Design & Engineering Weekly Round-Up

St. Patrick’s Day: A Celebration of Beer – and 3D Design?
Originally Posted by Matthew West, SolidWorks
Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I’m something of a beer nerd. So in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, it’s time to talk about 3D design software and beer. Not a likely pairing, except when you consider that the team at Enegren Brewing Company used SolidWorks technology to make its beer a reality.
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PLM and 3D Printing Revolution
Originally Posted by Oleg Shilovitsky, Beyond PLM
It started almost 10 years ago, 3D printing became much stronger and considerably cheaper lately. I’ve been monitoring multiple publications and announcements related to 3D Printing. You can navigate to few of them – The silent revolution – 3D printing in the workplace and the home by Develop3D…
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Local Motors and Siemens PLM Software Launch Wheel Design Competition
Originally Posted by Brian Albright, Desktop Engineering
Here’s an opportunity for engineers to get in on a crowdsourcing design project, and try out some new software in the process. Local Motors and Siemens PLM Software have launched a CAD competition to design stylish and distinctive automotive wheels using a free trial of Siemens’ new subscription-based Solid Edge Design1 software.
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The 4N Watch: Way Ahead of its Time

Every now and then I like to talk about the innovative products that designers and engineers come up with, and how the right CAD tools enable them to work more creatively. Well, the 4N Watch (site in French), officially known as the 4N-MVT01/D01/42, is such a product.

This fascinating, handcrafted timepiece was designed in CATIA V6 and uses an analog mechanism to display digital time. Estimates put the price tag north of $200,000, and part of the mystique is that there are only 16 of the watches in existence. (Some reports suggest that there are actually 32, 16 of them with a platinum case and 16 with an 18K white gold case.)

Watch this video to see the watch in action:

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RELATED RESOURCE

An Overview of Common CATIA Performance Issues

All CATIA users want to increase speed and accuracy—without paying more than they have to for performance improvements. Use the advice in this paper to meet your performance challenges and boost your overall productivity.

Overcoming the “Language” Barrier on Collaborative CAD Projects

Collaboration among business partners often requires the direct exchange of native CAD files that don’t always speak the same language. It’s not unusual for projects to involve a mix of CATIA V4, CATIA V5 and NX data, which can cause complications and result in time-consuming data translation efforts. Now there’s a way to make short work of converting CATIA V5 and V4 files to NX, even when there’s embedded CATIA V4 data in a CATIA V5 assembly.

Theorem Solutions is offering a new Universal CATIA translator for NX, which automatically differentiates between CATIA V5 and V4 data files and converts them to NX in a single operation. This single translator accepts all combinations of CATIA V5 and CATIA V4 data. It doesn’t matter if the CATIA V4 data is in EXPORT, MODEL, SESSION or CATIA V4 Assembly Modeler formats, or if your CATIA V5 data includes CATProduct or CATPart files—even those reference native CATIA V4 models.

The new solution can save you time, effort and money, because it eliminates the need to identify which version of CATIA the target data is supplied in. Everything is automatic, and you can convert all forms of 3D mechanical design geometry and assembly data together with system-defined attribute and color information. Read full article »

RELATED RESOURCE

Implementation Case Study: NX Performance Gains on Different Hardware Configurations

NX users can realize significant performance gains with the right hardware configuration. Other factors, such as monitor size, resolution, memory, operating system, and video drivers can also be manipulated to enhance your NX experience.

3D Printing to Build Robotic Dinosaur Models

Originally Posted by Martin LaMonica, CNET

Drexel University is starting to create 3D scans of fossils to better study the motion of giant dinosaurs through small-scale robotic models.

Rather than using plaster and pickaxes, paleontologists are now digitizing ancient fossils.

Drexel University yesterday detailed an initiative to use three-dimensional printing to create models of dinosaur bones for further study. Researchers hope that models will allow them to study how dinosaurs moved and help create smaller robotic models of massive dinosaurs.

Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara has started doing 3D scans of giant dinosaur bones and, with a collaborator, is building scale models of complete skeletons. The process works by extruding very thin layers of resin or another material to slowly build up an object. A six-inch model of a dinosaur bone takes a few hours to print.

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Mold-A-Rama Gets an Upgrade: How 3D Printing Is Transforming Design and Manufacturing

If you’ve ever seen a Mold-A-Rama machine at a museum, zoo or other public entertainment venue, you probably know how cool it is to put in your money and watch as a plastic mold of a bust of Abe Lincoln, a dolphin or some other character or creature is created right before your eyes. If you’ve never had the experience, you can do so below:

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