SolidWorks Archives - 3D CAD World

Crowdsourced Rankings of Best Product Design Software Released

February 10, 2015 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

The first Grid report for product and machine design software was published today by G2 Crowd, a business software review site that uses crowdsourcing to rank products. The Winter 2015 report ranks seven products to guide users in their purchase decisions.

This report is based on more than 170 reviews written by business and engineering professionals. The Grid report was created using G2 Growd’s software review platform, which factors in customer satisfaction reported by users and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products.

Product and machine design software is a subcategory of computer-aided design (CAD) software, targeted specifically toward designers and engineers across a number of disciplines, including manufacturing, product design, automotive, and aerospace. These tools allow users to generate precision 3D models of parts, components, and assemblies to aid in engineering, manufacturing, and design processes.

To qualify as a Leader, a product must receive a high customer satisfaction score and have substantial market presence. SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical and Solid Edge were named Leaders in the report. SOLIDWORKS earned the highest overall customer satisfaction score.

Across all product and machine design platforms, reviewers reported the product they use meets their requirements at an average rate of 82%, and on average reviewers said they were 80% likely to recommend the product they use.

First Grid report on product design software ranks seven CAD products based on crowdsourced results.

What the users (crowd) say

Some highlights from the product and machine design software reviews on G2 Crowd:

“[SOLIDWORKS] is extremely easy to use. [It’s very] intuitive, efficient, and [powerful] software. I have used it to design complex surface parts, basic machined parts, complex sheet metal, buildings, and [more].”
– Aaron Jackson, Design Engineer at Spray Equipment & Service Center

“[Inventor] makes it very easy to build parts and pieces once, manipulate them through parameters and instantly have a series of parts that range in size that can be saved and cataloged for later use.”
– Valerie Gindlesberger, Home Plan Designer at Summit Custom Homes

“The best part about Solid Edge is the strong capabilities and intelligence that is part of the synchronous technology. It allows you to make a model without having to worry about order of operations, yet it still uses features that make for easy editing. This has been a game changer for me when roughing out a design; even while in the context of an assembly. Less time is spent thinking how to make the change to the model, which frees my mind to think about how to design the part.”
– Brian Stewart, Design Engineer at Apex Tool Works, Inc.

“I like being able to draw any object without having to close a loop of line segments. In many similar programs, the lines are only used as borders of a area, and so if the area is not complete, the programs has problems. With AutoCAD [Mechanical], a line is simply a line. I also like being able to customize the plot settings and appearance of every characteristic using layers and line weights. This allows for quick but uniform and professional final prints.”
– Troy Foster, Mechanical Engineering Intern at FES Group

Of the nearly 20 software vendors listed in G2 Crowd’s Product and Machine Design category, the seven ranked products each received 10 or more reviews to qualify for inclusion on the Grid.

Satisfaction rankings are generated from the user reviews, and market presence is calculated from vendor size, market share, and social impact. Based on a combination of these scores, each software solution is categorized as a Leader, High Performer, Contender, or Niche.

Premium research access can be purchased on the site for $599. These offer the original data for filtering and weighting, as well as individual profiles of each platform with the most helpful positive and negative product and machine design software reviews, detailed company information, user satisfaction ratings, feature scores and customer metrics. Future refreshes of the Grid will provide updated rankings based on the latest reviews and social data.

Get more info on the company and its research here.

Barb Schmitz

Q&A: Jon Hirschtick on the Future of CAD

February 5, 2015 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Jon Hirschtick is a very interesting guy. He’s also a very smart guy who’s been around the CAD world for a very long time. The MIT graduate was one of the founders of SolidWorks, is now in the process of starting up a new venture called Onshape as founder and Chairman, and from what I hear is also one hell of a Blackjack player.

I had the privilege of picking Jon’s sizable brain on the state of CAD, where it might be headed in the future as well as a few hints as to what his new startup might be rolling out in the near future.

I’ll admit my evil ulterior motive was to get some inside scoop on Onshape’s new product. While he did share his vision of what role the cloud, mobile and web will play in the future of CAD, he’s not ready yet to talk specifically about the new product.

So while I didn’t necessary accomplish my mission of getting the inside scoop on Onshape, you can easily read between the lines and see that OnShape is going to shake up the status quo in the CAD industry. I won’t conjecture too much about the new product, but I assure you that when I know more about it, so will you all.

Now we’ll dive into Jon’s thoughts on how the future of computing is helping to “shape” (pun not intended) the future of CAD.

Q: What pain points were you hearing from customers that started you thinking that CAD needed to change?

A: The problems I heard continually from customers all centered around administering and accessing the CAD system and collaborating with other people. Instead of talking about the cool shapes they could now model, they were talking to me about the difficulties of installation, managing licenses with network license servers and codes, purchasing, service packs and versions of the software.

I would also hear a lot of complaints about collaboration; the “where’s the latest version?” problem. Every time someone opens a model, if they are working with other people, they have to think about whether they are opening the latest version. “Am I going to be overwriting other peoples’ changes or are other people going to be overwriting my changes?” It’s a real headache managing all of that. CAD isn’t just one file, but a whole set of files.

Accessibility and administration of CAD and collaboration; sharing, working together as a team. These are all go hand in hand because all of these factors are a tax on the team. Especially with today’s distributed design teams. Everyone on the team needs their own copy of the CAD system and that copy of that big, brittle system needs to be the identical for people to share data well.

Q: Why do you think design teams are becoming so distributed?

A: Companies have had to become more efficient. Efficiency lets people do more with smaller teams. Permanent, full-time staff can cost more, especially in the age of specialization. Specialized functions, such as industrial design, have commonly been outsourced. It’s expensive, specialized and you don’t need it all the time, so you outsource it. That’s now happening a lot with other disciplines.

Paving the road for this trend is communication tools that we didn’t have before. Improvements in communication and/or collaboration have made it much easier to work with people outside of the company. Smaller companies today are developing pretty impressive products because of all of these things.

