Modelling moves into the mainstream

Online open 3D print site Shapeways has been around for a few months now, but has now added its own Creator engine, allowing anyone to go online to design, model and print.

The latest step towards making 3D design more mainstream, Shapeways, the offspring of Philips Research sponsoring bills itself as 'the next generation of consumer co-creation'. It joins a number of sites, including the impressive laser-cutting based Ponoko, that offer anyone the chance to grab their mouse and create anything onscreen to be built and shipped to them. 

CMO of Shapeway Jochem de Boer, said:"In today's world, consumers are universally less and less satisfied with the choice that the usual shops offer. Instead, they are looking for ways to reflect their personal identity in the objects that they choose to have around them."

The sites gallery shows this clearly, with the greatest uptake beginning to produce seasonal items; Christmas Tree decorations, Nativity scene candle holders and snowmen ornaments hoard the pages and fill the niche of the personal gift, with the benefit of having someone else make it and having a 10-day shipping period.

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3D design battled out to the death*

I might be missing out on the weather, the casinos, the showgirls and something called Autodesk University in Las Vegas next week, but the AU Design Slam by the guys behind Cut&Paste is something I'd really have loved to have seen.

The live on-stage design competition is going to be the first to feature 3D design, with teams hacking out designs against the clock using Autodesk Maya, AliasStudio, SketchBook Pro, and Revit Architecture software.

20 minute rounds mean competitors are pushed to use their wits and showmanship to entertain the crowds as their progress is projected in real-time onto massive screens.

In an interview in the build-up to AU, Cut&Paste executive director John Fiorelli, said: "It's a live battle between industrial designers and between architects, it's very similar to the digital design series we do for graphic designers around the world. We're working with Autodesk University to bring it to industrial design and architecture for the first time this year.

"The idea is to do in 3D what we do in 2D: Give people a chance to see what the creative process is like; give people a chance to see what industrial designers and architects do in real-time," explained John. "In essence the show is pretty straightforward. We put designers on stage, we give them a theme or a brief and they create work alive in front of your very eyes on LCD projectors. You can watch every brushstroke, every mistake, every scratch-out, every revision, and it gives you the chance to see what people do using Autodesk tools."

The design briefs are issued to contestants a week or so in advance to allow for concepts to begin developing, but organisers throw in extra elements just before the battle begins, adding a bit more spice to the events.

In case you're wondering where I'll be while the rest of the D3D team apply their factor 30, bare their pale flesh, and delve into the 3D battles in Vegas; I'll be reporting back from deepest-winter Frankfurt. Chilling.

*might not constitute actual death

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Autodesk does Apple...

It seems like its a good day for looking at how different organizations are spreading the word. If these are old, my apologies, but I hadn't come across them before. if imitation is the sincerest of
flattery then Autodesk just LOVE Apple.



"here's red. or not so red"

Here's how Hyphen Design use Showcase:

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How DS could learn from SolidWorks

The comparison between the post below and this one couldn't be greater. I was just looking to see if the Discovery Channel had confirmed a UK air date for its new Prototype This show when I came across this little nugget (its via AOL, because the Discovery Channel web-site is doing wonky things with video at the moment - the original discovery channel link).

I don't know if SolidWorks pay for the position of the product in these shows, I kind of hope not. But, when all is said and done, it doesn't matter if they did. What matters is that it's through shows like this that we're going to build the next generation of designers, of engineers. It has to be shown to be the fascinating, challenging career that it is. The passion that the majority of people involved in developing products feel has to be communicated and the way to do that is through inspiration and yup, the plain old fact that it has to look cool.

PS: there's a good one on 3D printing..

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Catia V6R2009x: it does stuff

Design team interaction is something that DS are taking to new levels.

Dassault Systemes has launched Catia V6R2009x at its annual European Catia Forum event at Disneyland Paris. As ever, the press release is an absolute doozie. When you spend your time reading these things, getting anything from DS is always a joy. Why? Because the company's shear inability to actually tell you what they mean is always fascinating thing to work with. Take this paragraph:

As with the previous release of V6, Release 2009x is designed to extend the value of customers' existing PLM assets. Dassault Systemes continues to develop and make available transition scenarios for its varied user base, including customers with mixed DS and non-DS applications. Support for collaborative design scenarios between V4/V5 and V6 enables gradual adoption of V6 for an OEM and its supply chain. Further, DS plans additional releases of its popular V5 line of solutions, such as the recently announced V5R19, whose functionality enhancements are synchronized with and available in V6R2009x.

