Centaur Hunting in the Cloud

Today, I went Centaur hunting in the cloud, courtesy of Autodesk.

Project Centaur, currently in closed beta, is Autodesk's latest technology preview, a web-hosted design optimization function for Autodesk Inventor users. Essentially, it's a plug-in that lets you define materials, apply constraints and loads, then pick certain parameters (say, the length and radius of a piston rod) to optimize them. the one clear advantage Centaur has is it's hybrid setup (half desktop, half remote network).

Once you begin your optimization session, Autodesk Inventor uploads your design file and the required inputs into the cloud, or a remote server. In my exercise, the software would need to generate and test out about 84 different iterations before it can decide which one is the best configuration (one that meets my factor of safety, yet uses the least about of materials).

Because the number crunching took place in the cloud, my local machine's CPU remained free to process other tasks. In my test, I was able to run a linear stress test on a small part while I waited for Centaur to finish its design optimization.

I have but one minor quibble with Centaur. In displaying the variable parameters that I could experiment with, it shows the selections as a series of dimensions, all stemming from the center of the part. This made it difficult for me to know which parameter I was picking. But this is merely an interface issue, not a fundamental flaw, so I'm convinced Autodesk would promptly address it in the next release.

For more, read my previous post "Centaur Sighting Reported Among Autodesk Beta Testers" or read "Autodesk Takes Simulation to the Cloud with Project Centaur" by Deelip.

For a demonstration of the plug-in, watch the video report below: