Electric bikes use less than 1,000 watts of total power and can be used on bike paths. When Hays first encountered these hybrid vehicles, most models were imported from a variety of countries. They relied on an injection molding manufacturing process which produced parts made of a variety of thermoplastics. While initially pleasing in appearance, the plastic parts raised questions of reliability and tended toward unsightly discolorations and dangerous cracks. “As an advocate for electric bikes,” said Hays, “I felt these problems had to be solved.”

To efficiently produce a more reliable and environmentally friendly electric bike, Hays’ company Pi Mobility took a minimalist approach. For Hays and his team, the longer a product will last is a key factor in making it more sustainable. Rather than rely on brittle plastics for a multitude of parts, Pi Mobility used an elegant, solitary arch of recycled aluminum for its bikes’ iconic frame. The recycled aluminum lasts longer than plastic and the batteries and electronic components reside safely within the aluminum tube rather than an injection molded plastic battery enclosure.

Recycled aluminum requires one-thirteenth the amount of electricity to produce compared to virgin aluminum. And, a Pi Mobility bikes produces 300 lbs of carbon dioxide per 12,000 miles of travel, making it 20-30 times more efficient than a motorcycle or cart. The single tube used in the PiCycle and PiMoto models’ battery agnostic design means they can conceivably handle any battery or chemical process that produces electricity, allowing for easy upgrades in the future.

Thanks to the less labor-intensive design of the single tube, Pi Mobility has been able to maintain production in the US and still be profitable. “We can form a tube in about 30 seconds,” said Hays. “With the help of Autodesk software, changes to the design can be embedded very quickly. Our manufacturing method offers very rapid scale at competitive prices, but it also reduces the required labor to a fraction of more traditional electric bikes. By producing our bikes locally, much of the transportation carbon that often affects even environmentally sustainable good can be eliminated.

The company’s testing program makes durability and sustainability its top priorities, before appearance. Pi Mobility seeks to combine all three elements at every opportunity. The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping helped the company to optimize its design and bring new products to market faster.

Hays said,” We use Inventor, Vault, Alias Design, and Showcase. Our design team took to the software immediately. After just three weeks the team produced a 3D digital prototype using Inventor. It proved that by increasing the diameter of our tube by a half inch, we could save $335,000.”

Pi Mobility

www.picycle.com

Autodesk, Inc.

www.autodesk.com

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The product development team at PTC came up with the idea of a creating single program that does everything versus offering diverse programs with no connectedness. The strategy addresses its customer base and the trend toward solid modeling for the masses. Creo 1.0 is the result of that concept. The software currently has nine applications including Creo Parametric, Direct, Illustrate, Schematics, View MCAD, View ECAD, Sketch, and Layout.

The company focused on a group of traditional user problems and applied a core of technologies against them, specific roles having options for modeling modes with the click of an app. Simplifying a process that has plagued engineers and designers for decades makes using the software and being productive all the difference. The Creo GUI is much cleaner than the Pro/E GUI. According to those who have used the new product, the GUI strategy is most evident in Creo Parametric and Creo Direct. PTC leveraged the best features from CoCreate and made it easier to use. The company added features to Creo Parametric that will make Pro/E seem like ancient technology. Creo proves that a feature can live in a history-based and history-free environment keeping the parametric relation to features within each if needed.

Another 2011 debut was SolidWorks 2012 that also sports new features to help a more diverse audience. The software has improvements in assembly and drawing capabilities, built-in simulation, design costing, routing, image and animation creation, and product data management. Dassault Systemes says SolidWorks 2012 will help automate design functions, change product development processes, and extend support for collaboration and connectivity. This technology could change how the software is marketed and sold. The product helps users streamline design processes by removing traditional steps.

Autodesk’s AutoCAD 2012 and Design Suite 2012 series are available in a range of offerings including web and mobile applications. Thus more users have access to the technology and can stay connected to their work no matter where they are.  In addition, AutoCAD 2012 and Design Suite 201212 are directly connected to the free AutoCAD WS web and mobility application.

With CAD pretty much saturating the engineering and manufacturing arena, CAD vendors are realizing that pumping out a redressed version of what went out the door at the last launch is not going to work much longer. They have to offer tools that appeal to other audiences. We have seen that starting to happen in the retail, hobby, and jewelry industries where non-engineering types are using 3D programs to crank out new products.