What I think they're trying to say is:

With V6R2009x, you can do more with your data. If you're using V4 or V6, then there are tools to move data to V6 (the use of transition is telling - it means its a one way move, not bi-directional). If you mix and match data (such as Catia and something else), then this is also possible. They're not going to discontinue V5 and have a new release out now called V5R19.

Dassault have some truly breathtaking technology and products, and as you dig into the web-site that details all the advances made in the R2009x release of V6, that becomes more and more apparent.



The real time rendering looks incredible, the ability to work interactively on your live data, with geographically dispersed design teams, to inspect data visual and gain a meaningful idea of how your product is progressing (using the 3Dlive tools) are all ahead of the game.

Why Dassault can't manage to communicate that in a simple press release baffles me. Baffles me entirely.

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nVidia launches 4GB beast

Nvidia has again upped the ante in the professional graphics sector with the launch of a new monster of a board, which is likely to set you back around £2,000.

With 4GB RAM, the ultra high-end Quadro FX 5800 has the biggest amount of memory on any graphics card, doubling the previous 2GB record held by AMD's ATI FireGL V8650. However, this amount of memory and the high-level performance that this card boasts, is only likely to appeal to a small proportion of users, with nVidia touting the medical imaging, oil and gas, and automotive styling sectors, as key markets. Additional interest is likely to come from high-end CAD and design visualisation users with products such as NX and 3ds Max, particularly if these companies need one or two top-end workstations to complement their mid-range machines.

Built using the nVidia's parallel CUDA architecture, the Quadro FX 5800 is also set to play a key role in the company's drive to move complex computational problems away from the CPU and onto the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

While nVidia has done much to promote this technology, which is specific to nVidia hardware, little progress has been made in the mainstream CAE sector, with the majority of developments coming in the more niche areas of science and finance.

One development that should help bring CUDA more into the mainstream, is the launch of nVidia's new Quadro CX card, which is a dedicated graphics accelerator for Adobe Creative Suite 4. With the Quadro CX, CUDA is used to encode H.264 videos in Adobe Premiere at what is claimed to be lightning-fast speeds. The card also powers real time image manipulation in Photoshop for the first time, though this feature is actually supported by all OpenGL 2.0 compliant graphics cards.

While the £1,000+ price tag is likely to put off all but the most power hungry users of Creative Suite, nVidia Quadro supplier, PNY, told DEVELOP3D that this card would also deliver excellent performance in 3D CAD/DCC applications. This could make it an attractive proposition for design visualisation specialists who use Photoshop and Premiere alongside products such as 3ds Max.

At the other end of the spectrum, nVidia's Quadro business is also concentrating on the lower end of the market with the launch of the Quadro FX 470, the company's first integrated professional motherboard GPU, and Quadro FX 370 Low Profile (LP), an entry-level Quadro graphics board for small form factor systems. While Nvidia has not yet signed up any of the major workstation OEMs for the Quadro FX 370 LP and Quadro FX 470, specialist workstation manufacturer CAD2 told DEVELOP3D that it was currently investigating the new technologies and hoped to be able to offer small form factor workstations in the New Year.

www.nvidia.com

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PTC encourage boys and their toys

As Christmas approaches many a man will go bleary-eyed reminiscing of that childhood memory of waking in hope of finding a Scalextric set under the Christmas tree; only to find they'd been brought My Little Pony.

Now PTC are jumping on the retro toy bandwagon and joining up with Hornby to launch the Scalextric4schools Slot Car Design Challenge.

Using Pro/Engineer Wildfire software secondary school children to design their own Scalextric car then manufacture their car, fit it with a standard Scalextric motor and drive train and then race it on a standard Scalextric track. During this process the aim is to teach the students how the car works mechanically and dynamically and strive to design a car to go round a Scalextric track as quickly as possible.

