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 Vistagy has been an important partner for DS would be an understatement.

My interest in Vistagy is as a microcosm of the relationship between Siemens PLM and Dassault Systemes. Let’s face it: These two companies are serious competitors. Has Siemens acquisition of Vistagy upset a tenuous détente (if it can even be called that) between these two giants of PLM?

This week at Siemens PLM Connection, I got a chance to speak with Steve Luby, the current Sr. VP of Siemens’ Specialized Engineering Software business segment, and former CEO of Vistagy. He told me that he’d always been careful in maintaining Vistagy’s relationship with DS. Since Vistagy had been a long-term partner to both DS and Siemens PLM, he got used to treading carefully. Since the Siemens acquisition, Luby explained, DS has not done anything precipitous (such as tossing Vistagy/Siemens out of their partner program.)

But that’s not surprising. Doing that would be the equivalent of mutually assured destruction. It’d be tough to explain to the biggest aerospace firms in the world that, oops, they can’t use Vistagy’s products anymore.

My guess, though, is that DS is focusing big energy on improving their composite solution (which I understand is mighty competent already), with the eye to displacing as many seats of Fibersim as they can. Yet, even in the best of all worlds, that’s going to be hard to do. I can’t imagine Boeing, for example, dropping Fibersim from the toolset used on the 787 Dreamliner—a plane that’s 50% composites by weight.

I don’t anticipate that DS is going to open their doors, and let Siemens/Vistagy have completely unfettered access to their APIs (and customers!) The current Vistagy products, including applications for composites, airframe fasteners, and automotive/aerospace seating, are probably grandfathered in. But future Specialized Engineering (i.e., Vistagy) products?

It’s a big wild-card. The new Codex of PLM Openness that both DS and Siemens recently signed would suggest that the companies are going to play nicer together than they have in the past. Yet, my reading of the Codex is that it gives an awful lot of wiggle room.

The Siemens Vistagy acquisition presents a nice public context for DS to show that they’re committed to openness. To playing (competing) nice. If my reading between the lines is right, the situation is “so far, so good.” If you’re a Vistagy customer, and you hear anything different (good or bad), I’d sure like to hear about it.

3D CAD Tips

“In between my freshman and sophomore years, I became irritated at how cumbersome it was to rotate a model using a traditional mouse. I thought I could get a trackball mouse and program it so when I rotate the mouse it rotates the part on screen. That’s when I came across 3Dconnexion. I ordered their SpaceNavigator right away,” said Ellis.

In 2009 during his senior year, Ellis began researching an aerial robot competition. Five days later, he started the Michigan Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (MAAV) team with 15 members. Within one week, the team kicked off their first quadrotor design for the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC). At the end of the first year, MAAV successfully built two quadrotor vehicles capable of manual flight.

“The IARC challenge is to build a flying robot of any type you want. We chose a four-rotor helicopter that can fly through an unknown building completely on its own,” added Ellis. “There can be no communication with the device. The robot follows signs, must avoid detection from security cameras, locate a room, retrieve a flash drive, drop off the decoy, and get out in less than 10 minutes. No one has completed the mission yet, but we are one of the better teams competing. It’s the most challenging mission to date.”

When Ellis started the team, he wanted to get a 3Dconnexion 3D mouse for everyone. “It makes modeling CAD designs so much faster and easier,” said Ellis. IN addition, the team quickly realized trying to fly the quadrotor with a standard joystick didn’t mimic the movements very well and wasn’t intuitive enough for the user. A 3D mouse could mimic the exact movement of the robot. It was at this point the team decided to take matters into their own hands and control flight with a 3D mouse.

“We use the 3Dconnexion SDK to develop a driver to control the quadrotor with the SpaceExplorer and it quickly allowed us to control pitch and roll, zoom control height, and rotation control yaw,” noted Ellis. “In addition, The SpaceExplorer’s Intelligent Function Keys control other commands such as on/off and camera control.”

Today, Ellis is still the head of the MAAV team while also completing two masters in aerospace engineering and robotics. He continues to use CATIA for all of his designing both for the team and his class projects. He also works at a student lab training other students involved in competitions in CAD modeling and machining.

He uses the SpacePilot Pro. “A 3D mouse allows me to easily interact with the model while clicking and drawing in 3D at the same time,” he said.

