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TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE

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WELCOME EDITORIAL Editor Al Dean al@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)7525 701 541 Managing Editor Greg Corke greg@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3355 7312 Consulting Editor Martyn Day martyn@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)7525 701 542 Digital Media Editor Stephen Holmes stephen@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3384 5297 Special Projects Editor Tanya Weaver tanya@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3384 5296

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Financial Controller Samantha Todescato-Rutland sam@x3dmedia.com ABOUT DEVELOP3D is published by

Suite 77, 3rd Floor, The London Fruit and Wool Exchange 56 Brushfield Street London, E1 6EP T. +44 (0)20 3355 7310 F. +44 (0)20 3355 7319 www.x3dmedia.com © 2011 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

n the March edition of DEVELOP3D I wrote about the need for feedback loops that close the end of one project and begin the next. This month I’ve been considering the granularity of the data we have to manage on a daily basis. In the early days of Product Data Management (PDM) it was pretty much parts, assemblies and drawings, maybe with a few additional documents chucked into the mix. Now we have a lot more metadata to handle – from part and product variations to requirements and simulation studies – and the amount of data grows exponentially with every project. If you’re involved in the management of your product’s environment compliance, then you’re also looking at handling materials information broken down to the level of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers. That’s a huge amount of data, much of which is critical to running a project efficiently. This leads me onto our new project, DEVELOP3D Sustainability, which you’ll find free inside this month’s magazine. The aim of the supplement is to focus on the methodologies and technologies available to help bring products to market that are less damaging to the environment. Along the way, we’ll be showcasing some of the best examples of green design and be talking to leaders in the field. Our launch issue features Yves Behar of fuseproject, best known for his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, on his recent work with Herman Miller on the SAYL chair. We also have an introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from Leyla Acaroglu, director at Melbourne-based Eco Innovators. I tackle the basics of light-weighting and the result of a project between Granta Design and Autodesk that brings more materials information to the masses. The fun doesn’t stop there as we’ve also launched a supporting microsite (sustainability.develop3d.com), which features webexclusive content, so don’t forget to check it out when you get a chance. Elsewhere, in the core of this month’s magazine, we have all sorts of goodies for you. Customer stories (from wheelchairs to remote control dumper trucks), reviews of some of the latest software releases (including our first review from Scott Wertel, who looks at MathCAD Prime) an interview with the CEO of SpaceClaim and comments from the DEVELOP3D team and the wider community. I hope you enjoy it. Toodle pip for now

Al Dean Editor, DEVELOP3D Magazine

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COntEnts APRIL 2011 ISSUE NO.28

nEWs Autodesk goes bundle crazy, multibody dynamics helps Mars Rover navigate tricky terrains, plus win an iPad 2 as part of our simulation survey

COMMEnt 13 Tanya Weaver loves the smell of paper, but finds her head turned by the potential of the eBook 14 YOUR DEVELOP3D Tell us what you think. This month: workstation warranties, missing Allen keys and #freshprintfetish 16 17 18 22 29 34

FEAtUREs Visual guide: The Chunc 45 wheelchair Back to basics: Rapid prototyping Product design showcase - bikes COVER stORY remote control dumper trucks Interview with Chris Randles, SpaceClaim CEO Engineering workshop #12 - basic principles of FEA pt3

REVIEWs 39 Inventor Publisher 2011 42 Mathcad Prime 1.0 45 DEVELOP3D JOBs The wood used to produce this magazine comes from Forest Stewardship Council certified well-managed forests, controlled sources and/or recycled material

50 tHE LAst WORD Martyn Day craves burgers more than software bundles PLUs

FOR ALL tHE LAtEst PRODUCt DEVELOPMEnt JOBs tURn tO PAGE 45 OR VIsIt JOBs.DEVELOP3D.COM

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FREE sUBsCRIPtIOns tO EnsURE YOU RECEIV YOUR FREE COPY OF DEVE REGIstER OnLInE nOWEAt LOP3D www.develop3d.com/regis tration

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NEWS NEWS

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Autodesk goes bundle crazy with brand new 2012 product design suites » Autodesk launches its 2012 manufacturing products together with a raft of new ‘suites’, bundling up its most powerful professional applications for single users

arch has become the traditional time for the yearly release of Autodesk’s product updates. This year, however, the usual list of features and functions has taken the backseat to packaging and ‘bang for the buck’. Previously Autodesk dabbled in creating Microsoft Office / Adobe Creative Suite-like bundles with products such as the Inventor Suite, but with the 2012 products this strategy has now been greatly expanded, offering discounts of between 18% and 68% on pricing. The new Autodesk Product Design Suite (APDS) is described as offering ‘digital prototyping in a box’. There are three flavours. Product Design Suite Standard - A foundation for conceptual design, drafting and product design, featuring AutoCAD Mechanical, Showcase, SketchBook Designer, Vault and Mudbox. (£5,200). Product Design Suite Premium - This includes everything in the Standard Suite plus Inventor and 3ds Max Design for visualisation and animation. (£6,300) Product Design Suite Ultimate - In addition to everything in Standard and Premium, Ultimate includes advanced surfacing, simulation and tooling, featuring Inventor Professional and Alias Design. (£9,600) Autodesk also released the second version of its Factory Design Suite 2012. The three flavours (standard, Premium and Ultimate) offer factory-specific functionality in

Autodesk's new 2012 Product Design Suites come in three flavours: Standard, Premium and Ultimate

both AutoCAD Architecture and Inventor, combined with Navisworks for visualisation and Vault. New additions include AutoCAD Mechanical for automating mechanical CAD tasks and 3ds Max Design and Showcase for enhancing communication and bids. Inventor Fusion, which has been under development in Autodesk Labs for a few years, has also made its commercial debut. It is now included at no extra cost as a companion application to Alias Design, Alias Automotive, Inventor, Moldflow, Autodesk Simulation (formerly called Algor) and AutoCAD products. Inventor Fusion is an easy-to-use direct 3D modelling tool which enables quick design changes. It also unites direct and parametric workflows within a single digital model created in Inventor. For Inventor subscription customers there are some great bundles coming their way. If

you have Inventor Suite (which most have), then subscribers will automatically get upgraded to Product Design Suite Premium. Customers of Inventor Professional, routed systems, tooling or simulation will be automatically upgraded to Product Design Suite Ultimate. There were a number of standalone Inventor 2011s sold and these will not get a suite upgrade. Other individual products are also still available as single 2012 upgrades. DEVELOP3D will be taking a closer look at features and functions in-depth over the coming months. As an aside, it seems DVDs are now out of fashion and the product suites will be delivered on a single non-erasable 32GB USB stick. There are also suites for AutoCAD users (Autodesk Design Suite, again in three configurations), AEC and Plant customers. www.autodesk.co.uk

ANALYSIS A CLOSER LOOK AT AUTODESK'S NEW SUITES Autodesk has had a mushrooming catalogue of products. The bundle strategy makes a lot more sense to get all this technology into the hands of its users. On the face of things, this is a massive bonus for those on subscription to gain access to a number of products that they have probably lusted after but could not particularly justify. From Autodesk’s business standpoint, the company can raise the price of the average sale, selling a suite over a single license and some of these product bundles will really be desired by customers, specifically the Premium. Fusion isn’t a product ‘for sale’ but Autodesk has adopted the mindset to give it away with practically everything (including architecture products) as a stand-alone, easy modelling tool. If people realise that it is included, Autodesk hopes to seed the market and ease people from 2D into 3D. However, there are a few caveats that come

with all these ‘bundles’ of joy. While on a single machine all products can be opened simultaneously, on a multiple licence network, only one application from that Suite can be used at one time - so no sneaky arming four people with individual packages from one Suite. There are also questions about how any single person can be proficient in all these mature and powerful applications and how infrequent use will actually inhibit rather than help productivity. Autodesk will be coming up with some typical workflows over the next few months to highlight the benefits. While Autodesk is saying the subscription fees are staying the same for now, we suspect that, over time, the subscription fee for a suite over a single seat will widen, increasing cost of ownership. It’s easy to create bundles and practically give them away to subscription customers as this bypasses the need to actually sell the benefits. In the long term, however,

Autodesk and its dealers will need to evangelise what customers actually already own to ensure that customers see the value. This is perhaps a ‘gift horse’ that does need some examining, in terms of ongoing cost, deployment and benefit. As things stand, these new Autodesk suites provide a powerful integrated combination of tools to cover everything from concept sketching, through engineering and analysis, all the way to marketing and customer presentation. At time of press there was no mention of the Manufacturing bundles on the Autodesk UK website. From looking at the US site (tinyurl.com/D3Dsuites), however, It’s nice to see us brits we are paying 1.5x more than the Americans as usual. Martyn Day Meanwhile, to read more about the trend for software developers to offer suites of tools, read The Last Word on page 50

6 APRIL 2011 DEVELOP3D.COM

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“iPhone owners with ‘go anywhere’ jobs or leisure interests want ultimate protection for their business and social lifeline. We created the NUT to withstand the toughest treatment that each day brings. Getting it right was simpler and faster with SolidWorks” Russell Beard Design Director www.okoqu.com

We made the NUT easier to crack Brilliantly simple ideas for fast-moving markets can take months to bear fruit. Thankfully we’re on hand to inspire their creators, speed up the development process and provide instant technical support when necessary. As the UK’s leading SolidWorks reseller we’re as proud of our service as you will be of your designs. So let us show you the latest SolidWorks design testing and publishing packages. They are truly inspiring – as you’ll discover at one of our free nationwide seminars or one-to-one demos.

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We provide full product training too, and the most responsive support desk, constantly manned by engineers.

Find out how we can help shape your ideas and telephone 01926 333777 or visit our website: www.solidsolutions.co.uk

reseller of the year 2010

aston Martin Racing Selects Creo and windchill

MasterCAM for SolidWorks gets 'gold' status

M » The Oxfordshire-based firm is now using PTC tools from early-stage product development to manufacturing

ston Martin Racing is using Creo Elements/Pro for the 3D CAD design of its racing vehicles and Windchill for PLM (product lifecycle management) in its race car division. Aston Martin is the only manufacturer that produces a car to compete in every category of the FIA GT Championship sports car racing series. Models range from modified standard vehicles in the GT4, GT3 and GT2 classes including the high-performance V12 - to the 6.0 litre 600 BHP DBR9 in the GT1 class and the Le Mans prototype LMP1 Aston Martin. Aston Martin Racing has moved away from its previous third-party chassis strategy to develop its next generation LMP1 from scratch. This new racing vehicle is now being designed and engineered from the ground up using Creo Elements/Pro and Windchill to manage the development process. In addition to the designers, the purchasing department uses Windchill for

its request for quotation process, enabling collaboration with suppliers. "The PTC solutions have far greater capabilities than our previous toolset,” said Ian Ludgate, chief designer at Aston Martin Racing. “Although we are still very early in our learning of the system, we've already seen significant benefits in simple things like mechanism design, which is built into the Creo Elements/Pro toolset and subsequently distributed by Windchill." "We implemented Creo Elements/Pro to optimize our design process and Windchill to streamline and manage our processes,” said Steve Baker, PLM Specialist at Aston Martin Racing. “To achieve ultimate efficiency, we needed a single, comprehensive PLM system that supports the entire design from earlystage product development to manufacturing. With Windchill, our data will be complete and in one location, which means we will save time by accessing the right data quickly.” www.ptc.com | astonmartinracing.com

Aston Martin Racing's LMP1 race car features a 2.0 litre turbocharged six cylinder direct injection petrol engine and a new bespoke carbon fibre chassis

astercam for SolidWorks from CNC Software has been awarded Gold Partner status in its support for SolidWorks. Designers, engineers, and machinists can use Mastercam for SolidWorks to program their toolpaths after they have finished designing in SolidWorks. The toolpaths are applied directly to the SolidWorks model in their native environment. “With our toolpaths running directly in the SolidWorks environment, our users will feel comfortable programming their parts, just as if they were in standard Mastercam,” says Ben Mund, marketing manager, CNC Software. “The beauty is that now they can run those toolpaths inside of SolidWorks, without the hassle of exporting files and handling the translation.” www.mastercamforsolidworks.com

Design award trophy 3D printed by lasers

he Brit Insurance Design of the Year award was given to British designer Samuel Wilkinson and product design company Hulger for the Plumen 001 light bulb. Although the Plumen 001 was the focus of the awards ceremony, the trophy itself was also in the spotlight. A creation of the London-based artist Ross Lovegrove, the trophy was 3D printed with lasers thanks to technology from Materialise. Meanwhile, for more info on the Plumen 001 turn to page 5 of our sustainability supplement. designmuseum.org | materialise.com

FILL OUT OUR SIMULATION SURVEY FOR A CHANCE TO WIN AN iPAD 2 As regular readers of DEVELOP3D will know, we’ve been going through a series of questionnaires and surveys in the last few months. Last month we gave away an iPad for your thoughts on reverse engineering and inspection; now it’s the turn of simulation and analysis. Does the idea of having a digital representation of your product give you cause for excitement or intrepidation? Are you using simulation actively in your organisation or is it not even flagging

up on your radar yet? Are some of the vendors' claims about simulation adoption true or are we seeing increasing sales, but no adoption? We’d love to know. As a mark of our gratitude, we'll pick a random name out of all the completed survey responses and send them a shiny new iPad 2. We’ll even throw in a gift card for a year’s subscription to the DEVELOP3D iPad app. The closing date of the survey/ competition is April 10th surveymonkey.com/s/simulationsurvey2011

8 APRIL 2011 DEVELOP3D.COM

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NEWS

RoUnD UP

Powershape 2011 acquires reverse engineering tools

PTC is to host its UK Technology Forum on the 12th May in Sutton Coldfield. The free event is designed to help those interested in product development to understand current trends and learn how PTC’s tools can help optimise their workflows www.ptc.com/events/ technology-forum/uk

elcam has taken functionality from its reverse engineering software, CopyCAD, and integrated it into the 2011 release of its Powershape Pro CAD system. this extended range of functionality can be used both for the creation of CAD models from all types of digitized scan data, and for the re-engineering of existing products into improved or customised designs. PowerShape Pro features ‘Tribrid Modelling’, which means it supports triangle modelling as well as the more traditional combination of surface and solid modeling that is offered in many other CAD packages. According to Delcam, having all three modelling techniques in a single package reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines the

whole product development process. Meanwhile, Delcam is due to launch the 2011 R2 version of its PowerInspect inspection software in May. The new release is the first version developed for use on 64bit computers. Other enhancements include improved visualisation of the results, easier creation of automated inspection routines, full integration of DRO (Digital Read-Out) functionality and support for the latest Renishaw probes. www.delcam.com

PowerShape Pro features ‘Tribrid Modelling’, which means it supports triangle modelling as well as surface and solid modelling

Altium focusses on component management

ltium, a specialist in electronic design software, has launched Altium Designer 10, which features a 'next generation' component management system. Features include a new 'whereused' system, revision management, a

new lifecycle and approval system and live supply chain management. At the heart of Altium Designer 10's new design data management functionality is Altium Vaults. This stores and manages electronics design data, which helps designers release validated design data inside or outside their organisations. Designers can manage revisions, design data, component lifecycles and track usage across designs, and provide links to supply chains to provide real-time information about parts being specified in designs. AltiumLive is an online ecosystem for electronics designers that seeks to connect designers with collaborators, suppliers, manufacturers and, in the future, customers. www.altium.com

Altium Designer 10 looks to embrace data management in a similar way that the MCAD market has done with PDM

Robotics simulation used for F-35 paint job

ockheed Martin has migrated its F-35 Lightning ii robotic painting workcells to Dassault systèmes’ Delmia Robotics. the Us firm uses simulation to verify that the robots will reach all the painting positions while avoiding any collisions. Lockheed Martin currently employs the robotic solution in two different automated paint cells, both configured on moving rail systems. A three-robot cell is dedicated to painting the aircraft exterior and a two-robot cell is configured to handle a variety of F-35 components. Both the physical cell and the robot programming have been designed for flexibility so that the company can paint

mixes of components at different times. In addition to the Delmia Robotics solution, Lockheed Martin also uses Dassault Systèmes’ Virtual Ergonomics and DPM Assembly solutions. www.3ds.com/ukisa

