Autodesk Manufacturing & Digital Prototyping Solutions

Autodesk PLM 360 - August Update

Just a quick note to let you know that the August update of Autodesk PLM 360 was pushed out over this last weekend. Users of PLM 360 will see the new and updated features automatically within their tenant and will see a system notification when logging in today.....

If you're interested in seeing what was added within this months release, you can visit the Autodesk PLM 360 Wiki site which has more details on this months release, but also the monthly updates from January 2012 onwards....

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/PLM_360/enu/Help/Help/0002-What_s_N2

With PLM 360 being a cloud based solution, updates are automatically pushed without the need to download and configure service packs and hot fixes. The updates appear automatically within your tenant for you to choose to use if you wish.

If you want to add your own suggestions for PLM 360, you can do it via the Idea Exchange forum. It's a great way to take the ideas and suggestions you have for PLM 360 and share them directly with the Autodesk team responsible for developing the functionality and workflows:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-PLM-360-Idea-Exchange/idb-p/3

We're already seeing ideas suggested by users make their way into these regular monthly PLM 360 upates!

For more information about Autodesk PLM 360, visit - www.autodeskplm360.com

Augmented Reality for Showcase 2013 on Autodesk Labs

Visualize Showcase Models in the Real-World through your web cam!

Check this out at Autodesk Labs

My mind is spinning with the possibilities

Asset Chain Builder is now live in Factory Asset Warehouse

For users taking advantage of the benefits Factory Design Suite offers when generating layouts, an update to the Factory Asset Warehouse has now enabled the possibility to create Custom Chain Assets.

In four simple steps you can use the 'Build Asset Chain' tool to convert your Factory Asset Warehouse content to a chain item. Once completed this is now ready to use in AutoCAD as a chain asset, upon Inventor Sync this content will then generate and be layed out inside Inventor.

 

See the updated wiki help for more detail on this topic.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Factory_Design_Suite/enu/2013/Help/0000-Asset_Ch0

For those of you not lucky enough to use this product, one advantage when using Factory Design Suite is the simple way you can create a 2D layout in AutoCAD. This can then be synced into Inventor which generates the 3D representation. With 2013 this functionality was extended to include Chain Asset functionality, which effectively allows the user to define a polyline representation of a repeating asset such as a conveyor. When synced back to Inventor a repeating 3D connected assets will be placed.

Autodesk Inventor Fusion 2013 available from Mac App Store

Autodesk Inventor Fusion technology for 3D CAD modeling is now available for download in the Mac App Store for the first time. Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac takes advantage of new OS X Mountain Lion capabilities to help increase productivity and transform how designers share designs and receive feedback, whether in face-to-face meetings or participating in social communities.

From hobbyists working in their garages to professional designers of machinery, Autodesk Inventor Fusion lets designers freely explore complex shapes and forms, enabling rapid design changes with fewer limitations. Its intuitive 3D direct manipulation tools allow users to open and edit 3D models from almost any source and incorporate them into new or existing designs.

“Autodesk’s direct modeling technology changed the game in ease of use for 3D CAD design,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Design, Lifecycle and Simulation at Autodesk. “With Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac, we are excited to bring the same disruptive innovation to users of Apple’s newest OS X Mountain Lion.”

Available through the Mac App Store, Autodesk Inventor Fusion’s key features include:

• 2D Sketching – Start designs by using simple 2D sketch tools and control sketches with dimensions. Users can generate multiple shapes fast with 2D layouts.
• Direct Modeling – Users can more easily push, pull and edit to reach the final desired result. Direct modeling helps users focus on the design task and not on complex modeling commands and dialogs. Autodesk Inventor Fusion technology is a history-free 3D design tool.
• Assembly design – Assemblies that mimic the real world make positioning and moving the design fast and predictable. Designing in context provides users with information to help make better design decisions. Flexible assembly structure ensures that users can make changes at any time.
• Real-Time Visualisation – Beautiful 3D and fast real-time navigation make it easier to create and present designs.
• Cloud Storage – Store and share designs using Autodesk 360 collaboration service. Users can view designs on the go with Autodesk Viewers for iOS or WebGL-enabled browsers.

Autodesk Inventor Fusion technology for Mac was created with Apple’s latest OS X in mind and takes advantage of new features in Mountain Lion including:

• Notification Center – Autodesk Inventor Fusion technology for Mac works with Autodesk 360 cloud services and Mountain Lion’s Notification Center so that users can receive notifications when files are edited, updated and more.
• Sharing – Users can communicate more easily with colleagues, clients and friends to show off their designs or request feedback via iMessage, email and Twitter by using the Share button in Mountain Lion.
• AirPlay Mirroring – Users can take charge in meetings with clients and colleagues by sharing the designs on the big screen with AirPlay Mirroring in Mountain Lion.

Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac additionally helps users leverage their 3D CAD modeling in Full Screen to help maximize productivity and bring design to the forefront.