3Dconnexion

www.3dconnexion.com

3D CAD Tips

Dassault Systèmes worked with Mougin and his team to simulate the iceberg’s trajectory and its evolution by taking into account data such as variations in ocean temperatures, wind force and direction, sea currents, and boat drag force. They inserted this data into a 3D model of the iceberg to simulate what would happen all along the voyage.

The critical challenge presented to Dassault Systèmes’ engineers was to demonstrate, using virtual technology, the technical feasibility of displacing the iceberg in a controlled manner while reducing its melting. The project, managed by Cédric Simard, Interactive Strategy & Marketing Project Director at Dassault Systèmes, involved a number of steps:

1. Model the iceberg with CATIA based on a cloud of points obtained by scanning a real iceberg with radar.
2. Calculate and simulate the way the iceberg would melt using CATIA Systems and SIMULIA.
3. Simulate the way the iceberg would melt if surrounded by a protective isothermal “skirt” imagined by Mougin to slow the melting process.
4. Calculate how much fuel the boats would consume depending on the winds and currents encountered along the way

Various scenarios were simulated, such as number of boats needed, different departure dates and climate conditions, and the behavior of the boats and iceberg in the event of a storm or turbulence. In addition to enabling the team to visualize these scenarios, the simulation also allowed the scientists to test how to deploy the isothermal skirt around the iceberg.

Dassault Systemes

www.3ds.com

3D CAD Tips

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

The yacht weighs approximately 15 tons and will reach speeds up to 40.5 knots (46.6 mph) during the race. According to designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, the design process was divided into two sections: research and development and manufacturing. His team used Catia software as the basis of the 3D modeling, Hyperworks for the structural analysis, and Star CCM for all the CFD work such as hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, and structures.

For the 2011-2012 race, Puma Ocean Racing partnered with Berg Propulsion, a leading designer and producer of controllable pitch propellers for commercial shipping. During the nine months of the Volvo Ocean Race which starts in Alicante, Spain in November 2011 and concludes in Galway, Ireland in July 2012, the teams will sail more than 39,000 nautical miles.

Other interesting facts about Mar Mosto

Mast height: 105 ft
Boom length: 28.5 ft
Total sail area: 2,215 sq ft
Mainsail area: 1,884 sq ft
Spinnaker area: 5,384 sq ft
Boat material: carbon fiber
Sail material: Aramid/Spectra Blend
Build hours: 39,536
Paint hours: 600

Puma Ocean Racing
www.pumaoceanracing.com

Dassault Systemes
www.3ds.com

Altair
www.altair.com

CD-Adapco
www.cd-adapco.com

3D CAD Tips

This latest version of Conduit supports a wide variety of desktop applications, including: NX, TeamCenter, ENOVIA/CATIA/DEMIA V5, Pro/ENGINEER, Maya, Blender Game Engine, Google Sketchup, Navisworks, Google Earth and VisIt. Conduit enables use of these desktop applications with 3D and high resolution displays and provides real-time viewing perspective for simpler reviews and faster data analysis. These benefits can reduce a product’s time to market, improve decision-making, let users see more details, and enable users to navigate through designs. With this impressive package of benefits, Conduit is especially useful for simulations, engineering design reviews, seismic interpretation, system analysis, architectural walk-throughs, and urban planning that fuses GIS data and 3D models such as buildings and infrastructure.

Conduit 3.0 also provides support for multiple users and motion capture capabilities. Developed in partnership with Haption, Conduit 3.0 enables a user to be “inside” a Dassault Systemes V5 avatar rather than “puppeteering” the human model from an outside perspective, as has been available in the past. “This new level of motion capture support will allow multiple participants in a shared virtual environment to collaborate and interact with their engineering designs, assemblies, and process simulations, all from the first person perspective,” said Julien Berta, Vice President of Innovation and Technology for Mechdyne’s Software Division.

Conduit’s new motion capture capability will enable multiple users a unique view of the virtual environment, each from their own perspective. This new feature will be especially helpful for situations like engineering designs, architectural walkthroughs, and urban planning.

Other features of Conduit 3.0 include a web-based launcher, immersive panels for interactions within a VR display, and VNC support for viewing of a desktop.

According to Matt Szymanski, Vice President of Products for Mechdyne’s Software Division, “One of the key advantages of Conduit is that it helps save time, reduce risk and eliminates dependencies because it enables users to work with their native applications and data. No time is wasted and data integrity isn’t jeopardized by porting to different formats. Instead, Conduit intercepts the data and redirects it to multi-channel and 3D displays.”

