Category Archives: New Technologies

The Cloud Lives!

November 18, 2011 By in CAD, Manufacturing industry, New Technologies Tags: , , , , , 3 Comments

18 Nov 2011: Ralph Grabowski proposed his opinion that the cloud is dead. He couldn’t be more wrong. Consider users at the Siemens NX CAE Symposium that ended last week. Virtually all of the eight users at a panel noted that cloud computing would definitely be part of their plans. Assuming that some minor issues such as security, cost, and application software licensing could be solved, all seem to have or want it in their future plans.

Several customers represented companies that already have with HPC clusters. While this ideal “local cloud” met their expectations, the cost of such a cluster is very high and not a solution for smaller companies.

I agree that the use of cloud computing for interactive applications is a bad idea. However, the vast computing power, parallel processing, and expected low costs make it a very appealing idea for tasks that require modest bandwidth and have high computational needs. Autodesk’s CEO, Carl Bass, clearly has the right idea. Autodesk, over the past two years has introduced several applications that span the range of interactive hardware and relying on the cloud to ramp up compute speeds. At AU last year I had the chance to listen to Bass and speak with him about his ideas for best utilizing the cloud. As I wrote in that article, Autodesk’s concept is to “Don’t replicate desktop solutions on the cloud. Instead make maximum use of desktop and mobile systems, utilizing the cloud where it makes sense.” Still makes sense today. Here is a link to that article http://wp.me/pvn8U-3e.

Oddly enough, with the possible exception of DS, Autodesk’s competitors don’t seem to get the concept. For example, while I interpreted from Siemens customers that they were excited about potential use of the cloud, Siemens PLM Software, except for licensing issues, seems to have no plans to enable them. The same goes for PTC.

Let me know what you think.
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World Technology Summit Highlights

November 1, 2011 By in New Technologies Tags: , , Leave a comment

1 Nov 2011: Last week I attended the World Technology Summit and Awards conference in New York (#WTN20110), sponsored by World Technology Network (wtn.net). Since last Saturday, I have been suffering through a power outage for both my home and office, now going into the fourth day. Thus, the delay in reporting. Even now, I am using my iPad with no wireless signal. Not only that, but is is the second time in less than six months I am without power for more than 2 days. Ahh, the beauties of high technology at exactly the same time as not being able to power any of my fancy electronics at all. Maybe its time to bury all the power lines underground in our area so we are no longer suspect to such weather vagaries. I wonder who determines the order of power line restoral — it seems so arbitrary, and one that the power companies are loath to describe.

Anyway, back to new technology. Of this two day conference I was only able to attend the first day. Here are some the highlights of that day.

James Gleick, author of the book “Chaos: Making a New Science,” discussed his latest work about the flood of information happening today (around.com). Gleick noted that information has never been so accessible, but we don’t feel any wiser! We need to devise strategies to gather the meaning of this massive information flow.

Albert Teich, Director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, spoke on the current Washington scene and its effect on Science policy. The first thing that struck me was when he said that in over 30 years in Washington he had never see such acrimony as there is today. He attributed a large part of the perceived stalemate of our legislature to two primary causes. In the last election there was a huge swing in the House, with Republicans gaining 62 net seats, and the loos of an absolute majority of the Democrats in the Senate. Many of the new Congressmen are Tea Party reps and their unwillingness to compromise seems to have highjacked the Republican Party, causing effective gridlock. Meanwhile in the Senate, the Democrats have a 51-47 majority with 2 independents. The Senate rules defy logic because 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture on a filibuster. With the current focus on reducing the deficit, Teich believes that the deficit reduction Super-committee, because of its even split among the two parties, will not be able to submit a workable plan. He is positive on continuing Congressional support for R&D, but less so on climate change and energy research. [Ed: Where did the debate on global warming go?]