There's also created a Wiki Help Site for Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac, designed to help users more effectively collaborate, troubleshoot and take advantage of this Mac-compatible release. Users can add or edit Help information, while also sharing videos, best practices, tips and tricks, tutorials and more.

Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac is available as a free download, in English, in the Mac App Store. For more information and to download Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac, visit the Mac App Store.

Demir Ali joins Autodesk Technical Sales Team

Demir Ali has joined the Autodesk Northern Europe Technical Sales team to provide guidance, advice and expertise to engineers, designers & manufacturers across the UK & Ireland on their use of design, visualisation, simulation and data management technology.

Demir brings with him a great amount of industry knowledge and expertise; he has extensive experience of working with the Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions and working with manufacturers in various industries.

Demir joined Autodesk from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) where he worked in the Professional Graphics division for the last 2 years. During that time his main focus was Technical Pre and Post Sales - carrying out the activities required to support all levels of customer engagement from the initial meeting through to successful roll out and on-going relationship management. These engagements covered a wide spectrum of users, from city based financial institutions through to broadcast providers and Formula 1 teams.

Prior to Demir’s 2 years with AMD, he was part of the UK Autodesk channel working for the distribution team at Man & Machine where he provide pre and post-sales support to channel partners and customers on products such as Inventor, Showcase, Publisher and Vault Professional. His experience with Autodesk Inventor stretches back to 200? and whilst working with distribution he regularly presented at many end user & customer facing training events and conferences.

Demir is based in the UK, close to the Autodesk office in Farnborough and lives with his wife Maria and their two children. I asked Demir if he could share with us what he gets up to in his spare time, this is his response…..

“Well what do I enjoy doing…..changing nappies obviously, never ending DIY although this is more out of necessity rather than enjoyment, playing golf….although again the way I play it can’t really be called enjoyment. Mountain biking / cycling when I have 5 minutes and running…… although you wouldn’t be able to tell looking at my waist line! Oh and the odd Rugby match plus good food and wine; which actually does explain the waistline.”

I’ve managed to convince Demir to set up a Twitter account so you can now catch his 140 character updates via @deali12 and he will also be posting to this blog along with his colleagues from the Northern Europe Technical Sales team.

Great to have you on board Demir!

British Antarctic Survey uses Autodesk’s Digital Prototyping software

An ambitious British expedition to Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica is using Autodesk digital prototyping software to help discover new answers about the evolution of life and effects of climate change.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) engineers will transport equipment overland for three days to the sub-glacial lake, where they will use a hot water drill to melt a 2.2-mile hole in the ice covering the submerged lake to extract water samples. The team will have a very short window of 24 hours to gather their samples before the hole re-freezes.

This exploration of one of Antarctica’s subglacial lakes has been planned for 15 years, but the team lacked the right tools to adequately try and test their plan to ensure they could gather the samples they need in the timeframe allowed. Through the use of Autodesk’s digital prototyping and simulation technology for sustainable design; BAS engineers can create a digital model of the drill; simulate the conditions under which they will work; test and analyse their approach; and make necessary adjustments before they embark on their expedition.

“This is hot water drilling on a scale never achieved before,” said Andy Tait, the BAS engineer managing the design of the hot water drill. “Because everything will have to be done so quickly, it is vital that we create an accurate 3D model of the entire drilling operation and simulate its performance because there will be no room for error once we are out on the ice.”

As a participant in the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program, designed to help groundbreaking environmental projects such as this, BAS received Autodesk’s digital prototyping portfolio, including Autodesk Showcase, a visualisation tool, and Autodesk Inventor Publisher for technical documentation. Tait will use Autodesk Inventor Publisher to visually and interactively communicate how the drills and its components work to colleagues and partners. Andy also believes that Autodesk Showcase will be invaluable for developing stunning presentations and other visualisations to help explain the technology to wider audiences.

Autodesk Inventor automatically coordinates changes across the digital model, streamlining the analysis, experimentation and eventual optimisation of a design. This has been important to this project, not just because of because of need to carry out the operation within a tight timeframe, but also because of size, weight and strength parameters. The equipment must be transported over great distances and, therefore, needs to be strong, lightweight, and capable of withstanding extremely low temperatures.

“When our technology is being used to make this ambitious project successful, it gives me great confidence in the collective power of talented people working together to solve problems that otherwise could not be solved in isolation,” said Lynelle Cameron, Autodesk’s senior director of sustainability. “We’re delighted to be partnering with the BAS team on their unprecedented expedition.”

For more information about the project see www.ellsworth.org.uk

Is that a bottleneck in my process?

Have you ever had a debrief at the end of project or task within a project to determine where the bottlenecks\delays occurred? I've found myself on the end of questions like "why did we end up late?" and "where did the delay occur?" and had to respond with "leave it with me, I'll find out". And then the investigation begins.

