Myself and the legendary Greg Corke had a conference call and web demo with the Autodesk team yesterday to look at the first iteration of its cloud-based computation tools for simulation. Currently in closed invite-only Beta, the two projects, Centaur and Cumulus, are the first pass at using remote computation technology to speed simulation. Whether you want to call it a Cloud app, call it SaaS (Software as a service) or call it SRDFBCSE (Stuff Running Dead Fast on a Big Computer Somewhere Elsewhere), this is a serious trend and we’re finally starting to see demonstrations of how things are going to pan out over the coming years. But let’s break it down a little and get some clarity.

Project Cumulus

This is a remote solver for Moldflow - that’s pretty simple. You use the standard client for Moldflow Insight (rather than the Inventor integrated version) to carry out your traditional pre-processing and study set-up. Geometry is worked on, a mesh created, inputs and parameters set. you then send this data to ‘the server’ and it calculates it. Once complete, it send back the results dataset and you use the same client software to inspect, to validate and interact with the results.

Project Centaur

This follows a vaguely similar pattern. you download an Add-in for Inventor Simulation that deals with optimization. You set-up your geometry, add the loads and constraints, choose the variables for optimization from the inventor model (at present, you need to define each variable’s inputs). Essentially, you use a design of experiments methodology to define the values for each variable and set a goal. At present it only works with a Factor of safety type analysis so the inputs are pretty standard. once done, you hit the calculate button, this send the data to the calculation server, the optimization iterations are performed and the results are streamed back to your Inventor client on your workstation. You look at the results from a pretty clear list and choose the configuration you want.Inventor adapts the model in work to that configuration, adopting those chosen inputs for the geometry and it’s saved. Job Done.

Before we get onto what this means and the potential here, I did want to get Greg Corke, our resident hardware guru’s thoughts on what he saw. So, here you go - i’ll be back once you’ve read this:

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The battle to provide CAD tool online, in addition to the desktop took a step forward this month, with Autodesk unleashing Project Butterfly on its innovative Autodesk Labs website. Here users can try for free, a tool which allows the viewing, mark-up and editing of 2D DWG files, either solo or in realtime co-editing with a colleague. As the system is totally web-based the parties can be anywhere in the world and neither requires a copy of AutoCAD.

Previous cloud technology previews on the Labs website have been forthcoming new products, such as Project Dragonfly for room layout and more recently Project Twitch, to allow remote delivery of AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor and Maya (currently only available to those who live in US and Canada). Project Butterfly offers functionality similar to Autodesk View but the DWG files and the application are hosted on Autodesk’s servers and is accessed by a web browser. This means that drawings could be remotely stored, viewed, interrogated and marked-up on any PC with an Internet connection.

Once DWGs are added to the Project Butterfly servers, other users can be invited to view and edit DWGs online as well as download to their local computer. Two-party online review sessions can be held, where mark-ups can be added as well as notes made and stored. This first version also provides co-editing where two users can simultaneously create or delete geometry using familiar AutoCAD tools. For those who have used Google Wave, they will notice a similar philosophy.

Origin

Project Butterfly is the result of Autodesk acquiring PlanPlatform, a developer of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company was cofounded in 2007 by Jonathan Seroussi and Tal Weiss, who both used to work for Israel Aerospace Industries. PlanPLatform’s VisualTao product was demonstrated its beta DWG collaboration product early last year, after which Autodesk obviously took interest and completed acquisition in December 2009, for an estimated $20-$30 million.
 
In the drive to develop online CAD tools and a viable SaaS business Autodesk is evaluating a number of core technologies to get its products online, VisualTao is the latest. According to Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, there are four basic technologies currently under evaluation but he feels that there will be no one way, or single technology to deliver all the end-user experiences for cloud-based computing. Previously we have reported on Autodesk investment and testing of ‘onLive’ gaming technology which utilises cutting edge data compression algorithms to ‘squirt’ real time video over the web. OnLive is the technology behind the Project Twitter approach and relies of powerful servers to run the desktop applications on servers, sending the video and receiving keyboard and mouse input back over the web.

In both Project Dragonfly and Project Butterfly Autodesk uses Adobe’s Flash web engine, while we noted that Project Cooper (the potential LT version of AutoCAD LT) required the installation of Microsoft Silverlight. All these products have different ways of working and delivering the application experience over the web. Autodesk will use the best suited toolkits for each commercial product.

Project Butterfly is based on streaming technology but instead of dumb rendered graphics, sends accurate vectors and metadata using optimised compression, allowing for impressive CAD-like functionality and interaction within the browser. In use it does actually feel like a desktop CAD application. More CAD functionality is in the pipeline for Project Butterfly, together with the potential to handle 3D.

Future

Autodesk is clearly making the most of its Labs website to allow its customers to test out these new technologies. With everything from full AutoCAD or Inventor, home layout tools and now real-time collaboration delivered to a browser near you.
A full review of Project Butterfly will be up soon.

Moving processor intensive CAE operations to The Cloud is no use whatsoever if our broadband connection is inconsistent. Image Copyright P R Yakin – Fotolia.com

The findings in this latest report from UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, really annoyed me.

Many of us pay for high-bandwidth broadband connections but simply don’t get what we pay for. It’s a bit like buying a pint of beer and only being served a half. OK, so it’s not, but you get my point.

Business connections are of course much better, and you get what you pay for, but even at our London office we sometimes get much less than our 16mbps business connection is supposed to offer and upload speed is consistently underwhelming. You only have to tot up the number of WiFi signals in the area to understand why – 20 at the last count from the comfort of my desk

I guess most engineering/design firms don’t have central city addresses, but in the UK it’s often the remote companies that suffer more simply because high-bandwidth connections aren’t available. Regardless of location it’s essential for all, even the smaller firms who can’t afford dedicated lines, to have reliable and consistent connections. This is even more important when you consider the ever expanding size of the CAD/CAE datasets that we work with and the need for reliable connections will get even more critical if we move our processing to the Cloud or adopt a SaaS delivery system for our 3D software. These are technologies that many CAD/CAE developers are currently giving serious consideration to.

What’s broadband like where you work/live? Are you paying for bandwidth you simply don’t get? Does it hinder your adoption of Web-based technologies or, like me, do you simply like having a bit of a rant? I’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences.