By DE Editors

August 30, 2006The folks at Boulder Innovation Group work hard to make reverseengineering and measuring of almost anything a lot easier, and theirwireless digitizer system, 3D Creator, is a good example of their hardwork. This thing is neat.3D Creator is portable and wireless, so you can tote it to a job siteand not have to worry about mechanical arms getting in your way. Ituses infrared laser arrays to track the position and orientation of itslightweight, wireless measuring probe, and it can measure almostanything—small machined parts to huge boat hulls and probably evenmy schnoz.What recommends the crew at Boulder Innovation to me the most is thatthey partner with best-in-class outfits like HighRES. So, they stick totheir knitting—making 3D Creator the best they can—while lettingother experts develop the reverse engineering, CAM, or surfacingsoftware. This also makes 3D Creator flexible and easily adaptable foruse in industries where you don’t think of digitizing right away.Boulder Innovation Group goes by the acronym BIG, which has a nicesymmetry to it. You can do big things quickly and easily with theportable 3D Creator system and its little probe.Check out the write-up and use some of the links to see a PDF on some uses of 3D Creator.Thanks, Pal.—LockwoodBIG Interfaces for Reverse Engineering Wireless digitizer interfaces with major MCAD solutions Boulder Innovation Group, Inc. (BIG; Boulder, CO) announced this weekthat its 3D Creator wireless digitizer for reverse engineering andmeasuring now interfaces to most major MCAD solutions through HighRESfor Rhino reverse engineering software from HighRES, Inc. (La Jolla,CA). When coupled with HighRES for Rhino, 3D Creator, which alreadyinterfaces with Rhino from McNeel and Associates (Seattle, WA) througha plug-in from BIG, can now work with such applications as AutodeskInventor, KeyCreator, Pro/E, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, and Unigraphics NXon a plug-and-play basis. for a news write-up on HighRES for Rhino.) BIG leverages such partnerships with a number of MCAD and CAMdevelopers to enable 3D Creator to adapt to new industries easily. Forexample, 3D creator is already deployed in such diverse disciplines asprecision navigation during surgery, custom instrument design,electronic hardware development, reverse engineering, qualityinspection and metrology. 3D Creator itself is a portable measuring solution that uses infraredlight to track the position and orientation of a lightweight, wirelessmeasuring probe to digitize 3D objects in real time.  Using acordless or wired hand-held probe, you enter the X,Y,Z coordinates ofthe object by tracing surfaces, edges, or individual points such ascorners and similar data.  You then input this information intoyour MCAD or CAM program for display and manipulation. You can save the resulting data in such industry-standard file formatsas IGES, DXF, and DWG for export to other applications.  Formotion capture or external object tracking, X,Y,Z coordinates and U andV rotational vectors are reported. You can deploy 3D Creator in one of two key ways: Coupled with Rhinofor measuring an object and surfacing it, or you can use 3D Creator formore traditional reverse engineering applications. In the first instance, you can use 3D Creator to measure point-to-pointdistances or to measure a 3D surface, such as a car’s dashboard cover.Think using plastic sheets, tape measure, and scissors. But here, youuse pair 3D Creator to measure an object and pair it with Rhino tosurface the captured file. Once you have a 3D file, you can leverage BIG’s partnership withDigital Immersion and use AccuCut 3D flattening software, said to bethe first solution that takes you from a physical object to a flatpattern in a single integrated system. The crucial role AccuCut playsis that it takes the guesswork out of the production pipeline bycalculating an optimal 2D flat pattern for a 3D object. The resultingflattened file is compatible with cutters from all of the major cuttermanufacturers, according to BIG. For reverse engineering applications, 3D Creator lets you leverage yourMCAD solution, such as SolidWorks, Pro/Engineer, or Inventor.  Youmeasure the dimensions of an object with the 3D Creator freehandmeasuring wand, then input the data into your MCAD package for storageand manipulation.  All of the traditional tools and commands ofthe host MCAD program are available for the user to manipulate the fileas desired. The 3D Creator from BIG is a portable measuring solution. The systemincludes everything but the computer.  Its shipping weight is 53pounds, including a rugged carrying case. AccuCut is part of a bundlefrom BIG that includes the digitizing hardware and all the necessarysoftware. Click these links to download a PDF file describing what 3D Creator has to offer those in industrial or medical settings.  Click here to go to the website of Boulder Innovation. 

