upFront.eZine
t h e
b u s i n e s s o f
c a d , e n l i g
h t e n e d
a
publication from
upFront.eZine
Publishing
Issue #600 : : April 14, 2009
In this issue:
Autodesk Holds a Manufacturing Tech Day
- Part I: Introduction
- 3D NURBS Modeling
- No Flow Rupture
- Pricing & Packaging
Write the editor. Make him smile!
Through Paypal, consider donating $25 in support of upFront.eZine. Or else...
We're trendy. We have a Weblog. WorldCAD Access.
Autodesk Holds a Manufacturing Tech Day
Part I: Introduction
As the 14-seat shuttle bus carried us back to our hotel in Portland OR USA, one journalist mused that of the 100% of the information Autodesk had provided us, we recorded perhaps 80%, of which something like 20-40% would be reported to our readers. Here is my 40%:
- - -
Executive vp Buzz Kross introduced the day with its emphasis on digital prototyping -- helping customers of Autodesk create competitive products and shortening the time it takes to get the products to market. He showed a video of a part going from AutoCAD (initial design), to Inventor (parametric design), to Algor (FEA), to MoldFlow (mold analysis). I didn't get to ask why FOUR products were needed, but later he told us that Autodesk is ensuring deep integration of simulation into Inventor. And to expect the amount of simulation available in Inventor to increase in future years.
As if to answer those wondering about the demise of AutoCAD, he said that rather than replacing AutoCAD by Inventor, his division wants customers to use Inventor with AutoCAD. Mr Kross said that there is an emphasis within Autodesk on bringing all solutions together -- Alias, Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD. [This ties in nicely with my new theory: that Inventor and Revit might eventually be eliminated to have everything run as verticals on AutoCAD and its common DWG file format.]
He touched on the AEC side of things by noting that among all CAD vendors Autodesk had the unique ability to offer 2D CAD (AutoCAD) with 3D CAD in the form of Inventor and/or Revit. [MicroStation comes to mind.] Left behind apparently were 1,500 seats of SolidWorks [named by a journalist, not Mr Kross] when a curtain wall manufacturer decided they wanted to have Inventor working with Revit.
Figure 1: The customer product area in the
Manufacturing Division's new headquarters in Lake Oswego, Oregon USA.
Then it came time to rotate around the offices. Pairs of journalists switched rooms every hour to take in another demo + discussion. Details next week.
Figure 2: Reviewing mold design software.
Next week: Part II
- Data Management with Vault
- Inventor for Industrial Machinery
- Alias for Industrial Design
- Moldflow and Navisworks
- AutoCAD for Manufacturing
- Inventor for Consumer Products
[Disclosure: Autodesk paid for some of my travel expenses, and provided all attendees with accommodation, some meals, and corporate gifts.]
CATIA for Design
Free-form modeling is the rage these days, what with new programs like SpaceClaim and new features in old programs, like synchtech in SolidEdge. Free-form is often used for industrial design, where swoopy curves are needed for product differentiation, but can't be modeled very well by parametric CAD.
Dassault Systemes has created a new offering of its venerable CATIA CAD platform targeted at industrial designers, calling the package "CATIA for Design." It consists of a number of products that run inside CATIA; the module most important to industrial designers goes by the name of "Imagine & Shape," and it was the emphasis of DS’s conference call with upFront.eZine last week.
Technical consultant Chris Maeder explained that Imagine & Shape has two advantages over competitors like Alias and Rhino: Subdivision Surface 3D NURBS modeling and no rupture in the flow of the design process.
3D NURBS Modeling
When Mr. Maeder first uttered the words "Subdivision Surface Technology," I immediately asked how that differed from any other freeform modeler, like Rhino or Alias, or even AutoCAD 2010's new Maya-based 3D mesh modeling. The difference is that other freeform modelers use curves to define the object, and then surfaces are added after. The challenge for the user is to make sure there is tangency or curvature continuity across surface boundaries. With Imagine & Shape, G2 continuity is automatic and the user is able to manipulate the surface directly. With Maya, the subdivision surfaces are polygons, not NURBS.
With Imagine & Shape, you can subdivide 3D surface primitives as in other software, but then you manipulate the subdivisions by pulling at the vertices of their "cage," a 3D frame that surrounds the surface model much like the frame that manipulates a 2D NURBS [non-uniform rational B-spline].
During the demo, he designed the body of a swoopy-looking coffee maker by starting with a sphere primitive (figure 1).