FluiDyna's Cyclone is a GPU-accelerated CFDworkstation, which contains one Tesla C2070 CUDA GPU and comes pre-installed with OpenFOAM, an open source CFD software. The system includes the Culises software library which is designed to accelerate calculations on the GPU www.fluidyna.de/en

The mobile ATOS Triple Scan 3D digitiser from GOM features a new 'Blue Light' project technology and a 3-in-1 sensor concept that is said to offer greater resolution and accuracy for fine structures and edges. Measurement performance has also been improved, especially for shiny surfaces www.gom.com

T-Splines has become a SolidWorks solution partner, which will help the company’s organic surface modelling capabilities be more tightly integrated into SolidWorks. T-Splines models from Rhino can be manipulated as surface or solid bodies inside the SolidWorks features tree www.tsplines.com

Intel has launched a new Xeon chip which is designed for use in entry-level workstations. The Xeon E3-1200 processor supports ECC memory and features an integrated 'professionallevel' Intel HD graphics technology, which is said to be suitable for entry-level CAD and 3D software www.intel.com

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NEWS

MULtiBoDY DYnAMiCs to hELP MARs RoVER stAY on tRACk » Fully dynamic simulation model with realistic wheel-soil interactions will help Mars Rover navigate tricky terrains

D Adams simulation software is being used to develop a multi-element dynamic model of the nAsA Mars Exploration Rover, opportunity, which has been exploring the red planet since 2004. the software will simulate the vehicle’s interactions with soil and bedrock while driving over realistic terrain models. The model, named Artemis, includes both track and cross-track wheel stresses and torques as the wheels interact with terrain elements and sink into deformable soils. A single wheel model was also developed to better understand wheel-terrain interactions before simulating Opportunity's full six wheel drive system and complex rockerbogie suspension system. The model is being validated with single wheel experiments and "Mars Yard" data using an engineering model of the rover driving over various terrains to simulate flight telemetry. Opportunity Mars flight data are also being examined and compared to model results. Results examined include ripple crossing experiments in Meridiani Planum, a plain

located two degrees south of Mars' equator, hill climbing on bedrock thinly covered with soils, and skidding encountered when Opportunity drives down a soil-covered hill. The intent is to have a validated model available to simulate drives across the sloping and soil covered terrains when Opportunity reaches the rim of the ancient 20km wide Endeavour crater. The rim exposes rocks older than any examined from the surface of Mars, and the steep, soil-covered slopes are expected to present mobility challenges. Professor Raymond Arvidson, Director of the Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing Laboratory at the Washington University in St. Louis says, "MD Adams has enabled us to move quickly in developing a fully dynamic model for the Opportunity rover with realistic wheel-soil interactions. The fully dynamic approach is the only way I can see for modelling actual telemetry from the rover during its drives, since there are six driving wheels and a complex suspension system that causes the wheel drive actuators to interact in non-intuitive ways to keep the rover on its course." marsrover.nasa.gov | mscsoftware.com

NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers landed on Mars in 2004 in search of answers about the planet's history of water. Image courtesy NASA/ JPL-Caltech

Luxology offers package design kit for modo

uxology's new Package Design and Construction kit (PACk) is a collection of over 200 2D/3D presets, images and assemblies designed to simplify the creation of packaging.

Designed for use in the company's modelling and rendering tool modo, the library caters for all types of packages including bags, wrappers, boxes, bottles, cans, cartons, tubes and tubs. www.luxology.com

Multiphyiscs tool targets new industry sectors

tAR-CCM+ V6.02, the latest version of CD-adapco’s multiphysics engineering simulation tool, features a number of new simulation technologies including those for industrial applications such as battery design, and electro-deposition painting. The battery module enables the simulation of flow, thermal and electrochemistry phenomena for Li-Ion battery cells and packs, enabling battery behaviour to be simulated in a single multi-physics environment. The new Electro-deposition coating model simulates the deposition of paint under the influence of an electric field when a charged product is dipped into a bath of paint. Another new module, Motion Superposition, allows users to prescribe more complex body motion within a simulation and combine multiple rigid body motions or rigid body motions with mesh morphing. Potential application areas include: Aerospace (rotorcrafts and helicopter blades), marine (bow thrusters) and consumer goods (fans). STAR-CCM+ v6.02 also includes a wealth of new post –processing functionality and a plug in for Isight, a process flow and optimisation code from Simulia that can be used to drive a variety of different CAE tools. Meanwhile, CD-adapco has reached an in-principle agreement with the University of Glasgow to acquire the university’s electric machines design code, SPEED software. Professor Tim Miller, director of the SPEED software labs said, "The combination of SPEED and CD-adapco lays the foundation for a new phase of development in software engineering services to manufacturing companies in electric machinery, covering all sectors including exciting new developments in power generation & electric/hybrid vehicles.” www.cd-adapco.com

McLaren F1 team to deploy Enovia and Catia V6

cLaren Racing, the operating arm of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team, is to deploy Dassault Systèmes’ V6 solutions for design development, analysis and management. Enovia V6 will be used for managing engineering, intellectual property and business processes, while Catia V6 will be used for design and concurrent engineering. www.3ds.com

10 APRIL 2011 DEVELOP3D.COM

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Surface modeling and other tools reduced design time on complex guitar necks by 30%

Designers gained efficiencies with precision tooling paths for automated manufacturing

SolidWorks enabled easy sharing of design files between R&D and manufacturing

'(6,*1 60$57(5 :,7+ 62/,':25.6 ® TAKE THE FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS TEAM, FOR EXAMPLE. They chose SolidWorks integrated 3D platform for its ease-of-use, advanced surfacing capabilities, and seamless integration with CAM applications. Smart move. You can benefit the same way. Get everything you need to design, simulate, communicate and manage your ideas—so you can shorten design cycles, reduce costs, and drive innovation. Learn more about the Fender Team’s success story and others like it at www.solidworks.com

DS SolidWorks Corp. 1 Quayside, Bridge Street, Cambridge, Tel: 01223 346 900

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COMMENT

In our digital age the book is no longer locked in black and white ink on paper. Tanya Weaver is caught between her love of books and the current onslaught of eBooks which have the power to change the reading experience

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love books. I love being immersed iBook app in less than a year. in a story. I love folding the But what if these tablets or eReaders could page corners back and seeing offer more than just black and white ink on how far I’ve progressed. I love a screen? What if they could include notes or finishing a book and reflecting links to additional information and access to on the journey I’ve been on. I online reading groups? If the experience of love sharing books with friends reading a book could be more interactive and and having them returned with social then I think that could potentially be creased spines and dog-eared pages. quite interesting. So, when I was on an eleven hour flight In fact, this is something that design agency recently, feeling a bit fed up with my book, IDEO has been exploring. In September 2010 I looked across the aisle and saw a lady it released a short film called the ‘Future completely engrossed in her Amazon Kindle of the Book’ and introduced three eBook eRreader. It looked light, easy to hold in one concepts – Nelson, Coupland and Alice. hand, no glare was being emitted and I could Nelson demonstrates the multiple layers see how simple it was to ‘turn’ the pages. I of information that can surround a single have always dismissed the rise of digital books book. For instance, there are tools providing because I’m too attached to the paper ones. various perspectives, references, current The thought of technology, which has crept conversations and debates. I can certainly into just about every other aspect of my life, see how this concept could work for design now threatening to get between me and the books providing a really valuable, interactive books I love, was just inconceivable. way of gaining knowledge about a subject. But I obviously can’t hide away from it for For example, if the recently launched ‘The much longer; it’s clear that the future of the Manufacturing Guides: Product and Furniture book is digital. According to the Association Design’ by Rob Thompson was available in of American Publishers, eBook sales almost this format readers could join discussion doubled over 2010 and now make up nine groups about the manufacturing processes per cent of total consumer book sales. highlighted in the book, easily link to the Although Kindle was the forerunner in this websites of the companies mentioned, field, other tablet computers are catching up perhaps even watch video clips of the including the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble processes in action and interviews with Nook and, of course, the iPad. In fact, at designers who have used them. the iPad 2 launch at the beginning of March On the other hand, Coupland is not so Steve Jobs announced that more than 100 much a reading tool as a way of keeping up million eBooks had been downloaded to2the 21/7/10 to date with the latest ‘must 1reads’ in your strip-ad-spaceclaim:Layout 11:45 Page

The thought of technology, which has crept into just about every other aspect of my life, now threatening to get between me and the books I love, was just inconceivable

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professional field. So, for instance, a designer or engineer could share reading lists (whether it be novels or even work-related service manuals) and have online discussions about books with colleagues. This sort of concept could even be used to facilitate crowdsourced design. Alice is a concept that enables the reader to actually participate in the storytelling process. As you are reading the story you can add to the narrative, talk to characters and find keys to unlock plot twists. Albeit this is more like a video game than a traditional book, it is an interesting idea and could enhance the story for the reader. There is no doubt that these are exciting concepts that offer new and different ways of interacting with written content. As Robert Lenne, an interaction designer at IDEO who worked on these concepts, says “We have to recognise that there is a change in the way that people are consuming media today. It’s not that we are consuming less, it’s just different... There is a definite place for lean back, curl up with a book experience but also a place for this new reading experience.” And I think that’s it – it could even mean that more people will access, buy and read books. Now, that can’t be a bad thing. Tanya Weaver is special projects editor at DEVELOP3D. She is considering setting her paperback aside (for now) and downloading her first eBook, although the idea of it still makes her feel slightly uneasy. tanya@x3dmedia.com

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FEEDBACK

Your DEVELOP3D

» Tell us what you think. This month: workstation warranties, more on assembly instructions, DEVELOP3D on the iPad, missing Allen keys and #freshprintfetish Have you heard of the new Apple service “Joint Venture”? It answers exactly that concern, with swap equipment when yours is in for repairs. Marc G (Ed - Here’s the link to Joint Venture. www.apple.com/retail/jointventure)

KITCHEN GADGETS MARCH 2011

Got an opinion on anything that has (or has not) appeared in the magazine? Want to respond to anything written here? Let us know what you think Greg Corke greg@develop3d.com Twitter @develop3d Web develop3d.com Letters may be edited

60 second interview Stefan Bridges

GetTING wise to warranties COMMENT MARCH 2011 Completely agree with Greg regarding the importance of factoring in down time when assessing a computer's warranty. For my business I run a Dell and due to the excellent service I have received when anything has gone wrong, capital price of equipment is definitely secondary to top notch warranty service. An example of Dell's attitude is when I rang them concerned that the back of the casing on my M6400 seemed hotter than normal. This was a purely subjective observation. Within five minutes and much to my surprise they told me that this was a sign of possible doom for my graphics card and as a precaution would be sending over a technician the next day to replace the graphics card and CPU. This duly happened. A fantastic pro-active decision that potentially saved my machine failing on site. In my experience Dell have sorted out any problems immediately or if any hardware is required with a site visit within 48 hours. Stuart Brown, 3D Engineers

Why did you become a designer? I’d like to say something noble such as ‘I wanted to make the world a better place’. But, in truth, I was good at art at school and wanted to do something vocational with it rather than paint landscapes. Which designer or company do you most admire and why? Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson, head of Lockheed’s ‘Skunk Works’. He was behind the Blackbird SR-71 spyplane, an incredible looking and performing piece of aeronautical engineering. No jet propelled plane has ever flown faster or higher. What product couldn’t you live without? It’s a cliché to mention anything to do with Apple, but in terms of sheer bang for buck my iPod Touch always gives me the most value.

Great article, although I'm surprised that you didn't feature british designer Damian Evans (damianevansdesign.com) whose kitchen gadgets, also designed for JosephJoseph (josephjoseph.com), regularly feature in the top ten most popular kitchen gadgets at John Lewis Online (johnlewis.com) Nicholas Johnson

Scan 3XS P67 workstation FEBruary 2011 We loved our last review of the P67 machine! We have also taken all your comments very seriously. From now on, Scan will be offering three year warranties on all new graphics workstations (first year on-site, years two and three return to base) Oren Paynton, Scan

The LAst Word FEBRUARY 2011 Good story and very familiar....you just left out the bit about the missing parts and having to make five trips back to store to get them! With regards to the assembly instructions this is a pet issue of mine. You ask why there is so much crap around? Simply because good instructions cost money, and that money is not deemed important by many until issues with assembly start to impact on sales. The other factor is the sheer lack of affordable documentation tools. You mention Framemaker. For 90% of products you just

What design would you have loved to have designed and why? I’m a big fan of the McLaren F1 roadcar. Designed without compromise and with great clarity of purpose. Play-Doh, Meccano or Lego? Lego What are your weapons of choice? My pad, my black Bic biro and my brain. Regrettably we’re Windowsbased at work so I’m forced to use a PC for 3D CAD and Adobe Creative Suite. What is missing from your toolset? My metric Allen Keys always seem to go missing. I blame the truckies downstairs J

need a system that can knock up a four page document - so Indesign or Illustrator are more suited. Here's the rub though, how to get 3D data into those apps? Sure you can use DWG/DXF or in some cases direct .ai imports - but that is a slow laborious process. What is needed is simple. A documentation system where the user can directly import the CAD data, turn parts on and off, move, explode, section and annotate parts (and retain the link to the part), produce output to vectors in thick n thin formats - black and white - for low cost printing, and be able to do graphics only annotations (like people, hands, faces, legs, arrows etc) and maintain a link to the data for easy updating. Yes you could say apps like Arbortext/Lattice/3DVIA Composer etc can do much of this, but that cannot do all. And they are hellishly expensive. No. What we needed was Adobe to build this into Indesign and Illustrator by leveraging the 3D PDF technology....but we all know what happened there - and sell it as part of the Creative Suite so it would be on most designer's desks. But they didn't. Anyway, my rant over. If you do want to see all this in an app that costs under £350 try Google Layout, that comes as part of SketchUp Pro. This does all the above and more. The key - editing in the context of the document page. Simple innit? Kevin Quigley Read more opinions on this article at tinyurl.com/D3Dpublish

ON TWITTER My son is reading Develop3D on the iPad. Chose it over games! @dorasmith My Copy of @develop3d has arrived and it smells great!! #freshprintfetish @seansumodate

Is there anything that would make your design and development process run smoother? I’m lucky in that I work for a team who are open to my ideas and I generally get the support I need to realise them. Timescales are always too short though.

If you were hosting a dinner party who would you invite and why? Stephen Fry, a man who knows his technology, the comedian Sarah Millican for her hilarious dry humour, and Heston Blumenthal to assist with the cooking.

What would you say is the biggest challenge facing designers at the moment? I can’t really speak for the industry as a whole, but for me the need to innovate in a tight timeframe is a constant challenge.

Stefan Bridges is the product design lead at Red Bull Racing. He is responsible for the 3D representation of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. His projects range from designing the complete race garage, pitwall timing stand and pitstop helmets through to bespoke F1 point of sale retail displays.

Can you predict any future trends? I’m notoriously reluctant at attempting to crystal ball gaze! All I know is the much-vaunted ‘paperless office’ has yet to permeate to Red Bull F1…

If you have a story to tell and want to take part in our 60 second interview please contact tanya@x3dmedia.com

14 APRIL 2011 DEVELOP3D.COM

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AutoDesk Inventor tAkes you beyonD 3D to DIgItAl PrototyPIng

Autodesk® Inventor® software creates a single digital model that enables you to design, visualise and simulate your products. Inventor helps you to reduce product costs and get innovative designs to market faster. Learn how Inventor can take your designs beyond 3D at autodesk.com/beyond3D.