Next Island (nextisland.com): I have to admit I don’t get gaming sites and that’s what this is — a massive multi-player online game. But one with aspirations of getting users to spend real dollars. You check it out and let me know what you gamers think.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have perfect fitting ear buds at a modest price. Sculpted Eers can do just that (and eers is not misspelled). Not only that but its available today. A specialized fitting headset with a rubberized membrane sits inside the ear. Pushing a button on the headset squirts liquid silicon into the membrane which expands into a tight fit along with the earphone electronics for a completely custom earpiece. Estimated street price is $200 versus a custom filling by a professional at a cost estimated at $400. Sculpted Eers (www.sculptedeers.com)

Motivating more people to recycle. RecycleBank (recyclebank.com) rewards people for taking everyday green actions. Its main concept is to actually measure recycled materials and base the rewards on the amounts collected. Ian Yolles, the CSO of the company spoke about the need to solve this 21st century problem; a problem that needs intervention. Not sure what the business model is here, but I am individually highly motivated already without any compensation. Maybe a large majority is not?

Dr. Steven Howe, Director, Center for Space Nuclear Research, of the Idaho National Lab (www.inl.gov), spoke about his organizations focus on revolutionizing planetary exploration. Today it is expensive, provides limited science results, con only explore very limited areas, and requires safe landing sites. A proposed Mars hopper powered by U238, can change sites every 7 days by powered “hopping” to the next site, will accrue samples, and possibly return with up to 1 Kg of samples. The basis for their involvement is the development of a Nuclear Thermal Rocket. [Ed: High energy per unit of mass, but ongoing concern about launching nuclear material into Earth orbit.]

Want to get a really good handle on what might happen 10 years from now? Art Kleiner, Scenario Planner and Strategist and the editor-in-chief of strategy+business, took the audience through a series of exercises that examined possible scenarios for the year 2021. His approach used postulations about what might occur by then. What made the discussion really lively was not only postulating the question, but also writing down what would need to happen between now and 2012 to make that scenario take place. His independence and approach seemed to make this a terrific long term planning tool.

How about a battery that is 10X the life and 1/10th the sixe of the most effiicent batteries of today? Universal Nanotech (uNanotech.com): Michael Haag, CTO discussed his exploratory work with a new technology called a QED – Quantum Energy Device. As yet unproven, his company has managed to create a new type of battery that outlasts and outpowers existing alternative batteries. Not only that but is is almost 10X smaller and can be built using flexible plastics as a substrate. Imagine wearing a sleeve that powers your iPhone for days! One would think that battery manufacturers would beat a path to his door. What about Apple?

Tired of WiFi, how about LiFi, a network powered by LED lighting? It turns out that LED lights have the unique ability to turn on and off very fast. Special circuits could be added to LED lights that would enable them to transmit at very high bandwidth, at high levels of efficiency, and also be very secure (needing no radio frequencies). Presented by Prof. Harald Haas, Univ. of Edinburgh. It was unclear to me as to the exact nature of this research and the state of its commercialization.

Thinking about how to understand the future of new technologies? It turns out that Michell Zappa, Designer and Technologist has developed a visual analysis using his technology map of innovations. See more at envisioningtech.com and twitter:@mz

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Kindle Fire – not an iPad competitor

October 3, 2011 By in New Technologies, Personal interests Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Amazon’s announcement of the Kindle Fire underwhelmed me and apparently many others. Bill Shope of Goldman Sachs wrote “We continue to believe that Apple’s thriving app ecosystem provides it with a critical source of competitive advantage in tablets, and the Kindle Fire does not seem to be targeting this strength. Indeed, Amazon’s tablet business model would suggest that a lower-end market is forming for users that need a dedicated media consumption platform, with limited compute capabilities. As such, this seems to be more of a high-powered e-reader approach rather than a tablet that is capable of replacing a PC or an iPad.”

While the price is super aggressive, the capabilities seem to match the price – low. Its small screen and limited web browsing, as well as an unknown ability for app expansion, match well with the existing Kindles. I like its network connectivity and the color screen. My Kindles generally have a battery life measured in many weeks. Color backlit screens have severely limited battery life.

I am a bit surprised at this offering. I expected Amazon , which certainly has the marketing muscle, the content, and evident hardware build capability, to mount a better charge at the iPad. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPad. Just looking for reasonable competition.
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How Local Motors won the DARPA contest

September 6, 2011 By in 3D Design, CAD, Manufacturing industry, New Technologies Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I published an article entitled “DS clarifies DARPA crowdsource win.” A few things, in my mind needed clarification. Dassault Systemes PR rep, Jessica Harrison from fama PR, arranged for me to speak with Alex Fiechter, Local Motors Engineer. I was curious, among other things, about how crowd-sourcing was used for the design and whether it was useful. I also wondered how they handled input from 12,000 community users and what was the process they used. Finally I wanted to find our more about Local Motors.