“Not only are Conduit users able to simply click a button and view their desktop visuals on any immersive display, but using Conduit 3.0 you can have more than one person interacting with the data. Also, the new motion capture capabilities enable multiple motion capture users to interact with the data, while other participants can watch from an out-of-body perspective and observe their performance,” said Szymanski.

Mechdyne Corporation
www.mechdyne.com 

3D CAD Tips

25 May 2011 Sydney time – CADDIT has announced the upcoming release of progeCAD 2011 for June-July timeframe. As of 25 May 2011 Sydney timezone, all new licenses and upgrades purchased of progeCAD 2010 Professional for Microsoft Windows, including progeCAD USB, Network NLM and Office license options, will receive a free upgrade to the new version of progeCAD 2011 for Windows upon its release, at no additional charge. This offer also includes all users who upgrade progeCAD now from an older version or from another older CAD package. This promotion does not include progeCAD Standard, and will conclude at the announcement of progeCAD 2011 release.

Over four years in development and planning, progeCAD 2011 for Windows is a largely re-written product from the ground up. progeCAD 2011 is a milestone release as regards compatibility to AutoCAD and other design products. progeCAD 2011 longer stores DWG/DXF using the old internal ITC database, rather is built directly on Teigha® DRX. This dramatically improves file performance (read/write speeds, etc). Although ITC SDS modules will still be supported for some time, progeCAD 2011 is the first generation offering developer access to a genuine DRX C++ API.

progeCAD is a trusted name for many companies looking for reasonably-priced CAD software for working with AutoCAD DWG files, plan view drawing, fixture plumbing and electrical layout and other design work. A free download of progeCAD is available at this LINK.

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No AutoCAD LT for MAC? Try iCADMac from CADDIT.

CADDIT has announce the availability of iCADMac in Australia and New Zealand. iCADMac is the low cost 2D/ 3D DWG and DXF CAD alternative for MAC users. Concurrent with AutoCAD commands, iCADMac opens, saves and edits direct AutoCAD® native DWG files. It is a user friendly 2D/3D CAD software using a conventional-style OS/X interface. Due to iCADMac’s high level of compatibility with AutoCAD it is ideal for design professionals like architects, commercial draftsmen, land and planning surveyors, structural detailing and building designers, kitchen and bath modelers, engineers and others who use Apple computers for their work.

iCADmac offers features to make it a complete primary CAD package with hundreds of commands for 2D design and 3D modeling. These features include full geometry set of lines, arcs, splines, text, dimensions, hatches and other entities. PDF import and export makes data exchange with graphic artists easier. Tables and cells can be used for bills of materials, component lists, revisions and text to organize and manage information within your drawings. iCADMac can insert, edit and clip Raster images (scanned images, photos, images from the Internet, etc.). in a drawing; iCADMac supports jpeg, bmp, gif, and png image formats with added support for polygonal image cropping. ACIS 3D solids support allows for the direct construction of complex 3D models in your CAD drawing. The newly updated iCADMac 26 April release now includes iCADlib (the new CAD block library with 20,000 blocks), Traceparts access, and several fixes related to printing and file access.

MAC users can sign up for a free 30 day full-function iCADMac demo at this LINK. Micrsoft Windows users should consider downloading progeCAD instead. iCADMac pricing is available from CADDIT.net.

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3D CAD Tips

SolidWorks, Inventor and Solid Edge are just some examples of legacy 3D CAD solutions supported by Alibre Translate – a feature available with Alibre Design Expert at no additional cost. For those not familiar with Alibre, Alibre is an easy-to-use low cost parametric 3D CAD system mainly for mechanical engineering design of parts, assemblies, sheet metal and more. Alibre Translate (Now free with Alibre Design Expert) not only offers direct Solidworks file import of .sldprt and Solidworks .sldasm assemblies, but also Autodesk Inventor .ipt and .iam files, Solid Edge files and much more.

Alibre easily handles large SolidWorks assemblies like this laptop computer

SolidWorks users should have little trouble understanding Alibre’s straight-forward solid modelling and assembly design interfaces. feature sketch, extrusion, subtraction, shelling, draft, lofting are all functions also supported in Alibre Design. Alibre Design Expert adds non-parametric (direct) editing techniques commonly found in systems costing several times more than Alibre Design Expert (less than AUD $1500 in Australia – see prices here). Expert also includes Keyshot photo-rendering and Moi 3D surfacing software at no additional cost.

