SW World 2006 Day 2 a.m.

Day 2 started out with the general session. A few of the highlights
are that this years attendance is just above 3700!!!! The suprise
guest of the session were the guys from Mythbusters. They discussed
how they are using Solidworks and Cosmosworks in their projects. They
had with them a model rocket that was fueled by a salami!

We also got to see a new product that will be available soon. It is a
$2500 3D scanner that can scan an object, and create a model tight
inside of Solidworks.

We were also treated to a taste of SW2007. They introduced a new tool
named SWIFT. It stands for SolidWorks Intelligent Feature Tool. It is
basically an expansion to the whats wrong dialog box, except there is
now an additional button that when pressed, will try to solve the error
for you. The showed several fillett problems where the SWIFT was able
to reorder features in the tree in order to make the filletts work.
They also showed how trying to add draft to a surface that has a
fillett can produce an error. Once in the whats wrong dialog box, the
SWIFT was again able to reorder the features to make the draft work.

The last hint of new features was movable surfaces where you click on a
surface, and can grab handles to change the shape of the surface.

Also was the announcement that CosmosMotion will now be included with
Solidworks Office Premium. A future service pack to 2006 will also add
CosmosMotion to current premium users.

The feature that got the most response from everyone was the
announcement that with SW2007, file size will be 50% smaller.

The rest of the new feature will be previewed on wed morning.

Im off to the afternoon sessions, including the user group summit.

 

Thanks for posting these reports, it's nice to gain some insight.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

Yes,


Thanks for the trip reports. They are much appreciated for those of us
who can't go.......:-(

KM

 

The 3D scanner system was shown by next engine. They are located in
santa monica california. Here is the link:

https://www.nextengine.com/indexSecure.htm

Looks pretty cool

 

They really didnt cover how it ends up in solidworks in detail. It
looks to be a very usefull reverse engineering tool though.

 

Mike,

Great reports. I could not make it this year but your reports are the next
best thing. I know it's hard to keep up the reporting (I did it last year)
but try your best.

Best wishes...

 

This from Nextengine's website from the PDF on their scanner.
https://www.nextengine.com/

"Powerful new tools inside SolidWorks 2007 ® release (Summer '06)
let you work with point cloud and meshed input data to create your
finished product design."

Looks like 2007 may add some Point cloud abilities.

 

We talked to them a bit on Wednesday. They are generating a tessellated
surface, so it is still up to the user to build a SolidWorks surface over
the scaffold. That may change in SW2007.

The surface they generate is very clean. Stitching the surfaces together
seems to be pretty easy. Accuracy depends on how far from the object you
place the scanner. I think it was about +/-.005" on a mouse size object, so
roughly 0.1%. It looks very promising.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

The price tag will actually be a bit higher. You have to have SW Office
Premium which I think means all the FEA stuff as well. If you have it
fine. Otherwise get out the wallet.

 

Yawn.... VX has had this build in for years.

Not one report from SaladWorks World on this:

http://www.kubotekusa.com/news/press_releases/011906.asp


"CAD USERS GET FLEXIBLE MULTICAD MODEL REPAIR AND EDITING ENVIRONMENT

Marlborough, MA - January 19, 2006 - Kubotek® USA today introduced
REALyze™, an integrated set of software tools developed to help
engineers and designers understand and edit "dumb" geometry. Kubotek is
bringing this product to market to help CAD/CAM professionals share
imported models between disparate CAD systems in an effort to
streamline the design and manufacturing process. REALyze has been
developed to complement and coexist with popular CAD platforms.

"Interoperability is one of the CAD industry's most challenging
problems to solve," said Robert Bean, chief operating officer,
Kubotek USA. "Even though the industry has been working on this
problem for decades, and standards for sharing files already exist,
product models still contain layers of data that are very hard to
decipher. Unique and proprietary CAD formats complicate the problem
while global supply chains make it one of the more pressing issues to
solve."

Engineers and designers need to be able to access and edit any file,
regardless of its origin. Time-to-market pressures are constant and
there is no time to waste. REALyze provides a dynamic environment in
which designers and engineers, when confronted with a model in an
unfamiliar format, can access the model's geometry in order to work
with the file and avoid having to recreate work previously done.
REALyze allows designers to shortcut overall time to market.

CAD interoperability has been documented as a major issue in the
manufacturing sector. Kubotek's recent industry surveys have shown that
more than 75 percent of survey respondents receive fewer than half of
external CAD models in a preferred format. Fifty percent of respondents
stated the need to use three or more CAD tools per month. The cost of
maintaining multiple systems - software upgrades, training, and
maintenance fees - continues to rise.

Kubotek Architecture Facilitates Real World Usage

REALyze takes advantage of the rich interoperability foundation
developed for Kubotek's flagship KeyCreator software. This allows
REALyze to recognize geometric entities across proprietary formats,
providing the basis for the product's advanced translation and repair
capabilities. At its core, REALyze has the ability to perform geometric
search and pattern and feature discovery.

