How many CAD programs are you running? (Elmo can’t work CAD - he’s as dumb as a bag of spanners)

Having stumbled into Monday once again we thought we’d liven proceedings a little with a little click-box polling - but first; the results from last week’s poll digested.

We shipped over the figures to our editor in chief Al Dean, who hastily analyzed the percentages in an airport somewhere in India to come up with the following conclusion:

“I was curious about this one because back when we ran MCAD magazine, we did a bit of research to find out how and why people were using rendering technology.

“One of the key indicators for me was how users were outputting their images - what was the selection criteria for the resolution.

“Back in 2007, the results indicated that 23% of users were outputting to screen resolution, with a further 24% outputting up to 2,000 pixels wide.

“That’s shifted in favour of higher resolution images, with the majority now outputting 3,000 pixels. Bear in mind that screen resolutions have changes dramatically since, with HD monitors becoming the norm for many.”

So there you have it - the more pixels the better in this modern world.

But this week we’re interested in just how many CAD programs you work with on a daily basis? Do you have a one-stop program that has all the bells and whistles you need, or a plethora of packages that you dip in and out of for whatever reasons?

As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and questions on the comments section below.

Sony, in collaboration with the WWF (no wrestling involved) and IDEO, has launched its Open Planet Ideas project: an online platform that challenges members of the public to imagine how current technologies could be repurposed to tackle environmental problems.

A collaborative project whereby the ideas put forward are there to be built upon and evolved by the community, everyone is invited to participate and contribute.

Getting involved can range from simply applauding other people’s concepts to taking them and refining the design further or even contributing a totally new concept.

Read more…

The D3D Poll returns this week to look at your rendering needs, wants and desires (ok, maybe not desires).

We’re looking to see if size matters to you and your clients - a simple screen grab, or a monster 5,000 pixels plus?

Also, if you’re feeling perky this week, leave us a comment about what render tools you’re using, what’s lighting up your virtual worlds, or any questions you have about getting the best from your renders.

As for our last poll (admittedly a couple of weeks ago now) regarding your hardware bottlenecks, here’s what our workstation expert Greg Corke had to make of the percentages:

“Last week’s poll was all about workstation hardware and bottlenecks and identifying where your slowdowns are. Evidently we screwed up a bit by not giving an option for the ‘human bottleneck’ - better known by some as being distracted by phone calls, blogs, coffee, Facebook and, we were rather flattered to learn, DEVELOP3D.

“Back on the topic of computer hardware there was no runaway winner in our bottleneck face off. Yes, CPU came out top, but this was closely followed closely by a smorgasbord of graphics, memory, network and hard drive. This backs up what we regularly hear from readers that bottlenecks occur is all sorts of places – changing from application to application and dataset to dataset.

“Some admitted to having a bottleneck but not knowing where it was, and this is a more common problem than some may realize. For example you may suffer from poor frame rates when moving your 3D models about on screen, but because of the way some CAD software works your bottleneck may actually be down to an underpowered CPU, rather than a poorly specced graphics card.

“Interestingly there were a few comments about the memory limitations of 32-bit Windows where adding additional memory does nothing to ease the bottleneck. We’d be interested to learn what’s stopping the move to a 64-bit OS. Is it cost, lack of approval by IT, lack of support by 3D apps or simply no time to make the step?

“There were also complaints about the network and painfully slow PLM systems. Do you think IT departments do enough to keep centrally managed resources running at top speed. A little bit more thought or investment here could do wonders for productivty.

“Finally, as I write this now on my cutting edge workstation, I’m painfully aware that I actually miss bottlenecks. Back in the early nineties when I ran AutoCAD R12 on a 386 it took 15 mins to regen a 400k drawing. A cast-iron excuse for a cup of tea and a chinwag, if ever I heard one.”

Step up and show your talents people, Cut&Paste, the digital design tournament is on the hunt for entrants to this year’s competition.

