Articles tagged with Cad

Something I’ve been considering of late is the use of specialised design tools. While the majority of systems we look at on a daily basis at DEVELOP3D are general purpose systems, intended to be used by a very wide variety that runs the gamut of industry sectors, tasks and processes.

But what if you’re working in an industry that is both inherently complex and highly specialised. You’ll never be able to find a system that caters to your requirements, both in terms of capability, but also in terms of language - right? It seems not. This is a new series of articles that I’ll be posting that look at some of the specialised design and manufacturing tools out there, tools that are lesser known, but have something to show, something to demonstrate in terms of how to handle a process and how to offer the user something unique. And I’d like to start with something that fills me with complete and utter joy, for reasons which will become apparent. BikeCAD is developed by Canadian outfit, Bicycle Forest and it’s currently on its 6.53 release. To get some background, I spoke to developer and founder of Bike Forest, Brent Curry about where the system came from.

Al Dean: How long has BikeCAD been in existence?
Brent Curry: I’ve always loved cycling, so when I went through the Mechanical Engineering program at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada, I made a point of serving most of my co-op work terms in the bicycle industry. I started at Vitus Cycles in France and then went on to Syncros Applied Technology in Vancouver, British Columbia (maker of stems and seatposts), Southcott Pty in Australia (manufacturer of mail delivery bikes for Australia Post and importer of GT Bicycles) and Dekerf Cycle Innovations in Vancouver where I got to learn from legendary frame builder Chris Dekerf.

AD: Where did the idea for the product come from and how has it grown?
BC: Along the way, I spent a lot of time drafting bicycle frames on paper and on various 2D and 3D CAD packages. I realized that a parametric CAD program specifically designed for custom bicycle frames would be a useful tool. I developed the first version of BikeCAD in 1998. It was just a simple Java applet, but it allowed custom builders to design frames and determine the lengths and angles at which to cut the tubes. I made it available for free on my web site.

I’m grateful to the people at Serotta Cycles (http://www.serotta.com/) who contracted me to expand the program to account for paint schemes. It was then that I realized that BikeCAD had the potential to become a commercially viable product. I continued to develop the program into a standalone application that includes various ways of modeling riders on the bike. BikeCAD Pro now features a fully customizable tool called the Fit Advisor which is used not only by custom builders but also bicycle fit specialists.

AD: Any future plans?
BC: I am constantly adding new features to the program. As new versions of the program are released, all owners of BikeCAD Pro receive the upgrade for free. I can’t say what new features will be included in the next update, but I hope to have it out just before the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond, Virginia on February 26-28.

How it works

BikeCAD Pro - running nicely on MAC OS X, although Windows and Linux variants are also available.

BikeCAD Pro is a java-based system that is incredibly small in it’s foot print. It’s under 20Mb in terms of a download and because it’s Java based, there are versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Once you fire up the software (I tested it on my battle hardened MacBook Pro - it worked like a dream). You’re presented with a clearly laid out user interface. Obviously the display is taken up with a preview of the bike you’re working on. Across the top are a series of icons that access the various parameters that go into designing the bike.

Each brings up a clean dialog that allows you to configure the wide and varied options, inputs and parameters that allow you to design the bike you want, often graphical previews when most needed. You work through Frames, Wheels, Forks, Saddle, seat post, Headset, Stem. There’s inputs for the rider form, foot size. There’s inputs for tube size, gearing and sprockets, cranks, chain rings, drop outs and such. Recent releases have seen the system grow with the ability to fully customise not only how your bike is built, but also how the bike appears and the current release gives you very clear and clear visualisations of your current design which can be panned, zoomed and captured for reuse.

Human x Machine

What I found fascinating was the way the system handles the interaction between the human using the bike and the mechanical components. For example, the Fit adviser allows you to input the riders measurements and shoe size. It’ll then calculate the optimal crank arm length, then apply it to the design you’re working on. At any stage in the process, you can load up a human form and inspect how it looks on the current design.

Crank Arm length optimisation

Alongside this, there’s a set of visual checks that allow you to see how the current design conforms to cycle design standards (of which there are many), you’re presented with a list of the most critical checks, select one, then the system shows the limits (many are related to interference between man/machine) so you can see what you’re dealing with.

Shown here are limitations relating to saddle and vertical bottom bracket plane as well as the requirement for the bottom bracket to be within specific limits in relation to the ground.

Documenting the design

Once you’ve created your current design, BikeCAD Pro then includes a range of tools for documenting the design for manufacture. From creation of dimensioned drawings, 2d renders, miter profiles, dimension listings - all of which can be exported to a variety of formats such as PDFs for drawings, CSV files for lists and tables.

