PTC Creo 7 P39
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Shapr3D for iPad P46
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE
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ello. How are you? Last time I wrote this page, it was Day One of lockdown in the UK. That was... Oh god, months ago now... I think. Since then, we’ve all been on something of a rollercoaster ride, eh? We’ve seen much of global industry grind to a halt, apart from essential services and, it would seem, Amazon. It’s been curious to watch how the public at large has become interested in supply chains and manufacturing. We’ve seen an army of folks with the means of production at home or at the office retool, in order to build some of the protective equipment the NHS and other organisations have needed in this time of crisis. Who’d have thought that those crappy 3D printers that everyone bought in 2012 would come in handy after all? At the same time, the FT broke a story about the Ventilator Challenge that makes for very interesting reading. Hindsight can be a painful thing sometimes. As ever, we’ve seen both the best and the worst of people. The rest of the world also seems to have come to the same conclusion that some of us reached a while ago; that the people who are paid the most really don’t contribute a fat lot to society. (I’m looking directly at you, celebrities and footballers.) The folks we really need, meanwhile, are treated like a near-disposable resource. While Boris and the rest of his goons appear on our television sets daily, as the Wotsit in an ill-fitting suit continues to self-administer whatever concoction he read about in the National Enquirer, the rest of us are cracking on, doing our best, getting through the day, caring for our nearest and dearest. Too many of us, tragically, are mourning our departed. It also comes to mind that there will be plenty of changes to come in the next few years of recovery. If we can help you, either as an individual or as an organisation, drop us a note and we’ll do our best. Till next month, take care folks.
Financial Controller Samantha Todescato-Rutland sam@chalfen.com
ABOUT DEVELOP3D is published by Al Dean Editor-in-Chief, DEVELOP3D Magazine, @alistardean 465C Hornsey Road, 1st floor, Unit 2, London, N19 4DR, UK T. +44 (0)20 3355 7310 F. +44 (0)20 3355 7319 © 2020 X3DMedia Ltd All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without prior permission from the publisher is prohibited. All trademarks acknowledged Opinions expressed in articles are those of the author and not of X3DMedia. X3DMedia cannot accept responsibility for errors in articles or advertisements within the magazine
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CONTENTS MAY/JUNE 2020 ISSUE NO. 119
NEWS PTC brings multibody modelling to Creo 7, Stratasys unveils J55 for office-friendly, full-colour 3D printing, and Altair puts Nvidia GPUs to work on CFD simulation
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FEATURES Comment: Erin McDermott on rethinking supply chains Comment: Glen Smith on digital transformation fears Visual Design Guide: PMC QB1-XBD Active COVER STORY Your guide to The D3D 30 Plain sailing for simulation at Sunreef Yachts 3D scanning helps Kindig-It put pedal to metal Speed twin: Flowmeter performance at ABB
REVIEWS 39 PTC Creo 7 44 Autodesk Inventor 2021 46 Shapr3D 49 DEVELOP3D SERVICES 50 THE LAST WORD Al Dean takes a first look at Nvidia Omniverse and considers what being able to visualise a product, even as it’s still being conceptualised, could mean for the product design and manufacturing community
2020
3 November 2020 The wood used to produce this magazine comes from Forest Stewardship Council certified well-managed forests, controlled sources and/or recycled material
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NEWS
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT NEWS
NEWS
PTC LAUNCHES CREO 7 WITH MULTIBODY MODELLING, GENERATIVE DESIGN AND MORE » PTC looks to core modelling fundamentals to enable greater mixing of geometric forms alongside a cohesive set of simulation tools that share the same data backbone
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TC has announced the launch of Creo 7, the latest release of its flagship product design and engineering system. This new version sees a major focus on simulation, in both its traditional and GPU-driven, real-time forms, as well as on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies. Readers may remember that Creo 6 saw the introduction of Creo Simulation Live, based on Ansys’ real-time simulation technology. Creo 7 builds on this, adding fluid flow to the module, along with greater integration with behavioural modelling. This means that parametric design studies and optimisation runs can be conducted in far shorter timeframes than were previously possible. Alongside real-time simulation, Creo 7 also sees the introduction of a new module that integrates Ansys’ Workbench technology directly into the Creo interface, to support more traditional forms of structural stress analysis. In addition, this latest version also marks the first time that PTC has integrated technology acquired in its 2018 purchase of Frustum. This provides the basis for the first generation of Creo’s integrated generative design capabilities. More big news for this release comes in
the form of multibody modelling, added to Creo for the first time. This will allow users more flexibility when modelling complex forms and adds new tools required to fully support the generative design and optimisation capabilities added in this release. Visualisation also gets a look-in, with an update to the Creo Visualize module. This is based on Luxion’s KeyShot, directly integrated into the Creo user interface. Reaction from long-term Creo customers given early access to the release has been positive. “Creo has helped us revolutionise the way we develop, produce, and maintain our motorcycles,” said Adrian Marshall, manager of computer-aided design in product development at motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield, the cover star of our April 2020 issue. “We are sure that Creo will continue to benefit our design process and enable us to deliver the best possible customer ownership experience,” he continued. While press announcements surrounding Creo 7 have made much of the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, further investigation reveals that these will not be available at launch, but incorporated into an update later in this release cycle.
This will see Creo’s generative design tools take to the cloud, to enable much broader experimentation and optimisation of design challenges. “Creo 7.0 is one of our most innovationrich releases yet, allowing customers to leverage Frustum’s amazing generative design technology and an enhanced Ansys-powered Creo Simulation Live with real-time fluid-flow analysis,” said Brian Thompson, divisional vice president and general manager of CAD at PTC. “Creo 7.0 makes emerging technology a part of our customers’ everyday design workflows,” he added. Creo 7 is available now for existing customers. For further details on this release, see our full review on p48. ptc.com
Top: Creo 7 covers simulation, optimisation and core design tools, as well as visualisation with Creo Visualise (Image courtesy of Royal Enfield) Above: Multibody modelling is now a core part of Creo and, while this capability has come a little late, it offers a robust and inventive solution
8 MAY/JUNE 2020 DEVELOP3D.COM
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NEWS
STRATASYS J55 BRINGS COLOUR 3D PRINTING TO OFFICES
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tratasys has launched its new office-friendly, multimaterial J55 3D printer, which offers users the chance to start experimenting with printing colour 3D models directly from their rendering software. The Polyjet 3D printer combines highdetail finishes with 18-micron print levels. It can handle over 500,000 colours – thousands of them Pantone-validated – as well as a new clear resin that mimics glass and clear polymers. The Stratasys J55 features a rotating build tray and stationary print head. Combine this with its support for the 3MF file format (instead of STL), and integration with Luxion’s KeyShot 3D rendering software, and it seems that Stratasys is pushing hard to make colour 3D printing a far more significant part of the prototyping process. The Luxion KeyShot integration is as eye-catching as the printed parts that come off the J55, since it is undoubtedly one of the visualisation tools most widely used by designers in all industries. We’re yet to see how the rendering software will link up with Stratasys’ print software, GrabCAD Print, but the 3MF file is at the heart of it, enabling transparent materials and gradients of colour to be accurately shared from screen to 3D-printed part. We’ve already seen the former Connex range and J850 receive a warm reception from users in the consumer packaged goods industry, and it’s clearly hoped that colour, material and finish teams from other sectors will also fall in love with this smaller version for quick prototypes. In operation, the Stratasys J55 is unique, featuring a patented rotating build platform with a fixed print head. This is designed to get greater output from a small footprint, while reducing noise and moving parts for better reliability and simplified maintenance. Reduced noise levels, combined with single-phase power and ProAero air filtration technology suggests
CAD Schroer i4 Virtual Review v2.0 released
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AD Schroer’s VR viewer – i4 Virtual Review – has been adapted for large CAD models in virtual reality and to better enable collaborative team sessions. i4 Virtual Review v2.0 now provides an overview map that can be enabled as and when required when using large CAD models. The map presents the user with a live plan view of the entire VR scene, and also shows the user’s current position. V2.0 also enables hiding or moving of scenes and the ability to save or restore them. cad-schroer.com
3DViewStation gets redesigned clash detection that Stratasys intends designers to keep the J55 close to hand, in easy reach of their desks. The printer has a maximum build volume size of 22 litres and takes up less than half a square metre of floor space. The materials range, meanwhile, matches that of the J850 – the full Vero colour range, plus VeroBlackPlus, VeroClear and DraftGrey. A combination of any of these is possible in the five available slots (plus a sixth for the SUP710 support material). The VeroUltraClear material will be available later in 2020. However, a slightly different curing method (UV LED) means material properties will differ slightly from those seen with the J55’s bigger siblings. The Stratasys J55 3D printer will cost $99,000, with shipping beginning this July. The KeyShot Beta integration is set to be up and running in Q4 2020. stratasys.com
Above: The Stratasys J55 is intended for the office, with advanced filtration to make it safe Below: The Pantone validation is interesting, but we're not too clear on why customers would use a $100,000 printer to proof packaging
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isters 3DViewStation v2020 has been launched, featuring enhancements that include new neighbourhood search, merging objects and faster, more accurate clash detection. The software also now provides visualisation applications for Windows desktop, web (via any HTML5 browser), as well as a VR edition. The clash detection redesign focuses on faster performance, more options to calculate values of interest and updated results display. 3dviewstation.com
DP Technology launches PBF additive tools
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P Technology, the parent company of the Esprit CAM system, is enhancing its additive manufacturing offering with new software specifically for powder bed fusion. Esprit Additive for Powder Bed comes as an add-on application for Solidworks and works directly with native .SLDPRT files and any neutral 3D CAD format, such as STEP. Due to this integration, Esprit suggests that the part model is not “approximated with triangles”, with Additive Suite’s part slicer calculating build layers directly from original 3D CAD models. espritadditive.com 10 MAY/JUNE 2020 DEVELOP3D.COM
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ALTAIR USES NVIDIA GPUS TO SPEED UP CFD BY UP TO 600%
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ltair reckons its new GPU-optimised AcuSolve CFD software can solve fluid dynamic simulations up to six times faster than equivalent CPU configurations. To achieve this acceleration, it is using the new Nvidia RTX server, which features up to eight high-end Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 or 8000 GPUs. Company executives claim that large-scale CFD simulations that previously took days can now be completed overnight. As a result, entire simulation workflows can be highly compressed. “When engineers arrive the next morning, the simulations are ready for them to analyse,” explains Nvidia’s Baskar Rajagopalan in a blog post. “This allows teams to understand the performance, behaviour and mechanics of their models earlier in the design process — all while using a more energy-efficient computing system that’s accessible on-premise or in the cloud.” Using GPUs for simulation is not new, but limitations on GPU memory have long been a barrier
to getting the most out of their massively parallel architectures. Nvidia RTX 8000 GPUs feature a colossal 48GB of memory and in RTX Server can be paired up with NVlink to effectively deliver four GPUs, each with 96GB of memory. Altair has also announced improvements to its other fluid flow-related products, UltrFluidX and NanoFluidX (for aerodynamics and particlebased fluid simulation, respectively). These applications were already optimised for GPUs; now, with validation for Nvidia RTX Server products/ services, they can scale more quickly and more cost effectively, compared to other HPC configurations. Altair is not just using GPUs for simulation, either. The company has also optimised its TheaRender rendering engine to take advantage of GPUs more efficiently with the goal of integrating this alongside CFD tools. The aim here is to enable users to evaluate aesthetics at the same time as aero performance. TheaRender has been updated to use Nvidia’s OptiX AI-accelerated denoiser. altair.com | nvidia.com
DyeMansion brightens up HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing with 17 new colours
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yeMansion is opening up a new range of applications for HP’s Multi Jet Fusion printers with the introduction of a new range of colour dye choices. These will turn the typical grey nylon of end-use polymers a brighter hue entirely. The company’s post-processing experts have developed 17 colours specifically designed for grey HP Multi Jet Fusion parts created from Polyamide 12 on the 4200/5200 series of 3D printers. The new colours, including rich blues and fiery reds, will be commercially available from July 2020 on and will be tested with selected customers in a beta program. DyeMansion’s post-processing technology has also benefited users of white base
material SLS 3D printing – from RAL or Pantone to individual recipes for corporate and brand colours. For plastics with a grey base material, the options have previously been very limited to black and dark shades. dyemansion.com
A wider color spectrum could open up completely new applications for products made of HP’s PA12 material
ROUND UP A new software upgrade from Digital Metal reportedly triples the printing speed of the company’s DM P2500 printer. This allows for significantly larger production volume per time unit, while maintaining the metal binder jetting printer’s high level of detail digitalmetal.tech
MathWorks’s Matlab has integrated Unreal Engine for precise 3D automotive dynamics simulation visualisation. The MatLabs Vehicle Dynamics Blockset provides fully assembled reference application models that simulate driving manoeuvres in a 3D environment mathworks.com
Velo3D has achieved its tallest build-chamber size yet. It stands at 1 metre, as part of the Sapphire metals 3D printer. This large, closed-chamber printer is designed to work with advanced specialty metals that must be laser-fused in a tightly controlled, gasregulated environment to achieve the highest quality production parts velo3d.com
Creality's new FDM 3D printer, the Ender-6, brings with it faster print times and better build quality. The Shenzen firm proudly announced the Ender-6’s more stable core XY platform, its optional enclosed chamber structure, and a self-developed ‘silent’ motherboard creality.com
The latest Simcenter FloEFD from Siemens Digital Industries offers new modules and improvements to accuracy and solve rates, with Siemens executives claiming overall simulation times reduced by as much as 75% siemens.com/plm
DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 11
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COMMENT
Global lockdown may have revealed scary vulnerabilities in extended supply chains, but it will take a realistic, clear-eyed view to figure out how they might best be tackled, writes Erin McDermott
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ell, it happened. The maths just changed. The constants that we use to calculate supply chain risks have been called into question. Supply chain nerds call this global shutdown a “black swan event” – a freak occurrence that no one expects, with dramatic consequences. From now on, nobody can say that the chances of something like this happening are zero. We’ll all be thinking about it when planning how to make and ship products going forward. How do we safeguard against disruptions in deliveries of components or finished goods? One expert I heard from told me that most companies are pretty horrible at planning robust supply chains to begin with. To him, establishing any measures at all would be a good start. I can vouch for that, having worked in multiple industries. If a company sells an ‘economy product line’ (internally called the ‘POS line’), then there’s a good chance that the company is not engaging in the high cost of back-up vendor validation. With low-end products, if you had to choose two options on how to develop it from a list that included ‘good, cheap or quick’, you’d pick ‘cheap’, twice. It’s possible that the economics of super-cheap products still can’t justify building a supply chain by the book. Perhaps now, though, mid-grade and premium products have a stronger case for the minimum pre-COVID supply chain insurance. On the other end of the spectrum, when talking to those who haven’t worked in physical product development, I hear: “Let’s make everything 100% domestically!” They usually don’t understand the intricacies of manufacturing a finished good. However, if you’re reading this, you probably do. If every product’s components were sourced exclusively within the UK, or any country in the Western world, many products would quickly become too expensive to sell. Plus, it’s difficult to compete with China’s manufacturing capacity and expertise. My former American boss used to say, “If you gathered all the
American experts in injection molding into one place, you’d need a large conference room. If you gathered all the injection molding experts in China into one place, you’d need a football stadium.”
