MCADCafe Editorial Posts Tagged ‘SolidWorks’Revolutionizing Physical Strength Assessment and Training: The Proteus Motion JourneyThursday, February 15th, 2024In 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.
Searching for Clues About the 3D ExperienceMonday, March 9th, 2020I recently attended 3DEXPERIENCE World (3DXW for short) 2020 (formerly Solidworks World) in Nashville, TN. I think it was either my 19th or 20th trip to this CAD rodeo. It was an especially noteworthy event this year due to its rebranding and I was really curious to see how it would be presented by Dassault Systemes, on the one hand, and received by attendees/customers on the other. The overall format of the conference and general sessions has evolved over the past few years, but that’s to be expected as everything in the design software world has evolved. More than anything, I came to Nashville looking for what the 3DEXPERIENCE with regard to Solidworks was all about at a rebranded event that had been an exclusively Solidworks event for a long time, and one that never disappointed. When asked about this year’s attendance at 3DXW, Solidworks declined to provide a number, but based on previous years, there were noticeably fewer attendees this year. Overall the attendees were at not quite as rabid (in a good way) as in years past, and relatively subdued, but nonetheless, cautiously optimistic about the future.
It seems as though by an increasing number of companies (including Dassault) have forsaken technologies, products and apps in favor of platforms that tend to further muddle the picture of exactly how they’re structured, what they do, what they cost, and unique benefits that couldn’t be provided by previous bits and pieces. Interview with Tom Greaves, Chief Marketing Officer at DotProductTuesday, April 9th, 2019Sanjay Gangal interviewed Tom Greaves, Chief Marketing Officer at DotProduct at the 2019 SOLIDWORKS World Conference in Dallas, Texas. SG: Tell us about DotProduct? TG: We're a small software company headquartered in Boston, and we make handheld 3D capture solutions. We make software that allows off-the-shelf 3D sensors and mobile computing devices, phones, and tablets, allows them to capture 3D data and serve it up in an engineering environment. Interview with Donald Dorsey, Business Development Manager, GibbsCAM at 3D systemsTuesday, April 2nd, 2019Sanjay Gangal interviewed Donald Dorsey, Business Development Manager, GibbsCAM, 3D systems at the 2019 SOLIDWORKS World Conference in Dallas, Texas. SG: Tell us a little bit about GibbsCAM. DD: GibbsCAM was one of the early CNC programming packages that came out in the modern age of CNC programming. We’ve been in the market for well over 35 years, we’ve always taken our approach of – we’re gonna look at the parts the way the machinist is gonna look at it. We want to look at it like a machinist would program a part and we’ve developed our software and our interface to take advantage of that, so we’re very friendly to the machinist environment so they know how to program the parts. Kenesto Cloud Document Collaboration for Engineers and Construction TeamsWednesday, March 13th, 2019Sanjay Gangal interviewed Leslie Minasian, VP of Alliances and Partnerships, Kenesto at the 2019 SOLIDWORKS World Conference in Dallas, Texas. Xometry Continues On-Demand Roll With Acquisition And New FundingThursday, July 26th, 2018A number of companies over the past several years have proclaimed that they have the answer for resurrecting manufacturing in the U.S. Unfortunately, several of these efforts have turned out to be little more than chest beating without much real substance. Then, a company came along about four years ago that really had a concept and plan for making a difference for the future of manufacturing in the U.S. – Xometry. Xometry, the largest on-demand manufacturing platform, announced earlier this month that it has acquired MakeTime, another leading on-demand manufacturing company. This acquisition brings together the country’s two top manufacturing network platforms. The combined company will operate under the Xometry brand name and have offices in Maryland and Kentucky. The acquisition will allow Xometry to grow its national partner network of manufacturers from 1,100 to more than 2,300 while gaining MakeTime’s enterprise product expertise and features including their Autodesk Fusion add-in and Shop Advantage program. Drura Parrish, MakeTime Founder and CEO, will join Xometry as Executive Vice President for Platform. Foundry Group, one of MakeTime’s investors, will lead a new $25 million round of funding for the newly combined company. Almaz Capital, BMW i Ventures, GE Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Maryland Venture Fund will also contribute to the round. Xometry has now raised a total of $63 million to date.
