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Autodesk Ships Nastran 2015, Nastran In-CAD 2015

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

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

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

New versions of Nastran solver released

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

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

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

Taking FEA to the Cloud

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

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

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

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

Barb Schmitz

Design Technology Behind the Scenes at 2014 World Cup

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Every four years, national soccer–or football as the rest of the world calls it–teams from across the globe duke it out to determine the best square on the planet. An estimated one billion viewers will be glued to their seats watching the action that kicks off today in Brazil, nearly 900 million more than who tuned in for this year’s Super Bowl.

With the excitement of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in full swing, I thought this might be a good time to remind everyone of the real unsung hero behind this year’s matches: technology! Here is a sampling of some of the technology behind the scenes at this year’s World Cup.

No more bad calls. Thanks to new wearable smartwatches, referees in Rio de Janeiro won’t have to trust their own eyes on whether the ball crosses the goal line. The smartwatches used in Brazil are made by a German company called GoalControl, which installed 14 cameras that track the ball around the pitch. The watches will vibrate and display the word “GOAL” each time the ball crosses the goal line. Good news for fans still enraged over the infamous bad call made during the 2010 in London when England was denied a score in a match against Germany, even though the ball had clearly passed the goal line.

Smartwatches and 14 cameras will determine whether the ball crosses the goal line at this year's World Cup matches.
Smartwatches and 14 cameras will determine whether the ball crosses the goal line at this year’s World Cup matches.

Crowd control. With tens of thousands of excited soccer fans descending upon the Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha stadium in Brazil, crowd safety is of utmost importance. With past tragedies in mind, the structural integrity of the facility is critical. Fortunately the stadium has been analysis validated that the fierce Brazilian winds won’t impact the safety for spectators and teams. Simulation specialists at ANSYS channel partner ESSS used ANSYS CFD software to predict airflow around the stadium and pressure on the stadium roof. The specialists also used ANSYS FEA software to study the combined effects of wind, stadium infrastructure and a traditionally rowdy crowd. Engineers completed the analysis in two weeks – about one-tenth the time required for traditional wind-tunnel validation – for 66 percent lower costs compared to physical testing methods.

Bend it like Beckham. The curl obtained with the inside of the soccer cleat, or football boot, which was made somewhat famous by David Beckham, and the curl with the the outside of the cleat, is due to the Magnus effect. The effect, named after the scientist who first observed the effect in a lab in the 1850s, explains the side-force on a sphere that is both rotating and moving forward. Check out this blog by COMSOL to see how the company used its multi physics software to analyze the World Cup match ball.

This show the velocity and pressure fields around the rotating forward-moving ball and a rotating cylinder. The velocity at the equator is much higher on the side of the ball that rotates with the direction of the ball, as it slides the air past its surface. On the other side of the ball, its rotation and forward movement work in opposite directions.
This show the velocity and pressure fields around the rotating forward-moving ball and a rotating cylinder. The velocity at the equator is much higher on the side of the ball that rotates with the direction of the ball, as it slides the air past its surface. On the other side of the ball, its rotation and forward movement work in opposite directions.

Turf wars. Real turf fields are pretty to look at, but high-maintenance costs lead to the investigation into alternative artificial surfaces. The first attempt in 1981 in London failed miserably. The surface brought on odd bounces and an increased likelihood of injuries. In 1996 a successful hybrid grass system was introduced, featuring millions of synthetic fibers injected into natural grasses. These hybrid systems can take up to three times more wear and tear than natural grass and can be installed in as little as three weeks. A Dutch company METAL Machinebouwers used Solidworks CAD software to design the machines used in the first stage of the installation process: creating the artificial fibers that will be planted into the ground.

Dassault Releases SolidWorks Inspection App

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Manufacturers today must grapple with meeting a host of international standards. Regardless of whether a company does business locally or globally, it has to submit early design and manufacturing reports, such as a First Article Inspection (FAI) report, inspection report or ballooned drawing (where dimensions for inspections are drawn in a balloon or bubble shape).

