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.

[Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at AECnews.com, but the hosting technology at that website is unable to display photographs consistently, so we are publishing here also, adding photos. -- ed.]

An estimated 2,000 citizens of Xujiahui, China (near Shanghai) have taken to the streets this week in what one participant calls “silence and peaceful” protest of a planned rerouting of an extension to the world’s first Maglev (magnetic levitation) train. The group’s stated goal is to embarrass the German financiers of the project by drawing attention to what they believe are inherent environmental and social dangers.

Our source in Xujiahui explains, “As you may understand we may have no power to fight with the government here, but we may try on Germany side. They should understand that they act against the human rights of Chinese people.” The frustration that brings them to the streets, our source says, is rooted in their understanding of safe distances for Maglev placement. “In Germany, they put the safe line at 300 meters for a Maglev line, while in China they put only 22.5 meters as the safe line. … No real Chinese people want Maglev at our homes.”

In the initial protest on January 6, 2008 approximately 250 Xujiahui residents are confronted by authorities, who turned back the crowd without incident.

The protestors believe that the tight distances will expose residents to unhealthy magnetic radiation, as well as increase the possibility of a serious accident should the Maglev train somehow leave its track. Some residents in the public protests carry small posters of a skull with the slogan “Against Maglev.” The photos we have received show families and persons of all ages participating in the protests.

The initial planned path for the line also drew protest, so last week Shanghai authorities changed the original plan, shortening the line's total length by 3km, increasing underground routes, and avoiding some densely populated neighborhoods. But now Xujiahui residents, closer to the line under the change, are unhappy and are taking to the streets.

 

In a second protest on January 7, 2008, residents affected by the project head to the local shopping center. The posters say "Against Maglev."

In an evening protest on January 8, 2008, approximately 2000 Xujiahui residents march across the river bridge; the revised Maglev line will parallel the river through parts of Xujiahui.

Maglev technology was first developed in Germany in the mid 20^th Century; a line built from downtown Shanghai to the airport in 2003 was the first commercial project, built using joint German-Chinese financing. The Chinese government announced in 2007 that any additional construction of Maglev lines would use largely Chinese technology and investment, despite the initial involvement of German interests.

Transrapid, the German manufacturer and developer of the technology, describes Maglev as “the first fundamental innovation in the field of railway technology since the invention of the railway.” A guideway directs the passage of the train, while powerful magnets lift the train 10 mm. Other magnets provide propulsion and braking. In tests, the trains can run as fast as 500 kph. Transrapid uses a CAD/PLM combination of CATIA V5 and SAP/R3 for design and engineering.

When Airbus went public in 2006 and confessed to its inability to deliver the A380 DumboJet on time, the repercussions were many. Executive heads rolled, the unions were pressured to put product first, and several airlines cut back their orders. The two big winners were Boeing and Dassault Systèmes.

Since then Airbus has placed several large orders for CATIA and related software tools. Today Dassault announces that Airbus has standardized on its Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, from Dassault's SIMULIA division.

To quote the press release, "This decision comes as a result of an extensive benchmark of several FEA codes. The Abaqus FEA software has already been successfully applied on the A380 aircraft program for structural virtual testing, and represents a first step in what is to develop into a longer-term collaborative relationship." That last phrase is marketing-speak for "we have both hands deeper into their pockets than you can possibly imagine."

The A380 design team knew they were in trouble when the wiring inside the aircraft started to look like a set from the movie "Aliens".

Everyone is confused about the various roles and products that Dassault delivers – except that we all know that SolidWorks is from SolidWorks and CATIA is from Dassault, right? And most of the industry vaguely remembers that SolidWorks is owned by Dassault. What then, we ask, does Delmia, and Enovia, two other lesser known Dassault companies, actually do? No one I talk to can ever really explain what it is they do although the Dassault web site states “With DELMIA, the lean digital manufacturing processes are defined. With ENOVIA, product lifecycle information is managed in a collaborative way.” yeah. That’s clear!

Dassault has evidently realized the same, and also recognized the powerful brand that SolidWorks maintains. Thus, Dassault announced this week during the CATIA Operators’ Exchange (COE) that the SolidWorks reseller channel would now be known as the ‘Dassault Systemes Volume Channel’. Roopinder’s CAD Insider blog, where this news broke, stated that “When pressed to name what products Dassault would be pumping into the "volume channel" in the future, [Bernard] Charles was not clear.”

So, without any clarity in its complete intent, Dassault would seem to be setting up the strong SolidWorks VAR channel to be able to sell other Dassault products, along the lines of its PLM offerings for the SMB (Small-to-Medium_sized Businesses).

The grapevine indicates that SolidWorks themselves were caught flat-footed with this news, with reports of sales managers at SolidWorks unaware of the announcement even after Roopinder broke the news on his CADInsider blog.
On being contacted by various VARs SolidWorks reportedly managed to get a hurried message out to its sales channel essentially saying (I am paraphrasing) ‘Ignore! Stay focused on selling SolidWorks!’ We anticipate that SolidWorks management will have better guidance promptly for their sales team.

We believe that, if improperly managed, this move will serve to defocus the SolidWorks resellers, allowing gaps for other vendors to fill. Additional products being forced on the resellers also increases their costs of doing business, and Dassault will have to take a mature approach to tackle this or else the resellers simply will not sell those additional products.

The long run gamble is that we think SolidWorks will allow the name change, (Dassault after all does own them), but nothing will essentially change in the product line up and sales focus for the SolidWorks VARs.

Hey. Maybe they should set up a sales channel with IBM!

 

Posted by the Brat

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.