3D CAD NEWS

The ignoble Pushmi-Pullyu (“push-me pull-you”) is a two-headed beast made famous by the Doctor Doolittle stories of the 19^th Century. The mythical animal is noted for its ability to do either two things at once or struggle to do nothing, and to oscillate between these two extremes. Our 21^st Century CAD equivalent is history-free feature-based 3D modeling. For years a few vendors struggled to gain market share with it (CoCreate and Kubotek come to mind), but suddenly Pushmi-Pullyu CAD has become the rage.

SpaceClaim got way more press than it deserved for its new “natural 3D design system” last year, then PTC embraced its inner pushmi-pullyu by buying CoCreate. Today Siemens PLM Software becomes the latest CAD company to abandon the CAD Reich gospel of parameters uber alles with the introduction of what it calls synchronous technology (as if there is something mysteriously asynchronous about using existing 3D CAD tools; but we digress).

The Pushmi-Pullyu, new mascot of Siemens PLM Solutions

No less an authority on these things than Dr. Ken Versprille, the father of NURBS and resident PLM guru at CPDA, says in a published quote (I’ll bet a dollar he was paid to write), “its ability to recognize current geometry conditions and localize dependencies in real time allows synchronous technology to solve for model changes without the typical replay of the full construction history from the point of edit.”

Ken's quote is a real mouthful, so let us translate for the SolidWorks bloggers among our readership: You don’t have to redraw the damn part to make a single damn change all the damn time anymore. The good doctor goes on to say that “… users will see dramatic performance gains. A 100 times speed improvement could be a conservative estimate.”

Wow! Models 100x faster than with Autodesk Inventor and probably 300x faster than CATIA? Siemens resellers must be doubled over with orgasmic spasms at the mere suggestion of such superior results, especially because this new technology will be added to both NX and Solid Edge. Maybe Solid Edge will actually sell some copies again.

When you get the previous word picture washed out of your mind, let us consider something a bit more serious. CAD pundits (self glamourously included as shown below) refer to the Big Four CAD Vendors: Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, Siemens PLM, and PTC. A year ago not one of these had history-free feature-based modeling; now two do. Not that long ago Autodesk and Dassault entered into a bidding war over Seemage; perhaps SpaceClaim just might survive long enough to be so lucky.

A self-proclaimed Leading CAD Pundit caught in the act of meditating on synchronous technology at COFES 2008.

On January 10th, 2008, Autodesk invited a bunch of customers, and a couple of press, to watch the official opening of its newest Customer Briefing center in Lake Oswego, OR. The 3DCN team was there, finding out what was making Autodesk's Buzz Cross so proud of his 5th floor set up.

It is located in the new offices of Autodesk's Manufacturing Division, headed by Buzz Cross and Richard Jones, and supported by some 200 employees on site. As you leave the elevator, so you see an array of products created using Autodesk software including some guitars from RKS,  a novel geared wheelchair that prevents  wheelchairs from rolling backwards by Magic Wheels, and a whole bunch more. Even better, you are actually allowed to touch the guitars, take them off the stands and pretend to be a rock star. (Image: Jason Medal-Katz, senior manager of the Customer Briefing Center, has a moment of 'what if' with an RKS guitar.)



The banks of touch-screen monitors, created using flat glass and projectors with light sensitive cameras in them make for a pleasing display. And behind a large panel of frosted glass, which switches to clear at the touch of a remote control, are 2 RP systems, happily grinding away, or adding materials to some Autodesk Inventor Models. (PIcture 2: an image of a car designed using autodesk inventor and the Autodesk Alias products, displayed on the touch-screen monitors in the center.)



You will see a longer expose on this center in next week's CCNtv broadcast, where we get in depth about some of the products on display. However, it was an excellent evening, with short and friendly presentations by Buzz Cross and a gentleman from the local Chamber of Commerce who, we think, was getting paid every time he said 'Lake Oswego.'

But do check it out in-depth at CADCAMNETtv on January 21 2008.

3DCN team

Tomorrow over at CADCAMNet we conclude a three-part series on what makes MCAD products doodoo what they voodoo, or something like that. For the most part, the series boils down to describing the difference between the two leading MCAD technologies, and helping the reader to understand which is best for various tasks. For the uninitiated, it must seem like Spy vs. Spy; the two are fighting but it is hard to understand why.

In today’s marketplace, if you want to buy a top-selling mid-market MCAD product, you can choose from a variety of constraint-driven, history-based products. SolidWorks, Inventor, SolidEdge, and several others all work on the same principle. The geometry on the screen is a reflection of the steps listed in the history (or structure) tree. Every modeling step is recorded, in order, in the tree.

A typical history-based modeler, relentless in its ability to log every piddling detail of how the model came to be; just don’t suggest changes at the last minute.

History-based models have been leading the market for more than a decade, and to a large degree they have defined MCAD. But in recent years 3D modelers that do not rely on a history tree, but allow users to directly define and edit geometry, have been gaining momentum. These products are described by various terms. Rhino uses the phrase “free form modeling;” KeyCreator says “geometry-based design;” and CoCreate says it is “dynamic modeling.”

A typical history-free modeler, a tireless crusader for free geometry. History tree? We don’t need no stinkin’ history tree.

In editing the CCN series, I realized I have a personal bias in this matter. I understand the importance of locking down design intent with a structure tree, but it still comes across to me as control-freak behavior. Give me a free form modeler any day. Unless I’m designing a brake assembly. Or a motor. Or a 10’ mining auger. Or a jet.

 

 

 

 

Good CAD? Bad CAD? It never ends.

See the problem. It doesn’t matter if I have a personal bias, there is no one tool for the job. No wonder Black Spy and White Spy fought for years, and there was no clear winner. They must have worked for enemy CAD companies.

