Open Source CAD: Another perspective
A few days ago, I opined that “If you’re looking for a really great open source CAD program, you’re going to be disappointed.” Charles Warner, an engineer who uses a number of open source CAD programs,...
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How was the Mars rover Curiosity designed? With Siemens PLM software
Last Sunday night, I watched the live video feed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as the rover Curiosity descended through the Martian atmosphere, and landed on the planet’s surface. NASA called...
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Gian Paolo Bassi on SolidWorks 2013
As much as I’m interested in what new capabilities SolidWorks 2013 will bring, I’m much more interested in something else: Has Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp invested the resources it will take to...
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The deep secret of SolidWorks 2013
It’s been a few weeks since I was at the SolidWorks 2013 media event in Waltham, MA. There have since been several articles written about SolidWorks 2013, by Roopinder Tara, Brian McElyea, Anna Wood,...
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Autodesk Fusion 360: The future of CAD, pt. 1
This week, at Autodesk University 2012, Autodesk unveiled Fusion 360, a new cloud-based mechanical CAD solution. What they didn’t do, however, was tell everyone the real significance of Fusion 360....
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Autodesk Fusion 360: The future of CAD, Pt. 2
Imagine, for a moment, that you worked at a major CAD developer, with massive technical resources, and more than a billion dollars in the bank. Next, imagine that you were given the task to develop a...
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SolidWorks 2014: No obvious surprises
Bernard Charles, explaining where SolidWorks fits in. There was a time, years back, when SolidWorks users complained because the annual updates of the software included so many major new capabilities...
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Rock and Roll industrial design
I’m always interested in how people use CAD software to do interesting projects. Nout Van Heumen is an industrial designer and engineer whose day job, so to speak, is in the packaging and insulation...
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How would you design an electric motorcycle?
I often find myself looking at manufactured products, and wondering “how would you go about designing something like that?” For some things, the sheer scale of the problem is so large that it’s hard to...
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CAD in the pursuit of art: Shane McKenna
As an engineer, I often think about CAD as a tool for the engineering and design of technological products. But, every once in a while, I’m reminded that CAD can can be used in ways its makers never...
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Alibre becomes Geomagic Design
Almost 2 years ago—in July, 2011—3D Systems acquired Alibre, a developer of budget 3D parametric MCAD software. It was just one of a large number of acquisitions that 3D Systems made over the last...
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3D MCAD is not “done.” Not by any means. Well over 40 years after the introduction of commercial 3D MCAD products, and 25 years after the introduction of feature-based solid modeling MCAD, many MCAD...
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Maybe you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on CAD/CAM tools
My friend Rachael Dalton-Taggart, Director of Marketing Communications at Geomagic Solutions (which is now part of 3D Systems), often has interesting perspectives on the engineering software market....
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The failed promise of parametric CAD part 1: From the beginning
The modern era of 3D CAD was born in September 1987, when Deere & Company bought the first two seats of Pro/Engineer, from the still new Parametric Technology Corporation. A couple of years later,...
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The failed promise of parametric CAD part 2: The problem is editing
In the previous post, I wrote about the failed promise of parametric CAD: problems such as parent-child dependencies and unwanted feature interactions, coupled with no easy way to either prevent, or...
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The failed promise of parametric CAD part 3: The direct solution
Direct modeling—a syncretic melding of concepts pioneered by CoCreate, Trispectives, Kubotek (and many others)–has shown the most promise to cure the parametric curse. Direct modeling is today’s hot...
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The failed promise of parametric CAD part 4: Going horizontal
In the early 90s, Ron Andrews, a senior product designer at Dephi’s Saginaw Steering Systems Division, became fed-up with the difficulties of editing parametric CAD models. So, he and a team of his...
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The failed promise of parametric CAD part 5: A resilient modeling strategy
The model brittleness problem inherent with parametric feature-based modeling is a really big deal. And it’s something, honestly, that I don’t have a great answer for. I’ve even asked a few power users...
View ArticleDynamic Block in ZWCAD+ 2014 Beta: More Flexible to Make Changes
ZWCAD Design, a supplier of CAD solutions for the MCAD and AEC industries, has developed Dynamic Block in ZWCAD+ 2014 Beta for more efficient block operations. Block designs have been made more...
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Altium launches SolidWorks App for Altium Designer
San Diego, United States – Altium Limited, a 3D PCB design (Altium Designer) and embedded software development (TASKING), has announced the availability of the new Solidworks modeler for Altium...
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