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Hornby Hobbies’ design strategy for peaceful stay-at-home pleasures MIRACLE PROSTHETICS ASTON MARTIN VANQUISH 25 BRIGHTER SMILES p01_D3D_DEC21JAN22_COVER-JLTfinal.indd 1

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WELCOME EDITORIAL Editor Stephen Holmes stephen@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3384 5297 Managing Editor Greg Corke greg@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3355 7312 Consulting Editor Jessica Twentyman jtwentyman@gmail.com +44 (0)20 7913 0919 Consulting Editor Martyn Day martyn@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)7525 701 542

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riting as the UK continues to be battered by storms, great comfort can be found in drawing the curtains, turning-up the heating, and occupying oneself with a pastime. It was the same throughout lockdown; many of us to an old or neglected hobby, a skillset once put down or an idea that had previously been shelved. For this issue of DEVELOP3D, we spoke with Hornby Hobbies, purveyor of fine hobbyist fayre – Airfix kits, model railways and Scalextric cars to name but three. For many people around the world, these have provided a degree of comfort and contentment during difficult times throughout the pandemic. The process of scaling real vehicles down to miniature representations, all while maintaining a high level of intricate detail, is a process that requires a huge amount of work and a sharp eye. For vehicles at a different scale, this issue we have two features that look at different perspectives on car interior displays. One looks at how the almost analogue dashboard of a reissued Aston Martin was fitted out to include a clasp with which to hold a pocket watch. Meanwhile, another looks at the development of the fully digital display that encompasses Cadillac’s latest electric vehicle. Elsewhere, we have a round-up of the latest head-mounted displays for virtual and mixed reality. It’s a snapshot to keep you up-to-date on the progress this sector has made over the past year, and what this hardware is now capable of delivering. Interest in what XR technology can offer has grown sharply over lockdown, too, and with remote working a more accepted working practice, it has found a niche in which to grow and develop. We know many of you used your time stuck at home earlier this year to work on your own projects, filling out furlough by updating old product ideas or designing new creations. Some of you even setting up businesses to take ideas and concepts these further. We can only congratulate you on what you’ve achieved in 2021 and we look forward to hearing more from you in the year ahead. Merry Christmas!

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SOME Engineering PROJECTS WON’T MOVE AHEAD WITHOUT YOU The AMD Radeon™ PRO W6800 GPU offers superior Hardware Raytracing performance of previous AMD professional graphics and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 in Dassault Systèmes’ SOLIDWORKS® Visualize 2021. (It even has twice the dedicated RAM of the RTX 5000.) Allowing you to focus on those projects that require even more from you. For everything else let AMD Radeon PRO graphics help.

amd.com/RadeonPRO

© 2021 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. SOLIDWORKS are commercial trademarks or registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes, a French “société européenne” (Versailles Commercial Register # B 322 306 440), or its subsidiaries in the United States and/ or other countries. Source of Nvidia specifications is nvidia.com as of 01 June 2021. Testing as of March 23, 2021 by AMD Performance Labs on a test system comprised of an AMD Ryzen™ 9 5950X with AMD Radeon™ PRO W5700 / AMD Radeon™ PRO WX 9100 / AMD Radeon™ PRO W6600 (pre-production sample) / AMD Radeon™ PRO W6800 (pre-production sample) / Nvidia® RTX 5000. Benchmark Application: Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS® Visualize 2021 SP3 (time to complete, seconds) measuring rendering test time of the Camaro default angle (ProRender low sample) test. Performance may vary based on factors such as driver version and hardware configuraton. RPW-383

R E A D Y C R E ATO R

CONTENTS DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022 ISSUE NO. 131

NEWS HP announces new remote graphics subscription options, 3Dconnexion numpad offers more freedom to move and Shapr3D for Microsoft is launched

15 16 20 22 30 32 34 37 41 44 54

FEATURES Comment: Blake Teipel on AM for production parts Comment: SJ on the problems of data hoarding Visual Design Guide: Litelok Core COVER STORY Hornby’s model design strategy Bright smiles: Lumoral gets consumers to bite Designing the Aston Martin Callum Vanquish 25 Intuitive driving for the Cadillac Lyriq Acua Ocean: RAPID Challenge winner 2021 Bristol University’s Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab DEVELOP3D’s guide to the best XR headsets for design Inevidesk brings new VDI options to market

REVIEWS 56 Cadasio 58 THE LAST WORD The UK Government seems keen that the design of nextgeneration street furniture should be iconic, but how will that work in today’s global market, asks Stephen Holmes? 59 DEVELOP3D SERVICES

2022

6 April 2022 The wood used to produce this magazine comes from Forest Stewardship Council certified well-managed forests, controlled sources and/or recycled material

University of Sheffield, UK

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NEWS NEWS

HP ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF NEW REMOTE GRAPHICS SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS » New single license gives customers access to both Teradici CAS and HP Z Central software, giving increased remote graphics options across multiple platforms

P has announced that it is offering a single license for HP Z Central and Teradici CAS, in order to offer more remote graphics options across multiple platforms: desktop, cloud, Mac, Windows and Linux. Last month, HP completed its acquisition of Teradici, a specialist in remote graphics technology. The deal presented HP with Teradici CAS, a remote desktop software that works with many different types of workstations (desktop, virtual and cloud), uses the mature PCoIP protocol and has a big focus on colour-accurate ‘lossless’ image quality. HP has now followed on with the launch of a new subscription offering, giving customers access to both Teradici CAS and its own HP Z Central software for $240 per concurrent user, per year. This includes Teradici CAS Manager and PCoIP Agent and Client and HP Z Central Connect and HP Z Central Remote Boost Sender/Receiver. As far as functionality is concerned, there is a fair bit of crossover between HP Z Central and Teradici CAS. Both can be used to broker pools of workstations but, for HP, the emphasis is on desktops, while Teradici is more focused on virtual/cloud. Christian Jones, HP’s business planning manager for ZCentral and Edge solutions, said there are benefits for both sets of customers. For existing Teradici customers, he explained, HP Z Central will offer remote access to desktop workstations trapped in offices or racks. Users will also be able to schedule and share pools of physical workstations and remotely manage them in a similar way one would a virtual machine. HP Z Central also gives access to built-in collaboration tools that allow teams to share screens.

For existing HP Z Central customers, meanwhile, Teradici CAS will bring support for Apple Macs and provide access to cloud workstations from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google, which can be provisioned automatically and turned off when not in use.

LOOKING AHEAD In the long-term, we expect that HP will take the best from HP Z Central and Teradici CAS and consolidate them into a single application. While the company is remaining tight lipped for now, Jones did speak of an “accelerated joint roadmap of development”, yet to be revealed. The company has also stated that by 2023, Z by HP workstations will no longer include a license for HP ZCentral Remote Boost. This is significant, since HP has bundled this software with its workstations for over ten years now.

On top of this, HP has also announced that it is working with Nvidia to combine HP Z workstations with Teradici CAS and Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise, in order to support real-time simultaneous collaboration for design teams. The idea here is that design teams distributed around the world can collaborate fluidly and intuitively on the same project in real time. “Today’s designers, creators and power users need to access their highperformance compute and workflows from wherever they get work done; location is no longer a limit,” said Jim Nottingham, general manager and global head of Advanced Compute and Solutions at HP. “Digital services such as workflowas-a-service and compute-on-demand will shape the way commercial and SMB customers utilise high-performance computing in the future. At HP, we strive to offer the world’s most comprehensive solutions for remote compute and collaboration with ZCentral and Teradici.” In other words, customers will be able to run demanding workflows, with Nvidia GPUs accelerating powerful Z workstations, Teradici opening up remote access, and Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise providing real-time collaboration. Finally, HP has also announced that, with the purchase of a qualifying Z by HP workstation, users can access a threemonth trial of Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise (two Creator licenses, four Nucleus licenses, ten Reviewer licenses – a $2,250 value) and a three-month trial of Teradici CAS (up to 50 licenses – a $3,000 value). hp.com

(Above) New options from HP for workstation users who work remotely (Below) HP Z Central will offer remote access to desktop workstations based in offices or racks

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NEWS

3DCONNEXION NUMPAD GIVES USERS MORE FREEDOM TO MOVE

Collaboration for Gravity Sketch

ravity Sketch has launched its virtual collaboration space, LandingPad Collab, now available to designers and teams anywhere in the world for real-time design and collaboration in virtual reality. It gives design teams the ability to create a personal collaboration room in which they can invite team members to easily communicate, collaborate and design at scale in 3D. Features include the ability to create/ import 3D models, have real-time voice conversations, edit each others’ work, move around at scale and zoom in and out. gravitysketch.com

o help designers and engineers work more comfortably at their desks with CAD applications, design programs and 3D environments, 3Dconnexion has recently announced its Keyboard Pro with Numpad. The detached numpad, and ability to relocate it, reduces the width of the full-size keyboard, allowing for a better position of a mouse or pen and a resulting better posture – especially given the heavy mouse use of CAD professionals. 3Dconnexion explains that working with conventional keyboards with an integrated numpad leads to an awkward shoulder rotation, as the width requires placing the mouse too far to the right. Reduced shoulder rotation associated with the use of a narrow keyboard – such as one with

no numpad – results in less muscle fatigue. The new design and ability to further customise layouts will also come as a great relief to left-handed keyboard users, who can also adapt their workflow with 3Dconnexion’s left-handed CadMouse. The new keyboard is also equipped with 12 programmable ‘3Dconnexion keys’ that automatically recognise active apps and provide access to app-specific commands, helping save time and keep the user focused. The keys are also programmable, so commands can be assigned conveniently. It supports many widely used CAD and 3D applications. These include Dassault Systèmes Solidworks and Catia, PTC Creo, Siemens NX, Autodesk Fusion 360, AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max, Rhino, ZBrush and more. 3dconnexion.com

More comfort and better posture for CAD users is the goal with the Keyboard Pro with Numpad

tratasys has launched the GrabCAD additive manufacturing platform, as the 3D printing giant’s software arm gets an enterprise-ready, production-grade makeover. The company says that its platform is specifically designed for the unique needs of additive manufacturing across the entire digital thread – from design through to production – while also integrating with Industry 4.0 infrastructure and enterprise applications. stratasys.com

Shapr3D for Microsoft Windows is launched

hapr3D has announced that its 3D CAD software is ready for launch on Microsoft Windows devices, having previously been iPad OS and macOS native only. It was only a matter of time before the much-loved conceptual 3D modeller made the move from Apple devices to Windows equivalents, where the majority of CAD users are already positioned. Speaking to DEVELOP3D, the Shapr3D team makes clear that it has been working relentlessly for the software to work seamlessly across the many different Windows devices and controllers. The key challenge has been to adapt Shapr3D for the Windows environment, to make it feel familiar to Windows users, while maintaining consistency across platforms and maintaining Shapr3D’s UX.