August 23, 2006Yesterday, August 22, MecSoft introduced one of those cool toolsthat brightened up even a beautiful summer day here in NewEngland. RhinoART1.0 has a simple and direct mission: It takes a 2D file and transformsit into 3D Rhino geometry quickly. Once in Rhino, you can sculpt thefile in any artistic or artistically complex way you want using Rhino’sNURBS and mesh modeling capabilities. RhinoART 1.0 also has tools sothat you mess around with the geometry, curves, and other stuff thatRhino isn’t programmed to do. That is it. Simple and direct as you can get it, but the effects are so cool.From a link in the write-up, you can check out the RhinoART image gallery.  Ormake it simple and direct yourself and skip more of my jazz and goright to MecSoft and sign up for a trial download. Click here to do that. You will be glad you did.Thanks, Pal.Art to Part QuicklyRhinoART 1.0 joins family of Rhino plug-ins.CAM software developer MecSoft Corp. (Irvine, CA) has announcedRhinoART 1.0, its third plug-in for Rhinoceros from McNeel andAssociates. RhinoART joins RhinoCAM, a general-purpose machiningprogram for machinists, and RhinoCAM Pro for mold, die and tooling,woodworking, rapid-prototyping, and general machining applications. ButRhinoART is different.RhinoART augments Rhino’s NURBS and mesh modeling features withcapabilities that, says MecSoft, gives Rhino users a completely new wayto create artistic models that suitable for such detailed applicationsas jewelry design, sign-making, or logos. In essence, RhinoART givesyou the ability to transform a 2D image into sculptured, native Rhino3D geometry quickly. From there, you can use this geometry as is or youcan manipulate it using Rhino’s modeling tools to create complexdesigns.RhinoART offers such geometry generation features as the ability tocreate 3D reliefs from image files as well the ability to limit thecreation of reliefs using colors and/or curves. It can take drawing 2DCurve geometry from image files and create puffed up volumes usingclosed curves or even sweep volumes using various profiles.To sign up for downloadable trial version of RhinoART 1.0, click here. Click here to access a number of RhinoART and RhinoCAMtutorials or click here for a RhinoART 1.0 image gallery.For complete details, goto the MecSoft website.  

August 16, 2006Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:MyPick of the Week today is Materialise and its Magics X R&Msoftware. Materialise is a leader in rapid prototyping services andsoftware. It claims to perform 7 percent of RP services worldwide,which seems right me. They’ve been in this business since 1990. ItsMagics software is one of the most widely deployed third-party RP andmanufacturing solutions out there. Now in its generation 10, Magics hasbeen completely redone, making it faster and more user-friendly. Italso has a neat My Folders feature that holds data on your RP machinesso that you can get going with less futzing around with setup.Materialiseis one of those quiet companies that does what it does very well. FriedVancrean, president and CEO of Materialise, is a good example of what Imean. He does not brag about it, but Mr. Vancrean is one of theoriginators of the RP4Baghdadhumanitarian program. RP4Baghdad brings RP technological assistance tothe treatment of many Iraqis seriously injured in that war.MagicsX is something to brag about it. It’s a complete suite from 2D planningto remeshing to STL editing to tool quoting. Check out the write-up orgo directly to Materialise from the links below.Thanks, Pal.—  LockwoodRP&M Suite Works Its MagicsTenth generation software said to be faster, friendlier than ever before.Materialise (Leuven, Belgium, and Ann Arbor, MI) saysthat Magics X, the tenth generation of its RP&M suite, “has beenthoroughly renovated.” Features highlighted in the company’s statementsto the press include a new UI (user interface), a new highly efficientmemory structure, and enhancements to its rendering capabilities andalgorithms. Magics X offers a range of new and enhanced functions that target easeof use and efficiency. For example, its new UI is said to be intuitiveand easy to use. Additionally, the Magics X toolbars and shortcuts arecustomizable to your workflows. Other efficiency enhancements includethe *.Magics file format, which stores all project components together,and a customizable “My Machines” folder that gives you access to yourmachines quickly.Magics X deploys a new memory structure that stores the triangles moreefficiently. This, the company says, enables Magics X to run fasterthan previous versions while letting you work with larger and morefiles simultaneously than you could with earlier versions.Additionally, optimized algorithms in Magics X couple with the newmemory structure to make file handling faster and rendering bothsmoother and faster.File import enhancements include better CAD conversion capabilities andmulti-part-file import; improved surface mesh quality; and conversionof sliced files (SLC) to STL files. Miscellaneous enhancements includedraw support directly in 3D on your part; progress bars; automated 3Dnesting for handling large files; and new functionality for advancedSTL fixing. For complete details, click here. To register for an online demo, click here. 