These reports measure the property and geometry of a product before it is built – and are critical for organizations who must meet the stringent requirements and safety regulations of the transportation and mobility, aerospace and defense, energy, process and utilities and life sciences industries.

A recent survey of CAD users found that while many are creating FAIs, inspection reports, or ballooned drawings, just a small percentage are using software for their creation. Instead, users are manually entering data into ballooned engineering drawings and hand-keying inspection reports into Excel, an error-prone process.

Automated inspection app facilitates creation of inspection documents

Today, Dassault Systèmes announces the release of an automated inspection tool called SolidWorks Inspection. This new ap will help manufacturers by completely automating the creation of inspection documents, which are now required in many industries for regulatory compliance.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection is a First Article Inspection (FAI) and in-process inspection software that streamlines and automates the creation of ballooned inspection drawings and inspection reports.
SOLIDWORKS Inspection is a First Article Inspection (FAI) and in-process inspection software that streamlines and automates the creation of ballooned inspection drawings and inspection reports.

With the SOLIDWORKS Inspection application, companies can quickly re-use existing design data and content to create highly accurate inspection reports, such as AS91002 or PPAP forms, helping to accelerate the time to regulatory approval.

With SolidWorks Inspection, users are given multiple ways to automatically enter values directly into an inspection report. SOLIDWORKS Inspection also helps eliminate errors and inconsistencies that come from entering data by hand. Using this application enables quality inspectors to easily identify problematic parts or manufacturing processes. By regularly creating inspection reports and conducting in-process inspections, scrap costs are reduced, product quality is improved and problematic machines or calibration issues can be detected earlier.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection consists of a stand-alone application and a SolidWorks add-in that enables users to leverage their legacy data, regardless of whether they are SOLIDWORKS files, PDFs or TIFFs.

Extended functionality offered in Professional edition

The SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional edition extends SOLIDWORKS Inspection capabilities by providing users with multiple ways to enter measured values – manually typing them in, using a digital caliper or importing CMM results.

The dimensions in the drawing are automatically highlighted in green, red and yellow to instantly provide information on which dimensions are within the design’s tolerance budget. This helps ensure parts are within specification for perfect fit and function, as well as improved quality and reliability.

For more information on SolidWorks Inspection, which can be purchased through SolidWorks resellers, read more here.

Barb Schmitz

Dassault Ships Mechanical Conceptual

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Though it was announced back in January at SolidWorks World, Dassault Systemes today announces that Mechanical Conceptual is now available. The first SolidWorks application on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Mechanical Conceptual has already been hard at work in production environments at numerous customer sites. Touted to be more social and conceptual, the software is expected to greatly facilitate design collaboration among key design contributors through its use of Dassault’s cloud-based capabilities.

Here’s what one of the SolidWorks resellers is saying about the new product. “Now that the majority of the companies we partner with have embraced cloud technologies, GoEngineer has seen a dramatic increase in requests from our customer’s engineering, design, and manufacturing departments for help in leveraging the cloud in their organizations. We are excited to offer them SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual as a solution that effectively combines the benefits of cloud, integrates the amazing power of social technologies, and addresses the need for some design teams to have preliminary layouts before finalizing their CAD work.” said Brad Hansen, CEO of GoEngineer.

Mechanical Conceptual will help key design participants collaborate on designs early and throughout the design cycle.
Mechanical Conceptual will help key design participants collaborate on designs early and throughout the design cycle.

Working in tandem with the regularly updated SolidWorks 3D mechanical CAD software, SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual allows customers to harness the collective intelligence of the entire design team, customers and the supply chain to capture ideas, leverage existing designs, collaborate and quickly collect feedback. Customers have the ability to purchase what best supports their specific conceptual design process:

* SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual – an instinctive powerful 3D modeling environment with online data storage and social collaboration on Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

* Collaborative Sharing – additional access for non-CAD users (executives, design team leaders, project managers and external collaborators) who need to manage data on the cloud and collaborate without constraints, but do not need to create CAD models.