Here is how the process worked. Local Motors (LM) massaged the DARPA specs for the contest into a “brief,” a mission statement of what they desired, and posted it onto their website, asking their community members if they were interested in responding. Most of the community members are interested in industrial design and some helped LM design their Rally Fighter. Along the way, LM developed their concept for Local Forge, an open source web-based co-creation platform. Apparently, car lovers worldwide love to design shapes for cars of their dreams. Local Forge is a way for them to share their designs via images, with all other community members.

A key aspect of the mission statement was to use the existing Rally Fighter chassis as a base upon which to build the body. With the mission statement , eventually 150 to 180 proposal were submitted, from which the final design was chosen. The proposals could be in any electronic form, such as images or even CAD files. They had to show the 3 required views at a minimum. The community then voted on the submissions. Only the winning submitter gets paid. LM used SolidWorks for the mechanical design and Catia for the body design.

What next? Will it be produced? DARPA owns the design now that the contract is complete. A research arm of the DoD, the DoD may or may not choose to produce the design.

Has Local Motors discovered a new way of doing business that involves minimal plant investment, a way to solicit valuable (and mostly free) input from leading designers, and deliver an exciting new product? You be the judge. Visit some of the links from my previous article quoted above and provide some feedback via comments on this blog.

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DS clarifies DARPA crowdsource win

August 11, 2011 By in 3D Design, CAD, New Technologies, PLM Industry Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

A few days ago Dassault Systemes (DS) released a press release announcing that the first online, co-created military vehicle was delivered through the collaboration of Local Motors, DS, and 12,000 community members.

I was really interested in this announcement because of the concept of crowdsourcing, I had never heard of Local Motors, and what in the heck was a co-created military vehicle? After delving into more details about Local Motors, and trying to find out if this military vehicle could withstand IED’s (improvised explosive devices, as often used in Iraq and Afghanistan) I was a bit confused. The DS PR people were kind enough to put me in touch with Al Bunshaft, Managing Director of DS North America.

Al and I spoke recently, and you might be interested in what I found out.

First of all, this is a DARPA initiative (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). By the way, DARPA is the agency that provided the early funding for what later became the Internet. So, when I hear that DARPA is involved my ears always perk up. This project appears to be one of a series of projects DARPA is initiating to see if there are better ways to provide defense sourcing differently than in the past; namely, cheaper, more rapid development, faster deliveries, and the delivery of specialized vehicles without a massive dollar commitment.

Here is what DARPA had to say about the requirements for this vehicle. “It is important to note that even though this is a militarily relevant vehicle, this is not an offensive fighting vehicle. The goal of this vehicle will be to transport items and/or people around quickly and efficiently in a potentially hostile but mobile environment.” I found it interesting that the design requires no body armor to protect against IED’s. Apparently the military feels that a fast off-road vehicle for emergency transportation can be effective, especially if it can avoid heavily traveled roads. This winning design appears to do just that.

DS was heavily involved with Local Motors, supplying much of the core CAD, CAE, and PLM technology, namely Catia, Simulia, Enovia, and visualization tools. The winning design was based on Local Motors’ Rally Fighter chassis, a street legal rally vehicle. Contributors were invited to submit their design concepts using any design tool, even paper based drawings and ideas. Both Local Motors and DS personnel were heavily involved in converting and assembling the submitted designs into a workable CAD model. To vote on the final designs a panel of military and commercial experts was assembled.

Then Local Motors sourced the components and assembled it at their micro factory in Arizona. Here is what it look like.

XC2V winning entry

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Click here for the DS press release.

Related websites for more information:

About the DARPA design challenge:

http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/News/DARPA_issues_Experimental_Crowd-derived_Combat-support_Vehicle_(XC2V)_Design_Challenge.aspx

About Local Motors and their participation:

http://www.local-motors.com/XC2V Click on the description for an excellent description of the vehicle mission.

Check out the video on this page of the XC2V being assembled:

http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/2011/06/24_DARPA%E2%80%99s_Defense_Manufacturing_Efforts_Support_White_House_Vision.aspx

PlanetPTC 2011: Its all about Creo and MKS

June 17, 2011 By in 3D Design, CAD, New Technologies, PLM Industry Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Earlier this week I attended PlanetPTC. I attended some of the keynote speeches in the main event and PTC held special events for the media and press. We had the opportunity to rub elbows and hold private meetings with some of the executives from PTC. I found them to be open and earnest in their plans for the future.