GrabCAD gets upgrade for AM

Materialise embeds CAD

M From Windows tablets to CAD workstations, and even giant power whiteboards, the Shapr3D Windows app has been developed to work across a wider range of devices. The same goes for inputs, swapping out Apple Pencil for a multitude of mice, trackpads and controllers. shapr3d.com

Shapr3D: Coming to a Windows whiteboard near you soon?

aterialise Magics has embedded native CAD workflows into its 3D printing build preparation and management software through the integration of Siemens’ Parasolid Technology. Magics 26 will enable users to transition from design optimisation in CAD to meshbased file preparation. This should enable additive manufacturing system users to review and edit a part with that part’s designers and engineers, who typically will be more familiar with CAD systems, before transitioning to mesh for platform and build preparation. materialise.com

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DED GETS HEXAGON BOOST FOR BIG ADDITIVE

ROUND UP Formlabs has launched the Form Wash L and Form Cure L, its fully automated post-processing system for the Form 3L and Form 3BL 3D printers. The Formlabs Form Wash L cleans SLA 3D-printed parts after printing, while Form Cure L completes the curing process formlabs.com

irected energy deposition (DED) 3D printing technologies for largescale metal parts – often consisting of wire-fed material stock, an electron beam, all packaged into a vacuum chamber – has received further software advancements from Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division. Hexagon has collaborated with printer manufacturers Pro-beam, Sciaky, DM3D, Gefertec and Meltio, using its Simufact Welding software to create a robust a DED simulation model. As an example, for Pro-beam’s latest WEBAM 100 3D printer, Hexagon has developed a virtual design-formanufacturing workflow, including system’s proprietary vacuum conditions, clamping locations and power adjustments to predict stresses, strains and distortions. As part of the demo, the new printer successfully produced a part from 35 layers of titanium, which was then scanned using Hexagon’s AS1 Absolute 3D scanner and REcreate reverse engineering software, then compared to the final part geometry predicted by the simulation using VGMetrology geometry analysis software from Volume Graphics. “Hexagon has the capability to both accurately predict and then accurately measure our WEBAM process, which gives us and customers confidence in our innovative new additive methods,” said Pro-beam product manager Verena Uhl. “The simulation has a very strong dimensional correlation and shows very similar bending of the base plate to the real part. Having reduced simulation

time by a factor of 13 without any loss of result quality, it is clear we can rely on Hexagon’s technologies for robust virtual engineering.” Hexagon has also announced its partnership with Sciaky and its support for closed-loop control, using Simufact to accurately simulate the thermalmechanical behaviour of the DED process. This enables users to analyse thermal history, stresses, strains and distortions throughout the process and optimise build set-up and process parameters virtually before deposition. As a result, the software reads EBAM’s printer trajectories and process parameters directly, reducing the effort required to produce the simulation model. The entire process is streamlined because the G-code is directly compensated within the software. hexagonmi.com

Hexagon and Sciaky are teaming up on closed-loop control, in order to simulate DED processes

Nexa3D has announced the launch of Xip, a desktop SLA 3D printer with a 190 x 120 x 170 mm build volume and an open materials platform. This new machine joins the company's product line-up of lubricant sublayer photocuring (LSPc) systems, which also includes the NXE 400 and the dental-focused NXD 200 nexa3d.com

3D Systems intros new SLS 380 and more

o see out 2021, 3D Systems has unveiled a host of new technologies, including the new SLS 380, new metals DMP Flex and Factory 350 models, and new materials. The SLS 380, according to 3D Systems executives, delivers high levels of

repeatability, improved throughput, and reduced operating costs for more effective, efficient digital manufacturing. It features a custom algorithm that manages eight separately calibrated heaters, together with an integrated highresolution IR camera that captures over 100,000 thermal data samples per second to manage, monitor and control thermal uniformity within the build chamber. A partnership with AMT enables users to use PostPro for cost-effective batch production parts on the SLS 380, helping maintain levels of throughput, consistency and part performance. New dual laser DMP Flex 350 and DMP Factory 350 models, meanwhile, reduce build times, in a bid to accelerate 3D Systems’ appeal in healthcare and industrial production applications. 3dsystems.com

Desktop Metal has announced it has qualified D2 tool steel – a high-wear, stable and corrosionresistant material – for use on its ‘office-friendly’ Studio System 2. It claims to be the first company to offer the material in a two-step bound metal AM process desktopmetal.com

The 3D Systems SLS 380 delivers high levels of repeatability

BCN3D has launched its Metal Pack, containing Ultrafuse Metal FDM filament from Forward AM, for its line of Epsilon 3D printers, enabling users to upgrade their hardware to produce ‘green’ parts that once sintered can be used in their metal form for functional prototyping bcn3d.com

Swiss company Sintratec has announced the release of its first nesting solution software. The company's stated goal is to enable users to achieve "unprecedented packing density", as well as to save time and materials when using its Sintratec S2 3D printer sintratec.com

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NEWS

MARKFORGED UNVEILS FX20 AND A BRAND-NEW MATERIAL

arkforged has launched the FX20, as well as a new Continuous Fiber Reinforced Ultem 9085, with the goal of increasing its reach in demanding industries such as aerospace and automotive firmly in its sights. Markforged’s latest production-ready hardware prints the flame-retardant, high-performance thermoplastic material with Ultem 9085 filament in combination with its proprietary Continuous Fiber Reinforcement printing technology, in order to deliver high-strength, heatresistant and higher performance parts. The team behind the FX20 claims that it is built to scale distributed global production, and is the “biggest, fastest, and smartest 3D printer Markforged has ever produced.” The FX20 has a 525 x 400 x 400mm high-temperature build chamber, capable of maintaining the 200-degrees Celsius needed to reliably produce Ultem parts. With a layer resolution of between 50 μm and 250 μmis, Markforged says the FX20 is capable of printing eight times faster than the default print settings on the company’s existing line of composite printers. Given the high-temperature resistance of Ultem, the ability to reinforce it with the new carbon fibre material, pre-pregged with Ultem resin for compatibility with the Ultem 9085, will be of great interest to designers working on end-use parts for aerospace and railways, for example, where flame retardancy is a key driver of material choices and production methods. “Markforged continues to build on our innovative legacy and lead the way in

composite 3D printing – the future of manufacturing. With the releases of the FX20 and Continuous Fiber Reinforced Ultem 9085 filament, we’re now fulfilling that promise to manufacturers who previously, in the most demanding environments, were unable to experience the benefits of the Digital Forge and our unique materials,” said Markforged CEO Shai Terem. He continued: “By helping move composites toward robust production, we’ll unlock more functional parts, made of stronger materials of even more impressive size, with applications from the factory floor to flight.” Markforged customer Vestas Wind Systems, a manufacturer of wind turbines, plans to use the FX20 with existing Markforged composite materials and the new Ultem 9085 filament with continuous fiber reinforcement to print stronger, higher volume parts. The FX20 and Ultem 9085 filament are expected to ship worldwide during the first half of 2022. markforged.com

Markforged claims the new FX20 is its biggest, fastest and smartest 3D printer to date

rotolabs has boosted its additive manufacturing capacity by 60%, with the opening of a new €16m European 3D printing centre in Putzbrunn near Munich. The new facility will result in faster lead times for users of the company’s existing sites, including its UK headquarters in Telford, executives have claimed. The Putzbrunn plant’s environmental credentials, meanwhile, are reflected in its use of heat recovery and waste heat utilisation systems, smarter engineering processes, and the provision of charging facilities for electric and hybrid vehicles. protolabs.com

Stratasys and Adobe partner up

tratasys and Adobe have partnered to give artists and engineers who use Adobe Substance 3D Painter a workflow that enables them turn their 3D renderings into accurate 3D-printed models using Stratasys printers. Adobe Substance 3D tools are used to create renderings in applications such as games, films, fashion and some product design and consumer packaged goods workflows, and can now enable full-colour 3D-printed models using Stratasys Polyjet 3D printers such as the J55. stratasys.com | adobe.com

New materials for the Makerbot X device

akerbot has launched the RapidRinse fastdissolving support and ABS-R materials for the Method X, with the aim of making 3D printing with ABS in industrial applications easier. With the introduction of the new support and build materials, there should be less need for customers to rely on specialist equipment or incur additional costs when they’re producing high-performance parts. The RapidRinse support material, according to the company, is a “unique patent-pending, fast-dissolving” option, designed to eliminate cumbersome and costly post-processing procedures. It dissolves in warm tap water and does not require the caustic chemicals that are typically needed to dissolve other soluble support materials.

Protolabs opens Munich facility

Simcenter adds NVH protection

S ABS-R, meanwhile, is a new ABS formulation that is said by company executives to provide superior 3D printing reliability and performance for consistent, repeatable ABS prototypes, tools and parts, without shrinking, warping, curling or cracking. makerbot.com

Makerbot RapidRinse and ABS-R materials are designed for industrial 3D printing

iemens Digital Industries Software has introduced system NVH prediction, a new Simcenter software application capable of predicting the interior and exterior noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) performance of a vehicle before physical prototyping begins. The new application helps engineers to front-load full-vehicle NVH analysis and detect potential component NVH performance issues earlier, by using measured and simulated component models to build a virtual prototype assembly. Siemens says it works for any type of vehicle: hybrid, fully electric or internal combustion engine. sw.siemens.com

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COMMENT

Covid-related supply chain disruptions have delivered a hefty boost to the use of 3D printing to build end-use parts. Essentium CEO Blake Teipel talks us through survey results that suggest the momentum is set to continue

n recent years, manufacturing companies have been gently dipping their toes into unknown waters. They’ve got familiar with 3D printing technology and started to use it – but mostly to create prototypes, rather than final products. That’s changing fast. An independent survey commissioned by Essentium reveals that, for almost nine out of ten manufacturing companies (86%), use of large-scale additive manufacturing (AM) has more than doubled in the past year. The results suggest that AM is here to stay, having evolved beyond prototyping to become an essential component in the factory-floor, large-scale production of functional parts. The number of companies that have shifted to using AM for full-scale production runs of hundreds of thousands of parts has increased to 24% in 2021, from just 14% in 2020. Of those companies that have adopted AM, only 1% use 3D printing for fewer than ten parts, compared to 17% four years ago. Previously, AM wasn’t an option for manufacturing companies, because it could not scale to meet their needs. However, the AM world of today has the power to produce parts and products quickly, costeffectively, and at scale. In the past two years, significant changes have encouraged the adoption of 3D printing for large-scale production. These include: growing expertise in 3D printing technology and processes (according to 47% of respondents); the improved business case for AM (42%); reductions in the cost of 3D printing materials (40%); and the improved scalability of 3D printing technology (39%).

A WINNING COMBINATION The combination of generative design software and step-change improvements in 3D printing technology has led to the creation of next-generation tools for designers, unlocking exciting new

capabilities when it comes to productdevelopment possibilities. For instance, we recently saw a 16-rotor super-drone – basically, a flying car with vertical takeoff and landing – fully outfitted with 3D-printed parts. Without 3D printing, an innovation like this would not be possible. 3D printing will play a prominent role in keeping supply chains flowing and factory floors moving, too. Even in a crisis as severe as the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen AM step in to make quantities of supplies at scale, or provide the mold to make the product to keep the assembly lines moving. Our survey found that for 30% of respondents, overcoming supply chain issues was a critical driver of their company’s adoption of 3D printing for large-scale production. Other key drivers included 3D printing’s ability to improve part performance (55%); increase design freedom (45%); and lower production costs (24%).

THE NEXT LEVEL For industries like aerospace, certifying safety-critical airplane parts requires PhD– level engineering. Over the past few years, we have worked in an open ecosystem with the brightest minds in the industry and will continue to work collaboratively to certify printers and materials to ensure consistent replication that meets requirements as printer technology changes. At Essentium, for example, we work closely with organisations such as the US Air Force and National Guard to hone 3D production processes, ensuring repeatability. In this way, we seek to remove any doubt about the quality of objects produced using additive and to enable 3D printing to shoulder a significant amount of manufacturing output. The highly flexible nature of 3D printing will allow manufacturers to get a jump on rivals moving forward. The next generation of 3D printing innovation is poised for fast adoption as companies



Additive manufacturing is here to stay, having evolved beyond prototyping to become an essential component in the factory-floor, large-scale production of functional parts

 strive to cut lead times and respond quickly to customer needs. In the next seven years, the world of manufacturing and the products it creates will be completely transformed for the better. The vast majority of respondents (96%) believe that the manufacturing industry could save billions of dollars in production costs as 3D printing technology matures. However, as they think about futureproofing their investment in AM at scale, the critical strategic considerations include integration with existing machinery and work in practices and acquiring the necessary design-for-AM knowledge. Outside of the design and engineering sphere, convincing finance teams and helping them to gain a deeper understanding of the cost and value implications of AM is instrumental for adoption. Additive technology has matured to the point where manufacturers worldwide can digitally print parts as they need them at a speed and scale, and with economics that challenge traditional methods. As AM moves to transform global manufacturing and enable more distributed and resilient value chains, it is important that vendors, customers and partners all work together to ensure they can reap the rewards of this new manufacturing era.

GET IN TOUCH: Blake Teipel is CEO of Essentium, a company pioneering multiple 3D printing technologies to allow factory floors everywhere to be transformed. Prior to Essentium, he worked in engineering roles at Caterpillar Global Work Tools and Services and John Deere Power Systems. essentium.com DEVELOP3D.COM DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022 15

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COMMENT

Is your company hoarding data from additive manufacturing processes in case of a rainy day? It’s not uncommon, writes our columnist SJ, but we need to put that data to work on solving industry-wide quality challenges

hen I was a kid, I was the child of a hoarder. But my mother was not a hoarder of just anything. The habit was more specific for her. She was notorious for hoarding… wait for it… napkins. If we went to get takeout, it was, “Can I get extra napkins, please?”. At a restaurant, “Excuse me, can we have more napkins for the table?” They would be bursting out of her purse, out of the glove compartment in the car, from the drawers of our kitchen. One day, I made the unfortunate mistake of opening a cabinet in the bathroom and a huge wad of them fell forward and upended the entire contents of that storage space upon my head. Frustrated, I stomped my little 8-year-old feet to my mother’s office to demand an explanation. In my most adult voice, I said rather petulantly, “Why do you need all these napkins, woman?” And she looked at me, my hair covered in napkins, and said gently, “Because, silly, you never know when you may need them for a rainy day.”

bureaus and other advanced manufacturing firms are held to. Which means that for one part, there can be a variance in material characteristics, depending on who printed it and where. These material variances can affect design parameters, which in turn, impact the end performance of the part. To customers, this variance comes across as the manufacturing process being unstable (or even worse – uncontrolled), so it’s no surprise to me when customers start asking for extra napkins.