Q: What unique challenges do these small companies and startups face when it comes to CAD?

A: When I meet with some of the people who run these start-up incubators, they will tell me CAD software is the number-one expense item for these smaller companies. They can come in here–to the incubators–and prototype their product for $5,000-$6,000, and buy a computer for $1,000-$2,000, but the CAD software is $5,000 per seat. If they have three people on their team and they need three seats of CAD, that’s $15,000. It’s the biggest line item in their cost structure and that not unusual. Also, these days a lot of small groups are distributed so they are having these same problems.

Q: What is your opinion of the cloud-based CAD solutions currently on the market?

A: What I’ve seen in the market is what I would call “partial steps” where people are taking a desktop-installed piece of software and storing files in the cloud, which is better perhaps than not storing in the cloud, or having a cloud-based viewer. Cloud-based download of software has been adopted by most vendors and that’s all good things to do.

With true cloud solutions, there is no downloading. As soon as you download and install something, you’ve got a lot of problems. As soon as you write a file to a local disk, you have other problems that are not being solved.

I have to laugh when I see “cloud-based such and such” and then it says “Go to our Download Center.” That’s not a true cloud-based tool.

Q: How will OnShape’s approach to the cloud be different?

A: We’re doing something much more comprehensive when you think of cloud, web and mobile computing, and how they will all work with CAD. We really started with a ground-up approach, with a clean sheet. We’re not doing installed software. We’re starting with a much fuller embrace of with what cloud, web and mobile can mean to CAD and teams that are using CAD. We have the advantage of a much more mature cloud. It’s about having the vision that said ‘let’s bet fully on cloud, web and mobile.’ It’s a very different vision.

Q: How does this “vision” differ from current CAD solutions?

A: We just sort of assume that CAD systems should write to files on a disk because that’s what they have always done. We don’t do that as a fundamental paradigm. We can take this new approach because we’re free of legacy constraints and have a very clear vision of what cloud, web and mobile can provide.

Q: What are the benefits of these true cloud-based solutions to users?

A: You’re going to see a different set of benefits that we can provide with a true pure Cloud solution. There’s no file with pure cloud solutions. There are lots of true cloud-based business tools that I use daily, like Google Docs. All of them have several things in common:
* No install.
* No software to download
* Easy to use
* Can be used on any computer

Q: What about cloud-based CAD? What will be the specific benefits to users?

A: The bottom line is it doesn’t matter to users where the computing is done, what matters is what are the benefits. Can people access the CAD system easily? Can people share CAD data more easily? We think we have a much easier approach to sharing than you’ll see with file-based, installed software products that try to share files in the cloud. That’s one way to do it but we think we have a better way. Users only care about is if I need a CAD system, how hard will it be to get it and administer it? How easily can I work with other people? And, what CAD functions are available—both capabilities and user experiences—and how do they suit my needs?

Another big advantage is that you can run it on any device and it has decent performance. That’s one test of a true cloud system is can you pick it up and run it on any old computer and have decent performance. CAD is like the land that time forgot. Other than CAD, if you talk to most recent university graduates about how they use computers, and they tend to be running on Mac books or tablets or their iPhones, and they expect to use software on any of these devices. They don’t even think about the kind of old issues, like how big a computer do I need to buy, how much memory do I need? They just want a fast platform.

Stay tuned for Part II of our Q&A with Jon Hirschtick, which will cover security issues with the cloud as well as the headaches around data management and how they might be solved with a cloud-based CAD solution.

Barb Schmitz

Sharing CAD Files Across Systems Remains a Pain Point

January 26, 2015 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Many of you remember the early years of CAD when a simple design change could be a day destroyer; forcing you to have to recreate the model or go back and update multiple views of a drawing. Parametric or feature-based CAD systems changed all of that. With these powerfully automated 3D CAD systems, the task of making changes was greatly simplified by the fact that a design change could be propagated throughout the design or assembly, updating all associated parts to reflect that change.

There is little doubt that today’s 3D CAD systems have come a long way since their humble beginnings. In fact, most are quite capable at the tasks at hand and can help engineers and designers to get their jobs done in a fairly efficient manner. Despite all this progress, there are still things that make engineers repeatedly bang their heads on their desks in frustration. There are still shortcomings that create bottlenecks in product development; things that can bring progress to a screeching halt.

The reality is that users have a somewhat of a love-hate relationship with their CAD software. These fairly sophisticated tools are what enables them to accomplish their jobs on a daily basis; to evolve and vet ideas, create 3D models, virtually test those models and ultimately build products. Unfortunately there are still inherent weaknesses in all CAD systems that continue to torture users.

The writers at SolidSmack surveyed their readers back in the fall to get a better understand of the types of things that still frustrate users when it comes down to their CAD systems. The resulting blog, The Most Annoying Thing in CAD: Survey is definitely one worth reading and one that will resonate with many engineers so I felt it was worth sharing some of the key takeaways.

First off a disclaimer: SolidSmack is a SolidWorks training resource so most of the responses to their survey (2/3) were SolidWorks users, with a sprinkling of other CAD systems (Rhino, NX, Solid Edge, AutoCAD, CATIA, etc.). While the majority of respondents were SolidWorks users, most of these complaints are not specific to that system and most likely would apply to other systems as well. With that said, let’s get to Adam OHern’s synopsis of the results of the survey.

The Top 5 Most Annoying Things in CAD

1. Getting 3D data from one CAD app to another

Right out of the gate, this one came as a bit of a shock. Sure, file transfer is irritating, but the most annoying thing in CAD? Surprisingly, this one comes out as the clear winner for causing users to want to “gouge out [their] eyeballs in a raging fury.” This is clearly a serious pain point for CAD users and should be pretty obvious to anyone who’s ever done real-world design in a multi-CAD environment. It sucks.