PTC

www.ptc.com

Dassault Systemes

www.3ds.com

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

3D CAD Tips

Moving its designers onto a standard platform worldwide meant integrating the Autodesk manufacturing technology with other key enterprise systems. As a result, Voith has synchronized its design teams and achieved new heights in speed and efficiency levels. “By integrating our 3D models into our SAP ERP system, we can make design changes more quickly. Every engineer has access to the same information, said Voith’s Olaf Spitzer. “This allows us to respond to our customers’ needs faster.”

Frederich Spitzer, PDM Support Manager, IT Solutions for Voith, “We are organized into centers of competencies, so every location with manufacturing capabilities has competencies for a certain product in the finished machine. By installing a common Inventor SAP ERP system with help from Autodesk Consulting, we bring all the information that is generated by these different locations together in one system.”

Voith is also gaining efficiencies associated with the enterprise parts management system built by Cadenas GmbH. The PART system reduces design time by providing access to components and assemblies. Design and development engineers are able to see relevant part information such as price, delivery time, and release status in one user interface.

With a common database, Voith’s design team now uses the same items with the same information. By streamlining parts numbers, Voith facilitates procurement, inventory, and maintenance.

Today, Voith is creating more accurate designs faster. Each machine is designed by several of Voith’s centers of competencies and then assembled at the customer site. Since adopting Inventor, Voith has reduced assembly problems.

“By integrating Inventor with our ERP system, we can respond quicker to our customer needs,” said Olaf Spitzer. “We are able to show them designs before we build a machine. For one project in China, a company ordered parts of a paper machine. We showed them the design and they had changes which we were able to make overnight. We then presented the new design to the customer the next day and secured an order.”

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

3D CAD Tips

StretchMesh introduces new techniques and gives polygonal geometry a “stretch” quality for better control over the movement and skin elasticity of 3D modeled characters. The software features advanced relational vertex and shape preservation technology, offering animators and technical directors working in feature film, broadcast, and game development the ability to create smooth character deformations using Maya software.

StretchMesh takes advantage of multi-threading in Maya software, and incorporates several features for advanced character animation including greater flexibility and performance when animating collisions with primitive sphere and primitive curve colliders, the ability to pain an influence on a collision object for per-vertex control over collision behaviors, curve attractors provide the ability to pull vertices toward the closest point on  a curve, and a “Scale Safe” mode that allows users to scale a mesh while safely preserving its initial shape.

Kickstand

www.kickstand.tv

3D CAD Tips

“Autodesk provides the technology and expertise to streamline our entire design process, so we can beat our competition on the track and in the marketplace. Now that we have incorporated Autodesk Product Design Suite, it has enabled us to further enhance our workflow.”

Following a race weekend, the drivers brief Kelly Racing’s in-house design and engineering team on what precisely went right and wrong during the race. The designers then set to work with Inventor Professional software to make modifications to the existing car parts that can enhance performance and save the team time. For example, improvements to the front end of the car, in particular the suspension assembly, has increased traction and grip by 8%, leading to faster lap times or shaving 1% of total car weight through design and material optimization.

Even the most minor modifications play a vital role in a sport where a fraction of a second can be the difference between first and 21^st place. Engineers then test revised designs with Autodesk Simulation CFD to optimize aerodynamic performance and ensure the components are able to perform at speeds of up to 300 kilometers (188 miles) per hour. Autodesk Simulation Multiphysics software is also used to predict and validate the mechanical performance of the new components. Autodesk Vault Professional data management software helps manage the design process from initial concept to final release, providing the engineering team with greater control over the design process right up until the component or part is manufactured, released to the race department and put on the car.

Embracing Digital Prototyping has been a winning strategy for Kelly Racing. A new racing team typically takes six or more years to register its first win, but just barely into its third season, Kelly Racing has already scored two victories along with nine podium finishes.

Autodesk, Inc.

www.autodesk.com

3D CAD Tips

All parameters specified in Creo can be interactively linked with your simulation geometry which enables multiphysics simulations involving parametric sweeps and design optimization to sync up with the CAD program. The LiveLink for Creo includes all the capabilities of the Comsol CAD Import module and enables import and defeaturing of CAD files from all major CAD packages.