For those of you who have had pleasure of seeing Autodesk PLM 360, you might well have seen the project management capabilities that allow you to track and manage your projects and data that is managed within PLM 360. But did you know you can also identify where delays occured?

The Project Management app provides you with a live view of where all the individual tasks\items within the project are up to, as they are moved along their process by the people managing that part of the project, the top level project automatically updates accordingly. You can also quickly and easily link through to view any of the data that is being tracked and managed within each of the project tasks (assuming you have the permissions to do so).

Each item\task within the Project Management Schedule is driven via Milestones which allow you to set the time frame and deadlines for each stage of the process. As a project manager you can set the date you need to reach each state within the workflow process. 

In the screen shot above, you can see that I've applied Milestones to a REACH Declaration to make sure that each stage of the process is reached (sorry, no pun intended) by a particular date. Each of the states listed relates to each of the states we have defined in the associated workflow process.

One of the key things for here is that even though we have successfully reached the first two milestones, they are still colour coded red and orange - the first one is red because we didn't reach the milestone before\on the date specified and the second one is orange because we were close to missing the milestone event.

So to get back to the question in the title of this post, you can use the colour coding within a projects milestones to determine where bottlenecks and delays occurred within a project item\task.

If you want to see the Project Management within Autodesk PLM 360 in action, have a watch of this video from our PLM 360 Wiki Help:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/PLM_360/enu/community/Videos/Project_Management_Application_Tutorial

Enjoy your weekend

New App - Autodesk Sketchbook Ink

Autodesk launched SketchBook Ink yesterday, enabling artists to create stunning, high-resolution ink-style artwork, and export and print large, high-quality images right from the iPad. The SketchBook Ink addition to the SketchBook family increases the number of choices available to artists to express their creative visions in a digital environment.

SketchBook Ink is dedicated to pen-and-ink drawing. The inking behavior gives it a distinct feel but builds on the intuitive and familiar interface valued by SketchBook users worldwide. Unlike traditional vector drawing apps, SketchBook Ink enables users to produce very fine detail in their artwork, independent of resolution, building on the intuitive freehand-drawing Autodesk SketchBook Pro platform.

 You can download SketchBook Ink from the Apple App Store on your mobile device or use the link below:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-ink/id526422908?mt=8

Autodesk 123d Catch for iPad

This week Autodesk announced that 123D Catch is now available for iPad on the App Store. This new free* app lets users take images from their iPad camera and upload them to the Autodesk cloud service that transforms the images into a 3D model.

Complementing the desktop and newly released online versions, the Autodesk 123D Catch app allows users to capture the world around them in 3D while on the go. Imagine the potential for photos of vacation memories, family or other mementos brought to life in 3D. Captures made in 123D Catch can also be used as the foundation for further 3D modeling, 3D animation, or used to create a 3D printed object.

Part of the 123D family of products, 123D Catch users can take advantage of a connected group of Autodesk software, fabrication services for 3D printing and laser cutting, and a community of like-minded individuals focused on 3D design and personal fabrication. The Autodesk 123D family provides users with the ability to capture, design and make their ideas, and connect with others for support or inspiration. Anyone can try Autodesk apps, services, and communities to experiment and experience the creative process.

Autodesk also introduced a new feature for 123D products called My Corner, which provides cloud storage for all 123D design projects while connecting 123D product workflows. This feature will enable users to share files between products—123D, 123D Catch, 123D Make, and 123D Sculpt— to explore their creative ideas, or even use that model to create a physical object through fabrication services. Users can also share their projects and explore other people’s creations from an online gallery that supplies an abundance of ideas for creative projects.

“The Autodesk family of 123D products breaks down barriers between the physical and digital, empowering users to customize the world around them,” said Samir Hanna, vice president, Consumer Products, Autodesk. “The launch of 123D Catch for iPad allows anyone to capture, explore, experiment and experience the 3D design and personal fabrication process.”

Autodesk 123D Catch app is exclusively available through the App Store for iPad at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/123d-catch/id513913018?ls=1&mt=8

New AutoCAD WS 1.4 for Apple iOS & Android

The latest AutoCAD® WS update is now available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, as well as Android mobile devices. Extending the power of AutoCAD software beyond the desktop, AutoCAD WS 1.4 brings a host of highly requested new features to the popular mobile app, including the ability to view 3D drawings, and GPS integration for orienting yourself within a drawing and saving comments to geo locations. AutoCAD WS 1.4 also enables you to quickly send designs as PDF or DWF files to any email address right from your mobile device, and supports remote plotting using any web-connected HP ePrinter.

If you already have AutoCAD WS installed on your mobile device, visit the application area on your device to download the update.

If you don't yest have AutoCAD WS on your mobile device, visit the Apple App Store or Android Market or use the links below:

Apple Devices: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autocad-ws/id393149734?mt=8

Android Devices: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.autodesk.autocadws&hl=en