Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Monday, March 17th, 2014
Do you have something to share with the MCAD community, such as opinions, thought-provoking topics, or commentary? MCADCafe.com, the leading mechanical design, engineering, and manufacturing portal is seeking the following types of blogging contributor categories:
- Industry Expert/Consultant Blog
- Provide thought leadership, industry expertise
- Benefit by promoting yourself and your expertise
- No cost involved if the article is not promotional in nature
- Guest Blog
- Tied to an existing blog on MCADCafe
- Write one blog post or post periodically
- No cost involved if the article is not promotional in nature
- Custom Blog
- Will have a unique name and identity
- Produce at least one blog post per month
- No cost involved if the articles are not promotional in nature
- Custom Corporate Blog
- Industry-leading companies, such as software and hardware vendors, service bureaus, etc.
- Multiple logins for publishing blog entries from multiple authors
- Cost is $700/month or $6,000/year.
MCADCafe has 60,000 unique visitors per month; as well as 24,000 subscribers to our daily newsletter and MCAD Weekly. Translation: People like to spend time at MCADCafe.
We’re looking for the following types of content from you:
Tips – in other words “how to do something.”
Success Stories — narratives or interviews about projects you’ve worked on, skill development, or how you have succeeded in your career.
What’s On Your Mind – what do you like, not like, what bothers you about the MCAD industry?
Topics for any of the types of content may range and cover the following (but this is just a sampling of possibilities):
- Money (making or management)
- Productivity/Performance tips and best practices
- Team work or professional partnerships and collaboration
- Awesome designs and how they were created
- Communications (either professional interpersonal or marketing)
- Technology (apps, useful websites, tools, etc.)
- Hardware and software evaluations and experiences
- Management (of teams, projects, or time)
- Professional development (training, books, lectures, videos)
- Other: Any reasonable topic will be considered
(more…)
Tags: blog, Corporate blog, custom blog, guest blog, MCADCafe, publicity
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Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
Last year we got pretty excited when Google Glass was first introduced and the possibilities it offered, both generally and for CAD users.
Although I’m gradually coming around, I still personally find the Google Glass technology/device concept intrusive, but have to admit it is innovative and possibly inevitable. Google Glass is still being tested and has received mixed reviews. Even though not generally yet, there are already several places and events where Google Glass will be banned.
According to Google, “Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD) that is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project, with the mission of producing a mass-market ubiquitous computer.” Like all things Google, Glass runs under Android, and this might be a good thing for wide acceptance.
Any negativity shown toward the device, however, has not stopped many companies from exploring the possibilities of Google Glass. In fact, a CAD company last year announced an app for Google Glass — TurboSite from IMSI/Design.
OK, TurboSite for Goggle Glass is an AEC application, but you have to believe it could also be used in plant design and verification, as well as facilities management.
As for MCAD, I envision that it could be used in automotive, aerospace, consumer product design sectors, and shipbuilding (after all, a ship is just a horizontal building that floats). This marks the dawn of a new age of design with hardware shrinking from yesterday’s main frames to today’s wearable computers that will only continue to get smaller as their utility becomes bigger.
I’ve heard rumors that Autodesk and SolidWorks may be working on apps for Google Glass and other so-called “smart glasses.”
Earlier this week, Epson America showcased conceptual demos of its second-generation Moverio BT-200 “smart glasses” for augmented and virtual reality experiences at the SXSW Conference in Austin. Augmented reality (AR) allows for a digitally enhanced view of the real world. AR can add layers of digital information on top of items in the world around us.
Epson’s second generation augmented reality smart glasses debuted earlier this year at CES 2014. Keep in mind, though, the Moverio BT-200 shouldn’t be confused as a Google Glass competitor. For example, you wouldn’t want to wear the Moverio everywhere you go. It’s meant primarily for your personal time or maybe on a long flight, but there are certainly business applications for the technology as well. Since the display is visible to both eyes, movies and games translate well to it. Going forward, augmented reality is going to be the focal point for both games and commercial business use.
(more…)
Tags: augmented reality, Epson, Google Glass, Moverio BT-200
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Wednesday, March 5th, 2014
Over the course of a year I read a lot of books — technical, non-fiction, hardcopy, and digital. Most of them I get through, although there are some I don’t even try to finish, and a few become favorites and are kept for future reading on my bookshelf. I just finished a book entitled Re-Use Your CAD: The Model-Based Handbook by Jennifer Herron. When I saw Handbook in the title, I thought it would be just a dry reference book, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was much more than that — it’s a good learning resource.