* Product Design Simulation from SIMULIA – easy-to-use simulation-based guidance during all phases of product design, including the critical conceptual design stage, to improve product performance and reduce cost.

Customers can buy Mechanical Conceptual through SolidWorks’ reseller partners. More information of Mechanical Conceptual can be found here.

Barb Schmitz

Kenesto PLM Platform Re-launched

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Yesterday I had to opportunity to be reintroduced to the relaunched Kenesto, the company headed up by Mike Payne, one of the more renowned and revered figures in the CAD world, having started PTC and SolidWorks (then SpaceClaim). Pretty much anything that Mike is involved in draws interest from the industry and Kenesto is no exception.

Kenesto is a cloud-based PLM platform with its roots in workflow management. The platform is being relaunched with a renewed focus on collaboration, as companies are more comfortable owning up to needing this capability more than they are to admitting workflow issues.

Kenesto adopts OEM product strategy

Though the product has technically been around since it was introduced in 2011, in December of last year, the company officially announced that the product was ready to go to market. Nothing unusual about that though the way in which the company is marketing and selling the product is unusual. Due to the company’s relatively small size and lack of marketing muscle or resources, it is currently soliciting partnerships with third-party vendors to private-label the solution for subscription sales into their respective markets.

Logic behind the move is explained by Stephen Bodnar, senior VP of Products and Strategy at Kenesto (and former VP of PLM at Autodesk). “The framework we’ve put in place to support partners who wish to offer our technology to their customers, branded as their own, and through their own sales channels, makes great sense for us given where we are in our company’s lifecycle and the level of investment required to capture additional, much larger markets. It also makes great sense for enterprise software providers who wish to offer the kinds of cloud-based collaboration capabilities, such as those available in Kenesto’s solution, in a timely, cost-effective manner.”

Collaboration features with CAD benefits

An increasingly common acronym (we just love acronyms in the CAD industry) is Collaborative Product Design or CPD. Bodnar emphasizes that in Kenesto’s case, CPD can mean both collaborative project or product design, as he believes the software will fit just as nicely in other industries where file/task/workflow management remains a challenge, such as the insurance, mortgage and AEC industries. In fact, the company’s biggest customer thus far using Kenesto is a large PR agency.

Despite that, with the founders’ strong background in engineering design, that will the primary initial market they will go after with the product. As far as company size of target customers, Bodnar says they are primarily focused on small- to mid-sized businesses, a sweet spot for PLM vendors and a largely unserved market.

A colleague, Roopinder Tara, described Kenesto as “a Dropbox with CAD benefits.” Bodnar refers to it as “Dropbox on steroids.” Either way, you get the picture. The difference: Kenesto has discussion flows, where DropBox does not; Kenesto views 250 file types, Dropbox does not.

Kenesto can also store email conversations along with notes, text files, JPEGs, PDFs as well as CAD files. It is able to view major CAD files, both for MCAD and AEC, which the company sees as a big potential market for the product, and cloud rendering for Redit models. People receiving files via Kenesto do not have to be subscribers themselves, though the person sharing/sending the files must be a subscriber.

With Kenesto, everyone in the office can model their portion of the workflow.
With Kenesto, everyone in the office can model their portion of the workflow.

Platform focuses on workflow management

Though it’s common for PLM solutions to offer file and content sharing, project organization, task management, workflow diagramming, Kenesto goes about many of these quite differently. For workflow diagramming, Bodnar says, “people in an organization know only their part of the workflow; no one person knows it all.” So Kenesto allows each participant to model their portion of the workflow. The administrator then eliminates duplicates and overlaps. This capability to track workflows creates a audit trail for managers to get a higher view of processes.

You can give Kenesto a free test drive (after registering) here.