 August 9, 2006Dear Desktop Engineering reader:Twenty years survival is always a notable accomplishment. My old man, for example, assured me that I would never make it to 18.But LabVIEW has turned 20, and National Instruments has just rolled outLabVIEW 8.20—say it “eight-twenty.” This graphical programminglanguage is the top of the heap, and it is positioned well to play aleading role as embedded system design takes off in the next couple ofyears.LabVIEW is one of those tools that I see everywhere. It and Excel seemthe most widely deployed engineering applications out there.It’s difficult for me to cite just one reason why LabVIEW 8.20 is myPick of the Week this time around. I could select a hundred and stillnot get it right. Maybe it is because for 20 years LabViEW has been theenabler for innovation and it keeps becoming more robust and moreflexible with each release, enabling you to innovate more and futz withsetup less.Click here  to go right to the LabVIEW Web page.Thanks, Pal.—  LockwoodLatest LabVIEW Opens Graphical System Design to MATLAB UsersNI’s LabVIEW 8.20 improves productivity via open connectivity with third-party tools and rapid system prototyping.National Instruments(NI; Austin, TX) has released LabVIEW 8.20, the 20th anniversaryedition of the LabVIEW graphical system design platform for test,control, and embedded system development. Building on its long historyof interconnectivity with third-party hardware and software, LabVIEW8.20 extends the LabVIEW graphical dataflow language with nativesupport for text-based math with MathScript. LabVIEW 8.20 also bringssignificant improvements in control design and simulation performanceand accelerates development of real-time system prototypes usingstandard PCs, FPGAs, or custom designs.As system complexity grows, designers are forced to integrate more andmore functionality into their products, often requiring design andsimulation tools from different domains to work together. UsingMathScript, engineers can integrate their existing m-files createdusing the MATLAB software, or create new scripts with LabVIEW and mixand match graphical and text-based approaches to meet their designapplication needs and prototype systems. By combining the interactivefront panel GUIs and connectivity to real-world I/O from LabVIEW withalgorithms designed in traditional text-based math languages, such asm-files, engineers can more quickly explore, prototype, iterate, andcomplete their designs.In addition to general compatibility with MATLAB language syntax,LabVIEW 8.20 helps engineers incorporate algorithms from other leadingmathematics packages, including Maple, Mathcad, and Scilab. ForFPGA-based development, engineers can use new machine monitoring IPlibraries and add third-party IP through the VHDL node in the LabVIEWFPGA Module. Third-party IP cores available for LabVIEW FPGA have beenvalidated by Xilinx, Celoxica, and Impulse C.According to a press release, LabVIEW 8.20 improves algorithm executionspeeds for both simple PID and advanced control systems. The PIDToolkit has improved performance by up to 14 times and execution speedof the LabVIEW Simulation Module is improved up to nine times. Thismakes it possible for engineers to develop and execute high-performanceapplications from simple PID to complex control systems using the samegraphical system design approach.With LabVIEW 8.20, engineers can integrate control algorithms and plantmodels developed using third-party platforms directly into the LabVIEWdesign and prototyping platform. With the Simulation Interface Toolkit,engineers can use simulation models developed in Simulink in LabVIEWfor real-time control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)testing. Additionally, with the new External Model Interface in LabVIEW8.20, engineers can integrate values from third-party plant models inthe LabVIEW Simulation Module. The LabVIEW 8.20 Simulation Module workswith third-party models from Dynasim and Plexim GmbH.LabVIEW 8.20 streamlines the prototyping and deployment of real-timeembedded designs on NI CompactRIO or PXI hardware platforms, as well asstandard desktop computers, FPGAs, or custom board designs-all usingthe same graphical programming approach. The new LabVIEW FPGA Wizardautomatically generates I/O code and timing structures for quicklydesigning prototype systems directly in FPGA hardware for custom,real-time I/O systems, which include NI PXI, CompactRIO, and standarddesktop computers. Engineers can implement these FPGA-based targets onplug-in boards in a standard desktop PC for fast, low-cost systemprototyping. And, with the LabVIEW 8.20 Embedded Development Module,engineers can run their LabVIEW algorithms on 32-bitmicroprocessor-based custom designs.“LabVIEW 8.20 combines an open design platform that embraces multipletools and design approaches with powerful, custom measurementcapabilities to streamline product development through an integrateddesign, prototyping, and deployment platform,” said Dr. James Truchard,NI president, CEO and cofounder.New embedded targets supported in the LabVIEW 8.20 Embedded Moduleinclude TI 6713 and Philips ARM7 229x processors, as well as QNX andMonteVista Linux-embedded operating systems. For more information,visit ni.com.