COST OF VALIDATION Leaving aside manufacturing location, the cost of simply validating two vendors can be considerable. This is especially apparent in the world of optics, where I work. Here, custom parts like lenses or reflectors need to be manufactured with extreme accuracy. If a part is made with a slight deviation, the end system will not work. The trial and error involved in getting one factory to make your part well can be long and expensive. If you want to bring two unaffiliated companies up to speed on making a thing, the impact on profit – and on an engineer’s sanity – can be prohibitively high. But what if the back-up vendor was affiliated with
Factories are like people; they have unique vulnerabilities and tendencies to make certain mistakes that you learn to watch out for. So, if two companies get accustomed to handing off designs to each other, the entire process could be made smoother. If the foreign vendor offered this domestic partnership as part of a package, they may be more attractive to clients in this new economic environment. If we now look to generic parts like screws, o-rings, glues and so on, these can be easily sourced from multiple vendors. However, sometimes even parts like these are customised to minimise overall product size. If you’ve ever ripped apart an iPhone, you already know that. Therefore, another change going forward may be to give higher priority to building a product with standard sizes of parts. On a happy note, it’s been exciting to watch 3D manufacturing heroes around the world snap into action to fill voids. One of them publicly announced: “This is our time to shine!” Consortiums spontaneously formed between rapid prototyping and manufacturing pros and healthcare experts. A flood of open-source, 3D-printable designs for things like personal protection equipment (PPE), masks and nasal swabs became available, seemingly overnight. If nothing else, developers who had a 3D printer on their wish list and were previously denied by upper management might now be able to make a convincing case. What about your plans? Will the current crisis change how you develop and manufacture products going forward? Get in touch – details below!
With low-end products, if you had to choose two options on how to develop it from a list that included ‘good, cheap or quick’, you’d pick ‘cheap’, twice
your main vendor? What if, just as we have sister cities, there were sister companies, too? What if critical components of a product were made both domestically and internationally by independent, but loosely partnered companies? A large percentage could be made, say, in China, where production is more cost-effective, and a small percentage could be made domestically, as an insurance policy. If there were a disaster and the main, foreign factory were shut down, the domestic factory could then ramp up production.
GET YOUR RATIOS RIGHT The idea of splitting component production between two factories in something like an 80:20 ratio is nothing new. However, a semi-formal relationship between the competing vendors is unconventional, and it could make a second design validation much easier.
GET IN TOUCH: Erin M McDermott is Director of Optical Engineering at Spire Starter and a digital nomad (read: vagrant). She travels the world, meeting hardware engineers who don’t know that things using light (cameras, LED illumination, LiDAR, laser processes etc) need competent design, optimisation and tolerancing, just like the rest of their widget. Get in touch at spirestarter.com or @erinmmcdermott DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 13
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COMMENT
The current pandemic should provide a valuable opportunity for business leaders to reassess their attitudes to change and their ability to mount agile, tech-driven responses, writes Glen Smith of DriveWorks
D
uring this pandemic, there has been lots of change, but change isn’t always bad. Before this, how often did we show our appreciation for the NHS and key workers? Now, we proudly stand on our doorsteps every Thursday and show them how important they are to us. We’re travelling less, cutting our commutes and using that time more wisely. Webinars, online learning and virtual meeting apps have all seen a huge rise. We’re spending time learning, improving and sharing. In work and in our personal lives, we’ve all used technology more. Whether it’s doing an online food shop, attending a weekly team meeting, or participating in a virtual pub quiz with family and friends, now more than ever, technology connects the world. It’s become clearer that companies that embrace change, adapt and move quickly are more likely to thrive. There are some great examples: companies that previously supplied pubs and bars with beer have adapted as demand for those products declined and made hand sanitiser instead. In the process, they’ve provided the country with much-needed supplies, made a difference and kept themselves afloat. As CEO of a software company, I like to think of my team as champions for change. We’ve embraced digital transformation. Almost everything we do is now digital, from the way we create licenses for our customers and manage purchase orders, to the way we book holiday time, submit our expenses and more. Our digital processes and investments in technology have made transitioning to home working much smoother. So many of our processes are controlled by our software, meaning our teams can be successful from anywhere.
NO NEED FOR FEAR Digital transformation is a term that confuses many business leaders. It can seem like a daunting and unachievable goal. But there’s no need for businesses to fear it. Pandemic aside, the consumer world offers great examples of companies
embracing digital transformation and thriving. Disruptive companies such as Uber, Netflix, Just Eat and Nest, to name but a few, have built entire empires on taking a traditional concept and making it digital – and have been spectacularly successful as a result. A business benefits from this kind of transformational thinking, and its customers do, too. Time and again, we see how companies that embrace digital can overtake their competitors and change the future for consumers. In fact, digital transformation is not only a game-changer. It’s also easier than many think, because so many companies already have valuable data that can lead to transformational changes locked away in spreadsheets or in people’s heads. The key to digital transformation is starting small, choosing one thing to improve, changing it, reaping the benefits and moving on to the next thing. Eventually, the mundane is dealt with and your time can be focused on the things that really matter – innovation and people. People, after all, add a layer of value to experiences. We all want better experiences and technology is the answer. Digital technologies simplify and improve experiences for everyone. Think about the lack of confidence you might have in a waiter who takes a large food order without making notes. Now think about how much the experience is improved, when a waiter uses an electronic device to send your order straight to the kitchen, even while they’re still standing by your table. The waiter can focus on adding value through making recommendations, offering advice and engaging in conversation. The plates arrive loaded to send your taste buds tingling.
DYNAMIC MANUFACTURING The same is true for the world of manufacturing, it seems to me. If you’re looking to buy furniture and are presented with a long list of product names and part numbers, the styles may not be what you’re looking for and standard sizes may not fit the space in your home. In this all-toofamiliar scenario, the likelihood is that you won’t place an order at all.
Now think about how much better it would be to have access to an interactive website offering 3D views of those products, with instant pricing incorporated? Your order might trigger an automatic flow of data to the manufacturer – detailed drawings, cut list, bill of materials, delivery address, and so on – so the production process could start as soon as you placed your order. You’ll receive your order quickly, it will be exactly how you designed it and you’ll be a happy (and probably loyal) customer. When a salesperson uses these tools and combines the digital experience with ideas and suggestions, they’re also able to add value, upsell and impress. When a company is easy to do business with and adds value to your experience, you go back to it time and time again. Digital experiences and data are key. So this is my message at this difficult time: Change is not the enemy, and adapting and embracing opportunities is vital. When the world moves on from Covid-19, companies will need to get back to business very quickly. Many are more likely to want to work smarter, in order to recoup the financial losses they have sustained. Innovation, using technology and streamlining business processes, can and will make a difference in a post-Covid era.
Top: The ability to configure and visualise orders online can be a powerful customer draw Above: Clear pricing can prompt customers into an immediate purchase
GET IN TOUCH: Glen Smith is CEO of DriveWorks. Its offices are within driving distance of Joderell Bank, so we’re not too sure why the team doesn’t already have season tickets for field trips. Get in touch at driveworks.co.uk or @driveworks DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 15
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VISUAL DESIGN GUIDE PMC QB1-XBD ACTIVE
When it comes to kitting out some of the best recording studios and mixing booths in the world, PMC has some serious experience. Its latest product is now making big noise by picking up every little detail in a track, at any volume
FORMULA 1 TECHNOLOGY The QB1 features vertical strakes or fins called Laminair, which are added to the end section of the transmission line to control the huge airflow at the vents. The result is that air flow remains smooth, efficient and, above all, silent as it is devoid of turbulence
STRONG AT VOLUME A standard drive unit would simply fold when powered by 17,000 watts, so the ultra-rigid PMC carbon fibre piston driver is the perfect solution. Two sheets of aerospace carbon fibre sandwich a honeycomb of Nomex, which is then driven by an enormous coil and motor assembly
BIGGER SOUND Every PMC design features the Advanced Transmission Line (ATL) – a long tunnel within, dampened with acoustic material to create the effect of a cabinet twice the size with twice the dynamism. The result is clearer bass that can be heard from whisper-quiet to a staggeringly high level, all in equal proportion
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TITANIC NOISE
Since its founding in 1991, PMC’s kit has been installed in recording studios around the world and used to create some of the biggest Hollywood movie soundtracks, including those for ‘Titanic’ and ‘Skyfall’. The company has even received an Emmy award for its contribution to recording excellence
HAND-CRAFTED
Each of PMC’s legendary 75mm mid-range drivers are hand-built in the UK and take over two weeks to complete, from hand-winding the coils to magnetising the huge 5kg magnet
A MIGHTY MID-RANGE A profiled dispersion flange, machined from solid aluminium billet, projects the transparent mid-range frequencies, including truly tangible vocals, across a vast area
NEXT STEPS
A pair of PMC QB1-XBD Active are typically POA from professional studio audio retailers pmc-speakers.com
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Š 2020 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. EDEM is a registered trademark of Altair Engineering, Inc. PCIe and PCI Express are registered trademarks of PCI-SIG Corporation. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Crush Complex Double Precision Material Simulations Up to
Announcing the new AMD Radeon™ Pro VII GPU. The new standard for crushing complex CAE simulation and design validation workloads.
5.6x
THE performance per dollar
than a NVIDIA® Quadro® GV1001
“The Radeon Pro VII offers good compute performance for Altair EDEM™ software with 16GB of memory and PCI-E Gen 4 support for quick data transfer. EDEM simulation results rely on good data handling speed as well as pure number crunching so the latest standards offer significant benefits.” Mark Cook, EDEM Product Manager, Altair
amd.com/RadeonProVII
1
altair.com/edem
RPW-320: Testing as of April 29, 2020 by AMD Performance Labs on a production test system comprised of an Intel® Xeon® W-2125, 32GB HBM2 RAM, Windows® 10 Pro for Workstations, 64-bit, System BIOS 1.11.1, AMD Radeon™ Pro VII, AMD Radeon™ Software for Enterprise 20.Q2 Pre-Release version /NVIDIA Quadro RTX™, NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R440 U6 (442.5) using AMD Internal Benchmark for ALTAIR EDEM™. Results may vary. RPW-320
» Welcome to our round-up of 30 new technologies from around the world that we firmly believe could give your 2020 product development work a major boost – or even transform it entirely
T
hanks to relentless innovation, there has never been more new tools available to help design and engineering professionals bring their ideas to life. As a result, navigating today’s marketplace can be a thrilling journey, but also a bewildering one. Why not let DEVELOP3D be your guide? To help you explore what’s available, we’ve put together this list of 30 new technologies that we believe will transform the way that products are designed, developed and manufactured. Picked entirely
on merit from an even lengthier list of contenders, we’re excited to showcase this illustrious group. Some of these products come from established old hands in the game; others from fresh-faced start-ups. Some you may have read about previously on these pages; others may be entirely new to you. Either way, we’re hoping you’ll have the chance to get hands-on with some of these technologies over the coming months – not least on the exhibition floor at DEVELOP3D Live on 3 November 2020. Happy exploring!
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ADDITIVE FLOW FORMFLOW
AESUB 3D SCAN SPRAY
ALTAIR INSPIRE
AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER
FormFlow optimises part geometry and material properties simultaneously, using multi-physics algorithms to put the right materials and properties in the right places. The user can choose from multiple materials and different geometry variants. Subsequently, the software allows them to view productivity, cost and performance outcomes of different design/production recommendations. From there, they can export the part in production files according to multiple pre-defined parameters. Currently offered as a consultancy service, Additive Flow’s FormFlow software will be available as a standalone product later in 2020.
It feels a little weird to include a humble aerosol spray on this list of innovative products, but hear us out. The range of entry-level to mid-range 3D scanning devices has never been wider. Many of these provide really useful, fast results, and come at a fraction of the price of their metrologygrade peers. That said, results can be poor when the object to be scanned is too dark or too reflective. That’s just the price you pay with a lower-cost product. AESUB’s response is a spray that gives your target a consistent, non-reflective white coating, enabling the scanner to grab all the details you need. The coating disappears overnight, leaving no sticky mess to clean up – it’s like magic in a can.
Altair’s range of technology products is truly is impressive – from mainstays of simulation such as HyperWorks and OptiStruct, through to the more mainstream design tools of the Inspire suite. The most recent Inspire releases have brought together analyst-specific, heavyweight tools and combined them with its design elements under one roof – so not only do you have mainstream modelling and generative design software, but you’re also getting the simulation power of SimSolid, Optistruct and more. Backed up with a new integration of MotionSolve, it will help keep those load cases accurate and based on real physics, rather than gut feeling.
We recently described AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 3990X as the most impressive CPU we’ve ever seen and nothing has come along since to change our minds. With its 64 high-frequency cores, you get phenomenal multithreaded and great singlethreaded performance in one workstation. Ray trace rendering and CAD have never been such good bedfellows. Threadripper is currently only available in workstations from a limited range of specialist manufacturers – but surely Dell, Fujitsu, HP and Lenovo can’t continue to ignore this remarkable CPU for long? Also from AMD, the Radeon Pro W5500 is a pro GPU powerful enough for real-time viz and VR, but only costing $399.
additiveflow.com
aesub.com
altair.com
amd.com
Multifunctional optimisation
3D scan highlighting spray
Mainstream complex solvers
64-core compute power
ANSYS/AUTODESK SPEOS & VRED INTEROPERABILITY
Light simulation for everyone The ability to accurately simulate light is a becoming an increasingly vital part of many readers’ workflows. As products become smarter, more intelligent and more connected, the ability to simulate how they look and how they interact with the human operator at a level more accurate than most rendering approaches offer will become fundamental. By combining the advanced light simulation tools in SPEOS with the rendering and collaboration environment inside VRED, Ansys and Autodesk are getting closer to true realism in optics simulation and this will have impacts far beyond the automotive sector. ansys.com | autodesk.com
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THE D3D 30
BOSTON MICRO FABRICATION (BMF) MICROARCH S130
Microprecision 3D printers
Following its initial launch in Asia, BMF’s MicroArch 3D printer is now being rolled out globally. MicroArch uses a proprietary approach to DLP 3D printing named PSL (Projection MicroStereolithography). This leverages light, high-precision optics and increased motion control to produce parts at a scale more than 100 times smaller than a human hair. In industries such as medical devices and small electronics packaging, the technology should outperform the traditional approach of injection moulding, where complex mouldings can start at $200,000, but only require sub 10,000-unit production runs. bmf3d.com
ARTEC3D LEO 3D SCANNER
AUTODESK FUSION 360
CREAFORM HANDYSCAN BLACK
DESKTOP METAL FIBER
There are two stages of using a handheld scanner. The first, scanning your target object, is fun and interactive, as you work to ensure you capture data as accurately and comprehensively as possible. The second stage, post-processing, can be more gruelling, but it’s the successful bringing together of separate scans that typically makes or breaks a project. Artec’s Leo neatly combines the two, enabling on-device processing of scan data as you work. It captures data at 0.5mm resolution and tracks position within targets using an internal accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. A built-in touchscreen enables you to interact with already-captured data.
Fusion 360 has been growing in capability for some years. It now runs the gamut: design, simulation, manufacturing and CNC programming up to 5-axis machine tool support. In 2018, Autodesk acquired Eagle, a developer of a lowcost electronics design and manufacturing packaging that covered schematic, routing and PCB layout. Integration between the Fusion and Eagle platforms came soon afterwards, but few saw the lock, stock and barrel lifting of Eagle directly into the Fusion interface coming. Now it’s there: one platform, one set of tools and nativelevel interoperability between mechanical and electronic design. Impressive.
The 3D scanner market is an extremely busy place right now, but for the designer or engineer looking to accurately capture form for downstream use, the Creaform HandyScan Black is a good place to start their search for the right device. With a volumetric accuracy of 0.035mm (0.025mm with the Elite edition) and using 11 blue laser crosses that take up to 800,000 measurements per second, this device is a beast, and one that’s entirely suited to tackling a wide range of part sizes, from 50mm to 4m and beyond. While other vendors can certainly beat it on price, if you’re looking for the state of the art, then the Creaform HandyScan Black is it.
Based on a composite layering process called Micro Automated Fibre Placement (AFP), Fiber 3D’s technology combines desktop FDM simplicity with the capabilities of million-dollar AFP systems. Producing parts of incredible strength and stiffness, the process can use a broad range of materials and automatically optimise fibre orientation for maximum coverage. There’s also an ‘Expert Mode’, for tailoring orientation for specific loading conditions. It prints with two printheads – one for continuous fibre tape and the other for chopped fibrereinforced filament – and can be arranged into ‘print farms’ of six or 10 printers.
artec.com
autodesk.com
creaform.com
desktopmetal.com
Onboard 3D scan processing
MCAD & ECAD integration
State-of-the-art 3D Scanner
Composite fibre 3D printer
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DYNDRITE TBC
FORMLABS TOUGH 2000 RESIN
FORTIFY FLUX ONE
LUXION KEYSHOT REALCLOTH
Dyndrite has developed its own software kernel that enables it to use GPU-powered technology to directly import native CAD files (or the most complex STLs) and then output to any 3D printer. The technology uses CAD splines and metadata to improve the speed and quality of the workflow and this is passed directly into the printed parts. It’s fiercely effective, using all your computer’s hardware power to get every job done better and faster, and it comes with a user interface that’s easy to understand and work through. The list of additive manufacturing giants queuing up to partner with Dyndrite is a serious sign of its prowess.
Stereolithography (SLA) has been a staple of product development prototyping for years – and then along came Formlabs to change the game entirely. The company has introduced SLA to a whole new audience, eager to put it to work. Many will welcome the company’s latest material, Tough 2000, which builds on the other engineering resins in its portfolio, combining excellent stiffness with strength. In short, it’s an ABS mimic in terms of look, feel and mechanical performance. Tough 2000 offers some interesting side benefits on thermal performance, too, with better ratings for heat deflection than the company’s standard Tough Resin.
Composites 3D printing, until recently, existed only in the filled material spools used in FDM. But Fortify is looking to push back some boundaries here. The Flux One 3D prints parts from a UV-curable resin that contains composite microfibres. These fibres can be manipulated before curing, enabling them to be organised by a precise electromagnetic field into a strength-generating pattern. A digital light projector selectively sets areas of the resin, a process that is repeated multiple times for each layer. This results in different composite alignment directions, for super-strong parts and high-resolution detail.
Luxion has been pushing the boundaries of what a mainstream visualisation system can do for over a decade. Recent releases have seen new tools added that extend the capabilities of the system way beyond what a design -focused tool could traditionally handle. Out of all of them, we love RealCloth the most. The ability to accurately visualise soft materials, with their grills and grids, is increasingly important for those engaged in industrial and product design, not to mention colour materials and finish specialists. KeyShot’s RealCloth lets them not only define the visual appearance of a fabric, but also how it is manufactured and the associated visual qualities.
dyndrite.com
formlabs.com
3dfortify.com
keyshot.com
GPU-powered additive manufacturing workflows
Robust resin for desktop SLA
Tuneable 3D printing composites from resin
From fluff to thread
GEN3D GEN3D
Generative design with splines With its ability to edit with 3D spline technology, Gen3D enables users to create complex flow path or truss geometries, via the simplicity of clickand-drag controls. Our favourite example of its powers focuses on a traditional block manifold which, with many topology optimisers, might easily reduce to just the minimal structural material around the valves. The valves will still protrude at right angles, as that will be deemed the only way to manufacture the part. What sets Gen3D apart is its ability to simulate the optimum flow angles of those valves and redesign both them and their supporting structure to take advantages of additive manufacturing. Continuous automated manufacturing checks mean that downstream build constraints are never lost amidst all the design work. gen3d.co.uk
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THE D3D 30
MAKERBOT MAKERBOT LABS
MICROSOFT AZURE NVV4
MSC | APEX GENERATIVE DESIGN
NEWMAN CLOUD OPENBOM
The MakerBot Method is already a solid desktop FDM 3D printer, but the move to an open material platform under the MakerBot Labs guise makes it a very interesting prospect. A new MakerBot Labs extruder allows you to build parts with a wide range of engineeringgrade materials from big-name polymer suppliers, including BASF 3D Printing Solutions, Lehvoss Group and Jabil. There’s a lot to play with in the new interchangeable nozzle assemblies and expanded print settings in MakerBot’s print preparation software, which really make the most of parent company Stratasys’ many patents.
Microsoft’s Azure NVv4 family of virtual workstations is not only perfect for 3D CAD but also keen on price, starting at $0.233/hour. Microsoft makes this possible through an impressive density of users, using a combination of 64-core AMD Epyc CPUs and AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 GPUs, which can be virtualised at a hardware level. Customers can work directly with Microsoft, or alternatively, through several specialist service providers that can simplify deployment and offer expert consultancy. Once set up, CAD users can work from anywhere on any device – perfect for these challenging lockdown times.
The tools in MSC Apex Generative Design may be young, but the system now has a clear roadmap, thanks to its 2017 acquisition by Hexagon. Once fully fledged, the system will be able to take advantage of other technologies from across Hexagon’s portfolio. This might include materials and composites data from Digimat; access to Simufact’s process simulation software; even links to systems simulation tools like Adams. Add into the mix quality assurance of 3D-printed parts with Hexagon’s Volume Graphics, and you’re looking at a pretty comprehensive arsenal.
In a world of overly complex data and product management systems that cost a small fortune to buy and another small fortune to implement, OpenBOM is a breath of fresh air. Its focus is on allowing distributed teams to manage their product at the BOM level, accurately and in a manner consistent with the realities of design and manufacturing, rather than a software developer’s perspective. The CAD integration is first class; its cloud-based nature means few implementation challenges; and the ability to connect a product management system to accounting makes great sense.
makerbot.com
azure.microsoft.com
mscsoftware.com
openbom.com
Opening up desktop 3D printing
Virtually perfect for CAD
Generative tools with solid simulation backing
BOM-based management with accounts integration
PTC CREO 7
Multibody modelling, but better While multibody modelling has seen a rebirth of interest in recent years, it has been a core part of many users’ workflows for many years. PTC has always been reticent to introduce it, but finally took the plunge with Creo 7. Instead of copying from others, the company has made the extra effort to consider how multibody modelling is used and introduced capabilities to better support it. A good example is the ability to define a ‘body’ as construction-only; this helps maintain accurate mass and volume calculations in a part and allows bodies to hold their own material and mechanical properties, meaning they can be better documented. ptc.com
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SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE CONVERGENT MODELLING Meshes alongside surfaces
The use of mesh-based geometry alongside more analytical solids and surfaces has been a tricky challenge ever since the inception of the CAD industry – and it’s one that very few vendors, with a few notable exceptions, have attempted to solve to date. Siemens has developed a new method that allows users to bring together mesh-based data alongside solid and surface geometry in a single, integrated manner and the company has made it available in both NX and Solid Edge. This opens up a new set of workflows and capabilities in the process, from better use of 3D scan data to reusing the results of your simulation or optimisation processes. www.siemens.com/plm
NTOPOLOGY NTOP PLATFORM
NUTANIX XI FRAME
NVIDIA QUADRO RTX
OQTON OQTON FACTORY OS
NTopology’s nTop Platform is looking to solve issues that a resurgence of interest in geometric freedom has raised. It takes a field-driven approach to complex geometry, giving you a more robust and repeatable way of taking a geometry base and processing it to achieve the form you want. That might be applied, for example, to light-weighting structures, architecting of materials, optimising topology or pre-processing of complex forms for more efficient build runs. NTop Platform shouldn’t be seen as an additive-only design tool; its procedural and fielddriven approach has applications across a much broader spectrum of design and engineering.
This impressive cloud workstation service, designed to ‘run any software in a browser’, stands out to us for its simplicity. Users can get up and running in a matter of minutes. Prices start at $30 per named user, per month – and you only get billed for the hours you actually use. There’s a variety of Frame systems to rent, all offering different levels of CPU, GPU and memory, so that customers can find exactly the right fit for them. Frame was born in the cloud and today, it runs on Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud, so there’s great global coverage. Prospective customers get a free two-hour test drive.
Nvidia may have originally launched Quadro RTX back in 2018, but 2020 will be the year when its GPU-accelerated real-time ray tracing technology truly comes of age. Over the last six months, we’ve seen the commercial release of several RTX-enabled pro viz applications, including Solidworks Visualize 2020, Autodesk VRED 2021 and Chaos Group V-Ray NEXT. Arguably the most significant is Luxion KeyShot 9, a stalwart of CPU rendering that has finally embraced the GPU as well. With Nvidia RTX, ray tracing isn’t necessarily ‘real time’ in its strictest sense, but it’s still incredibly fast. It’s also very scalable. Want faster renders? Simple – just add a second GPU.
Billed as an ‘end-to-end production platform’, Factory OS represents the next level of additive build software. By combining the power of artificial intelligence (AI) with its cloud-based approach to the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), it is able to connect factory floor equipment to create full, closed-loop manufacturing. Oqton will blow minds with its topology optimised support structures and ability to perform dense nesting on the build tray. Its best trick, however, may well be its AI-based ability to learn from your best machine operators, retain their knowledge and find ways to improve on their methods.
ntopology.com
nutanix.com
nvidia.com
Enabling the design of the complex
Take your workstation anywhere
A graphics powerhouse
AI-Power for intelligent manufacturing
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THE D3D 30
PARAMATTERS COGNICAD
SHAPR3D SHAPR3D APP
VARJO XR-1 HEADSET
VRGINEERS XTAL HEADSET
Underneath a pleasant UI, CogniCAD is a seriously quick topology optimiser for lightweighting, AM and investment casting designs. It’s not a ‘oneclick’ solution, but the fact it can be run via a touchscreen display through a browser says a great deal. Prospective customers are likely to be attracted by its variety of loading conditions (forces, pressure, acceleration, thermal loads and vibrations) and its tuneable design goals/ constraints. CAD-agnostic, the software is a pay-per-design service, with several subscription and enterprise options available.
The iPad promised the design community much from the start – but aside from Onshape’s native iPad app, there’s not been much available in the way of 3D modelling for the platform. That’s all changed with Shapr3D. Built on the industrystandard Parasolid platform, it takes advantage of the iPad’s multitouch interface, used in conjunction with the Apple Pencil, to allow you not only to open, view and edit existing models, but also create them from scratch using a direct modelling approach. Considering it costs less than £200 a year, this is a tool that iPadusing designers and engineers could find a lot of use for.
The XTAL (pronounced ‘Crystal’) professional VR headset, say its developers, is all about allowing users to focus on the task at hand. It features embedded Leap Motion hand-tracking, and seamless voice commands through built-in microphones, coupled to voice recognition software for intuitive controls while immersed in a project. It’s no slouch, with its 2020 pro spec offering 8K OLED resolution, eye tracking at up to 210 fps and a 170-degree field of view. It comes optimised for use with Nvidia Quadro professional GPUs and features plug-and-play integration with software such as Autodesk VRED.
paramatters.com
shapr3d.com
Still in Developer Edition, the XR-1 is Varjo’s professional mixed reality (MR) device for engineers, researchers and designers. With its ‘human eye resolution’ fidelity, ultra-low latency and integrated eye tracking, the XR-1 seamlessly merges virtual content with the real world, and its engineers still haven’t finished finessing what it can do. On their radar: real-world lighting on MR objects, to create MR shadows and reflections. The headset allows users to switch seamlessly between mixed reality and full virtual reality, to test designs and manipulate surroundings with pixel-perfect control. varjo.com
Approachable generative design
Direct modelling for iPad
Next-level mixed reality
Hi-res VR with added handtracking reality
vrgineers.com
STRATASYS J55 3D PRINTER
Colour made to work Colour 3D printing has until now been something of an expensive folly, for which most designers have found a workaround. While hardly cheap, at $99,000, the J55 is the far more affordable little sibling of the Stratasys J850, yet manages to pack in all the same Pantone-validated colours and high-resolution surface finishes into a quiet, more officefriendly package. Most important are the promised workflow changes that mean all the colours, textures and materials (including transparency!) you define in a KeyShot visualisation can now be sent to 3D print on the J55 in a couple of clicks – giving you the full package for selling a concept. stratasys.com
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From BIM to digital fabrication Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Architecture, Engineering and Construction
Building Information Modelling technology for Architecture, Engineering & Construction
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MAKING WAVES » Changing customer tastes in highly customised luxury catamarans has seen Poland-based Sunreef Yachts navigate new design approaches, buoyed up by simulation and optimisation technologies
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PROFILE
W
hen Francis Lapp founded Sunreef Yachts in 2002, he was taking a gamble. He firmly believed that many buyers of luxury catamarans would value living space, high-quality materials and ergonomics over speed and power – but would his bet pay off? After all, as he points out, privately owned luxury catamarans were nonexistent back then. “But I sensed that tastes had evolved. Many yacht owners come to Sunreef because they want to switch from a monohull vessel to a catamaran, because a catamaran is more stable due to its double hull,” he explains. “Moreover, it can provide a more ample living space, providing a better sense of conviviality and community than narrower, longer yachts.” Luxury, he adds, also means being able to venture where yachts cannot go: “By this, I mean [that] sailing around the world with a catamaran is feasible, whereas with a yacht – even a big yacht – it’s not always the case, because of the yacht’s instability and lack of autonomy.” In effect, a catamaran has more autonomy, “because there is less hull friction in the water, so less drag and better fuel consumption. Just think, on an 18-metre catamaran, we can cross the Atlantic Ocean on one full tank of fuel. This is not necessarily possible with a 40- or 50-metre classic yacht.”
2 a new model – and understanding the boat’s hull plays a crucial role, according to Sunreef Yachts’ design office director, Piotr Hinczewski. “Coming up with an appealing, easily customisable and seaworthy product is only possible when you have a powerful tool for design and simulation. It’s critical for our customers that we virtually verify the 3D design model of the vessel,” he says. “The shape of the hull depends on many small details, which we can modify to achieve different aspects, like high energy efficiency or high speed in the case of a motor boat, while still being easy to navigate. All these details need to be taken into account in the design and illustrated as the design progresses.” To achieve this, Sunreef Yachts implemented Dassault Systèmes Solidworks design applications and Simulia XFlow to digitally simulate and verify the vessel’s seaworthiness before finalising a design.
1 The Sunreef 80 ●
Gaya superyacht’s flybridge offers ample living space with large sunbeds, fitness equipment, a BBQ bar and freestanding furniture
2 Simulation is ●
key to delivering aerodynamic and hydrodynamic excellence
3 Sunreef uses ●
Simulia XFlow to validate ideas and concepts very quickly alongside Solidworks
TRUST AND COOPERATION Sunreef’s high-end luxury products are built for the world’s most demanding and discerning customers, who expect a product that delivers the best in design, safety and luxury. It’s no easy task to combine fresh design, seaworthiness and customisation with other important aspects such as energy efficiency, reliability and high performance. All this has to be factored in when the company begins to design
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PROFILE
4
“We perform computational fluid dynamics analyses BREAKTHROUGH IN SHAPE OPTIMISATION with Simulia XFlow to see how the boat will behave. And Sunreef Yachts prides itself in building very comfortable if we want to investigate a new design idea, we develop boats that include high-end luxury equipment. the concept in Simulia XFlow, which checks the boat’s Consequently, much attention is given to weight. aerodynamics and hydrodynamics through digital In order to meet the desired performance benchmarks, simulations,” says Hinczewski. shape optimisation is a key success factor for achieving the In order to correctly design or tune the propulsion system, best hydrodynamics and energy efficiency. It also leads to a he continues, the company needs the hull resistance better understanding of engine choice, fuel efficiency and curve to be derived from XFlow: “This defines the power possible sail options. required to propel the yacht, including both hydrodynamic According to Francis Lapp, there’s also a market for large, and air resistance for various speeds and environmental 50- to 60-metre catamarans that are ecologically friendly, in conditions. With this that they use electricity information, we can or solar power electric choose the correct and include ecoThanks to Simulia XFlow, we can test engine, match up the friendly furnishings. several scenarios – different shapes, best propellers and “We are currently select the sail plan, speeds, sea conditions – and get our results experimenting with as the software can a revolutionary solar quickly. Based on the results, we come simulate close to real that will be up with an attractive shape for optimum panel yacht conditions.” directly integrated in seaworthiness and fuel consumption For example, for a 40the hull or mast,” he foot motor boat with reports. a high-performing For these reasons, engine, Sunreef Yachts needs a shape that will allow he says, Sunreef Yachts will continue to use Solidworks the vessel to go fast. With a 60-foot sailboat, by contrast, and Simulia XFlow applications, especially to build speed may not be as important, so the hull shape will be bigger boats. “They are key to our future development,” completely different. Hinczewski confirms. “Thanks to Simulia XFlow, we can test several scenarios – Instead of simply selling boats, Sunreef Yachts promotes different shapes, speeds, sea condition – and get our results a philosophy that focuses on an exceptional sailing quickly,” says Hinczewski. “Based on the results, we come experience, ample living areas and quality after-sales up with an attractive shape for optimum seaworthiness and services. “We build close relationships between the fuel consumption. And if the client wants to install a new shipyard and client, because this creates an overall sense of feature, we need to make sure it doesn’t adversely impact family and that is our trademark,” Lapp concludes. the boat’s speed or navigability.” sunreef.com | 3ds.com
4 Sunreef 80 Gaya ●
is a head-spinning luxury catamaran, sleeping up to eight guests in four cabins as well as four crew
‘‘
’’
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SWITCH TO
SOLIDWORKS ...IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINK
solidsolutions.co.uk/switch
Watch online to find out what’s involved or call 01926 333777 to learn more
We discuss common reasons why companies switch from a current CAD system to SOLIDWORKS.
We explore the technical questions often asked about data translation and data migration.
PROFILE
» The TV show doesn’t do justice to the digital innovation at work at Kindig-It Designs. Stephen Holmes talks to the team about how 3D scanning helps them build more custom cars
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tar of its own Discovery Channel series, Kindig-It Design is a highend ‘restomod’ auto shop that has seen hundreds of custom hot rods, muscle cars and classics roll off its ramps. Along the way, the work of Kindig-It owner and chief stylist Dave Kindig, who has been designing cars by hand since he was a kid, has attracted a cult following. The workshop where these often over-the-top creations come to life, meanwhile, boasts some seriously talented manual metal workers, fabricators and mechanics. But with more new projects to tackle than ever before, and all the work performed on an entirely bespoke basis, the workshop has had to evolve and digitise to become more efficient. Vintage cars, for example, feature masses of complex surfaces, including body lines with slight curves and very few flat areas or straight edges. And that means that being able to capture, clean up and transfer accurate surface data in 3D has become key. With Solidworks already established as the solution of choice for CAD modelling and manufacturing data, the next steps involved the addition of a Faro ScanArm to 3D scan cars and components, plus an implementation of Geomagic’s Design X scan-to-CAD software to process the data. “Right now, we’re working on some fixtures – we are scanning a 1953 Corvette – and then designing our fixture pieces so we can start doing composite work and building bucks off of that car,” says Kindig-It’s digital fabrication specialist, Greg Hebard, speaking from the company’s garage headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. “We’re really happy with that combination of tools,” he says. “The Faro scanner works great for the size of pieces we scan – from engine intakes to entire cars – and realigning the scans in Geomagics X works pretty effortlessly.” While the company has always worked with Solidworks and modelling, adds Kindig-IT engineer Will Lockwood, scanning is
a newer, more unfamiliar step, “but being acclimated with the whole design aspect of it really helped move us into scanning and designing with the Geomagics software.” The use of the 3D scanner, combined with Geomagic’s Design X, has enabled a number of projects to complete first time and simplify traditional workflows – tasks like using dxf files to cut out templates, or using the scan data to help design brandnew tail lights for cars. “We’re just shooting from the hip a lot of the time, figuring out ways that we can use the scanner – and I think a lot of it might be less conventional than what other people are doing,” says Hebard. “We’re always just trying to experiment with it.” FRESH CLASSICS The biggest challenge that the Kindig-IT team faces is creating more interesting and intricate parts that are by their nature harder to mock up or are impossible to do by hand. The custom ’53 Chevrolet Corvette project is the biggest they’ve worked on to date. It involves constructing four units from Dave Kindig’s handsketched designs, with a view to building more going forward. “We’re investing a little bit more time into each aspect of this project,” says Hebard. “When Dave comes up with a design, he’ll just let us loose to figure out how we’re going to do these different processes, working within an entire car at once on the computer and implementing every component into a design, verifying all of our fitments and everything like that.” Key to the Kindig-It style is taking original cars and making them bigger and better, adding bigger power plants and fortifying the rest of the mechanics to handle new extremes in horsepower in the great hotrodding tradition, as well as adding greater levels of reliability and finesse to these old motors. “The clearances are so tight, because these old cars had much smaller
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1 Kindig-It’s ‘57 ●
Corvette ‘Family Affair’
2 Kindig-It owner ●
and chief designer Dave Kindig
3 All of Kindig-It’s ●
designs originate from the sketches of owner Dave Kindig
2
3
4 Greg Hebard, ●
Kindig-It’s digital fabrication expert, scans the front of a Karmann Ghia
5 Assessing the ●
3D scan data in Geomagic Design X
6 The new chrome ●
grill insert fits perfectly
4
5
6
7
engines,” explains Hebard. “We put these massive engines in them and everything is a tight fit. The alternator’s close to the inside of the side of the engine bay; our [air] intake’s almost always within a quarter-inch off the hood itself. So, that’s always something you have to fight on basically every car.” Designing all that in a computer, where the hood can become transparent in order to get a good view on those space limitations is “definitely important”, he adds. “It’s been super-cool to be able to basically get the scan and then ‘see through’ to what you need to be able to,” confirms Lockwood. “Now we have the scanners and we can see through where we need to, we can zoom in on where we need to be and
7 Kindig-It engineer ● Will Lockwood stands next to a finished Corvette project
build stuff that fits the first time. It’s been ultra-cool.” Next on the to-do list is adding the integrated Geomagics For Solidworks solution to the equation for extra accuracy. For now, however, the team’s pretty happy manually exporting parts out of Geomagics and into CAD. It’s just another workaround, says Hebard, who’s been compiling the scanned parts for the Corvette project into Solidworks. “Luckily, they seem to work pretty well,” he says. There’s plenty of things changing at the Kindig-It workshop all the time, with the team looking to refine its design processes and make them more streamlined, so that the cars that emerge continue to reflect the company’s own unique style. kindigit.com | 3dsystems.com
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PROFILE
SPEED
TWIN
» Subhashish Dasgupta & Vinay Kariwala of ABB explain how they have developed a digital twin in order to predict the performance of flowmeters and improve their design using simulation tools from Comsol
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low measurement products from ABB reflect stateof-the-art developments in flow sensing technology. ABB’s new tool, a digital twin, mimics the actual flowmeter in a virtual environment and predicts electromagnetic (EM) flowmeter performance. The digital twin based on multiphysics modelling enables flowmeter design improvement and performance prediction under field conditions. During the last decade, new technologies and digitisation have begun to dramatically impact conventional process industries involving liquids, such as water and wastewater transport and treatment. As these exciting applications have become more plausible and available, ABB’s dedicated research teams have worked to ensure customers receive the best and most cost-effective tools to improve their competitive edge. Digital twin technology can do just that by enabling the detection of physical issues early on and predicting outcomes accurately. Looking to the future, ABB has seized the opportunity to apply digital twin technology to improve its flowmeter products to meet process challenges, deliver value faster than ever before and fulfill ever-increasing customer expectations.
