DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

So, I don’t know if you heard, but there’s supposed to be some sort of global economic apocalypse happening. Would someone please tell my travel agent, because it seems that whilst the world is in financial freefall, I’m travelling more than ever, both within the UK and to the US. and its not just me, its the rest of the DEVELOP3D team too.

I’ve been in the US for a month of 2009 already this year and just got back from a trip to Portland and Arizona and I’m headed out to RAPID2009 in Chiacgo early next month. I’ve not been to RAPID before, so I’m pretty excited to see what’s on show. There’s pretty much three events that make my calender for a year on the rapid prototyping front. Euromold in Frankfurt at the tail end of the year and TCT Live just a few months before it in October in the UK.

RAPID is a new addition, organised by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and its on in Schaumburg, just outside of Chicago, 12 May to the 14th. A quick gander at the exhibitor list and all the big boys are there, Objet, Stratasys, EOS, Z Corp, all the reverse engineering guys as well as a some of the bigger service providers. It’ll be interesting to speak to the latter to see how things are going. I discovered a long while ago that talking to those that ’service’ the product development industry is a fantastic gauge for seeing how the industry is doing as a whole.

After that, next US trip is out to Orlando again for PTC/User 2009 – always an intriguing event. One thing I found interesting is that rather than, as they have in previous years, segregated the press/media from the users for all but a few select occasions, this year, we seem to have a lot more freedom to wander and to explore. Of course, with Wildfire 5 on its way very soon, I’ll be trying to find out a little more about what’s coming up and let you guys know. PTC also have another event on I’m going to try and make, that’s looking at Windchill ProductPoint, something I looked at in the last issue of DEVEVLOP3D. It’s running in the UK on the 7th of May at the Warwick Manufacturing Group International Centre. Details are here.

Which brings me to the point of my post. Are live events something you’re interested in? With staff reductions, greater work load and more pressure than ever, is a live event something you’d consider stepping foot out of the office for? I’m curious to know. I suspect the answer is a no, but if its a yes, I’d love to know the reason why.

Ever heard of Proto Labs? What about Protomold or First Cut? Well, if you have, you probably know all about their service, if you don’t let me explain. Proto Labs, in both their US and European operation, have managed to build up a very interesting business – starting out with injection moulding, the company focussed on squeezing out the inefficiencies in the whole process and have squeezed things down until they’ve got it absolutely nailed. You load up the web-site, upload your 3D CAD data and get a quote back.

The quote is hyper-interactive, lets you see any potential problems and gives you a huge amount of Design for Manufacturing advice (its worth using it for that reason alone, as a sanity check). You get a price that’s an amalgamation of the cost of the Aluminium tool, batch size, material selection and time. If it meets your needs, the machine kicks into gear. The factory set-up in the UK (I’ve not seen the US operation) is super slick. Aluminium tools are produce, plastic is shot and parts are shipped. That’s pretty standard right? no. These guys can turn it around in 24 hours. Yup. Part uploaded, paid for, tool machined, loaded onto a moulder, parts produced, packed and shipped – in 24 hours. Now tell me that’s not impressive.

In the last few years, the company has been expanding its services, mostly notably with the creation of First Cut Prototype, where you can order prototype components, machined directly from production intent material (rather than moulded – and it just does plastic.. at the moment). Why would you want to do that when there’s a wealth of rapid prototyping technology avialable that claim the same? The answer is firstly, production intent means production intent, rather than a resin or powder-based simulacrum. The second is again, speed. They can get your order, give you the same ProtoQuote, then once accepted, you can get those parts, to your door, in the same time frame – 24 hours. Something that makes a mockery of the Rapid tag often attributed to some prototyping techniques.

Well, the interesting news is that the company has just added a 4th axis to its First Cut service – this means that they can rotate the around the z axis and can produce more complex components. Oh and John Tumelty, the MD of Proto Labs Europe, is also a columnist in DEVELOP3D, where he gets his hair off over manfuacturing issues every month. Why did we ask John to write for us? Because when it comes to design for manufacturing, these guys have got it nailed.

Still recovering from the jetlag of attending COFES (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software) in Arizona but having flashbacks of some of the meetings we had. One of the stand-out sessions was with Simon Floyd of Microsoft, who is in charge of PLM strategy at the global giant. Simon introduced us to a company called Aras, which had decided to sack its entire sales force and turn its PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) software into Open Source.

After much head scratching it seemed that Aras based it’s ‘Open’ PLM layer on all of Microsoft’s enterprise products, so companies that had already acquired Microsoft Enterprise products would have all the necessary products (like SharePoint) to assemble a PLM system, with the addition of the ‘as-many-users-as-you-want, no license fee, no nothing, honest’ Aras Innovator PLM Solution Suite.