Xometry and MakeTime: The Future of Manufacturing “We’re thrilled to combine Xometry’s online manufacturing platform with MakeTime’s proven success in building a distributed network of over 1,000 manufacturers,” said Randy Altschuler, co-founder and CEO of Xometry. “This acquisition will provide our customers with access to massive capacity through the industry’s largest distributed manufacturing network as well enhanced product features.” “We’re excited at the prospect of joining forces with Xometry,” said Drura Parrish, CEO and Founder of MakeTime. “We’ve both been building the future of manufacturing, and now we will be able to offer small- and medium-sized manufacturers access to more jobs, more opportunities for growth and advanced products to power their businesses.” SOLIDWORKS World 2018 Greatest HitsThursday, February 15th, 2018As usual, last week at SOLIDWORKS World was very busy and we enjoyed every minute of it. During the event we talk to a lot of people during video interviews, on the exhibit floor, at conference sessions, classes, and really informally over coffee, dinner, or a beer. We talked about many things over the course of the conference, but usually came back to the common question, “What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen on the exhibit floor?” Below are what I considered to be among the most significant innovations put on display this year at SOLIDWORKS World 2018 (excluding SOLIDWORKS itself, of course) in four categories — hardware, software, service, and best of show.
Best Hardware: HP 300/500 Series 3D Printers – Capability and AffordabilityHP Inc. expanded its 3D printing portfolio with the introduction of its new Jet Fusion 300/500 series of 3D printers that produce engineering-grade, functional parts in full color, black or white – with voxel (basically, a 3D pixel, where the position of each voxel is inferred based upon its position relative to other voxels) control – in a fraction of the time of other solutions per HP’s claims. Depending on configuration and color preference, the Jet Fusion 300/500 series is available starting in the $50,000s, which is impressive for the capabilities the machines offer. “HP is committed to democratizing 3D design and manufacturing, unleashing new possibilities for millions of innovators around the world,” said Stephen Nigro, President of 3D Printing, HP Inc. “No matter your industry, no matter your design complexity, no matter what colors fit your business needs – black, white, or the full color spectrum – the new HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series gives you the freedom to create brilliant new parts liberated from the constraints of traditional production methods.” HP’s unique ability to control part properties at the individual voxel level enables the design and production of previously unconceivable parts and is now available, for the first time, in full color. HP is already engaging in the co-development of new color applications with universities and businesses around the world including Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Yazaki Corp., and Youngstown State University, and others.
HP 300/500 Series 3D Printers Introduced In addition to providing voxel-level control, the new Jet Fusion 300/500 series of 3D printers have a compact design, enhanced workflow, and the first integrated and automated materials delivery system, enabling greater unattended operation, ease of use, and dramatically increasing production efficiency and output. The Jet Fusion 300/500 series also supports the three leading color file formats (OBJ, VRML, and 3MF) enabling designers to reliably and easily produce the parts they want without file conversion or data corruption. The HP Jet Fusion 300 / 500 series offerings include:
“I’m excited about the range of applications for functional multi-color 3D printing,” said Terry Wohlers, President, Wohlers Associates Inc. “It’s good to see that HP is targeting this interesting and largely untapped opportunity. The possibilities are infinite.” The HP Jet Fusion 300/500 3D printers will launch with a new material, HP 3D High Reusability CB PA 12. Parts using this material will have mechanical properties similar to the HP 3D High Reusability PA 12 material from HP’s industrial solutions. Leveraging HP’s unique Open Platform for materials and applications development, HP will work with its growing materials ecosystem to grow the material breadth and drive costs down. The Jet Fusion 300 / 500 series will ultimately support similar materials as the Jet Fusion 3200/4200/4210, and also support unique materials that enable color or other voxel-level capabilities. The HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series of 3D printers is available for order today and will begin shipping in the second half of 2018. For complete details and technical specifications please visit HP.com/go/Color3DPrint. At SOLIDWORKS World HP Inc. and Dassault Systèmes announced their collaboration to align future technology roadmaps to ensure that users have access to the latest design tools integrated with HP’s voxel-level technology, as well as design tools for new materials. This roadmap includes upcoming releases of the SOLIDWORKS portfolio to support the full-color capabilities of HP’s new Jet Fusion 300/500 series 3D printers. Both companies are also strong supporters of the 3MF standard to ensure reliable exchange of color information for 3D printing. They will continue to test, validate, and support 3MF for their solutions to assure accuracy of information exchange across the manufacturing workflow.
