7/Jan

By DE Editors

 January 31, 2007Dear DE Reader:Some 10 or so years ago, I went on a pilgrimage to Stratasys in EdenPrairie, MN, to learn first-hand about rapid prototyping machines forthe first time. It was February. Record cold - 5,000 below. But it wasa dry cold. Not bad once you got used to it.It was immediately clear to me, once thawing was complete, that thefunctional modeling part of the rapid prototyping story was puregenius, worth its weight in gold. I mean, print a durable facsimile ofa detailed component and see if you really got your design rightinstead of waiting two weeks for the machine shop to grind it out? Whowouldn’t go for that? Alas, it was also immediately clear that onlyelite companies could afford to get into RP back in then.But, as you know, time and technology waits for no one, and the priceshave come down and the technology has become terrific. And just hoursago, the Dimension Printing Group of Stratasys introduced its new Elite3D Printer, proving my point about time and technology. It isn’t free—but $32,900 for a networkable 3D printer that has an 8 in. X 8 in. X12 in. build envelope was not even conceivable just a few years back,never mind when I was a Tone-sicle in Minnesota.Go to today’s write-up to learn about all I know of the DimensionElite. I have to tell you that details are limited. The Dimension Eliteis so new the company does not have details on their website yet, andits PR agency could not get me a photo for you to look at in time. So,circle back to the links in a day or so. As I get more details, I’llpass them on to you. In the meantime, read what I have and imagineyourself as part of—sorry, I just cannot resist the word play—where the Elite meet.Thanks, Pal. — LockwoodAnthony J. LockwoodEditorial Director, Desktop EngineeringDimension Elite Delivers Strong Models, Fine DetailsNew 3D printer from Dimension 3D Printing Group announced today. January 31, 2007 — The Dimension 3D Printing Group, a business unit ofStratasys, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN), today announced immediateavailability of the Dimension Elite 3D Printer. The Elite becomes thefifth 3D printer within the Dimension line of desktop modeling systems,joining the Dimension 1200 Series (priced from $21,900) and 768 Series(priced from $18,900). According to Dimension, the Elite 3D Printer provides engineers anddesigners with stronger, functional models with fine feature detailsand “improved surface finish.” The Elite features an 8- x 8- x 12-inchbuild envelope. It uses a new, stronger ABS material called ABSplus.ABSplus is said to be on the average 40 percent stronger than standardABS material, making parts printed by the Elite suitable for testingthe form, fit, and function of inherently fragile, fine-featuredmodels. Network-ready, the Dimension is can be leveraged by “engineersand designers creating models that demand finer detail — such as thosedesigning electronic connectors, medical testers, and smallinstruments,” said Jon Cobb, vice president and general manager of 3Dprinting for Stratasys, in a press statement. The Dimension Elite costs $32,900. For more information, click here.

