data being produced by smart products.

PTC jumps on board IoT bandwagon

At the very end of last year, PTC announced its acquisition of ThingWorx, a tech developer of an application platform designed to rapidly build Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications. The PA-based company develops what it calls the “1st Application Platform for the Connected World,” one that combines the key functionality of Web 2.0, social media and Connected Intelligence, and applies to any process that involves “things.”

The ThingWorx platform was designed to reduce the time it takes to build M2M and Internet of Things apps.
The ThingWorx platform was designed to reduce the time it takes to build M2M and Internet of Things apps.

The goal of the platform is to reduce the time, cost and risk required to build M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) apps. The platform is comprised of ThingWorx Composer, a modeling environment; a drag-and-drop Mashup Builder for creating apps, real-time dashboards, collaborative workspaces and mobile interfaces without coding; an event-driven execution engine; 3D storage; collaboration capabilities; and connectivity to devices via third-party device clouds, direct network connections, Open APIs and AlwaysOn using the ThingWorx Edge Microserver.

PTC gave editors, analysts and users some glimpses of the next-gen technology that might be developed with the ThingWorx platform at their Live Global event in Boston this summer but have yet to introduce a specific product that leverages this platform.

The bottom line

Increasingly smart and connected products can generate value in several key ways, as streams of real-time operational data are captured, analyzed and shared to increase a company’s understanding of its products’ performance, use and reliability. The technology will provide companies with a wealth of information to feed back into their respective product pipelines, which will in turn will increase competitiveness and their ability to customize products for niche markets and specific customers.

Though there are still technical hurdles to be overcome, the era of smarter, connected products is here and we will continue to cover the topic as it evolves. Stay tuned.

Barb Schmitz

Filed Under: News, PTC News, PTC/CoCreate Blogs Tagged With: PTC

New Technologies Ushering in the Maker Movement

August 12, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

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.”

Reprint info >>

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

Filed Under: Autodesk News, CAD Industry News, Company News, News, PTC News, Siemens PLM & Events

ETRAGE Announces PTC Windchill-SharePoint Integration App

June 18, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

ETRAGE, a systems integration and design process automation company, announced at PTC Live Global that it’s releasing Windchill EasySearch app for PTC Windchill PDMLink for CAD files and documents.

A little background on ETRAGE: The company has been building solutions for PTC customers that help automate viewable file creation and management, integrate PTC Windchill with ERP, MRP, CRM & SharePoint systems and clean and migrate data for PTC Windchill.

ETRAGE PTC Windchill EasySearch provides a fast and optimized way of delivering the desired design data to customers, suppliers, purchasers, speeding the information flow through engineering, manufacturing and service.
ETRAGE PTC Windchill EasySearch provides a fast and optimized way of delivering the desired design data to customers, suppliers, purchasers, speeding the information flow through engineering, manufacturing and service.

Windchill EasySearch application for PTC Windchill PDMLink for CAD files and documents

• Offers a customizable Windchill search mechanism providing various options by: name, number, context, and object type, from a text file list. These search fields can be easily enabled or disabled on the User Interface by a company administrator.

• Through search results, users can list the files, gain access to the representation files, secondary content files such as PDF, DXF, STEP or IGES, open files in Creo, open files in CreoView, download files to a Workspace and use other Windchill operations.

• Windchill EasySearch allows fast and simple access to representation files and secondary content files from a standard Windchill search result page or object list in the Windchill folder through the Action Menu or a right mouse button click.

ETRAGE SmartPDF

• Provides users with the ability to get the note text as an annotation each time a user hovers their mouse over the note symbol in the PDF.

• The solution also provides the functionality of selecting section view call-out symbols and automatically changes the view of the drawing to the sheet and location of the related section view.

• SmartPDF is an add-on to the ETRAGE Plot Service for PTC Windchill, which improves your viewing experience of the created PDF by adding Annotations and Zone References.

WXML Universal Integrator for PTC Windchill

• WXML automatically exports Bills-of-Material (BOM) metadata and viewable files from PTC Windchill PDMLink in structured XML and PDF format files to a Windows folder for transfer to the ERP application. The BOMs and PDFs are then read into ERP. WXML also automatically reads structured XML files from a Windows folder in which ERP provides requests for data extraction from Windchill. Besides BOM and PDFs, WXML also supports Change Requests transfers between Windchill and ERP.