It all starts with Jim Heppelmann, CEO and President. Jim described a strategy meeting he held with his executives to plot the resurgence of the CAD offering. He honestly said, several times, that development lagged for the product during the last decade and they found themselves adding more and more complex features to the already existing, difficult to use Pro/ENGINEER. [A situation many of their competitors are in also] The architecture was antiquated and all agreed a new approach was needed — one that might serve PTC well for the next decade or two. Thus was born Creo!

One might ask the question, as one did at a media Q&A event with PTC executives: “Why rebrand the product line? Why not use the famous Pro/E brand and go on from there?” Replied Rob Gremley, EVP of Marketing, “because it is not Pro/E, because customers said that it was far different, and to call it Pro/E would be a mistake. Thus, we needed a new brand, even though it might confuse people at first.” My reaction, they are right, even though I sometimes struggle to properly name the new software products. For example, changing the name of CoCreate to Creo Elements Direct is enough to confuse anyone.

The rebranding and new product rollout was not without risk. In fact it was very risky for PTC. Oftentimes companies are reluctant to change their cash cows. This is clearly spelled out in the book “The Innovators Dilemma.” Such a strategy often leads to a company’s demise, with their refusal to take risks. Heppelmann should be applauded for taking this very large step. Further, Heppelmann was emphatic that existing customers would not be hurt; they would not have to buy new software to support their installations; any upgrades would be painless. Apparently, the customers bought into this and the promises for Creo futures. In the last few quarters, PTC experienced its highest revenue growth (12%) in more than 10 years, with Creo Elements Pro up 40% in license revenue. CoCreate and View also saw substantial revenue gains.

As an aside, the sessions, both main and media sessions, focused on Creo and the MKS acquisition, with little attention being paid to Windchill – the best kind of focus for a modeling dude like me.

While PTC spent a great deal of time on Creo, there was very little depth — at most a few 5 minute AVI’s. So I am using these short videos and some conversations to form my opinion. PTC promised me a more in-depth look later at the products, and of course most of the new apps are shipping now. The primary apps, Creo Elements Pro and Creo Elements Direct, aside from UI improvements are pretty much the same as they were with Pro/E and CoCreate, the exception being the new apps that extend Elements Pro. These new apps show the promise of where Creo is heading. And it’s exciting.

Architecture

Here are 2 slides from Mike Campbell’s (DVP, Creo Product Development) presentation:

  • Evolve existing, monolithic products into
    • –A scalable suite, of
    • –right-sized, interoperable, integrated design apps,
    • –spanning the entire spectrum of product envelopment
  • Built upon a common data model, managed by a common PLM backbone, and delivered with a common user experience
  • Protect existing customer investments
    • –Commercial software licenses, and packages
    • –Existing Product Development (CAD) data
    • –Capabilities, best practices, working methods
  • Extended by a broad range of complimentary 3rd party apps
    • –Strategically selected partners,
    • –Reflected in our Product Strategy

Here is a summary of the Creo Products delivered in Creo 1.

1. Creo Parametric, the successor to Pro/E. A full-featured parametric modeling application.


2. Creo Direct, a new application.  Delivering a direct modeling experience. This app provides an intuitive way to easily modify parametric models.


3. Creo Sketch, a new app for sketching. This allows artists in the organization to capture their early thoughts about the way product should look, oriented towards industrial design of products.

Creo Sketch enables simple “freehand” drawing of ideas and design concepts in 2D

4. Creo Illustrate. a new app for use by the service organization to capture the service procedures such as assembly and disassembly in an intuitive way using Creo 3-D models.

With Creo Illustrate, users can easily create 3D technical illustrations by importing design data from all of the major CAD systems

5. Creo schematics, an app for schematics capture.

Creo Schematics users can create 2D routed systems diagrams for piping and cabling designs

6. Creo Simulate. An app for the analyst. Allows the professional analyst to analyze structural and thermal characteristics of models, created within Creo or external models.