ELECTROMAGNETIC FLOWMETERS Production processes require reliable and accurate instrumentation to meet high performance standards. For more than 40 years, ABB has been a reliable partner to the global water industry, because of its dedication to product development, system solutions and service. ABB’s flowmeters are traditional workhorses in the production
1
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1 ABB’s EM ●
flowmeter
2 Interaction of the ●
magnetic flux with moving conductive fluid induces an electric potential (Φ2) proportional to the fluid velocity
3 Geometry of EM ●
flowmeter built using CAD
4 Discretised ●
geometry for FEA calculations
5 Several varieties ●
2
3
of flowmeters were modelled, differing in component design and/or size
6 ●
4
6A
5
6B
process industry because they are robust, reliable and above all, accurate (figure 1). Comprising a major share in ABB’s flow measurement portfolio, EM flowmeters are especially appealing to customers who transport or process conductive liquids, due to a unique set of advantages: simplicity of installation, negligible impact on pressure drop and high accuracy. Furthermore, EM flowmeter performance is not susceptible to variations in temperature, pressure or density, nor is it influenced by minor fluctuations in flow profiles. Independent of flow direction, with measurement errors contained within 0.2 percent over wide flow ranges, EM flowmeters enable accurate measurement at low flow rates. ABB continually explores tools to improve its electromagnetic flowmeter offerings, with the aim of meeting high performance standards and cost-optimisation demands. By combining deep knowledge of flowmeter physics with new verifiable modelling techniques, ABB endeavors to add value to existing flowmeters. EM flowmeters rely on Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction to determine flow velocity. When a magnetic field is imposed within a pipe through which a conductive, water like, liquid flows, electric potential or electromotive force (EMF) is induced across the pipe cross section (figure 2). The EMF is proportional to the flow rate or velocity, and by measuring the induced EMF, flow rate can
Qualitative physical phenomena were evaluated; red represents maximal values (A) Magnetic flux distribution (B) Fluid velocity contours (C) Electric potential
6C
be estimated. The ratio of induced EMF to fluid velocity is sensitivity, which is related to the calibration factor. While it is important to predict sensitivity, it is just as critical to predict the variations in sensitivity that result from changing conditions. Thermal and structural events that can impact flowmeter operation must be evaluated in the interest of product safety and to assess flowmeter performance under harsh conditions.
DIGITAL TWIN CONCEPT What if one could develop a predictive model based on knowledge of physical processes that would predict flowmeter performance and minimise the need for testing? The result would be unparalleled productivity and heightened performance. ABB has developed a software model of an EM flowmeter based on a multiphysics finite element analysis (FEA) technique to accomplish this. This software model, or digital twin, is a replica that represents the physical asset in the virtual world, thereby mimicking the physical asset’s real behaviour. Performance complexities can be understood, problems can be detected and designs can be improved based on the resultant acquired process knowledge. This information can subsequently be used to build and operate the product in the field. Digital twins can simulate almost any condition in the virtual world with confidence that the same behaviour would occur in the real world. DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 35
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8
9
7 7 Qualitative thermal and ● hydraulic stress fields are illustrated; red represents a maximal value. Temperature field above, stress field below 8 Several flowmeter ● varieties were modelled and compared against test data
9 Iterative modelling ● performed for optimal coil design 10 Modelling an EM ● flowmeter installed in a customer piping system to predict field performance under distorted flow conditions
MULTIPHYSICS MODEL FEA modelling involves discretising the geometry of an object into smaller finite spaces. The computational model is supplied with information such as material properties as well as operating and boundary conditions. The model solves physics-based equations over the finite domains to derive parameters. This method, which yields three-dimensional and, if necessary, time-varying information, is employed for performance prediction and design improvement of equipment across industries like oil and gas and aviation. The use of FEA modelling, as opposed to conventional testing methods, ensures that complex processes can be easily understood. Laboratory testing methods are limited by their dependence on the number and placement of sensors employed within the equipment, which is cost-intensive and difficult for process industry applications to accomplish. In contrast, the recent advances and decreasing costs of high-performance computing allows diverse and complex physicsbased equations to be easily and iteratively solved using FEA. ABB chose a multiphysics model of an EM flowmeter to improve its already outstanding flowmeter product offerings.
INTEGRATION OF PHYSICAL PHENOMENA Initially, the geometry of a flowmeter was constructed using a CAD software (figure 3). The geometry, or the computational domain, was then discretised into minuscule elements across which equations were solved (figure 4). Several flowmeter samples of varying designs and sizes were modelled (figure 5). The integration of the two primary phenomena, electromagnetism and fluid dynamics and other diverse physical phenomena within a single model is challenging. Electromagnetism is analysed by solving Maxwell’s equations. These equations initially calculate the magnetic flux density within the computational domain (figure 6A). The fluid dynamics are analysed by solving equations of mass and momentum conservation for various flow conditions, simulating fluid flow through the pipe (figure 6B). Next, the induced EMF, the result of magnetic flux and fluid velocity interaction, is calculated by integrating the magnetic and flow fields, using the Lorentz equations, derived from Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction (figure 6C).
10 The primary outcome is sensitivity or the ratio of the induced EMF to the fluid velocity. To obtain a comprehensive picture, the model also solves for thermal propagation and structural dynamics parameters. Thermal and hydraulic stresses acting on the pipe wall are calculated (figure 7). Such advanced simulations are essential to predict the effect of challenging, harsh conditions on flowmeter health, like the impact of high-temperature and/or high-pressure liquids passing through the pipe. The ultimate result of these exhaustive calculations is a complete multiphysics model of the flowmeter that can predict performance as well as impending failure under adverse conditions. Clearly, modelling has the benefit of minimising the need for testing efforts, which are cost-intensive and time consuming. Several ABB flowmeters, of unique design and varying line sizes, were successfully simulated in 2017. A comparison of the sensitivities calculated by the model and obtained during field tests revealed an agreement of 95%, establishing the model as a realistic and accurate predictive tool (figure 8). Besides predicting sensitivity, the model could predict the linearity of the flowmeter or, in other words, the constancy of the sensitivity with changing flow rates — measurement accuracy. Not only is the digital twin concept an asset during the testing phase, but the model has also been extensively leveraged to modify the existing design of the flowmeter to improve quality. By incorporating novel component designs and innovative ideas into the model, improvement in flowmeter performance could be evaluated. The modified flowmeter was found to outperform the existing flowmeter product better than the current flowmeter, setting the stage for future design improvements. The digital twin, when applied to flowmeter development efforts, will increase flowmeter sensitivity, improve measurement accuracy and reduce manufacturing costs. Extensive efforts are currently underway to test prototypes of the flowmeter and incorporate the various design modifications and evaluate the feasibility of some of the novel ideas.
DOING LESS CREATES MORE The primary goal of product development is to minimise material usage while maintaining or maximising the performance level.
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PROFILE
11 Accordingly, the digital twin model has been used to The effect of flow modification on measurement accuracy optimise the design of flowmeter components with the was studied to provide insight into the impact of system intent of reducing material costs. features such as upstream bends. As a result, ABB could Being an important component, the EM coil was determine the best location to install flowmeters within modified to obtain the optimal size and/or shape for a given piping system, thereby enabling the correction of the ultimate flowmeter performance. Size variation of flowmeter readings for an installed flowmeter. a given coil was evaluated in a series of iterations To date, the tool has demonstrated veracity in predicting (figure 9). In a particular iteration, the original sensitivity flowmeter performance and enabled engineers to of the flowmeter could be maintained using significantly improve the design of flowmeters. The expansion of less copper coil material. the model to simulate the manner in which flowmeter Furthermore, simulations of radically novel coil designs operations influence the flow profiles of customer piping were shown to systems also opens reduce the amount up new avenues for of material needed to the improvement The digital twin technology can also be maintain the original of measurement employed to serve as a useful guide for performance level. accuracy. The digital This is of particular twin technology can flowmeter installation in the field, which value for the also be employed enables industries like water management development of large to serve as a useful facilities to improve their flow control flowmeters because guide for flowmeter systems in the interest of radically enhancing installation in the coil costs can make up a substantial field, which enables industrial process performance portion of total industries like flowmeter material water management costs. Recently, proposed solutions to reduce the overall facilities to improve their flow control systems in the flowmeter footprint for large flowmeters have been interest of radically enhancing industrial process evaluated and verified in the subsequent prototype performance. testing phase. Extensive research at ABB concentrates on developing the digital twin model for use in other process industries to provide customers with the most advanced digital means REPLICATING FIELD CONDITIONS of reaching unparalleled productivity and performance. While development and testing are important phases in ABB focuses on maximising value and producing products the product lifecycle, the installation phase has its unique with fewer defects, ensuring optimal operation, bringing challenges too, given that system features like bends and products quickly to market and improving operation. valves can distort flow profiles and impair measurement accuracy. Understanding the systemic effect of piping abb.com | comsol.com features on flowmeter performance is therefore crucial. This article was written by Subhashish Dasgupta of ABB Corporate Research and ABB’s flowmeter digital twin was expanded to include a Vinay Kariwala of ABB BU Measurement & Analytics and was originally published in ABB Review (02/2018) customer piping system (figure 10).
11 ABB’s range of ●
WaterMaster EM flow meters cover a wide range of applications
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REVIEWS
SOFTWARE REVIEW
1
PTC Creo 7 With Creo 7, PTC demonstrates its skills at adding compelling new features and functions to an already robust toolset and making smart partnerships to extend its capabilities even further. Al Dean takes a look on what’s on offer in this release
I
f you’ve been involved with 3D design and engineering software at any point in the last twenty years, you’ll probably know that PTC is the company that kicked off the whole mainstream market for parametric 3D. PTC took high-cost, specialist software and made it easier to use. It introduced the idea that we should be able to parametrically edit our models and incorporate our engineering knowledge into our engineering data, as it was built. Since it launched Pro/Engineer, the company’s toolset has evolved. At one stage, it looked like PTC’s best years might be behind it, thanks to an explosion of lower cost systems such as Solidworks, Inventor et al. But PTC rallied, launching a rebranded set of tools as Creo back in 2010. Creo brought together the core of Pro/ Engineer with some smart tools from CoCreate (namely, direct modelling). It offered a redesigned user experience and an openness to third-party tools that could supplement its own internal technologies. Fast-forward a decade and we now have Creo 7 – a system that amply demonstrates how a company can continue to mature a
» Product: Creo 7 » Supplier: PTC Price: On Application ptc.com
robust toolset and make smart partnerships (with companies such as Ansys and Luxion), rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel. That work has paid off. Creo is a system that is experiencing a rebirth. We’ve seen users from among our own readership either readopt it or use it to replace mainstream offerings that they have outgrown. In many cases, it’s proven more suited to their current work, due to product complexity, organisational complexity, or a combination of the two. Long-term Creo stalwarts, meanwhile, remain committed to the system and are enthusiastically adopting its newer offerings. So shall we dive in and take a look at what PTC is now providing in Creo 7?
MULTIBODY MODELLING 1 Now that Creo has ●
proper multibody modelling tools, note how the system manages the feature associate in the part history tree
The first area of Creo I want to cover is not a flashy new optimisation tool, nor an additive manufacturing-related update, nor some new cloud offering. Instead, it’s the system’s multibody capabilities. If you’ve ever used Creo (or before that, Pro/Engineer), you’ll know it has never previously supported multibody
modelling techniques. Multibody is not a new approach. It’s as old as the hills. Some newer systems, in fact, rely on it: Fusion 360 and Onshape spring to mind. But in case you’re not familiar with the technology and technique, the term ‘multibody modelling’ describes the ability to have more than one solid body contained in a single ‘part’ file. This isn’t a question of part versus assembly. Instead, it’s about explicit and individual chunks of geometry, embodied in a single part. If you can achieve this, then it’s then possible to do some very interesting things. You can, for example, use a master model approach to build the exterior A surfaces of a product in one lump. Then, when the time comes, you can split them out into separate part files for further engineering. It’s also possible to use those ‘bodies’ for other functions – such as modelling up a negative space and removing it from a whole, which might prove easier than trying to model the cavity. Given the potential value here, non-Creo users might now be wondering why it has taken so long for PTC to incorporate these DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 39
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SOFTWARE REVIEW
types of tools in Creo. The reality is that users could previously achieve 70% of the results they needed with workarounds and fudges using surfaces and other techniques – but the extra 30% that Creo 7 now gives users is really worth the wait. Naturally, Creo’s multibody modelling tools do all of the things you’d expect. You can start with your first feature as per normal, then create a second, and Creo enables you to define whether new features are modifying the existing body or creating a new one. If you then have multiple bodies, you can define whether subsequent operations apply to them all, or just select bodies as you go. As build-up operations, each body is managed in the feature tree in terms of visibility. While this is by no means uncharted territory for CAD users, it’s impressive that these capabilities have been so smoothly introduced into a system after nearly 30 years of development – and PTC has gone the extra mile to make its approach really unique, in several respects. The first is that any body can be defined as a ‘construction’ body. Construction bodies are excluded from mass property calculations and BOM information on drawings and the user can choose whether to export the construction body or not when exporting to other formats. To my mind, every vendor that uses a multibody approach should immediately steal this idea, as it’s brilliant and solves one of the big headaches of multibody modelling. Another is that different bodies can be assigned with different material definitions. Not only can you visualise them more easily (which in itself is not particularly unique), but you can also achieve more accurate mass calculations. This is going to be incredibly useful for those working with master model approaches and for those developing multi-material parts. (I’m thinking here of over-moulded or two-shot moulded parts and inserts, rather than additively manufactured multi-material parts.) The benefits will also be felt when you then follow up with documenting individual ‘parts’ in BOMs and drawings (where hatching differentiates separate bodies).