In addition, the Parasolid geometry kernel from Siemens PLM Software is now the default geometry kernel for those who use the CAD Import module and the LiveLink products for CAD. Parasolid enables the handling of more advanced geometry objects for any of the LiveLiink products, including versions for AutoCAD, Inventor, Creo Parametric, Pro/E, SolidWorks, and SpaceClaim.

Comsol

www.comsol.com

3D CAD Tips

The truck took almost three years to design and gives a safe and efficient way to transport enormous and often radioactive components that were once considered immovable. The truck successfully carried four steam generators from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in southern California to a disposal site in Clive, Utah.

The vehicle is longer than a football field, has 192 wheels and 48 axles, each of which can be turned independently. The truck can effectively navigate sharp turns and different road grades. Autodesk Digital Prototyping software helped Perkins engineers use a 100% digital approach to create a truck capable of carrying a 400-ton payload over 750 miles.

The engineering team started with 2D sketches of the transporter created in AutoCAD. Then, they imported the files into Inventor to model them in 3D. The software helped Perkins engineers perform motion analysis and check for interferences throughout a full range of motion as the various axles turned and rotated.

The team also used Autodesk Simulation software to optimize its designs, ensuring that the transporter had only the support beams necessary to successfully distribute weight among the various axles. The stress analysis ensured that no axles were overloaded and that the truck was as strong and light as possible.

Autodesk, Inc.

www.autodesk.com

3D CAD Tips

The new product allows anyone to collaborate with 3D models exported to the CadFaster cloud service from Autodesk Revit, Bentley MicroStation, or SolidWorks. An ArchiCAD plug-in will be available in September, 2011. 3D models are highly compressed before they are exported and stored in a cloud database and the application includes a number of demo models to work with.

CadFaster

www.cadfaster.com

3D CAD Tips

ShipConstructor 2012 enables users to work in the most advanced CAD environment by adding AutoCAD 2012 compatibility. AutoCAD 2010 and 2011 are still supported but the latest version of ShipConstructor empowers users to take advantage of several new tools and improvements such as enhanced surface modeling, enhanced point cloud support for laser scanning, direct access to AutoCAD WS, and in-application access to AutoDesk Exchange.

The speed of ShipConstructor has been increased yet again. The load times for distributed system model drawings have been reduced by up to 10% and the load time for viewing distributed system part property data has been cut in half. Several new features and tweaks to the interface also enable increased productivity.

“No other shipbuilding CAD/CAM application is enhanced as frequently as ShipConstructor,” said SSI CEO Darren Larkins. “No other shipbuilding software is as easy to learn and use.”

ShipConstructor 2012 New Features:

• AutoCAD 2012 Support – Support for the latest version of AutoCAD tools for enhanced 3D design, model documentation and collaboration.
• Enhanced Offset Construction Lines – Addition of geometrical constraints to individual offset construction lines without losing parametric associatively with source geometry.
• Enhanced Endcuts – Reduced number of endcut definitions required to populate a catalog with industry standard endcuts.
• One-Step Package and Deploy Project – Quickly create isolated versions of the entire ShipConstructor project for archiving or transferring.
• Side-by-side Installation – Now supported with ShipConstructor 2008, 2009, and 2011.
• Increased Speed - Load times of distributed system drawings have been significantly reduced.

www.shipconstructor.com

3D CAD Tips

AutoCAD 2012 for Mac includes 2D and 3D tools, 3D free-form modeling, 3D visualization and rendering, network licensing, advanced customization of menus, and support for LISP, ObjectARX, and ObjectDBX.

AutoCAD LT for Mac follows common Mac application UI guidelines with an Apple menu bar with workflow-based palettes. The software supports native Mac OS X behavior including Cover Flow navigation and Multi-Touch gestures.

AutoCAD WS for Mac is a free app that provides basic tools for viewing, editing,a nd sharing designs. Through its synchronous coediting feature, uou can collaborate on designs across multiple platforms –  desktop, mobile, and web.

AutoCAD for Mac 2012 is free to students and educators through the Autodesk Education Community where more than 25 Autodesk software products are available for download.

AutoCAD for Mac 2012 and AutoCAD WS for Mac will be available worldwide August 19, 2011. AutoCAD LT for Mac will only be available in the U.S. and Canada on August 16, 2011. AutoCAD LT for Mac and AutoCAD WS for Mac will be delivered exclusively as apps on the Mac App Store.

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

3D CAD Tips