The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword – The New 3D Drawing Pen

One of the great things about the technology industry is that there are literally thousands of start-up companies that are conceiving and building very cool new products. One of these has just announced their contribution to this trend the 3D Pen, called the “3Doodler”. Basically, what you now have is a “pen” that lets you draw, with a plastic compound, a full three dimensional item.

It is worth noting that the level of precision that this pen provides is not that high, so the idea of actually drawing a gear or any other high precision item isn’t here yet. However, this brand new device opens up some really interesting new capabilities and will likely create some new CAD market dynamics. Read full article »

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 »

CAD Trends From the Global Product Data Interoperability Summit

One of the most interesting annual conferences that CAD pros should track is the Global Product Data Interoperability Summit event put on by Northrop/Grumman that is focused on the aerospace and transportation industry, and all the attendant suppliers and partners as well. This event is interesting in that it provides a good sense of what some of the key CAD trends are going to be in coming years in this important sector. Read full article »

Outlook for 3D Printing

The impact of 3D printing on the CAD professional has been incredibly profound. The ability to actually create a physical manifestation of a design at very low cost, relatively quickly, and with strong quality is shortening the design cycle and giving designers a level of feedback that was never before possible. As we look into 2013, there are some very interesting trends starting to emerge. Read full article »

2012 CAD/CAM Performance Market Report

Are your peers approaching CAD/CAM the same way you are? How often are they updating their hardware and software? What are the key trends impacting CAD today?

A few months ago, these were the questions we sought to answer with our CAD/CAM Trends survey. We had over 600 respondents and the results are in!

Download the CAD/CAM Performance Market Report.