AutoDesk Inventor

Image courtesy of ADEPT Airmotive (Pty) Ltd. Autodesk, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings and specifications and pricing at any time without notice and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

PROFILE

VISUAL DESIGN GUIDE THE Chunc 45

FLEXIBILITY The chairs have been designed to be used as a surrogate seat in a motor vehicle

» Frustrated by the lack of suitable wheelchairs for his daughter, Richard Smith decided he could do a better job himself; he employed two industrial designers and set out to create the Chunc wheelchair

CONCEPT The concept was to produce an affordable, reliable, user friendly and ‘funky’ wheelchair for severely disabled children www.chunc.com

MATERIALS Bold colours and lightweight materials are the key: historically wheelchairs are welded steel tubing, Chunc uses innovative metal replacement polymers

MANUFACTURING As part of a larger group of companies Chunc has in-house capability for mold tooling, CNC machining, CNC turning, environmental testing, and rapid prototyping

TECHNOLOGY Solidworks is used for the full design process, including 2D plans for hand machining, renderings, for help producing rapid prototypes and most importantly as a true link translation from 3D models to polymer mould tooling via SolidCAM

Portability The chair breaks down into smaller assemblies so that it can be carried in the boot of a family hatchback

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BACK TO BASICS: rApID prOTOTypING strong are parts or models made by Q How rapid prototyping technology?

That depends on the technology you use. Models that are built by 3D printing, by depositing a powder and a binder, are the weakest and are best used for form evaluation. Parts that are made by laser sintering, where a laser is used to melt powder (plastics or metals), or stereolithography, where a polymer resin is cured, are stronger and can be used for form and fit testing or even end use products.

format do I use to export my CAD Q What models to a RP system?

A ADAPTABILITY The wheelchair is designed to grow with and fully support the user, and can be periodically adjusted as the child develops

The industry standard STL allows the export of a tessellated mesh of your part or product’s form. Almost every 3D design system supports STL but you need to ensure that you have the quality controls set to an appropriate level to retain the details you need. If the mesh is too coarse, you’ll have to hand finish your part or pay to have it done.

different types of materials are Q What available to build parts?

A STRENGTH

The structural components not only look good, but are incredibly efficient in their purpose, with the chair even crash tested for its in-car safety

There is as much selection in rapid prototyping materials as there is in the larger materials world. From basic plaster based powders, through different grades of ABS, PC, nylons and into the realms of complex alloys, filled materials (such as glass filled nylon). Metal-based processes are also gaining popularity, allowing the direct manufacture of a range of tool steels, aluminium, titanium and more exotic materials such as Iconel (or nickel chrome).

about colour and building parts from Q What multiple materials?

While most RP materials providers will give you choices for their materials, only Z Corporation (zcorp.com) has the capability to print full colour models in a single pass (pictured below). The more advanced machines in Objet’s range (objet.com) allow you to print multiple materials of different shore hardnesses in a single model, allowing quick printing of two or three shot moulded or overmoulds in one job.

If you have an exciting new product that you’d like to put forward for our visual design guide please contact stephen@develop3d.com

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PRODUCT DESIGN SHOWCASE BIKES

» Stephen Holmes still can’t walk after giving his quads a pounding on the latest two and three wheelers

With a laid back cycling position, the Vortex allows you to exert more force with greater ease. Also, with your body only inches off the ground It also feels twice as fast (and scary) as a normal bike

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PROFILE

Reclining standards

he recumbent cycle is visually puzzling to many, but throw in three wheels and it’s almost instantly a sportier, ground-hugging vehicle of speed. Despite coming to fashion in the 1970s during the fuel crisis as a comfier way for the portlier American executive to cycle to work, the recumbent trike is actually rather fast. A ‘laid back’ posture close to the road is aerodynamically slick, and also allows the body to exert more force with greater ease. The Inspired Cycle Engineering (ICE) Vortex definitely looks built for speed; fitted with funkier components, sportier wheels and a lightweight carbon fibre seat, it’s every inch the racing equivalent of its visually-sturdier predecessors. It is designed as part of a modular system: the back end, the middle part of the frame and the seats are all interchangeable throughout the range. This brings a reliable solidness to the Vortex and helps the company keep stock but without compromising on the models available for a wider selection of the market.

The designs are an evolution of the company’s 25 years’ of experience with the trike, although the move into 3D modelling has paved the way for faster build times and a greater reduction in the amount of prototypes needed. “With all the moving parts we got to a stage where 2D CAD was really holding us back and we knew that 3D was the way forward to speed up the prototyping process,” says ICE’s head designer Chris Parker. “We now know that the first prototype is going to work because there were no clashes. 3D has made it a lot easier in the design stage. “We can be a lot more adventurous with our designs and know they’re going to work.” The next step is advanced testing and a higher level of FEA analysis thanks to a link up with the University of Exeter’s engineering department. A Vortex has been fitted with a number of strain gauges and is due for a punishing run out with the hope of taking the design to an even quicker level. www.icetrikes.co

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STRIDING OUT

t is big, brash, and practically a bicycle, but what makes the ElliptiGO stand out is that it takes the benefits of a cross-trainer for the gym and drags them outside. The movements are specifically angled to mimic the running stride, benefiting the user by reducing impact injuries to those with delicate joints. “The product itself is unique,” explains its designer Bryan Pate from the sunny climate of Solana Beach, California, himself having lost the ability to run for fitness because of hip and knee injuries after a lifetime of contact sports. “There is no other device we know of designed to be used outdoors and emulate running without the impact. In particular, the pedalling motion is unlike any other,” he says. Bryan showed co-founder Brent Teal his sketch done on a newspaper at a coffee shop back in 2005 and mechanical engineer Brent took over the design which soon progressed into several prototype versions, each manually tested to find the right dimensions. Eventually a model was built in SolidWorks using the FEA abilities heavily to evaluate the structural integrity of the frame and custom components used on the bike. Unlike a traditional diamond-frame bicycle, the ElliptiGO had to have its frame members very close together while still generating the same level of vertical stiffness. To produce a rigid structure capable of transferring the required forces the designers turned to materials from the aerospace industry: carbon fibre is used on the drive arms and high strength 7000 series aluminium alloys are used on the frame and the crank arms. The team has spent a lot of effort focusing on intellectual property and has filed more than a dozen patents as well as having licensed two patents from Larry Miller, the inventor of the elliptical trainer. “It is a very cool feeling to run at 20mph!“ exclaims Bryan. We’re choosing to believe him before we pick a fight with Central London traffic.

www.elliptigo.com

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FAB FIvE

he success of a mountain bike lies in its angles, and very few are as geometrically composed and reassuringly stiff as the Five, Orangeâ€™s championship-winning trail bike. Screaming down the side of a mountain you want the bike underneath you to do exactly what you want, otherwise you could end up grinding your face along gravel, bouncing off rocks and feeling your skin peeling off like a banana. Not nice. The Five has been at the top of its class now for almost ten years, and the reason it has lasted so long is the ride that it offers, which comes from Orangeâ€™s commitment to working out the angles.

A strong, well-balanced frame design is the key to a responsive machine. Orange is based in Halifax, England where the Five is also built, although the designs now come from Spain where head of design and founder Steve Wade now resides. Beginning with 2D CAD line drawings, all the important adjustments are made to the frame. As trail bike riders have started pushing their steeds harder and applying more stresses by taking on more jumps and drops, the stronger the frame has to be. The key changes to the 2011 model include a tapered head tube and oversized seat tube, reflecting just how much Orange

expects its customers to punish the bike. The movement provided in the suspension is calculated in 3D using SolidWorks, as is the positioning of the components such as the gears and crank set. Although the key components are usually of an industry standard size, using a 3D model means that, should a supplier make changes, adjustments can be swiftly made to make sure clearances and pivots will work the same. By removing clashes from the design itâ€™s hoped that the rider will avoid clashes with the ground the next time they hit the downhill trail. www.orangebikes.co.uk

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PROFILE

ACCESS ALL AREAS

Caption to go in here roughly this length blahdy blah blahdy blah blah

Development model sequence created by Nick Shadrick at Inspired Lines using AutoCAD 2011

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Âť The Shannon Solo mini dumper is controlled remotely so it can operate in hazardous areas without risk to health and safety. Tanya Weaver caught up with Stuart Selway and Ryan Symes, neither of them engineers, who designed and manufactured the unmanned vehicle in the field, through a fascinating process of trial and error DEVELOP3D.COM APRIL 2011 23

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PROFILE

T 1 As the Shannon ●

Solo is operated by remote control, it can be used in a variety of applications including hazardous areas such as quarries or demolition sites

2 The dumper can ●

quickly and safely transport 500kg of materials up to 100m from the operator

3 The Shannon Solo ●

has been developed by two British entrepreneurs – Stuart Selway (left) and Ryan Symes (right)

4 The next ●

product to launch in the Shannon Solo Transporter range is the Solo Sprayer. Height adjustable and with a five metre spray reach, the sprayer can be used for watering golf courses or cricket pitches, for instance, as well as for spraying chemicals in hazardous areas

he Shannon Solo is the UK’s first production remote control, mini hi-tip dumper. From a distance of 100m the Solo can be operated to transport 500kg of materials travelling at a speed of up to eight miles per hour. It was developed and manufactured by two entrepreneurs, Stuart Selway and Ryan Symes, over a period of three years. Although between them they have ample experience of the construction industry, they have virtually no design or engineering skills. However, through a process of trial and error they managed to create a final prototype of the Solo. It was only then that they had the 3D CAD model produced. “We both had the same idea for the Solo dumper; we wanted to make something that was easy to maintain and simple to use,” explains Selway. “We are quite proud of ourselves because we are literally from the contracting and hire industry, we aren’t qualified engineers. But just through knowing what we wanted, we managed to get there.” Selway and Symes established Shannon Plant Sales and Hire near Bristol in 1999. The business involved both selling and hiring out plant equipment. However, in June 2010 they sold the hire centre and renamed the company Shannon Plant (South West) Ltd. The plan was to sell a range of plant equipment including its very own forthcoming Solo range. “When we sold the hire centre we then had the money and time to actually put the efforts into getting the Solo dumper finished,” says Selway. “For the past six months that is pretty much all we’ve done.”

Playing it safe The inspiration for the remote controlled dumper came from Symes who had been doing contract work for the water authority close to deep water. Such areas are hazardous for operators due to the high number of health and safety risks involved. As a result, any plant equipment used has to meet very strict regulations. So,

1 the ‘eureka’ moment was when they came up with the idea for a dumper truck that could safely be operated in such hazardous work places. As well as deep water these could also include quarries, demolition sites as well as other areas that are considered dangerous for people to be in such as airports, power stations or railway sites. “Everything about health and safety is about the operator. So when the operator isn’t on or near the machine in the danger area, there isn’t a problem. The risk assessment goes from pages down to a single sentence,” describes Selway.

Quality control The brief they set themselves was pretty clear, essentially to make it as simple as possible to use and easy to maintain. They started off by attempting to make a toy remote control work with an existing mini dumper. “It never did,” laughs Selway. “Due to the frequencies the machine would go completely out of control, the levers would just break up and the connections, electrics and hydraulics just weren’t strong enough.” Having soon realised that they wouldn’t get away with using cheap technology, they sourced their remote controls from Scanreco, a Swedish manufacturer whose products are widely used and comply with industry standards. Its digital remote control system is based on advanced microprocessor technology and, with its modular architecture, Symes and Selway could customise it to their specific requirements. “It is a complicated system but basically it works by sending an electrical pulse from the portable remote control unit to open up the hydraulic valve in the dumper. This enables the operator to change the speed, direction and movement of the dumper,” explains Selway. They also realised that they could not use the original valve block from the small dumper. They needed to create one specifically for a machine that could run four hydraulic drive motors on biodegradable hydraulic oil.

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Often hydraulics used in the construction industry can be quite jerky but through dedication, a lot of hard work, as well as consulting some local hydraulics engineers, they managed to achieve a very smooth control. This meant that the dumper was able to edge up to a skip very slowly as well as move quickly across an area at a speed of up to eight miles per hour. Apart from consulting the hydraulics engineers, Symes and Selway did not utilise the skills of any designers or engineers during the development process. With ample workshop space and a 3.5 acre yard, they had the room to build and test various prototypes. “We were moving on quite rapidly over the last six months; making something and if it didn’t work, breaking it up and starting again. We tended to know what we wanted so we just carried on ourselves,” says Selway. “As we aren’t engineers we tried all different things ourselves. It was just trial and error really until we stumbled on the right sort of valve that would do the job. We bought lots of different ones to be honest. It worked in the end and it works very well now,” he adds.

Rising to the challenge A number of challenges presented themselves during the development process. One of which was trying to make the dumper’s skip come down slowly if

weighted instead of too quickly. However, the biggest challenge, and one that required the most work, was figuring out how the Solo could smoothly travel up and down gradients of up to 25 degrees. When coming down a slope if the hydraulics were open the flow of the hydraulic oil would actually overtake the motor running. This would result in the Solo running away. “The speed of the wheels going round was pushing the oil round faster than the motor so it would just open up and go,” describes Selway. “We tried the cheapest option which was to restrict the oil flow but that messed up all the rest of it. So we had to find some valves that would actually restrict the oil flow correctly at the right time to eliminate the roll away. We did eventually manage to achieve it.”

Keep on trucking Whilst creating the Solo, Symes and Selway came up with additional uses for it. This led them to the idea of creating a range of mini remote control transporters under the Solo name. “Although it has a 16hp Vanguard engine, the chassis doesn’t need that amount of power to run. But what we have done is kept ourselves an extra 7Kw of power spare (about 20 litres a minute) so that we can put auxiliary units onto the machine. We are calling it plug and play, so you can take one unit off and put another on,” says Selway. In fact, they are in the process of developing a sprayer, which can be used to spray hazardous chemicals or simply water for dust control, as well as a rotary lawnmower, which would be ideal for airports or alongside motorways. “We can basically make anything as long as it can run off that sort of power,” he comments.

‘‘

Everything about health and safety is about the operator. So when the operator isn’t on or near the machine in the danger area, there isn’t a problem

’’

Safe as houses

Building the Solo involved a great deal of testing and, as the manufacturers, Symes and Selway also had to CE Mark it. This is a mandatory conformance mark that certifies that a product has met European Union consumer safety, health or environmental requirements. Additionally, the Solo had to meet health and safety requirements such as machinery safety directives, outdoor equipment noise directives as well as radio directives. All of this testing costs money and together with the cost involved in protecting their intellectual property through registering their design, this project was no cheap endeavour. “It has been a lot more expensive than perhaps we initially thought it was going to be,” admits Selway. “However, we have been very lucky because the sale of the hire part of the business helped us with a bit of funding and we also have our own premises with plenty of room, which has been very helpful.”

Hitting reverse With the final prototype complete, they now required the rapid production of full manufacturing drawings. These were needed to produce a production model of the Solo dumper for its launch at the Executive Hire Show in Coventry at the beginning of February 2011. In order to reverse engineer the prototype Symes and Selway enlisted the help of local company Inspired Lines, which provides design, visualisation and CAD services within various engineering environments. Nick Shadrick, the company’s director, felt that the best method would be to develop a full 3D model of the Solo DEVELOP3D.COM APRIL 2011 25

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PROFILE and then create the technical 2D drawings from that. The reason being that this 3D model could then be utilised when Shannon came to develop its future bolt on products or if visualisations were ever needed. “I spent two days in total at Shannon where I hand measured all elements of the existing Solo dumper and created a fully detailed 3D assembly while on site,” explains Shadrick. “As the design had been totally developed by hand at that stage we used the model to assess possible improvements, modifications and standardisations of parts and features.” As the model was measured by hand, Shadrick had to virtually get inside the machine to measure the various components. However, with testing going on at the same time, they couldn’t strip it down completely to nut and bolt. “There was nothing so tricky that we needed to scan any parts because it’s very much based on standard framework to build a chassis and then plate forming to create the main body,” says Shadrick. He built the 3D model exclusively in AutoCAD 2011. “Contrary to many opinions I have found the recent developments in 3D functionality of AutoCAD have made it a viable option for this type of project,” he argues. “I regularly use and lecture with various parametric modellers but have not written off the functionality of AutoCAD especially when dealing with one off projects that could vary from huge multi layered 2D/3D translations of environmental designs to quick mechanical component sketch ups.” With the Executive Hire Show looming, the deadline was very tight but Shadrick managed to complete the manufacturing drawings within a couple of weeks. “The open minded, forward thinking approach of the guys at Shannon Plant allowed for the design and detailing to progress quickly and hit the tight deadlines required,” he comments.

