Scania chooses Dassault Systemes’ PLM solutions

Dassault Systemes recently announced in a press release that Scania chose to invest in ENOVIA as their PLM for integrated production design, product development, processes and manufacturing. Scania is a company of over 32,000 people and is reported to be one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications, and of industrial and marine engines.

Anders G. Lindberg, technology manager, R&D, Scania states, “the biggest difference [as a result of this investment in ENOVIA] for the user today is that we have a platform where we can construct in 3D from the start and make cross functional use in a whole new way. We also have other possibilities for parametric design, optimization tools and kinematics compared to our previous solution.” Lindberg also talks about CATIA by stating, “we realized that CATIA was still the best authoring solution for us.”

Dassault Systemes seems well positioned to suit the needs of large corporations. However, when one sees press releases that talk about being selected by such organizations, one may be left wondering about Dassault Systemes’ ability to adjust their business model to suit small to mid-size companies. What are the CATIA and ENOVIA adoption rates for smaller organizations? Among those small adopters, how many have positive and beneficial experiences?

New Product: 3DVIA Mobile HD

Dassault Systemes announced the release of 3DVIA Mobile HD, which they claim is “a first-of-its-kind interactive 3D model viewer for the iPad.”  Connectivity (cloud?) continues to be a theme from Dassault Systemes.  3DVIA Mobile HD gives users access to view and interact with thousands of 3D models which are hosted on the 3DVIA.com content warehouse.  Most 3D modelling software applications are able to connect to 3DVIA.com to share work on the iPad platform, including content in over 30 3D formats.

3DVIA Mobile HD 13DVIA Mobile HD 7

Also, Dassault Systemes claims that “3DVIA Mobile HD retains the speed, fluid movement and easy-to-navigate interface of the [original 3DVIA Mobile] iPhone app [while taking] advantage of the increased screen size and resolution of the iPad, making this a powerful 3D content demonstration tool.”

3DVIA Mobile HD will feature the following:

  • Interactive 3D viewer: pan, zoom and inspect models with intuitive iPad finger movements
  • Integrated 3DVIA 3D model search: search, download and view over 20,000 3D models published to 3DVIA.com
  • Compatible with popular 3D formats: .dae (COLLADA), .3ds, .obj, .iges, .step, .kmz, .3DXML and many more
  • Save and export 2D renders (images) to Facebook and e-mail
  • Private publishing on 3D models:  restrict access to sensitive product information by publishing to your private account
  • Interact with the 3DVIA.com community: comment on and rate 3D models from the iPad

3DVIA Modile HD for the iPad is available for the temporary price of $1.99 in the App Store; full price will be $4.99.

Connecting to other in 3DVIA Mobile HDSending model to Facebook from 3DVIA Mobile HD

As of right now, there is no word yet on if/when a similar application will be available for Android.  I would be excited about an Android offering since it wouldn’t be limited to just one device and Android is the best selling smartphone OS now.

Draftsight news (Part 2: Mac and Linux)

Last week, Dassault Systemes announced some big news that quiets the thunder of Autodesk’s big news from the same week.  Autodesk announced they will release a Mac version of AutoCAD this Fall.  I’m guessing that this new version of AutoCAD will likely be in the same price range as their current AutoCAD offering (thousands of dollars).  Draftsight, a free .dwg 2D editor, has been available since June 2010.  But that’s old news.  So, what’s Dassault Systemes’ big news now?

Draftsight announcements

A public beta release of Draftsight for Mac is available on September 15, 2010, for free!  Not only that, but Draftsight for Linux is due for release in October 2010, for free!  That is a one-two punch directed at the heart of AutoCAD’s core customer base.  Autodesk’s choice to drop Mac support many years ago now comes back to haunt them.  Just as Autodesk makes their big announcement, the wait to re-adopt their application to the Mac appears to be too little, too late, and too costly.

In all fairness

To be fair, AutoCAD is a very powerful .dwg editor with several powerful add-ons.  Draftsight has a ways to go before approaching that level of maturity.  However, I don’t think it will ever need to reach that same level.

When a CAD customer moves from 2D to 3D, the extra functionality of AutoCAD isn’t needed in most cases.  Also, new companies that need 2D capabilities will likely not need AutoCAD’s added functionality either.  In many cases, companies and individuals will opt for a free application that covers their needs rather than spend thousands of dollars to get the little extras they aren’t likely to use.

Mac user interface

Mac users have certain user interface expectations for Mac applications.  Dassault Systemes appears to understand this.  The user interface of Draftsight for Mac should be familiar to Mac users.  For example, tools are organized onto a palette instead of Windows-like toolbars.  The Draftsight Mac toolbar is floating in the same fashion as most other Mac applications.

Linux user interface

The Linux user interface is more Windows-like with various toolbars and the pulldown menus.  Variations of the user interface will support variations in Linux.

3DVia can do it, so why not SolidWorks?

3DVia Composer3DVia Composer demonstrations have been all the rage at official SolidWorks and VAR events over the past year or so.  I’m getting quite familiar with 3DVia Composer just from the demos (I’ve never used it).  The more I see it, the more I realize just how much SolidWorks lacks in how it handles assemblies.