Figure 1: Sketches are imported, and the design session begins with a 3D surface sphere.
He stretched the sphere to the top and bottom of its frame, creating a cylinder. Using a slider, he subdivided the cylinder into multiple faces. Using the cage, he stretched and prodded the cylinder to arrive at one-half of the C-shaped body. Using mirroring, he completed the other half of the body (figure 2), and then applied color (DS Red) and plastic texture.
Figure 2: The completed coffee maker body is encased in a 3D NURBS cage (green lines).
In 15 minutes he was done. While Mr Maeder began his design session with a pair of imported hand sketches, he could also have started with freestyle sketching using a Wacom tablet.
No Flow Rupture
The other advantage is that there is no rupture to the flow of design information. Imagine & Shape and other modules operate inside the CATIA platform’s usual interface. (To start Imagine & Shape, you start CATIA, and then click on the Imagine & Shape button.) This means there are none of the translation issues that could dog Alias and Rhino. But it also means you are tied to the CATIA way of doing things.
The Subdivision Surface 3D NURBS approach means that surface models are always watertight -- meaning they lack the gaps that prevent them from being made into solids. And it boasts G2 continuous curves -- meaning that when surfaces are mirrored, curves are continuous across mirror planes.
If you need, you can output 3D surface models from Imagine & Shape to STEP, IGES, CATIA V4, and 3DXML formats. DS has a free 3DXML viewer, and 3DXML models can be inserted into Office documents.
Pricing & Packaging
Price is an advantage that DS doesn't have. Whereas Alias Design 2010 is $4,000 and Rhino is $1,000, the lowest-price package of CATIA for Design (named "Inspired") is $8,000. For that $8K, however, DS throws a lot more into the pot than does its competitors.
There are three levels of CATIA for Design, of which Imagine & Shape is a part:
1. Inspired -- includes Sketch Tracer, Imagine & Shape, hybrid modeling, 2D detailing, 3DXML, IGES, STEP, real-time rendering, simulation, and compatibility with CATIA V4, 3D Via Composer, and Virtools.
2. Creative -- adds solid modeling, assemblies, Knowledge Expert, Team Data Manager, and STL output.
3. Ultimate -- adds functional modeling, and Knowledge Advisor.
Levels 2 and 3 are based on CATIA PLM Express. http://www.3ds.com/products/catia/portfolio/catia-v5r19/all-products/domain/Shape_Design_Styling/product/IMA/
Out of the Inbox
AEC Logic (formerly GSPL) releases ProEST+ Buildings 2009 and ProBID+ 2009:
ProEST+ Buildings 2009 creates parametric 3D solid models automatically from 2D drawings of buildings; generates area and volume calculations, and bills of materials.
ProBID+ 2009 estimates project costs in a database; said to be faster than any other similar software.
Trial downloads from www.aeclogic.com
- - -
T-Splines 2.0 beta is available at no charge from www.tsplines.com/products/tsplines-for-rhino/trial.html . The surfacing app creates and edits smooth organic designs, and then exports them for manufacturing.
Dassault Systemes/SIMULIA's new Verity add-on for Abaqus FEA software uses Battelle's mesh-insensitive structural stress analysis on welded joints. www.simulia.com/products/vfa
ModuleWorks announces v2009.3 of its CAM software for 3-5 axis toolpath creation and machine simulation. www.ModuleWorks.com
SYCODE updates its 22 file translation plug-ins for AutoCAD 2010 and Inventor 2010. www.sycode.com/products/index.htm
TransMagic updates its 3D data exchange software (CATIA, Pro/E, SolidWorks, IGES, etc) for Inventor 2010. Runs standalone or as a plug-in. Seven-day trial from www.transmagic.com
CAD Enhancement introduces Family Automation Revit Program for automatically creating of Revit families for building and architectural products. www.cadenhancement.com/FAR
Transoft Solutions' new roundabout design software is named TORUS Roundabouts. www.transoftsolutions.com
And Alibre launches Alibre Translate ($499), its new import and/or export filters of SolidWorks, Inventor, Pro/E, Solid Edge, Catia V5, and Parasolid files. www.alibre.com/support/downloads.aspx
- -
These were some of the news items that were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com >:
- upFront.eZine Celebrates its 600th Issue
- 4,403 Want SolidWorks on Mac
- slash.dot Comments on CAD Software for the Unemployed
- Inventor Tech Day at Autodesk - II
- Inventor Tech Day at Autodesk
- Win, Win, Draw
And at the Gizmos Grabowski blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos/ >:
- Getting Ready for My New Camera
- My New Digital Camera
- The New Era of Good Enough
Hardware News
A1 Technologies launches RapMan, an affordable 3D printer delivered as a kit and priced at GBP750. Includes slicing and G-code software. www.rap-man.com
Seminars & Conferences
First ODA World Conference by The Open Design Alliance is Apr 27–29 in Leiden, The Netherlands. www.opendesign.com/conference (I'll be at this conference.) Full agenda now posted.
