Autodesk Manufacturing & Digital Prototyping Solutions

Autodesk Expands Analysis Software Portfolio through Acquisition of Firehole Composites

Yesterday Autodesk announced another aquisition in it's growing simulation porfolio.

Firehole Composites (http://www.firehole.com/) is a software vendor specialising in advanced FEA of composites, providing tools that link directly into competitive CAE systems like Ansys, and Dassault’ s Simulia.

The existing customer base comes from a range of areas such as Automotive OEMs, F1 and Yacht building, with the available tools being utilised to help solve challenges such as weight reductions to meet emission targets, deliver improved fuel economy and providing detailed analysis of composite ship hulls.

See press release here.

http://news.autodesk.com/news/autodesk/20130319006450/en/Autodesk-Expands-Analysis-Software-Portfolio-Acquisition-Firehole

Want to see Autodesk PLM 360 in action?

Have you heard about PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) being used at large design, engineering & manufacturing customers and the benefits it has to offer? But when looking into how you could use PLM within your organisation, you've seen a price tag and implementation thats made you cringe?

Well if you want to find out how you can implement PLM within your organisation to help you streamline processes within Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Projects etc, improve collaboration internally & externally and do all this at a fraction of the cost and implementation, you should attend one of the free Autodesk PLM 360 webinars.

If you've never seen or heard of Autodesk PLM 360, this free 60 minute webinar will give you enough of an introduction so you can see exactly how it can be used within your organisation for:

• Engineering Design
• Manufacturing
• Change Management
• LEAN
• Quality
• Supply Chain
• New Product Introduction
• Regulatory Compliance
• Project\Program Management
• Plus much more 

If you hre looking to improve the processes within your business, implementing LEAN initiatives or feel that you could be doing things better, then these webinars are for you. 

You can join the 60 minute webinar from the comfort of your own chair and office and hear from Autodesks Gavin England who will provide an introduction and live demonstration of PLM 360's capability as well as how it is already helping many businesses in the UK, Europe and Worldwide.

To register and confirm your free place on the webinar, use the link below....

http://www.autodeskplm360.co.uk/events/an-invitation-to-discover-autodesk-plm-360.html

Enjoy the webinar!

Autodesk acquires PI-VR. Specialist in real time visualisation software.

Yesterday Autodesk completed the acquisition of PI-VR (www.pi-vr.de) a privately held German software company that specializes in sophisticated real time visualization technology used primarily in the automotive industry.--(BUSINESS WIRE )--

Some people may have seen this, but apart from joining the bandwagon I wanted to reiterate this announcement and also add some more background, as to what this may offer and what we can hopefully look forward to in the future.

PI-VR primarily offer an application called VRED, which is available in a few different flavours.

Having played around with VRED Pro a couple of years back it’s great to see this solution become part of the Autodesk portfolio.

Similar to Autodesk Showcase, you can make use of HDR environments for real time visualisation and also like Autodesk Showcase Pro 2013 R1 you can link to HDR Light Studio (http://www.hdrlightstudio.com/) for greater flexibility when wishing to use custom real time environments.

But in addition, depending on the flavour (VRED Essentials, VRED Photo and VRED Professional) you have further levels of benefit from camera control with post processing options, creation of variants, surface analysis, annotation, comprehensive material libraries, real time ray tracing and refraction, animation, and then because of it's greater utilisation of workstation hardware, native support for stereo displays, cave installations, clustering, multi touch and even head tracking support.

Something that may also make certain users ears prick up is VRED is also available in PC and MAC versions.

As for the future, we know from the press release that Autodesk intends to integrate Autodesk technologies into the PI-VR platform, while continuing to sell, support and enhance the PI-VR product line. The VRED products will also join Autodesk’s existing solutions for the automotive industry including Autodesk Showcase , Autodesk Alias , Autodesk Maya , Autodesk 3ds Max and the Autodesk Design and Creation Suites .

From All of Us at Autodesk - Merry Christmas

As most of the people we deal with are now breaking up for their christmas holidays, we wanted to take this oppurtunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Hopefully everyone is managing to take some well earned rest and is also looking forward to opening some gifts on christmas morning.

See below for above a holiday card created by the M&E team featuring the characters from the Entertainment Creation Suite Global Campaign.

Finally, as the last couple posts have been related to Autodesk Showcase, I thought I'd finish the year with one final Showcase related post...kind of..

The guys at Triple Eight Race Engineering have been using Autodesk Product Design Suite and associated tools for some time now. With the ever changing landscape of motorsport, in addition to the BTCC, next year they will also be running two BMW Z4s within the British GT Championship.

http://www.tripleeight.co.uk/news/item/21-a-new-era-dawns

Below is a nice output from Autodesk Showcase showing the proposed race car mockup . I have to say I wouldn't say no to one of these being under my christmas tree this year!