Are CAD companies actively trying to make it easier to translate files between CAD systems? They say “yes,” but I’m not so sure. Most of the big PLM players have some form of bill-of-rights like “Codex” of openness, swearing their never-ending commitment to interoperability. Some even give the topic plenty of public lip service, with STEP getting lots of love in recent years, and most systems–at least on paper–reading the native file formats of their peers.

STEP support is nice in theory, but it’s extremely limited in its usefulness, and surprisingly error-prone. Sure, it gets (most of) the raw geometry from A to B, but we lose all design intent, associativity, assembly relationships, and boat loads of metadata in the process. It also has a tendency to fail, producing strange geometry errors, inverted surface trims, and tolerance problems–so much so that I know a surprising number of people who prefer old IGES files simply because they seem to be more reliably accurate in many cases. Native format importers have the same problems, but more so in my experience. I find that the promise of interoperability almost always comes with more fine print than actual content.

CAD interoperability remains a significant pain point for CAD users. Cartoon courtesy of Roger Penwell.

2. Creating physical simulations of working parts and assemblies

Again, a dark horse. And again, I suppose it should be obvious to anyone who does a lot of simulation. Are CAD companies actively trying to make simulation easier? Well, this isn’t my area, but from an outsider’s perspective I’d say yes and no.

Simulation is obviously a big area for R&D in the MCAD space, but I’ve yet to see anyone release–-or even talk about releasing–-a product aimed at making the process easier for non-specialist users. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that simulation is complex by nature, and that making the tools easier to use will yield less benefit than focusing on features and performance for power users.

3. Sharing files with collaborators

Wow, another data transfer topic in the top three. Noticing a trend? Shoving data around between collaborators is a royal pain in the posterior. Four of the survey participants claim to “keep a cheese grater at my desk specifically to mutilate my own elbows whenever file sharing comes up.” It’s a jungle out there, folks.

Are CAD companies actively trying to make sharing between collaborators easier? This one’s a clear-cut “absolutely”: cloud this, social that, collaboration, etc. But if everybody’s working in their various clouds with PTC mobile apps, 3DExperience, PLM360, GrabCAD, and on and on, how does that make sharing files easier? Sorry, but that sounds like a nightmare.

So while “sharing files with collaborators” is probably the single most ballyhooed feature of basically every Cloudy new release, I’m not sure that these tools actually address the root problem. To be frank, it’s always been easy to share files with collaborators who use the same tools and techniques as you do. That’s really not a big deal. Where things get difficult is sharing in a heterogeneous design environment, and that’s something that the Cloud has not yet addressed.

4. Making late-stage changes.

Ahhhh, and now we come to something expected. Consensus agrees, in other words, that this is a big problem, even if it’s not the kind that makes me “feel like inserting my finger-nublings into my ribcage and ripping the beating heart from the depths of my bosom.”

Given that this one’s been a big topic of debate in the CAD world for many years now, it’s not surprising that the much-discussed failure of the “promise of parametric” is a sticking point for users. The fact is that while many kinds of design changes can be anticipated and built into a model, many simply cannot. Furthermore, I would argue that the “promise of direct modeling” is equally unfulfilled. No matter how many fancy direct modeling tools you have in your arsenal, making changes to CAD models is massively annoying, and often involves rebuilding from scratch.

So are CAD companies actively trying to make it easier to make big, sweeping design changes on the fly? Well, given how much energy has been put into direct modeling features–particularly on the Siemens end of things–it should be pretty obvious that CAD companies at least recognize the issue and want to find solutions that alleviate the suffering. That said, it’s clear that the problem has yet to be solved.

What’s more, I don’t have much faith that it can be solved: rework will always be annoying by nature, at least so long as we work in the current operator-driven CAD paradigm. It won’t be long before the concept of literally defining actual geometry in a CAD environment seems as cumbersome as carving your designs in stone, however. Instead, we will define input and output parameters, performance metrics, materials, and manufacturing methods, and the geometry itself will be algorithmically generated to solve for those inputs. Then and only then will the annoyance of rework become a thing of the past.

5. Sharing files with clients

Arguably this survey shows that three of the top five most annoying things in CAD have to do with sharing data. Are CAD companies trying to solve this problem? Yes, absolutely. And this is an area where I genuinely believe that cloud services will actually make significant progress. Since client deliverables require much less interoperability than does active collaboration, the tools being proposed by… well… everybody, should work quite well.

“But I can’t work in the cloud. XYZ Manufacturer doesn’t allow it for security reasons.” That’s true for now, but that will change. And in the meantime, sharing data will continue to be difficult, and XYZ Manufacturer will become increasingly isolated until it changes its ways.

We’ll be waiting to see if SolidSmack does a follow-up to this survey. In the meantime, are there any other shortcomings of CAD that drive you batty? We’d love to hear your comments; share below.

Barb Schmitz

Mobile Apps for Designers and Engineers on the Go

January 15, 2015 By Barb Schmitz 1 Comment

Mobile apps for consumers have proliferated over the past several years, becoming somewhat of an ubiquitous part of our everyday lives. We think nothing of checking weather updates, movie schedules, and bank balances while we’re on the move, so why has it taken so long for mobile apps to hit big when it comes to engineering and manufacturing?

Certainly there’s an opportunity for vendors to offer apps for engineers that improve their mobility and offer access to at least some of the same tools they would have in the office. I wrote a blog post, Is CAD Becoming More Portable? in late 2013. Since then, however, it doesn’t seem like a lot of progress has been made on the CAD mobility front.

While this might be true, there are still many handy mobile tools and apps that engineers can use on a daily basis to capture ideas and concepts, view drawings and models, and collaborate with other stakeholders.

In a blog on the topic of mobile apps for engineers, written by David Chadwick of Siemens, he discusses how maintenance engineers would find it useful to have spare parts catalogs available on mobile devices. They could find the correct spare part, check if it was in their stores, and if not order the part immediately, all while working in a remote part of the factory.