2 Of course, a core update to underlying architecture like this is going to show up in a bunch of other updates to a 3D modelling system, so let’s now have a look at what else Creo 7 has to offer users.
SIMULATION: QUICK & DIRTY VERSUS OLD-SCHOOL PTC has a long track record of providing simulation tools inside of Creo and its predecessors. Long-term users might recall Pro/Mechanica, which was ahead of the CAD-integrated simulation trend by a substantial distance, while newer Creo users will know that Creo/Simulate has been an offering for a while now. Alongside its home-brewed simulation tools, PTC has also partnered in recent releases with Ansys, to provide a more modern set of tools based on Ansys’s Discovery Live (ADL) simulation technology. This, if you’ve not come across it before, is a simulation solver that takes advantage of some new methods, along with today’s ultra-efficient GPU computation capabilities, to deliver simulation results faster than we’ve ever seen before. In other words, it might not be exactly ‘real-time’, but it’s pretty damned close. With ADL, Ansys covers not only static stress, but also internal and external fluid flow, as well as static and transient thermal studies. The Creo-integrated version of
ADL, first seen in Creo 6, saw PTC integrate the static stress, steady-state thermal and modal portions of ADL with the Creo interface and workflow. This has now been enhanced for the Creo 7 release. In the first instance, you now have transient thermal simulation, which simulates the thermal performance of a product over a defined period of time, rather than at a specific moment. You can apply your starting initial temperature and gauge performance as time progresses, and handily, you can toggle between steady-state and transient thermal simulation at any time. This release also brings both internal and external fluid flow simulation from Discovery Live into the Creo interface. The set-up and solve is exactly as you would expect. You take your assembly and work through the process, with the results streaming into the interface. Compared to traditional CFD work, these types of tools strip hours out of the workflow. Again, the results are live, so the resultant flow characteristics are available as soon as you finish a design edit. Another update for Creo Simulate Live is that there’s been a lot of work done to integrate this ultra-efficient, modern simulation technology with a technology set that’s been part of the Creo playbook – and its predecessors – for two decades now.
2 Behavioral ● Modeling and Creo Simulation Live are used to vary design parameters to achieve optimised goals
WORKFLOW: FROM MULTIBODY ASSEMBLY MODEL TO...
1 The first step is to set up the optimisation ● study by defining the design space, physics, loads and constraints, goals, manufacturing process and materials
2 You can then review the process of the ● optimisation dynamically on the screen until a converged solution is reached and you are ready to proceed
3 Review converged solutions based on ● the optimisation definition, which includes a summary panel listing material used and final mass
4 Leverage validation tools to interrogate ● the optimised shape by displaying stress and deformation fringe plots and querying the models
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in assemblies (with automation where applicable), and supports similar design of experiments to run parametric studies. There is support, too, for more complex forms, such as beams, shells, springs and remote masses – and all using the robust and industry-proven solver technology for which Ansys is highly regarded. For the Creo 7 release, Creo Ansys Simulation is being offered as an alternative to Creo Simulate.
THE G WORD: GENERATIVE
3 3 Creo Ansys ● Simulation brings the power of Ansys Workbench directly into the Creo environment
The Behavioural Modelling Extension (or BMx for short) is a set of tools that allow you to take a parametric model and use it as the basis for experimentation. We’re not talking about topology optimisation here. Instead, we’re referring to a much cleaner and more predictable process, which uses a number of different methods to vary parameters to reach an optimised state and meet a required goal. That process might be an optimisation, where you vary parameters within specified limits in order to achieve a target, such as minimised mass; or it might be a feasibility study, where you vary parameters to achieve a particular property. That property, meanwhile, could be a specific interior volume (in CPG packaging, for example, or fuel delivery in automotive) or an optimum centre of gravity for product stability. As many will know, BMx has been available for decades, so why bring it up now? The answer is that PTC has worked with Ansys to build a connection between Creo Simulate Live and BMx. That’s important, because traditionally, BMx has focused on the power of parametric modelling to achieve a design goal that’s readily measurable from your CAD model (such as centre of gravity, mass, volume and so on) – and that’s very useful. But with this new integration, you can extend this to
use the output from Creo Simulate Live as the basis for experimentation, factoring in stress, deformation, maximum temperature, heat flux, velocity and pressure. This is achieved by placing a probe and an associated measurement in the study, which can then be used to define its goals. It’s worth noting here that Creo Simulation Live is being sold as a complete solution, so there’s no splitting out of structural, thermal, fluid flow studies and so on. The BMx tools are a prerequisite, of course, and if you’re not using those already (attachment rates are around 25%), it’s an additional cost.
SIMULATION FOR GROWN-UPS Alongside the Creo Simulation Live updates, traditional simulation capability has also been a focus for this release. Here, we see PTC start to move away from its own Pro/Mechanica technology, in favour of delivering a set of CAD-integrated tools based on Ansys’s platform. This follows the same pattern seen with the Creo Simulation Live toolset; in other words, it’s based on using that platform directly within Creo, rather than a connection to Ansys Workbench. The new module, Creo Ansys Simulation, offers static structural, thermal and modal simulation capabilities. It handles meshing (using Ansys’ meshing tools) and contact
Now, let’s recap what we’ve talked about so far. There’s the ability to handle multiple bodies in a single part; the use of more efficient simulation technologies that take advantage of the GPU; and the enhancements around more traditional simulation tools for validation of parts. As you may have guessed, it’s all leading to a discussion of ‘the G word’: Generative. Regular PTC watchers will recall that the in late 2018, the company acquired generative design start-up Frustrum. Its main focus was the all-too-familiar problem of using topology optimisation to solve engineering challenges, but ending up instead with a mess of mesh-based geometry. Frustrum’s proposed solution was to allow the user to define a study based on required geometry, keep-out zones and so on, add multiple load cases, and then have the system calculate an optimised form according to the shape controls applied. It would then return a nicely smoothed-out form that could be used to progress further. It also had a prototype geometry engine that took in new field-driven methods of geometry design for better handling of lattices and more. This acquired technology has now started to appear inside Creo. In Creo 7, it follows a familiar workflow. First, you define your optimisation domain in terms of geometry for a starting shape, forms that need to be retained and those to be avoided. You’ll also need to add in constraints and loading conditions, both in terms of forces, pressures and torques, as well as manufacturing-related shape controls. This is all pretty standard for topology optimisation. What happens next, however, is absolutely not. Frustum’s technology is highly suited to computation on the GPU and takes
... GENERATIVELY OPTIMISED PARTS IN CREO 7.0
5 Output the resulting optimisation into ●
a rich B-rep model through powerful reconstruction technology, maintaining the original analytical geometry
6 You can now easily modify the design ●
by editing the parametric parameters of the original geometry or, alternatively, the optimisation set-up
7 In this step, you can quickly recompute ●
the optimisation, based on various design changes to produce an updated shape that more accurately reflects your design intent
8 From here, you can continue to ●
seamlessly update your design, based on any design changes and new optimisation preferences
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SOFTWARE REVIEW
advantage of those processing resources to achieve something pretty spectacular. If you’ve got a suitable Nvidia GPU in your workstation (a modern Quadro card supporting CUDA 3.5), you’ll see the optimisation start to resolve in real-time in the Creo window. (If you don’t have an suitable card available, it will use the CPU, but will be significantly slower.) You’re not relying on the cloud, nor tying up your workstation’s processor(s) for hours on end. It all happens in real time. As you make edits to any of the conditions – for example, loads/constraints or geometry factors – you’ll see the results start to update in real time, too. Once you have the result you want and everything has converged, you can use a facetted model of the results, or more usefully, you can create a smoothed-out CAD model with a network of surfaces that can be used in downstream modelling. Of course, there are several caveats here. Results can be highly organic and your production processes might prefer something more prismatic, or you might prefer to use the results as the basis for more traditional modelling. That organic nature might also cause issues during meshing using more traditional simulation tools.
4
HOLISTIC WORKFLOW Here’s perhaps the most impressive aspect of all of this: everything is built on a common data platform - and that means everything you define can be reused in subsequent operations and workflows. For example, if you start with generative design boundary conditions, the boundary condition already added can be used directly in Creo Simulation live and Creo Ansys Simulation for running further simulation and validation studies. The potential for some really interesting workflows to emerge from this set of tools is huge. However, template-driven design where an old master defines the rules and new staff create variants - comes with its own challenges. Perhaps the biggest of these is error propagation; if you get loading conditions wrong (or just poorly defined) at an early stage, those errors will quickly creep into the rest of the workflow, resulting in a poorly designed/ optimised part.
TRUE GENERATIVE DESIGN IS COMING The majority of tools we’ve covered so far are coming in the first release of Creo 7, but several are billed to appear further down the line, in subsequent updates. One of these is the traditional Creo Ansys Simulation module, billed for Creo 7.0.2 (due some time in around October 2020 Another is an extension of the generative design tools. While the tools we’ve discussed so far fall fairly and squarely into the ‘enhanced topology optimisation’ category, this newer set of tools will definitely take PTC into the
5 realm of actual generative design. The difference between topology optimisation and generative design is that the former focuses on reaching a single, optimum design. The latter focuses on giving you options - or optima, if you will. Give generative design technology a set of boundary conditions, load cases, material options and manufacturing-related geometry control, and it will create a set of results that solve the engineering challenge, enabling you to evaluate, inspect, reject where appropriate and thus progress. Partway through the Creo release, PTC is looking to introduce a cloud-based offering that does all of this. The claim is that it’ll allow you more freedom to explore a design challenge. As with other vendors making similar promises (Autodesk being the prime example), this is going to be a chargeable offering, but no further details are currently available. The front end, as it stands, looks in line with what you’d expect, including graphing and charting tools that are vital to filtering down larger datasets. On the subject of larger datasets, one of the issues with this type of work is that once you start to put
together larger experimental sets, the data you need to compute, then filter through, grows massively. Given this, it’s no surprise that PTC is already talking about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its marketing messaging around generative design, proposing that AI will filter out those studies that aren’t needed or won’t work. According to PTC, “The cloud will eventually leverage AI in the form of genetic algorithms and machine learning to identify which possible solutions to calculate and then further iterate. This will help to reduce the huge number of potential solutions being calculated to a more manageable number.”
4 Topology ● optimisation works in real time, using the compute power of your GPU (assuming it’s an Nvidia) 5 Once you’ve got ●
your optimised result, you can then use builtin simulation tools to validate them
VISUALISATION & AR Visualisation and collaboration are two more areas of enhancement and focus for Creo 7 that I want to cover here. On the visualisation front, recent Creo releases have seen a number of additions for both traditional visualisation and augmented reality (AR). Dealing with traditional visualisation first, Creo Render Studio was introduced in Creo 5 and is built
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on Luxion’s rendering technology, as seen in its KeyShot product. This enables Creo users to very quickly get an idea, directly in the Creo interface, of how their product will look, with physically based materials and realistic lighting conditions applied. For this latest release, users can now customise the floor position in the Creo window, so that shadows and reflections can be adjusted. Plus, if you’re using Creo Manikin, which gives your model human factors (with a full range of anthropometric data), you can now use the ‘vision window’ to render out what the manikin sees using Render Studio. This saves you having to fake it with a camera or other workarounds. As we’ve already discussed GPU use, it’s worth noting that current plans are for Creo 7 to gain GPU support in Creo Render Studio in the 7.0.2 release around October. Lastly on the viz front and looking at augmented reality, PTC introduced the AR Design Share tools some time ago and have updated these pretty consistently over each release. The most recent updates move away from a printed ‘ThingMark’ target, to an automatic location technology, which identifies a flat surface on which to place your AR object. From Creo 7 onwards, the user will be able to publish combination states as part of an AR experience. If you’re not familiar with Combination States, these are adapted views of your product model that could feature an exploded view, simplified representations, cross sections, zone clippings and the like, to help communicate your data more effectively.
MACHINING AND ADDITIVE For almost all of its life, Creo has been a manufacturing-focused system. That means there’s a substantial set of users out there who have been using this set of tools for decades and are sticking with it, for 2.5-axis through to 3-axis work, highspeed machining and into the realms of 5-axis work. But that’s not to say that there isn’t room for some smart thinking every now and again. For example, Creo 7 brings greater support for complex multi-spindle swiss-type lathes. Of course, the manufacturing world has also grown in recent years to include additive manufacturing. While Creo has had a few updates that focus on this, the majority of tools are centred on the creation of lattice structures – and while these aren’t restricted to being additively manufactured, chances are that they will be in future, particularly as you move down in scale. Creo 6 got a good chunk of lattice design tools built into it, so Creo 7 really just expands that a little to include stochastic lattices that follow the edges of the body you are filling and you now support for Delauney lattices). You can now add curves and surfaces to your own custom lattice cell designs and there’s also an API-level integration to Additive Works’ Amyphon system for powder-bed fusion build simulation – this is the first example of PTC
6 getting a third party to integrate directly inside the Creo additive workflow tools.