   January 24, 2007 Dear DE Reader:A few weeks back the folks at Maplesoft gave me a sneak preview ofMaple 11, the just-announced version of their widely regarded andwidely deployed mathematics system. Maple has been a leadingcomputational engine for professionals and students of engineering,science, design, math, and financial stuff for years now. One of thereasons for this is that Maplesoft, like its users, never stops pushingthe boundaries of where Maple can go.While I was impressed with a number of the capabilities in Maple 11, Ifound its smart document capability particularly exciting. To make along story short, this capability records your calculations as you makethem so that you or someone else can leverage them later. Theserecordings are fully editable and they are complete documents with richdescriptions, not just a bunch of barely intelligible steps.Maple 11 also has seen improvements in its plotting capabilities andsolvers. It has a new suite of task assistants designed to make yourwork more efficient. And Maple 11 even offers a technology preview of ahandwriting recognition feature that could keep me busy for hours withsome serious goofing off trying to confuse it.Over the years, Maple has earned its reputation as a top-notch,high-level mathematics system. This strength has also been its weaknessbecause potential users might have feared it was too much math forthem. Here again, Maplesoft has pushed the boundaries. Maple 11 has auser interface that seeks to minimize thatlost-in-learning-the-software curve common with so many applications. Ithink I can even use it, and that’s coming from someone who oftenrequires pen and paper to count the change in his pocket.You can download a small PDF of new features in Maple 11 from thewrite-up today. But if your work has anything to do with crunching,plotting, and documenting numbers, you deserve to check out Maple 11for yourself.Thanks, Pal. —  LockwoodAnthony J. LockwoodEditorial Director, Desktop EngineeringMaple 11 UnveiledVersion 11 offers a sneak peak at handwritten math recognition feature.Maplesoft (Waterloo, ONT) has announced Maple 11, the company’sflagship product for complex mathematical problems and technicaldocumentation creation. Maple 11, described as “a major release,“offers enhancements to its smart document interface, computationengine, and connectivity capabilities the sum of which provides you thenecessary technologies to reduce error and increase analyticalproductivity, says Maplesoft. Additionally, Maple 11 offers a new,sneak preview of a handwriting recognition feature lets you try out adeveloping technology for machine understanding of handwrittenmathematics. Maple 11 combines the company’s highly regarded mathematicalcomputation engine with a user-interface that, says Maplesoft,minimizes the learning curve common with other similar software becauseit is so intuitive. Buttressing this assertion, the company cites thesoftware’s smart document environment, which provides self-documentingcontext menus that automatically create a reusable record of yourcalculations as you execute them. This record provides a description ofthe steps that includes information about variables used in operations,not just the operation itself, and the text is modifiable and cancontain 2D math. Maple 11’s enhanced plotting capabilities include the ability to usenatural math notation in titles, legends, labels, and tick marks;support for international characters; and plot annotation capabilitiessuch as sketching, adding text and math, and drawing lines, shapes andarrows using new drawing canvas tools. New point-and-click task assistants include Backsolver, SpecialFunctions, and Scientific Constants. The Back-Solving assistantautomatically generates a back-solver for your equation, allowing youto solve for any variable in your formula instantly, given the valuesof the other parameters. The Special Functions assistant providesaccess to the properties of more than 200 special functions, includingthe Bessel, Hypergeometric, Mathieu, Heun, and Legendre families offunctions. The Scientific Constants assistant offers a database ofscientific constants, including more than 20,000 values of physicalconstants and properties of chemical elements. Other features of Maple 11 include the ability to turn documents intoan instant slide show; annotation capabilities; inter-document equationreferences that allow you to work on calculations with equations fromother documents; and. Maple 11 offers improvements to its differential equation anddifferential algebraic equation solvers, including new methods andenhanced support for large systems. Miscellaneous features in newspecialty packages for graph theory, physics, and differentialgeometry; better MATLAB connectivity; numeric integration andsummation; vector calculus; and the ability to turn documents into aninstant slide-show; annotation capabilities. Maple 11 also seesmulti-core processor support. To download a small PDF of the new features in Maple 11, click here. Maple 11 ships in March. Professional licenses are for $1895 (US),which includes the Maple Toolbox for MATLAB, MapleNet, and a one-yearsubscription to the Maplesoft Elite Maintenance Program. Purchases orupgrades between now and March will receive Maple 10, which will beupgraded to Maple 11 in March automatically. Academic, upgrade, andvolume discounts are available. For more information, click here.

  January 17, 2007 Dear DE Reader:In December, when the holly-daze were wild, CoCreate announced the 2007version of its CoCreate OneSpace Suite, its full PLM environment that —get this — does not require you to marry their consultants. Still, themany out-of-the-box attributes of the OneSpace Suite are not why Ibelieve that now is the time for you to check out CoCreate OneSpace,though they are certainly enough. No, you need to learn about CoCreatebecause, for the next few weeks, you can download a free thing calledCoCreate OneSpace Modeling Personal Edition.CoCreate OneSpace Modeling PE has everything that the enterpriseversion of OneSpace Modeling offers, except that it is limited to60-part assemblies. And after you play with it for a while, you willunderstand that the CoCreate approach to 3D product development couldhold unlimited potential for your outfit, especially if yourdevelopment cycle is full of rapid-fire changes and new requirements.CoCreate calls its approach to 3D product design Dynamic Modeling,andDynamic Modeling is at the heart of its PLM environment. Withoutgetting too deep here, Dynamic Modeling deep-sixes the history-based,constraints-constrained style of many modelers. This operatingphilosophy enables you to change parts — upstream, downstream, whatever— wherever and whenever you need without requiring you to retrace yourprevious work. This means you can keep on designing, iterating, andoptimizing your model — continuously — ultimately beating yourdeadlines.You can sign up for the free download of CoCreate OneSpace Modeling PEdirectly from a link in the write-up. In the write-up, you’ll also findsome more on CoCreate OneSpace Suite as well as links to acollaborative design review and other online demos.DE is working on a review of CoCreate for you. For now, do your ownreview with the free download of CoCreate OneSpace Modeling PE. It isdefinitely worth your time.Thanks, Pal. —  LockwoodAnthony J. LockwoodEditorial Director, Desktop Engineering Personal Edition of OneSpace

