Briefings: August 2005

By DE Editors

PLM Transforms Small Industrial Product Firms

IBM (Armonk, NY) and Dassault Systèmes (Paris, France) have announced a new PLM (product lifecycle management) industry solution said to enable small- and mid-size industrial products companies to improve design productivity and speed innovation by facilitating reuse of data and knowledge, re-adapted to a new context, from one project to another. Called the Generative Mechanical Design (GMD), IBM and Dassault say that you can cut design time by up to 50% and can cut manufacturing and assembly time by up to 60% by deploying the solution.

GMD is delivered through Collaborative Generative Design (CGD), a key component of the integrated IBM PLM Express Portfolio, a suite of PLM solutions for medium-sized businesses. It consists of CATIA V5 design and knowledgeware, SMARTEAM collaborative product development, and standardized parts repository applications. The accompanying Generative Design Practices (GDP) Companion provides training materials and sample product templates for learning, applying, and implementing the GMD approach.

Companies can use the GMD solution to accelerate the entire product design process and enhance innovation through the capture and reuse of design knowledge; automation of repetitive or tedious design tasks; encapsulation of design rules using standard parts; and enhanced collaboration among design, simulation, and manufacturing.

Go to the Dassault Systèmes or IBM websites for further details.

Sun Microsystems has two new Ultra Workstation product lines that offer 32- or 64-bit computing capabilities and multiple operating system support. The Ultra 20 Workstation is equipped with the AMD Opteron processor, and the first Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation is based on the UltraSPARC processor. With the Sun Ultra 20, developers benefit from preloaded Java developer tools, and the x64 (x86, 64-bit) dual-core processor from AMD.

The Ultra Workstations are preloaded with Solaris 10, Sun Studio 10, Sun Java Studio Enterprise 7, and Sun Java Studio Creator 2004Q2 developer tools. The workstations support a variety of NVIDIA Quadro PCI-Express graphics cards and NVIDIA enforce PCI-Express media and communications processors. The NVIDIA enforce Professional paired with the full range of NVIDIA Quadro GPUs allow designers to create with OpenGL high-performance graphics and support for multiple displays and visualization software.

The Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation is equipped with the UltraSPARC processor. It extends Sun’s SPARC processor-based systems portfolio into mobile computing, helping to enable software developers, government agencies, and system administrators to run the same applications across enterprise servers, midrange servers, workstations, thin clients, and now mobile workstations.

An Ultra 20 configured for MCAD work with a 2.6GHz processor, 2GB DDR400 memory, and an NVIDIA Quadro FX1400 graphics card sells for $2,695. An entry-level Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation begins at $3,400

Sun is scheduled to announce availability of Sun Ultra 20 Workstations with dual-core processors later this year. For more information, go to sun.com/workstations.

Kubotek USA has introduced the Kubotek Spectrum, a free downloadable software solution designed to provide convenient access to design data stored in most MCAD formats, including AutoCAD, CADKEY, CATIA, Inventor, KeyCreator, Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks, and Unigraphics. A multi-MCAD engineering tool, Kubotek Spectrum provides an easy way for engineers and nonengineering professionals to access data, improving interdepartmental communications flow and helping manufacturers speed products to market.

Kubotek Spectrum allows users to view, print, publish, and interrogate numerous MCAD formats. It means office staff can print out drawings from all kinds of MCAD files, and design firm customers and partners can download the free viewer to access design drawings. Available as a download, the professional-grade viewer, which has a Windows interface, can be easily mastered by nonengineering professionals working in the marketing, sales, executive, and support or service departments.

Some features a include the ability to print or plot to all Windows-supported devices; measure any size, distance, area, or volume; hide levels/layers, entities, and parts; split the document window into 2, 3, or 4 separate viewports; open multiple files at the same time; export graphics to TIF, HPGL/2, Windows Metafile, HOOPS Metafile, or HTML; and more.

 The Dimension 3D Printing Group (Minneapolis, MN), a business unit of Stratasys, Inc. (Eden Praire, MN), has announced the launch of its second annual Extreme Redesign: The Ultimate 3D Printing Challenge. The global design and 3D printing contest for high school and college students will award scholarships to student winners.

Whether it’s a new perspective on an everyday product or a fresh vision for updating a famous piece of art, animation, or architecture, Dimension is calling on computer-aided-design (CAD) students worldwide to send in their most creative, useful, and innovative Extreme Redesigns.

“The contest gives students who have ever had a unique idea for extending the capabilities or enhancing the aesthetics of a part, product, or piece of art a venue to share their ideas,” said Jon Cobb, vice president and general manager of 3D printing for Stratasys. “Last year, we received more than 100 amazing design entries from some of the best and brightest student engineers, artists, and inventors worldwide. We anticipate this year’s contest to be even more popular as students around the world become inspired and challenged not only by this contest, but also with the possibilities of a career in design engineering.”

To enter, students send a .stl file of their Extreme Redesign to Dimension along with a completed submission form, including a 200-word description of the value and benefit of the part. Dimension will then send entrants a 3D print of their redesign for evaluation. From there, entrants have the opportunity to make any necessary design improvements and develop a second iteration for final submission.