DATA STOCKPILES

PUTTING DATA TO WORK

In this context, a typical stack of ‘napkins’ consists of data. This data is elicited by customers asking the following kinds of questions: “How many test bars should I print? Can I see X-Ray or CT results post-print like I can with a casting? How many part cut-ups from each batch do you think we need to be safe? What mechanical testing do you recommend for this material? Are you sure we can’t fit more test bars on the plate? Do you think you could send me all the photos for each layer of the build, so we can check for anomalies? Do you mind sending me the oxygen report post print, so we can have it for our records?” From my experience, most of my customers are amassing titanic data piles in order to try and understand the additive manufacturing process – but they’re neither sharing their results, because of intellectual property issues, nor doing anything productive with that data once a project is over. They just lock it away in a drawer for safekeeping, ‘in case of a rainy day’. Which makes me stomp my boots in frustration (yet again!), because there’s so much more we could be doing with it.

First, we could be investing a whole lot more in big data for advanced manufacturing. This would allow us to collectively analyse and extract the information we need to build better certifications for parts made with non-traditional methods. Second, we could take evidence from the results that we get and align it with the data that we’re seeing from in-process monitoring systems. With the advent of in-process monitoring, we now have the ability to compare building conditions and their variability from one part to the next before having to pay for downstream post processes or mechanical testing. That would effectively allow us to iterate the process faster with lower costs. Once our variability window is established, we could tie it to a widely accepted standard (for example, Six Sigma, or Taguchi, or whatever floats your napkin). Quality standards improve our repeatability, which in turn, improves reliability and gives our customers more confidence. So, stop hoarding your napkins, would ya? And let’s take our industry — and quality — to the next level.



COPING WITH VARIANCE

Customers amass titanic data piles relating to the AM process, but then don’t do anything productive with them once a project is over

Twenty years later, and I still think back to that conversation quite often as I navigate the difficult landscape of certifying parts built using additive manufacturing – a very new process compared to its traditional predecessors. As a sweeping generalisation, most companies have an established path to part certification and part qualification for additive that is understood internally at their organisation. But as yet, there isn’t an agreed-upon-byall-parties industry standard that service



Stacks of data, much like napkins, don’t serve much purpose until they’re put to good use

GET IN TOUCH: SJ is a metal additive engineer aka THEE Hot Girl of Metal Printing. She currently works as a metal additive applications engineer providing AM solutions and #3dprinting of metal parts to help create a decarbonised world. Get in touch at @inconelle on twitter

16 DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022 DEVELOP3D.COM

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we were able to use a spindle mounted probe on our Haas VF2 machine to measure each piece of stock and automatically adjust the machining orientation so that every part fit in a less than ideal stock envelope.” Fee continues. “All the parts came out perfectly. The Fusion 360 Machining Extension costs $1,600 per year – we paid for at least half of that in this example alone. Considering all the other time saving features the Machining Extension offers such as Steep and Shallow, Toolpath Trimming and Probe Geometry, a feature we’ve recently just started using to avoid in-machine measurement errors, it’s clear the extension pays for itself in a few weeks.” Tight schedules and complex parts are just a normal, everyday expectation for shops like Conturo Prototyping. But with help from Fusion 360, the shop can do more work in less time. “We know everyone’s on a tight timeline, so we make sure we’re using the most cutting-edge tools we can, and that’s why we’re using Fusion 360.” Lawniczak says. “It really embodies the whole agile movement in engineering.” Learn more about Conturo Prototyping at www.conturoprototyping.com Learn more about the new Fusion 360 Machining Extension at www.autodesk.com/products/ fusion-360/machining-extension

As soon as the customer comes to us with a problem, we load it in Fusion 360. Right away, we can start looking at geometries, measuring different aspects, making slight changes, and putting it in our machines to see how it will fit and how feasible the job is. What’s really important about these advanced tools is we can be so much more agile than we used to be Andy Lawniczak, Chief Operating Officer Conturo Prototyping

1 A typical prototype component produced using 5-axis machining. Image courtesy of Conturo Prototyping 2 Engineers use Fusion 360 and the Fusion 360 – Machining Extension to operate their 3- and 5-axis CNC machines. Image courtesy of Conturo Prototyping 3 Spindle-mounted probes are used to simplify setting up parts, such as castings, prior to CNC machining. Image courtesy of Conturo Prototyping

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COMFORT & » At Hornby Hobbies, close attention to engineering details and a top-down approach to design help the company’s designers bring to market toys and collectibles that have enormous appeal for young and old alike

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JOY

COVER FEATURE

The solace of hobbies, such as building Airfix models, has seen demand for Hornby’s kits take off during the pandemic

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or many people, pandemic-related lockdowns have been an opportunity to spend more time on the hobbies they enjoy, to return to hobbies remembered fondly from childhood, or to take up new hobbies entirely. That’s been good news for Hornby Hobbies, the British-based maker of toys and collectibles, which has seen a big jump in sales over the past year or so. As Hornby chief executive Lyndon Davies recently told the BBC: “When there are problems in the world, people do turn inwards, they do look for things of comfort, and in a hobby, they find comfort.” The Hornby name may most commonly be associated with the iconic model railway brand, but the company is also home to other well-known products, including Airfix scale model kits and the Scalextric line of track-based slot car racing sets. Across the entire portfolio, there’s a big drive now to capitalise on the recent sales surge and to keep broadening the appeal of its products to address the widest possible audience, says Hornby Hobbies’ head of strategic delivery, Jamie Buchanan. New product investment continues to grow, he says, and the company, which celebrated its centenary in 2020, is developing significantly more new releases and ranges each year. At the same time, it is increasingly looking to incorporate digital technologies into what might otherwise be seen as fairly traditional toys. For example, this combination of the physical with the digital has seen Bluetooth circuit and accessory controllers developed for Hornby trains, so that customers can control their model trains and railway layouts from their

1 ● 2 Classic ● smartphones. Similarly, Scalextric Sparkplug, launched modelling kits, in 2020, is a wireless app-controlled system for controlling enabling hobbyists to cars on the track from Android and iOS devices. create aircraft such as the de Havilland “Technology has been a driving force in all sorts of purchases for kids for some years now, with your iPads and Chipmunk, have proved popular your smart devices and so on – but for many parents and during Hornby’s grandparents, aunties and uncles, there’s a frustration and recent sales surge concern that too much of kids’ time is sat in front of screens and that traditional forms of play and the benefits these bring are getting neglected as a result,” Buchanan observes. “While everyone appreciates that screens are not going to go away, we think that Hornby is in a great position to combine traditional and modern play in ways that have cross-generational appeal.” The company’s efforts are already starting to pay off, he adds. “What we’re starting to see – as we hoped we would – is that older family members and kids are coming together to enjoy these products, because the kids have an affinity with the digital aspects and the adults enjoy the traditional nature of the products themselves. You get a really nice synergy there.”

AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES Product accuracy is a big deal for eagle-eyed and clued-up Hornby enthusiasts. They expect absolute authenticity, whether they’re looking to race the Scalextric version of the 2007 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton in his debut Formula 1 season, or build a 1:48 scale model of the de Havilland Chipmunk T.10 pilot training aircraft, using the kit released this summer. So before product designers get to work in PTC Creo, the company’s CAD system of choice, a considerable amount of detective work has to happen first. This involves full-time

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COVER FEATURE

researchers poring over original manufacturer drawings, tracking down images in photographic archives, visiting museums that have a particular aircraft or locomotive on display, and speaking with historians and other experts. Since 2015, 3D scanning has become an increasingly important part of the mix, says Matt Whiting, design manager on the Airfix team. “3D scanning is a great way for us to capture the external – and to a limited extent, internal – shapes and features of the subject matter, so we’re coming to rely on it more and more.” While Hornby has typically relied on third-party experts to carry out this work, he says, it is increasingly bringing this capability in-house. All along the way, the researchers are on hand to assist the product designers in their work, because it can be a real minefield to accurately replicate vehicles that are in many cases historical artefacts in 3D CAD, says Whiting. “We have to be 100% sure we know what we’re looking at and 100% confident of what we need to create in Creo, so we don’t transfer into our design mistakes that were made in the restoration or repair of a real-life vehicle, for example, or the misinterpretation of a drawing.”

TOP-DOWN DESIGN While acute attention to engineering detail is what brings final products to life for customers, the way designers work on any product across the Hornby Hobbies portfolio is roughly the same, says Jamie Buchanan. In short, whether they’re developing products for Airfix, Scalextric, Hornby, or any other company brand, the company’s product designers generally follow the top-down methodology supported by Creo. The company has used PTC’s technology since 1994 and has been supported throughout by Cambridge-based Root Solutions, PTC’s longest

standing Platinum Partner in the UK. This adherence to top-down design is interesting, given the considerable difference between, say, a Scalextric car that is manufactured and arrives with the customer ready to race and an Airfix model that the customer will potentially spend many happy hours assembling themselves. But the top-down methodology, says Buchanan, works well in terms of reflecting the vast number of products in the company’s portfolio, respecting the similarities (and differences) that exist between them, and supporting the complex interdependencies between their individual components. As Whiting explains: “All of the geometry that we need to develop that refers to more than one part will be developed into a skeleton model. And then that’s referenced down into the individual part file, so that if we change something in the top-level model, that change filters down into the child models.” This is important, because products are regularly rested (in other words, temporarily withdrawn from the market) and then re-released, and it’s vital that designers new to a particular product are able to understand the design intent and history behind it. “So, with Airfix, one of our most popular subjects is the Supermarine Spitfire, a 1940s British fighter plane. It’s incredibly popular and, as a result, we’ve probably released a new Spitfire kit every year for about the last 10 years,” Whiting explains. “And all of our Spitfire kits go back to one skeleton model, which I developed in Creo a number of years ago. I based it on the original Supermarine lofting drawings and converted all of the offset tables into a set of Creo surfaces that replicate the incredibly evocative shape of the Spitfire. So that base, that skeleton model, has been scaled up and scaled down, with bits chopped off and bits

 We’re starting to see older family members and kids coming together to enjoy these products Jamie Buchanan, Hornby Hobbies

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added on to it for different products - but the basic surfaces have gone into probably 10 to 15 different products, which a really nice way of achieving accuracy and getting better value for money out of the work that we do.” With offset tables and point cloud meshes imported into Creo, he and his colleagues get to work on scaling it down, manipulating it and generally assembling a suitable data set to use for a product. “From there, we can then reskin it. For a lot of our work, because of the shapes of the objects we focus on – sports cars, aircraft, ships – we rely quite heavily on the ISDX module within Creo, which allows us to robustly capture 3D shapes to develop them into a skeleton model.” Here, he’s referring to the Creo Interactive Surface Design Extension (ISDX), which gives the team tools that help them manipulate curves and surfaces to achieve the sleek aesthetics of the iconic vehicles they’re recreating. In the case of Airfix, parts are designed to be injection moulded and presented to the customer as a collection of snap-out parts arranged on a runner. The job of deciding how individual parts are arranged on that runner falls to specialist third-party toolmakers, says Whiting, but his team put in a great deal of upfront design-for-manufacture work before these specialists design the moulds. “Even as we’re creating the base models, we’re breaking down the geometry, we’ve always got a plan of how the parts are going to work together, so that as we build our surfaces, we can make sure that the curves represent the draft angles of the final parts,” he says. “So all of the data that we send out to the toolmakers has always been through a check-in process to make sure that draft angles are suitable, there are no undercuts, there are no overly thin edges, consistent wall thickness, and areas to place ejector pins. All of that is up to us, so that we can control the output from third-party toolmakers and manufacturers.” The design process for Scalextric is pretty similar, with the major difference that parts are designed for third-party manufacturers to build and assemble before they reach the customer, says Oscar Thornton, senior product designer on the Scalextric team. Data is brought into Creo from similar sources – from original manufacturers, and sometimes CAD files in the case of newer cars, along with scans. “We use this as a base, something to trace over, essentially, and then we develop our skeleton model and follow the same process from there,” he says. “But in addition to the fact that our end product is built and assembled and painted by a manufacturer, it’s also different from the point of view that it gets handled by the customer a great deal, thrown around a track, so it has to be designed to be able to withstand some rough treatment, survive a few knocks and so on.” That’s particularly true for the Micro Scalextric system, an introductory product for younger children that’s designed to be simple for them to put together and start using with a smaller handheld controller. The cars in this range are a bit