Barb Schmitz

ReverseEngineering.com Releases 3D Scanner Point Cloud Tool for SolidWorks

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Product design today is largely a digital effort. Paperless design has been something that we’ve been writing about for years, but the reality is that though designs can be tested, verified and validated digitally, physical parts and prototypes remain a reality for most manufacturers. As a result, capturing data from physical objects and putting that data back into the digital model is often a crucial part of the design cycle.

Reverse engineering remains important design task

Reverse engineering enables users to create a 3D virtual model of an existing physical part that can then be used in 3D CAD, computer-aided manufacturing and other computer-aided engineering applications.

More manufacturers are adding reverse engineering to their product development efforts, in part, because the costs of the scanners and other hardware used to input measurements have dropped dramatically in price. At the same time the hardware has gotten smaller and easier to use. The software has also become easier to use and the process of converting and managing scanned data simplified.

SolidWorks users now have new 3D scanner point cloud tool

ReverseEngineering.com has recently debuted new add-in software that will make it easier for SolidWorks users to convert dense scanned data into usable SolidWorks 3D geometry. This feature-based 3D scanning point cloud tool is fully integrated inside the SolidWorks 2014 modeling engine.

ReverseEngineering.com introduces a new 3D scanner point cloud add-in for SolidWorks 2014.
ReverseEngineering.com introduces a new 3D scanner point cloud add-in for SolidWorks 2014.

The software’s scan tools include the ability to thin and cut cross-section through point clouds and create feature tree surfaces in real time, along with 2D/3D features and complex 3D shapes. The add-in works with Faro EDGE, Romer Absolute, MicroScribe, 3D Creator, Focus 3D, Cyclone, Artec Spider, Steinbichler, ATOS, HDI 3D, and Leica scanners to create parametric feature tree models.

ReverseEngineering.com is the first SolidWorks gold partner to integrate support for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) 3D scanners. At the recent SolidWorks World event, the company demonstrated 3D scanning pump impellers, human faces, sports helmets and processed the data in real time. The on-demand workflow simplifies end user requirements of working with dense point clouds in Solidworks Standard or Premuim.

Find out more on this new 3D scanner point cloud add-in here.

Barb Schmitz

NVIDIA Introduces Shared Visual Computing Appliance

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As CAD software becomes more and more powerful and resulting models become more complex and large in size, it requires more and more horsepower under the hood of engineering workstations to run effectively. Enter NVIDIA, the somewhat undisputed leader in the 3D graphic cards market.

You could find NVIDIA cards working quietly behind the scenes everywhere in the Partner Pavilion at this year’s SolidWorks World, being that its cards are the most popular among SolidWorks users with approximately 80% of the SolidWorks market.

The most popular of which is the Quadro Pro K2000 cards that sell for only about $400, a small price to pay for significantly increased productivity, right? Need even more power? Upgrade to the company’s K6000 for $4,500, which offers a whopping 12 GB of frame buffer memory and can make even the largest assemblies and photorealistic renderings and animations move in real time.

NVIDIA's Quadro K6000 is the first professional-class GPU to integrate high performance computing capabilities with advanced visualization techniques, transforming modern workflows.
NVIDIA’s Quadro 6000 is the first professional-class GPU to integrate high performance computing capabilities with advanced visualization techniques, transforming modern workflows.

Touted to deliver 5X faster performance over its predecessor, the Quadro K6000 can deliver 1.3 billion triangles per second, shattering previous 3D graphics limitations. For serious data crunching for applications such as CFD, these cards deliver performance gains of 8X. Seeing these high-end cards doing their thing was quite impressive though Andrew Cresci, vertical marketing General Manager of NVIDIA, saved the best for last.

