Design & Analysis Software News

For designers who want to view a 3D CAD model in a photorealistic setting, Hypershot rendering software offers instant gratification. The product offers faster loading and processing time and the ability to make quick modifications to the 3D composition. You can tweak lighting, rescale or reposition the model, or change the camera vantage point, and the scene will re-render automatically. HyperShot also offers several packages of preset environments.

Using 3D CAD modeling, a California manufacturer developed a 15 kg coffee roaster in four weeks, instead of the usual six months. Ponderosa Roasting relied on Inventor software's digital prototyping and sheet metal tools to combine manufacturing information, such as punch tool parameters, with an accurate 3D model of sheet metal folding. The software made it easier to check for interferences between assembly parts, catching potential errors before the design reached manufacturing.

Machine shops often encounter trouble keeping programming for coordinate measuring machines in step with CNC machine programming. To ease this problem, vendors now offer new CMM programming tools that look and feel like CAD/CAM modules. One package, PAS CMM, can even take a 3D CAD model and generate code to control a CMM — cutting programming time by 80%. Yet the software takes only a couple days to learn, claims the vendor.

With digital manufacturing showing strong growth, 3D printing vendors are offering an expanded selection of materials aimed at specific applications. While other suppliers feature machines that produce parts from ABS and nylon, Z Corp. is pioneering colored epoxy resins for fit and form applications — though not for functioning parts. Laser sintering machines rely primarily on titanium alloy and cobalt to make medical parts. Other vendors even offer flame retardant materials.

General Motors has adopted the Seat Design Environment™ (SDE) software tool to trim seat development time and obtain cost feedback earlier in the design process. SDE lets engineers create a complete 3D virtual product master model to generate the data needed to document and manufacture a seat trim cover. The software integrates easily with GM's principal CAD system and helps reduce the need for physical prototypes.

Engineers who need to simulate factory process flow or how machines function together on a line can now create 3D graphical objects without knowing text-based computer code. A new white paper explains how simulation software lets you create models of machines, robots, conveyors, and other equipment — or capture them from a library. You can even animate these objects in 3D to simulate how a machine operates or to detect bottlenecks and other operational flaws.

With Goldfire 5.0, engineers and R&D specialists can accelerate the time it takes to get breakthrough ideas to market. The software shows users visually where they are in the innovation process, based on 14 pre-defined innovation tasks that can be tailored to fit their organization. There's even a "fix a product defect" task. Users can also get unlimited access to online computer-based training courses and video demos.

With the just released version 4.1 of Teamcenter® Express software, engineers get a new Business Modeler tool for customizing their product data management environment. This new feature streamlines the management of the attributes, datasets, forms, lists-of-values, and other common building blocks of PDM environments. Targeted especially for small and medium-sized companies, the software accelerates the engineering process with simplified design review, workflow releases, and change management. Video clips demonstrate the benefits.

Mechanical Engineering reports that 4H Clubs, the venerable teacher of farming and animal husbandry skills, now focuses increasingly on science, engineering, and technology (SET). The organization oversees five million SET projects nationwide, and it plans by 2013 to attract one million additional youth to technical programs. Students work on projects ranging from alternative energy to robotics to GPS systems, and companies like Toyota have chipped in with huge donations.

In a Business Week video clip, author Jeff Jarvis speculates on what car companies can learn from Google. What if automakers, like Google, trusted consumers enough to release unfinished products as "betas" so people could make suggestions? Why not design cars to allow easy customization, or trim sales prices if consumers want to drop unwanted frills? And what if outside product designers and manufacturers could accessorize and improve "open-source" cars?

A Victory for Technology

Some observers say that technology fared well in the government's $790 billion economic stimulus package. What's your view of the stimulus? Does it contain the right mix of short-term social assistance and long-term investment in technology?