HANDS ON DEVELOPMENT In our age of computers and advanced CAD technologies it seems quite foreign to not utilise CAD from the beginning of a product development project. In most cases Inspired Lines, a Somersetbased company providing design, visualisation and CAD services, is called upon by clients to be involved from the very start or early stages of development. However, there are also times, like its work for Shannon Plant, where projects call for refinement of existing designs or simply bringing together elements of hand developed designs into a functioning digital model for evaluation. “The Shannon project is an example of a small to medium sized company utilising in-house experience and hands on skills to problem solve and experiment on design ideas,” explains Inspired Lines’ managing director, Nick Shadrick. “I am convinced that utilising CAD software from the start would have helped massively with the development of this type of project but I also believe that depending solely on digital models from the outset would have stifled the creativity of personnel who have years of knowledge in physical design problem solving and prototype development.” Another company Inspired Lines has been working with in a similar manner is Brook Food Processing Equipment, a UK supplier of used and new bakery equipment. The company’s development team

uses its vast experience in hands on design and development to improve existing products and create new ones. Inspired Lines is tasked with creating digital models and assemblies to bring together features and ideas for refinement, standardisation, visualisation, manufacturing documentation and digital testing if required. “Inspired Lines has been a breath of fresh air to us both with its knowledge input and the extremely fast turnaround times. This is something so important when trying to develop a new product,” explains Roger Staniforth, director of Brook Food Processing Equipment. Shadrick believes that this combination of physical design development along with digital development creates a good balance and allows the creativity of all personnel to progress freely. “Of course many companies are relying more and more on digital prototyping and design given the fantastic progress of the technology. Unfortunately this naturally phases out the vital experience in hands on development skills,” he comments. “As a CAD user and lecturer over the last twenty years I have witnessed this trend but believe that there is a growing enthusiasm for the reintroduction of practical skills training that, when coupled with the CAD technology available, creates an ideal combination.” www.inspiredlines.co.uk

Local support Manufacturing and assembly of the Solo dumper is taking place onsite in Shannon’s vast workshop facilities. Initially, it will be made in batches of ten but if demand is higher this can be increased to batches of 20. “If we need to go bigger, we have the premises in place, it will just mean getting additional manpower. We are ready for whatever happens,” says Selway. At the Executive Hire Show the Shannon Solo received many positive comments and feedback. “I must admit that everyone took on board what we have done. We had a number of companies that would like to buy the product and identified lots of different purposes for it. We are actually now developing a diesel engine for it through the feedback we got at the show,” says Selway. With the dumper and sprayer launched and the lawnmower soon to be brought to market it’s shaping up to be an exciting future for Shannon. And although it has been hard work, Symes and Selway have enjoyed the process. “We have had great fun making it to be honest. It’s a serious bit of kit but there is a fun side to it too,” says Selway. “Everybody that we have tested it on or has had a go at using it, you can just see the smiles on their faces. They pick it up straight away and they are also not scared of using it as they are nowhere near it.” When you see the mini Solo dumper in action, it seems such an obvious solution and almost begs the question ‘why wasn’t it thought of before?’ “Maybe it’s so obvious that everyone missed it,” smiles Selway. www.shannonplantsales.co.uk

‘‘ I spent two

days in total at Shannon where I hand measured all elements of the existing Solo dumper and created a fully detailed 3D assembly while on site

1 Cut through image ●

for assessment of design idea

2 Development ●

assembly for Brook Food Processing Equipment, a UK supplier of used and new bakery equipment

’’

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Interview with CHRIS RANDLES, CEO of SpaceClaim » Founded in 2005, SpaceClaim is one of the youngest solid modelling companies, with a key focus on ease of use and direct modelling. Martyn Day spoke with the company’s British Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

rand new software companies that create 3D CAD modelling software are very rare. So when SpaceClaim set up in 2005, I paid it a visit in its Concord, Boston offices. At the helm was the then CEO Mike Payne, an industry veteran who had a leading hand in the creation of SolidWorks and Pro/Engineer. With that pedigree and track record, the industry waited with baited breath to see what was going to be released. The product was called SpaceClaim and it was a new take on direct modelling, which had been championed by CoCreate, IronCAD and a few others. This modelling system didn’t rely on ‘history’ and allowed intelligent push/pull editing and creation of solid models. SpaceClaim came with a number of translators and could open many 3D formats, old and new, for intelligent editing. With Payne at the helm, plenty of venture capital was found and the company attempted to set up a direct and indirect sales channel, pitching the product as a tool for editing legacy models, as well as being an easy-to-use 3D modelling tool. This was meant to be nonconfrontational to the other CAD developers but that wasn’t the way SpaceClaim was perceived. Following SpaceClaim’s launch, in a relatively short period, PTC acquired CoCreate, Siemens PLM Software delivered Synchronous Technology in Solid Edge and NX and Autodesk experimented with a Labs product called Fusion. All of these products offered direct modelling capabilities, the very thing that SpaceClaim’s new

Chris Randles, CEO of SpaceClaim

modelling technology was differentiating itself with. In some ways, it seemed like the established CAD vendors were closing ranks on the upstart and hoped that it would run out of funds and go away. However, SpaceClaim has steadily gained a profile in the industry and is winning a number of highly prized customers. In 2008, once core development had peaked, Payne took the company’s chairman role with Chris Randles being brought onboard as CEO. Randles, a Brit, was former CEO of Mathsoft and, since selling off that company to PTC, had been associated with one of the key VC investors in SpaceClaim’s start-up. In the opening to our conversation I presented my view that SpaceClaim was a niche player in the CAD market and that when the company first launched its message was that of being an adjacent seat, a simple modelling tool, not a replacement seat to any existing CAD application. Randles immediately took issue, “Our initial foray was certainly non-confrontational but I don’t see us as a niche player. It’s possible to look at SpaceClaim and just say ‘it’s a direct modeller’ and that everyone does direct modelling these days but there are a couple of distinct differences. The first is that we have always focussed on expanding the market for 3D, not replacing existing CAD, and we still hold true to that mantra. “Secondly, as we develop subsequent releases we are creating a product that is different from today’s CAD packages in more ways than just being direct modelling versus feature-based modelling. We consider today that we have the best and most mature direct modelling solution and the most accessible and powerful tools. We have done a lot of work over the last year with big customers modelling and editing large models and assemblies, so I don’t DEVELOP3D.COM APRIL 2011 29

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INTERVIEW train, including the cost of the software, think you can say simple means for less than the cost of training!” underpowered.” Our conversation then moved to examining the CAD market as a whole Spaceclaim’S nicheS and identifying where SpaceClaim sat in While examining the different CAD relation to the other household names. solutions on the market, many are “We are 25 years into the feature-based defined as being generic with add-ons parametric CAD experiment,” explained to tailor them to specific functions. Randles, “Starting with PTC, they From the outset SpaceClaim targeted changed the world with Pro/Engineer, some very vertical niches. Being a small and SolidWorks took it to Windows, but company, with such big competition, I since then not a lot has changed. It has figure this made good economic sense. evolved but not changed much. There A recent visit to the company’s website are now just under a million 3D CAD showed that this has greatly expanded seats under maintenance out there. over the last three years. Before responding to a proposal or committing to detailed design, SpaceClaim recommends getting the concepts right. For example, If you talk to the analysts they will tell Randles explained the benefits of this in this SpaceClaim model, an antenna supplier works with its you that there are 200,000-250,000 highly focussed approach, “When you customers to discuss mounting options. Once they agree on the seats of Catia, about the same for design concept and win the proposal, the design gets released to CAD get a new modeller, you want it to work SolidWorks, the same for Inventor with existing geometry. Many firms get although it’s hard to work out who is actually a real user. different CAD models from different sources and they want to mix “PTC published the number of 136-138,000 seats recently and and match. We have gone after a series of different user workflows - if maybe 150,000 seats of Siemens NX. Really, it’s not a very large you look at our website there are about eight or nine that we focus on. number considering the huge number of engineers that are actually “We started with CAE and then addressed concept/bid modelling, involved in manufacturing today. which is the majority of our business, but also rapid prototyping, “We think, in the future, every engineer should have access to manufacturing, partnering with companies like Trumpf. We sell a some kind of 3D tool. We also think that in perhaps ten years’ time, lot into manufacturing engineering, which led us into sheet metal, it will not be the case that everyone is using feature-based CAD. which is close to CAD, mould making and simulation. If you look at Should it be PTC’s Creo/Elements Direct, Autodesk Fusion, Siemens our UI, you can see that we are supporting more of these specific userSynchronous or SpaceClaim, these are the tools that will bring people cases and workflows.” to use direct modelling. “The difference for us is that we are not selling direct modelling as legacy data a way to sell more CAD or PLM systems, in fact it’s a virtue that our On the topic of legacy, SpaceClaim’s most compelling capability was product does not try to hack into the feature-tree because we only its power to open up files from a multitude of sources - Pro/E, JT, edit the geometry. We are still truly CAD neutral. It doesn’t mean DWG, Catia etc and just intelligently edit very complex geometry. In that we aren’t anyone’s enemy, it means some ways, SpaceClaim was seen as a that we don’t care if you give us a JT potential liberator for many engineering file, a STEP file, or a Pro/E file - we edit firms that were locked into proprietary them all equally well.” systems. Randles, as expected, had very I must admit that I find it shocking strong views on legacy systems and that so many engineers are deemed to their impact on customers. “For many be non-CAD users, but then perhaps years the CAD vendors preached to their I am biased as I’ve written about CAD customers that they had to have a single for over 20 years and don’t understand model and that that’s the only way they how anyone could get by nowadays could reuse and capture design intent without having the necessary 3D or 2D and it’s really a self-serving strategy,” he skills. Randles highlighted some typical explained. “Thou shalt not have any other customer experiences as an example, God than me - a monotheistic doctrine. “There are definitely companies where The reality is, almost every company we you can find that the majority of the sell to, and maybe they are self-selecting, design and CAE [Computer Aided have acquired companies or moved Engineering] engineers are not CADfrom one system to another, or they had capable and they have struggled to learn one CAD system and used multiple file how to use them. A senior manager at formats. one of our largest corporate accounts told us that to ask the engineers “Our largest sector, to my surprise, has been automotive. They have to learn a CAD system is like asking them to learn to play a musical suffered the most but that makes sense because they have ended up instrument. It just doesn’t happen. with CAD files from suppliers that went belly-up or they are really “SpaceClaim can put 3D into the hands of engineers and make the looking to reduce cost by using JT. In SpaceClaim you can configure training minimal, which is important because the hidden cost of it to read and write JT. So JT can be your native file format. So, they all owning CAD is the training for those that are not CAD experts. We have many different sorts of CAD files around and nobody has this have been dealing with a large company and did a very successful perfect ‘Taj Mahal’ PLM system that has pure-bred Catia, NX or Pro/E large pilot project. They had a previous initiative to get their engineers files. The reality is; it’s messy. to use their CAD system of choice, so they put in place this program, “Now add to that the fact that companies are really changing the way and put a few hundred engineers through, but it wasn’t successful. they work. When I started in manufacturing software, almost every “It involved engineers spending eleven hours a week, for six company I went to had a production department on the ground floor weeks, with homework and at the end of it not one of them could and above it was the design office. The guy making stuff, if he didn’t really use the CAD tool. If you take the cost of 70 engineering man understand what the designer intended, would go upstairs and ask the hours plus the cost of buying the software, we could licence and designer for clarity. Now, that whole production and manufacturing

 We think, in the future, every engineer should have access to some kind of 3d tool. We also think that in perhaps ten years’ time, it will not be the case that everyone is using feature-based cad 

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INTERVIEW is globally distributed and it might change from year to year. So, the focus of most engineering firms is outsourcing and that may even include detail design, in India or China. “In a recent visit to a defence contractor, I was really excited to see design reviews being carried out on just two screens, one was Teamcenter, the other was SpaceClaim where they were taking the data out of Teamcenter and trying edits and then analysing their modifications. All happening very quickly and even though they had huge models, we could load the whole vehicle because we weren’t taking in acres of feature tree, just the geometry. I feel like we are three years ahead of everyone else who’s building their first direct modelling tools for engineers.” So while SpaceClaim can augment an existing process, I asked if it is replacing traditional CAD seats. “In this respect, we aren’t replacing Pro/E or Catia as a production system,” explained Randles. “SpaceClaim is a new tool for new users. If we are replacing anything it’s these legacy 3D modellers, or a mish-mash of 2D and 3D tools. We replace an inefficient circuit where the engineer goes to the CAD and says ‘can you make it like this?’. The biggest saving that most of our customers see is that we can get the engineers to get a 3D prototype much quicker than if they were dependant on a third party to model it up in traditional CAD.”

Growth

name them as a customer, who joins firms like Tyco, LG Electronics and Alstrom. Already our licenses per customer are at a healthy ratio, healthier than some of the more mass market developers, having between five and ten seats per customer. We aren’t like a SolidWorks that sells one, two, three licenses per deal. “We believe that one day every engineer, which to us represents a market of at least four to five million seats that don’t use 3D today but might use AutoCAD or something else, will need a 3D seat. We have visited some companies that use Microsoft Paint to do design reviews! We think 3D will be part of their toolkit, just as MS Office is part of most people’s day-to-day productivity tools. Feature-based CAD won’t go away but it will look a little like FrameMaker looks today for layout. “So, our go to market is now very well defined, we sell through resellers, OEM partners like Ansys, and we sell direct to a narrow range of large accounts. This year represents an inflection point because everyone is saying that direct modelling is the best way to bring new users to their franchises. What we have been saying for the last few years is now being legitimised by Autodesk, PTC and Siemens.”

