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Posts Tagged ‘SolidWorks partners’

OK, so this is one of those really cool things about being a blogger and attending an event such as SolidWorks World as “press”: you get to see all these awesome new gadgets before they’re made available to the public or even announced.  The hard part is that you have to keep it a secret, and you can’t tell a single soul (not even your aunt Gladys if you have one) about all the wonders you’ve witnessed until after the formal announcement has been made. That’s tough!

Fortunately for me, there’s no more need to keep quiet. The secret’s out!  And take a look at it. This is the newest and most powerful 3D mouse that anyone has ever come up with and I got to see it in action (and even play with it a bit) back in February, during a meeting I had with the folks from 3DConnexion, while at SolidWorks World  2009, in Orlando.

Like I said before, I got to try one of these for a bit while at the meeting, but it was for only such a brief moment that I’m literally dying to get my hands on one of these units again to test it more thoroughly… all in the name of CAD and science, of course, and always keeping my readers’ best interest in mind. OK, I confess, I fell in love with it since the moment I laid eyes on it!

Until then, I leave you with the information from the press release and a handsome picture for your enjoyment.  For more information on this and other 3D mice from 3DConnexion, visit their website at www.3Dconnexion.com

 

3Dconnexion Launches Its Most Powerful 3D Mouse Ever: the SpacePilot PRO

 

Integrated Color LCD Workflow Assistant, QuickView Navigation Technology, and Intelligent Function Keys Save Time and Reduce Interruptions

 

FREMONT, Calif. – April 16, 2009 – To meet the rigorous demands of design engineers working in powerful 3D applications, 3Dconnexion today announced the new SpacePilot™ PRO. The company’s flagship 3D mouse is designed to deliver advanced control of 3D models, easier access to the power of professional 3D applications, fewer interruptions in the design workflow, and superior comfort. Specifically, the SpacePilot PRO features a new color LCD Workflow Assistant, second-generation QuickView Navigation technology, Intelligent Function keys, and an improved design for enhanced comfort and control.

 

“3Dconnexion’s 3D mice have rewritten the rules on the way design engineers and professionals interact with 3D environments,” said Dieter Neujahr, president of 3Dconnexion. “Our new SpacePilot PRO builds on our market-leading industry experience, delivering the most powerful 3D mouse we’ve ever made. It enables increased performance that ultimately results in better designs, created in less time.”

 

The SpacePilot PRO 3D mouse provides the highest level of performance features ever available from 3Dconnexion, including:

 

-      LCD Workflow Assistant: The color LCD lists function-key assignments and provides at-a-glance access to Microsoft^® Outlook^® e-mail, calendar and task lists, allowing professionals to access important information for a fully integrated design experience with fewer distractions. Through 3Dconnexion’s open software architecture, the workflow assistant can be further customized to meet the needs of individuals, companies and software vendors.

 

-      Advanced MCAD Navigation: Five new dual-function QuickView Navigation keys
improve error detection, design review, and design presentation by providing one-touch access to the following views: top and bottom, right and left, front and back, two isometric views, and 90-degree view rotation of any view either clockwise or counter-clockwise – for a total of 32 views. A short press activates a key’s primary view command, while pressing and holding a key activates a secondary view command. In addition, new Navigation Setting keys offer simplified and customizable control, allowing professionals to turn pan-and-zoom, rotation and one-axis control on or off, making it easier to define navigation settings for certain work modes.

 

-      Intelligent Function Keys: Five new fully customizable, dual-function keys offer immediate, one-touch access to 10 frequently used commands within any supported 3D application. The SpacePilot PRO automatically detects the active application and assigns appropriate function keys – whether default or customized. The color LCD denotes the function key assignments and application mode so engineers can easily identify commands and design states.

 

-      Superior Comfort: The SpacePilot PRO has a new sculpted, soft-coated wrist rest that positions the hand in relation to the controller cap to support a balanced workflow. The micro-precision six-degrees-of-freedom sensor allows for fingertip control with minimal effort from the arm, wrist and hand, while frequently used commands are conveniently positioned at your fingertips. The intuitive and symmetrical layout of the function keys makes the device usable with either hand.