While we didn’t get a demo of the software, the issue for us seemed to be that Microsoft was backing a specific PLM vendor,when its partnered with Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM Software and many others. Pushing an Open Source alternative will certainly put some noses out of place. Even more when they hear that the Microsoft sales teams have all had a demo of Aras Innovator as a demonstration of adding value to the Microsoft Enterprise package.

I’m probably the last person on the planet to find anything about PLM interesting but many of the big CAD vendors have big investments in getting customers to spend big in this area. Now they have to get over the hurdle of what the free, or almost free software can do.

LG Mobile Phones, crowdSPRING and Autodesk have announced a new competition to define the future of personal mobile communication. While it’s just for US residents (18 and over), you can have a chance to design your vision of the next revolutionary LG mobile phone and compete for more than whopping $80,000 in awards, $20,000 for the top prize, $10,000 and $5,000 for second and third, then 40 prizes of a grand for the runners up.

According to the particpation web-site, the LG are looking to “Predict what’s next.” and want to know what you, the designer, thinks mobile phones should look like in “2, 5, or 10 years?” as the web-site says, they’re not looking for a “long list of specs or phone ideas that already exist,” but rather new concepts or big ideas – but you do have to incorporate the LG logo must be included somewhere.

Entries will in judged on the basis of Need Fulfillment/Market Potential, Creativity/Originality/Innovation as the to leading criteria, then feasibility and Polish/Appeal. Submissions may be “illustrated or rendered in any format – hand sketches, digital drawings, or renderings – rendering tool used will not affect judging process. You may submit as many entries as you like.” Autodesk are sponsoring the event and providing a 15 day trial of SketchBook Pro to anyone that enters here. If you’re a twitter user, then you can follow it at @LGcompetition

For those that don’t know, COFES, or to give its full title, the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software has been running over the last few days in a rather glorious Scottsdale. As I sit here, benefiting from the productivity that jet-lag brings first thing in the morning, I’ve had a chance to sit and reflect on why this event continues to draw such a big attendance.

Here you’ll find all the faces in technology for product development, from the well known high-level c-level executives from the major vendors like Siemens PLM, SolidWorks, Autodesk mixing with some of the new players and those looking to gain a foothold in the industry. There’s also a good representation from those companies working in the background, providing component technology that you’ve rarely heard of, but use on a daily basis.

The strange thing about the event is that while it’s centered around a series of keynotes, demonstrations, discussion briefings and round-tables, what COFES is really about is one thing. Networking.

As you sit and look at who’s talking to who, who’s nipping in and about of different briefing rooms, you get a true sense of how this industry operates, how the software products we use on a daily basis get developed – and how relationships between the various parties get established, solidify and get working. To illustrate my rather rambling point, Myself and Martyn got talking to a component technology provider over a cheeky pint yesterday afternoon (come on, we’re British, it’s sunny and there’s a bar by the pool – it’s genetic).

We asked why they came to the event and the answer, to paraphrase, was this “We come because its the only place that we can get face time with the people we need to see, that would be very hard to access by email or phone and trying to work your way through the layers of management.” Fancy that.

Blake Courter, founder of SpaceClaim – we’ve decided to make him an honorary Brit – for reasons that shall remain undisclosed.

There’s also a marketplace aspect to the event as well, which is something that rarely gets discussed. One of the central fetaures of the event is the notion of Tech Suites. Consider this: around a pool, in a sunny resort in Arizona, you have a key number of technology providers, renting small villas, into which they invite all attendees to come and view their wares, to look at what they’re doing, to discuss their strategy and plans – with a level of openness that would be unheard of in many other technology industry sectors. While commercially these organizations are in fierce competition, at COFES this seems to be set aside and discussion is free and frank. This is inherently a good thing and something that maybe seem something of a surprise. But one of the things that I noticed over the last four years of attendence is that this is the interesting part, the thing to watch closely. Around this pool, you have those vendors that are buying and looking to establish new relationships and then there are those that are looking to sell.

Yes, to sell the company or the technology. An analogy of a table top sale springs to mind: “Here’s what we’ve got, you interested?” This year’s tech-suites are playing host to PTC, Autodesk, SpaceClaim, Siemens PLM software, VX Corporation, Share Vis, Nemetschek and Microsoft – I’ll leave you to work out on which side of the table they all sit.

All of this adds up to an interesting mix and while it never results in a huge amount of things that can or should be discussed publicly – we’d much rather talk about hard facts rather than pontificating over rumor, there is a point here.