ADDITIONAL UPDATES To round things out, let’s take a look at some smaller updates in Creo 7. These might not get much attention, but are just as important to users who go deep into particular areas of the system. A prime example is work done on the sketcher, one of the most frequently used areas of any 3D modelling system. While the functionality available in Creo’s sketcher has not changed a great deal (apart from the ability to mirror across any linear geometry), the amount of visual feedback you get has really come on. This shows you relationships between selected parts much more clearly. Select a line or arc, and it’ll show you the constraints that apply to it and any inter-geometry relationships, such as parallelism and perpendicularity. Another interesting update is seen in the Freestyle toolset. This is Creo’s take on sub-divisional modelling; introduced quite a while back, it’s seen fairly widespread adoption. A Creo 7 update to Freestyle relates to aligning surfaces with other geometry. In addition to existing options for positional, tangency and curvature control, you can now align a surface to another edge or curve using a specified angle of draft. For those working with complex moulded parts or perhaps complex castings, this is going to prove very useful indeed in terms of cutting down on workarounds. Other updates worth highlighting are the ability to more easily edit draft angles on imported geometry. Previously, this was a pretty convoluted workaround that required additional geometry to be built. Now, you can use the existing draft tools, select your reference geometry and make your edits. The operation respects any associated and connected geometry, such as fillets, where possible. The final update we’re going to cover is in the area of model-based design (MBD). This is a growing trend, particularly at organisations working in automotive,
aerospace and defence. Wherever there’s a need to fully document a part according to its manufacturing and inspection requirements, drawings are not always the ideal method to convey information. Creo’s MDB toolset is well advanced, but Creo 7 brings support for updated standards (ISO 1101:2017 and Y14.2-2018) and new leader types for tangency, as well as a syntax checker that will not only ensure you’re able to conform to those standards, but also help ensure they are used correctly.
6 Users can easily ●
visualise toolpaths in graphics area during synchronization step, which is handy for working with multiaxis and multi-spindle mill/turns and Swissstyle lathes
IN CONCLUSION This, if I’m honest, is one of the most impressive releases of a 3D design and engineering system that I’ve seen in a good few years. There’s a solid mix here of brandnew functionality, integrated with existing technologies, and some bold thinking around revisiting core concepts in complex product design. The addition of multibody modelling to a system with a three-decade history may confuse a few folks, but its implementation here looks pretty damned good. The tools are well thought out and introduce some really novel concepts. The idea of construction bodies, in particular, is outstanding. The integration of Frustrum’s technology is excellent. Topology optimisation is something many folks are interested in, but only a small percentage are actively using it. There’s a rich opportunity here for users to explore what it can do for them. Collaborative efforts with partners such as Ansys and Luxion bring best-in-class technology not just to the Creo interface, but also its underlying data platform and users’ workflows. This makes enormous sense - even if it means your licence configuration is likely to swell. There’s much to dig into within Creo 7 and more to come as the release cycle progresses. If you’re an existing user, it’s time to start planning your adoption of new features and functions. If you’re not, now might be a very good time to take a look. ptc.com
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SOFTWARE REVIEW
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Autodesk Inventor 2021 Even with a design software system that’s over two decades old, a smart development team can make beautiful things happen. Al Dean takes a look Inventor 2021 and finds a system that mixes new tools with total reinvention
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nventor has been Autodesk’s flagship product for product design, engineering and manufacturing for quite some time. The product is now over 20 years old. In software terms, it’s undeniably in the ‘mature’ stage of its lifecycle. The functionality you’ll find today in Inventor is as deep as it is wide. While the product might not get the same level of attention from the Autodesk marketing machine as it once did, the last few releases have shown that the team developing it is capable of making bold choices – not afraid to hold back from reconsidering how things have been done for years, or from tackling new challenges. The Inventor user experience, in particular, has undergone some pretty slick rework over the last few releases. From the introduction of support for higherresolution 4K monitors, dockable windows and tools that enable you to take advantage of multi-monitors, today’s Inventor is more in line than ever with what modern users expect and demand. There’s also been a ton of work done to make dialogues more efficient and to bring together functions that might have once
» Product: Inventor 2021 » Supplier: Autodesk Price: $2,720 per year autodesk.com
been split across multiple windows into single, expandable dialogues. While many of the core tools have already been updated, the 2021 release sees attention start to shift to add-on areas of extended functionality: tube and pipe, for example, and frame generation.
ANYCAD & REVIT
1 Performance ●
has been addressed in Inventor 2021, with a focus on loading times for large assemblies
Since 2018, recent releases have seen Autodesk flesh out its AnyCAD technology, which allows you to bring in data from thirdparty systems and/or in non-native formats. With some magic at work under the hood, you can work with that data just as you would with native data, without any intermediary step. Associative links are maintained to source data, too, so any subsequent processes and references should update during design changes. Of course, the ‘magic’ part of AnyCAD is that the system effectively internalises the translation process, without the creation of intermediary files. AnyCAD was initially conceived of as a way for mechanical engineering data to be shared, so support for formats reflect this goal of collaboration. STEP files, for
example, have been supported alongside native data from the likes of Solid Edge, Solidworks and more for a while. It’s also proven useful when working with Fusion 360 data and 2D drawings from AutoCAD from inside Autodesk’s own product portfolio. For the 2021 release, this has been extended to Revit datasets. From both Autodesk’s official stats and from our own knowledge of the DEVELOP3D readership, a huge number of users use both Inventor and Revit for projects in the construction industry. For them, Inventor’s powerful mechanical engineering tools are a great supplement to Revit’s architectural focus, supplying data about engineered products (structural steel, windows, staircases, HVAC systems and so on) that can be integrated into BIM models. Equally, users are bringing Revit data into Inventor for reference. With Inventor 2021, you’re able to do that directly, using AnyCAD’s filtering tools during the import process to grab any data you want to reference. In this way, the data arrives already organised and retaining appearances already defined in Revit. Should there be any update or change to
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source data, then you’ll be notified and the migrated data can be updated, along with any references.
FRAME GENERATOR Another area that’s seen a lot of work is Frame Generator. This was a focus in 2020 and again in 2021, and it’s really starting to look more modern, gaining some impressive new functionality along the way. There’s been work done across the board to make the creation and organisation of frame entities a more considered process. Particular attention has been paid to naming strategies, as well as to how a naming strategy is reflected on the screen (for example, having a part name mirrored in the display name in the part browser panel). Alongside this, there are new tools to assist during frame creation, such as a filter for selections and new ‘presets’, ideal for those forms most commonly used by your organisation. When you’re laying out a frame and using the same profile member, the ‘reuse’ command makes the process easier and more intelligent (change one, update them all). The only sticking point previously was that you had to select the first instance of that member type to reuse it – and that’s not always easy to keep track of in larger, more complex layouts. Now, you can select any member (original or subsequent reused copies) to reuse the same profile data. In addition to placing frame members, there are also new termination options. You can now trim and extend a set of members to a curved member – useful, but also note that the end result curve is a straight cut, rather than shaped to the curve with which you’re intersecting. On the notching tools front, while there was already support for circular tubes and I-section beams, C- and T-sections are now supported, too.
UNWRAP ENHANCEMENTS Inventor 2020 saw the introduction of the Unwrap tool, designed to help take complex parts and to create a flat pattern from them. While Inventor has, for many years, offered sheet metal tools, Unwrap is intended to be used for more complex, less easy to flatten forms. These could be used to find a blank from complex stamped forms, or to help with the development of soft goods or fabric components. With each point release, the tool has been added to. The 2021 functionality adds additional controls, enabling you to align your results with the model, or the XY, XZ, YZ planes, as well as a selected face. You can also select multiple planar holes to be rigid, meaning that they will retain their shape and position during the process.
DRAWING AUTOMATION No review of Inventor would be complete without a quick look at what the team has done on the drawings creation front. For this release, there are a couple of key points to focus on. The first centres on sheet format templates, which were introduced quite some time ago. These allow you to define a set of standard drawing sheets required for a project and have the system automatically populate views based on your part or assembly selections. These are now much more accessible, as they’re available in the drawing creation dialogue. There are also additional options to define view state, such as hidden line removal options or shaded views, as well as a Fit to View option. This latter option is going to be really useful if you’re automating design of families of parts that have a wider-than-average size range, since you won’t need to adapt drawing scales manually. In addition to the formatting updates, the Sheet Format tools also now support BOMs in assemblies,
as well as flat patterning of sheet metal parts, so you can automatically insert the flatted form as well as the folded state where needed. While Sheet Formats allow you to automate some drawing view layout processes, if you want to go further, then you’ll be venturing into iLogic territory. This is Inventor’s customisation and rules-based environment, which uses code to automate functions at a more sophisticated level. For 2021 onwards, the team has expanded what can be controlled using iLogic functions in the drawings environment, including dimensions, hole notes and ballooning. You’ve also got the ability to control drawing styles, which controls how views are drawn, dimension formatting and more.
IN CONCLUSION The Inventor community is still a strong one and the system is as robust and mature as you might hope after two decades of development. That said, it’s clear from this release that the Inventor team still makes room for new ideas and for total reinvention of existing functionality, where needed. Many of the updates in this release have been introduced in response to customer feedback and the lengths to which Autodesk will go to meet or exceed customer expectations really stands out. The updates to drawing automation are a perfect case in point. Users actively want to avoid tedious workflows and automate common jobs such as drawing layout, so they can deploy their time, energy and imagination more efficiently. The 2021 release of Inventor may not be as packed with new features as you might once have seen, but it provides solid evidence of how Autodesk is progressing with the system, with a view to delivering on its promise to keep it as fresh as today’s users expect. autodesk.com
PRODUCT DESIGN & MANUFACTURING COLLECTION: WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THE SUBSCRIPTION BUNDLE?
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t’s been some time since Autodesk started the move away from perpetual licencing of its products and into the realms of subscription sales. While this has had repercussions in other areas of its business, the design, engineering and manufacturing crowd was already used to paying for subscriptions as maintenance, so the change wasn’t that large. At the same time and for the older products, Autodesk also started to offer larger bundles of its software products. These have been through various names and configurations, but the term ‘Collections’ seems to have stuck for a while (originally, ‘Suites’ was the chosen moniker). On the manufacturing side, the Collection of choice is the snappily named Product Design & Manufacturing Collection. It costs $2,720 per user, per year. So what do you get for that? Basically, there are six core tools. These include Inventor (the full package with all of the add-ons, such as tube and
pipe, frames, 3D content and so on), as well as Inventor CAM (which used to be called InventorHSM and shouldn’t be confused with the SolidCAM developed product of the same name) for CNC programming from 2.5 axis right up to 5 axis simultaneous machine tools. Weirdly, the PD&M Collection also includes a license of HSMWorks, which is much the same thing, but integrated within Dassault’s Solidworks. Inventor Tolerance Analyses brings Sigmetrix-developed tools for tolerance stack-up. Inventor Nesting brings tools for nesting of 2D profiles, built using the tech that Autodesk acquired from Majestic a few years ago. Alongside this, you get a full subscription, per user, for Fusion 360. It’s worth bearing in mind that the AnyCAD tools have been extended to connect Inventor to Fusion more intelligently in recent releases. And, of course, you also get AutoCAD; it wouldn’t be an Autodesk bundle without the venerable 2D drawing tool chucked in, would it? AutoCAD is available to
be installed in the form of your choice, whether that’s vanilla AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical or AutoCAD Mechanical. That seems like a lot of technology to sink your teeth into, but it’s not the limit. Alongside these core tools, you’ve also got access to 3ds Max for rendering and visualisation, Inventor Nastran for simulation, Factory Design utilities and
also Navisworks Manage. Meanwhile, if reality capture and reverse engineering are your bag, then you’ll probably be interested in Recap Pro, too. You’ve also got access to Inventor Vault for data management, as well as Autodesk’s pretty nifty cloud collaboration tools in Autodesk Drive.
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SOFTWARE REVIEW
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Shapr3D It’s not often you see a decent 3D modelling system built for the iPad. With only a handful of such systems currently available, Al Dean takes a look at Shapr3D’s new offering, which promises Parasolid-based tools for designers and engineers
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he iPad has been something of a revelation in the design and engineering world. The idea that you might have a highperformance computing device that offers both touch and stylus input on a highly portable, high-resolution display is something the industry has been crying out for. Even so, there’s been a distinct lack of tools available for those looking to create 3D designs on the iPad. Until recently, the only one really available was Onshape from PTC (with its online-only limitations). Then along came Hungarian start-up Shapr3D, looking to bring industrial-grade design tools to the device with its eponymous app.
