Is “Social CAD” the Next Big Thing?

Social media may be the single hottest buzzword in the entire English speaking world today. It’s made some individuals billionaires and certainly commands the full attention of most people under 25. Yet for CAD professionals, the impact has been relatively small. Not in terms of traditional social media, but in the context of truly social CAD.

Beyond Traditional Social Media

The big “ah ha” moment in Social CAD is not merely adding some social media commentary features into CAD products, but fundamentally changing how things are designed. For example, AutoCAD’s Design Feed capability that lets you make a post that is linked to a specific design point or feature is kind of “Facebook added to CAD”. My thoughts are that we need to make possible social collaboration on the actual design itself. Think about opening up your design to a group of “friends” or “contacts” that are then going to work on this capability in real time. You would be getting input and design expertise from any number of sources, albeit ones you trust. Read full article »

New CAD Display Technologies to Look Forward to

Visualization of designs and components is the key part of the CAD experience. And the importance of the display technologies that enable this can’t be understated. However, if we look back over the last 15-20 years, there has been precious little disruptive technological change in the displays used for CAD. Sure, we have low cost 3D, and larger screens with incredible resolution. Yet, if you look at the fundamentals, very little has changed.

There are now some very interesting new technologies on the horizon that may change this dynamic and dramatically improve the CAD Experience. There are two that I believe are worth focusing on. Read full article »

Autodesk Acquires HSMWorks – What it Means to You!

The recent acquisition of HSMWorks by Autodesk creates a very interesting scenario for both AutoCAD and SolidWorks users. On the face of it, one might be lead to think that this is a pre-emptive acquisition bent on market domination. It’s also been speculated on some postings that with the new ownership, there is some likelihood that we’ll see less capable or timely integration of future versions of HSMWorks with SolidWorks, to the benefit of AutoCAD. All nefarious competitive plots! And then there’s the whole problem of resellers getting put in the middle of the tangle. That’s a lot to analyze all at once! So let’s devolve the multiple scenarios and look at them individually. Read full article »

RELATED RESOURCE

An Overview of Common Performance Issues for SolidWorks

Every SolidWorks user wants to do more, faster, with fewer mistakes. Here’s a quick look at the top performance issues SolidWorks users are facing and some advice on what you can do about them.

Paris 3D Saga – Experience it live, online and mobile

Originally Posted by By Aurelien, 3D Perspectives

A couple years after the Khufu and Giza projects, we’re back into a brand new historical 3D adventure. This time, it’s nothing less than the most visited capital in the world, the City of Lights, also know as Paris.  “Paris 3D Saga” is an educative and entertaining journey in the history of Paris beginning 20 centuries ago. Today, we’re releasing three ways to experience the Paris 3D Saga: a live event (if you have the chance to be in Paris tonight), an online 3D experience, as well as an iPad app. Please have a look at the video previews below!

At a first glance, Paris 3D might just look as a video game. It’s not. Each step of the reconstitution was verified and validated with history experts. An history committee under the supervision of Didier Busson, history expert and archaeologist of Paris city, ensured that the project was scientifically and architecturally accurate. Because in the end, whether it’s for our customers from any industry or for an historical reconstitution, our technology and approach serve the same intent: it’s not about building virtual universes for the sake of virtuality ; it’s about building virtual universes that are the closest to the real world, for the sake or reality. Or, in a single word, 3DEXPERIENCE. Read full article »

Concepting in Creo – Part 3: Buyer’s Guide for Concept Design

In the last two Creo posts, I’ve talked about trends in concept design and the process of modernizing concept design. This week I explore what you need to know (and demand) if you want to buy concept modeling technology. Read full article »

RELATED RESOURCE

Reference Architecture for Creo (Pro/ENGINEER)

Is old hardware slowing you down? Are you in the market for a new workstation? Use this configuration guide to maximize your Creo or Pro/ENGINEER performance.