Jim Brown talks up the Social Media revolution – best quote, from a chap from Boeing “yeah, I’m not going to be designing a plane on Facebook” – Thank god for that

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I sat in on a briefing by Jim Brown, formerly of the Aberdeen Group and now Tech Clarity. The discussion was centered on the use of Social Media and Networking technology in the professional space. While the discussion was interesting and many points raised, both ‘In Favour’ (the ability disperse and distribute information easily) and ‘Against’ (the time consuming nature of these things and often overwhleming stream of information), the thought I left that session with was this:

Today, we have an overwhelming, rapidly developing and diversifying toolset of technologies that allow us to connect, to share, to discuss and disemminate information in pretty much anyway we want. There’s things like the 140 character joy that is Twitter, instant messaging, email and more structured tools like SharePoint. then there’s the whole world of PDM and PLM – in whatever flavour you want. And while this is all certainly (to my mind anyway) a Good Thing, sometimes, it’s nice and highly effective to disconnect, put in a little bit of travel and do these things face-to-face. Right, coffee’s brewed and the newspaper has just turned up. Toodle pip for now. Al Dean. From a sunny Arizona. For once, not hungover. Out.

After the screening of the latest documentary from Gary Hustwit, we were treated to something universally expected; Jonathan Ive dodged questions with a quiet voice and some well-chosen pauses.

Objectified showed with candid detail the human characters behind the names behind the products. Although afterward business was resumed as normal for a man happy to sidestep a straightforward question, but whose presence was as big a draw for the crowd as the actual screening.

The starry names of the film, Ive and Marc Newson, were greeted to as warm a welcome as they walked down the aisles to the Q&A session underneath the screen as they had been when on it, when shown working from their offices, sat alongside a CNC machine, or at a table full of ‘inspiring shit’. These looks into their working environments and homes were as intriguing as the views they offered.

Dieter Rams’ attention to his bonsai tree in his garden; Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s sibling bickering; Karim Rashid’s collection of kitch items at his offices; all of these give the documentary its colour and variety, showing how different each person is in both approach, attitude and application.

Hustwit has approached Objectifed without the clear definition of his previous release, the font-geek-chic Helvetica. Taking in as much of the spectrum of designers and their work as allowed, this film shows the differences in what makes them tick, as well as the issues facing them.

The film is very good, occasionally skittish, regularly humorous, and approaches the subject very warmly. Hustwit admits that the films he makes are the ones he wants to watch himself but can’t find. It would be safe to say that the glowing fondness of the designers that feature in the film was still present as he welcomed Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson to the stage.

Each designer’s idiosyncrasies and characteristics are enclosed in short segments, occasionally they are returned to, while some intriguing commentary from critics such as the International Herald Tribune design editor Alice Rawsthorn, also present for the Q&A, offer most of the direction for the film to follow.

The post film chat was brief but offered up some insights, interestingly what concerns Ive and Newson held for the future of design. A key theme for the film was that there is already enough bad design in the world, but what troubled the pair was the advent of design being handed over to the consumer with the availability of 3D software and the ease of 3D rapid prototyping, just how much will this waste resources and have a negative impact on our lives?

As I left the cinema Ive was still being approached at the front, while Newson greeted his own swarm of admirers, all were keen to learn more about these idols of design. This proved to be the only problem, after each segment you were left wanting more from each designer.

You can view Objectified at the Barbican Centre, London, from 22 – 28 May

www.objectifiedfilm.com

First seen during a visited 3Dconnexions’ German headquarters in the summer of last year, we’ve been itching to tell you about it since. The new SpacePilot Pro represents the next evolution in the 3d control specialists product range, following on from and improving on the SpacePilot product introduced a year or two ago.

You’ll notice that the companies core technology remains in place, using the control cap to provide full 3D navigation of 3D models on screen. There are the trademark features of the more advanced 3Dconnexion products, such as the programmable buttons, axis locks and such, but the big advance for this release follows on from the SpacePilot, with the addition of an LCD monitor, this time in glorious techni-colour.

In addition to giving you visual guides to the context sensitive short cut buttons, the LCD can be used to connect to your desktop, stream outlook calender items, tasks and to-do lists, even previewing email or streaming or even an RSS feed.

There are five new QuickView navigation keys that give you access to the usual top and bottom, right and left, front and back, two isometric views – they also add 90-degree view rotation of any view either clockwise or counter-clockwise – something that’s incredibly useful when you start to use it.

3Dconnexion has been doing a good job of late, adding a slew of application to its support list, either through its own drivers or through direct integration into the vendor’s code stream. Alongside the usual suspects of Inventor, SolidWorks, Catia, Pro/Engineer, NX and Solid Edge, there’s now support for almost everything from Ansys to Vero VISI and VX. The device will begin shipping later this month, costs 399 GBP and is backed up with a three year warranty. We’ll also be featuring the process that went into the design, development and manufacture of the SpacePilotPro in a forthcoming issue of DEVELOP3D – so stay tuned…