Fortunately such technology now exists. CADENAS’ PARTsolutions software offers direct mobile access to more than 600 certified standard parts catalogs from international manufacturers on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Chadwick believes that the increasing availability of mobile apps for designers and engineers will have a big impact on their productivity and effectiveness. For manufacturing organizations, this could include the product designer being able to rapidly retrieve 3D models and drawings of products when on the shop floor to help solve a problem that has been encountered in the manufacturing process.

For field engineers being able to quickly access specifications and drawings for a machine that they are installing at a remote site. When traveling designers can have access to their design information and can answer questions and progress their projects when they are waiting at an airport or riding on a train. When meeting with suppliers and customers, the immediate availability of design data can help them to resolve issues immediately instead of having to first return to the office to find the information they need.

Mobile apps for engineers

While this is not a comprehensive list, here are a few mobile apps that are worth checking out for engineers on the go.

* Sketchbook Mobile. This affordable professional drawing and painting tool is a good starting point when ideas arise while you’re in the field. Available on Android and iOS.

* Autodesk AutoCAD 360. This DWG file viewer allows users to view, edit, and share their 3D models with others using the iPhone or iPad. This app is probably the most downloaded of the CAD viewer apps with more than 5 million installs on the Android platform alone. It’s available on Android and iOS.

* ForceEffect. Also from Autodesk, this app allows users to simulate design concepts on the spot. It does all the heavy lifting (simulation and calculations) on the mobile device. This makes it easy to simulate design options during the concept phase for easy validation.

Autodesk’s ForceEffect allows you to create a design, give it a set of supports, introduce forces upon it, see how other forces come into play and how changing that design changes those forces.

* GrabCAD. For anybody using GrabCAD Workbench, this mobile app provides access to both the GrabCAD public library and your private projects stored on the GrabCAD Workbench. View models, comment, create projects, and get update notifications–all from your Android or iPhone/iPad.

* Engineering Unit Converter is popular, with more than 100,000 installs and many happy customer reviews. The best part? The app uses less than 1 MB of space on your system. The downside? It’s only available for Android.

* Solid Edge Mobile Viewer. Download this new Windows 8.1 app for free from the Windows Store to view 3D part and assembly models, and 2D drawings that were created using Solid Edge. Available for iOS and Android as well.

* eDrawings Pro. This app works with SolidWorks, DWG and DWF (DraftSight) files. Users can view different model configurations, drawings and exploded views for different representations. Images can be rotated, zoomed, and minimized to measure distances in relation to the model. Users can make connotations, markups, and cross-section views while taking photos and snapshots, which can then be emailed for others to view.

The newest version of eDrawings Pro lets users see their 3D models in a real-world setting through augmented reality. The app takes the 3D model and places it in position anywhere the user wants simply by turning on a mobile device camera.

* Engineering Cookbook. Provides access to frequently needed information, including HVAC load estimates, design formulas, conversion factors, and sound and system design guidelines. Available on Android and iOS.

* Engineering Handbook Lite. Similar to the Engineering Cookbook but also offers materials classifications and engineering components, which allow users to calculate maximum/minimum values from things such as a hole to a shaft and back again. A mechanics feature allows users to view the formulas for gear drives and their dimensions, which is especially convenient when using a 3D printer to fabricate parts.

Are there any mobile apps for engineers that I didn’t list that you are using and loving? If so, please share them in the comment section below.

Barb Schmitz

10 Holiday Gift Ideas for Engineers

December 16, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

We all know that engineers are a special breed of people, and as such, they need special gifts. Though many of you reading this post probably are engineers, share this list with your loved ones, who let’s face it, don’t get you and your left-brained nature. You love gifts that make you think, that challenge you and put your particular brand of smarts to use.

So without further delay, let’s get to those gift ideas that you can both give–and hopefully receive–that will keep you busy and happy on Christmas day.

1. OWI Robotic Arm. Let’s face it; most engineers have a thing for robots so don’t you think most of them would love a robotic arm to help them with their work? While, this one might not be able to do too many sophisticated things, but it’s still fun to build and to play with once it’s done, like shaking hands and getting it to pick up items. Find it here on Amazon for just over $50.

2. The Parrot Rolling Spider. This ultra-compact drone, controlled by your smartphone, will impress even the biggest technophile on your list. The Parrot Rolling Spider, which was designed using SolidWorks software, flies indoors and outdoors with surprising speed and stability. Learn how to pilot via the FreeFlight 3 app, which can be downloaded for free on iOS, Android, and on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1. You can find it a list of available retailers here.

3. Math Formulas Tie. OK, so we all know that engineers as a whole are not known for their flair for fashion, but wearing this tie, which is loaded up with math formulas, will let everyone know that there’s an engineering brain at work. Just when you think ties are a passe gift, you find one that suits them to a tee and is something they’ll really enjoy wearing. Available for $45 at Uncommongoods.com.

$Math-Formulas-Tie$

4. Cams & Cranks. This one is perfect for those future engineers out there. Engino Mechanical Science: Cams and Cranks will help them learn all about cams and cranks and how they work together to convert energy. This line of toys is particularly made for those looking to help kickstart a child’s imagination and scientific reasoning. Get it for less than $25 here on Amazon.

5. Remote Controlled Machines. These Thames and Kosmos machines will do their bidding once they’re built and programmed to do so. Half the fun is making them and the other half is getting them to do what you want them to do. The engineers and other gear heads in your life will have fun tinkering with them and figuring out how they work. They are available here on Amazon for $70.

6. Hanz Inventor’s Kit. A smartphone holder is just one of the things that you can put together with this kit. Budding engineers can create gadgets using it to create cool stuff, promoting originality and inspiring future designers. Includes 10 “Brains,” 20 Beams, 4 Wheels, 4 Tires, 6 Rubber Bands, and instructions on how to build ideas. Find it on Amazon here.