Best Software: 3DXpert – Direct Path From SOLIDWORKS To Additive ManufacturingThis was the toughest category because there so many noteworthy new and improved software products demonstrated. In the end, though, I found 3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS from 3D Systems to be one of the most compelling for a couple of reasons – first, for its capabilities; second, it’s a free add-in for SOLIDWORKS subscribers. Free? I was surprised, too. The free version is called the Standard Edition, and the Pro Edition with additional capabilities is available for purchase.
3DXpert For SOLIDWORKS Overview 3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS is a complementary software for SOLIDWORKS, providing designers and engineers with everything needed to prepare and optimize designs for 3D printing. A click of a button in SOLIDWORKS brings native CAD data directly into 3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS and provides an extensive toolset to easily analyze, prepare and optimize designs for additive manufacturing. In other words, 3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS provides a direct path from SOLIDWORKS design to additive manufacturing and eliminates the need for a back and forth iterative process. Some of the capabilities of 3DXpert include:
3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS is machine agnostic and can work with any printer and technology, although the product’s main focus is currently on powder bed metal (DMLS), however, the part positioning on tray, lattice design and send to print tools are suitable for any printer and technology. Dedicated supports’ functionality is optimized for powder bed metal (DMLS) and Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF, FDM, MJP). Support free technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Plaster-Based Printing (PP, CJP) are supported as well. In terms of exporting data to the 3D printer, 3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS can export slicing as CLI C0 contours to any machine that can read it. Geometry can also be sent to a 3D printer as mesh data in various formats (STL, 3MF, OBJ, VRML).
Best Service: Xometry – On-Demand Quoting and Manufacturing ServicesXometry is a company committed to bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. with its software platform for building a reliable and scalable manufacturing program. It employs a unique machine-learning approach that provides its customers with optimal manufacturing capabilities at the best price based on parameters input by customers. Founded in 2014, Xometry is transforming American manufacturing through a proprietary software platform that provides on-demand manufacturing to a diverse customer base, ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. The platform provides an efficient way to source high-quality custom parts, with 24/7 access to instant pricing, expected lead time and manufacturability feedback that recommends best processes and practices. With well more than 100 manufacturing partners, the manufacturing capabilities include CNC machining, 3D printing, sheet metal forming and fabrication, and urethane casting with over 200 materials. Xometry’s customers include General Electric, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, NASA, and the United States Army.
Video Interview With Xometry at SOLIDWORKS World 2017 Xometry’s technology platform enables it to leverage the expertise and capacity of more than 200,000 manufacturers across the United States who have on average less than 20 employees. Xometry’s partners are spending less time bidding for new business and more time producing parts. Xometry employs strict quality control to ensure it’s only offering up the best vendors. When a manufacturer initially signs up to join the network, Xometry screens the company by giving it only one job to complete. Instead of shipping the product directly to the customer, it’s first sent to Xometry; where their team assesses the quality of the product and whether it meets standards established by the customer and Xometry. Customers are also encouraged to rate their vendors based on their performance, and any manufacturers flagged for producing poor-quality products will receive additional scrutiny from Xometry. Xometry’s capabilities are available as a free SOLIDWORKS Instant Quoting add-in that can be accessed directly from the SOLIDWORKS interface. Some of the features available in the SOLIDWORKS add-in include:
Is Xometry the first company to explore the possibilities of on-demand manufacturing? Well, no, not exactly. However, we have been impressed with the company’s approach, growing partner network and customer base, relationship with SOLIDWORKS, and substantial financial connections that will help it continue down a bright path.