 

About 3Dconnexion 3D Mice

Unlike traditional mice confined to motion on one flat plane, 3Dconnexion 3D mice enable design engineers to move in all three dimensions simultaneously, using six-degrees–of-freedom sensor technology. By gently lifting, pressing and turning the controller cap, design engineers can easily pan, zoom and rotate without stopping to select commands. Using a 3D mouse together with a traditional mouse engages both hands into a balanced and cooperative work style.

 

3Dconnexion provides advanced and affordable 3D mice that are supported by more than 130 of today’s leading and powerful 3D applications, including Autodesk Inventor^TM, SolidWorks^TM, CATIA^TM, Pro/ENGINEER^TM, NX^TM and Solid Edge^TM. For a complete list of applications supported by 3Dconnexion, visit www.3dconnexion.com/solutions.

 

Compatibility, Pricing and Availability

The SpacePilot PRO is backed by a three-year warranty, and is currently available at a suggested retail price of $499. The SpacePilot PRO is supported by Windows XP, Windows Vista^®, Sun Solaris 8 (SPARC), Sun Solaris 10 (x86), and Linux^® (Redhat Enterprise Linux WS 4, SuSE 9.3 or later). Linux and Solaris support workflow assistant function key assignments only.

 

The entire 3Dconnexion product line, including the Professional Series with the SpacePilot™ (MSRP $399) and SpaceExplorer™ (MSRP $299), and the Standard Series with the SpaceNavigator (MSRP $99) and SpaceNavigator for Notebooks (MSRP $129), are available from professional CAD resellers and major online resellers including CDW, Insight, PC Connection, and PC Mall. For a complete list of resellers or to buy directly, visit www.3Dconnexion.com.

 

About 3Dconnexion, a Logitech Company
3Dconnexion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (Nasdaq: LOGI), is the leading provider of 3D mice for 3D design and visualization. 3Dconnexion devices support today’s most popular and powerful 3D applications by offering users a more intuitive and natural way to interact with computer-generated 3D content. 3Dconnexion’s award-winning 3D mice serve a wide variety of industries and are used by 3D designers, animators and artists worldwide. 3Dconnexion is headquartered in Fremont, Calif. with European headquarters in Seefeld, Germany and offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.3Dconnexion.com.

I’m really excited about a great new resource available to all those engineers, scientists, students, and enthusiasts out there that perhaps never got exposed to CNC machining while in their college years (like yours truly) and/or that wish to learn the basics on how to program and operate a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling machine.  It is a book  -actually  it’s a complete course with curriculum available for educators-  written by Charles Davis, General Manager at NEXGEN Manufacturing Systems, Inc., and is available at www. cncforengineers.com. 

On the website, you will also find information about upcoming training (4 day hands-on classes with limited enrollment offered at various locations around the country), on-site training, and educators can request information on curriculum, videos, lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations available to them, and/or how to sponsor training at their school. BTW, this book is already being used at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was recently displayed at the ITEA (International Technology Education Association) Conference and received a very positive response from technical educators from around the U.S., and, although it is not exclusive of any particular kind of CAM/CAD software application,  SolidWorks 2009 files are available for completing the exercises (parasolid files also available), and is also being displayed by DS SolidWorks at all educational tradeshows.

While the book is no substitute for hands-on experience and won’t turn you into an expert machinist, it provides an excellent foundation, and is especially useful for those of us that desire to understand the CNC processes; what is doable, what goes beyond its limits, what would be too expensive to machine, what changes could be made to our design to improve its manufacturability and decrease cost, etc. Even if we never have to actually program and run a CNC machine ourselves, having some understanding of all this can greatly improve our designs.

I got my copy of this book a few days ago and I’m already reading. I plan to complement what I learn from it with a few classes at DeAnza or some other institution this fall (hopefully I’ll have reliable childcare by then). So far, it looks like an excellent book, but don’t take it from me, go and check it out yourself!