7. I’m an Engineer Mug. Alright, so the engineer in your life may have to rely on the spellcheck, but they don’t need much assistance when it comes to math problems. It shows that engineers can have a sense of humor, even if they’re paid to be very pragmatic. Order it on Amazon for less than $20 here.

8. The Coolest Cooler. Though not available yet, get your loved ones on the preorder list—and save $50—for the Coolest Cooler. Launched via Kickstarter, this cooler features an 18-volt, battery-powered rechargeable blender, 5-watt Bluetooth speakers, a USB charger, an LED lid light, locking gear tie-down, a divider/cutting board, and extra wide, easy rolling wheels. When it’s time to party, this cooler parties hard.

9. The Jawbone Up24. This cool fitness wearable is an incredibly easy-to-use and enjoyable fitness tracker that counts steps, sleep, and calories. The Up24 is water-resistant, light, and comfortable to wear. The device syncs with iPhones and Android phones over Bluetooth. Only wearable rated as Excellent by CNET.com on its list of the Best Wearables of 2014.

10. Rocket Launch Set. Though it’s not exactly rocket science, they’ll have a lot of fun getting this rocket off the ground. Understanding the physics behind why it works will only add to the enjoyment for an engineer. Uses a standard Estes engines, this rocket can be blasted up to amazing heights of 1,000 feet. Available for approximately $20 from Amazon. Find it here.

Do you have any other creative gift ideas for engineers? If so, please feel free to add them below.

Barb Schmitz

Autodesk Releases HSMWorks 2015 CAM Software for SolidWorks Users

October 30, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Autodesk today announced the release of HSMWorks 2015, a fully integrated CAM solution for users of SolidWorks software. Yes, that’s right. It’s for SolidWorks users. The company was bought two years ago by Autodesk with a promise to its dedicated flock of users that it would continue to both support and sell the product to users of its competitor, SolidWorks, and the company has stood by its promise.

In fact, this release of HSMWorks 2015 marks the third major release of the HSMWorks product line since Autodesk acquired HSMWorks. In that time, the company has also released twelve updates with hundreds of new features and enhancements, which enable users to turn their models and assemblies into machined parts, all within a fully integrated design to manufacturing workflow.

“This new release is a great example of our ongoing commitment to our customers, regardless of which CAD system they use,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president at Autodesk. “The feedback from users tells us HSMWorks is valued for its integration, ease-of-use and performance. This release takes the software even further with innovative new updates and features.”

Autodesk releases HSMWorks 2015 CAM software for SolidWorks users.

What’s New

HSMWorks 2015, with support for SolidWorks 2015, includes many new enhancements, including a significant update to Adaptive Clearing, the product’s high-efficiency roughing technology. It reduces valuable cycle time from machining jobs by taking advantage of highly efficient toolpath motion that maintains constant cutter engagement during material removal.

The updated Adaptive Roughing feature also now includes taper support for helical ramps, enhanced stay-down linking and optimized z-level transitioning, which directly contributes to reduced cycle times and more efficient operation on the machine.

Stock simulation has been updated with improved performance in 3D mode, important for customers in the mold/die industry and those who frequently work with large models with 3D and sculpted surfaces.

Free version also updated

HSMXpress 2015, a free version of HSMWorks offering professional CAM capabilities exclusively for 2-1/2 axis milling machining projects, has also been released as part of this update. HSMXpress includes all the same 2D Milling and Drilling capabilities as HSMWorks, along with solid part simulation and post processing system.

HSMWorks 2015 also supports the latest Intel Xeon Processors and high-end workstations, like the HP Z840 Workstation, configurable up to 36 total processor cores in one system. This allows HSMWorks 2015 to take advantage of the latest in computing power to speed toolpath calculation and post-processing times; making it easier to accommodate last minute engineering changes and get CNC programs to the shop floor faster.

HSMWorks 2015 is available today in English, German and Japanese languages. For more information on HSMWorks 2015 or to download a free trial please visit the Autodesk web site.

Barb Schmitz

Integrated CAM APPS help engineers take designs straight to manufacturing

October 6, 2014 By Barb Schmitz 1 Comment

by Barb Schmitz, Senior Editor

There have been many hardware advances on the manufacturing side of product development. Increasingly sophisticated machining technology is becoming more affordable and accessible, and as a result, more and more companies are bringing technology, such as CNC machines, in house. Having the capabilities to create prototypes quickly in house saves significant time to market over the traditional process of outsourcing to machine shops.

Another exciting new technology poised to radically change the landscape for manufacturing forever is the 3D printer, which enables manufacturers, as well as hobbyists and would-be inventors, to quickly create physical prototypes with the push of a button. The prices of these machines and the materials they use have plummeted in recent years, putting the technology in the hands of anyone with an idea and a desire to convert that idea into a reality

New technologies demand new methodologies
As more and more companies are turning to rapid prototyping and manufacturing to cut turnaround time for prototypes and customized one-off parts, the necessity to provide product data in the form of 3D models is increasing.

Three-axis and up NC programming, rapid prototyping, mold design and sheet metal manufacturing now require 3D models that can be referenced to create NC toolpaths, SLA molds and sheetmetal flat patterns with proper bend allowances. These systems require input generated in STL format, which can be easily output from 3D models by saving models in that format.

For companies still creating designs in 2D, problems await. When manufacturers have to “rebuild” 2D drawings in 3D, problems often rear their ugly heads downstream. When mistakes are made translating 2D designs into 3D, the resulting part might not meet its original design requirements. In addition, when drawings are tweaked to work for manufacturing, those original 2D drawings are often not changed, so if referenced later, problems again arise.

Automate CAM with CAD-integrated solutions
CAM is the component that enables engineers to turn their design into a physical part on a CNC machine. With traditional CAM software, the workflow is completely different than the workflow in CAD, making it difficult for engineers to use. Yet, with more and more companies bringing machining capabilities in-house, the ability to use and understand how to generate toolpaths has become more important to engineers.