 [Fusion is] a validation that all the major players, with the exception of Dassault, have embraced direct modelling and acknowledged that there are limits to what you can do with featurebased CAD 

I have watched SpaceClaim go from start-up to being a bit of a global phenomenon. There have been trials and tribulations along the way and at certain times I have wondered if SpaceClaim was going to make the leap to the mainstream market, establish a decent channel or just run out of VC funding. I asked Randles how the company had performed. He replied, “By definition in the last few years we have gone from a startup to a growth stage company. But we are obviously a fraction of the size of the traditional big CAD players such as Autodesk , Dassault and PTC. However, I think we punch above our weight. “SpaceClaim did our first serious sales in 2008. We more than tripled our sales in 2009, tripled again in 2010- and I would argue that 2009/2010 were probably the hardest markets to sell engineering tools in the last twenty years. We will probably triple again this year; well, we should at least double. In terms of adoption, we don’t disclose our numbers but we have a license count that is now in five figures and we have some significant customers. “Our latest news is that we have just got permission from Toyota to

The competition

On the subject of the competition, Randles appears to be thankful for the attention, “In terms of direct modelling, the ubiquity of Autodesk Fusion is actually exciting from our point of view. More exciting than what PTC is doing with Creo and what Siemens has been doing for a while with Synchronous Technology. What Autodesk is saying is that direct modelling, if not the dominant paradigm for how they introduce people to 3D, is certainly going to be the first experience for majority of people. It’s going to be very pervasive, by not only bundling it with AutoCAD but also with tools like Moldflow, means it will be everywhere. “I don’t see Fusion as being mature, in terms of what we are doing with direct modelling. It’s a validation that all the major players, with the exception of Dassault, have embraced direct modelling and acknowledged that there are limits to what you can do with featurebased CAD. It’s great from our point of view. “I am looking forward to Creo version 1 being out there as at the moment it’s us versus a PowerPoint or a video. Going back to Autodesk Fusion, this will expose a huge number of people, who have never thought about 3D, and who are going to have their first experiences with a direct modelling tool and in the long run, that is great news for us.” www.spaceclaim.com

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APRIL 2011

BOB JOHNSON

ENGINEERING WORKSHOP #12 bAsic principlEs oF FEA: pArt 3

» Bob Johnson concludes the Finite Element Analysis of a polyethylene switch housing and confirms the hand calculations with a 2D analysis

his is the third and final part of a mini-series of articles designed to look into the matrix formulation of the Finite Element Method. After the first two parts we had solved for the primary unknowns – the displacements at node numbers 1 and 2, which were -2.002mm and -1.184mm respectively. { fig.1} shows a repeat of these calculations to save you looking back to the previous article. We can now continue with the rest of the solution. In order to arrive at a unique solution we imposed the boundary condition that the displacement at node number 3 was zero. The corresponding term in the force vector is an unknown “reaction” and this was designated “R3”. The unknown reaction, R3, can be calculated by substituting the displacements (at nodes 1 and 2) back into equation (3). The reaction becomes +449.92N roughly equal and opposite to the applied load (-450N). In future we need to remember that each time a displacement is constrained to any value (not just zero as shown here) then a corresponding reaction force will be calculated by the FEA. { fig.1} shows how the element forces can be calculated and here we revert back to the individual element stiffness matrices multiplied by the relevant parts of the displacement solution. Element number [1] is seen to be in a state of compression with a force of 450N applied to each end. Conversely element number [2] is in a state of tension with 450N acting at each end. { fig.2} also shows how the strains and stresses within the elements are calculated. Here the nominal definition of strain is equal to the change in length (between two nodes) divided by the original length (between those two nodes). If strip-ad-zcorp:Layout 2

22/7/10

07:16

Page 1

{ fig.1} SwITCH HOuSINg – BACk-SuBSTITuTION fOR REACTIONS

[ [

550 -550

-550

finite Element Mesh 450N

-380

550 -550

][ ][ ] ][ ][ ] u2

380

930 -380 -380

380

-450 ...........(1)

...........(2)

...........(3)

u3 450N

-550

930 -380

550u1 - 550u2 = -450 ...........(1) -550u1 + 930u2 = 0 ...........(2)

u1 = -2.002mm u2 = -1.184mm

Reactions calculated by substituting the displacements back into equation number (3)… Y

2 X

0(-2.002) - 380(-1.184) + 380(0) = R3 •• R3 = 449.92N The reaction force is equal and opposite to the applied load

both elements were pointing in the same direction then the calculation of the nominal strain would be given by the endnode-displacement minus the start-node-displacement, all divided by the original length of the element. [Note: In this model we have “overlapping” elements – one defined in the positive direction and one defined in the negative direction. Therefore we will use a slightly modified method of strain calculation for each].

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COMMENT In the case of element number [1] (negative-Y direction) { fig.2} Switch housing – element forces, stresses & strains we define the strain as the start-node-displacement minus the end-node-displacement divided by the original length. 2 In the case of element number [2] (positive-Y direction) 550 -550 0 -2.002 -450 we will use end-node-displacement minus start-nodeFinite Element -550 930 -380 -1.184 = 0 Mesh displacement divided by the original length. Refer to the 450N 0 -380 380 0.000 450 calculations on { fig.2} which render the strains in element 450N 1 [1] and [2] as -0.0134mm/mm and +0.0263mm/mm 1 Element forces: respectively. The positive sign indicates tension and the 1 U1 3 1 minus sign compression. 500 -550 -2.002 = F1 = -450 1 1 The element stresses are obtained by multiplying the -500 550 -1.184 F2 +450 2 element strains by the material properties (in this case 3 U3 380 -380 -1.184 = F2 = -450 simply the Young’s Modulus). { fig.2} shows that the 2 2 2 -380 380 0.000 F3 +450 stresses for elements [1] and [2] are -5.92MPa and +4.74MPa 450N 2 respectively. The problem is determinate so we know that 450N Element Strains and Stresses: the applied load of 450N passes through both elements. Armed with this obvious fact, perform direct stress Strain in [1] ε1 = u1 - u2 = -2.002 - (-1.184) = -0.0134 mm/mm L1 60.84 calculations for the two plastic sleeves and prove to yourself Strain in [2] ε2 = u3 - u2 = 0.000 - (-1.184) = +0.0263 mm/mm that your hand calculations for axial stress are roughly equal Y L2 45.00 U2 2 to the Finite Element solution. E = -0.0134 x 440 = -5.92 MPa Stress in [1] = ε 1 1 That concludes the one-dimensional (line-element) X solution of the plastic switch housing problem. If you Stress in [2] = ε2 E2 = +0.0263 x 180 = +4.74 MPa return to the original definition of the problem you will see that the activation of an internal micro-switch required 2mm of movement under the so-called “failsafe” { fig.3} Switch housing – 2D axi-symmetric verification Exercise load of 450N. We achieved a displacement of just over 2mm so our preliminary design doesn’t seem to be too Model: CASING1A far off track. Case: 450N CENTRE LOAD Average Nodal Stress Axial stress { fig.3} shows a two-dimensional section through the 2.070mm Component YY (MPa) switch assembly and we can see this section is repeated for Maximum = 19.47 Element [2] Minimum = -18.54 all theta such that we can use an axi-symmetric solution. I 1 have stressed the importance (and accuracy) of such a 2D solution and it is saddening to see that not all CAD-based FEA systems have such a facility! If you can’t perform axi2 symmetric analysis with your FEA system then ring the support desk with a loud wake-up call. Height (mm) The axi-symmetric analysis, detailed in { fig.3}, represents the two plastic sleeves and the steel collar (perfectly bonded to the plastic sleeves). The applied load was applied to Element [1] the flat top (6mm thick) by way of normal face pressure and NOT a point load of 450N. A point load can’t exist in reality so we don’t use it in our simulation. The underside Axial stress along outside of the collar on the outer sleeve (again 6mm thick) was diameter of each element constrained in the axial direction. The 2D solution gave FEA results courtesy of Roshaz - www.roshaz.com a displacement of 2.070mm (negative) at the outside diameter of the inner sleeve. The inset graph shows the axial stress variation along the outside diameter of the two sleeves and, as long as we keep clear of the sudden section R P Johnson BSc MSc NRA MIMechE CEng changes, then the stresses are very close to those calculated Bob Johnson is technical director of DAMT Limited, a specialist in by hand in the one-dimensional solution. training courses and consultancy for stress and Finite Element We will look at a new subject next time. Analysis (FEA). www.damt.co.uk

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Plastics Design & Moulding

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Technology for green product development sustainability.develop3d.com April 2011

Setting Sayl How Yves Behar & Herman Miller reinvented the chair

Light-weighting & optimisation An introduction to life cycle assesment Autodesk Eco Materials Advisor The green design gallery Sup_p01_Cover.indd 1

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How do you make greener cars that drive you into the black?

The Siemens answer: Balance social, economic and environmental demands with Siemens PLM Software. Sustainability means much more than just “green.” It involves striking a balance among the thousands of decisions that go into vehicle design, development, and manfacturing. Siemens PLM Software helps you understand the true implications your product decisions, so you can achieve the correct balance between environmental, economic, and social considerations. Find out how we can help make your automobiles better. www.siemens.com/plm/automotive.

Answers for Industry. © 2010 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of Siemens AG. All other logos, trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Contents After whole year of planning I am pleased to welcome you to the first edition of DEVELOP3D Sustainability. During the past 12 months I have been thinking long and hard about how to tackle the subject of sustainable design. The thing that I discovered during the endless research on the subject is that there’s very little in the way of practical advice available for designers and engineers. When and how should you start considering the environmental impact of your design? What tools are available and how do they integrate with your existing toolkit? What’s the business case? And, of course, what are the leading lights in the field doing? It’s exactly these key questions that we’re setting out to answer. I hope you’ll join us for the ride. The next print edition of DEVELOP3D Sustainability will be out in the summer, but we also have an online presence. Go to sustainability.develop3d.com to find some web-exclusive content. Finally, I’d like to thank the people whose advice has been invaluable in getting this off the ground. This includes Sarah and Dawn at Autodesk, Terry at Sustainable Minds, Asheen at DS, Leyla at Eco Innovators and the whole team at DEVELOP3D.

Al Dean Editor

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AL DEAN

al@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)7525 701 541 F E AT U R E S E D I T O R T A N YA W E AV E R

tanya@x3dmedia.com

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Page iv Green design showcase Page vi Herman Miller’s Sayl Chair Page x Introduction to Life Cycle Assesment (LCA) Page xii Back to Basics: Light-weighting and optimisation Page xiv Autodesk and Granta’s Eco Materials Advisor A DV E RT I S I N G M A NAG E R STEVE KING

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Company Ecovative Design Product EcoCradle In 2007 two graduates set up Ecovative Design, a bio-materials company in New York, to revolutionise the way materials are made. Its EcoCradle packaging follows the ‘cradle to cradle’ principles. www.ecovativedesign.com

Facts: • EcoCradle packaging is literally grown (not manufactured) from agricultural byproducts • It is grown in the dark producing miles of tiny white fibres in just seven days • Low embodied energy production • A filamentous fungi bonds the packaging into almost any shape • Current production facility is powered by hydroelectricity with zero carbon emissions • Manufacture regionally to minimise the transportation of raw and finished materials • 100% biodegradeable and compostable • EcoCradle offers the same protection as expanded polystyrene For a more detailed look at Ecovative Design’s product development process and to read an interview with environmental director, Sam Harrington, go to tinyurl.com/D3DSust1

Sustainable de by Tanya Weaver

Four companies, four unique approaches to sustainable product development Company Sprig Toys Product Eco-friendly children’s toys

After witnessing the harmful environmental impacts of the toy manufacturing process in China, three toy designers set up Sprig Toys in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 2007 with the aim of making truly green toys that inspire and engage children in active, imaginative play. The company uses recycled materials whenever possible and manufactures its products in Europe and North America to reduce its carbon footprint. www.sprigtoys.com

Facts: • Sprig produces battery-free and paint-free toys • The toys are made from Sprigwood, a proprietary bio-composite of recycled wood and reclaimed plastic • Material is injection moulded • Power comes from an on-board generator • No instruction leaflets included with packaging – all instructions printed on the recycled, paper packaging For a more detailed look at Sprig Toys’ product development process and to read an interview with Co-founder, Justin Discoe, go to tinyurl.com/D3DSust3

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Profile Company Hulger Product Plumen 001 London-based electronics brand Hulger collaborated with designer Sam Wilkinson to create a low energy light bulb. The aim was to create an ecological product that had style and presence. The light bulb was recently named Brit Insurance Design of the Year. www.plumen.com

Facts: • Uses 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs • Lifetime of eight years • 11 Watt (equivalent to a 60 Watt incandescent bulb) • 680 Lumen • Screw cap • Colour temperature 27ook (warm white light) • Materials include glass and a small amount of plastic For a more detailed look at Hulger’s product development process and to read an interview with co-founder and creative director, Nicolas Roope, go to tinyurl.com/D3DSust2

design gallery Company thinksound Product Rain earphones thinksound began with a simple goal; to create incredible sounding headphones with the smallest eco-footprint possible. Its headphones are made with real wood, creating a more natural resonance and unparalleled acoustics. www.thinksound.com

Facts: • Wood is from renewable sources • Packaging is made from recycled materials • Bleach-free packaging materials • Smaller packaging size • Elimination of plastic bubble insert • Cotton carrying pouch is sewn from renewable sources • PVC-free cables For a more detailed look at thinksound’s product development process and to read an interview with co-founder, Aaron Fournier, go to tinyurl.com/D3DSust4

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Sitting

How Yves Behar & Herman Miller used an Eco-dematerialised design approach to create the Sayl chair with fewer parts and fewer materials by Tanya Weaver

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Profile

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ake one industrial designer renowned for his innovative approach and one manufacturer heralded for its environmental policy and the result is something rather ground breaking - the SAYL office chair. During its design process Yves Behar, founder of San Francisco-based design firm fuseproject, together with the development team at Herman Miller, scrutinised every part of the chair to ensure that it would be the lightest, strongest and most sustainable possible. Certainly its most innovative feature is the full suspension back, which is literally frameless. Although Herman Miller has been environmentally aware since it was first founded in Michigan in 1905, it was in 2000 that it publicly stated its intention to become a

sustainable business. Soon after, the Design for the Environment (DfE) team was established to develop environmentally sensitive design standards for new and existing products. The principles that were to be followed were laid out by Bill McDonough, an environmental designer, and Michael Braungart, an environmental chemist, in their book ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things’. The ‘cradle to cradle’ paradigm is modelled on nature where nothing goes to waste; one organism’s waste is another’s food. So, for Herman Miller this meant focusing on using safe materials that can be disassembled and then recycled or composted. “Cradle to Cradle is a simple design protocol. It places a large emphasis on understanding the chemicals that end up in our products,”

explains Gabe Wing, Herman Miller’s senior environmental manager. “What we are trying to do is work with our supply chain to dig back and make sure that we have the ability to catalogue every single ingredient that ends up in our products down to one hundred parts per million.” For Behar, embarking on the SAYL design process, the aim was to create a beautifully designed yet comfortable chair that would not only be sustainable but could also be sold at an attainable price. “Right from the start I looked for ways to reduce the amount of materials and lower the weight. For inspiration to get there I looked at the way suspension bridges are constructed,” explains Behar. “I started looking at ways that you could have a tower system that could essentially carry loads. This meant creating the main

