Solution Reviews

Five years ago, if you asked which software providers had the strongest set of design and simulation capabilities, it’s safe to say that Autodesk wouldn’t be the first one out of your mouth. Many would admit they’ve developed and provided a number of design and engineering accelerator type technologies, but analysis and simulation? But lo and behold, fast forward to today and the story has changed a bit. Autodesk still might not be the first software provider mentioned, but they’re not far down the list.

Seems everyone is talking green products nowadays. But how can you tell if the talk is greenwashing or a product that is actually better for the environment? Up to this point, any effort to honestly make a product greener has been pure brute effort. However, new software applications and systems could enable engineers greater visibility into the eco-impact of their decisions. One such system is called Sustainable Minds (company website).

We all know what Product Portfolio Management (PPM) is. Right? Is the system that let’s us assess product ideas, compare them and ultimate fund a few for development. But it also let’s continually assess the health of funded projects to kill those that aren’t as successful as we’d like. Well, a few weeks back, I met with the folks at Planview (company website) to get some insight into their products. And I think there’s a little more to their software than first meets the eye.

Most people that follow this blog might notice a recurring theme in my posts: engineers simply have too many lifecycle responsibilities to be come experts in any software application or system. A few weeks ago, this line of thinking led me to post some thoughts on how mashup applications could bring access to many enterprise systems to the engineer in one place. And I still think that’s one of the more feasible alternatives for engineers.

It is a fast-paced and complicated world, isn’t it? While we’ve gotten instant access to information around the world, I think it’s gotten harder for each of us individually to really understand what’s going on in the world. There’s simply too much to register. I think that’s why, in general, we like concise perspectives that distill the gist of a situation so we can come to a conclusion and move on quickly.

Today we’re going to hear from another manufacturer about their selection of a different CAD application: Solidworks. I had a chance to talk with Chris Weiss, the VP of Engineering at Knapheide Manufacturing, about a number of issues. In the following excerpt, he talks about the decisions process his organization went through selecting Solidworks.

Overall, the objective behind Vuuch is the same as it has been for any other collaboration solution provided in the last ten years. If you resolve issues faster, then you can go through more iterations resulting in a better product or you can reach design release faster (or maybe just on time) to keep pace in the schedule. That being said, this solution goes about it in a markedly different way. Here’s what’s advantageous and concerning from my perspective.

This series of posts will cover new product releases, changes in product strategy and acquisitions by engineering software providers affect engineering stakeholders. New posts in this series will be published based on software provider activities. Today’s post goes beyond the news around the launch of PTC’s Creo to analyze and assess the potential advantages, the …

The Potential Advantages and Outstanding Concerns of PTC’s Creo Read More »

I’ve always been extremely curious about PLM deployments in larger enterprises. Based on my experience, larger companies tend to take on PLM to support an internal initiative. And because internal initiatives often widely vary from company to company, the ultimate form that PLM takes within those companies can be completely different from one another.