» Product: Shapr3D » Supplier: Shapr3D Price: $20/month shapr3D.com
1 The combination of ●
Shapr3D’s sketching tools and Pencil input is pretty slick
UNDERSTANDING THE UI The first thing you need, of course, is an iPad and an Apple Pencil. Shapr3D won’t work without one. If you’ve got those already, you’re good to go. If you’re looking at buying an Apple Pencil, then it’s worth noting that the newer Pencil 2 may not be compatible with an older iPad, if it lacks the wireless charging offered in the latest versions of the iPad Pro, so do confirm that before you check out. Once you’re up and running with the hardware you need, it’s time to download Shapr3D from the Apple App Store and fire it up. As with most such apps, Shapr3D offers a number of licensing options. There’s a ‘freemium’ version, which gives you
a limited set of tools that focus on data translation in and out of the system and a limited number of devices (two). With the paid-for version, you get a 14-day free trial. Thereafter, it’s $25 per month – or, if you pay upfront for a full year, $20 per month, representing a 20% discount. So what do you get for your $240 per year? The answer is you get a modelling system that works in the manner you’d imagine for an interactive device like the iPad. Shapr3D has been built on the Parasolid platform and should be classed as a direct modelling system. It offers a wide range of tools to help you build geometry from sketches and formal features, as well as adapt existing geometry by pushing, pulling and editing it.
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2 2 The direct ●
modelling engine in Shapr3D makes huge sense, particularly if you want to quickly knock up models or make very rapid edits to existing data Opposite page
3 Shapr3D is a nice ●
way to explore colour variation while sat with a client and we love portrait rotation for suitable products
As you fire up the system and work through the training exercises, it’s clear that the team behind this app have made the most of the combination of inputs available – namely, the Apple Pencil and your fingers. The system can tell the difference between the two and works nicely around this. For example, if you’re simply navigating a model, you can use your fingers to spin, pan and zoom as per normal. The Pencil is used to create and edit geometry. When it comes to focusing on a specific task, double-tapping a face with your finger snaps your view to that face. Tapping it with the Pencil selects it and offers you an offset operation. If you double-tap with the Pencil, the whole body is selected. Most of these gestures and interactions are intuitive, but it is worth spending time going through the very well-developed help system to pick up tips. A good way to think of the interplay between Pencil and finger is that your finger is for manipulation of the view, while the Pencil is reserved for creation, whether that’s sketching out a profile, creating a feature or editing geometry position.
One sketch entity particularly worth noting is the spline operation. You have two options: CV-driven (for control point splines) or fitted points. To lay down your CVs, you drag from the starting point, then push down on the Pencil to place the next CV, moving onwards. At the last point, you just lift up the Pencil. Those CVs are all editable for position and, in the case of fitted splines, for curvature too. Alongside the sketch creation entities, there are also constraints available, including tangency, perpendicularity,
and axes, as well as the ability to import geometry from the iPad file system. It will also enable you to bring in an image as a reference – and considering the usefulness of Shapr3D for working up a concept, this makes huge sense. While those Add tools may be useful, the real meat is found in the Tools toolbar. Here, you’ll get access to a number of standard and familiar feature operations. All of the classics are there: extrude, revolve, sweep, loft and shell. There are also a number of Booleans (union, subtract, intersect), as well as geometry projection, offsetting and a face replace. If you’ve used direct modelling operations in your mainstream CAD system, then you’ll be familiar with how these systems work. It’s not so much about creating a linear history of geometric features, but more about creating, hacking, chopping and removing geometry to achieve the form you want. One point that’s worth considering is how the face selection and move tools (which are found in the Transform toolbar) work, as opposed to the features such as extrude. If you have an existing face that you want to either cut into or out of your solid model, you can select the face and a small glyph appears giving you a direction. Drag that into the part and it cuts. Drag it away from the part and it will extrude that face. If you want a more complex extrusion with, say, draft added, then use the extrude command – you’ll see the draft angle glyph appears on screen.
ASSEMBLY ORGANISATION While Shapr3D doesn’t have the formal assembly modelling tools of a fully-fledged design system, it does have enough to allow you to create and manage a more complex set of parts within a single file. Obviously, this can be done at the body level, but if you open up the manager dialogue, you’ll see a list of bodies, planes and sketches. These are given default names, but can be easily renamed, by swiping the entry to the left. You can also delete it or zoom it into the window. This window also allows you to group together bodies into folders, which act as informal sub-assemblies.
If you’re curious about what this system can do, download it, get yourself an Apple Pencil and give it a whirl. You’ve absolutely nothing to lose. You’ll find a system that lets you sketch out a quick model, try out an idea, and see what you get
GETTING MODELLING There are four main toolbars of operations and commands. These can be found, by default, on the left-hand side of the screen. Sketching brings up a set of sketching tools for drawing planar profiles. Here, you’ve got the full set, from lines, circles and arcs to ellipses and polygons, as well as modifiers such as offset and trim.
concentricity, parallelism (horizontal/ vertical) and symmetry, to name but a few. These can be applied on the fly where the system can infer them, or they can be applied after the fact. If there’s one thing missing from the sketching environment, it’s more traditional dimensional controls. While you’re able to dial in the size and position of individual entities and construct a pretty well-built, robust sketch, there’s very little control over dimensional relationships between the entities outside of parallel distance or angle. While the sketch tools give you drawing capabilities, you’ll really want to be able to build those sketches into 3D forms. The majority of tools to do this are found in the Add and Tools toolbars. Add provides you with construction geometry, such as planes
DATA EXPORT So how do you get your data out of Shapr3D? This is perhaps the most surprising part, considering the nature of the system. With the Pro version, you’re able to export your data as a Parasolid file (either X_t or X_b), STEP, IGES or OBJ. There’s also an STL export option. (In fact, in the freemium version, it’s the only export option.) You’re also able to export a basic 2D drawing from the system as a DWG or DXF file that includes all of the dimensions DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 47
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SOFTWARE REVIEW
DESIGN & THE IPAD: WHAT ELSE IS THERE?
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o review Shapr3D, I invested in a more up-to-date iPad. To be frank, I’d stopped using these devices after their first generation, for a number of reasons. But it turns out there’s been some wonderful work over the intervening period. The new iPad Pro is a great example of the build quality that Apple offers. The Apple Pencil, meanwhile, is really something else. For those who have been using a lagging stylus and become accustomed to working around parallax problems resulting from poor calibration of pen input devices, it’s a refreshing step change. The Pencil 2, in particular, with its magnetic attachment and wireless charging, is practically a miracle. It’s also worth noting that multitasking on the iPad is also vastly improved, particularly using window-in-window or split screen. It may take a few minutes to work out how to do this, but it makes working with multiple applications much easier. In terms of what else about the standard device and software set-up impressed me, the Sidecar application should certainly get a mention. If you’re a desktop/laptop Mac user, this lets you view your main screen on the iPad as a second screen. In these days where we’re all trying to work efficiently from home, that’s really valuable (not least in terms of saving space), especially if you’re missing your office-based multi-monitor set-up. If you’ve seen Astropad working for the iPad/ Mac, it’s like that – but being native to your hardware, it doesn’t cost you £10 a month to use.
EXPLORING THE APP STORE you’ve placed (and locked). Finally, there are also some nice screenshotting tools that remove the UI elements and might be useful for sharing with a colleague or throwing into a presentation.
IN CONCLUSION Over the years, a number of 3D modellingadjacent tools have popped up on the Apple App Store, only to quickly disappear again. Why? The answer is that unless a user really understands upfront what they’re doing with the platform, and the various interaction methods that are not only supported but also expected, it’s unlikely that the system will make much sense. I’m delighted to say that the Shapr3D team has taken a very different approach. Its focus on combining finger-based interactions with the more precise input offered by the Apple Pencil makes complete sense to me. If you’ve used a direct modelling system before and are familiar with multibody modelling techniques, then you’ll be able to jump right in. If not, then you might need some time to get your head around the workflow. If I had just one tip to help you get up to speed, it’s to consider this as a
conceptualisation and 3D thinking tool, rather than a fully featured 3D design system. The lack of dimensional constraints in the sketcher is perhaps the biggest barrier. You just need to forget about being super-precise and building complex models. Instead, just sketch, hack, slice and experiment and see what you get. It’s also worth considering Shapr3D purely from a workflow perspective. If you already have an iPad as part of your workflow and day-to-day toolset, then you’ll probably be receiving CAD geometry in your email and/or via file share. Shapr3D allows you to view those files using robust Parasolid-based tools and potentially make very quick edits to them. Just the ability to view is useful. If the Shapr3D team also built in a few mark-up tools, that would make the app even more useful. If you’re curious about what this system can do, download it, get yourself an Apple Pencil and give it a whirl. You’ve absolutely nothing to lose. You’ll get a system that lets you easily sketch out a quick model and try out ideas. It certainly won’t be a final model that gets put into production, but this could quickly become an important step in your conceptualisation and ideation process.
Since I had the iPad in hand and the kids hadn’t managed yet to steal it to play AR games, I figured now was a good time to explore what other applications for the designer and engineer it could run. One system I was keen to try out was Procreate for digital sketching. I’ve been hearing a lot about this app for a while and was keen to dive in. While I could wax lyrical about how smart Procreate is, how the drawing experience, brush development and user experience is wonderful, the simple fact is that it costs just £9.99 – no subscriptions, no ongoing license fees. That’s a ridiculous bargain, especially compared to the cost of a license for Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator. If you’re exploring Procreate for industrial design purposes, then I also highly recommend the Procreate brush sets from Spencer Nugent, available at sketch-a-day.com. Another product to consider is the venerable SketchBook from Autodesk. It’s one of the first sketching systems and still one of the best, with a set of tools very much aimed at the industrial and product design crowd. Many of our readers have also told us that they’re using the iPad as a way to present concepts and ideas to clients using augmented reality (AR) models. There are a number of tools available for this. Dassault Systèmes offers its eDrawings application for Solidworks users, for example, and PTC offers Vuforia, which exports AR data and experiences from Creo. Siemens, meanwhile, has a number of viewer apps, from JT2Go to the Solid Edge Mobile Viewer (the latter being quite poorly maintained, however, with the company’s main focus being the browser-based viewing tools on the Solid Edge portal).
WHAT’S STILL MISSING?
One development I’ve been waiting for is for some clever so-and-so to bring out a scanning application for the iPad Pro. After all, the device offers built-in LiDAR scanning capabilities alongside its multicamera set-up. This means you can take and store more accurate measurements in space – particularly useful for quick, ballpark measurements. The potential is that it could work as a scanner to grab a vaguely usable representation of an object – here’s hoping!
shapr3d.com
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THE LAST WORD
During the annual GTC keynote, this year delivered virtually by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Al Dean’s interest was sparked by something called Nvidia Omniverse. Here’s his take on what promises to be a product to watch
H
ow about we try an experiment this month? Before reading the rest of thing this article, fire up your favoured browser, either on your computer or on your phone, and type into Google the words ‘Nvidia RTX Marbles’. Watch the first video that comes up. I’ll wait. What did you just see? It’s certainly an impressive bit of CGI, the type of thing most folks are accustomed to seeing when they relax with a movie. Some people will immediately recognise it as being computer-generated, due to the fantastical nature of the content. Others will barely be aware of this fact. After all, a great deal of background scenery in movies and TV shows today is created by computer, without the audience necessarily being aware that it’s not ‘real’. The more experienced eye will see an impressive demo reel of ray traced imagery and physics simulation. And the expert eye will realise something even more impressive: The whole thing is running in real time. It’s not a case of someone painstakingly setting up the geometry, materials, lights, physics calculations and camera animation and then rendering out the images. I’ll say it again: It’s running. In. Real. Time. Of course, you may respond, “It’s a tech demo taken from a graphics hardware CEO’s keynote. Of course it’s slick.” But that would be missing the point. This is the first good look we’ve had at Nvidia’s new Omniverse technology. So what is it, exactly? According to the official blurb, Omniverse is “a computer graphics and simulation platform that makes it possible for artists to work seamlessly in real time across software applications, on premises or around the world via the cloud.” Essentially, the idea is this: Omniverse enables the user to bring together data from a disparate set of tools in a particular workflow and aggregate them into a single visualisation environment.
That, in turn, allows both the author and the consumer/viewer to view a project still underway in stunning photorealism. Onmiverse demonstrations to date, presented during 2019 and 2020, have focused on two industries typically outside of DEVELOP3D’s watch: entertainment and the AEC industry. But instead of considering the applications in those sectors, let’s extrapolate to think what this might look like in the design and manufacturing industry. Imagine that Nvidia has built a core hub (referred to by the company as a ‘nucleus’) into which you can connect your designdefinition systems. It would make sense to start with a concept model from your CAD system. Once you’ve pushed that data to The Omniverse, anyone can view it, using their tool of choice, be that a desktop monitor, a tablet or a VR headset. Then you might want to start working on your CMF workflows for that product. Using the tools of your particular trade (likely to be found in Adobe Creative Cloud), you could push your Photoshop lay-ups and Illustrator vectors into Omniverse and use them to flesh out your concepts and see how they’re looking.
Then imagine this in an automotive context. The styling team could be fine tuning, while the interiors team experiments with finishes and colour. The in-car entertainment team might be creating fancy animations, while lighting specialists focus on safety standards for legibility. Nvidia’s goal is to build an environment in which all of this data can be brought together and visualised in a truly realistic way. And happily for the company, that means more sales of its RTX products – be they GPUs running in workstations, or virtual workstations running in RTX Server. We can extrapolate a little further, too, to consider the role of GPUs not just in design visualisation, but also in simulation. In this scenario, you might put on a VR headset and not just see what your product looks like in photorealistic real time, but also inspect, interact and interrogate its performance. It ain’t just marbles, kids.
Volvo has been testing Nvidia’s Omniverse technology for some time now Image credit: Volvo Cars
GET IN TOUCH: Email al@x3dmedia.com or reach out on Twitter: @alistardean. Over the course of lockdown, his shed doesn’t know what’s hit it. Every tool has found a space, and all of those jars of bits have been sorted. Now to actually crack on and do some work.
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