"PTC is committed to delivering a truly unique and rewarding academic learning experience," says PTC education programme manager Mike Brown. "Our strong relationship with Hornby Hobbies, together with their world-class Scalextric range of products provides the perfect foundation on which to continue development and expansion of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum modules."

Via the 'CAD in Schools' initiative every school in the UK can obtain a 300 seat site license of Pro/Engineer software at no cost to the school; the license also includes free home use for students.

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The 'Analyst problem" & Aberdeen's New Digital Prototyping tool

I was fascinated by this news release. The Aberdeen Group has launched a "online digital prototyping assessment tool," which utilizes the outfit's "primary research in product innovation, helps companies identify their biggest product development challenges, compares their design practices to industry benchmarks, and quantifies potential time and cost savings by adopting Best-in-Class capabilities."

An impressive sounding thing. Wait. There's more. The assessment, which is in the form of a short multi-stage questionnaire is based on the group's "unique PACE research methodology, steps through the product development process to determine where an individual company excels and helps identify opportunities for improvement."

When you've registered for the assessment, you're taken through a few questions, some of which are multiple choice, some of which are single choice from a list of options. The end goal is that the system "makes recommendations by comparing responses to prior Aberdeen research that identified design and engineering best practices exhibited by Best-in-Class companies."

Once done you then receive a summary of how your company compare "to other organizations as well as custom tailored next steps to improve their development process." I went through the process and while its initially interesting how the questions are structured, what language is used and the end results.



There are the basic questions, such as "How are product concepts developed?" possible responses are:

• On paper only
• On paper and then transferred to electronic form (2D or 3D)
• Completed electronically, as a 2D sketch
• Completed electronically as a 3D surface model (push and pull surface capabilities

This is pretty standard stuff, although the answers look a little odd. Considering that the only 3D related answer is a surface model, it looks a little incomplete. Where's the potential for an intelligent 3D model? Question 3 in my survey read "How is the aesthetic look and feel of a product assessed?" with the options being:

• By building/sculpting a physical prototype at the concept stage
• By building a physical prototype when the design is complete
• By reviewing a realistically rendered digital model
• Aesthetic properties are not important in my industry

Fair enough, but you're only allowed a single option answer. The use of physical and digital models within the product development process is typically mixed. You don't just build a physical prototype, or use a rendered model most organizations use both. The same was true of almost every question and possible answer. You can't give a complete answer or indeed, accurate answer, because you might typically use a mix of methods, for visualization, for simulation, for assessing product performance.

So what's my problem? It's nothing specific, but take a look at the URL for the assessment survey http://autodesk.aberdeen.com. That gives it all away. Aberdeen has constructed this survey at the behest and I assume, funding from Autodesk. When you complete it, you get a quick bar chart showing how you perform according to your answers and get emailed a link to a fuller report as well as Aberdeen's other research report (which are worth reading). There are also links to recommended products from Autodesk. Take from that what you will.



The press release has a quote from Stephen Gold, President of Aberdeen, saying that they are "pleased to provide organizations with guidance to improve their product development process. The Assessment Tool Series offers a unique opportunity for organizations to leverage our benchmark research in a highly personalized way."

Yes, "A unique opportunity to reuse their benchmark research" (which is pretty highly regarded I might add), but as long as you do using limited answers, limited input and using language that suits perfectly the terminology of the endeavor's sponsors . I don't have a problem with this , but I wish analysts would be a little more honest about why they do these things. This has very little to do with their research, more to do with Aberdeen tying up with Autodesk to reuse their research methods to point users to Autodesk's tools - its a sales tool masquerading as a scientific study. If you look at it from that point of view, then its perfectly acceptable and you can get from the results exactly what you want. But let's not pretend it's anything else. Analysts have a strange habit of taking what appears to be common sense, wrapping it up with 'research' and feeding it back to you and this does nothing to change that perception.

