DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

Griffin Studios’ sculptures done in ArtCAM

Computer Aided Manufacturing is not always the prettiest of things: machining lumps of metal for mouldings could be described as ‘a bit ugly’.

This is not always the case, as Delcam seems intent on proving as it launches its dedicated website for ArtCAM, the artistic cousin to metal-shop manliness.

There’s quite a lot of jewellery - including some hefty looking sports competition winner rings as favoured in America (in the UK we simply give our winners a bus parade through a city centre, followed by a sex/drugs scandal in the following week’s tabloids). Other examples include some sculpture, routing and engraving techniques for all manner of creative purposes.

artcam.com

Ford Motor Company has today revealed the thinking that went into the design of the new Ford Focus – effectively, “Whoa there big lad!”.

With the car giant going global with its models it’s had to rip up the rulebook on the preconceptions of customer size and height, instead turning to the latest 3D body scanning technology. The results show that we’re getting BIG.

Three years ago 12,000 Germans were scanned by SizeGERMANY. This information was added to the comparable databases of people from China, Japan, North America and South America, creating computerised 3D models of the people with accurate dimensions including height, waist circumference, hip width and leg length.

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With curves in all the right places, this off-road, street legal car has both the grunt and the futuristic design process to get everyone interested in Local Motors (LM).

The Rally Fighter is the first model from the Massachusetts-based firm that is determined to make the next great American car, using the next great production methods.

Using a method described as ‘co-creation’, it lets them work in a way completely different than other automotive companies, allowing them to uncover better ideas faster with new and interesting material and powertrain ideas as soon as they are available.

By leveraging crowdsourcing for collaborative design and development, a community of 13,000 – including some of the eventual customers of the vehicle had input in the entire process.

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So far we hope that you’ve found the DEVELOP3D job board network an invaluable resource in helping you take the next step in your career - so following feedback, we want to make it even better!

We’ve updated our websites to a brand new system designed to be easier to search, navigate and filter – by job function, and location.

You will also be able to create a personalised profile page on the searchable database, which will make it easier for prospective employers to find you.

In order to ensure you are correctly registered to the new site - both old users and new - it requires two minutes of your time and promises to make the site even more rewarding for you.

Everyone who registers before the end of November will also be entered into our exclusive prize draw.

The first name out of the hat will win a SpacePilot PRO - The ultimate professional 3D mouse – worth over £350.

Those drawn second and third will win a SpaceExplorer and a SpaceNavigator respectively.

These fantastic devices will revolutionise the way you work with 3D applications and make you even more productive and professional when you step into your workplace.

Looking for some CV inspiration or some tips on how best to create your profile? Head over to our new careers-focussed CADjobhunter blog for tips and advice, or keep checking our Wednesday jobs blog for some of our picks of the best jobs out there.

jobs.develop3d.com

A 3D printed concept model of the star robot, Atom, 1/5th scale, assembled and painted

That nice special effects man out in Hollywood has been at it again – Legacy Effect’s Jason Lopes has been tirelessly building more robots for the new film Real Steel.

The premise of the film is a bit dodgy in that it expects boxing to be not only outlawed by 2020, but that it will be replaced on an illegal underground fight scene by robotic competitors controlled by antipodean side-burn masters, such as Hugh Jackman.

But it was never going to be about the storyline, the emotive screenplay or the development of characters expanding their depth of feeling.

It’s about wanting to watch big lumps of metal smash ten-bells of shite out of one another.

To make the robots as real as possible for the film, animatronic robots were built with motion capture technology used to depict the fights, the robots themselves conceptualised using 3D printing.

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One part, a great deal many tasks to be spread out - how do you manage the process?

Part Modules is brand new territory for NX: many of Siemens’ larger customers, particularly within the automotive and aerospace world, are constantly facing the design of highly complex and large components.

Think Body-in-White work in the automotive industry or air frame design in aerospace, but the same could be applied to the design of stamping dies. Pretty much anything that requires multiple team members working on a single component.

Now, while today’s higher-end design systems (such as NX or Catia) have tools to allow multiple team members to work on multiple parts within an assembly, the same can’t be said of single parts.

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This week finds me abandoning the last of the indian summer back in the UK to head out to Linz in Austria.

Now, Linz is an odd place. I’ve never been to Austria before, but it seems that those looking to travel there from the UK without spending the best part of a sunday in airports are missing a trick. A short hop to Munich, a chat with an air steward called Dana about the Naked Cowboy in Time Squire and a three hour train ride on the Budapest Express brought me to a sleepy seeming town who’s Design Center is playing host to Siemens PLM’s European user event, PLM Connections.

This morning will see the launch of Siemens’s flagship product development system, NX, and while we’re taking a look at the highlights in the next issue, there’s some interesting things that I wanted to share almost live as they’re announced - so stay tuned for a series of blog posts over the next few hours or indeed, days if the lure of all that fine Austrian hospitality takes its toll.

First up is is HD3D. As with all things HD, it stands for High Definition. While this might be an excuse to buy a new TV and sit watching X-Factor with stupid glasses, in the home environment, within the NX world it means something altogether more interesting.

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