Even as ‘‘ we’re creating the base models, we’re breaking down the geometry and we’ve always got a plan of how the parts are going to work together

’’

3 A model design typically starts with ●

photographic archives, engineering drawings and 3D scan data

4 The skeleton model is built in PTC ●

Creo, utilising Interactive Surface Design Extension (ISDX)

5 ● 6 3D printed models and renders are ●

used to check assembly and aesthetics 7 ● 8 A fully painted and assembled ●

Chipmunk delivers an astonishing amount of historically accurate detail

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COVER FEATURE

9 Oscar Thornton, ●

Scalextric senior product designer 10 Matt Whiting, ●

design manager on the Airfix team 11 Scalextric models, ●

like this Back To The Future DeLorean, are designed for factory production and assembly 12 Micro Scalextric ●

sets have to be able to withstand some rough racing

more stylised, and share a standard chassis which is used as a reference point and skeleton for every vehicle in the range. But while Micro Scalextric cars are generally pretty simple, other Scalextric cars might have as many as 20 to 30 different components, and these also follow a top-down design from a skeleton, too.

of products are directly derived from that data. The same applies to box-front imagery for Airfix. It’s basically our 3D data in the form of renders, produced by our render guys.” A great deal of 3D data is also taken into 2D via Adobe Illustrator to create product artwork. “This artwork is issued for all brands except Airfix to our manufacturing partners. So along with the 3D CAD data that they use to MAKING THE MOST OF 3D DATA make the tooling and the mouldings, we also give them Another thing that different brands under the Hornby some 2D files that contain a lot of reference data regarding Hobbies umbrella have in common is the mission to get the how we would like the end model to look and how we want greatest possible use from the 3D data created in Creo by it decorated,” he says. For Airfix, meanwhile, 3D data is product design teams, says Jamie Buchanan. converted into rich, stage-by-stage, illustrated instructions The 3D printing of product design files as prototypes is using PTC Arbortext Isodraw. one of the most important areas in which this happens, he “Alongside Root Solutions, we’re just starting to look at says. In the case of Airfix, parts are 3D printed to doublehow we could use our CAD data on our websites, so that check that these can be assembled by the end customer customers can get a really good feel for a product and be in the way the product designer intended. A conflict here able to spin it around and so on, before they buy,” adds could prompt a design change, perhaps by splitting the Buchanan. components in a different way. In the case of Scalextric, it’s “That’s particularly important for Airfix, because what more often about the performance of a car – for example, you get as a customer is a bunch of sprues in a polythene checking that extravagant tail fins don’t destabilise the car bag. By using the CAD data that Matt and his team create, when it’s running round the track. the purchasing experience could be so much richer.” Says Whiting: “We tend to do all the STL conversion here, He has little doubt that new uses for 3D CAD data will which means we can control how many vertices are in the emerge in future, as the company continues to expand its STL. That’s something we like to do ourselves, in order to product line and broaden its appeal for younger generations get the very best conversion, by finetuning all the settings in of hobbyists. “This data is the result of a huge amount Creo. As a consequence, although most 3D printing is done of skilled and painstaking work by our expert product for us by outside companies, we get very high-resolution designers. It has real value for us as a company and for parts and high-quality output.” generations of hobbyists. Why wouldn’t we want to make Data from Creo is also used in marketing, says Buchanan. the most of it?” “If you look on our website, many of the representations uk.hornby.com

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LIGHT B Having developed an exciting new dental hygiene technology, Lumoral turned to design studio RDD+ to transform its bright idea into a safe and compact consumer device

he purple hue of the Lumoral device lends a touch of science fiction to this light-activated dental hygiene technology. The system was developed by medical experts, scientists and semiconductor specialists, working together as a spin-out company from Finland’s Aalto University. Lumoral works via a specially formulated mouthwash, Lumorinse. This liquid coats the teeth and the inside of the mouth, adhering tightly to microscopic bacteria. The patented Lumoral light is then applied, killing any unwanted bacteria it finds. It makes a thorough job of it, too, tackling bacteria that lurk beyond the reach of more traditional mechanical methods. With the treatment starting to show excellent results, Lumoral turned to design agency RDD+ to transform its technology into a compact, consumer-focused product. But as RDD+ commercial director James Hastie explains: “The initial concept from the client was a long way from the final execution, using a wand type device to deliver the light treatment. It was clear that this would make it complicated, timeconsuming and likely inaccurate for end users to self-administer the treatment, so

initial research and ideation focused on the best methods to deliver the light – ultimately resulting in the mouthpiece and controller as the final form factor.”

GETTING READY FOR MARKET To arrive at a market-ready product for customers to integrate as a weekly routine, RDD+ set about drawing multiple concept ideas that eventually took Lumoral away from its initial ‘wand’ shape, and towards a form not dissimilar to a mouth shield. Sketching was used to design concepts for the mouthpiece and controller, using a morphological analysis process to create thumbnail sketches, with an emphasis on balancing ergonomics with style. The challenge of providing a positive user experience through tactile and visual feedback, while critically maintaining a compact form factor, was worked out through sketching and by team members pitching ideas to one another and then ranking them using a list of pre-defined criteria. The chosen concepts were then developed into detailed 3D models using Solidworks, before being rendered in Keyshot for presentation and evaluation.

EFFECTIVE AND SAFE The development of electronics for Lumoral was a key challenge for RDD+. The team there needed to ensure that the LED performance and control worked as required, both for the treatment to work and also for the device to pass various medical approvals and certifications. Due to encapsulation in the transparent mouthpiece, with little airflow due to being in the user’s mouth, the designers had to carefully develop the heatsink for the LEDs. This was even more challenging due to the mouthpiece’s thermally conductive polymer. Thermal modelling was carried out using Simscale for the LED carrier components, to optimise cooling, ensuring that the device would remain at a safe and comfortable temperature for the user, while not damaging the product through overheating. Determining the correct form for the mouthpiece was also difficult, due to the wide range of users, so the positioning and angle of the light sources became crucial to providing the best performance – and the healthiest smiles. lumoral.com

1 Lumoral’s ●

technology was transformed into an easy-to-use consumer device 2 The technology ●

works by killing bacteria that might otherwise evade the humble toothbrush 3 Thermal modelling ●

using Simscale resulted in a design that is both safe and comfortable

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T BITE

FEATURE

‘‘

Our initial research and ideation focused on the best methods to deliver the light, ultimately resulting in the mouthpiece and controller as the final form factor

’’

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DIRECTOR’S CUT Having returned to his design for the Aston Martin Vanquish, Ian Callum has reworked the model for today’s GT driver. DEVELOP3D spoke to the team at the Callum Designs studio about the role played by desktop 3D printing in the Aston Martin Callum Vanquish 25

wo decades after he first sketched the iconic lines of the Aston Martin Vanquish, legendary automotive designer Ian Callum CBE has recently produced a contemporary version of his creation: the Aston Martin Callum Vanquish 25. Much like the ‘director’s cut’ of a classic movie, this reworking of the V12-engined grand tourer retains many of the designer’s original flourishes, while also benefiting from advances in materials and technologies. As a result, the Vanquish 25 features over 350 design and engineering updates developed at Callum Designs, the designer’s own design, engineering and production company. The svelte form of the Vanquish has been refined to give the new car a more purposeful look, reflecting the increase in power from its 5.9-litre V12 engine. Lower and wider, its revised suspension delivers a sharper ride, while stopping power is similarly enhanced by new carbon ceramic brakes. The interior, meanwhile, has been heavily reworked, with exclusive interior trims created by in-house craftsmen. Fully endorsed by Aston Martin Lagonda, customers can choose to upgrade their own existing car or have one sourced, and are encouraged to play an active role in working with Callum to create their unique Vanquish.

ROOM FOR ADDITIVE Based in Warwick, UK, the Callum Design headquarters boasts full design and engineering capabilities, along with 9 build bays to produce the Vanquish 25. As well as a full trim shop and 3D metrology capabilities, space is also set aside in the design and production workspaces for additive manufacturing. Throughout the design and development of the Vanquish 25, Callum Design has used desktop 3D printers to produce functional prototypes for testing proof of concepts. “Additive manufacturing has come a long way in the past ten, even five years. The resolution of such machines is much better, allowing us to create intricate products with a high standard of finish that wouldn’t have been possible before,” explains Callum Designs engineering director Adam Donfrancesco. “Traditionally, these parts would have been machined from billet aluminium, or created via injection moulding. These methods are expensive, timeintensive and often reliant on third-party suppliers.”

Waiting around for some small, low-volume part to be produced isn’t an option – or worse still, finding out it doesn’t meet Callum’s exacting requirements when it does arrive. “When you’re working on such a prestige vehicle as an Aston Martin, and at the level of refinement [that] we are, everything has to be absolutely precise,” he says. The complexity of the parts involved means that the design process often has to be iterative. Air ducts for cooling the new brake discs and callipers, for example, had to integrate with the bumper and pick up the wheel arch lining. This required tweaking to achieve the perfect fit and airflow. Low-cost 3D printing meant that the design team could experiment with new ideas right up until they were ready to create the final parts. This was the point at which the desktop 3D printer that Callum Designs had chosen came into its own. Having opted for the MakerBot Method X, the path from quick concept models to Nylon 12 Carbon Fibre for the final production parts to be fitted to the vehicle was seamless. “Due to its strength, stiffness and heat resistance, Nylon 12 Carbon Fibre is an ideal lightweight solution for parts such as brake ducts,” explains Donfrancesco. “At the front end of the car, you have impact considerations, and these materials enable us to meet the stringent requirements of these environments. The ability to produce parts in such strong materials is one of the most impressive attributes of the Method X desktop machine. For its size, it really is remarkable – something that’s been hugely beneficial to Callum.”

‘‘

Additive has come a long way in recent years, allowing us to create intricate products with a high degree of finish that wouldn’t have been possible before

’’

TIMELESS DESIGN Callum partnered with luxury British watch manufacturer Bremont on the design of the driver’s instrument cluster, and has even placed a removable mechanical Bremont pocket watch centrally in the dashboard of the Vanquish 25. The team wanted to make this timepiece removeable, so that the vehicle owner can wear it when not using the vehicle. As such, it developed a bespoke mounting mechanism to keep the expensive feature of the interior secure during transit, but easy to access. “A lot of development was required for the clock housing. We needed to create something that worked ergonomically; many iterations were developed on the Method X and validated in the vehicle, which we were able

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FEATURE

1 to progress quickly,” says Donfrancesco. “We needed to ensure that when you were sat in the driver’s seat that it was easy to remove – that it wasn’t uncomfortable or forced your wrist into an unusual action to remove or insert the clock. There is also a high degree of tactility to consider, too.” By producing iterations of each concept, the team were able to experiment with the mechanism, which also led to them introducing customisation cost-effectively. The dimensional accuracy of the 3D printer, combined with the soluble support material has meant that it has been used to create further mounting and fixture devices within the interior. Fixtures, like those used to position and secure the infotainment screen in the dash, would typically require aluminium injection moulding. However, for such lowvolume requirements, Callum saved cost and time by using reinforced parts straight from the MakerBot.

Says Donfrancesco. “Instead of the time and cost of developing tooling, we were able to create these intricate parts ourselves.” He goes on to explain that the methodology fits well with the firm’s design process, while the low costs for both prototypes and end-use parts is a huge win for the team. “With the filament and usage costs so low, it feels like it’s ‘free’ to try these different things,” he says. For this comparatively small design and engineering company, the speed and flexibility of the new workflow it has established has helped it not only to refine its design, but also control its own destiny in terms of the supply of parts for its creations. The end product is a prestige vehicle with all the luxury, exclusivity and detailing its badge demands, with a little extra magic added by the man who first brought the car to life.