Rolling into London town on 11 November, this is your chance to get up on stage and compete with the best of British designers.

To enter yourself into the rock and roll lineup (and we think you should!) check out the sign-up page here.

DEVELOP3D are getting involved this year: not only are we sponsors for the shindig, but we’ll be helping judge on the night, and providing a super special guest to take to the stage in Show&Tell - an insightful how-to with some of the brightest minds in the design community.

We’ll be providing full coverage of the event on the night, but until then we want you to get involved in some of this.

Take a look at CutandPaste.com

This week’s question is all about what you look for in a job

Following the success of last week’s poll, we took a little time to analyse the results, locking away D3D’s editor in chief with the stats - here’s what he had to say:

“The results are in from our first weekly poll and we got a good response, enough to show that there’s some interesting results and conclusions to be drawn.

So, further questions I wonder about are these, particularly relating to the third party add-on world. Are those mission critical applications that you’re waiting on, are they CAM solutions, data management solutions or more specialised tools? Also, how do you know when your clients have upgraded? Is a diktat sent out or is it more informal?”

Feel free to leave your comments below.

But now for some more Monday morning clickable democracy with our question for this week:

Readers of DEVELOP3D take to the polls

Amidst the Monday morning drudgery here at DEVELOP3D.com we are giving you the chance to get motivated with the opportunity for you to cast your opinion on a head-scratching debate with our all new Poll of the Week.

As you fill your fifth cup of coffee; curse the start of the working week, and solicit explanations from your co-colleagues as to how you woke up after post-work Friday drinks in an old lady’s front garden, here you have the chance to do something productive for the benefit of your fellow designers and engineers.

All the totals will be collated and scrutinised on Friday’s blog - so return then to see if you’re amongst the masses, or striving out there as an intellectual pioneer/dumbwit [delete as applicable].

So, today’s question is:

The team from the University of Padova, Italy, push its car down to the judges

As the workers still clear away the stands and hospitality marquees from the previous weekend’s British Grand Prix, teams of students from across the world descended into the famous Silverstone pitlane for the annual Formula Student event.

Despite struggling through the blustery conditions, temperamental rain showers, and the fact that most of the teams had been up most of the night still finishing adjustments to their cars, the cheery bunch all seemed to be looking forward to getting their creations onto the hallowed track following a year of design and engineering.

Most of the British entrants are final year students, in some cases graduating days before the event, proudly displaying their final projects and getting the chance to work from the pitlanes still marked with F1 team liveries, logos and even tyre marks.

All the cars were modeled in 3D CAD, with some more comprehensively than others. With many of the teams made of pure automotive and motorsport degree classes, their proficiency for strength testing, FEA analysis, and component design in CAD was pretty impressive.

The team from Delft University, Holland, show off their finished car, and its Catia model

Most teams seemed to have worked with Catia for the chassis, although others modeled the full thing in SolidWorks, while a sparse few were using sponsor Autodesk’s Inventor, or the really professional were really going for it in Pro/Engineer. It was interesting to see that even between the teams with the greater budgets (a lot of the European universities spend a full year traveling to the various international versions and racing) and those without, a lot of the emphasis for modern track-car building was put on the initial 3D CAD model.

Some F1 heavyweights were on hand to offer advice and add to the pressure

And it wasn’t just students at the opening day; on hand were some big guns from the world of F1 racing. Renault F1 managing director Bob Bell; Mercedes (and Michael Schumacer’s personal) race engineer Andrew Shovlin; Virgin Racing technical director Nick Wirth; and even square-jawed, taller-than-you-expect, former-F1 driver David Coulthard were all on site to give a motivational talk, some pearls of wisdom, and kick some tyres in the garages.

With over 2,500 students taking part, and the majority wanting to progress into the automotive and motorsport industry, there was some serious competition to be had even before the cars take to the track for individual time trials, handling and breaking tests over the next three days.

www.formulastudent.com