• WXML is targeted at those companies that look for an easy to deploy, out-of-the-box solution to integrate Windchill with ERP. Typically, companies already have in house ERP IT resources to export and import data to and from the ERP application. ETRAGE provides an affordable option to companies to integrate their ERP systems with Windchill.

• ETRAGE’s Universal Windchill Integrator provides, real-time updates of BOMs and change requests into ERP, streamlines data flow between the engineering, manufacturing and purchasing departments, eliminates manual data entry or processes of large sets of data and insures that manufacturing and purchasing has access to the most up-to-date engineering data and drawings inside the ERP system.

ETRAGE Drawing Notes Search application for PTC Creo Parametric and PTC Windchill PDMLink

• The Drawing Notes Search application provides companies with a simple, yet powerful method for managing notes that are on PTC Creo drawings and stored in Windchill PDMLink.

• The Application provides an automatic method for capturing notes from Creo drawings and storing them in a database. Once in the database, notes content can be accessed with a Web-based interface by searching and selecting on a drawing name or number, note character string or drawing parameter or attribute. Notes can be sorted, filtered and reviewed. Drawings can be opened for editing from links in the application. Note lists can be exported to Excel or CSV formats.

For more information on ETAGE, click here.

Barb Schmitz

Filed Under: News, PLM/PDM, PTC News, PTC/CoCreate Blogs Tagged With: data management, file management, Windchill

ETRAGE Demonstrates a Better Way to Share Files with SubContractors

June 10, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

ETRAGE LLC, a systems integration software company, will be presenting a solution that will make it easier for companies to provide access to 2D and 3D design files for their subcontractors at this year’s PTC’s Live Global Conference in Boston, June 15-17.

The presentation will describe the process of how ETRAGE customer COM DEV Ltd. now provides immediate access for its sub-contractors to 2D PDF and 3D STEP and ACIS files of design drawings and models. Options investigated include an on-demand call to the COM DEV FTP site, a customized FTP portal and the final solution of using Windchill directly through the ETRAGE Plot Service for PTC Windchill-PSW.

ENTRGE will present how to provide immediate access for sub-contractors to 2D PDF and 3D STEP and ACIS files of design drawings and models at this year's PTC Live Global Conference.
ENTRGE will present how to provide immediate access to its sub-contractors to 2D PDF and 3D STEP and ACIS files of design drawings and models at this year’s PTC Live Global Conference.

Eugene Stewart, senior Windchill administrator at COM DEV, explains how the solution was implemented. “Now vendors and customers are allowed into the COM DEV Windchill system for direct access to our latest designs. The On-Demand operating mode of PSW allows them to pull the files in a number of common formats to suit their many needs. In addition, COM DEV realizes a 40-day annual savings of a designers’ time.”

Bojan Rapaic, founder and president of ETRAGE LLC comments, “COM DEV is one of many of our clients seeing this type of a return on investment. Teams are required to be much more efficient today and ‘teams’ extend to sub-contractors. We see significant benefit to providing subcontractors with direct access to approved files.”

In addition, ETRAGE will have demonstrations of the PTC Windchill – ERP integration solutions, SharePoint Integration product, ETRAGE Bulk Loader, ETRAGE Quality Server, ETRAGE Smart PDF, ETRAGE Drawing Notes Search, ETRAGE Model Clean-up Utilities and ETRAGE Viewer.

If you’re in Boston for the PTC event, be sure and stop by the ENTRAGE booth (#506) to get a hands-on demo and to discuss your company’s specific needs.

Barb Schmitz

Filed Under: News, PLM/PDM, PTC News, PTC/CoCreate Blogs Tagged With: cad, file sharing, Windchill

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 68
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

3D CAD NEWSLETTERS

MakePartsFast

Follow us on Twitter

Tweets by 3DCADWorld

Footer

3D CAD World logo

DESIGN WORLD NETWORK

Design World Online
The Robot Report
Coupling Tips
Motion Control Tips
Linear Motion Tips
Bearing Tips

3D CAD WORLD

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
Follow us on Twitter Add us on Facebook Add us on LinkedIn Add us on Instagram Add us on YouTube

3D CAD World - Copyright © 2021 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy