Now that Siemens PLM has acquired Vistagy, will Dassault Systemes play nice?
You may know that Siemens PLM recently acquired Vistagy, whose Fibersim software has been used to design 80% of the composites currently flying in today’s aircraft. Vistagy has been a long-term third-party partner not just to Siemens PLM, but also to Dassault Systemes. Though DS has its own composite design solution, many of its most important customers use Fibersim. To say... Read More
Cloud CAD is really difficult
If you believe the buzz in the blogosphere, there are a lot of engineers and designers who are not at all happy at the prospect of some day being forced to use cloud-based CAD. The public lashback on cloud CAD started building several years ago, and it’s hardly abated since. The conversation has taken on political/religious overtones. In the best of all worlds, clould CAD... Read More
What is saving 90% in engineering time worth?
Engineer-to-order (ETO) software has been around for a long time, with roots reaching back to knowledge management systems developed in the 1980s. The biggest reason more companies don’t use engineer-to-order software is that the front-end configuration, to set up an ETO system, has often been too much work, requiring lots of training and expensive consultants. Tacton makes... Read More
Autodesk ForceEffect now has motion
Autodesk shipped its free iOS (iPhone, iPad, or iPod) based ForceEffect program several months ago, and it was an instant hit, especially with students and makers. It allowed users to do static free body diagrams, in a most elegant way. Autodesk has just released ForceEffect Motion. It too is free. It appears to be a phenomenal tool for doing conceptual design of kinematic systems.... Read More
PTC announces Creo 2.0, Windchill 10.1, and shake-and-break 1.0
This week, PRC announced Creo 2.0 and Windchill 10.1. These aren’t big releases in the grand scheme of things, but they are important releases, and show that PTC is working hard to deliver on what it’s promised. Creo 2.0 This release includes fresh and updated releases of the 9 existing Creo apps, and adds a 10th new app called Options Modeler, which supports design-to-order... Read More
Active Workspace: Big news for Teamcenter users
Siemens PLM just announced Active Workspace, a new product in the Teamcenter software portfolio. There are three general groups of people who are going to be interested in Active Workspace: those who use Teamcenter, those who’ve thought about adopting Teamcenter, but haven’t made the jump yet, and those who are using competing PLM solutions, who will likely be telling... Read More
SolidWorks Plastics
Mr. McGuire: “I want to say one word to you. Just one word.” Benjamin: “Yes, sir.” Mr. McGuire: “Are you listening?” Benjamin: “Yes, I am.” Mr. McGuire: “Plastics.” - The Graduate, 1967 Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp this week announced a new product: SolidWork Plastics. Actually, it’s not strictly new, and it’s not just one product. SolidWorks... Read More
Autodesk provides real-time DFM for plastic part design
There’s a lot of benefit to be had by doing manufacturability analysis (DFM, Design for Manufacturing) early in the design process, rather than waiting until later, when design changes are far more expensive. A couple of years ago, Autodesk Labs previewed a product, Project Krypton, which ran inside of 3D CAD programs (including Autodesk Inventor, DS SolidWorks, and PTC... Read More
Autodesk Inventor ETO gets webified
Autodesk has just introduced a new release of Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-order (ETO) software that can be deployed over the web. The new browser-based access is powered by the Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order Server, which includes the ETO (Intent) Rules Engine and the Inventor Server (for model and drawing generation), as well as web services and server farm management software.... Read More
Black thumb: How to bring a CAD system to its knees
I open up Creo Parametric, and load up a part model. Not too complex — some bosses, holes, and a bunch of blends. I select a blend (or “round,” to use PTC parlance), then click and drag its resizing handle. And wait. And wait. Eventually, after several seconds, the blend resizes. I wait some more, and the blend resizes again. Ad nauseum. Why so slow?... Read More