The past is the past

At one time, there was a function in SolidWorks that would allow the user to auto-explode their assembly.  The problem with this function is that it never worked well enough to be of much use.  As a result, the auto-explode function is not longer included in SolidWorks.

3DVia does it, so let’s improve SolidWorks

In demo after demo of 3DVia Composer, I see a milieu were assemblies are exploded and rearranged with superb ease.  This same ease should be available in SolidWorks assemblies!

Examples of 3DVia functions that should be added to SolidWorks assembly mode.

  • Ability to explode groups of parts within an assembly with one motion
  • Spherical explode
  • Onion skin mode

Magnet Lines

One new function in 3DVia Composer that should be added to SolidWorks drawing mode is the Magnet Line.   This allows the user to place one line (Magnet Line) on the drawing, then automatically attach to it a whole series of balloons so that they all are centered on that line.  The Magnet Line can then be moved around at any angle.  Regardless to the angle, all of the balloons remained aligned to each other by their common connection to the Magnet Line.

3DVia Composer Magnet Line

In fact, maybe Magnet Line shouldn’t be limited to just aligning balloons.  Maybe it can be used to align any type of annotations.  Maybe the Magnet Line can be made to affect annotations by their start, end or centers.  If sophisticated enough, maybe the Magnet Line can completely replace the outdated MS-Office style alignment tools now available in SolidWorks drawing mode.

SolidWorks 2011: Defeature Feature

There’s a new tool in SolidWorks called Defeature. Although the Defeature feature has a seemingly counter-intuitive and oxymoronic name, this new tool garnered the most excitement from the Press at this year’s SolidWorks 2011 Launch Event.  Defeature creates simplified versions of models or assemblies that are easier to share, use, and also protect design details which may represent intellectual property.

Defeature for parts

In a part, Defeature allows the user to replace details (such as features and surfaces) with dumb solids (solids without feature definition or history).  With a model open, goto Tools pulldown>Defeature.

Defeature part

Defeatured model - before and after

The Defeature tool workflow may be straightforward for simple parts.  However, the selection/deselection process can be laborious for complex parts.  Once the user has selected the preserved features, they may save the results to a new file or upload the model directly to 3D Content Central.  The new file will not be linked to the original file.  It will only contain one feature called Imported1.

Defeature for assemblies

If Defeature only simplified individual models, it wouldn’t be all that impressive.  Defeature also works with assemblies!  It has several options that facilitate the selection/deselection process.  With an assembly open, goto Tools pulldown>Defeature.

Defeature_kitchenv6

Defeatured assembly - before and after

The assembly Defeature workflow allows the user to select/deselect whole components based on certain criteria, including the removal of all internal components or components that are less than a certain percentage of the overall assembly.  There’s more!

Defeature allows the user to preserve motion within the assembly, even with a significant number of details removed from the assembly.  For example, an assembly model of motor may be heavily simplified while still allowing its parts to move in the same fashion as they do in the original fully detailed assembly.  This well help suppliers provide fully functional assembly models while protecting their designs from competitors or other copycats.  The Defeatured assembly may be saved in the same manner as parts.  Components will be saved as virtual parts within the assembly file.

What others are saying about Defeature

  • Josh Mings on his blog awarded his Best New Feature Award to Defeature tool for parts and separately for assemblies.  He also stated on SolidWorks Heard! that the Defeature tool “prolly has the most buzz out of all the new stuff that’s being added” in SolidWorks 2011.
  • Brad Holtz noted in his tweet, “SolidWorks 2011 defeaturing does not lose mates, rotation, and other operational data,” and separately speculated, “looked like it came from 3Dvia composer.”
  • Ricky Jordon declares, “this tool allows you to convert an assembly to automatically create a ‘dumbed down’ model” on this blog, and also tweeted, “Defeature might just end up being the most under appreciated feature of the SolidWorks 2011 Release. Lots of capability!”
  • Kevin de Smet off-handedly commented on Dezignstuff.com, “…I can see Defeature as a useful addition to the software…”.
  • Alex Ruiz lamented in his tweet, “I think the defeature tool would be really cool with a slider that goes from more or less features and you see the change dynamically.”
  • Jon Larrea celebrated Defeature in a tweet, “La opción ‘Defeature’ es asombrosa… y necesaria.” This roughly translates as, “The tool ‘Defeature’ is amazing… and necessary.”
  • Brian McElyea briefly mentioned the tool in this first blog post about the SolidWorks 2011 launch.
  • Guilherme Kastner states, “…a SolidWorks muito está se preocupando em ajudar quem está interessado em publicar arquivos para biblioteca Web.”  This very roughly translates as, “SolidWorks is concerned with helping those who wish to publish their models to libraries on the Web.”

3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO reviews are up…

I don’t normally post articles on holidays.  This one is just a short notice that I’ve added a synopsis of all my articles about the 3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO as a single review on epinions.com, which is a bit more detailed than my review on Amazon.com.  (The standards are a lot higher for reviews on epinions.)  The epinions review doesn’t cover every detail from my long list of articles about this product, though hopefully it covers enough.