Autodesk announced last week that "it has passed the one million mark for users of its 3D model-based design solutions." This includes Inventor, the Civil 3D line, the Revit line, and the various media and entertainment solutions. Those of us who have been around this industry longer than we care to admit know that many of those users acquired their 3D products as bundleware, when they purchased a 2D solution (primarily Autodesk Mechanical Desktop and Autodesk Architectural Desktop, but also Autodesk's civil solutions).

There are countless copies of Autodesk 3D products that have moved from bundleware to shelfware without ever having become productive software. The reason these products were never able to bust out of their shrinkwrap has nothing to do with the quality of the software (Steve Wolfe's famous reviews of Inventor notwithstanding ). It has everything to do with the customer. Of all the leading CAD vendors, Autodesk has the good news/bad news distinction of having the most 2D users. They number in the millions and they are in no great hurry to convert to 3D. (It is the official editorial policy of this esteemed online journal that such reluctance makes these users Certifiable, if you know what we mean. But we digress.) The good news is that, eventually, most of them will either die or convert to 3D. The bad news is that until they do, they want their 2D CAD to continue to be served fresh every year. Thus, AutoCAD developers mine the AUGI wish list desperate for ideas. Thus, Carl Bass cries himself to sleep at night over 3D upgrade revenues that won't occur this year.

Wondering about the substance behind the report of 1 million 3D CAD users, we asked an Autodesk press wrangler (i.e, media specialist):


The official reply:

We are not holding our breath.

Autodesk somehow managed to trudge along, despite the weight of its 2D user base.

We may jokingly call the new technology preview of Autodesk Inventor LT "Little Tool," but there's nothing little about the size of the download -- 934MB. You may want to curb your enthusiasm and wait until the end of your workday to start the download.

Autodesk recommends putting the download in C:/temp, not a directory several levels deep (such as your desktop). If you don't know what I'm talking about, should you be downloading 934MB files all by yourself?

Little Tools of great ability come in all shapes and sizes, such as this Nut Tool.

 

This morning without fanfare, Autodesk posted Autodesk Inventor LT for free temporary download at Autodesk Labs.

The pitch at the Labs website is all about "improving communications with suppliers and customers. ... It allows you to quickly import, export, create, and modify 3D part models in many common file formats to meet today’s increasing need for communicating in 3D."

More to come, both here later today and at CADCAMNet tomorrow.

A big wheel rendered by a Little Tool. Photorealistic rendering in a product called "LT"? Somebody pinch me.

Datakit of Santa Barbara, California and Lyon, France, is telling the world today that its CATIA V5 to Autodesk Inventor converter has received Autodesk Inventor 2008 Certification. The certification is made by Autodesk's Inventor support staff.

Datakit says the new converter:

• Allows all 3D data including CATIA V5 Exact solids, to be transferred from native CATIA V5 files to Inventor up to 2008
• Converts geometry, attributes, assemblies and topology
• Reads CATPart as well as CATProducts files
• Filters data according to Entity Type and Visibility

The converter requires Inventor and Windows 2000 Sp2 /XP/Vista in order to work properly. It does not require a license of CATIA V5.

For more information: http://www.datakit.com/page_telechargements_plug.php?tele=8.

Alibre, Inc., the other MCAD company from Texas, has just annoucned Alibre 3D Publisher for Google SketchUp. It works with all versions of the product, from the basic free-as-in-beer-not-free-as-in-speech version to the $2K Professional model. This sneaky new add-on is also free-as-in-beer-not-as-in-speech. But it is about much more than Googlemania, as I explain if you are nice enough to keep reading.

The idea behind this MCAD mash-up (never thought I'd be putting those two words together) is to allow product designers a way to get their goods on display in Google 3D Warehouse and Google Earth. I guess somebody could accurately illustrate the contents of the city dump. "Look Mommie, I drew the toaster we threw away."

"Google SketchUp is widely used for conceptual and architectural design while Alibre Design is primarily used for precise mechanical design," we are thoughtfully told in the Alibre press release.

Now, here's the sneaky stuff. Using Alibre 3D Publisher for Google SketchUp, ANY 3D model from ANY CAD or modeling system can be exported in industry standard formats such as STEP, IGES and SAT, as well as models created natively in Alibre Design. Then the model can be published directly to the Google SketchUp format, then edited or enhanced in Google SketchUp and uploaded to the Google 3D Warehouse or placed on Google Earth. As Alibre says in its press release (we are not making this up) "This means millions of visually accurate 3D designs from thousands of popular 3D design and CAD programs, including SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, Unigraphics, SolidEdge, Inventor, Rhino, Maya, and more, can be used in Google's most popular graphics programs." I guess Alibre knew that most of those big-shot MCAD programs wouldn't be caught dead playing in Google's 3D Warehouse.

Once converted to the SketchUp format, mechanical models can also be edited directly in SketchUp via its "revolutionary and easy to use "push-pull" interface" (again quoting Alibre). To continue to quote--and please note the precise techical terms about to be used: "Unlike other conversions that simply dump out a glob of unrelated facets or triangles, [those are the technical terms I warned you about-- Editor] Alibre's 3D Publisher constructs geometrically correct models which can be directly edited in SketchUp. This provides an excellent platform to modify or create new conceptual designs relative to existing precise mechanical models, such as mounting hardware or consumer packaging. Other examples include precise woodworking models like furniture or cabinetry that can be parametrically designed in Alibre Design and then incorporated into a SketchUp model of an entire house or building."

Google SketchUp is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for 3D design among the great unwashed masses who have never considered buying CATIA. It was a smart move for Alibre to hook their star to Google in this way.

Alibre would like you to know that if you want more information about the Alibre 3D Publisher for Google SketchUp, you should visit their website at www.alibre.com/Products/3Dpublisher.asp.