DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

This just came in as CD-Adapco that has just launched STAR-CCM+ /Power-On-Demand - which it is billing as a “revolutionary new product licensing scheme”. For those unfamiliar with the company, it develops the Star-CD range of computational fluid dynamics applications that are used is a huge ragen of industries to solve some very complex simulation tasks. Tasks, in fact, that often use super computing technology to solve. On my first visit to the company’s headquarters down in Hammersmith (I think), I was rather gobsmacked at the air=conditioned beast of a super computer room thats just inside the office - a testament to the computing horse power that CFD and other simulation tasks require.

But for me, this release isn’t about the move to the cloud at all. CFD vendors in particular have been using cluster-based solutions for decades, often accessed remotely - the use of the word cloud is a touch of jumping on the bandwagon. What this release is about is licensing. I had an interesting discussion many years ago with someone from CD-Adapco (along with other vendors in the same space) about how simulation licensing is, amongst many things, linked to CPUs and cores.

If you want your results more quickly, you use more CPUs. And as a result, you pay more. Something that is increasingly out of date as multi-core workstations have become ubiquitous - look at the latest desktop generation of workstations - my colleague and hardware wizard, Greg Corke has recently been testing workstations with 12+ cores - that’s a huge shift. As a result, it was always my opinion that per core or per CPU licensing would have to shift eventually as this increasing became the norm.

According to the press release, CD-Adapco changed its mind in 2008 when it introduced the “Power Session” licensing scheme,  which “gives users to access unlimited computational resources for a single fixed fee: breaking the relationship between software cost and hardware resources (number of cores) deployed in a simulation.” This latest release is an extension of that, allowing organisations to deploy the company’s solutions on a wider range of hardware and using third party ‘cloud’ services, such as Amazon’s EC2 service. Let’s be clear, this is going to be a costly license, after all, the company isn’t going to look to drop revenue levels, but at least its a move in the right direction - it’ll be interesting to see what the other major players in the game have to offer.

The ability to not only define the form of a product digitally, but to also simulate its performance and behaviour is something that’s been playing on my mind over the last few days. This followed a conversation with a couple of people. One felt that the tools out there, which are often integrated into the workhorse design tool, weren’t being used purely because of costs reasons. The other person provided a stark contrast, saying that simulation is absolutely key for many, as it allows you to add context and meaning to the geometry we’re all used to creating.

From my experience across both sides of the pond, there does seem to be a difference in how much simulation tools are adopted whether that’s motion analysis, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis or something else. A gut feeling tells me that in Europe, the awareness and background of designers and engineers gives them a better start at using these tools - if you’re experienced with them at university, then you’re more comfortable with diving in and having a go. it’s nothing to do with the actual quality of education, but rather than if you’re exposed to these types of tools as you also learn the principles of design, engineering and manufacturing, then you have a good foundation on which to explore further.

Take a look at this video from Siemens PLM. It shows the Simulation tools within Solid Edge. These are based on Siemens’ NX Nastran platform combined with the experience of the team behind FEMAP, one of the leading pre and post processing tools for FEA users. But what’s key to note is that not only are these tools powerful, but they don’t restrict what can be done, don’t restrict the fine tuning and optimisation of a simulation task.

Taking that idea further, this brings up the question of workflow. If simulation is going to become part of the product development workflow, you need several things to work together. Firstly, the CAD system should provide you with powerful tools for creating the geometry. Secondly, the simulation tools should be integrated with CAD system in a manner that supports rapid iteration. After all there’s no point in being able to model a part, simulate it, but then have to complete rework the part or parts to solve the issues you discover. Let’s be clear, I’m not saying this about integration in the same window (as is shown here) - that’s one of many options - look at the work that Ansys and SpaceClaim are doing as an example of how standalone simulation apps can be integrated with 3D design tools. Rather I’m saying that you need to be able to quickly work through issues and execute design change and rerun simulation. the last is that the design tool needs to be flexible enough to let you carry out those changes. It’s perhaps here that technologies as shown here (Synchronous Technology) can pay a real dividend, allowing quick experimentation.