Speciallism par excellence

BikeCAD Pro is an incredibly detailed piece of software that’s been developed in co-operation with its users and with a community behind it and I find it fascinating - it solves a complex design problem in a very efficient manner and perfectly demonstrates how technology can be used to great advantage in an industry that’s very much based on handcraft and smaller workshop (of course, outside of the large global brands of course). It mixes visual design with standards, manufacturing consideration and ensuring that the design you create is both safe and within required limits. Mainstream design technology vendors could learn a great deal from this. If you’re interested (and let’s face it, designers and engineers like bicycles - a lot) in the software, it costs $350 (canadian dollars). There are less functionally rich versions of the software available to try on the Bicycle Forest web-site. Impressive. Highly impressive.

Oh and if you want to know what happens once you use a tool like this, have a watch of this breathtakingly wonderful video from the team at Paper Fortress (formerly quarter Productions) that shows how Geekhouse Bikes builds a frame from scratch (you’ll spot some BikeCAD Pro love in there too).

While the world is moving through the digital age, where information is passed at the speed of light (or at least, whatever your broadband rating is), the design and engineering field remains an often tactile industry. While the core of design, simulation and manufacturing preparation is done digitally, the tactile response from holdinf a product, a prototype or a final manufactured part is something very hard to replicate. Today, we have a huge range of technologies available to assist with making the design process more efficient and less reliant on the physical prototype. Conversely, never before have we seen so much activity in the rapid prototyping space. new machines, new processes, new materials all contribute to giving those engaged in product development the tools they need. Held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, TCT Live presents a unique opportunity in these times, to go and see these technologies in action.

Over two days, you can feel the sample parts, see how the machines operate, find new service providers and to discuss the potential for your business with the 100+ organisations exhibiting there. With the various conference streams and seminars running alongside the event (which are now free to attend), it’s not often that you’ll find so much in a single venue. DEVELOP3D will be there for the two days, so if you want to meet up, get in touch and we’ll see you there.

The big news for this year is that the conference is free, whereas previous years saw a charge applied. As an organisation with an interest in proliferating information to assist with product development, DEVELOP3D sees this as a fantastic move by the team. With delegates from over 20 countries, this years brings a huge range of topics, from design and engineering, through aerospace, automotive and autosport, but also into consumer realms, medical and sportswear. In specifics, this year’s line at the TCT Conference includes keynote presentation is from the rather delightfully named Ian Risk, VP of & Head of Airbus UK’s Innovation Works. Another one we’re looking forward to is former EOS employee, Volker Junior, now a partner in Junior & Tacke, a new organisation set-up to explore where rapid manufacturing and digital design techniques can be used in high-performance sports. He’ll be talking about how competitive advantage was achieved for his clients at the Bejing games.

The second day’s highlights include Bryan Cioffi of legendary shoe manufacturer, Converse, talking about how the company has upgraded its design and development process to a 100% digital creation workflow.

Running in paralell with the main TCT Conference, the Micro Manfuacturing Technology Conference is also taking place for its second year. This years agenda has been expanded to run over the two days allowing a broader range of topics to be discussed. A variety of topics relevant to all manufacturing sectors will be covered — from a state of the industry overview to in-depth discussions on micro moulding, micro milling, micro EDM and assembly.

If you’re not going to make it for the conference sessions or can’t devote a full day, the event also has three additional seminar theatres that will house a range of short, bite sized presentations, perfect for filling in knowledge gaps or getting the low down on the latest technologies. 2009 will see the return of the successful Technology for Jewellery Seminar, which will take designers through the full design-to-market cycle, from effective use of CAD (computer aided design), to prototyping models, casting, micro cutting, milling and welding. Also returning is the ever-popular “Rapid Fundamentals” Introductory sessions, presented by industry expert Graham Tromans, who will give newcomers to ‘rapid’ technologies an overview of what’s available and how to access them.

New for 2009 is the introduction of four new seminars: Inspection, Digitizing and Metrology Seminar; CAD/CAM/CAE stream; RP&M in Architecture; and Digital Manufacturing and Materials for Dentistry. These seminars will highlight the technological breakthroughs in these sectors with case studies and demonstrations.

While I’m sworn to secrecy regarding the next release of Geomagic’s line of reverse engineering or, as they would have it, Digital Shape Sampling and Processing (DSSP), applications, there’s something that’s been talked about a little bit online and recently posted to the company’s labs web-site (labs.geomagic.com), that’s too good to resist a little yap about.

When you look at the use of reverse engineering within the context of 3D design, there are several workflows and processes that it supports. Whatever your end goal, the process of capturing a physical form digitally is used across a wide spectrum of the design and manufacturing world. There’s those looking to capture concept models/clays/styrofoam concepts and turn them into something more workable. there are those looking to capture organically generated shapes because that’s the only way they can be produced. Then looking into more production related applications, the use of revser engineering technologies is huge in many areas. Whether that’s the digitalisation of physical legacy parts for remanufacturing where either digital data doesn’t exist, or the ‘in-use’ part doesn’t match the source 3D data (something that’s huge in aerospace and turbomachinery). There’s also inspection and metrology applications that are gaining massive traction.