Best of Show: Desktop Metal Live Parts – Auto-Generate Optimized Part DesignsAlthough a technology preview right now, Desktop Metal Live Parts awed just about everyone who witnessed it being demonstrated, myself included. Live Parts is an experimental technology that applies morphogenetic principles and advanced simulation to auto-generate part designs very quickly. Desktop Metal’s vision for Live Parts is to enable users to realize a new potential for additive manufacturing—including material and cost efficiency, as well as design flexibility.
Desktop Metal Live Parts Discussion At this point, Live Parts is actually an explorative extension of generative design, a form-finding process that can mimic nature’s evolutionary approach to design.
Overview Of Adjusting Live Parts Cell Properties Similar to how plants grow, there are no straight lines in parts except where needed for mounting regions, symmetries, or keep out zones. This makes them well suited for additive manufacturing processes, where typical design limitations don’t apply. Some of Live Parts most notable capabilities include:
Very interesting and innovative technology from a relatively new company. Editor’s Note: If you want to check out the video interviews we recorded at SOLIDWORKS World 2018, check out our website and click on videos.
And We Have A Winner!At our exhibit booth last week at SOLIDWORKS World we encouraged attendees to drop a business card off for a chance to win an Amazon Echo with a random drawing at the end of the conference. We received a lot of business cards and the winner of our drawing was Victor Oswaldo Carreon.Victor is an electromechanical engineer working with Intelligy a SOLIDWORKS Value Added Reseller from Mexico, who specializes in data management. He says he went to SWW2018 to see the different solutions that SolidWorks will release in the future, as well as see the solutions that the partners offer to customers and resellers. Congratulations Victor!
Victor Oswaldo Carreon Won An Amazon Echo From MCADCafe At SOLIDWORKS World 2018
Get Ready For SOLIDWORKS World 2018!Thursday, February 1st, 2018It’s almost time to head to Los Angeles for SOLIDWORKS World 2018 and for many attendees, it will be a welcome relief from winter weather. This year will mark the 20th event and more than 5,000 attendees are expected. For us, SOLIDWORKS World is all about people, products, and exchanging ideas — reacquainting ourselves with old friends and meeting new ones.
Conference Theme: Think!Every day of SOLIDWORKS World starts with a general session with speakers that range from engineers, to industry leaders, to SOLIDWORKS executives and partners on their visions, perspectives, and ideas that provide a present and future context for the company and industry. Day 1 – THINK: Future The first general session is focused the future from several different perspectives. While SOLIDWORKS has been keeping specifics of the general sessions secretive, we do know the session feature the following speakers: Gian Paolo Bassi, Bernard Charles, Kishore Boyalakuntla, Richard Doyle, and Neri Oxman. Day 2 – THINK: Innovation Day 2 ‘s general session focuses on innovation whay it’s obviously important and how to achieve it. There will be a little something for everyone, including “Wearable Robots That Help People Walk Again” presented by Kyoungchul Kong. The other speakers include Suchit Jain, Michel Jagemann, Suchit Jain, Kishore Boyalakuntla, and Brent Bushnell. Day 3 – THINK: Next Is Now The final general group session includes one of our favorite parts of the conference, a peek into possible SOLIDWORKS 2019 features and capabilities. It wraps up with speakers that include Suchit Jain, Kishore Boyalakuntla, Mark Schneider, Joseph Hiura, Robert Andrew Johnson, Kurt Anliker, and Gian Paolo Bassi.
