Articles tagged with Proengineer

Bit late with this, but I’ve just been working on the full review of CFdesign for the next issue of DEVELOP3D, but I thought now would be as good of a time as any to put together a few thoughts on the latest release of CFdesign and get them out there.

The Blue Ridge Numerics guys have always gone great guns for CAD integrated Computational Fluid Dynamics and simulation but they’ve excelled themselves with this release. What’s new? the answer is not a massive amount. The question should be, what can you do more efficiently? And the answer to that is a LOT.

What the 2010 release is all about is two things. Firstly, giving you the tools to conduct multiple design studies within a single file and a single dataset. That’s not particularly unique, but it’s new to CFdesign (you could accomplish similar using workarounds in previous releases). The tools now available mean you can set-up multiple studies, reuse settings, meshes, model set-ups, then use that as the basis for multiple studies, whether you’re changing geometry, playing with part positions, whether you’re playing with multiple heat or fluid settings. It really doesn’t matter. The system let’s you contain and interact with everything relating to a project in a single place. THat’s going to save you a lot of time hunting around for information you ‘just had’.

The second part is the ability to work with that mass of data, conduct comparisons, to create output from it, whether’s the usual vector plots or more standard (and usually more useful) charts. The new Design Center gives you tools to load up multiple results sets, display and synchronise common datasets and use the results to make design decisions – which is what it’s all about.

Other updates include new tools for handling data shifting between CFdesign and your workhourse CAD system (it works with the majority of major systems… and some smaller ones), tools to quickly create volume models for exterior flow problems (using push/pull modelling tools) to name but a few.

We’ll have the full run down in a little while but in the mean time, and as ever, CFdesign’s Product Manager, Derrek Cooper’s been hot on the case and given us a video tour of what’s new. Check it below.

And if that’s not enough, with a review in October, with Greg’s look at how Blue Ridge are taking advantage of hardware advances for increasing simulation efficiency (which HAS to be read) in the September issue, I don’t know what is.

#2: Looks like a screwed up a little on the previous post, so after a brief chat with Brian Shephard, Executive Vice President, Product Development at PTC, let’s get a few things straight – and they relate to direct modelling vs real time recaulation of a parametric, history-based model. What the video below shows (despite my initial thoughts; blame jetlag and my old friend Gordon) is the real-time calculation technology that’s being delivered in the Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 release.

This will allow you to grab, drag and drop geometry features within your model, make dynamic edits and such, without the recalculation overhead traditionally associated with a history-based modelling system. According to Shephard, the system respects any constraints applied to the model, allowing you to preserve design intent and intelligence that parametric modelling has always allowed – but gives you a much more dynamic and efficient working environment to work. It doesn’t destroy the feature tree – in fact, it’s very similar to how systems like SolidWorks operate with its Instant3D technology.

What PTC has also demonstrated today is the explicit modelling tools which are planned to be introduced into the Wildfire 6.0 release. This is much more akin to the modelling methodology found in CoCreate and it’ll be introduced into Pro/Engineer in the next release cycle (which working on the basis of the last few releases, will be demonstrated sometime next year and shipped at the very end). This works differently to that described above. Yes, it won’t respect your feature-tree/history, allowing you complete freedom (within the usual topological limitations inherent with all these tools) to edit your geometry as you see fit, in a dynamic manner. What’s interesting to note is that the system doesn’t destroy the history tree either, but rather adds an additional feature for each ‘explicit’ operation at the end of the tree, affording you some control and editability.

#1: It’s June, it’s the annual PTC/User event and this year it’s in a swelteringly hot Orlando. PTC are making a huge noise about its Social Product Development initiative, intended to give a greater ability for those developing products to actually conduct both the formal and informal interactions that occur with a design project, in a managed, but not overly so, environment. There’s going to be a whole host of stuff coming in the next few days and you’ll probably be sick and tired of hearing the term “Social Product Development” (Jim Brown take on the subject is here and also see the note below)

But I thought I’d kick things off with a look at what’s coming in Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 – due for shipping sometime in the near future, presumed to be Q4. After all. That’s what we all really want to know. Isn’t it? And of course, in true DEVELOP3D style, it’s perhaps best done with a bunch of sketchy, shaky videos.

Things to look out for are the new modelling tools for assemblies and mechanisms, the new draughting/drawing creation interface. It’s based on the Ribbon – in itself something I commented about back in January because the stark contrast between this and two UI methods Pro/E already has.

You’ll also see a quick sneaky look at the direct editing tools that PTC are developing for inclusion into Pro/Engineer (no confirmed shipping date yet) – note that it references many of killer things that CoCreate have been doing for many years – particularly the Co-Pilot manipulation widget used to manipulation of geometry. But its the same story of direct editing of feature-based geometry, without the traditional lag that history-based modelling gives you.

Rendering: Now based on mental images rendering engine, Mental Ray and a bunch of new quality material pre-sets. That sees a move away from the LightWorks rendering engine and should see you be able to achieve some fantastic results, particularly if you take advantage of global illumination to get your image quality just right.

Interoperability: There’s a new (no additional cost) import options for working with both SolidWorks and Inventor data models.

One final one I’ve got to find a bit more about is the new Pro/Engineer Spark Analysis Extension is the “only commercially available product that helps analyse and optimise the electromechanical clearance and creepage properties of designs.”

We’ll be covering this in more depth as we get more details. Ken Wong is also doing some wonderful stuff (including the most delightful video voice over ever) over at Desktop Engineering and Josh is doing his thing at SolidSmack.com.

Note: Turns out that PTC has copyrighted the term Social Product Development. Yup. Not exactly in the grand scheme of all things social media related is it? I think that simple fact says a great deal. Mostly about how larger, traditional software vendors (and PTC are by no means the only one doing it) jump on the latest in web 2.0 trends – and completely miss the point by a pretty wide margin.