MCADCafe Editorial 
Sanjay Gangal
Sanjay Gangal is the President of IBSystems, the parent company of AECCafe.com, MCADCafe, EDACafe.Com, GISCafe.Com, and ShareCG.Com. Designing the Hyperloop Dream: A Student-Led Odyssey in Future MobilityNovember 8th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
SolidWorks 2025: A Leap into Seamless Collaboration and PerformanceOctober 7th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In the world of computer-aided design (CAD), SolidWorks is a name synonymous with innovation, reliability, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for engineers and designers. With each annual release, the company sets a new standard for the CAD industry. Under the guidance of CEO Manish Kumar, the much-anticipated SolidWorks 2025 represents a pivotal moment in the company’s journey—a moment where the lines between product creation and experience delivery blur. When I sat down with Kumar to discuss the newest release, his enthusiasm for what’s coming was palpable. “Delivering just a product is no longer enough,” he said, reflecting a sentiment that reverberates through industries grappling with how to not only stay competitive but also create lasting impressions. As Kumar sees it, products today need to transcend functionality and offer customers an experience—something unforgettable. And that’s precisely what SolidWorks 2025 aims to deliver.
A Shift Away from the Traditional Release CycleThe software industry is undergoing a dramatic shift. For decades, companies adhered to an annual release cycle, assuming that longer development periods equated to higher-quality products. However, as Kumar explained, this model is rapidly becoming obsolete. “The sooner you release a product, the faster it reaches the hands of clients,” he said. This approach allows companies to identify and fix bugs faster, improving quality incrementally without waiting for a major release. “We’re not bound by the traditional annual cycle anymore,” Kumar noted. “We release functionality as soon as it’s ready.” This continuous-release model enables the company to respond quickly to user needs and incorporate feedback faster than ever before. But, as Kumar pointed out, they still take time at the end of each year to reflect on the cumulative advancements and celebrate the achievements with their user community. The November release of SolidWorks 2025 is a reflection of this new dynamic—a release that combines a year’s worth of advancements while teasing what’s to come. Read the rest of SolidWorks 2025: A Leap into Seamless Collaboration and Performance Revolutionizing Manufacturing: How Autodesk Fusion 360 Is Pushing the Boundaries of Design and InnovationSeptember 6th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape, staying ahead of technological trends is no longer a choice—it’s a necessity. At the forefront of this transformation is Autodesk’s Fusion 360, a comprehensive cloud-based platform that integrates CAD (Computer-Aided Design), CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing), and CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) to streamline workflows and drive innovation. Luke Mihelcic, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at Autodesk Fusion 360, shared insights into how the platform is redefining digital transformation and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in modern manufacturing during a recent interview. A Legacy of Integration and InnovationFusion 360 is not new to the industry; it’s been helping manufacturers connect their design and production processes for over a decade. “We’ve been doing this longer than most folks—putting CAD, CAM, and CAE tools in the cloud,” Mihelcic explains. The platform has proven indispensable in facilitating the shift toward digital transformation, particularly for companies grappling with fragmented processes that slow down production and limit innovation. “In today’s manufacturing industry, digital transformation is critical. If manufacturers don’t digitize, they risk falling behind,” Mihelcic emphasizes. Fusion 360 bridges these gaps by centralizing design, engineering, and manufacturing data, ensuring that the entire production process—from conceptual design to final manufacturing—runs smoothly and efficiently.
AI-Powered Tools: Generative Design and BeyondAutodesk’s leadership in AI-driven manufacturing solutions has been well-documented, with Fusion 360 at the center of these developments. The platform’s generative design capabilities, for instance, empower users to set real-world parameters and receive optimized designs based on materials, manufacturability, and other constraints. “Generative design allows users to input a set of factors and receive the best solution based on those variables,” Mihelcic says, noting that this tool has been available in Fusion 360 for several years. Looking forward, Autodesk is continuing to push the envelope with AI innovations such as Project Bernini. This exciting research project, Mihelcic shares, allows users to upload images that are then transformed into 3D geometry. While still in development, Project Bernini represents Autodesk’s commitment to evolving AI’s role in manufacturing and design. Even more practical, day-to-day AI applications are also being deployed. Mihelcic mentions the automation of tedious processes like 2D drawings and bill of materials (BOM) consolidation. “Through AI, we’re speeding up these tasks so designers can focus on more value-added work,” he adds. Revolutionizing 3D Printing: A Deep Dive into Ulendo’s Innovations with Founder and CTO Chinedum OkwudireJuly 28th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In a recent interview with MCADCafe, Chinedum (Chi) Okwudire, the Founder and CTO of Ulendo, shared insights into their latest groundbreaking technology, Ulendo Calibration-as-a-ServiceTM (CaaS). This innovative solution promises to revolutionize the 3D printing industry by making calibration effortless and enhancing print quality significantly. Here’s an in-depth look into our conversation and the exciting advancements Ulendo is bringing to the world of additive manufacturing. The Essence of Calibration as a ServiceUlendo Calibration-as-a-ServiceTM is designed to streamline the calibration process for 3D printers, making it accessible and painless for users. Calibration is crucial for achieving optimal performance from vibration compensation software like Ulendo’s VC (Vibration Compensation) and Input Shaping. Without accurate calibration, the benefits of such advanced software cannot be fully realized. Chinedum explained, “Calibration is often handled by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). However, once the machines are shipped and used in different environments, the vibration behavior can vary, necessitating recalibration.” This is where Ulendo’s CaaS steps in, providing a solution that allows users to calibrate their machines easily with a small kit that collects vibration data, performs tests, and calibrates the machine accordingly.