To make it easier for product designers and engineers to take 3D CAD models straight to manufacturing, many fully CAD-integrated CAM software solutions are now available, typically sold by partners of CAD vendors through their reseller channels.

Single-window integration for CAM means that engineers and designers can launch the CAM app from within their CAD program. When design changes are made, these updates are automatically made in downstream manufacturing applications as well. As a result, accuracy of design data is also maintained because the CAM application creates data by directly referencing the 3D CAD model.

Integrated CAM software also enables designers to assess the manufacturability of products early in the design process. “Integrated CAM helps expedite the manufacturing process by helping engineers and designers gain early insight into the cost, performance and manufacturability of designs,” said Aaron Frankel, marketing director at Siemens PLM. “It also enables easy optimization of designs for maximum manufacturing efficiency by reducing manufacturing steps, improving efficiency of tooling, reducing machining times and maximizing shop floor equipment utilization.”

Mending fences: Integrated CAM facilitates concurrent design
By integrating CAD and CAM, companies seek to solve the traditional disconnect between designers and their manufacturing counterparts. Design engineers have a reputation of simply “lobbing” CAD models over the wall to manufacturing without regard to the efforts required to prepare those models for manufacturing, creating tensions between the two groups that have hampered processes and prohibited truly collaborative design efforts.

Use integrated mold flow simulation technology, such as EasyFill Moldex3D mold analysis software, to gain insight into the real-world manufacturability of design alternatives.

Traditionally, even though both teams are working on the same design, they use different tools that don’t speak the same language, which requires manufacturing to translate the design data they receive from one language to another. This requires them to import and possibly repair the geometry, which creates delays and increases the likelihood of errors.

PTC Creo enables faster time-to-production and customer responsiveness.

“The design and manufacturing process is not a one-way street,” said Craig Therrien, a product portfolio manager at SolidWorks. “There are always many iterations back and forth, so every time a designer makes a change, that cycle of importing and exporting begins again. Data translations and conversions add extra steps and introduce potential errors.”

When both teams can work in parallel through an integrated design and manufacturing process, they can react faster to design changes. By using a master model with associativity, users can update their mold design, NC programs, electrodes and setup sheets every time the CAD model changes. Associativity makes design changes go faster and simple changes can be updated automatically— they don’t require reprogramming because they automatically re-adjust. More than one designer can work on the same tool at the same time, and you can start NC programming before the tool design is completed.

PTC Creo provides users with NC capabilities for mold machining.

“Seamless integration of CAM software into the design process can be a huge help in addressing time-to-market issues,” said Brian Thompson, vice president of Creo Product Management at PTC. “If the manufacturing and design engineers are working with the same data, then early visibility into any manufacturing issues is easy, and the resulting collaboration will allow the team to catch and correct manufacturability issues before they hit the production floor.”

Fully integrated CAM packages enable users to easily automate CAM to help lower costs, increase productivity and speed time to market. Because these solutions work directly with 3D CAD data, there is no need to translate or recreate designs for manufacturing, reducing the chance of errors. Many were also designed to follow more of a CAD-like workflow, making it easier for engineers to learn and use.

While integrated CAM software helps to identify manufacturing issues early in the design process, the benefits continue once products move to production. “Once the design is in production, the benefits of a single, associative data model continue,” said Thompson. “Any changes to the production design are automatically propagated into the manufacturing toolpaths, enabling incredibly quick implementation of product design changes into the manufacturing process.”

An integrated approach to CAM also greatly reduces the traditional disconnect between the two processes—design and manufacturing—by providing an integrated platform that serves the needs of both. “Communication barriers are removed with this approach and processes are smoothed out, reducing cycle times while improving quality,” said Therrien. “It also eliminates the need to import/export/repair model data, improves data accuracy, promotes concurrent design and reduces overall costs.”

HSMWorks is an integrated CAM solution focused on CNC milling and CNC turning, available exclusively for SolidWorks users but is sold and supported by Autodesk.

Integrated CAM opens doors to new rapid manufacturing technologies
The combination of powerful 3D modeling, CAD-integrated CAM apps and affordable machining technologies, such as 3D printers, has created new opportunities and radically changed the way people think about design. If you can think it and design it, you can now build it.

For design engineers, 3D printing means faster turnarounds on physical prototypes, the ability to make parts that were impossible with traditional manufacturing techniques, and a way to quickly create one-off configurations for truly customized final products.

Using an integrated approach to CAM also will enable users to quickly take advantage of “next-gen” manufacturing equipment, such as new generations of hybrid additive technologies that can both build up and machine metal.

The combination of CAD-integrated CAM software and new advanced rapid manufacturing technologies packs a mean productivity punch. Not only will it help to bridge the gap between design and manufacturing teams, but will also speed time to market for new products while cutting down on errors and the costs associated with them.

Reprint info >>

Autodesk
www.autodesk.com

SolidWorks
www.solidworks.com

Siemens PLM Software
www.siemens.com

PTC
www.ptc.com

Delcam Releases SolidWorks-Integrated CAM Version

October 6, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

CAD-integrated CAM software greatly facilitates the communication between design and manufacturing by removing the error-prone process of having to translate data between two systems. It also helps decrease the traditional disconnect that exists between the two groups of users, enabling both teams to do the work concurrently.

Delcam recently launched Delcam for SolidWorks integrated CAD system, which includes a range of new features for three-axis milling, drilling, turning and wire EDM.

Programming of three-axis toolpaths for complex parts has been made easier and more reliable in Delcam for SOLIDWORKS 2015 with the addition of automatic collision checking of the tool shank and holder, as well as the cutter, for both roughing and finishing operations. If a gouge is detected the toolpath can be recalculated with any segments that will cause a gouge clipped away.

Removing these segments of the toolpath leaves an area of unmachined stock that will need to be removed with a longer tool. This extra toolpath is able to be calculated using a stock model of material remaining after the shorter tool has been used to ensure there is no re-machining of stock that has already been removed.