CoCreate Software, Inc. (Fort Collins, CO and Sindelfingen, Germany)has introduced CoCreate OneSpace Modeling Personal Edition, a freeversion of its dynamic modeling based 3D MCAD software, CoCreateOneSpace. OneSpace Modeling PE, which is available as a free downloaduntil the end of March, is said to offer all the power of CoCreate’senterprise OneSpace Modeling 3D MCAD system only limited for assembliesof up to 60 parts. This limited-time offer follows the company’s recent announcement ofthe impending 2007 release of its full product development platformCoCreate OneSpace Suite.

> > CoCreate OneSpace Modeling has a new rendering module that can produce photorealistic imagery. Click image to enlarge.

At the heart of OneSpace Modeling PE, and indeed its enterprisesibling, is the concept of dynamic modeling. Dynamic modeling is anapproach to 3D product development that differs from traditionalhistory-based design methodologies in two key ways. First, although youcreate you geometry and wield commands as you would in most MCADapplications, your modeling steps are not stored in a history tree.Second, you are not required to apply constraints on profiles or theresulting 3D models. What this all means to you is that your downstreamchanges are independent of the steps you used to get there.Consequently, rather than spending time interacting with a historytree, you can change any part of the geometry dynamically withoutregenerating your design constantly. The net effect of all of this,says CoCreate is a responsive, flexible, and faster design process.The 2007 CoCreate OneSpace Suite is a complete PLM (product lifecyclemanagement) comprising modules for 2D drafting, 3D modeling,collaboration, and document management. As a PLM platform, CoCreatedoes not impose a monolithic system on your organization. Rather, it isdesigned to leverage your existing IT investments as it creates aninterconnected, collaborative enterprise. All areas of the CoCreate OneSpace Suite 2007 have been enhanced. Forexample, OneSpace Modeling now offers the ability to modify, stretch,and position parts and assemblies simultaneously as well as the abilityto create a cross-section of a design and then create and modify 3Dwithin your sliced views. A new Cabling module for mechatronics designhas been added, as well as integrated rendering environment forreal-time texture map rendering and photorealistic imagery.  

< < CoCreate OneSpace Modeling enables you to: modify, stretch,and position parts and assemblies simultaneously. Click image toenlarge.

Other enhancements include a part comparison feature; more options toanalyze sheet metal and thin-walled, constant thickness components; andexpanded FE analysis capabilities. Clash Analysis reports, Adobe PDFpublishing, and expanded out-of-the-box integrations with enterprisesystems. For more details on CoCreate OneSpace Suite 2007, you can register for an on-demand  webcast by clicking here. The free download of OneSpace Modeling PE is available until March 31, 2007. To register for your free download, click here. To learn more about how the dynamic modeling based approach to 3D product development, click hereto register for an on-demand webcast. To watch a collaborative OneSpaceLive! design review or other demonstrations without needing toregister, click here.

  January 10, 2007Dear DE Reader:TriStar has earned a terrific reputation for itself as an engineeringworkstation builder and as a Pro/Engineer provider. In fact, TriStarhappens to be the leading Pro/Engineer provider in North America. Whatmany folks do not know about TriStar is that it is also a leader inconsulting, training, and software development.One of the reasons for the depth of this success is that TriStar knowsin its bones that engineering companies cannot gamble with theirfutures by deploying OK software and almost-integrated programs andprocesses. Another reason is that TriStar knows that, ultimately, thebest training, consultation, and software will not do you any good ifyou cannot control the reins yourself. And that is why I recommend thatyou check out Startup TOOLS from TriStar. Startup TOOLS can help youget from OK to great.Startup TOOLS is a suite of productivity enhancement tools forbuilding, automating, and customizing your Pro/Engineer productdevelopment environment for maximum efficiency. Simple to administer,Startup TOOLS focuses on organizational productivity and individualuser productivity. It provides coherent standards and processes, and itautomates common tasks to just a few clicks.Startup TOOLS lets you make sense out the mish-mash of standards andprocesses sprawled across your Pro/E development divisions and workteams, while enabling those groups to maintain their unique workprocesses. In the end, your productivity, quality, and profitabilitywill rise, as your costs decrease.Check out the write-up below for a more complete skinny on Startup TOOLS andclick on the free online video from the write-up. The video does nottake long, but it will show you how Startup TOOLS can help take youfrom OK to great.Thanks, Pal.— LockwoodAnthony J. LockwoodEditorial Director, Desktop Engineering Go from OK to Great Startup TOOLS maximizes the efficiency your Pro/E development environment.Startup TOOLS from TriStar (Phoenix, AZ) empowers you to build anefficient PTC Pro/Engineer-based product development environment that cango a long way toward taking your company to world-class productivity.An application suite, Startup TOOLS helps you achieve this by focusingon organizational productivity as well as individual user productivity.Startup TOOLS gives you the ability to deploy a product developmentenvironment across multiple geographic locations and languages, or on aproject-by-project basis. With it, you can enforce standards androll out new software with as few clicks as practicable. Startup TOOLSoperates transparently, so you can push a tuned product designenvironment or environments out to client computers.