Whatever your use and purpose, it’s common that the scanned form is used as the basis for the construction of more accurate, cleaner surfaces. This is true of the automotive styling world as it is of the product design or medical market. you’ll start with a physical form, but your end requirement is a clean, smooth and fully featured surface or solid model. Now, the problem is that while you’ve traditionally been able to create surfaces and solids which can be passed to your workhorse design system, there’s very little in the way of intelligence. you can derive forms based on scan data, but editing that geometry, to effect design changes, takes complex edits and in many cases, complete rework.

#1: Using Geomagic Studio to indentify ‘features’ and surface entities within your scanned data.

What Geomagic has done is to develop a series of connections that establish a link between its host application (Geomagic Studio) and either SolidWorks, Inventor or Pro/Engineer. You perform the standard scanning, registration and clean up processes (look out for a full review in DEVELOP3D in April for more information).

#2: Surface entities created using automatic and manual tools

But once done, you then use the built in tools (from the Geomagic Fashion module) to start to break down the model into precisely defined surfaces and solids. The system has, for some time, included a range of tools that allow you to create very clean surface/solid data using that underlying point cloud. This extends that by passing that same data to your workhorse CAD system. This is then used as the basis of reconstruction your models in your CAD system, using standard operations and features.

#3: Surfaces transferred to SolidWorks, with generating sketches in place and feature history constructed – ready for boolean and trimming operations.

The benefit this gives you is that you’ll end up with a quasi-parametric model which contains a great deal more intelligence (in terms of enabling design modification) than you’d traditionally get.

#4: Final SolidWorks model, clean, trimmed and intelligent.

Looks cool eh? it is. While Geomagic’s arch-nemesis, RapidForm has a similar tool in the form of RapidFormXOR/Redesign, Geomagic’s Parametric Exchange looks like a very elegant solution that lets Geomagic do what it does best (working with point cloud and polygon data) and leaves you to do the bulk of the surface and solid editing in systems best suited to the job. The images above show the system working with SolidWorks – now here’s a nice little video to show how it inter-operates with Pro/Engineer.

Geomagic Parametric Exchange + Pro/E Wildfire from DEVELOP3D on Vimeo.

LAG Guitars are ecognised for using the highest quality woods and their famous playability.

Just had a case study come in to the office from Vero Software about how it’s VISI Series CADCAM system is being used by french luthiers, LAG Guitars. What’s interesting is that LAG are using VISI Series for both CAM and design and with all manner of users, ranging from Jean Michel Jarre to Phil Campbell from Motorhead. To give you the basics of the story, the company was founded in 1978 by Michel Lag Chavarria in Toulouse, LAG started to make a name for itself after setting up its workshop in Bedarieux, a small town in the hills of Roussillon in the south of France. Things have expanded greatly and as with many organisations, manufacturing has moved out East to China and South Korea, but the prototyping and design is still conducted in their french headquarters.

LAG Imperator guitar designed and manufactured using VISI

In the eighteen months since the company adopted VISI, the company LAG has produced over 500 NC program files and the software has had a major impact on the company’s working methods. The guitars are designed in an extraordinary “matter of hours” and the musician or sales department can get an immediate, detailed idea of what the instrument looks like. This provides a solid basis for either approving or requesting modifications to the design. Since the company invested in a rapid prototyping machine, it is even possible to watch the guitar being made. As soon as the prototype has been approved, the drawings or models are sent to the Chinese plant for production.

For those that don’t know Vero or its products, it was the first modelling tools to be developed on the Windows platform using the Parasolid kernel, but more importantly, its amongst that rare breed of system that is ultra powerful, whether using the modelling tools for creation or more importantly, editing of geometry from any source and taking that through every step into production. By providing you with all manner of tools for mould, progressive die and electrode design, a huge range of NC programming tools, it’s a one stop shop. If you missed it, we looked at VISI Series in a two parter in DEVELOP3D – check the downloads for the content in the October and November issue. We’ll have more details in the next issue.

Oh and before I’m finished, couldn’t pass this chance up (CAUTION: Naughty Words):

DEVELOP3D’s hardware expert, Greg Corke, has been playing with graphics hardware again (it keeps him out of trouble). This time he’s been comparing the performance of FirePro V5700 vs Quadro FX 1700 in Catia V5.

As the blurb says: The FirePro V5700 and the Quadro FX 1700 are tested side-by-side for real-time performance in CATIA using the standard CATBench high polygon count models. These tests were conducted at X3DMedia in London on Oct 25, 2008 under the supervision Greg Corke and Martyn Day of Develop 3D magazine. The tests were run on identical HP xw8600 workstations.

See the next issue of DEVELOP3D (coming very soon) for more the first in a series of articles on how to tune your graphics performance and get the best out of your hardware - this month its Catia (as you might have guessed), but we’ll be covering all the biggies in the coming months.