Oracle OpenWorld 2009 is Oct 11-15 in San Francisco CA USA. www.oracle.com/openworld/index.html
People/Companies on the Move
Sescoi in India moves its main office to the industrial zone of Chinchwad: Q - 401, 4th Floor 244, Mayur Trade Center, Mumbai Pune Highway Chinchwad Pune 411 019
Market News
Delcam reports record 2008 sales of GBP32.9 million, up 11% over a year ago.
WorthWhile Web
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/04/google_in_the_m.php
"Google in the middle"
by Nicholas Carr
Letters to the Editor
Re: AutoCAD on the Mac
"Thank you for your excellent article on AutoCAD for the Mac. My experience with AutoCAD goes back to version 2-point-something.
"When Macs switched to Intel chips and made it possible to run Windows natively and in virtual mode, I thought I was finally going to have my cake and eat it too. I started running AutoCAD on my MacBook Pro in Bootcamp and Parallels. AutoCAD performed beautifully -- except it started requiring me to reauthorize it all the time. Every morning, I would have to call my reseller or Autodesk and get a new authorization code. My reseller tried several workarounds, which didn't work. Autodesk finally said it was something about how a Mac stores the authorization code and that they don't support Macs and that I should run it on a PC.
"I gave up. I now run AutoCAD and Revit on an Asus laptop with Vista. Right beside it is my MacBook Pro running ArchiCAD and Vectorworks. I love AutoCAD and Revit. They are wonderful programs, but so are ArchiCAD and Vectorworks.
"My current plan is to transition totally to ArchiCAD and Vectorworks. As much as I love AutoCAD and Revit, I simply must get to the point where I never have to suffer Windows again. If Autodesk comes out with a full-featured AutoCAD, and hopefully Revit too, that runs natively in Mac OS, they will continue to have me as a customer.
"A watered down version won't cut it. It would not only be useless to me, it would be an insult."
- John StJohn
Carson City, Nevada
"In my opinion, a much cheaper and more maintainable alternative to porting AutoCAD (or any large application) to the Mac OS these days, would be bundling Windows into it and selling it as a bundled virtualization application. That is, no Parallels/VMWare required (because it's bundled.) This way you get a single install that puts AutoCAD onto your Apple hardware, no software porting required.
"OK, maybe the interface needs some skinning so that it looks more Mac-like. Some trickery could be used to get all the hooks into the printing and Core Animation etc. Who knows?
"Looks like www.macdwf.com has over 22,000 downloads now for the McDwiff DWF viewer - so there's some amount of interest out there for Autodesk tools in the Mac community!"
- Jason Pratt, ACS Sales Solutions Engineer
Autodesk
The editor replies: "Perhaps Autodesk will gain from its experience in porting Alias 2010 to the Mac."
Mr Pratt responds: "Perhaps -- but it's a much different codebase! Who knows though."
Re: Canceled Events
"While a little thin and not huge news, in this day and age of people dropping out of events, we wanted this to get out: www.transcendata.com/news/iti/articles/Apr09_Upcoming_Shows.php "
- James Martin, Technical Marketing Manager
ITI TranscenData
Re: Notable Quotable
"It's even easier to be cynical about the anger of others."
- Craig Hunt
Notable Quotable
"The first change I noticed is that the AutoCAD 2010 EULA [end user licence agreement] contains more shouting... Apparently nobody was listening, so they [Autodesk] turned up the volume."
- Owen Wengerd
otb.manusoft.com/2009/03/whats-new-in-autocad-2010-eula.htm
Copyright 2009 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide
Article reprint fee US$250.0 and up.
All
trademarks belong to their respective holders.
"upFront.eZine," "Talking About CAD," and
"the business of CADg" are trademarks of
upFront.eZinePublishing, Ltd.
Letters to the editor may be reproduced in an
edited form for clarity and brevity. Opinions
expressed in letters are not necessarily
shared by upFront.eZine Publishing,
Ltd.