 

 

Create pop up info labels in Autodesk Showcase

There are a number of advantages of being able to display additional information within the Showcase scene.

After our previous post highlighting how Autodesk Showcase can be driven from an external source, one of the questions that was raised was, "How can I emulate an automotive car configurator to allow a user to pick a hot spot and pop up information displays within the scene."

After coming up with a workflow I thought it may come in useful to share one method how this can be achieved.

I have published a quick overview on the steps required, but bear in mind you need to be familiar with Autodesk Showcase and the necessary steps to configure a model with alternative model materials, visibility and position. In addition the user must be familiar with modifying geometry position and size and creating storyboards and behaviours.

Step 1: Create label geometry and information required for Showcase

• Create some 3D geometry that will represent the label itself. (In my example using Inventor). A simple extruded rectangle is enough.
• Next create some images (using MS Powerpoint in this case) that represent the information you want to display.
• If using MS Powerpoint, with the images setup, use the SAVEAS to create the separate images of the technical information. PNG is a good image format to use.

Step 2: Import your label and create decals for the popup information.

• Import the 3D model that will represent the actual label.
• Position the label geometry to suit your Showcase model scene.
• Duplicate as necessary at the relevant positions.
• Create decal(s) from the PNG files saved earlier.
• Transparency can be applied to the Decal to only show the text based upon its colour.
• Apply the decals to the label objects.

Step 3: Animate the label (Optional)

In this example we want to show the label appearing via a slide up from the trigger point.

• To achieve this, it is possible to create a key frame animation of the label object.
• By creating a Behaviour keyframe animation (via the B shortcut key), you can set the label object transform properties (via Edit>Transform>Transform Properties) to have a zero value on its Z axis scale when you create the first key.                                                              
• Scaling the object back up to 1 (100% of original) and generating a keyframe a number of seconds later in time produces the desired animation effect.

Step 4: Display the labels via a ‘Trigger’

It is often required to display the labels when a user clicks on part of the model

• To configure the scene in order to only display the one label at a time, it is necessary to configure the scene is a suitable manner.
• First create Visibility Alternates (via the A shortcut key) including only one label per alternate PLUS an empty one (no selections added) so the scene can be ‘reset’ to the point of no labels.

• Now most importantly, a Storyboard (via the U shortcut key) must be created for each label. Adding the required alternates, behaviours and shots to each respective storyboard, allows you to drive the storyboard manually or by keyboard shortcuts/triggers/external commands.

• To allow a user to click on a geometry ‘hotspot’ to make the label appear, a Trigger must be created.
•  Within the Behaviours area, create a Trigger and add the selected geometry via the right hand mouse options. Now within the Storyboard you can associate the new Trigger to the Storyboard item.

As if by magic, now by going into Presentation mode (via the Tab shortcut key), clicking in the ‘hotspot’ area will display the animated label.

Toggling to a different Trigger will then change storyboard items and if configured correctly will turn off the previous label on move onto the next.

So there you have it, a workflow to dynamically show label information within a scene

We hope you find this tip useful.

 

Leaving Las Vegas..

After 3 full days in the desert it’s time to say goodbye to Autodesk University until next year.

So what did we learn and should you attend next year?

The answer is A LOT and YES.

No matter who you are, with 800+ classes over 3 days running from 8am to 6:30pm, there’s bound to be something that would have benefited you. I know that everyone I spoke to have gained something from attending, plus it’s been great to finally get to know people you see in social media circles but have never had the pleasure of meeting in person.

Starting with the keynote speeches on Tuesday morning,  it was amazing to see what some of our customers are achieving using the tools at their fingertips AND how engineers are starting out much younger. Take a look at http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=au_player#2%-1 to see what I mean.

In the keynote from Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO, you’ll see some important announcements about future technology, one of which is Fusion 360. Attendees at AU were able to not only see what these applications would look like but even get their hands on this stuff in the dedicated classes and lounge areas.

Check out http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=20884205&siteID=123112 to see an early overview of Fusion 360. Although it’s not something you can access right now, keep an eye out for further announcements. It’s got some great workflows and tools for conceptual design and assists users that need to interact without the boundaries of traditional CAD systems. For example, where do you think the first implementation of T-Splines is going?

From my stand point, the classes I attended offered an insight into areas of industries and applications I hadn’t necessarily touched, as well as some really useful tips and tricks. If you weren’t able to attend, sign up and take a look at the notes from Jake Fowlers session on MA2843 - Get Smart with Autodesk® Inventor® Modelling, his insight would make any Inventor users lives much easier.