New and Improved SOLIDWORKS ProductsSeveral SOLIDWORKS products, both new and improved, will be showcased and demonstrated on the main stage, breakout sessions, and the exhibition floor. Some of the more significant include: SOLIDWORKS 3D 2018 Although the flagship product has been out for a few months, with SOLIDWORKS 2018, the company says its design-to-manufacturing process provides the tools needed to implement a comprehensive design-through-manufacturing strategy, all inside the SOLIDWORKS environment. These tools let you work without having to export and import data from one system to another. With IP embedded in the 3D design model, and at the center of the model-based definition (MBD) process, and thanks to associativity, changes from design or manufacturing are automatically reflected in all related CAD models, CAM programs, drawings, and documentation. Additionally, all the information for manufacturing, inspection, and simulation and verification is directly linked to the design, so it always reflects the current design iteration (which is always a good thing). Some of the other major new and improved features for SOLIDWORKS 2018 include: Inspection for MBD – With the enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2018, you can now create inspection documentation directly from 3D models with Production Manufacturing Information (PMI), as well as from 2D drawings, PDFs, and TIFFs. SOLIDWORKS Inspection is now integrated with SOLIDWORKS PDM, and supports SOLIDWORKS part and assembly files (*.sldprt, *.sldasm), as well as non-native 3D CAD formats. 3D Interconnect – You can work with more file formats including ACIS, STEP, and IGES, and automatically update your design whenever new files are received. In addition, 3D Interconnect now supports internal file information like custom properties, materials properties and reference axes. Working With Mesh Data – You can now work directly with mesh data as you would with surface or solid geometry. Combine, intersect, split, move/copy, cut with surface, and check for interference. In addition, you can quickly fit surface bodies to regions of mesh models. Sheet Metal – SOLIDWORKS 2018 includes tab and slot features for self-fixturing of parts for welding. A normal cut feature ensures that clearances are included for manufacturing, and tools to easily create or flatten corners that include three bends. Generative Design – SOLIDWORKS Simulation Topology Study tool can automatically optimize the shape of a design based on weight, function, and manufacturing criteria. You can improve performance or reduce product weight based on simulation and manufacturing constraints.
SOLIDWORKS CAM The SOLIDWORKS CAM rules-based technology enables you to integrate design and manufacturing, connecting design and manufacturing teams through a common software tool and 3D model. SOLIDWORKS CAM is an add-on to all versions of SOLIDWORKS CAD that lets you prepare your designs for manufacturability earlier in the development cycle. Manufacturing tasks that had to wait until a design was complete can now be performed concurrently with the design process. SOLIDWORKS CAM Standard lets you quickly program individual milled parts and configurations without leaving the SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD environment. You have full access to defining rules within SOLIDWORKS CAM to create and build to company standards, as well as Tolerance-Based Machining (TBM). SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional builds on the capabilities of SOLIDWORKS CAM Standard with increased programming capabilities. The additional features include High-Speed Machining (HSM), configurations, assembly machining, turning, and 3+2 programming to drive four- and five-axis machines.
SOLIDWORKS Visualize SOLIDWORKS Visualize lets you leverage your 3D CAD data to create photo-quality content in the fastest and easiest way you can–from images to animations, interactive web content, and immersive Virtual Reality. Bring your products to life. SOLIDWORKS Visualize is the “camera” for your CAD data. SOLIDWORKS Visualize is hardware-agnostic and can leverage one or many GPUs in a single machine or across a network, which dramatically increases rendering performance over CPU hardware. SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard lets you produce photo-quality images for taking “photos” of 3D data, cutting costs, and accelerating time-to-market with compelling imagery. SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional lets you tell a deeper story with your CAD data by generating photo-quality imagery, interactive animations, 360-degree spins, and immersive Virtual Reality (VR) for communicating complex design details.
SOLIDWORKS MBD SOLIDWORKS Model-Based Definition (MBD) lets you define and organize 3D dimensions, tolerances, datums, notes, Bills of Material (BOMs), and other annotations; customize publishing templates for manufacturing, such as Part or Assembly Specifications, Request for Quote (RFQ), and Incoming Inspection Reports. You can also publish to widely accepted formats, such as eDrawings, STEP 242, and 3D PDF for clear 3D communications. SOLIDWORKS MBD helps you define feature-based annotations in Parts and assemblies (DimXpert), and import 3D annotations from common CAD formats for more efficient design collaborations. When there are too many 3D annotations, you can show and hide annotations automatically as a model rotates, capture comprehensive settings with 3D views similar to visual bookmarks, compare 3D annotation differences between revisions to capture subtle but critical differences, and reuse 3D views in 2D drawings when necessary.