First, a little about the author and model-based engineering/model-based design (MBE/MBD).
I’ve known Jennifer for several years as we’ve crossed paths at software conferences. She is the owner of Action Engineering, a company that specializes in the promotion, process development, and standardization of 3D CAD MBE and MBD. She is an expert in multiple CAD packages, which she uses along with her practical design experience to hone standards and processes that optimize the ROI of all CAD systems.
She also offers model-based documentation education seminars, MIL-STD-31000A schema and modeling best practice training, as well as planning consulting services for Model-Based Engineering implementation. Keep in mind as you read the book that based on her experience, she is a stickler for standards, such as ISO, but you realize that’s probably a good thing.
Her company is a consulting firm that transitions government organizations and companies to effectively and efficiently implement Model Based Engineering. With a specialty in training organizations to document and tailor their business practices to be compatible with CAD, PDM and PLM software tools, Action advises companies in: CAD modeling standards and best practice, designer modeling efficiency, CAD configuration management, MBE training, team collaboration and CAD interoperability.
The concept(s) of MBE/MBD have received a lot of attention in the past few years because this approach handles product development using a digital master model, and not just necessarily CAD. All downstream activities can be derived from the master model to develop a product. The MBE/MBD approach replaces puzzling documents and can minimize the need for physical prototypes before an optimized design has been developed. In other words, engineers and designers can simulate and iterate as much as necessary to refine a model while also meeting requirements and adhering to design constraints.
Now on to the book . . .
Reuse Your CAD Handbook
The book is structured in a logical manner for those both new and experienced with MBE/MBD. Throughout, it stresses the importance of standardizing, centralizing, documenting, and reusing a CAD database. It’s written in a CAD-agnostic manner, so its principles can be applied in any CAD environment, regardless of vendor.
A sampling of some of the topics covered in the book include:
- Explanation of the philosophy of designing products using CAD model-based life-cycles
- Implementation guide to model-based commercial (ASME Y14.41), government (MIL-STD-31000A) and company standards
- Model-based benefits, risks, and action plans
- 3D MBD model organizational schema
- 3D MBD model protocols to satisfy the schema CAD agnostically
- Part and assembly modeling best practice
- Mass property implementation methods
- 3D model Data Exchange (DEX) methods
- MBE support infrastructure requirements
- Product data management (PDM) fundamentals and requirements
(more…)
Tags: Action Engineering, CAD, Jennifer Herron, MBD, MBE, Model-Based Design, model-based engineering, Re-Use Your CAD - The Model-Based CAD Handbook
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Wednesday, February 26th, 2014
As most of us know who deal with the digital design world, for many years, all of the major CAD vendors have been stressing the vital importance of managing the design and manufacturing data created using their software. Surprisingly though, even after all of the talk of imminent disaster, still relatively few design and manufacturing companies, especially SMBs, have a formal PDM system of any type in place beyond Windows Explorer and Excel.
Some of the reasons we hear for PDM not being deployed include the perceptions (and experiences) that PDM is time consuming and expensive to implement. Also, some companies are perfectly happy with a sort of homegrown approach – Windows Explorer and Excel spreadsheets. In many cases these provide legitimate reasons for not implementing a formal PDM system, but times and circumstances are changing, and reasons for not implementing PDM are becoming weaker and weaker.
While most SMBs have made the transition from 2D to 3D, we have found that many of these same companies are finally exploring how to manage the mountains of CAD and associated product development and project data with a dedicated PDM system. These companies are seeking real solutions that are more capable and scalable than handling just files and folders with Excel spreadsheets and Windows Explorer. For example, PDM systems that connect the design department to the shop floor; will connect to other systems, such as MRP; and are scalable, so the system can grow as the company grows.
Because of the interest shown by our readers in PDM, we are in the process of exploring and evaluating several options for product and project management.
Keep in mind, these evaluations will be PDM systems only. Although the line between PDM and PLM systems is blurring, we’ll focus and restrict these evaluations to PDM only.
Check out the following video that clearly delineates the differences between PDM and PLM.
(more…)
Tags: Autodesk Inventor 2014, Autodesk Vault Professional, Creo Parametric, PDM, PLM, product data management, PTC Windchill PDM Essentials, Siemens Teamcenter Rapid Start, Solid Edge ST6, SolidWorks 2014, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM
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Thursday, February 20th, 2014
Last time we covered the introduction of the the MarkForged Mark One that can print parts with carbon fiber filament. This time around we’ll discuss the Stratsys Objet500 Connex3 3D printer that can produce multi-material/multi-color parts.