As part of this development, an additional function, called ‘maximum machine stock’, has been added that removes direct moves where clipping has occurred. These direct moves can leave witness marks on the part so their removal should improve surface finish.

Another improvement in three-axis machining with Delcam for SOLIDWORKS 2015 allows stock models to be used in conjunction with other geometry, such as the part surface dimensions, solid models, the stock dimensions and boundary curves. This addition gives better control over the area to be machined by each toolpath and so gives more efficient machining by allowing the user to confine toolpaths to specific regions and to eliminate air-cutting by referencing the stock model.

Three-axis flowline and isoline machining is now more flexible, with users able to choose to move the tool in an in-to-out direction or an out-to-in direction.

Drilling with Delcam for SOLIDWORKS has been made easier in the new release with the introduction of a new hole type, ‘Thread Mill Hole’, which eliminates the need to create holes, pockets or sides, and thread features as separate items. It can be used either with holes created with the ‘Hole’ feature or those that have been identified with ‘Feature Recognition’.

Another improvement to drilling is the new ‘Find Feature’ command that gives the ability to combine similar holes into groups on indexed parts. With previous releases, users had to have a separate feature for each hole but, in Delcam for SOLIDWORKS 2015, holes that are similar can be recognized and then grouped together. This makes them much easier to manage and edit.
A series of improvements have been introduced to make turning with Delcam for SOLIDWORKS more efficient. The software is now able to produce toolpaths that rapid up and over previously machined diameters, rather than feeding along them. This reduces the overall cycle time and avoids dragging of the tool.

For users of wire EDM, Delcam for SOLIDWORKS 2015 provides an expanded wire-cut database to support multiple machines having varying formats and methods of operation, with the ability to specify nozzle type and fluid type as well as material type and thickness, wire type and diameter, and EDM machine. This gives more flexibility by providing the option to store and apply a greater variety of different parameters.

Wire EDM assemblies with multiple setups are now able to be output in a single program separated by Program Stops, with NC code required for a safe Program Stop formatted in a special section of the post processor. This increases programming flexibility greatly for Wire EDM users, allowing them to manage their parts on the machine more safely.

A key benefit of Delcam for SOLIDWORKS has always been the availability of a wide range of post-processors, together with the ability for users to customize their posts. In the 2015 version, post variables are able to be assigned user-defined names. This allows users to see quickly exactly which post variables are configured for use with a particular post-processor and to understand their intended use. This change is particularly valuable when programmers need to understand customizations in posts that have been made by other users.

Delcam for SOLIDWORKS combines the benefits associated with Delcam’s PowerMILL and FeatureCAM CAM systems. It is based on Delcam’s proven machining algorithms that are already used by more than 45,000 customers around the world. The software offers PowerMILL’s exceptional speed of toolpath calculation, plus the advanced strategies for high-speed and five-axis machining, to ensure increased productivity, maximum tool life and immaculate surface finish, even when cutting the hardest, most challenging materials. At the same time, Delcam for SOLIDWORKS has the same strong focus on ease of use as FeatureCAM, including all of the knowledge-based automation that makes that system so consistent and reliable.

Delcam for SOLIDWORKS is fully integrated into the SOLIDWORKS environment so that the program looks and behaves like SOLIDWORKS. It offers full associativity so that any changes in the CAD model are reflected automatically in the toolpaths. However, this associativity is more intelligent than that offered in many other integrated CAM systems. Delcam for SOLIDWORKS doesn’t simply modify the existing toolpaths but also reviews the choice of cutting tools and machining strategies, and changes them if necessary.

Looking Under the Hood of SolidWorks 2015

September 8, 2014 By Barb Schmitz 1 Comment

A large group of editors, bloggers, users and analysts from across the country converged in Boston last week to hear all the details of the highly anticipated release of SolidWorks 2015. With SolidWorks 2015, the company focused on providing its users with a wider range of choices for improving everyday productivity, optimizing work processes, reducing operating costs, and solving an expanded set of design challenges.

SolidWorks seems to have the most ardent users in the industry, over 2 million of them, and the company seems to go a good job of listening to them. SolidWorks developers worked closely with users, as evidenced by the fact that 90% of the new functionality included in this release was user-requested.

SolidWorks has broadened its approach to design, and its portfolio has expanded significantly over the past few years. SolidWorks 2015 includes tools for 3D design, simulation, electrical design, product data management and technical communication. Designers and engineers can span multiple disciplines with ease, shortening the design cycle, increasing productivity and delivering innovative products to market faster.

SolidWorks 2015 not only delivers key enhancements requested by the entire user base, but is clearly adding functionality to broaden its appeal in other industries and markets. For example, SolidWorks users will be able to easily enhance the aesthetics of consumer products and apparel, and simulate construction machinery, building infrastructure and machine tools better than ever before.

The media had the opportunity to interview SolidWorks executives one-on-one during the launch event. I asked several which of the new features they thought users would be most excited about. Fairly unanimously they said that would be the software’s new model-based definition (MBD) offering, which will enable design and manufacturing to share PMI information directly in 3D. I personally think it’s a bit early for users to get too excited about that particular piece of the pie, but it certainly reflects where product development is inevitably headed: paperless design or at least less paper.

“With the emphasis on the direct-from-3D-model fabrication processes, it’s important that we shift our focus to model-based definition so that we can shorten our overall design cycle and simplify the way we do things,” said Ryan Trulli, Mechanical Engineer, GE Oil & Gas. “With SOLIDWORKS Model Based Definition, the 3D model itself holds all the dimensional data necessary to make the part. This means less documentation creation, fewer emails flying around, and fewer files to sustain when the project is complete.”