SOLIDWORKS Xdesign I don’t know a lot about this product yet, but suffice it to say this could be a real cloud-based game changer for SOLIDWORKS. SOLIDWORKS Xdesign combines ease of use with innovative design methodologies and cloud collaboration from inside your browser. Create parametric models and assemblies, or let Xdesign’s Design Guidance suggest solutions. Share designs and collaborate through communities. Being cloud-based, with no software to install configure or manage, you are always working with the latest version of Xdesign on all your devices. With the single modeling environment, there is no need to worry about parts and assemblies. Top-down or bottom-up—Xdesign supports design needs and automatically creates a design structure. When facing tough structural design challenges, Design Guidance can offer possible solutions. Simply provide the part connection points and force conditions and Design Guidance will give you insight into what your part should look like. Keep it as a guidance reference or use it in your model.
SOLIDWORKS 2019 Not too much to discuss here yet, but a preview of what the future might hold will be presented the final day of the show during the morning’s general session. More on this and what we might expect to see in the next release will be covered next week.
Partner ProductsWe’ll be on the lookout for innovative companies, products, and services. Next week I will discuss what I considered to be “Best of Show” for hardware, software, and service.
Meet Us At SOLIDWORKS World 2018!We’ll be at SOLIDWORKS World 2018 in Los Angeles, February 4-7, 2018 conducting video interviews. If your company is interested and you haven’t signed up yet, click on this link to schedule a video interview. If you have any questions, contact me at 719-221-1867 or jeff@ibsystems.com. Stop by and say “hello” during the conference in exhibit booth #302. Hope to see you there! Xometry: A Different Approach To On-Demand ManufacturingThursday, March 23rd, 2017At software conferences it’s always fun to catch up with old industry acquaintances, but is more interesting to strike up conversations with new companies with innovative ideas. That very thing happened a few weeks ago at SOLIDWORKS World 2017 when we got introduced to Xometry, a company committed to bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. with its software platform for building a reliable and scalable manufacturing program. It employs a unique machine-learning approach that provides its customers with optimal manufacturing capabilities at the best price based on parameters input by customers. Founded in 2014, Xometry is hoping to transform American manufacturing through a proprietary software platform that provides on-demand manufacturing to a diverse customer base, ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. The platform provides an efficient way to source high-quality custom parts, with 24/7 access to instant pricing, expected lead time and manufacturability feedback that recommends best processes and practices. With more than 100 manufacturing partners, the manufacturing capabilities include CNC machining, 3D printing, sheet metal forming and fabrication, and urethane casting with over 200 materials. Xometry’s 4,000+ customers include General Electric, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, NASA, and the United States Army.
CNC Machining and How Xometry Is Different A Conversation With Oboe Wu On the Future Of SOLIDWORKS MBDThursday, March 9th, 2017A few weeks ago we were in Los Angeles attending SOLIDWORKS World 2017. As usual, it was an overwhelming whirlwind of people, sights, sounds, and information while it was taking place, but has come into better focus now that some time has transpired for letting all of it sink in and make sense. One of the things I wanted to especially sort out was SOLIDWORKS’ take on model-based definition (MBD), where it stands today, and where it might be headed in the future The last day of SOLIDWORKS World 2017 I sat down with Oboe Wu, SOLIDWORKS MBD Product Manager, and we discussed several aspects of MBD. Our discussion on SOLIDWORKS MBD centered around the creation and consumption of MBD data (that are tied to customers’ workflows), and the fact that MBD is transitioning from the “why implement” phase to the “how to implement” phase. In the video below, SOLIDWORKS MBD Product Manager, Oboe Wu, discusses how to eliminate conversion of 3D data to 2D documents and fully leverage 3D design data throughout an organization and partners to reduce redundant tasks. He explains MBD from SOLIDWORKS’ point of view.
What is SOLIDWORKS Model-Based Definition? |
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