1 ●

A removable Bremont watch sits centrally in the dashboard of the Aston Martin Callum Vanquish 25 2 Reinforced ●

fixtures were also created using the company’s Makerbot 3 The Callum Design ●

HQ in Warwick is fully equipped with the latest design and engineering technologies

callumdesigns.com

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BRIGHT LIGHTS Territory Studios is the company behind modern interface visualisations in General Motors’ new Cadillac Lyriq, an all-electric vehicle rooted in more than a century of automobile innovation

aving confirmed it will end the current decade as a brand completely based on electric vehicles (EVs), Cadillac has unveiled its new Lyriq model, the first of a new generation of battery-powered luxury vehicles. With the development of the Lyriq came a unique opportunity to set a precedent for in-car EV design, from both a user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) perspective. This recognises that drivers need to feel safe and comfortable in such an advanced vehicle and capable of controlling in-car tasks with ease and efficiency. Driver communication is no longer limited to analogue controls. Vehicles are no longer simply vessels, transporting occupants from Point A to Point B. Executives at Cadillac say that car travel in this new breed of motors should be an experience in itself, so innovations in in-car technology are hugely important, making the company not just a producer of cars, but also a technology provider. These innovations include the Lyriq’s new 33-inch advanced LED dashboard.

BIG SCREEN To fully explore the potential of the new interior focus, the Cadillac UI design team collaborated with digital visual effects experts at Territory Studio, which has bases in London, New York and San Francisco, to create a new, future-facing in-car experience for the iconic brand. As well as fitting with the aesthetics of the car, the design of the in-car human-machine interface (HMI) needed to safely connect drivers to advanced automotive technologies through intuitive design. Emphasis was placed on the ability of UI and UX to control in-car tasks as a matter of safety and convenience. Beyond that, the system had to be intuitive, unintimidating, and efficient to use, with unencumbered touch activation

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PROFILE

‘‘

As well as fitting the aesthetics of the car, the human-machine interface (HMI) needed to safely connect drivers to advanced automotive technologies through intuitive design

’’

and responsive surfaces. The design also needed to engage Cadillac consumers by highlighting how comfort and safety have evolved in a fully electric luxury vehicle offering advanced automotive technologies. The Lyriq main console is an advanced LED screen capable of presenting over one billion colours. This screen serves as both instrument panel and infotainment system; an in-vehicle digital cockpit managing realtime information, notifying drivers of distraction by continuously monitoring and interacting with external objects during travel. Effectively, Territory Design had a blank canvas on which to construct a new driving experience. The company used Maxon’s Cinema 4D package to full effect, in order to model and render content from concept stage through production-ready assets. The design process was complex, taking 10 months to build the appropriate and functional UI needed to work with the driver to eliminate forgetfulness and oversight on the roads, all while operating with no distractions. In practice, Cadillac executives say that the interface improves reaction time and enhances driving proficiency. The UI is detecting and evaluating information in realtime from a slew of sensors around the car (LiDAR, radar and cameras, for example) so the driver can understand and process all this information as seen through the car’s UI.

MOVIE-STAR LOOKS For a show stopping luxury vehicle like the Lyriq, the aesthetics needed to embody quality and lavishness. Territory Design took some design cues from Cadillac’s heritage, but pared back the display with a refined minimalist 3D UI to help blend with the elegant interior and its choreographed lighting. With extensive experience using Cinema 4D to create fictional user interfaces for films, including Ex Machina, Ready Player One, and The Avengers, Territory Studio was able to delve deeply into different style elements and design choices for the Lyriq. From a glorious light show that pairs with other interior features and lighting when starting up the vehicle, to clear and precise text and numbering to feed back important information when driving, the design evolves through use, while maintaining a strong visual identity that marries with the physical form of the car. Cinema 4D’s modelling capabilities, animation and rendering tools allowed the creation of the perfectly tailored UI, capable of operating seamlessly with all the vehicle’s media and entertainment, navigation, parking assistance, driver assistance systems, climate and seat control, speed, fuel level, trip, temperature and more. With EVs representing the next frontier for the automobile industry, the shift is forcing legacy automakers to reimagine the entire driving experience, with marques like Cadillac looking to set a new vision for how UI sits in automotive design. cadillac.com

1 The Lyriq’s dashboard was designed in ●

collaboration with Territory Studio

2 ● 3 Emphasis is placed on the ability to ●

perform tasks with safety and convenience 4● 5 The UI gives access to media and ● entertainment, navigation, driver and parking assistance, climate control and more

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FEATURE

NEW TIDES Acua Ocean, this year’s winner of The RAPID Challenge, has created a hydrogen-powered vessel for the long-range patrol of our oceans. Stephen Holmes finds out how developing a digital twin helped de-risk the process, aiding development and attracting investors

or more risk-averse investors, a marine craft start-up that combines new fuel systems technology, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) could quite easily be seen as a step too far outside of their comfort zone. However, the team at Acua Ocean has carefully plotted a course through potentially choppy waters. The company’s design for its hydrogen-powered uncrewed surface vessel (H-USV), the Ocean Protector, focuses on the need of companies that own or operate marine-based infrastructure, such as offshore energy installations, for a physical presence out on the open seas, acting as a form of security deterrent and providing a manoeuvrable monitoring capability. Adding various sensors onboard the vessel allows it to collect a whole range of data for external stakeholders, from border control and fisheries protection agents, to researchers studying the oceans and the life within them. While battery-powered craft and aerial drones can provide near-shore resources, Acua Ocean’s focus is on more remote ocean stretches, where a 10-day battery life would be exhausted far too quickly.

Acua Ocean’s uncrewed surface vessel Ocean Protector provides security and monitoring for marinebased assets

The hydrogen system, repurposed from one used in a heavy-duty land vehicle, but with fewer moving parts than the diesel equivalent, means the Ocean Protector can manage over 70 days out at sea, is capable of reaching 20 knots, with the endurance to last the distance and power multiple sensors, while reducing CO2 emissions by up to 99.3%.

FISHING FOR SUPPORT Early on, the Acua Ocean team realised that proving the design of the Ocean Protector would be critical to attracting potential investors. “To analyse and de-risk the vessel from a technical analysis perspective, we spent nearly a year working on the digital twin,” says Acua Ocean chief operating officer Michael Tinmouth. “Working with One PLM, Siemens and Ansys, the three software providers that have been supporting us, essentially enabled us to go out to Innovate UK, to go out to investors and say, ‘Look, we’ve shown in a synthetic environment through reporting and analysis that this vessel has got, from a design perspective, a credible chance of success.’” DEVELOP3D.COM DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022 37

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FEATURE 1 The Ocean ●

Protector is bristling with smart sensors 2 Michael Tinmouth ●

(centre) receives the company’s RAPID Challenge award from Prodrive Ventures’ Head of Innovation David Cullimore (left) and MD Tim Colchester (right)

A key factor for enabling this analysis has been the backing of these software vendors through their hardware start-ups programmes. Siemens, Ansys and One PLM all have start-up programmes to make their technology accessible, explains Tinmouth, “not just from a price point or licensing perspective, but actually the support has been phenomenal. They’ve genuinely invested time and energy into us, which has been fantastic.” The qualified digital twin will also prove key to meeting regulations, in the build, prototyping and low-volume manufacturing phases. Already, Acua Ocean has worked with classification society Lloyd’s Register, with the digital twin proving “critical to that process”, says Tinmouth, making Ocean

Protector “far more dynamic, more agile, more fluid.” A project of this nature requires working with many subcontractors, he points out, rewinding the story back to March 2021, when the analysis around the digital twin helped the team secure grant funding from the UK Department for Transport and Innovate UK through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition in partnership with Southampton University’s Marine and Maritime Institute. This funding enabled the team to further its CFD and seakeeping analysis, as well as running model simulations in a tow tank and performing the necessary work with regulators. “We realised we could be experts in terms of the concept in the design of USV, but we wanted to work with real specialists in terms of the detail, and so we’ve got this brilliant British supply chain that’s come together to build out a lot of the technology that we’ve developed,” says Tinmouth. This has led to the prototyping stage, using the digital twin to aid collaboration and incorporate feedback from experienced subcontractors up and down the country, from shipbuilders at PDL Marine in Porchester to specialist advisors on hydrogen systems and electrical systems at eTech49 in Newcastle.

WINNING ENTRY

In November 2021 came the news that the Acua Ocean team had achieved overall victory in The RAPID Challenge, a competition for hardware start-ups from all fields. Organised by Prodrive Ventures, the prize includes cash and a range of services, guidance and mentorship from competition partners. These include such names as design and manufacturing experts RPD International, R&D funding consultants TBAT Innovation, HSBC, Crowdcube, go-to-market agency Bridgehead International, software reseller OnePLM, legal experts The IP Asset Partnership, as well as Prodrive’s own mechanical design and engineering experts. Tinmouth is delighted with the win, and full of praise for the other competitors, but given the unconventional and unique product that his team is working to realise, it’s clear that the prize elements of professional collaboration and assistance are what excites him most. “How do you ramp up production, particularly in our space where we’re not looking at mass-producing 100,000 units? We’re looking at how we go from a prototype to low-volume manufacturing, that could be initially 10 units a year, maybe at scale 500 units a year, but with deep technology and very innovative manufacturing solutions,” he says. “So the likes of Prodrive and RPD are absolutely critical on that side, and then the services offering side is just phenomenal. To be working with organisations that understand the importance of grant funding, R&D, research, funding, IP, and patent protection, which is all part of the de-risking for investors.” His advice to other ambitious hardware entrepreneurs? “If you’re able to go through and secure Innovate UK funding, and then a very robust patent process, that really de-risks the process. The RAPID Challenge is just perfectly positioned to be able to shine a light upon UK hard tech start-ups.” With the prototype of the Ocean Protector scheduled to launch in May 2022, hopefully further smooth sailing lies ahead. acua-ocean.com | therapidchallenge.com

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FEATURE

DESIGNING TOMORROW’S TOOLSET Researching the design tools and technologies of tomorrow and beyond, we look at the transdisciplinary work of Bristol University’s Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab

he projects being worked on at the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab at the University of Bristol are an intriguing blend of far-term futuristic and present-day pragmatic. Set up in 2015, the lab falls under the umbrella of Engineering Systems, Design and Innovation (ESDI), a department researching and applying cuttingedge science with design thinking and systems thinking. Findings are then married up with industry links to enable them to transfer into real-world use cases. “What differentiates us as a research group is that you can’t design it if you don’t know how you’re going to make it,” says Professor Ben Hicks, the lab’s founder and head of ESDI. “There are a lot of design groups and a lot of manufacturing groups, but we are one of the few design AND manufacturing groups.” The pipeline of projects is varied, explains Hicks. Groups are looking at technologies like quantum computer-aided engineering, and reimagining how CFD, FEA and generative design tools might operate using quantum capabilities. That’s a long-term project, he says, but the team is also looking to the shorter term and at today’s needs, too. “We’re really looking at that physical-digital [interface] and trying to look at, I wouldn’t say democratising, but providing tools, technologies and methods that are affordable and deliverable with a cost/benefit trade-off,” he says. Within the lab, there are around seven lecturing staff and professors, and a mix of 14 to 15 PHDs, doctoral students and PDRSs (post-doctoral researchers) at any one time, as well as a couple of industry fellows. It’s a very transdisciplinary set-up, with a team that includes software engineers, circuitry designers and business school graduates. Physical-digital prototyping is a priority for the group, which has plans to extend how designers can interact and manipulate prototypes, synchronising and reconfiguring them, using technologies like lightweight real-time analytics to assess their performance. 1 Tracking tech plays With product development ● a key role in the lab’s taking careful first steps with new work on physical/digital immersive technologies, teams convergence like the Design and Manufacturing 2 The lab brings ● Futures Lab are finding ways to make together a vast range of

skills and specialisms

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FEATURE

‘‘

We’re really looking at that physical-digital interface and at providing tools and methods that are affordable and deliverable with a cost/benefit trade-off

future technologies a part of today’s workflows, and creating solutions for some of the gaps they leave. To give readers a flavour of some of this work, here are details of three projects.

1. REMANUFACTURE FOR GENERATIVE DESIGN This project coupled the capability to remanufacture with that of generative design. The idea here was to enable users to computationally explore and ‘upgrade’ existing products. The goal: to prolong an existing product’s lifespan and offer improved performance, comfort or more general personalisation. The project took an old bicycle crank arm to show the concept in practice. The original part was 3D scanned, key features were extracted and preserved. Finally, the part was optimised with generative design. In constraining the generative solutions to work within existing geometry, with a new set of design requirements like forces, safety and so on, the ‘old’ product can then form the billet for remanufacture.

’’

2. EMULATING DENSITY IN 3D-PRINTED MODELS

3D-printed prototypes might reflect the exact dimensions of a final product, but they typically have significantly different mass properties. This is especially true in earlystage form models, which often look to save time and material costs. While this isn’t always important, real-world product weighting can seriously impact a design and change the feel of a product. This project arrived at a method through which mass properties can be emulated in 3D printing. Written in Python, the code produces a cell-wise breakdown that highlights where mass needs to be placed to best emulate the desired mass properties. Initial results have been promising, with several case studies considered, including a handheld games console and an electric drill. In each of these cases, the mass error proved less than 1 gram, and the centre of mass position error was less than 1 millimetre.