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structure for the chair in a much more efficient way than the way it has been built before. That is when I realised that I could use that inspiration to build what is essentially a suspension frameless back for the chair,” he adds. Having examined how people sit and work at their desks, Behar and his design team turned to their pens and sketchbooks and created drawing after drawing. They reexamined everything from the back, seat and controls down to the smallest details and in the process over 1,000 sketches were produced. “If you want to truly innovate this cannot be done on a computer. It is really a process of experimentation and very much like laboratory work,” argues Behar. “You need to be able to quickly iterate, to try different methods, to fail quickly and that isn’t something that can be done on a computer. With drawings you can quickly explore different ideas - both structural and visual.” Alongside the sketching over 100 prototypes were built. “A good half of which were done in our design studio to allow us to experiment and try different methodologies. This helped to prove that the suspension worked both structurally and also ergonomically,” says Behar. So, the design tools used to really invent the chair were sketches and prototypes. Thereafter, once the principles had been decided, CAD was used to model and refine the product. Simulation was carried out both on the computer and in laboratories, or what Behar refers to as torture chambers. “The parts get tested to one million to one million and a half cycles, which is enormous. But we need this kind of cycle testing in order to have the 12 year warranty that Herman Miller wanted for the chair,” says Behar. Through all this sketching, prototyping and designing, the fuseproject team worked very closely with the development teams at Herman Miller. “The greatest breakthroughs come from great collaborations and partnerships. While we were really experimenting and pushing the bounds of what may be possible to do or to build, Herman Miller trusted us and encouraged us and supported us in the exercise,” he comments. “I think the best work comes from this type of close collaboration and trust. This is really where you can stretch what’s possible.” For Behar certainly the most challenging part of the design was creating the structure for the back. This was uncharted territory and required a great deal of hard work and experimentation with different materials. The back is moulded in one piece in polyurethane and, through injection moulding, different degrees of tensions have been infused

directly into the material. This innovation, dubbed the 3D intelligent suspension back, enables it to adapt to the user’s shape and movements. With no rigid exterior frame the back suspends and supports, in the same way as a suspension bridge does. “With the suspension back material we were able to get a lot of what I call 3D intelligent performance out of it because we could build very specific ergonomic responses within the material. You can’t do that with formal mesh or hard plastic but with an injected material we were able to create a completely different type of feel depending on different areas of the back,” explains Behar. Although that aspect of the design was particularly challenging, Behar admits that the entire process was quite challenging. “Creating a product that was innovative and affordable at the same time was a tremendous challenge,” he says. “All throughout when you are inventing you never know what the road is to get there. For example, there are many different materials and different approaches that can be used and that meant a constant state of flux between things

lowing out a lot of these materials. “The chair is 30% lighter than most other chairs in its category because of this eco-dematerialised approach,” adds Behar. Throughout this development process Herman Miller also carried out Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of the product. The software tool it uses to analyse the entire LCA of its products as well as its facilities and processes is GaBi from PE International. “What we have found with most of our products is that over 80% of our impacts are upstream of us. So, in order to really change the way our products impact the planet, we have to ask our material suppliers to not only share their chemical recipes but start adopting sustainable practices too,” says Wing. “It becomes obvious when you see the amount of input mass it takes to make something like the SAYL chair. So, if the finished product is roughly 16kg there is over 1,000kg of ‘stuff’ that we have to pull out of the ground in order to make it. It’s a real eye opener and it’s not just us - we have a lot of opportunity here to eliminate waste inside our value chain which will ultimately lower cost and reduce impact on the environment,” says Wing. SAYL chairs are being manufactured in their entirety on three continents. This reduces the CO2 impact associated with transportation and shipping. “All of our global operations are powered through some form of renewable energy. But it’s not just about using green energy, we are also trying to reduce the amount of energy needed for manufacturing,” says Wing. The SAYL chair was launched in October 2010 with a price tag of £350. Judging by the positive response it has received, it looks as though Behar has achieved his goal of creating an innovative chair that was both sustainable and attainable. So, what advice would he give to designers who also want to tread a more sustainable path? “My advice is to essentially look at the entire offering, the entire experience, the entire manufacturing process. To get really involved in the processes, the distribution systems, manufacturing and the logistics because once you understand these you will find some creative solutions that will make a difference. It will allow a product or an experience to be conceived and received as something that is truly a step forward towards sustainability,” he says. As for Herman Miller, SAYL is yet another product that demonstrates its sustainable business practices. “We aren’t the sustainable business we want to be and our products aren’t as sustainable as we want them to be but I think we are well on our way,” concludes Wing.

The chair is 30% lighter than most other chairs in its category because of this eco-dematerialised approach

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that may work and things that may fail.” “I think the key to handling these types of challenges is having a trust and a vision for the final result. Continue to iterate and be comfortable with failing knowing that eventually you will succeed,” he adds. Upholding the DfE protocol, SAYL is designed so that 93% of the suspension back is recyclable. However, sustainable design is not only about selecting the most environmentally-friendly materials it is more about using the least amount or lightest materials possible. This meant removing any unnecessary components yet still delivering a high level of performance and aesthetics. “Eco-dematerialised is a concept that we brought to the table and fully applied to the chair,” says Behar. “We looked at every part and built it to be the most efficient relative to the other parts on the chair,” says Behar. “A lot of chairs are made of existing components, which is highly inefficient. We were able to really craft every part of interaction between parts to maximise their combined structural and engineering integrity.” This process of elimination not only meant using fewer materials but also involved hol- www.hermanmiller.co.uk | www.fuseproject.com

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Profile 1

8 1 Yves Behar, founder of San Francisco-based design firm fuseproject 2 & 3 1,000 sketches were produced in the conceptual design phase 4 & 5 Over 100 physical prototypes were built 6 Prototype chair components 7 Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the 3D intelligent suspension back 8 Inside the test laboratory 9 Sayl chair production line 10 The full suspension back is literally frameless 11 With a price tag of ÂŁ350 the Sayl chair is attainable as well as sustainable

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these questions?’). Rest assured there is help in navigating the path towards sustainable product design. Taking a life cycle approach is one of the most effective ways of gaining a clearer understating of all the pros and cons that a material or process has. It’s important to initially accept that there are really no truly sustainable materials because everything (and I mean everything) has to be extracted from nature at some stage. And, even if we moved to fully biodegradable alternatives for everything then we would quickly find ourselves in other problematic situations such as global food shortages.

Information is king Information is king in the eco world. The more we know about what has to happen in order to get what we need – the better position we are in to make informed environmentally preferable choices. So many products are designed to just meet the ‘3 pillars’ of design – aesthetics, functionality and marketability – but too few are created with a real understanding of the social and environmental consequences. It’s about time we fix this three-legged approach and add a fourth pillar of good old fashion responsibility. So getting back to the LCA part of this. Life Cycle Assessment (or analysis as it’s sometimes called) is a scientific process of evaluating the whole of life environmental

impacts of a product, system or service. It is governed by ISO 14040 which sets out the guidelines for best practice LCA. They are conducted in four main stages: Goal and scope - define what you are looking at and what you will not assess by doing a map of the product system and popping a boundary around it. Define the functional unit and, if doing a comparison, make sure that the functional unit is equal between the two systems. So for example if you were designing a kettle, you might define the functional unit as boiling two litres of water. Inventory analysis – you define all the parts of your system and collect the data for each part, and this is usually done through accessing databases - but if you are using streamlined LCA tools such as Sustainable Minds (sustainableminds.com) then you will be selecting data from the tool. Impact assessment – based on the collected data, assess the potential environmental impacts. This can be done on the back of an envelope, in a high end tool such as SimaPro (pre.nl) or through a streamlined tool. The objective is to find out where the big impacts are occurring and in what way so that decisions can be made to reduce these. Interpretation – now you have an assessment you need to interpret what it all means and this can be a lot harder than you might think. You really do need a good understat-

Photography: Carla Gottgens

s an adviser into sustainable design and production in product development, I always get asked the same question from designers wanting to create ‘greener’ products – ‘what’s the most environmentally friendly material?’ Green material selection has become somewhat of the holy grail of sustainable design – always talked about, but never really ever found – and from a life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective the answer to ‘what material should I use’ is always ‘it depends’. Actually ‘it depends’ is the most commonly used response by an LCA practitioner and it’s not because they want to be annoying; it’s because it really does depend on a number of key considerations. Such as, what is the expected life of the product, how will it be used, what are the material parameters that the material should be able to withstand, is there an active recycling and recapture market for the material in the country the product will be used in, how long is the product likely to be used (no point using high value materials in a disposable product)? The list goes on. Whilst this might seem a little overwhelming and a somewhat impossible task to get your head around (I can hear all the – ‘but how on earth I am going to know what the sustainable material is even if I answer all

Getting a foot into Life Cycle Assessment Life Cycle Assessment is a cornerstone of any sustainable design project. Here is a brief introduction into the heady world of choosing the right material, for the right application, for the smallest environmental impact. by leyla acaroglu

Leyla Acaroglu is director of Australian-based Life Cycle Assessment and eco-design consultancy, Eco Innovators. She has developed award winning sustainability education projects, as well as having launched many successful communication and engagement projects around design for sustainability. Leyla can be reached at www.ecoinnovators.com.au or @ecoinnovators on twitter.

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Comment ing of key environmental impact areas to get the most out of LCA results – this is why getting a professional to help out really does make it much easier. LCA looks at all the main life cycle stages that a product goes though, these are: material extraction, manufacturing, transport and packaging, use and of course everyone’s favorite – end of life. At each of these stages your product interacts with the environment, taking resources (inputs) and generating waste (outputs). LCA looks at the effects that these inputs and outputs have on the environment across a variety of impact categories such as global warming, water use, acidification, toxicity and solid waste generation. For example, your laptop has aluminum in it. This has to be extracted from the environment, manufactured into aluminum, transported, packaged and then manufactured again into the component that sits inside your laptop so you can use it. At some point you will get a new laptop and the old one will have to find an end of life option. The aluminum could end up in landfill along with the rest of the laptop or it could be extracted and re-used (this could be through manual disassembly or through shredding techniques). Now imagine all of these life cycle stages and all of the things that go into making that happen. Machines that dig metals out of the ground, fuel that powers the machines,

metal that was previously mined in order to build the machines…. At some point you have to stop and put a system boundary around your product’s life cycle map – but when you start to actually think about everything that has to happen to get you a computer – you can quickly start to see the complexity and possibilities for change.

Functionality LCA is really based on the comparison of alternative ways of providing a defined service. All products deliver a service and therefore it’s really fundamental that we define the functionality and the delivery of service first. This is also really a fundamental part of sustainable design, defining what you are trying to provide the end user in terms of service and functionality allows real innovation and creativity. So, don’t define your product as a kettle, define it as the delivery of boiled water. At the end of the day, someone will purchase your product because they need the service you are offering, eco-design is all about providing the service with the least environmental burden. LCA is a powerful tool for gaining insight into the environmental performance of a product or design decision, however it’s not for everyone and is only really as good as the person conducting it. So one of the best places to start is with life cycle thinking (LCT)

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which is essentially a framework for sustainable decision making that draws on the learnings of LCA.

Life Cycle Thinking Life Cycle Thinking is about taking a holistic approach, not just looking at one area or focusing on one thing (such as material substitution or end of life options). By exploring all of the life cycle stages that something goes through, and mapping these out, it’s much easier to identify areas for improvement and consider design solutions that go beyond just re-design. This involves starting with a clear understanding of what life cycle stages are and what general impacts occur at each stage. A simple exercise involves mapping the life cycle of a product across its life cycle stages and looking at the different inputs and outputs that occur at each life cycle stage. This visualisation input and outputs assists in mapping the potential impacts of the product. Another good starting point is using tools such as Sustainable Minds that allows for quick LCAs. Basically there is enough aggregated data included so that you can assess design iterations to find environmentally beneficial outcomes. LCA and product eco-design is like anything else, it takes time to perfect but if you try it enough times you just naturally get good at it. So I recommend giving it a go.

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The key stages of a product’s lifecycle from cradle to disposal and recycling. At each stage resources are used and there is an impact on the environment.

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Back to basics

Light-weighting & optimisation In the first of a series of back to basics articles, Al Dean explores one of the key concepts in sustainable design and how it relates to product development.

here are many concepts surrounding sustainable design and while your average designer or engineer will not yet understand some of them, others will be much more familiar. A perfect example is what’s referred to as light-weighting. The basic concept is simple: reduce the environmental impact of a product by reducing the amount of material used. This can be achieved by redesigning an existing product, by considering the environmental impact during clean sheet design or by using different materials. While we’re not going to discuss material selection at length here, the remainder we most certainly are. Light-weighting has been part of the design and engineering toolkit for decades. With material costs rising, reducing the amount of materials used has become a key economic driver on most design or engineering projects. It also saves the Earth’s valuable resources, not only in terms of the amount of material used, but in relation to the energy required to refine the raw materials or during transportation and manufacture.

Whether you’re approaching lightweighting from an economic or a sustainability angle, there are a rich set of tools out there to assist with this key part of the detailed design process. And these tools are often already part of the workhorse design system you’re already using. They can be applied at different stages of the development process - so let’s explore them in more detail.

At the point of ideation

tems out there that target this type of process specifically - one example is GraphiCalc from Geomate (Inventbetter.com).

Simulation techniques Alongside concept-level engineering and design tools, there are all manner of comprehensive simulation techniques and technologies that can be used once a design has been developed more. In relation to lightweighting, the simulation world is your proverbial oyster. Simulation, if done correctly, can give you an excellent idea of where material can be removed from a component or how a component can be redesigned. There are dedicated optimisation routines to help with this. All of the simulation tools built into today’s workhorse design systems provide one form of optimisation or another. These typically follow a very similar route to Goal Seek analysis except they typically work in a 3D environment, rather than with a basic sketch. The user creates a parametric model, decides on the ranges for experimentation and defines the set of goals. The system then conducts a series of experiments to find the optimum solution and presents you with the results. As each instance or experiment requires a separate simulation, calculation times can be very long indeed. The good news is that, providing your inputs are correct, you’ll end up with a very clear understanding of what influences the performance of your product and where material can safely be removed.

It may sound obvious but the perfect point to identify where optimisations can be made is at the ideation and conceptualisation phase. It’s at these formative stages, before getting stuck into the detailed design, that you have the ability to consider everything from a higher level. Is there potential to combine components into a single component that serves the same purpose? Is there an alternative structure or way of providing the same functionality you need that uses less material? Aside from the ‘brain-crunching’, there are technologies that can help. A perfect example is Goal Seek Analysis. This begins with a basic parametric schematic layout of a design, be that a structural part, a mechanism or any other element. The parameters and their ranges are then defined along with a goal (be that a target function, weight, volume etc). The system then works out an optimal design in relation to these given conditions and this can then be fleshed it out into a 3D design. There are a couple of entry points into Goal Seek analysis. Solid Edge has offered these Alternatives: Alongside these standard and tools since V20, while Inventor got them in widespread tools there are also some other 2010. There are also more rudimentary sys- simulation related techniques worth explor-

Aluminium: material use in context Aluminium is extracted from the earth’s crust by strip mining bauxite. This then goes through all manner of processes to extract the usable aluminium. The metal is then transported from the key sources (Australia is the largest single producer followed by China

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and Guinea) to the point of processing. In many cases, it is alloyed with other metals and formed into ingots for casting or forging, rolled into sheet and extruded. And this is before it even enters the process chain and becomes part of a final product, delivered into

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Profile

Integrating light-weighting with Life Cycle Assessment using SolidWorks Sustainability

1 Solid Edge has had goal seeking analysis tools built into the core of the system for some time. This allows basic 2D geometry led optimisation given a specific set of parameters and goals. 2 Pro/Engineer’s Behavioural Modelling Extension gives you a full suite of design optimisation tools and goal seek analysis. It’s an additional bundle, but it’s worth exploring if you already have it licensed.

ing. Ansys has topology optimisation tools built into Workbench which can find areas for material removal under loading conditions. Another example is based on Wolff’s Law. This defines how bones grow to ensure strength is found where it’s needed according the forces encountered. Altair Engineering is the only company that has built this type of technology into its products. It can be found in its aerospace and automotive focussed OptiStruct system and in its mainstream Morphogenesis tools - part of solidThinking Inspired. Design inspired by nature is commonly known biomimmicry.

Stage 1 Starting with a current design concept for a personal humidifier, SolidWorks Sustainability is used, in combination with the SolidWorks assembly visualisation tools, to identify components that have the greatest environmental impact. In this case, the water tank is the key contributor - so some work is needed.

Stage 2 As this is a personal product, users are likely to place heavy objects on the flat surface of the water tank. A Factor of Safety is required of above 2.0. Simulation is run to find out the performance of this key part under typical loading. The results indicate that the current design will yield a factor of safety of 2.46, but how do you make your design more green? Stage 3 The ‘Find Similar Materials’ tools in SolidWorks helps you form a shortlist of alternatives, both in terms of environmental impact and mechanical properties such as tensile strength to withstand the operating conditions. A good choice looks to be Polyprop Homopolymer as it has the required properties.

Stage 4 The environmental impacts are reduced, but re-running the FEA analysis shows that the part yields a Factor of Safety of 5.2 using the new, stronger material. This indicates that the component’s current design is over engineered, using too much material.

Conclusion To my mind, the business case is simple. If you use less material but achieve the same required performance in your products it will save you money. In some cases it will also make your product more performance efficient. Combine this with the sustainability angle, you have lower carbon emissions and energy consumption and there’s much less environmental waste/damage. And with today’s customers in both the consumer and business-to-business world becoming more efficient and environmentally aware, it’s a win for all.

in the hands of a user. There are also issues of waste and environmental damage to consider and if you add in the fact that resources are, by their very nature, limited, it’s easy to see that there needs to be a drive for change from engineering.