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Software Trends in ID jobs

Found this via Core77.com, Jason Morris has been researching the most requested software in Industrial Design jobs and the results are fascinating. What's first on the list? SolidWorks, Pro/E? nope, illustrator and Photoshop get number 1 and 2 positions. Below that its SolidWorks, then followed by Alias and Pro/Engineer - then Rhino brings up the 6th position. What does this tell you? This was taking from job postings not user experience, but the result tally with what we've found over the last few months. Industrial Designers love 2D processes for concept work and always will, despite what the software vendors might think.

The interplay between SolidWorks, Alias and Pro/E is also interesting. Alias won't cut it on its own for many industrial design-led organisations anymore, so it usually pairs with a more 'engineering' led tool, whether that's SolidWorks or Pro/E. The same could be said of Rhino. SolidWorks might be ahead of the game, but the sample is around 200, so its not a massive difference. But what it really says is that despite all the noise from other vendors, Pro/Engineer is going absolutely nowhere.

Jason's blog is also worth exploring further. There's some great stuff on there.

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Autodesk completes Softimage: Is the CGI industry sown up?

Images courtesy of Virtual-Mechanix - here's a nice user story about how they use the products here.

While there are many modelling systems active in the CGI industry, there have been three consistent players in the game over the last two decades: 3dsmax, Maya and Softimage (its pronounced soft-ee-marj, betraying its French Canadian roots). When Autodesk acquired Alias a couple of years ago, bringing it in house alongside its 3dsmax product, many foretold that it was game over for Softimage, who have been passed around a fair old amount in the last few years, from Microsoft (in 1994) then to Avid Technology a couple of years later.



This week the acquisition by Autodesk was completed and all of the assets of the company became part of Autodesk's product offering for 'Media and Entertainment' division. Does Autodesk have the CGI industry sown up?

It's looking that way, with a trio of products that provide it with a huge installed base. What are the companies plans with it? It seems that as its done with 3dsmax and Maya, its looking to maintain the Softimage brand and intends to "sell standalone versions of both the Softimage|XSI and Softimage|Face Robot 3D software products," with its Softimage|Cat character animation plugin for 3ds max being built into the max product line.

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How to launch a product: Render its ass off

I know so little about cameras and cinematography equipment I'm not qualified to even comment about this product's capabilities, but seeing a product launch, with these kinds of visuals, makes me a very happy man. Apparently Red was founded by Oakley founder Jim Jannard. I've also heard, but not yet confirmed that they use SolidWorks and from the look of these visuals, I'd say HyperShot too.



In terms of what you're looking at, this is a Lego style configurable camera, you buy the sensor (referred to as the Brains), then add on all the accessories you want. As Martyn said to me, "Umm no idea what that camera system does other than look cool and expensive" I couldn't agree more - but then that's what good design sometimes, making something so ball achingly cool that you know you want it - without really knowing what it is you're lusting after.



Oh and this thing is the 3D mount.

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NAFEMS seminar to get 'upfront' with CFD

A NAFEMS seminar in Coventry is bringing together experts from motorsports, motion and control, and telecommunications industries to present ways in which designers can apply CFD earlier.

Renault F1, Rolls-Royce, Alcatel and Parker Hannifin will be on hand to give an insight into how simulation driven product development is making a difference in their industries.

The event on 26 November is free to members of the organization as part of their membership,as well as anyone else interested, and hopes to show them the benefits that the concept of 'upfront CFD' or the bizarrely named 'front-loading CFD' in the design process.

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PTC 'unleashes' its six-way beast

Pro/Engineer users, and anyone else for that matter, are being invited via webcast to listen to PTC offer its six-point mantra for helping make companies more money.

Despite sounding like a dodgy pyramid scheme, the series of webcasts will show major companies explaining how they've boosted their profits by improving their product development practices.

Promising a six-way initiative that can help boost productivity it seems unlikely that it will provide a definite stop to the country's economic recession, but any advice that might help and we're listening.

The first webcast takes place on 24 November.

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Pickle Man to keynote SolidWorks World

News just out (literally, via twitter) that Sir Richard Branson, a guy that needs very little introduction to anyone in the western world, is going to be the keynote speaker at SolidWorks World, held at the Swan & Dolphin in Orlando, February 8 - 11 next year.
Yup, the man that re-signed the Sex Pistols, brought the world Culture Club, high speed train to the UK, and founded the first space tourism company that's ever likely to get off the ground (using a former SWW keynote, Burt Rutan's technology) is going to speak to the assembled masses. About what, its not clear, but what ever comes out of one of the most intriguing people of our age*, its going to be interesting.
If you have the time and inclination and can justify the time, I'd recommend SolidWorks World to anyone involved with the product, the learning and networking potential are incredible and of course, its in Florida in the dead of the British winter.