Before the conference officially commenced, Stratasys formally introduced its new Objet500 Connex3 3D printer. For a pre-event event, it was well attended by those interested in Stratasys’ new 3D printer.
The Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer features a unique triple-jetting technology that combines droplets of three base materials to produce parts with a myriad combinations of rigid, flexible, and transparent color materials, as well as color materials — all in a single print run. This ability to achieve the characteristics of an assembled part without assembly or painting is a significant technological achievement and time-saver.
Connex3 uses a print block with eight print heads — two for each material, including supports. This technique leaves six print heads for three model materials. The print heads deposit material droplets in a pre-defined pattern to create combinations from as many as three base materials. The patterns yield digital materials that are more than just a simple blending of the base materials.
(more…)
Tags: 3D printer, Objet500 Connex3 3D, Stratasys, Trek Bicycles
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Thursday, February 13th, 2014
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or just don’t care, 3D printers and what they can do have become some of the hottest technology topics I can remember. Although its potential has only begun to be realized, the technology has matured beyond the curiosity stage and is being embraced by a wide range of users with a wide range of budgets. Like anything else, you get what you pay for, and 3D printing is no exception. By that I mean, sure, you buy a 3D printer relatively inexpensively, but there are always limitations with regard to material choice, part quality etc.
That’s changing, though, based on a couple of new 3D printers that were introduced at this year’s SolidWorks World. The Partner Pavilion had a few less exhibitors than previous years, but the level of traffic was high. A lot of attention was paid to a couple of new 3D printers that really set themselves apart from competing multi-material machines — the MarkForged Mark One and the Stratasys Objet500 Connex3.
This time around, we’ll take a look at the MarkForged Mark One, and will examine the Stratasys Objet500 Connex3 in our next edition.
(more…)
Tags: 3D printer, CFF, FFF, Mark One, MarkForged, SolidWorks World
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Wednesday, February 5th, 2014
This year’s edition of SolidWorks World, held in San Diego, CA attracted a crowd of more than 5,600 attendees. I’m sure the location and weather in San Diego helped draw attendees from parts of the country caught in this winter’s the Polar Vortex.
Of course, the first morning of the conference offered the obligatory good news of sales and user (2.3 million+) numbers, as well as a long-awaited new product.
A presentation slide showed all the areas that DS SolidWorks is involved in, including CAD, simulation, electrical design, technical publications, PDM, inspection, etc. Noticeably absent, however, is CAM, but the company has partners willing to take that on. Absent from the Partner Pavilion was Delcam; probably because that company is about to be acquired by Autodesk. (more…)
Tags: SolidWorks, SolidWorks Industrial Conceptual, SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, SolidWorks World 2014
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Monday, January 20th, 2014
There are a number of simulation/analysis software products available for conducting motion and FEA studies. However, the ability to conduct them both, as well as optimizing assemblies is a tall order, especially for mere mortals and non-CAE specialists. With a relatively short learning curve, for this evaluation SimWise 4D proved its mettle for handling motion, FEA, and optimization in one comprehensive package.
What is known today as SimWise 4D began when Design Simulation Technologies (DST) acquired a license from MSC Software Corp. to the MSC.visualNastran 4D (vn4D) product. That software traces its roots to the Working Model 3D product developed by Knowledge Revolution, which was acquired by MSC in 1999, extended to include FEA capabilities, and renamed Working Model 4D.
(more…)
Tags: CAE, Design Simulation, FEA, Motion, SimWise 4D
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Wednesday, January 15th, 2014
Although still a few months away, there are a couple of important conferences that will be co-located this year — Collaboration & Interoperability Congress (CIC) and NAFEMS Americas Congress.
NAFEMS and Longview Advisors just announced plans to co-locate the NAFEMS 2014 Americas Conference and the Collaboration & Interoperability Congress (CIC) in Colorado Springs, CO, running May 28-30, 2014..
The central theme of the co-located events is, “Driving Product Development with Collaboration, Simulation, and Integration.” (more…)
Tags: CAE, CIC, collaboration, initeroprability, NAFEMS
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Thursday, December 26th, 2013
The MCAD industry, like in recent years past, had many interesting and significant events that took place in 2013. Below are just some of the highlights that we noted for the year.
Cloud-Based Everything
It wasn’t all that long ago that an MCAD executive referred to the cloud as “mere vapor,” but that is rapidly changing as real engineering applications become available.
In 2013, the cloud began to transition from just a giant storage device to a true platform for running applications as varied as conceptual design to simulation/analysis to rendering.
(more…)
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