New features in SolidWorks 2015

The new functionality in the software, grouped by area of improvement, include:

Productivity
• Focus On Design, Not Modelling with new features that reduce geometry creation steps.
• Faster Information Sharing – Improved general performance, faster analysis and streamlined approaches give users the data to quickly make decisions and keep designing.
• Enhanced User Experience – An improved graphical interface presents a clear view of critical data to help focus on design.
• Simulate Multiple Design Scenarios – Quickly evaluate the effects of various load combinations on a model, and tracking results.
• MySolidWorks Standard – The new MySolidWorks Standard and Professional subscription levels deliver more than 100 hours of SOLIDWORKS training materials and online file exchange services.

In SOLIDWORKS Simulation new load case manager interface within a Static study allows you to define (secondary) load combinations from (primary) load definitions quickly and evaluate the effects of the various load combinations on your model.

Optimize Work Process
• Collaborative Sharing – By easily accessing social collaboration and online data management tools on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, users can benefit from faster development and quicker decision making.
• SolidWorks Treehouse – Top-down design is facilitated by visually creating assemblies, enabling product structures to be managed at the beginning of design projects.
• Web2 for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM – With the addition of mobile connectivity, users can connect to Enterprise PDM from any location, at any time.

Reduce Operations Costs
• SolidWorks Model Based Definition – A new offering to help improve communication between design and manufacturing teams by enabling them to communicate product and manufacturing information (PMI) in 3D.
• SolidWorks Inspection – The process of creating documentation is simplified, allowing users to quickly set up and compare baseline data to production parts for quality control.
• SolidWorks Electrical – Quickly develop electrical schematics and incorporate them into the 3D model with enhanced cable harness and system integration.
• Enhanced Cost Analysis – Users can estimate costs across many manufacturing methods, including weldments, plastics, castings and 3D printing.

The Surface Curvature Combs tool evaluates curvature quality and smoothness. You can display curvature combs on model surfaces to analyze how adjacent surfaces join and transition.

Solve More Design Challenges
• Improve Manufacturability of Products with Compound Curvature – Automatically flattening of 3D models, to help identify materials and manufacturing issues. This feature is especially helpful to those in the apparel, footwear, upholstery and shipbuilding industries.
• Enhance Product Aesthetics and Usability – Creating asymmetrical fillets for parts, assemblies and surfaces gives users in the high tech, medical and consumer industries increased flexibility to model more ergonomic and stylized designs.
• Accurately Simulate Machine Components – Developing accurate construction machinery and machine tools with automated roller chains helps ensure operation and usability.

To dig a little deeper into the new functionality offered in SolidWorks 2015, check out the company’s launch site here, which will be live September 9th.

Barb Schmitz

Leveraging the Value of 3D Design Data

August 18, 2014 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Software vendors spend a lot of time and money touting the value of 3D CAD software though most of the attention is paid to the actual design process. After all, this is where engineers and designers focus most of their efforts and where the innovative designs are conceived and realized through the use of 3D CAD software.

Ideas are proposed, explored, vetted, and flushed out during the important conceptual design phase. Then engineers take those evolving concepts and convert them into fully detailed geometry that will eventually be past to manufacturing.

Downstream benefits of 3D data

The use of 3D CAD software has provided tremendous benefits to the design phase of product development, but leveraging that resulting 3D design data elsewhere in the enterprise–and even outside of the corporate walls to partners and suppliers–is where a bounty of potential benefits awaits. Many companies have barely scratched the surface of realizing these downstream benefits of 3D data.

After all, it takes a village, or at least an entire enterprise, to successfully conceive, design, manufacture and get any new product to market. This somewhat Herculean effort requires the carefully coordinated efforts of multiple disciplines, which all play a critical role in the ultimate market success of any product.

While engineering and manufacturing play a starring role in the design-test-build phases of product development, other departments, such as marketing, sales, service quality, training, and technical documentation, also play heavily into the successful rollout and support of final products. These departments are often referred to as off the critical path, but their involvement is still critical.

Make it easier for non-technical users to create associative 2D and 3D product communication deliverable directly from your 3D CAD data using products, such as SolidWorks Composer shown here.

Make it easier for non-technical users to create associative 2D and 3D product communication deliverables directly from your 3D CAD data using products, such as SolidWorks Composer shown here.

Despite this, not all companies are taking advantage of leveraging CAD data to these important downstream design consumers. Let’s take a look at how downstream departments can leverage the use of 3D design data and what tasks can be done better by using it.

Better sales proposals. Create proposals that feature fully rendered 3D images and animations and you’ll get an edge on any competition still submitting bids in 2D. Creating proposals in 3D also helps potential customers understand the intricacies of your product.

Better sales tools. Help out your marketing department by providing them with 3D photorealistic renderings of products. Being able to create supporting collateral in advance using 3D CAD data enables marketers to seed the market to assess interest in a new product.

More effective training materials. Instructors can hit the ground running by tapping 3D CAD data to create the technical manuals and tutorials that will be used to help users understand how to ultimately use the product.

Assess maintenance issues. Regardless of how amazing and innovative a new product is, at some point it will be need to be serviced. Document field service procedures using 3D CAD data prior to manufacturing to access how easy or difficult it will be to service that product once built.

Create assembly instructions. Instead of manually creating assembly instructions based on cryptic 2D drawings, 3D assembly models can be quickly and easily “exploded” in 3D CAD to enable folks downstream to easily include these views of a product’s internal components in technical illustrations, assembly instructions and customer documentation.

Collaborate better. Design review teams today have expanded to include many non-technical members, including marketing and sales. Sharing a 3D model with which they can interact can help them understand how a product will function so they can add their input–without having to know how to use a 3D CAD system or interpret a 2D drawing.

The bottom line

The ability to share 3D data downstream with non-engineering departments can deliver significant bang for the buck by increasing productivity, optimizing workflows, and providing non-technical personnel with a voice in the development of new products in design reviews.

In order to realize these benefits, however, companies must educate, train and encourage these downstream design participants to use and understand the extended value of 3D CAD data and how they can use it to be more productive and better contribute to the success of future products.

Barb Schmitz