> > An example of a graphics library in Startup TOOLS. Click image to enlarge.

Startup TOOLS offers tools for a centralized management of your workingenvironments, including system management, yet it is flexible enough toprovide for specific customizations, including multilingual support,for global branches and departments. It fosters a structure that enablesworking guidelines that minimize setup time and standardize drawingsettings, modeling formats, BOMs, and reports. You can even synchronizeobjects or set guidelines for start objects, naming conventions,filing, plot, parameters, templates, and company-specific concepts.The Startup TOOLS integrated Toolbox, for example, offers a set ofcustomizable auxiliary applications based on PTC’s WEBLink technology.Among the applications are a Model Configurator, a Multi DimensionEditor, and parameter manager. What this means is that you cancustomize graphical user interfaces, or you can modify the dimensionsand dimension symbols of a feature, part, assembly, or subpart of anassembly with a single keystroke. You can also standardize suchparameters as description, drawing number or designer of your parts,assemblies, and drawings. The Toolbox even provides a graphical libraryviewer.

< < A Model Configurator screen in Startup TOOLS. Click image to enlarge.

Click here to download the Startup TOOLS PDF-formatted product brochure. Clickhere to see an online video demonstration of Startup TOOLS. Click here togo to the Startup TOOLS page on the TriStar website. In addition to Startup TOOLS, TriStar offers a range of engineering workstations tuned for Pro/Engineer andother major MCAD and analysis solutions and a variety of best-in-class software. A PTC Certified TrainingPartner, TriStar also provides custom, in-house, and onsite training aswell as consulting services. For further details, click here.

 January 3, 2007Dear DE Reader:A great and patient guy I know — Cyrus Mavalwala — set me up with ameeting with some guys from Avatech Solutions during the recentlyconvened Autodesk University. If you are not familiar with Avatech, youshould be. This nationwide automation and technology services companyhelps you design, develop, and manage projects, products, andfacilities more effectively. Now, lots of outfits consult, implement,integrate, train, and provide support, so, why Avatech? Because AvatechSolutions works with you, not on you. Avatech will not sell youprocesses that do not fit your work culture or solutions that are notbulletproof. This is why I start the New Year telling you about thelaunch of the Avatech Product Browser.Avatech Product Browser works with Autodesk Productstream. It gives allthose other, er, people in your organization easy, full, and searchableaccess to product designs and maintenance drawings. And they cannotmess with the data even though they can really get at it. For example,customer service or maintenance can drill down in an assembly to find apart without bugging you about it or “fixing it.“When you get down to it, manufacturing is all about time: Tighterschedules, quicker response, less downtime, and move it, move it, moveit. Avatech Solutions is all about making technology more responsive tothe rapidly changing needs of manufacturing. Avatech Product Browsermeans those departments downstream from engineering can respond fasterto their unique issues without derailing engineering.So, if you have Productstream, check out Avatech Product Browser fromthe links. Even if you do not have Productstream, you should learn moreabout Avatech Solutions anyway. Click the link. Avatech Solutions talkmanufacturing and they know how to solve your pain points. They are thegood guys.Thanks, Pal. —  LockwoodAnthony J. LockwoodEditorial Director, Desktop Engineering Open Drawings, Parts Data to Entire OrganizationAvatech Product Browser gets others the knowledge they need without interfering with engineering.