NVIDIA takes on shared, visual computing

Not happy just being the leader in 3D graphics acceleration for the design world, NVIDIA has eyes on harnessing its technology for shared computing. During my briefing with the company, Cresci gave me a sneak peak at the company’s Visual Computing Appliance (VCA). The appliance can be located anywhere–in a data center or a company’s centralized IT center–and can fed graphics to nearly any computing device, including iPads, mobile devices, low-end PCs, etc. It works by compressing graphics from the centralized server-like hub from any distance with no discernible lag, at least that I saw during my demo.

As an editor, I hate to throw around meaningless words, like “cool,” but indeed it was cool. I was able to manipulate a rather large SolidWorks assembly running on a PC in the NVIDIA booth that was being fed from the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, 400 miles away from where we were. You can pretty quickly see the advantage of VCA for engineers and designers. Imagine being able to tap the computing power of a large server running existing software from your iPad or low-end PC.

It’s hard to not see real productivity benefits VCA offers to product developers as companies continue to try to squeeze more value out of existing resources (software and hardware). It’s not cheap; $25K+ for a floating license, but certainly a tech offering we’ll be keeping an eye on in the future. Check it out yourself on the NVIDIA site.

Barb Schmitz

Dassault Updates 3DEXPERIENCE Portfolio with Release 2014x

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One of the CAD giants, Dassault Systemes, announces the latest release of its 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s on-premise and on-the-cloud portfolio of solutions. Release 2014x of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, available to all customers on February 24, includes an on-premise portfolio of 41 industry solutions and their 183 processes, plus a dedicated cloud portfolio of 14 industry solutions, with more than 60 processes, appropriate for businesses of any size.

Included in this release is SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, which was announced at this year’s SolidWorks World event. Reception for this new product among beta users has been positive, particularly for its collaboration features and social network-like interface.

“With SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, we were able to do four process revisions by the time our competitors were only doing their secondary revision,” says William MacLeod, senior engineer, Kennedy Hygiene. “The key reason for that is the collaborative aspect of Mechanical Conceptual, which permitted our customers to log in, see real time updates of the process and share ideas with us through the blog.”

Connect instantly to collaborate with other SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual users through chat, screen capture, and on-screen annotation.
Connect instantly to collaborate with other SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual users through chat, screen capture and on-screen annotation.

On-premise portfolio covers gamut of product development tasks

The 3DEXPERIENCE® Process Portfolio On Premise expands capabilities already available on the V6 portfolio and unifies the user experience for all processes and industries. Built to answer customer- and industry-specific needs for ease of use and lower training costs, the open architecture allows customization and the integration of customer data into a single environment. It provides a single source for truth by integrating all data required to create a process experience while eliminating costly IT operations, such as database replication.

A single, compass-like interface provides easy-to-use navigation, search, and collaboration in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform environment that is extensible to any discipline in the company – engineering, manufacturing, simulation, sales, marketing, finance, procurement, and management.

Cloud offerings offer users lower cost of ownership

The 3DEXPERIENCE® Process Portfolio On Cloud expands capabilities already available on the V6 portfolio and unifies the user experience for all Processes and Industries. Offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on public cloud to provide increased flexibility and fast deployment, it includes services and support of the cloud provider in the price of the Processes, with Dassault Systèmes as the single point of contact.

The public cloud operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year, and includes maintenance, licensing and upgrades. Total Cost of Ownership is improved by reducing requirements for computing and storage, as well as facility and human resources costs, since hardware is no longer required.

A single, compass-like interface provides easy-to-use navigation, search, and collaboration in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform environment that is extensible to any discipline in the company. The on cloud process portfolio also includes the following out-of-the-box capabilities:

* 3DDashboard brings information from diverse sources into one fully customizable web page
* 3DSwym enables cross-discipline collaboration of communities of users from anywhere in the enterprise
* 3DPassport provides a single sign-on for every 3DEXPERIENCE application licensed by the user

A complete list of Release 2014x offers and operating conditions is available here.

Barb Schmitz

The failed promise of parametric CAD, final chapter: A viable solution

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Model reuseWhat is the failed promise of parametric CAD? In short, model reuse.