Alibre also offers fully integrated CNC software for 2.5-axis, 3 4 and 5-axis milling machines. Alibre CAM basic comes free with Alibre Design Expert, offering as the name indicates basic 2.5-axis milling from within the Alibre interface. A full comparison of Alibre CAM options are shown HERE. Solidworks users can also import their SolidWorks model into Alibre CAM for manufacturing.

Alibre Design is an easy, inexpensive and intuitive option for SolidWorks users. Although Alibre 2D detailing and drafting environment is quite comprehensive, Alibre also integrates well with advanced 2D CAD drafting solutions like Autodesk AutoCAD or progeCAD, a low-cost AutoCAD clone. A free 30-day trial of Alibre Design can be requested directly from CADDIT Australia by following the links and downloading HERE.

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3D CAD Tips

Alibre Design 2011 was first released in late 2010 offering a number of important new features:

• Alibre’s first native 64-bit version
• New “in-place editing” UI framework
• New MIRROR and SCALE modelling commands
• On-the-fly library creation
• Direct 3D Solid->SheetMetal conversion

MoI:
In addition to these new features, Alibre Design Expert user licenses sold after 2 December 2010 are now entitled to get MoI – Moment of Inspiration – freeform surfacing software. At this point the best link between MoI and Alibre itself seems to be using STEP data, although ACIS SAT and IGES are also offered by MoI (the IGES interface seemed to loose the most data in our lab test, but we were expecting that). One major advantage MoI offers is a “point-and-click” workflow that doesn’t require use of special ALT-key combinations, which makes it perhaps more practical for use on tablet PCs.

KeyShot for Alibre:
“KeyShot for Alibre – Basic” is new realtime photorealistic rendering software offered with Alibre Design Professional and Alibre Design Expert. The updated capabilities of KeyShot for Alibre (formerly “KeyShot for CAD”) are outlined in this brochure, and summarized in the chart provided below:

It is worth noting that, although Alibre Design is now available as a native AMD64 bit application (Windows 7 compatible) many of the Alibre add-ons such as Alibre CAM and Alibre Motion are not yet. The 32-bit version Alibre add-ons will not work with Alibre 64-bit software and require Alibre 32-bit to install and run. However there seems little problem in running Alibre 32-bit version on a 64-bit PC now. Since the first major release of Alibre’s latest version of their easy-to-use 3D CAD system, a few minor bugfix updates have also been made available and the latest version of Alibre can be downloaded HERE.

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3D CAD Tips

CAD on MAC OS/X (Version 10 or ‘X’ of the Apple operating System) is back. AutoCAD for Mac was (re)announced in August 2010. However, the cost of AutoCAD on Mac (several thousand dollars) makes this new option unviable for some small business looking for CAD software for Mac. As a low cost alternative to more expensive CAD on Mac systems, CADDIT will begin to offer the iCADMac product line from progeSOFT.

iCADMac “CAD for Mac” features include:

• Native Mac OS/X CAD software – no Boot Camp, VMware Fusion or Parallels virtualization required.
• Similar user interface to what some CAD for Mac users are already accustomed.
• Read and Write AutoCAD .dwg CAD files, edit and print.
• Convert PDF in to CAD / Print to PDF out from CAD
• Raster image modification tools for use in CAD drawings
• 3D solid modeling using the same ACIS libraries as licensed by AutoCAD
• Table and cell support used for bills of materials, component lists and more.
• Advanced interface for gradient hatching, entity property bar etc
• ALE symbol library including ready 15.000 Blocks for use in your drawing
• AutoLISP and ODA DRX C++ programming support
• Permanent perpetual license
• 12 Months free upgrade maintenance with new license with option to renew

CADDIT will be offering an AUD$175 discount to RRP pricing until 22 April. Architects, engineers, technicians and other CAD users looking for “CAD for Mac” will also enjoy free upgrades to additional functionality released in the iCADMac product for 12 months from the date of purchase. iCADmac can be downloaded for a free for a 30 day trial HERE. Questions about iCADMac in Australia and New Zealand should be directed to CADDIT here.

Note for Windows users – those looking for a reliable, low-cost 2D / 3D design solution on Microsoft Windows should download progeCAD for Windows HERE.

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3D CAD Tips