Stage 5 A quick redesign is performed that reduces the wall thickness of the component. Using less material will obviously have a larger effect on your environmental impact values, but when combined with the updated stress analysis, it is found that the component also now satisfies the Factor of Safety check (at 2.1) as well.

Stage 6 Returning to the assembly level model, you can now asses the environmental impact of the new design as a whole, and not just on a part level, and compare this to the original design.

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Reviews Eco Materials Adviser

Autodesk has teamed up with materials science master, Granta Design, to create a materials selection system that is built directly into Inventor 2012. By Al Dean

f there is one technology that is the cornerstone of developing more sustainable products, it’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). For all the talk about whole systems design, carbon footprint, embodied water and energy, the simple fact is that when distilled down, everything points to materials selection. This is something that Autodesk has picked up on with its sustainability efforts over the last couple of years. Those familiar with Autodesk’s Labs (labs.autodesk.com) may know Project Krypton, a tool that gave users feedback about the environmental impact of his or her current design, amongst other things. Autodesk has now continued its focus on CAD-integrated sustainability tools and developed a brand new product called Eco Materials Adviser, which is part of the Inventor 2012 product offering. This has been made possible because Autodesk formed a partnership with one of the leading organisations dealing with materials data and selection, Granta Design. Granta is legend amongst materials geeks (a club of which I’m unabashedly a member). Its roots lie with Mike Ashby and David Cebon, authors of the Ashby/Cebon method of computer-aided materials selection, which is taught in almost every design or engineering course across the globe. Over the last 30 years, Granta has built on its academic foundations and has grown into a global leader in materials intelligence. It provides both raw data and a set of tools that assist the intelligent selection and management of materials and manufacturing information. Prior to the launch of the product, I spoke with Autodesk’s sustainable products manager for manufacturing, Sarah Krasley, to get the background of the project’s genesis. I asked how Autodesk came to be working with Granta, a company that Krasley had also been familiar with since studying industrial design in New York.

“When we started looking at how we develop sustainable design functionality I heard over and over again, the frustration from designers and engineers that they need data. They were saying ‘I either have to go to several stakeholders inside my company to find good data or I use Google searches to try and find data and all manner of different data sources.’ “I just heard over and over again quite a bit of frustration around the whole subject. So, it seemed logical to go to the world’s largest and most reputable materials database company and see if there was some possibility of a partnership. It turns out that yes, there was and this was how we got involved together.”

Metrics The software is distributed with every seat of Inventor (except LT). It can be found under the environments tab, and opens a panel to the right of the user interface. The tool looks at either the part or assembly you’re working on and the materials you’ve chosen (Inventor is already supplied with a pretty extensive range of materials). It then connects to the Granta

MI Materials Gateway over the web to look up additional information. In short, the system gives you feedback on three major areas of material information. The first, as you’d expect, is eco-material properties. These include carbon footprint, embodied energy (the energy required to mine, process & create the material), and the embodied water (the equivalent for water). Alongside the eco-values, it also gives you feedback about a couple of areas that typically aren’t factored into the process. The first is cost, and here it gives you a ballpark figure for the raw material costs of your product. While not directly connected to material prices on the stock indexes, the tool does link up to the Granta Materials database and cost is kept up-to-date on a regular basis. The system also has two flags for RoHS and Food Grade materials. Pronounced ‘rose’, the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances is an EU-led directive that bans the use of six specific substances in products and is led by the electronics industry. While not as comprehensive or as consistently updated as the list of substances in another

Sustainable Minds: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 1 Final design of hand drill in Autodesk Inventor featuring a silicone rubber grip instead of natural rubber, which uses a large amount of water in its manufacture

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Alongside its relationship with Granta Design, Autodesk has also partnered up with Sustainable Minds, which offers a web-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) service that targets the early stage of product conceptualisation. Sustainable Minds works with Autodesk

Inventor, and the latest 1.6 release has seen new environmental impacts added and a new Enterprise level offering. We’ll be taking a closer look at the system in the summer 2011 edition of DEVELOP3D Sustainability. www.sustainableminds.com

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Profile

EU-led directive, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), it is still key and gives you quick feedback when you need it most. The last is the Food metric. Essentially, this a check to find a material’s suitability for food contact. The primary sources are categorised by material and the sources for the checks differ. As ever, these ratings are guidelines, at a generic level. The ‘small print’ always states that it is the responsibility of the user to determine the status (re food-contact compatibility, in this case) of the specific material grades they plan to specify. Finally, the last metric is End of Life. This gives you feedback about the material in terms of disposal, recyclability and such. Unfortunately, the current product doesn’t give you this information for assemblies and only works on a part by part level. This is because the system has no knowledge of how the parts are assembled or manufactured. For the latter, think about injection-moulded parts with metallic inserts, over-moulded or multi-shot components. That said, Autodesk has stated that in future, an upgrade will be available that addresses this need.

In use Once you have your initial design concept (or even an older generation product for which you’re conducting a design refresh), you load it up and have a quick look at the results. Good practice at this stage is to set the baseline. This gives you a basis for comparison against subsequent rework, whether that’s down to a geometric design change or using the built-in search, selection and filtering tools to find alternative materials. The system presents you with graphical feedback on the major metrics in chart form, so you can see exactly where your choices affect your product - its environmental and performance impact and of course, cost. Alongside these graphically-led tools, there are also fuller reporting capabilities. You can dig into each metric to discover more. If your organisation has specific sustainability initiatives (such as reducing corporate carbon footprint), then you can also dive in and discover your product’s performance by impact criteria. Also, for those new to the subject, or those without wider materials experience, as the system links directly into the Granta database, you have a huge resource of material data-sheets, processing information and the like at your fingertips, directly from within Inventor.

Limitations Now, they’re not going to give you everything for free, are they? As you’d expect, there are plans for a multi-level product, but the baselevel product is still pretty usable in its current state. The major limitations are two fold.

Firstly, you get a ‘starter’ set of 80 materials in the free version. Upgrading to the full version gets you broader access to the Granta materials database (though there is no price information or a delivery date as yet). Secondly, the assembly tools will only roll up values from 20 parts within your assembly. It’ll choose the first 20 parts in your assembly (instances don’t count as a single part) and at present, there’s no mechanism to choose which parts are assessed. There is a nice work around in that you can open up sub-assemblies and run the assessment on those, but it’s a bit of a fudge and I’d like to see Autodesk address this quickly.

Downstream use While this tool is developed for the front end of the development process, it can also feed valuable data downstream. Firstly, the values you create for the various metrics can be pushed into each part’s metadata (or iProperties). That means anyone opening those parts can have access to the information and it can be transferred and managed in data management. Also, recycling information can also be used downstream, particularly if you’re looking to use Autodesk’s Inventor Publisher system for creating service manuals or end of life treatment instructions, either in paper form or digitally.

Conclusion Autodesk and Granta Design have done an excellent job with the first release of Eco Materials Advisor. It’s not a mainstream type of tool as yet, the rise of this type of design-system integrated tool has yet to happen. That said, economic, business and legislative pressures relating to sustainability and compliance are only going to increase, all across the globe. As a result, being able to load up a digital product model, even in its nascent form, and gaining insight into the environmental impacts of that product is going to become more and more critical for the design and engineering community. Yes, there are limitations in this freely distributed version, but it’s certainly a start. The fact that you can work with assemblies, rather than single parts, is a bonus compared to competitive solutions and the fact that there’s an upgrade coming that gets you access to the might of Granta’s materials data, is very exciting indeed. Design and engineering is about exploration followed by a narrowing down of ideas to reach an ideal solution. As we move towards an era in which design and engineering is not only about function, form and cost, but also environmental impact, having this type of capability built into your workhorse design tool will soon turn from a ‘nice to have’ to an ‘absolutely essential.’

Workflow: assessing which materials to use in the design of a hand drill Stage 1 Begin using the Eco Materials Adviser by choosing “analyse” from the start screen. Eco Materials Adviser installs and starts searching the model on-screen to begin analyzing the materials used in its assembly. Stage 2 It shows how much electricity is used to create the assembly; the carbon footprint for manufacture; the amount of water used and total cost. This helps the user weigh up the ‘green’ requirements against design/engineering factors. Stage 3 Zooming in on the water usage of this assembly, we find that a grip made of natural rubber required a large amount of water in its manufacture.

Stage 4 The user has decided that the use of that much water is a concern, and is looking for alternatives. On this screen, the user searches for a material which has better water usage properties, but is similar to natural rubber. Stage 5 Eco Materials Adviser suggests an alternative, silicone rubber. Choosing this material will reduce water usage dramatically, so the user assigns silicone rubber to the grip.

Stage 6 Now the Eco Material Adviser has analysed the assembly using the new material, and is showing huge water savings, with slightly changed eco impacts in other areas.

www.autodesk.com / www.grantadesign.com

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18/02/2011 11:02:48

REVIEWS

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGY

Inventor Publisher 2011

» Autodesk launched this product in Spring 2010, but as a result of a major delay at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, we only got the software recently. Al Dean explores a technical documentation and illustration system with some neat innovations

echnical publications and documentation are often seen as by-products of the design process but, for many organisations, they are key parts of the delivery. For mass-market products documentation can be a legal requirement and for custom products the customer often withholds payment until both product and documentation have been delivered. Technical documents also have a key role to play in relation to product returns. Research indicates that a large proportion of product returns are not actually due to faults, but rather user error and this can often be attributed to poor quality manuals or instructions.

All things considered, the ability to produce high quality informative technical publications and deliver them in a timely manner can be a serious benefit to your organisation.

» Product: Inventor Publisher 2011 » Supplier: Autodesk £2,400 www.autodesk.co.uk

Who mAkes tech Pubs? Within large OEMs there are often teams of people specialising in the creation of technical publications, but this is typically not the case for smaller organisations. In some firms even having a single member of staff dedicated to the production of technical publications isn’t feasible, so this task often falls to the design and/or engineering team. To find out more, we conducted an informal poll last year on our website. We asked if readers get involved in the creation of text, the creation of imagery or the creation of both - and of course, if they have nothing to do with the process at all. The answers that came back surprised even us. It turns out that 75% of respondents were involved in technical publications in some form or another. More interestingly, 30% created the technical

documentation in its entirety; 26% provided both graphics and text and 22% provided the graphics alone. To this backdrop, we found it intriguing that Autodesk launched Inventor Publisher last year with only a little fanfare. Inventor Publisher is based on Inventor, but it doesn’t have all the modelling bells and whistles. Instead it provides a set of focused tools specifically for the creation of technical illustrations, without all of the overheads often associated with using a full-blown 3D modelling system for the task. The user interface is similar to Inventor (ribbon, similar basic shortcuts and hotkeys), but there are a few fancy new things. One is the right click radial menu (taken from Inventor Fusion) which I suspect is going to be common to all of Inventor pretty soon. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at how it works.

GettInG your PublIsh on 1 Exploded view of an ●

air cleaner: Autodesk Inventor users will find the user interface immediately familiar

Experience tells me that when you embark on a technical publications project, it’s worth a little preparation work up front. My advice is to take all your existing documentation, images and text for DEVELOP3D.COM APRIL 2011 39

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labels and other annotation, your 3D CAD geometry and develop a clear plan of what you need to produce. As you’d expect, Inventor Publisher reads Inventor data directly but it also features a range of third party import options. Geometry can be read from the usual suspects of IGES and STEP, but also a smattering of native part and assembly data from Pro/E and Catia (V4 and V5). Start a new project by importing your data into the system, even merging datasets if required. Inventor Publisher works on the concept of storyboards and a project can contain multiples of these. The first thing to realise is that the software is geared up to take advantage of model position interpolation. The idea is that you create a sequence of snapshots, adapting the model view, model item position, visibility and view settings to create the illustrations you require. You can then add annotations to each. Annotations can take the form of parts lists (and associative call outs), or call outs that reference part number, description, part name or other metadata. You can also add indicative annotations to emphasise rotation or movement of components. There are also tools to add notes (either attached to model items or not) as well as insert images to add further detail, warning or instruction. Just as you would if creating these illustrations from scratch, you create a series of snapshots that fully detail each stage of assembly, disassembly, servicing or repair. Each snapshot can be output to a variety of formats. There’s support for the familiar JPG, PNG and TIF, but illustrations can also be output to the SVG vector file format, which can be read into the likes of CorelDraw, Illustrator or pretty much any other vector-based illustration tool. The system can create

separate output for each snapshot, so adaptations can be quickly made and new assets created for insertion into your documents. But the fun doesn’t stop there.

released Inventor Publisher Mobile. The workflow is that you create your interactive documentation on your workstation then publish it to a high compressed mobile format. This can uploaded to the AutoCAD WS workspace and public links shared (for download direct to those in the field or given to consumers) or you can create the .IPM file locally, distribute it to those that need it and they can sync it manually to their own devices using iTunes. Whichever route you choose, the end result is an interactive document that can be loaded and interacted with. The work instructions can be played as a movie, stepped through as a series of images and the data rotated, panned, zoomed - all with the multi-touch rectangle stroking goodness you’d expect. And what’s more it works: flawlessly. For free.

ADD context & IntellIGence Now this is the clever bit. Because you’ve set-up separate snapshots for each stage of the process, it’s possible to have the system create animated sequences between each. Inventor Publisher will create smooth transitions between each snapshot and before you know it, you’ve built up a very nifty animated sequence. As you might expect, this can be output as a movie file. Publisher includes support for any resolution, using any of the codecs you have installed on your workstation. A word of warning though - if you’re looking to create high resolution movies for importing into a video editing system, the full uncompressed

the PoWer of AssocIAtIvIty

 you can take your work instructions, service documents or assembly instructions, and make them available on the iPad/iPhone. to me, that’s huge

 movies can be gigabytes in size. Movies can also be saved out as flash video files for inclusion in either public websites or integrated into internal presentation systems for roll out across a workforce or on the shopfloor.

mobIlIsInG DocumentAtIon This is an area in which Inventor Publisher wins and wins big. Let’s talk mobilisation of your documentation. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you’ll be aware of Apple’s iPad device and its smaller cousin, the iPhone. Autodesk has been doing some interesting things with these iOS devices, from the AutoCAD WS collaboration application through to the conceptualisation tool, SketchBook. For technical documentation, Autodesk has also

Now, this is where things get very interesting. Design change, the creation of product variants and adapting your documentation. Inventor Publisher maintains associative copies to the originating data. This means you don’t have to wait until you have a final design before you begin the documentation process. If there’s an update to the source data, you refresh it and everything should update. If there’s a dramatic stage, the addition or removal of components, you can quickly step through and make adjustments and reissue the documentation. Additionally, if you use project copying tools, then it’s possible to have a single-source documentation file that can be pulled into a new design variant and the assets you need spit out without too much hassle.

conclusIon

2 with Publisher ● mobile, interactive documentation can be viewed on the iPad, and iPhone 3 Annotations can ● be added to models very easily 4 Inventor Publisher ● features a right click radial menu, which is inherited from Inventor Fusion

Inventor Publisher isn’t a unique application in many respects. There have been technical illustration applications on the market for decades - look at IsoDraw that PTC acquired some years ago. There’s even more up-to-date competition from Dassault Systèmes with its 3DVIA Composer application, which is probably the closest match in terms of raw capability. Another option is to use your workhorse CAD system to do much of this work, at least at a basic level. The problem here is that you’d typically use the same draughting tools (combined exploded view creation) that are used to detail production

How To ProducE A TEcHnIcAl documEnT

1 The initial dataset within Autodesk Inventor, fully ● modelled and detailed. Inventor Publisher can read this file in directly

2 Inventor Publisher allows you to set the display ● properties, then you use a mix of automated and manual tools to create snapshots and staged exploded views

3 Inventor Publisher allows you to import images to add more ● context, as well as to add additional detail and indication (such as arrows)

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

3 drawings, and the needs for technical illustration are typically different. Most CAD systems don’t include easy ways of creating intermediate stage exploded views, have the supplementary annotation tools (such as directional indicators) and adapting a view to your exact requirements certainly isn’t as easy as it should be. This is where a specialist tool such as Inventor Publisher wins. It’s focussed on the task at hand and does it very well. Alongside the production of static illustrations, Inventor Publisher allows you to create and output animated sequences that can better explain the task at hand. While those in the field are used to interpreting static images, when you’re dealing with mass market products, the ability to show a customer how a task is performed, dynamically with motion, can be invaluable. Why have a viewer that does the interpretation between static images when you can show them? But none of this really differentiates Inventor Publisher from its competition. What does is its ability to take your work

instructions, service documents or userfocussed assembly/disassembly instructions, and make them available on the web or on the iPad/iPhone. To me, that’s huge. Perhaps not so much for the mass, consumerfocussed market, but when you have highly complex service documentation that needs to be up to date and made available to field service engineers, maintenance crews, it has massive potential. If you need to make changes to your product documentation or roll out a new product, what’s more efficient? Updating your service documents over the web and notifying everyone that’s subscribed to them, or sending out a new manual and relying on everyone to download and print out a new PDF? While the idea of using a $500 device might cause a sharp intake of breath for some, when taken in the context of the cost and reputation damage of having service personnel working off out of date documents in a ring binder, it’s a small investment. But the real differentiator is, to be frank, price. The closest competition to Inventor

4 Fully detailed exploded views can be created, with trail ● lines, parts lists (with associated balloons)

4 Publisher is 3DVIA Composer. While Composer has a richer set of tools that are perhaps more refined than Publisher is at present, plus some interesting tools that can be linked in with PDM or PLM information, it’s considerably more costly. I understand that vendors perceive the value of the software in this space as relating to the cost of delayed documentation and easing a critical workflow, but when you’re presented with a price difference of nearly $5,000, you do have to wonder.