3. DIGITAL PROTOTYPING MIRROR

Using virtual and augmented reality tracking technologies, users can manipulate a physical prototype directly and see their actions replicated on the digital version, giving them a way to interact with an as-final prototype, right from the earliest concept stages of a design process. Initially using a technique known as a digital mirror, where the digital model is synchronised on a screen as if a reflection of a physical prototype were held in front of it, users can move the physical object while seeing themselves in the screen holding and using the as-final version. They can also reconfigure the physical version with new geometry, handles or parts, and see the changes replicated in as-final form in the reflection. It’s easy to imagine this project advancing into full AR, while emulating model density to feel the difference to the object in their hand. dmf-lab.co.uk

5 Shell

High density cells

Minimum density cells

3 ● 4 One project explores using ● parts as billet material to create generatively designed forms 5 Adding realistic loading to prototypes ●

by placing cell density in a 3D-printed part to emulate real-life weight

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FEATURE

HMDS FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT » DEVELOP3D’s round-up of the devices that deliver total immersion of incredible fidelity for exploring and showcasing 3D models

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o longer the low-resolution, occasionally nauseating, uncomfortable and slow to operate lumps of old, head-mounted displays (HMDs) have come a long way in the past few years. A full pivot by vendors towards enterprise use means that important factors like resolution (realism and details), refresh rates (nausea avoidance), field of view (immersion), tracking (lag and controls), as well as comfort and useability have all improved greatly. The results, in some cases, are incredible fidelity immersion units, capable of showcasing 3D models not only in a virtual environment but also using mixed reality or video passthrough to overlay designs onto existing parts. For example, sitting in a car, with designs for new interiors overlaid around you, and being able to easily switch between them and make out every stitch and grain in the leather. While the sky’s the limit in terms of what you might spend, there are plenty of low-cost and mid-range options that could help you take those first steps into finding the perfect workflow. However, take care when looking at prices. They’re not always what they seem. A useful cable that’s not included as standard could cost you nearly a third of what you paid for the HMD. Software and maintenance fees need to be factored in – and don’t forget you’ll need a workstation powerful enough to produce the best results.

HTC VIVE FOCUS 3

HTC VIVE PRO 2

HP REVERB G2

At nearly double the price of its sibling, it’s hard at first to get past the similarities on paper between the Focus 3 and the Pro 2. The stats for twin 2.5K displays with a 90Hz refresh rate across the 120-degree field of view are shared, but the Focus 3 experience is heightened by the rest of what’s on offer. Insideout tracking is standard, and handtracking is a promised future feature. Support for WiFi 6 is standard, and we’re sure there’s an innovative use for the headset’s Micro SD card slot that can read up to 2TB cards when untethered. However, it’s worth noting that the Vive Business Streaming USB 3.0 cable that’s needed to physically connect up to your workstation doesn’t come as standard.

With displays delivering 2.5K resolution to each eye, and a 120 Hz refresh rate over a 120-degree field of view (FOV), the Vive Pro 2 is a great place to start looking in this price band. Having worked with Nvidia and AMD to use Display Stream Compression for the headset, HTC has attempted to ensure maximum visual quality and backwards compatibility with DisplayPort 1.2, so that graphics cards that supported the original Vive Pro see a benefit with the new model. While capable of AR passthrough, its cameras aren’t the sharpest. The headset is snug and the FOV cropping limits what the Vive Pro 2 can achieve, but for those looking to upgrade legacy Vive kit, this is a very tempting price for the standalone headset.

HP has made some recent updates to the Reverb G2. A new 6m cable is now compatible with all AMD systems; space between lens and eye has been reduced, and the tracking cameras have been improved. But the name, the Windows Mixed Reality environment and much else remain the same. Two 2,160 resolution displays with 114-degree field of view brings detail to your eyes through lenses designed by gaming technology expert Valve, which all adds up to an impressive experience. Once you adjust the top band to help take the weight, the fit is comfortable, and the use of old-school elastic straps and Velcro fastenings mean that putting it on and taking it off is a simple process.

» Tethered: No

» Tethered: Yes

» Passthrough: No

» Passthrough: Yes

» Price from £1,272

» Price from £659

» Price from £635

vive.com

hp.com

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SOLIDWORKS Engineer We’re looking for an Applications Engineer to join our Technical Team. If you have SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD experience, or experience with a similar CAD platform, read on… Our software is used in manufacturing companies worldwide. Based from our corporate offices in the North West, you’ll be working on a variety of projects including:

• Using and testing the very latest versions of our award-winning 3D design automation and configurator software • Creating collateral to showcase our software • Providing technical support to DriveWorks resellers and customers all over the world

You’ll thrive on investigating issues and finding solutions. You’ll be sharing knowledge and delivering our Tech team goal - helping others to help themselves. Essential attributes: trouble shooter, pro-active, organised, likes to work smart, great communicator and relationship builder, exceptional listening and problem-solving skills Desirable skills: graduate, SOLIDWORKS, PDM, ERP, an interest in code and a head for maths

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About DriveWorks We’re an award-winning UK based software team with global sales. We develop internationally recognised design automation and 3D product configurator software, DriveWorks. We’re committed to making our software the best in the world and making our company a great place to work. We value our people and are committed to helping everyone develop and succeed. We get to know our team and find out what’s important. We listen so we can improve work/life balance, our offices, our software, and the way we do things.

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FEATURE

LYNX R1

Listed as a technology to watch in the 2021 D3D 30 (tinyurl.com/D3DTop30), Lynx’s R1 headset made its debut as a Kickstarter project in October 2021, passing its funding goal within hours. A pair of 1.6k resolution displays refresh at 90Hz, but Lynx’s unique lens design brings much more to the experience – a four-fold catadioptric freeform prism providing a circular 90-degree FOV and 18 PPD. Ready to roll as a VR/AR passthrough headset, the Lynx R1 delivers a great deal, including a flip-up visor front. While it won’t beat high-end headsets in terms of fidelity, in terms of its versatility and useability at a designer’s desk, then it’s still something to get excited about. » Tethered: No » Passthrough: Yes » Price from $900 lynx-r.com

MAGIC LEAP ML2

META OCULUS QUEST 2

MICROSOFT HOLOLENS 2

Billed as the smallest and lightest enterprise-focused XR device, the Magic Leap 2 is scheduled for general availability in early 2022. But from what little we know ahead of time, it will be around half the size and about 20% lighter than the ML1. Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson has promised that the field of view will be the ‘largest in the industry’, by which she means its sole enterprise rival, the Hololens 2. Its teased proprietary dimming technology should allow the headset to produce more accurate rendering and opacity. Partnerships with VMware for cloud streaming data and AMD for a ‘semi-custom system-on-a-chip’ that combines CPU and GPU look likely to power the headset.

The Oculus product (shortly due for rebranding under the Meta umbrella) is priced as a consumer device, and comes with a bundle of kit and a wide range of 3D tools and enterprise software straight off the shelf. Quest for Business promises more enterprise features, which we take to mean consumer pricing for headsets with the security of an enterprise account (not Facebook) login. The Quest 2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor and produces 1,832 x 1,920 res per eye, with a refresh rate of up to 90Hz. Although capable of untethered use, the 5m-long Oculus Link USB-C cable will be required to connect up to your workstation (while also charging the headset), costing an extra £89.

This mixed reality headset represents a big leap forward from its predecessor, with its untethered design and spatial mapping, allowing for more realistic interactions between real world objects and the virtual – like placing an object on the desk in front of you. Rather than having to rely on the onboard GPU for graphics processing, the graphics can instead be processed remotely and streamed over WiFi and future 5G services via Azure. Gesture control – like pinching and dragging objects, or pressing virtual buttons - is easy to get the hang of. The lack of hand controllers means fewer devices to recharge. A comfortable fit, flip-up visor and even weight balance make long sessions less of a pain in the neck.

» Tethered: No

» Passthrough: AR: N/A

» Passthrough: Yes

» Passthrough: N/A

» Price from £TBC

» Price from £299

» Price from £3,349

magicleap.com

oculus.com

microsoft.com

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FEATURE

VARJO AERO

The Aero is Varjo’s most affordable headset to date, and as a result, it’s a step down from the full-fat wonder that is the XR-3. That said, it has a number of plus points in its favour. The resolution is still an impressive 2,880 x 2,720 resolution for each eye, at 35 ppd, meaning small text is still legible, while the 115-degrees field of view and eye-tracking technology (which optimise what you’re looking at) match up with those offered by its higher-spec siblings. There’s no annual software subscription, as is required for its Bionic Display counterparts, and while it lacks the lifelike detail, the Aero is still more than good enough when it comes to modelling or investigating a design review. » Tethered: Yes » Passthrough: No » Price from €1,990 varjo.com

VARJO XR-3 VRGINEERS XTAL 8K

The XR-3 delivers astonishing results, with its Bionic Display technology producing what Varjo terms ‘humaneye resolution’. Thanks to superfast eye-tracking technology, the XR-3 can display 71 PPD peak fidelity at the point where the user is looking. Impressive video passthrough capabilities let you overlay highresolution designs over a dummy model, car buck or existing product. Ultraleap hand tracking precisely captures natural hand movements, while depth awareness powered by LiDAR helps generate pixel-perfect real-time occlusion and 3D world reconstruction. It’s a feature-packed option and pricey as a result (bear in mind the €1,495 annual support fees!), but once you’ve tried it on, you immediately see the value. If pure VR is all you require, Varjo’s VR-3 model offers the same detail, but at a €2k saving.

The VRgineers XTAL (pronounced ‘Crystal’) product line-up is clear about where it’s intended to be used – in high-end VR. An eye-watering price is reflective of everything its developers have crammed into the package – a 4k display for each eyeball, with a 75Hz refresh rate at 4k, or 120Hz when dialled down to QHD. A 180-degree field of view, automatic IPD setting, Leap Motion hand tracking, eyetracking and more are included. What’s clear is that VRgineers’ has a strong focus on attracting designers – Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes and ESI are all partners; a full offline mode is available for security; while XTAL is optimised for use with Nvidia Quadro RTX GPUs. The result? Some of the most impressive high-fidelity experiences available today.

» Tethered: Yes

» Passthrough: Yes

» Passthrough: No

» Price from €5,995

» Price from $8,330

varjo.com

vrgineers.com

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Workstations: smoothing the path from desktop to cloud

Running workstations in Microsoft Azure can bring countless benefits.Workspot is on hand to help product development and manufacturing firms get the most from the move.

n previous articles we explored how Microsoft Azure NVv4 Windows 10 cloud workstations are ideally suited to manufacturing firms with users of demanding 3D CAD applications (tinyurl.com/CAD-NVv4) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems (see prior page). When virtual workstations can be placed close to the user in any one of 60+ global Microsoft Azure regions, users access their workstation and its graphics-intensive applications from the cloud, using any device, wherever they may be – in the office, at home or at a customer site. Additionally, locating the cloud workstation in the cloud region nearest the user reduces the latency commonly associated with virtual or remote desktop solutions, resulting in performance that is free from mouse lag or screen refresh delays. Powered by AMD technology, including

2nd gen AMD EPYC processors and AMD Radeon Instinct GPUs, NVv4 cloud workstations can be precisely matched to workflows with supreme flexibility when allocating GPU and CPU resources. The agility, security and many other benefits of cloud workstations are clear, but moving workstations to Azure can seem like a daunting task, especially for firms that don’t have sophisticated cloud skills in-house or need to allocate those resources elsewhere. The reality is that sophisticated, modern architectures for delivering virtual desktops have changed the game, simplifying IT processes around end user computing and taking on the heavy lifting of migrating desktops and workstations to the cloud and then managing them. Workspot is an innovator in this space with its Enterprise Desktop Control Fabric™ architecture. Workspot’s solution dramatically simplifies

deployment and management of cloud workstations by delivering them as a service through its cloud-native SaaS platform. This includes Windows 10 desktops and workstations, in many configurations including those using Microsoft Azure NvV4 Virtual Machines (VMs), to suit the needs of different types of end users. Workspot, a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, has a proven track record of delivering optimized 3D design and engineering platforms for firms of all sizes, and providing easy-to-use tools with which to deploy, scale and operate cloud workstations. PROVEN PERFORMANCE One of the biggest concerns that design and engineering firms have is that cloud workstation performance will be lacking when using demanding graphics-intensive applications remotely.