So. To my point. Has your organisation invested in simulation tools? Are you using them? Is there something that stops you from using them? Is it knowledge, is it time, is it a clunky workflow? I’m curious..

While I spend most of my time looking at software, there’s something I love to get involved in and that’s prototyping. One of the really exciting things about working on DEVELOP3D is having the ability to work with the various machine vendors and getting to try out some of the hardware out there for building prototypes directly from your 3D data - something that’s key for many, even in these days of highly advanced digital modelling tools. You simply can’t beat a physical model in many instances. One of the vendors I’ve not worked with for a while is 3D Systems but I’m delighted to say that this has changed and I just got an email notifications from Derek Johnson, 3D Systems’ Product Manager for 3D Modeling Materials telling me that a package would be winging its way to me shortly. That package will contain our test parts from both 3D systems’ ProJet and VFlash systems. Derek also included a few very tidy photos so I could see what was coming and I just had to share them.

Look out for a full review of the two systems over the next few months.

Just got off a call with the guys at Autodesk about what’s new in the Alias product line, as, as ever, it got passed over pretty quickly during yesterday’s roll-out.

Alias Design for Inventor: This is bundled in with Alias Design, the entry level to the industrial design and complex surfacing product. Essentially, it brings edge-based complex modelling tools to Inventor and allows you to manipulate solid geometry using edges and points to create complex geometry that would be difficult to do with Inventor’s existing surfacing tools. it focussed on geometry manipulation and gives you G1 and G2 continuity controls and allows you to control where face patches are required to be smooth and where they need to be hard edges. The data is stored as an explicit feature within Inventor’s history/feature tree.

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There’s a web-cast currently underway and they’re talking about AutoCAD - something that I’m not really into that much (that’s personal choice). While the Autodesk team is talking about this, I’ve been looking through the what’s new images that have been made available. One thing just lept out at me and it’s this:

New Autodesk Alias Sketch software’s unique hybrid paint and vector workflow helps creative professionals transform ideas into compelling design iterations more quickly

If this happens to be the technology Autodesk showed a couple of years ago, I’m really excited. Here’s a video shown at AU 2008;

There’s also an image in there that will come as a relief for anyone that’s running inventor with a 3D Printing machine - and it’s that Inventor finally gets decent STL output in terms of saving out parts and individual part (rather than an assembly as a single lump), support for binary STL files (which are dramatically smaller in size, which is key for outsourcing).. Here’s the dialog:

We’ll be heading out to Portland at the beginning of April, so we’ll be back with more details once we’ve had a chance to kick the tyres and find out what’s really cooking with Inventor 2011, Alias 2011 and everything else that Autodesk have to offer.

Looks like the Autodesk 2011 product line is starting to break ground and make its way into public, from closed beta test. Rob Cohee at Autodesk recently posted some videos that show what’s new in Inventor 2011 much better than me yakking about it. So, knock yourselves out peeps.

Alias Design for Inventor

Watch this. Watch it again. Then tell me you don’t want it. Now. Its been a long time coming, but as a first pass this is a good go at it. The commands look intuitive and capable for creating form - it looks quite similar to the ISDX tools that PTC has within Pro/Engineer, particularly in both the forms you can create as well as the fact that it creates and stores this type of geometry as a single “Alias Freeform” feature in the history tree.

Direct maniulation

Nice set of tools for direct creation and editing tools

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Boasting it’s position as the UK’s new manufacturing heartland (as one tongue-firmly-in-cheek speaker put it: “Sorry West Midlands”) the North West now boasts a Fab Lab.

Yes, it’s not on everyone’s radar, but the Fab Lab is an accidental creation of the world renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). With Fab Labs popping up around the world, it was only a matter of time before one appeared on our shores in fully funded, fix-placed form.

Manchester might not have been everyone’s first guess, but it has the credentials (birthplace of the industrial revolution, home to over 20 nobel prize winners, the place where Rolls met Royce) and, judging by the list of sponsors queuing up to back it, they have the support.

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