SPEE3D Unveils Titan SPEE3D: A New Era in Large-Format Metal 3D PrintingJune 24th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In a recent interview with Sanjay Gangal of MCADCafe, Byron Kennedy, CEO of SPEE3D, shared exciting developments about the company’s latest innovation: the Titan SPEE3D. This large-format metal 3D printer represents a significant leap forward in SPEE3D’s cold spray additive manufacturing technology, enabling the production of much larger and heavier metal parts than previously possible. Titan SPEE3D: Scaling Up Cold Spray TechnologyThe Titan SPEE3D is a groundbreaking addition to SPEE3D’s product lineup, designed to address the increasing demand for larger and more robust metal parts. According to Kennedy, the new printer can produce parts weighing up to 5,000 kilograms and measuring up to 2.5 meters, making it suitable for applications in the maritime and defense sectors. This development is a direct response to customer requests for the ability to manufacture larger components, such as those needed for ships and submarines. “Our new printer, Titan SPEE3D, has just been released this week,” said Kennedy. “It uses our cold spray deposition technology and is now scaling up. To date, we’ve been building parts up to luggage size, but the new system allows us to create much larger parts, some weighing up to 5,000 kilograms.”
Read the rest of SPEE3D Unveils Titan SPEE3D: A New Era in Large-Format Metal 3D Printing Hexagon and Microsoft Forge Partnership to Revolutionize Manufacturing Through Cloud TechnologyApril 26th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
SOURCE: Hexagon Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division announced its strategic partnership with Microsoft, which aims to redefine how engineers collaborate and enable the discrete manufacturing industry to innovate faster, with more confidence, and with new solutions that combine data from virtual engineering processes with real-world measurement of manufactured products. The collaboration will offer solutions that use modern cloud infrastructure to connect manufacturing and engineering systems – including Microsoft 365 – in Hexagon’s Nexus digital reality platform for manufacturers, and help employees increase their productivity through cloud-accelerated simulation and AI.
The partnership aims to transform collaboration across the manufacturing value chain and apply digital twins to accelerate product innovation. Transforming how manufacturers collaborate Hexagon and Microsoft have partnered closely on the development and scaling of the open-source Fluid Framework and Azure Fluid Relay service to support the real-time sharing of data across a wide range of manufacturing industry processes and systems, allowing data created in one system to be immediately available to any other person or machine operating in another. Under the new partnership, the Microsoft 365 ecosystem will plug into this data layer, enabling customers to connect their day-to-day office documents and processes with manufacturing tools. This gives teams the freedom to innovate with the tools they already use; for example, tooling cost data from a Microsoft Excel worksheet could be easily shared with a CAM programmer, so simplifying work practices and decision-making between roles. Harnessing the Power of Digital Twins: Nvidia Omniverse’s Transformative Impact Across IndustriesMarch 29th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In an era where digital transformation dictates the pace of innovation across all sectors, Nvidia’s Omniverse platform emerges as a critical tool in realizing the full potential of industrial digitalization. This comprehensive ecosystem, supported by powerful collaborations with tech giants like Microsoft, as well as industry leaders Ansys and Siemens, is setting new standards for the creation, development, and operation of digital twins across a broad spectrum of industries. A Unified Vision with Microsoft and NvidiaThe partnership between Microsoft and Nvidia to integrate Omniverse Cloud APIs into Microsoft Azure signifies a monumental step towards advancing the global manufacturing industry’s digital transformation. This collaboration leverages Azure’s robust cloud infrastructure alongside Omniverse’s advanced digital twin technologies, enabling industries to enhance design, engineering, and operational efficiencies through real-time collaboration and AI-driven insights. The integration facilitates a seamless flow of data across diverse tools and applications, empowering teams to visualize complex processes in physically accurate digital environments. This unified approach not only accelerates decision-making processes but also fosters innovation by enabling the simulation of products and manufacturing processes long before they materialize in the physical world.