*He did, on the other hand, bring us Tubular Bells. Ying and Ying I guess.

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Pro/Engineer Manikin Extension goes live

I thought this was made available in the Wildfire 4 release cycle, but it appears that I was wrong (blame my rapidly increasing years) - anyway, this is good stuff. PTC has released a new add-on (for Extension as they like to call them) that allows you to integrate a digital mannequin into your product models. The human models can be customised according to a pretty wide range of human factors inputs, whether that's gender, race, nationality and they conform to the H-ANIM standard (ISO/IEC 19774).

Pro/Engineer Manikin Extension seems to let you put the human form into your models, while the more advanced version which lets you analyse your humans against "a number of quantitative human factors, and workplace standards and guidelines."
But what I love the most is the fact that PTC is an impressive company all round, has some fantastic tools and technology that is, despite the message from many vendors, still highly active in many sectors - the stories we've been writing about industrial designers and product developers, backs this up - but when they put together their product pages, to show off a tool that's modern, fresh and pretty impressive choose to show the female variant of the mannequin stood at a sink (as below). Either that or its a dude with a pony tail. Either way, its pretty outdated.

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Discoverability & DriveWorksXpress

One thing that is a constant source of puzzlement is how the average user finds out about all the new tools, software and technology that's present in the application set they have already acquired. Take SolidWorks. Look at the list of 'stuff' it does and its huge, from standard part, assembly and drawings tools, through all the Xpress products and then you get into all the tools that are part of the Office offerings - there's a huge amount to discover and learn. I've banged on about how important printed manuals were in that informal learning process outside of formal training, but of course, the web can play a huge part in not just shortening that learning curve, but also in just flagged up the fact that something even exists and what it can be used for.
DriveWorks worked with SolidWorks in the last few release cycles to introduce DriveWorksXpress - for a tool that's essentially free for many SolidWorks users, its incredibly powerful - but how do you find out if Rules-based automation is for you? well, the team has just released a whole bunch of targetted examples, to show you the type of thing it can do, including
Stainless Steel Extraction/Ventilation Hood, Porch/Entrance Canopy, Vehicle Suspension System, Hydraulic Cylinder.
Automation means you cut out the crappy boring stuff, formalise your standard designs variants and get to work on the really interesting stuff. If you've got SolidWorks, its there. Go play. and if that's not enough, get a copy of their fantastic Little Book of Rules. I take my hat off to these guys and the shear effort they put in - if only all vendors did the same.

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FirePro V5700 vs Quadro FX 1700 with Catia

DEVELOP3D's hardware expert, Greg Corke, has been playing with graphics hardware again (it keeps him out of trouble). This time he's been comparing the performance of FirePro V5700 vs Quadro FX 1700 in Catia V5.
As the blurb says: The FirePro V5700 and the Quadro FX 1700 are tested side-by-side for real-time performance in CATIA using the standard CATBench high polygon count models. These tests were conducted at X3DMedia in London on Oct 25, 2008 under the supervision Greg Corke and Martyn Day of Develop 3D magazine. The tests were run on identical HP xw8600 workstations.
See the next issue of DEVELOP3D (coming very soon) for more the first in a series of articles on how to tune your graphics performance and get the best out of your hardware - this month its Catia (as you might have guessed), but we'll be covering all the biggies in the coming months.

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Huntsman join the Direct Manufacturing set

Huntsman Advanced Materials, a long time supplier of materials to the prototyping industry (it has the RenShape and Aralidite brands) is going to launch a rapid manufacturing machine which "significantly reduces production times and costs." In a press release that says a lot, but gives away very little indeed, Huntsman claims to have "this new technology with pinpoint accuracy and speed which will make mass customisation a reality." There's also very little sight of the press release actually online either.