It’s a lot more difficult than it ought to be, for a variety of reasons. Several months back, I wrote a series of articles discussing those reasons, as well as some of the solutions that have come up over the years.  What was missing from the series was a final chapter; a detailed description of what could prove to be a viable solution to problems with model reuse: the resilient modeling strategy.

The resilient modeling strategy (RMS) is the brainchild of Richard “Dick” Gebhard. I wrote about Dick last June, in the article A Resilient Modeling Strategy. He’s a low-key guy with deep experience and serious expertise in the practical use of MCAD software. Over his career in CAD, he’s been a reseller for CADKEY, Pro/E, and most recently, Solid Edge.

RMS is a best practice for creating CAD models that are stable and easily reusable (even by inexperienced users.)  It can be learned and easily used by typical CAD users, it preserves design intent in models, and provides a mechanism by which managers or checkers can quickly validate a model’s quality.

Resilient Modeling Strategy

When Dick first started thinking about the concepts that make up the resilient modeling strategy, it was natural that it was in the context of showing the advantages of Synchronous Technology (The Siemens PLM brand name for its version of direct modeling.) In our discussions about RMS over the last year or so, I pointed out that, while I thought that RMS did indeed demonstrate the benefits of hybrid history/direct modeling in Solid Edge, for it to be taken seriously, and not be unfairly dismissed as a marketing initiative for Solid Edge, it needed to work with a wide variety of MCAD tools. I think Dick got where I was coming from, because he’s continued to refine and generalize RMS, with feedback from users of a number of MCAD systems.

In its current incarnation, RMS works particularly well with Solid Edge, as might be expected, but also works very well with Creo, NX, CATIA, and IronCAD (all of which are hybrid history/direct systems.) Further, with a few modifications, it can provide compelling value with SolidWorks, Inventor, and Pro/E (all of which are primarily history-oriented systems.)

It’s significant that RMS is also free to use. While Dick is available to provide presentations, seminars, and training, he has not attempted to patent, or keep as trade secrets, the underlying concepts of RMS. (He does claim a trademark on the term “Resilient Modeling Strategy,” which means that organizations offering commercial training on RMS will need to get Dick’s OK to use the term.)

Dick has posted an introductory presentation on RMS at resilientmodeling.com. While the entire presentation is 20 minutes long, the first 3-1/2 minutes cover the problems that people invariably experience when reusing or editing history-based CAD models. Watching that much will likely convince you to watch the rest.

On Wednesday, November 20, at 10:00 AM PST, Dick will be hosting a webinar on RMS. It’s scheduled to last just 30 minutes, with the emphasis on content, not hype. If you’re a serious CAD user or a CAD manager (or, for that matter, you work for an MCAD developer), it’ll be well worth your time to attend.

TL;DR: Resilient Modeling Strategy is a best practice for creating high quality reusable 3D MCAD models. It works with many CAD systems, it’s easy to learn and use, and it’s free. Big payoff for MCAD users. 

Presentation at resilientmodeling.com

Register for Nov 20 webinar on Resilient Modeling

 

 

 

SolidWorks 2014—An Upgrade for New and Long-term Users

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by Leslie Langnau, Managing Editor

Adding to—or improving—an existing software program that already contains millions of lines of code is a task most engineers approach cautiously; it’s too easy to introduce code that wrecks havoc on either other parts of the program or on the whole program. So, while some will opine that the latest enhancements to Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks 2014 are not impressive, or not enough, those who have written code will be slower to criticize.

At the recent introduction of SolidWorks 2014 at the Boston headquarters of Dassault Systèmes, CEO Bertrand Sicot emphasized the need to add enhancements to this program, but to do so in a way that does not hinder the millions of already-in-use SolidWorks installations. Throughout the day-long presentation, many mentions of the importance of customer service and customer needs were mentioned.

solidworks-2014-quick-mate-pop-up
New Quick Mate pop-up below the context toolbar

Just what constitutes an improvement in an established product line? Is a marginal increase in performance of 6%, for example, impressive enough? To an engineer—maybe. If that improvement translates into 5 more hours to devote to other tasks, then that could be a huge gain. The ability to manage data less and accomplish more can be seen as another terrific gain.