 August 2, 2006Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:Here’s an interesting item that crossed my desktop the other day:hsCADCreator from Hachisoft Corp. This is an engineering, technical,and architectural drawing design and editing environment that’s loadedwith features yet is inexpensive. It’s so inexpensive that you couldoutfit an entire team with it for about as much as you’d pay for oneseat of some better-known applications.What do I mean by all that? Well, first, click here to see what Imean by loaded with features. Next, take hsCADCreator’s single-seatprice, $289.85, and multiply it by 10. Then, as your ninth gradeEnglish teacher used to say, compare and contrast what you get for 10seats of hsCADCreator to what you get for one seat of your applicationchoice.Need more data? You can download a free evaluation unit or fire up someFlash demos from links in today’s Pick of the Week write-up.hsCADCreator might not be the be all and end all in every environment.But it has a ton to offer for most engineering drawing design andediting environments at a price too good to take a pass on giving it atry. And that’s why I recommend you check out hsCADCreator fromHachisoft.Thanks, Pal.—  Lockwood Full of Features, But Not the CostCAD environment coded for ease of use and functionality.Hachisoft Corp. (Colville, WA) says that its hsCADCreator CADenvironment offers many features that rival those of industry-standardCAD applications. They obviously did not have its low-cost single-seatprice tag—$289.95—top of mind when they said that. The hsCADCreator environment is designed for developing engineering,technical, and architectural drawings quickly, according to thecompany. Coded to be easy to learn and use, hsCADCreator lets youcreate and edit drawings as well as import drawings created in manystandard CAD file formats for view and full interaction. For example, its drawing creation tools give you the ability to useblocks to simplify the generation of repeated drawing elements, and youcan choose your drawing unit and enter distances in any related unitwithout needing a calculator. You can also copy and paste your currentselection in both “Standard” and “As Block” mode. Miscellaneousfeatures include the ability to customize an entity’s line styles, lineweights, text styles, hatch styles, and colors. When editing drawings, you can choose one or more entities of interestwith crossing, containment, and single-click selection as well as viewand modify the properties of the currently selected entity or entities.The company also reports that you can manipulate UCS (user coordinatesystems) easily with simple tools and a UCS-aware data entry system.hsCADCreator also gives you the ability to manage named views,modelspace viewports, and layouts for custom presentations of yourdrawing. hsCADCreator can import from most standard CAD file formats, such asDWG, DXF, DXF, and SVG. Once imported you can display 2D and 3Dinformation; zoom, rotate, pan, and snap within a drawing. You can alsomanage multiple views of a drawing with modelspace and paperspaceviewports. Additionally, you can preview both drawing paperspacelayouts and the drawing modelspace. Drawing conversion functionalityextends to any supported drawing file types and all versions. hsCADCreator can be purchased as a stand-alone product for $289.95.Groups with volume discounts and site licensing programs are available. Click here to download a free trial. Click here to access a variety of Flash demos of hsCADCreator in action.