 

 

While at the partner’s pavilion during SolidWorks World 2009, I watched a very nice demo of a 3D modeling product known as SolidThinking. I must say, with my very limited knowledge of surface modeling in SolidWorks,  I was very impressed by how easy it was to create and modify all sorts of capricious shapes starting from very simple geometry and/or dragging around, pushing and pulling the already existing elements of the model. I remember thinking of it as virtual clay being shaped by an artisan. In a matter of minutes, a stylish armchair was created before my eyes, and even rendered in a nice dark brown leather texture, and positioned in the middle of a room where an invisible wall was made part of the surroundings, simply to catch the shadow of the chair as if it were really projecting on the image in the background, all to make the whole scene appear more realistic. A pair of sunglasses was also created with the greatest of ease, and modified into three different fashion styles, again making use of very simple geometry.  Amazing!

So, a bit after coming back home from  SolidWorks World, I went and downloaded a free 30 days trial version of SolidThinking from their website in order to give it a try.  I must say it is kind of easy to use, although not as easy as it looked during the demo, which is reasonable to expect from someone who has never before tried it and is used to work with SolidWorks, I guess, given that the whole interface (graphics area, tools, etc.) looks dramatically different from one application to the other, and, in general, there are also quite a few differences in how the 3D model is created.

A few quick examples of what is mentioned above:

In general, and although it also offers tools for solid modeling like prisms, spheres and such, the models you generate in SolidThinking  will be made up of  a group of NURBS surfaces. This is important to keep in mind. A model created this way may appear like a solid, but if you save it as an iges file and take it to SolidWorks, what you’ll see in your feature manager is a group of imported surfaces that make up the model.

 

As I said before, I really don’t have much knowledge on surfacing and didn’t have a lot of time to test it thoroughly, but I wonder if it’s precisely because it works with these kind of surfaces that it’s so flexible and makes it easy to shape the model practically any way you need or want to, simply by editing the surface and dragging control points, like you would for a spline.

Another big difference that takes some time to adjust to is the interface. By default, you are watching your model in four different views (Top, Front, Right and a perspective view); although you can change the layout at any time to include different views of the model.  Moving the model around is also done differently. Instead of simply dragging the model with your mouse, you have to drag while pressing a button in the graphics area. There’s one for panning and one for rotation.  I’m not sure I like it; maybe I just need to get used to it.

Also by default, you’ll be assisted by a series of grids that are there to help you place points and objects into the scene. You can define the grids, each with its own origin and spacing. It takes you by surprise at first, if you are not used to working with a grid, but it’s actually kind of useful. Having to define an origin at the beginning of many commands (like whenever generating a NURBS curve ), as well as finishing the command by pressing the spacebar also took a bit getting used to.

There is no feature manager, like in SolidWorks, but there’s something called the construction tree that keeps track of the history of your model and all the steps involved in its creation, all the curves, surfaces or parameters that have been either created or modified will be stored there and can be accessed  and modified at any time.

To tell you the truth, I find the way many of the tools in SolidThinking work both cool and confusing all at the same time.  Cool because in order to do something very similar to what we would call a sweep in SolidWorks, you don’t even need to have the profile, path and/or guide curves in touch with each other. No, you can draw one or a couple of NURB curves somewhere in one of your views, say the right view, and your profile, say a circle or ellipse, somewhere in the same right view, not even near the NURBS curves, and not even in another plane perpendicular to the curves, then use an operation called pipe or bi-rail to sweep the profile along the curves and create a cool shape.  That is so easy, it’s cool, but what’s confusing is how is it that by doing just that you end up with a shape like the one in this image, where the surface highlighted in red of this fountain pen was created by “sweeping” that green circle along a couple of curves that were drawn on the right view.  The two NURB curves on the right view should provide information about the shape of the surface as seen from the right, but what I don’t get is where does the shape as seen from the top comes from.

Rendering in SolidThinking reminds me a bit of PhotoView 360, if only because it gives nice results and is fast and easy. However, the renderer in SolidThinking allows the use of lighting and cameras, as well as a few tricks like that of the invisible wall to catch the shadows of an object or the use of panels of light to simulate the light coming from a window, for instance.

I wish I had had more time to explore the software, but all in all from what I’ve seen I think it’s a nice tool for conceptual design. I’m not so sure about how useful it may be for engineering applications, but it seems like a nice tool for the product designers to help bring their ideas out of their head and into life faster. Like I said before, it makes me think of virtual clay…