SPONSORED CONTENT Workspot can immediately allay this fear by giving prospective customers hands-on access to a trial GPU-accelerated NVv4 workstation to test out their own applications and datasets. This Proof of Concept (PoC) can then move to a more expansive Proof of Value (PoV) where Workspot can fine tune the VMs or help integrate PLM systems, data stores or domains. Workspot spends a considerable amount of time analyzing and understanding customer requirements throughout the whole on-boarding process. It ensures VMs are ‘right-sized’ and users are not underprovisioned or over-provisioned in terms of cloud workstation resources. As a SaaS platform, Workspot is deeply instrumented and hosts a Network Operations Center (NOC) that allows visibility into all layers of the technology stack. The NOC helps Workspot support engineers quickly diagnose and proactively alert customers about issues that may result in downtime for end users – resulting in a 99.95% desktop SLA. Offloading this responsibility allows IT organization to redeploy valuable IT staff to more strategic projects. Further, using third-party monitoring tools, Workspot can identify potential bottlenecks in the VMs by tracking CPU, GPU, memory, memory bandwidth, network and storage usage over time. This can be done for a range of users such as those who model 3D parts and small assemblies or others that need to integrate complex digital mockups. Right-sizing of VMs can also extend to part time consumers of 3D data, accessed through PLM systems. At the end of the process, firms may end up with a set of VMs, precisely aligned to different types of users or ‘personas’, configured with various combinations of CPU, GPU, memory and storage. One of the key differentiators of NVv4 is that firms have a very granular level of control over GPU resource allocation. Whereas other cloud workstations typically allocate one or more GPUs, NVv4 comes with a choice of VMs with one quarter, one half or one whole of an AMD Radeon Instinct GPU. As the GPU requirements of CAD-centric workflows can be quite low, in some cases end users can get just as good a 3D experience using a lower spec VM. This can help firms save lots of money as they don’t end up paying for resources they do not need. Optimisation doesn’t stop with the right selection of hardware. Workspot uses its extensive knowledge of Microsoft Azure and 3D CAD to optimize the software and ensure applications run most efficiently in the cloud. PREDICTABLE COSTS In contrast to many providers that only offer a ‘per hour’ cost model for cloud

workstations, Workspot offers a flat fixed fee option as well. This means predictable costs and no surprises when it comes to billing. With 24/7 availability, firms will not be penalized if users forget to shut down machines at the end of the working day. And, when deadlines are tight and work hours extended, or batch renderings or simulations need to run overnight, the cost of running cloud workstations doesn’t get in the way of compressing development cycles. For part-time consumers of 3D data, who may only need a cloud workstation once a month, Workspot can also help build a nonpersistent pool of VMs. Here the user logs in, does what they need to do, then logs off and the VM is ‘destroyed’. In addition to desktops and workstations, Workspot can also virtualize applications, which could be an effective strategy to give wider manufacturing teams access to GPUaccelerated viewers in PLM systems. GLOBAL FLEXIBILITY With Microsoft Azure NVv4 now available in multiple regions, customers have great flexibility when choosing how to best serve a global workforce. Close proximity of end users to the Azure cloud is important to minimize latency, which is essential for a good user experience. Workspot takes great care in understanding each customer’s network connectivity, latency and bandwidth to help ensure it can achieve its objective of putting every user within 25 to 50 milliseconds of their cloud workstation. Everything is managed through the Workspot management console, which acts as an abstraction layer to the extended capabilities of Microsoft Azure. The IT administrator simply defines how many workstations are needed for different personas in different parts of the world, then deploys them at the click of a button. In many cases IT managers will choose multiple Azure regions for close proximity to each user. However, Workspot also understands the need to put data as close as possible to the VMs, and can help develop the best strategies for managing distributed design teams, including data replication or the use of express routes between the customer’s data centre and the Azure region where they reside. Workspot cloud workstation provisioning can be incredibly fast. The first sets of users can typically go live in just a few days. Firms can then roll out subsequent cloud workstations in under an hour, adding more VMs at the click of a button as projects scale. Compared to the weeks it would typically take to procure, configure, and ship a physical workstation, this is a substantial improvement. Once the workstations are no longer needed, they can simply be ‘deleted’ through the console.

Workspot isn’t just concerned with the cloud infrastructure. It looks at the entire compute landscape from the physical perspective and can help firms develop an end point strategy. With NVv4, as all the processing is done in the cloud, the end point can be a relatively low-powered device. In some cases, firms can repurpose existing desktop PCs or laptops; in other cases, they might invest in dedicated thin clients. Although HTML5 access is an option, for the best experience, users access cloud workstations using the Workspot Client running on their device of choice. Workspot Client supports the many requirements of design, engineering and manufacturing users, including support for multiple monitors, 3D mice and tablets like Wacom. Workspot’s hand-holding of its customers goes beyond the technical. It’s not uncommon for users to develop an emotional connection to a physical workstation, or to have serious reservations about how performance might decline with a virtual workstation, so moving desktops and workstations to the cloud can sometimes be met with resistance. To help bring users along for the journey, Workspot works closely with business, IT and power-user stakeholders to ensure their requirements are met. The rewards of this deep connection with customers is a two-way street: Customers have a long term advocate for new features they may need as their businesses grow and change, and Workspot reinvests the lessons gleaned from regular customer interactions back into product evolution. To further ease the transition to the cloud, Workspot helps craft messaging to ensure clear communication between a firm’s IT department and the designers and engineers that will use the cloud workstations. For these power users, the proof is in the performance, and once they experience what their cloud workstation can actually do, then the significance of being freed from a physical workstation hits home. This hands-on opportunity prerollout and sensitive change management throughout the implementation makes it a pull, rather than a push adoption, and ensures that everyone – IT, end users, and the business – succeeds. FIND OUT MORE

To learn more about Workspot cloud desktops and workstations, download this solution brief. go.workspot.com/d3d-solution-brief

If you’re ready to see how Workspot might work for your organization, request a demo. go.workspot.com/d3d-demo-request

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hen the COVID-19 pandemic hit and there suddenly became an urgent need to work from home, design and manufacturing firms had to act quickly. For many, the solution was simply to remote into their office workstations via VPN using optimised remote desktop technologies like Microsoft RDP or Teradici CAS (PCoIP). Twenty months on and little has changed. While some firms have embraced cloud or on-premise virtual desktops, there are still many others with physical workstations sat on empty desks or stacked in the corner of the office. One of the reasons for this is that moving to the cloud or investing in an on-premise virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution is sometimes seen as a huge expense. Few service providers publish pricing and there are often hidden costs along the way. London-based Inevidesk takes a different approach. It puts pricing for its virtual desktop platform service up front and centre on its website. And it’s hardly surprising. With prices starting at £456 per annum for an entry-level CAD workstation, dropping to £180 per annum after three years (as by then, you own the hardware), it’s certainly competitive. According to Inevidesk director Tim Whiteley, it costs around 70% less than most other virtual desktop infrastructure, so it’s not too far away from just buying a physical workstation. Firms can choose between a threeyear term (cheapest) or a one-year term (more expensive). See inevidesk.uk/pricing for more info.

includes a Linux back end and virtualisation platform, along with a video streaming technology, which Whiteley refers to as Inevidesk’s “secret sauce”. The company has a major focus on the architecture, engineering and construction industry, but the technology is also relevant to other sectors, including product design and manufacturing. Prior to its official launch last year, a steering group of architects and building information modelling (BIM) consultants stress-tested the technology. Whiteley is keen to point out that Hopkins Architects, a firm that had been trialling the system for Inevidesk prior to COVID, was so happy with the service that it bought all of Inevidesk’s stock as the UK moved into lockdown.

WHAT’S INSIDE A POD?

Inevidesk’s 3U server pods are built around an AMD EPYC processor, which is used as a shared resource for up seven vdesks. With lots of cores, AMD EPYC is a very capable and cost-effective processor. However, like most CPUs used in virtual environments, it does have its downsides. CAD software thrives on CPU frequency, and because EPYC has a lower clock speed (GHz) than typical desktop CPUs like Intel Core or AMD Ryzen, you can’t expect performance to properly rival that of a traditional workstation. Inevidesk also advises that because CPU resources are shared, its standard vdesks should not be used for CPU rendering. All other components, including the graphics card, are dedicated to each user. There are three different levels of vdesk – basic, mid and WORKSTATIONS PODS high – which vary by memory, CPU cores, storage and GPU. Inevidesk’s virtual workstation service is based around To cater to different graphics needs, there’s a choice the concept of ‘pods’. These are essentially fullyof the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200 GPU, for 2D CAD integrated 3U servers with CPU, GPU and storage, that and entry-level 3D CAD ; the Nvidia T1000 GPU, for host up to seven virtual workstations or ‘vdesks’. mainstream 3D CAD; and the Nvidia RTX A4000 GPU, Pods are most cost-effective when configured with seven for more graphics-intensive workflows like real-time vdesks, although it is possible to have fewer. They can be rendering or GPU rendering. hosted on-premise or, for an additional fee, in Inevidesk’s Inevidesk can be flexible with the configurations of private UK cloud. its pods and can also create bespoke VMs for those with The idea behind the pod system is that firms can adopt more demanding workflows, such as high-end designthem incrementally, gradually replacing their ageing viz. For example, it has a new option for rendering built physical workstations with virtual ones and potentially around AMD’s Threadripper CPU, although some firms taking them to the cloud at an appropriate time. will always choose to keep more specialist workstations as To keep costs down, it’s fair to say that Inevidesk has physical desktops. gone off piste. All of the pods are built in house, but the real difference comes from software. ON-PREMISE OR CLOUD Instead of having to license traditional virtualisation Inevidesk currently has a fairly even split between cloud tools like Citrix, VMware, Hyper-V or Nvidia Grid, and on-premise deployments. For on-premise, pods Inevidesk uses a mix of open-source technologies. This ideally need to be stored in a rack, although this doesn’t 54 DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022 DEVELOP3D.COM

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FEATURE

It’s hard to argue with the broad benefits of virtual and cloud workstations. But one of the stumbling blocks has always been cost. London-based Inevidesk’s stripped-down approach and transparent approach to pricing is sure to resonate with smaller firms seeking a more robust IT backbone for flexible working, writes Greg Corke

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have to be in an air conditioned server room. Smaller firms can use an acoustic attenuated server cabinet that can sit in the corner of an office. For those that don’t want to look after physical hardware or want more flexibility, Inevidesk can host the pods in a private cloud in Bermondsey, London and (soon) Docklands, through datacentre partner netwise. This includes ‘first-level’ resiliency for hardware, power, connectivity, environmental management and physical security — all powered by 100% renewable energy sourced from the wind, sun and sea. There is an additional cost for this of £1,680 per pod per annum, but this includes 1 TB of server storage per pod plus your own virtual network. Of course, low latency is essential for any good remote workstation experience and as latency increases with distance, having servers in London is great for firms in the UK, Inevidesk’s primary market. However, the company says its service also works well from Europe, Dubai and East Coast America. As Inevidesk grows, Whiteley says they’ll hopefully move into Europe and potentially North America.

Interestingly, Inevidesk says Microsoft Teams presents a bigger challenge for local hardware. Because of the additional latency, you can’t run video conferencing through the virtual desktop, so you’ll need to run Teams locally. But, as Whiteley explains, the software can be resource-hungry, so Inevidesk recommends an Intel Core i5 with 8 GB. Inevidesk also places a big emphasis on the importance of the quality of the home Internet connection to minimise latency. This isn’t just what goes into your house, it’s about how your laptop connects to the router. Inevidesk recommends Wireless AC (not Wireless N), a mesh system or a cabled connection — either plugged straight into the router or via a consumer home plug system.