7. Creo View MCAD

8. Creo View ECAD. Continuing the theme of openness are two more applications–Creo view MCAD and Creo view ECAD. These apps are used for viewing, markup and measuring data from either Creo or other CAD applications.

Visualization of both the 3D model and the ECAD PCB Layout inside of Creo View

9. Creo Layout, an application designed for the early conceptualization of the product.

What about deliveries? Creo 1 is shipping now. An update will add some apps later this year. Creo 2 will ship in March 2012, Creo 3 in March 2013.

Other thoughts

So, overall, what do I think about Creo? It’s innovative, I like how Creo Direct works to add features that change the model directly; the UI looks much easier and mimics that of Microsoft Office apps.

Some additional thoughts:

  • While PTC is working hard on importing any CAD system’s data into Creo, interoperability is a one-way street. Data is brought into Creo, but plans are murky to allow exporting data.
  • A user from Systems Spa, described how they planned to switch from parametric modeling to direct modeling now that they had a real choice and still stay within the same software architecture. After testing they concluded that direct modeling offered a greater that 30% productivity gain. I found this very interesting and wonder how many other users bought into parametric modeling because it was essentially, the only game in town. Now that’s changed.
  • Eventually Creo Elements Direct will merge completely into Creo Direct. On the subject of Creo direct, I cornered Mike Campbell in a hall and asked how Creo Flexible Modeling, a Creo Parametric extension can add direct modeling to a parametric model. For instance, what if a parametric feature disappeared after direct changes? His concise answer was that they never change the parametric model; direct modeling just adds features that change the model. Huh? Removing a pocket fills in the pocket with a new feature. Changing a face angle adds a feature that does that. He indicated there were special commands added that perform functions like this.
  • Future plans call for Creo 1.1 due Nov 2011, Creo 2.0 due March 2012, and Creo 3.0 due Mar 2013.
  • Creo Freestyle, discussed only briefly, and included with Creo Parametric and Creo Direct, allows morphing the surfaces of a solid into quite a complex shape. Instead of operating on curves, as does Alias Design, Freestyle operates directly on the solid model. Very impressive, but I am have little information about what it can really do.
  • Relex will be rebranded into Windchill Quality Solutions
  • PTC briefly discussed the ability to perform selective data reading from other CAD systems, With the advancements in AnyData it appears to be capable of isolating specialized modeling functions (such as body-in-white?) from other CAD systems. Could this be an opening for PTC to capture large OEM’s?
  • MKS’ Integrity software, now specialized for software, especially embedded software, offers leading edge capabilities for testing and the application of requirements, thus opening the door to advanced systems engineering. Stay tuned here. The PTC executives were very excited about the possibilities.

Pricing and packaging

Getting this information from PTC was like pulling teeth. It hurt, but they eventually relented. The packaging is divided into Creo Applications (such as Creo Direct and Creo Simulate), Creo Extensions (to an App, such as Creo Advanced Simulation Extension), and packages which combine Apps and Extensions (such as Creo Engineer). Shown below are some examples. There are many more.

Creo Parametric is similar to Pro/E, where Pro/E Foundation starts at $4995, US pricing for quantity of one. Creo Direct is $3500. Creo Simulate is $7995 without the non-linear extension. Other prices are available for PTC. Prices may be different outside the US. Creo Parametric with Flexible Modeling, really desirable offering is $5995.

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Fascinating: sneakers, welding, brittle analysis

April 15, 2011 By in Manufacturing industry, New Technologies Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Just browsing new product announcements today, and I discovered three that fascinated me. I think you will find them interesting also. They involve sneakers that feel and act like running in bare feet, a new method that GE is using to weld even thick metals in one pass, and the publication by an Alabama professor of a new math model for analyzing brittle Materials under High Speed Impact (especially useful for aircraft windows). Here are the links:

Reebok bare feeling sneakers: http://bit.ly/fANF0N

Sensor sneakers feel like bare feet

Brittle analysis: http://bit.ly/fAIoYK

GE welding: http://bit.ly/h1xghD

GEs Hybrid Laser Arc Welding (HLAW) System

GE’s HLAW system welding a steel pipe. At 20 kW, GE’s system is one of the largest HLAW facilities in North America. It wields enough power to weld steels nearly one-inch thick in a single pass versus the up to a half dozen passes required with current welding technologies.

I found the GE welding video at the link above to be particularly interesting.

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