Empowering Innovation: How Dassault Systèmes’ Startup Program is Shaping the Future of Technology VenturesMarch 1st, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In the ever-evolving landscape of startups and innovation, the spotlight often shines on the most luminous of disruptors. Yet, the bedrock of this vibrant ecosystem is the support and tools that empower these emerging ventures to transition from nascent ideas to market-ready solutions. At the forefront of this supportive network stands Dassault Systèmes with its pioneering “3DEXPERIENCE Works for Startups” or “SOLIDWORKS for Startups” program, as revealed in an insightful dialogue with Abhishek Bali, the director of the program. Abhishek Bali, an engineer and designer turned MBA graduate, joined Dassault Systèmes’ Boston office in 2016. With a rich background in engineering and business, Bali brings a unique perspective to the startup program, emphasizing the importance of bridging top-down innovation with grassroots, bottoms-up creativity. Dassault Systèmes, traditionally known for aiding giants like Boeing and Procter & Gamble in overcoming innovation challenges, has, over the past decade, turned its gaze to the burgeoning field of startups. The “3DEXPERIENCE Works for Startups” program, initiated in 2017, is a testament to Dassault Systèmes’ belief in the power of early to mid-stage startups. The program offers these companies—particularly those with physical products aimed at the market and less than five years old or under one million in revenue—comprehensive access to Dassault’s suite of design, engineering, simulation, and data intelligence tools. Remarkably, over 19,000 startups have been admitted to the program, with close to 900 applications received monthly from across the globe. This global outreach, stretching from the US and Europe to Asia Pacific regions, underscores Dassault Systèmes’ commitment to democratizing access to cutting-edge tools for innovators everywhere. Beyond software access, the program uniquely positions startups for success by providing substantial discounts in the initial years, exposure at leading trade shows, and a chance to be featured on Dassault Systèmes’ marketing platforms. This holistic approach not only lowers barriers to entry but also connects startups with a broader ecosystem of investors, manufacturers, and mentors. A standout aspect of the program is its adaptability and support for startups in various sectors, including medical devices and disaster management, reflecting a deep respect for the diverse challenges innovators face. Partnerships with over 200 incubators worldwide further amplify the program’s reach, offering startups a springboard to refine their ideas and scale new heights. In conversation, Bali shared touching anecdotes of startups applying to the program during significant holidays, underscoring the profound value and hope the program instills in its applicants. The program’s success is not just measured by the software it provides but by the dreams it enables and the global innovation ecosystem it nurtures. Revolutionizing Physical Strength Assessment and Training: The Proteus Motion JourneyFebruary 15th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
In the realm of physical fitness and rehabilitation, a transformative wave is making its presence felt, and at the forefront is Proteus Motion. We had the opportunity to converse with Paul Vizzio, the Director of Hardware Engineering at Proteus Motion, to explore how this company is redefining strength assessment and training.
MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – ThinkIQJanuary 5th, 2024 by Sanjay Gangal
The Future of Manufacturing: AI, Industry 4.0, Sustainability, and Global Collaboration  Doug Lawson By Doug Lawson, CEO, ThinkIQ As pressure from impending ESG regulations, economic headwinds and geopolitical tensions grow, manufacturers are increasingly looking at cutting-edge technologies to help navigate these challenges. While many manufacturers are still effectively blind to a staggering percentage of events on the factory floor and in their supply chains, Smart Manufacturing solutions will be key in the next year to reduce manufacturing inefficiencies, increase productivity and, ultimately, weather the economic storm. Here are a few manufacturing technology trends we expect to see in the coming year. Manufacturers Will Increasingly Embrace Artificial Intelligence to Combat Inflation With inflation wreaking havoc up and down the entire supply chain, manufacturing companies are looking for ways to stabilize their operations and increase efficiency. The constant increase in prices of raw materials has forced manufacturers to look for ways to improve efficiency and productivity, at reduced costs, with a dependable output of high-quality products. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is opening up greater possibilities for more optimized manufacturing processes to these ends. Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – ThinkIQ |
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