The machine is to be branded as the Araldite Digitalis and is based on a new polymeric additive fabrication system capable of manufacturing "at speed large numbers of parts simultaneously with previously unattainable accuracy." The only details that are made available are that the system is based on entirely "new" micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS).

The release also claims that the system is "different from the light reflecting MEMS technology used in 3D printers. At the heart of Araldite Digitalis is the MLS MicroLightSwitch, a radical new exposure system operating via a computer controlled micro-mechanical shutter system which enables a large surface area of radiation curable resin to be selectively exposed in a single step. There is fast uniform exposure with high accuracy."

While Huntsman provides very few additional details, reading between the lines, it sounds like the system is similar to that found in the Envisiontec machines, which are based on consumer level DLP micro light switching/reflecting devices. Huntsman expects Araldite Digitalis to be in commercial use later in 2009. If you want to have a look, wait for them to update the web-site or check 'em out at Stand No J164, Hall 8.0 at EuroMold 2008.

I am puzzled about why they would choose to name a product that's "easy to use and maintain" after a plant that's pretty much entirely poisonous.

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Autodesk post Fluid for Jesus Phone

Everyone except me has an iPhone it seems (yup, I love my blackberry to death. its own death usually) and I've finally got an excuse to get one, or at least an iPod Touch. Autodesk has just released its first (as far as I'm aware) foray into the world of the multi-touch device. Yes, it has been demoing all manner of large scale multitouch goodness for some times, but this is the first demo that's available for a decent, consumer level product. If you've got an enabled device, look here or more details are here.

This technology has been around for some time, but this is still very very cool. Its a fluid simulate, activated and interacted with by multi-touch. What I really want is a motion and multi-touch senstive version of the Chameleon.

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Bass breaks the bad news

Carl Bass, president and CEO of Autodesk has admitted they are feeling the pinch of the global financial crisis, as demand for products fell throughout October.

"The sharp downturn of the global economy is substantially impacting our business. Demand for our products fell dramatically in October in all geographies as the financial crisis worsened," said Bass, blaming the downturn in the global economy for customers delaying projects

Profits for the financial quarter ending in October were in the range of $604 million to $607 million, having previously been forecasted in the region of $625 million to $635 million. As a result, forecasts for the next financial quarter have been greatly decreased.

"Our third quarter net income will include the benefit of some reductions to previous cost estimates. In addition we have begun to take actions to reduce our cost structure," added Bass, without elaborating on what these would include.

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Chair made from WEEE

A chair made the recycled plastics of redundant video game consoles is helping reduce the amount of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) from our nations gaming habit heading to landfills.

The design of Sprout Design, the REEE chair incorporates the plastic from 9 Playstation2 consoles, each chair preventing 2.4Kg of plastic entering our already crammed landfill sites. Using Solidworks to tweak individual components and construct the final design, the team at Sprout expect to ship 3,000 chairs (equivalent to 7.5 tonnes of recycled plastic) in the next year.

Engineer Guy Robinson, said "The final design is quite complex, though each component by itself is fairly simple. There were a lot of details to get the geometry and ergonomics right, such as how the stiffness and flex of the ribs responded to the body, and how to make the clips tamperproof yet easy to disassemble, etc. Solidworks allowed us to tweak the design of the individual components while showing how this affected the whole product to get it right. We would have abandoned this concept early on if we didn't have that flexibility."

The chair is the brainchild of Christopher Pett, founder of sustainable product development company Pli Design Ltd. Sprout used SolidWorks SimulationXpress to ensure the chair would be strong enough to support sitters without over-engineering the amount of plastic in the seat's ribs, reinforcing the sustainable design theme. Both Pett and Robinson hope the Reee Chair sets a precedent for electronics manufacturers around the world.

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Wicked article on EOS DMLS

I'm trying to work out how much designers and engineers are aware of rapid prototyping and direct manufacturing processes and stumbled across this article by the team at MindTribe's blog. Check it.
What I'm pondering is whether users are aware of the new techniques, new processes, new materials and such that are rapidly coming out, advancing and developing and how they can both be used as part of existing design processes or used to create something new, something exciting? Leave a comment and let me know what YOU want to know, how and what.

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