5 Illustrations can be exported to a variety of formats and used 6 Inventor Publisher Mobile allows you to distribute ● ●

to build 3D-based technical publications for distribution in 2D formats, such as PDF - here, InDesign has been used for layout

interactive documents to the iPad & iPhone. Models can be panned, zoomed and rotated and metadata inspected

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Mathcad Prime 1.0

» When PTC announced Creo, there was one particular application conspicuously missing from the Elements banner. All speculations were put to rest when PTC announced Mathcad Prime 1.0 a month later. Scott Wertel investigates

he official line from PTC is that Mathcad Prime 1.0 is an overhauled version of the historic whiteboard interface, numerical analysis program. It was developed to meet expectations of a new generation of users with contemporary standards for ease-of-use and software design. Personally, I like to think of Mathcad Prime 1.0 as a refresh of a very powerful mathematical tool that is easier to use and will be more accessible to new users who have to compute more than just basic arithmetic. With that in mind, let’s dive in and see what it has to offer and compare it to tools you may be using now.

Consistent user interface If you’re used to typing a lot of parentheses in your mathematical equations, then you should be right at home with the ribbon style user interface, typical in most Windows applications. The functions are large and obvious. They are not buried in multiple levels of pull-down menus, missing because of hidden toolbars, or obscured by tiny icons. But like every other ribbon-bar interface, an investment in a high definition widescreen monitor is worth every penny. Without a wide screen monitor, groups of functions get condensed, their icons get smaller, and they may combine into fly-out menus. This can be seen when resizing the Mathcad application window. Make the window too narrow, and even the names of the tabs discombobulate.

White board work area What sets Mathcad apart from other mathematical software is its white board interface. The click-anywhere/typeanywhere layout is powerful and intuitive. Prime enhances this existing technology from legacy Mathcad by providing a grid, snapping, and other features that make aligning text and equations easier. The white board interface allows clean professional looking documents to be created for that important presentation or to mimic a textbook. The only limitation to the click-anywhere/type-anywhere layout is that variables have to be defined above or to the left of the equations that reference them. Existing Mathcad users are well aware of this limitation. And anyone who has read a maths textbook knows that given data is defined first followed by the numeric manipulations. This common sense approach to problem solving is inherent in Mathcad. The white board can be displayed in either of two modes: page view or draft view. Page

view is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format that you get in typical word processing software. Only the information shown on the screen will print, including the header and footer information. Page breaks and margins are clearly shown. Existing Mathcad users will be comfortable with the draft view mode, but with some slight differences. In the draft view mode, the headers and footers are hidden, but the work area to the right of the printable sheet will be exposed. Any information added to the right of the ‘printed’ page will not print, but will be used in the calculations. This is different to legacy Mathcad, which printed information regardless of where it was input on the worksheet. Headers and footers are even enhanced in Prime. Headers and footers also utilise the click-anywhere/type-anywhere white board format. Automated fields such as page number, date, and file name can be inserted into either the header or footer and formatted to precise user requirements.

» Product: Mathcad Prime 1.0 » Supplier: PTC From £810 www.ptc.com/products/ mathcad

Importing images A picture is worth a thousand words. The same holds true for free body diagrams. Mathcad Prime simplifies importing of pictures and images down to two clicks: click to insert an image region and click on

 The functions are large and obvious. They are not buried in pull-down menus, missing because of hidden toolbars, or obscured by tiny icons

 the region to browse for the file. These are static images, very similar to other office productivity applications. The data in the image cannot be used to define variables and the geometry of the image cannot be driven by worksheet results. This limitation does not include specific fields of study though, such as image processing. New or enhanced commands have been added to Mathcad Prime for actual analysis of image data as well as other unique fields of study.

Fields of study Prior versions of Mathcad required an additional investment to gain Extension Packs that included tools for analysis within certain fields of study. Mathcad Prime includes some of those fields of study out of the box: data analysis, image processing,

and signal processing. Mathcad Prime has added or enhanced functions for other fields of study as well: design of experiments, probability, statistics, differential equations, vector and matrix maths, and curve fitting. For example, Mathcad Prime added or enhanced 27 functions just for design of experiments such as box plots, Pareto charts, and Weibull distributions.

Units I think all engineers, and other mathematical disciplinarians, are well acclimated to the concept of unit congruity. The mixing of dissimilar units can wreak havoc on the applicability of canned equations. Likewise, mixing systems of units can also cause disaster and destruction like unsuccessful Mars missions. One way of tackling that problem is with a robust system of units handling, like dynamic unit checking. Mathcad Prime includes a larger set of predefined units, performs better unit conversion, and handles units in a greater number of functions such as matrices and tables than legacy Mathcad. Prime has three selectable systems of units: SI (International System of Units), USCS (United States Customary System of Units), and CGS (Centimetre-Gram-Second System of Units). Calculated results display the unit, by default, of the selected system of units. As shown in Figure 4, the input units were mm but the resultant calculation is displayed in m because the system of units selected is SI and metres are the standard unit of length. Units display in results can be changed simply by typing in the desired unit. Unit conversion is automatic and does not have to be defined in the worksheet unless using non-standard units like gradians or gunner’s mils.

Integration If you are a user of other PTC applications, Mathcad Prime integrates with Pro/E (now Creo Elements/Pro) and Windchill. The integration with CAD software is very powerful because geometry can be defined directly by the engineering calculations and vice versa. With report-like formatting and WYSIWYG editing, tracing design errors is much easier than hunting through a linear string of parentheses and cross-referenced cells. Now if PTC would just open up the Mathcad API so it can be integrated into other CAD packages as well. Or should I say, CAD packages can be integrated into Mathcad?

Conspicuously missing Although it maintains the Mathcad title, Mathcad Prime 1.0 is a first generation

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SOFTWARE REVIEW

software built from the ground up with new user expectations in mind. Like any first generation software, a few features and functions did not make it into the initial release. Conspicuously missing from Mathcad Prime are powerful features that legacy Mathcad users may not be able to live without: eBooks (such as Roark’s Formulas for Stress and Strain as well as custom created eBooks), 3D Plots, and symbolic maths. I for one am looking forward to the version of Prime that includes symbolic maths, and I’m sure calculus students worldwide feel the same way. Symbolic maths has always been lacking in Mathcad since Mathsoft locked any improvements to a version of Maple 6 as their solver. More recent versions of legacy Mathcad have included a modern symbolic solver from MuPAD and therefore symbolic maths has greatly improved. I am hoping that symbolics get a complete overhaul in Prime, and when they do get released, are a serious competition to the likes of Maple and Mathematica.

ConClusion Mathcad Prime 1.0 is a very good start to a legacy program. Although existing users of Mathcad may find a certain lack of features prohibitive, new users will enjoy a contemporary user interface and ease of use. All the basic, and several higher level, mathematical manipulations are present in Mathcad Prime 1.0, including specialty functions for niche fields of interest. If you require more than a calculator to compute equations; if you tire of counting parentheses and proofing cell block cross-references; if you use units in your calculations; or if you are ready to create publication quality documents with textbook looking equations, then Mathcad Prime is worth your time to investigate. Considering Prime comes with a seat of Mathcad 15, you get the ‘best of both worlds’ without having to listen to Miley Cyrus. You get ease of use for the included calculations, and can use legacy Mathcad for features not yet included in Prime.

Scott is a configuration manager in the defense industry and freelance engineer. He’ll take chocolate chip cookies over Pi any day

1 Mathcad Prime user interface consists of tabs, ● icons, and groups along with tabbed worksheets and a quick access toolbar 2 On narrow screens, the ribbon bar becomes ● unusable 3 In this simple example, the location of the ● equation determines if it can be resolved. Mathcad Prime does an excellent job of highlighting and explaining errors in plain language 4 Moving the problematic math region to the ● right of (or below) the defining variable corrects the error 5 Mathcad Prime allows for mixed units in ●

Matrices and also has improved table tools

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Mechanical Development Engineer - based Oxford - salary £30 - 45K Precision mechanical engineering - motorised precision mechanisms and motions - metrology flexure design - calculations - 3D CAD (preferably SolidEdge) Design & Development Engineer - based Bradford - salary £28-32 & 5% bonus 3D Solid Modelling - Stress Calculations - developing industrial products for manufacturing companies - lean engineering/manufacturing

Field Sales Engineer - to cover area south west of London - salary £25-£28k & bonus & car Mechanical and building sectors selling into specifiers, end users and contractors - selling into Local Authorities, Education, Health, MOD, Food Industry, Power Generation, Power Distribution, Water and Wastewater and Facilities Management

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Systems Sales Engineer (Engineered products) - Birmingham/Coventry/Cheshire areas salary £34 - 36K pa & 20% bonus Food, hospital and/or pharmaceutical industry - dealing with and selling to contractors

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Currently seeking: CAD MANAGER At Sunseeker International Ltd we are world leaders in the design and manufacture of award winning luxury motor yachts and are currently looking to recruit for the following vacancy. The Position: An immediate opportunity, working in an exciting and dynamic environment, between the Design and IT departments to provide CAD/CAM (5 Axis) technical support, training, and to implement and drive best practices for our in-house CAD users. Responsibilities will include: Technical support of CAD/CAM (5 Axis) Systems (NX, Teamcenter, & AutoCAD) to include patch management of applications, server releases and supplier liaison.

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THE LAST WORD

‘Stack it high and sell it low’ is one way of shifting software. Following the success of bundles like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite, CAD vendors are following suit. Martyn Day wonders if you can get too much of a good thing

have recently decided to get healthier and one of the new edicts of Martyn Day 2.0 is to eat a lot less meat. Therefore I have been thinking non-stop about hamburgers, as one would. I am old enough to remember when a hamburger would fit within the palm of my hand, nowadays it seems the super-size culture has gone into overdrive with many burgers being the size of my face, and as stacked as a game of garden Jenga. It seems the logic to beat the competition, is simply offer more, a lot more, because bigger is better. Or is it? With recent CAD releases, I couldn’t help thinking that the same methodology is now deeply embedded in our little world of design software. Autodesk has just launched its 2012 products and the big new thing is product suites. Coming in three sizes; Standard, Premium and Ultimate, it’s possible to get a whole load of design software at discounts up to 65%. The Ultimate version contains the following products: AutoCAD Mechanical, Showcase, Sketchbook Designer, Vault, Mudbox, Inventor Professional, 3ds Max, Alias Designer and Fusion. That’s a whopping nine professional level packages to savour, many of which are on our ‘lust’ list. However, can you imagine the training required to be proficient enough to extract the maximum value of this £9,600 gourmet serving of design tools? And with software skills, if you don’t use it, you lose it. While Autodesk is now undoubtedly offering the biggest designer ‘burger’ out there, other vendors have long offered bundles, such as SolidWorks, which has Premium, Professional and standard flavours of its modelling, simulation, sustainability and data management products. There is also the Velocity Series bundle from Siemens PLM that provides Solid Edge, Teamcenter Express CAM Express and Femap. On the one hand, we have never had it so good with mature, industry-proven solutions available at a great bundle price, but as this trend appears to be on the up, I wonder if there will be a point where much of what is

 added becomes roughage to try and justify the purchase or ongoing subscription price. I think I’d term it ‘bloatware’.

PrOS AnD COnS I do feel like I am looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth when raising this issue but with an increasing trend of bundling, vendors bypass the need to actually ‘sell’ each piece of their software jigsaw. No longer does the software’s benefit need to be justified as everything is ‘in the box’. By creating big bundles at a massive discount you price-coerce purchases but don’t necessarily ensure usage. Internally at DEVELOP3D we have been debating this for a while now. Al Dean recently said to me that there’s a huge disconnect between the sales of a bundle and adoption of the technology they contain. Al had just conducted a survey to find out more on usage and while not complete yet, the indications are that there’s a significant industry problem. We are finding that there’s a sizable group of users that have simulation tools but don’t actually use them! The reasons given fall into three categories a) don’t have the experience or are not qualified enough to use them, b) haven’t been trained or c) simply ‘don’t need them’. This has prompted much head scratching in the office and will be food for thought for those vendors trying to sell simulation tools. Bundles are awfully attractive because significant discounts always are. For the vendors, they get to ‘add value’ to their products to either better compete or feel like they are delivering something in return for subscription revenue - the rise of which now dominates the income landscape of CAD software developers. By bundling in previously standalone products vendors can a) stave off possible penetration into their user-bases from competitors b) claim wide adoption of a technology by merely shipping it in the box and c) potentially become more influential of customer’s processes. For customers, big bundles can increase the cost of training and may lead to future increase in subscription payments and, as we have discovered, engineers may never get

CAD vendors should not rely on their customers’ eyes being bigger than their stomachs



around to using the more advanced features. There are also downsides for the vendors to consider. There is no question that the added product complexity of bundling can, and has, caused instability in major releases, as the developers struggle to update huge amounts of code each year. Also when it becomes time to completely rewrite the code for the next generation of design products, it will be harder to maintain data compatibility or offer as much functionality as the previous generation’s last release.

‘APPternitive’ Meanwhile, seemingly in a galaxy far away the complete opposite to bundling is happening. In tablet computing and on mobile devices small, cheap, lightweight applications, like AutoCAD WS, are all the rage. These ‘Apps’ don’t really link to one another, tend to perform one task well and need no training. Users can just dip in and out, use the software and never give it two thoughts. While tablets and app culture are quickly emerging, other potential changes in the way we use computing could have significant impact. Apparently every application in design is moving to ‘the cloud’, with different licensing and open access via the web. We may ultimately see the end of these big bundles as ‘on-demand’ is the antithesis of today’s bundle culture.

COnCluSiOn There are going to be many customers that are delighted with their super-sized product suites, and will attempt to make the most possible from their investment and will not mind paying for the additional training to do that. However, I feel that the majority will use only a ‘soupçon’ of increasingly advanced bundled capabilities. CAD vendors should not rely on their customers’ eyes being bigger than their stomachs; unfortunately for me, when it comes to burgers, it’s often the other way around. What do you think of bundles? Do you have one and how much of it do you use? Martyn Day is consulting editor of DEVELOP3D. Martyn 2.0 is doing well but has yet to be tested with the smell of bacon. martyn@develop3d.com

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