After all the opinions have been written and posted, it will be users who indicate whether these improvements are good, or good enough. SolidWorks is a bit like Rockwell Automation—”no one ever got fired for choosing Rockwell,” goes the saying.

SolidWorks 2014 includes 3D CAD, Simulation, Product Data Management, Technical Communication, and Electrical Design functions that further your ability to design with fewer limits. Some of the new enhancements promise to help you re-use data more dynamically, expediting the sharing of design data to accelerate collaboration.

This version also includes mobility support for Android and iOS devices, making it easier to connect and experience your 3D designs anywhere and anytime.

To maintain customer satisfaction, it is becoming increasingly important to save and track multiple versions and iterations of a design; customers want custom variations of a design, customers want the third version rather than the latest, manufacturing personnel need to examine an earlier version for assembly information, and so on. New features like the ‘history tab’ allow multiple users to see and track recent design changes with the click of a mouse. Enhanced features such as assembly mates, known as ‘common mates’ in the context menu, offer intelligent choices based on previous usage patterns and apply new options that make sense while performing assemblies.

In other developments, Dassault Systèmes engineers are developing tools for Solidworks that work with 3D printing needs. With eDrawings, for example, you can view 3D designs and demonstrate how products behave in the real world through an Augmented Reality 3DExperience on any iOS device, such as an iPad or iPhone.

solidworks-2014-edrawings
Easily review multiple flow results in a single eDrawings file.

Other new tools and enhancements increase productivity across four key areas: design tools, integrated workflows, performance increases and enhanced visualization.

In Design Tools, three key tools are Advanced Shape Control, Fast Drawing Detailing, and Sheet metal features.

For the Advanced Shape Control feature, a new Style Spline function, automatic Sketch Picture scaling and Conic Fillet controls let you create complex surfaces and organic shapes faster, easier and with more precision.

solidworks-2014-curvature-combs
The Curvature Combs of a Style Spline reveal smooth curvature and transitions with minimal inflection.

Improvements to Faster Drawing Detailing deliver faster and more automated drawing detailing.

New sheet metal features enable faster creation of sheet metal geometry and improved data output for manufacturing. You gain improved control over corner treatments, for example, as well as the ability to create stiffening ribs such as the indented design seen on mounting brackets used to reinforce the weight and force placed on the part.

solidworks-2014-corner-gusset
A Corner Gusset is added across a sheet metal flange. A full preview is available making it easy to visualize on creation.

Changes to better integrate workflows, reduce the amount of time needed to manage data across features and platforms include:

  • SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Streamlined Workflow, which helps manage more data using the new Microsoft Office integration and enhanced Web Client with graphical preview features.
  • SolidWorks Electrical Improved Integration and Performance has been enhanced to deliver better integration with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and eDrawings to optimize, share and track electrical designs more easily.

Now, you can choose to view your designs on other mobile devises, such as Android, with Design Communication and Collaboration.

You can cost parts faster with less setup, with then share cost data more effectively with Streamlined Cost Estimating and Reporting. For example, key product development data for assembly can now be sent to Microsoft Excel allowing for easy sharing with departments such as manufacturing and purchasing.

Visualization has been improved with Streamlined Simulation Setup, which automatically leverages engineering data for re-use in simulations, eliminating duplication of effort and improving design collaboration.

And with Enhanced Assembly Performance and Visualization, you can create assemblies faster and easier with the new in-context Quick Mate tool bar and Slot Mate. For assembly in section views, you can include or exclude selected components allowing for a fast creation of more impressive section views.

SolidWorks, Dassault Systèmes
www.solidworks.com