In summary it’s been a great three days event, and I’m glad I was able to attend. I’ve definitely learned some good stuff and met some great people. Last nights party was also a great way to close such an immense event, I particulary enjoyed the different music zoned rooms, the acts performing where pretty impressive.

Just as a side note, as a survival guide if you are able to come next year, make sure that:-

1. You pack some lip balm
2. Drink lots of water. With a combination of the air conditioning and social nights you’ll definitely need it. (Last nights final party was something to remember.)
3. Pack some tea bags. These were being handed around like some illegal substance.It would appear for those of a british background the tea over here just doesn’t do the job.

Now it's time to pack and look forward to that long flight across the atlantic..

Travel to Autodesk University 2012 in Las Vegas OR watch AU Virtual. Your choice.

Well it's nearly that time of year again, Autodesk University 2012 being held in Las Vegas officially opens it's doors next Tuesday.

Although I'm looking forward to attending, the same can't be said for the flight. Being couped up for 10 hours isn't the most fun but needs must.

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to experience the noise of the slot machines, don't worry, all it not lost.

Most if not all the sessions will be available as a virtual event, so you can watch the live streaming main stage presentations plus any of the 250 classes on demand. Go to http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=online_learning to see more information.

For those of you who are going out to Las Vegas, you can look forward to being the first to see and touch some interesting developments, attend great classes and have the obligatory team building sessions in one of the many bars.

If you are attending, have a safe trip and I hope to see you there.

Request the features you want with Ideastation

Since joining Autodesk I've been asked a number of times, "When are we going to get this feature....why hasn't that been put into this product.." and the common response I give is "Well have you asked for it?" and usually the answer is no. Although in all fairness it's never really been that obvious how it can be done.

My answer used to be "Please log your request using the product feedback page" (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794). This is one area that Autodesk Product Managers keep tabs but in all fairness wasn't the easiest page to find.

If you 're a user of the Autodesk forums you may of noticed a change of late, which is the addition of IdeaStations. So you now have a relatively interactive way to log new feature requests. If an idea gets picked up for scoping then you'll see the status change from New Idea to Under Review, Accepted and so more depending on how succesful the request is.

IdeaStations are currently setup for the following applications, click on the links below to view:

• Autodesk Factory Design Suite
• Autodesk Inventor
• Autodesk Inventor ETO (Engineer-to-Order)
• Autodesk Product Design Suite
• Autodesk PLM 360
• Autodesk Vault

Now they're not available for all spplications as you can see, but for the ones listed above it's more straightforward to find...I just need to think of new excuses.

Control Autodesk Showcase scenes from your iPad

One of the great things about Autodesk Showcase is it's ease of use and ability to create great imagery with a minimal amount of artisitc talent.

However anyone that's worked with Showcase for some time will be aware that it's origins were aimed at the Automotive design market, with the application being used for presentations and concept review. One of the key benefits was the capability to work with high resolution powerwalls and the the ability to view 1:1 digital mockups of vehicles. In this environment, although Showcase has a simple interface, not every company wants the user to be exposed to the application and the various tools needed to drive it.

For example in a design review meeting or a vehicle showroom scenario, it is much more straight forward to drive the display from a remote workstation and control it from a fixed web page that could be displayed on any device that supports web browsing. This could be a touch screen terminal, a tablet such as an iPad OR even most modern mobile phones.

To prove what's possible, we recently developed a web interface to demonstrate the flexibiliy you have when wanting to present your idea within Showcase. There are a number of references in the help system that points users in the right direction. But in summary, you only need to add a single plugin that's available as part of the base install. With this enabled you can create a HTML file the drives the available controls commands such as alternates, storyboards, shots, etc. Place the created page on the system running Showcase in the predefined location documented in the help (this can be modified).

Then using any web enabled device browse to the hostname with the specified port (again in the help and it can be changed for security) and bobs your uncle you can drive your showcase scene options without touching the system running the application. Also Showcase can be started in fullscreen kiosk mode via a shortcut to restrict user input on the application itself.

See our rough and ready video on youtube.

 

 

BIM 360 Glue On The Go

Accessing models and BIM project data in the field has been a high priority for our construction customers for some time now, and requested more times than I can remember. Around 10 months ago I was asked to product manage a team to build an app that could handle large BIM datasets - to say I was thrilled (and honored) is an understatement, as although I've worked on Navisworks for many years, this was the first product I'd be the lead for. No pressure.

Read more about this great new app for the iPad on beyonddesign.typepad.com