Technology Insights

All that compute power is enticing, right? It’s a great story. But there’s just one big problem: getting your simulation model into the cloud. And that wouldn’t be a problem if these simulation models weren’t quite so humongous. I mean, you wouldn’t need all that compute power if these simulations were easy to solve, right? …

The Implications of the Cloud for Simulation Read More »

Ever heard of COFES, which stands for Congress on the Future of Engineering Software? Its an event out in Phoenix AZ held by Cyon Research that aims to bring together folks that are media, industry analyst, software provider and users to talk about where computer aided technology is heading.

Gone off the rails have I? Well, even if you think I am crazy, I still think its a fair question to ponder. Even if only for a moment. Hear me out and you might even agree.Over the past three months here at ENGINEERING.com, I’ve hosted three separate webinars on design topics. Back on March 19th, we kicked things off with Clean Sheet Design where we looked at how CAD did or didn’t support new design efforts. On April 16th, we looked at how CAD supports Desig…

Deploying PLM or PDM? Heh. That’s literally a whole different class of software. Many things can go horribly wrong along the way to a go-live date. If you’re leading the deployment of such a system, be ready. There will be surprises along the way. What surprises? Well, let’s discuss.

Do you remember when 3D solid modeling hit the market? I guess it started a little over 15 years ago. You had parameters that would drive changes in features that would, in turn, manipulate product geometry. Drawings updated automatically. It was pretty amazing at the time. Now, do you remember when the movement came to mold and tool design? The picture painted back then was equally amazing. Apply some global shrinkage or other tweaks, subtract the product geometry to create the cavity and crack that mold. Presto: you were done.
Guest post hosted by Siemens PLM.

Move over multi-physics. There’s now a different field that qualifies as the bleeding edge of technology in simulation: system simulation. Many organizations are just starting to broach this field in an effort to better understand how systems perform holistically.

Am I talking about some far off technological leap for machinists? Actually, no. There’s a movement occurring right now that promises some value for machinists. In the 3D Collaboration and Interoperability study I am conducting right now, 40.2% of respondents are creating 3D models with Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI).

Wow. So PDM is a hot topic now, eh? Over the past few weeks, we’ve had our Tech4PD episode on PDM for small organizations and a slew of blog posts on the topic. While there’s a lot of content out there to browse through on PDM, one post got my attention this week from… *drumroll*… Oleg Shilovitsky from Autodesk.

Do you enjoy research? No, I’m not talking about the dry make-you-fall-asleep stuff that are published by professors from universities. I’m talking about research that’s relevant to your work life. Statistics and facts that describe what your peers are doing on a day-to-day basis. Well, I admit it. I do. I find that nothing cuts through the opinions, positions and debates like some hard facts. That one of the reasons that I’m currently running the 3D Collaboration and Interoperability study. I’ll use the findings to publish an infographic-based market report at the end of May. Most of the time, I enjoy uncovering some best practices and progress made in the industry. But every study carries some ugly realities with it. And, unfortunately, that’s the case with the 3D Collaboration and Interoperability study. Ready for a couple ugly early findings?