OUR THOUGHTS

As design and manufacturing companies continue to adjust to the new reality, flexible working remains high on the agenda. Firms that may have made do with remoting into desktops, are now looking for more robust solutions to support staff away from the office – even if it’s just for one day a week. Virtual or cloud workstations certainly tick many boxes, especially when it comes to centralised data. With many cloud workstation providers existing on POD MANAGEMENT bespoke quotations, it’s refreshing to see one be so up The Inevidesk service is managed through a web-based front about pricing. Inevidesk aims for full transparency portal, through which IT admins can create new users and on its website even goes down to the expected cost and spawn new virtual desktops. of Windows licences and client laptops. The company’s The first step is to create a template and load all the assertion that cost is comparative to the purchase of a required CAD and productivity software. This takes a physical workstation is sure to resonate with many. little time but, once complete, new machines can be spun On paper, the service looks highly competitive. There’s up in the cloud in a matter of minutes. Inevidesk can, of much to like about its simple modular approach and the course, provide support and assistance. fact that, with a three-year commitment, prices actually go down at the end of the contract. CONNECTING CLIENTS There are some unknowns, of course. Inevidesk only To access the service, simply download the Inevidesk client launched its service one year ago, and the technology application (available for Windows, Mac and Linux), punch stack is largely bespoke. However, the company appears in your unique user credentials, and it will show which confident about performance and reliability, citing virtual desktops you have access to. This is typically one extensive testing with Revit, Rhino and other CAD that’s been assigned to you specifically. For added security, software, backed up by customer testimonials. firms can enable multi factor authentication. With datacentres in Bermondsey and Docklands, The Inevidesk virtual desktop can launch Windowed or Inevidesk looks particularly well-suited to UK firms, full screen and it’s possible to use dual displays. The system especially those in and around London or with satellite offers three different display modes – 3D, 2D or balanced – offices. But this probably limits its appeal to the larger depending on application and latency. Users are encouraged global companies. to play with these settings to get the best experience. Inevidesk doesn’t directly offer a trial through its From a client hardware perspective, Inevidesk says a website, but if it’s anything like other providers, we £300 laptop with a modern Intel Core i3 processor and imagine it will if asked. If you’re looking for a cost4 GB RAM should be sufficient. As the service uses H265 effective virtual desktop solution to replace your existing decoding for the video stream, you’ll need an AMD or desktop machines, it’s well worth finding out more. Nvidia GPU or Intel Integrated (2015 and later). inevidesk.uk

‘‘ To keep

costs down, it’s fair to say that Inevidesk has gone off piste. All of the ‘pods’ are built in house, but the real difference comes from software

’’

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

Cadasio Technical documents such as guides and manuals can be a time-consuming pain for designers to produce. Cadasio streamlines the process, coming up with slick, interactive results and helping to ease the burden along the way, writes Stephen Holmes

n this day and age, bad assembly guides reflect poorly on a brand. Whether customers are enterprise clients or high-street consumers, since everyone started walking around with a small computer in their pocket, they now expect more immersive and interactive methods to get their heads around how a product works or fits together. For this reason, Cadasio has created an online tool to help build attractive, clear documents – product manuals, procedural guides and assembly instructions – that can be as basic or interactive as required. But before we get on to the how, it’s worth considering why such a tool is needed. Manuals are traditionally 2D, and with that comes a lack of detail, limited image angles and the need to take a punt on the reader correctly interpreting them. Most of us will have attempted assembling flatpack furniture, and ended up fudging the process, because two types of bolt look very similar, or we can’t ascertain which way up or in which hole a vital piece was meant to be inserted. In industry, this could make all the difference between an expensive piece of kit working first time, or a very awkward call to the manager that signed off on the purchase of a freshly knackered item. When you think about it, creating manuals requires extra resources that

really have no place in a lithe, modern product development process. It often involves redrawing models, umpteen screengrabs, paying someone to photograph or even film the real thing, annotating each frame, and so on. Companies spent vast amounts of time and money to create 3D CAD models, so it would be mad not to repurpose these in the easiest way possible. This is where Cadasio steps in, allowing the simple creation of guides and manuals that enable the user to decide how plain or immersive they should be.

OFFLOADING TASKS If you want to offload this task from a CAD designer onto someone in marketing, then there are various considerations that must be taken into account. Your plan is going to fail if first, you need that person to have experience using 3D CAD in order to operate the new software (and most marketing types have never even noticed that they have a middle mouse button); or second, it involves spending more money on yet another CAD workstation with graphics card and CAD licence; or third, if your document creator needs to go off on a three-day training course before they can even start work. Cadasio has thought all three scenarios through. In fact, members of its team have previously worked at CAD software

resellers and seen the sticking points first-hand. Cadasio projects start with uploading CAD data. Either a supported format, STEP or OBJ file can be imported into the browser. It’s an easy option for those non-affiliated with 3D CAD. For those in possession of original CAD models, however, the Cadasio add-ins make it plain sailing to choose the model you want. Currently these are available for Solidworks, Autodesk Fusion 360, Inventor, Siemens Solid Edge and PTC Onshape. Plans for a Creo version are underway. Open the file, click on the Cadasio tab to open a project window and name it, and then the files are sent up to the connected Cadasio account. For the benefit of speed and privacy, original CAD data is converted into a stripped-down, scaled version of the original 3D CAD, which is built of triangles on your machine and then encrypted for security, before being sent to Cadasio in the browser. Depending on how large and complex the model is and the strength of your internet connection, the upload typically takes a few minutes before appearing in your Projects file in Cadasio in the browser.

» Product: Cadasio » Supplier: Cadasio Price: free or from $50 per month cadasio.com

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Being browser-based and with this work performed in the cloud, there’s a reduced outlay on the tech needed to produce the documentation, meaning the person assigned the task (over in the marketing department, or similar) won’t need a full CAD-spec workstation or licence for the original CAD format.

EASE OF UNDERSTANDING Once a 3D model is in Cadasio, it’s remarkably easy to use, even for someone with no CAD experience (probably even easier). It’s also backed up by a range of YouTube training videos that can quickly troubleshoot common issues early on, and help build new features, like adding in different render styles. At a time when remote working has increased, the importance of ease of use cannot be overstated, and most of this is down to Cadasio’s straightforward user interface (UI). Models appear in full 3D on screen, letting you rotate and move parts, change colours, and set paths for animated parts. (Everyone loves an exploded view, after all.) I think a key bonus to this method is not only that it cuts out a lot of the steps and costs involved, but that it also helps when a change inevitably has to be made, or a part is altered somewhere along the development path. Cadasio lets you update directly from the CAD system, then push that data through to the Cadasio project and update all the steps. No redrawing, screenshotting or having to wheel a photographer back in. This way, the technical documents can flow alongside the CAD design, meaning they’re ready to go faster, and saving time when launching a product. The CAD update function, meanwhile, allows you to select multiple projects in Cadasio that include the updated part,

making the changes in one go. When opening a file with the changed part, you’re notified of the change and asked whether you want to accept it. Should Cadasio fail to find and update a part, there’s a manual option that pulls up a part tree, which colour-codes the matched parts, letting you check at a glance if the CAD and the Cadasio models match. When creating documentation, there’s a good range of artistic options to play with. Styles range from wireframe to almost cartoonish shading, and there are an array of text options. While logos and artwork can be imported, future updates promise to include more fonts that will allow users to really mould the output to brand guidelines – currently something that can be achieved with the Corporate-level pricing and handson assistance from the Cadasio team. While much of the marketing for Cadasio tends to showcase features such as the lovely animations you can produce, it’s worth considering that for those who still need to produce 2D manuals, either for their audience or for legal requirements, Cadasio manages this function easily. Exports can be made as PNGs, vectors and animations, and it’s not hard to imagine the marketing team being interested in future options being added in upcoming releases, including GIFs. Quick and easy-to-produce content is highly desirable for social media and web marketing, so being able to produce more content to be placed online, and to be able to accurately update it in a flash, will be of serious interest.

PRICING Personal Level pricing is basically a free trial, allowing for three projects, and giving the user enough to get to grips with how the system works. Professional Level ranges from $50 for 100 projects, $83 for 250, and unlimited projects for $100 per month, billed annually. The step-ups are clearly intended to encourage the unlimited model option, although companies wanting to use Cadasio for a handful of internal tutorials each year can still get great value and

results compared with some alternative products that run into thousands of dollars. Corporate Level is down to negotiation, but includes hands-on support from the Cadasio team (for example, help with building processes and setting up brand guidelines), should you have a huge catalogue of products for which you are looking to create digital instructions for customers.

CONCLUSION Cadasio takes apart the traditional workflow of creating documentation and cleans it up in the simplest of methods. A simple and intuitive tool, not only does it allow you to cover another aspect of the development process with existing CAD data, but also it allows the task to be sensibly and safely put into the control of someone outside of the design team. This is largely down to the clear user interface and the simplicity of the tool. Unlike a lot of the alternative options for this workflow, Cadasio isn’t a halfway house between a 3D CAD software and a content creation tool like Adobe Creative Cloud, which users from both sides of the divide might struggle to use. Everything is relatively straightforward. Dialling down the need for inputs – one CAD file upload versus editing files of images and video footage – means that digital guides can be quicker to put together, while updating them directly from CAD updates means there’s no need for constant back and forth, while keeping full control of a project tied to the original CAD. Meanwhile, the growing expectation of extra digital content in product marketing and customer relations can also be met by slick animations. The efficiencies of enabling additional changes – such as a label adjustment or a different image angle – be handled by someone else in the business would be a huge time and money saver. Most importantly, companies that take this route free up the time of a skilled CAD user, letting them get back to work that really utilises their skills.

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A simple and intuitive tool that uses existing CAD data, but puts the task sensibly and safely in the hands of someone outside of the design team

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1 A simple UI makes ●

getting up and running with Cadasio easy 2 A range of output ●

styles are available to highlight information 3 Animations or 2D ●

plans are simple to pull together

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LAST WORD

The UK has a history of creating iconic national designs, and our politicians seem to think we need more of them. But Stephen Holmes has some doubts about whether that kind of thinking works in today’s global market

he pandemic has meant that I’ve had no desire or need to venture into central London for almost two years. Like most actual residents of London, I’d always been quite happy avoiding the hellish Zone One and its hordes of shoppers and tourists, even before Covid-19 hit. So, when the call came to venture back into town, in order to attend our sister publication AEC Magazine’s excellent NXT BLD event, I found myself meandering towards the venue in Westminster like a sightseer. I’d been there countless times before, walking out of the Tube station to be met with the grand buildings of UK governance, typically too preoccupied to pay them any attention and instead chastising the tourists who stood gawping at Big Ben for getting in my way. So it was with refreshed eyes that I found myself taking it all in.

NATIONAL ICONS

Pride is always needed. It can hold communities, cities, even entire nations together. Common denominators elicit it, things as familiar as sports teams, old industries and landmarks. It’s why Facebook memes continue to ask, What Do You Call a Bread Roll Where You Come From? I know that in your head you snapped an answer to that question instinctively, and you’re literally proving my point. (And by the way, the correct answer, as anyone from my part of the world knows, is ‘teacake’, pronounciation: [tee-k’yak].)

PROUD OR PAROCHIAL? Once home that evening, I was intrigued to see news of a new ‘National Design’ for a UK network of electric car charging points. The Royal College of Art and management consultancy firm PA Consulting have been awarded a £200,000 grant from the Department for Transport’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, with a view to creating an iconic piece of pavement furniture suitable for installation on roadsides up and down the country. The government has requested a sculptural form that will make it easy for motorists to spot the chargers, but that also incorporates “British designs of old that are recognised the world over.” The ultimate goal, apparently, is to create no less than “the next great British emblem.” In other words, the government wants a design that members of the great British public will see, identify with immediately, and which instantly generates a deep surge of pride in their chests. “I’m charging the car, Margaret. Best run up the Union Jack and start singing Jerusalem.”

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Will future generations look upon a piece of roadside infrastructure and feel an instant emotional attachment?

The line of old red phone boxes along the street at Parliament Square were, as usual, proving a beacon for people taking selfies with their phones while holding up an archaic black handset; their iconic design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott reduced to little more than a prop or gimmick that attracts extra ‘likes’ on an Instagram post. But when did any of us last use a phone box for its intended purpose? It struck me that, by hanging on to such designs as part of our wider social fabric, the UK has by now amassed quite a collection of street furniture that offers little real functional purpose outside that of national pride.

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LOCAL GOES GLOBAL But in a world where my smartphone looks the same as yours, our cars vary only slightly, our Netflix consumption and excessive use of avocado is on a par, do we really need national designs? Will future generations look upon a piece of roadside infrastructure and feel an instant emotional attachment? Most designers I speak to today work to develop products with a global market in mind – so is the arrival of this fast-moving automotive technology different in some way? Is it an opportunity to create a specialised product, with a focus on serving low-volume, local market needs first; or are the people handing out £200k design grants caught up in a Westminster phone box fantasy? History suggests that London will get by just fine with its current monuments to a bygone technological age. Rome has done quite well, after all. But in terms of developing new technologies and products, it’s probably best that we look to create wider reaching products, rather than clinging to cliches about what great British design really is.

Should we really need a streetside EV charging station to achieve ‘national icon’ status?

GET IN TOUCH: The looming 8-hour train ride north to Stephen’s homeland for Christmas is quickly convincing him that he needs to buy a car. The decision over ICE or EV comes down to more than just how iconic his local petrol pump looks. On Twitter, he’s @swearstoomuch

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