Kubotek's REAL architecture enables the REALyze toolset to work
seamlessly for repair and reuse of geometry. REALyze includes:

The industry's most powerful and comprehensive translators Fully
automated and manual repair, discovery and verification, plus newly
added covering (n-sided fill) techniques for local model repair An
intuitive and completely free-form approach to changing imported models
and dumb geometry for downstream reuse. The REAL architecture powers
REALyze with the three essential elements necessary to fix models
without recreating or attempting to translate a file's entire history
tree - translation, healing and editing capabilities. This is an
important distinction for designers and engineers when time is of the
essence. REALyze provides an environment where CAD/CAM users have the
tools that work in concert to tackle the complexities of the
interoperability, repair, and reuse process.

Dumb Files Aren't Dumb

As CAD systems have matured, more and more intelligence is being
embedded in the file. This intelligence includes design intent,
proprietary data definitions, unique formats, and history trees. Unlike
parametric software, Kubotek technology doesn't put intelligence into
the file. Instead the intelligence is in a tool that can discover
features and patterns hidden in the geometry. Other translation tools
experience limitations since they try to translate only the dumb
"B-rep" (boundary representation) data or attempt to decipher the
history tree.

"Even dumb geometry has a certain amount of inherent intelligence,"
stated Ken Versprille, Ph.D., PLM research director, CPD Associates,
LLC. "In the industry's rush to parametric-based modeling techniques,
it overlooked possible advances in recognizing the pure core
intelligence in explicit geometry. By exploiting the growing computing
power now available to users, Kubotek has uncovered a way for users to
get deeper into the heart of a model and make it more usable."

Availability

REALyze will be licensed as a single seat or enterprise concurrent use
license. The product begins shipping on February 15, 2006. Kubotek will
demonstrate REALyze at SolidWorks World next week. (Booth #102)"

jon

"I may have many faults, but being wrong ain't one of them." ... Jimmy
Hoffa

 

<snicker>

 

I guess clueless had reading comprehension issues yet again <G>.

 

I think banquer could best be described as "a dumb solid"

Yawn.... VX has had this build in for years.

Not one report from SaladWorks World on this:

http://www.kubotekusa.com/news/press_releases/011906.asp


"CAD USERS GET FLEXIBLE MULTICAD MODEL REPAIR AND EDITING ENVIRONMENT

Marlborough, MA - January 19, 2006 - Kubotek® USA today introduced
REALyzeT, an integrated set of software tools developed to help
engineers and designers understand and edit "dumb" geometry. Kubotek is
bringing this product to market to help CAD/CAM professionals share
imported models between disparate CAD systems in an effort to
streamline the design and manufacturing process. REALyze has been
developed to complement and coexist with popular CAD platforms.

"Interoperability is one of the CAD industry's most challenging
problems to solve," said Robert Bean, chief operating officer,
Kubotek USA. "Even though the industry has been working on this
problem for decades, and standards for sharing files already exist,
product models still contain layers of data that are very hard to
decipher. Unique and proprietary CAD formats complicate the problem
while global supply chains make it one of the more pressing issues to
solve."

Engineers and designers need to be able to access and edit any file,
regardless of its origin. Time-to-market pressures are constant and
there is no time to waste. REALyze provides a dynamic environment in
which designers and engineers, when confronted with a model in an
unfamiliar format, can access the model's geometry in order to work
with the file and avoid having to recreate work previously done.
REALyze allows designers to shortcut overall time to market.

CAD interoperability has been documented as a major issue in the
manufacturing sector. Kubotek's recent industry surveys have shown that
more than 75 percent of survey respondents receive fewer than half of
external CAD models in a preferred format. Fifty percent of respondents
stated the need to use three or more CAD tools per month. The cost of
maintaining multiple systems - software upgrades, training, and
maintenance fees - continues to rise.

Kubotek Architecture Facilitates Real World Usage

REALyze takes advantage of the rich interoperability foundation
developed for Kubotek's flagship KeyCreator software. This allows
REALyze to recognize geometric entities across proprietary formats,
providing the basis for the product's advanced translation and repair
capabilities. At its core, REALyze has the ability to perform geometric
search and pattern and feature discovery.

Kubotek's REAL architecture enables the REALyze toolset to work
seamlessly for repair and reuse of geometry. REALyze includes:

The industry's most powerful and comprehensive translators Fully
automated and manual repair, discovery and verification, plus newly
added covering (n-sided fill) techniques for local model repair An
intuitive and completely free-form approach to changing imported models
and dumb geometry for downstream reuse. The REAL architecture powers
REALyze with the three essential elements necessary to fix models
without recreating or attempting to translate a file's entire history
tree - translation, healing and editing capabilities. This is an
important distinction for designers and engineers when time is of the
essence. REALyze provides an environment where CAD/CAM users have the
tools that work in concert to tackle the complexities of the
interoperability, repair, and reuse process.

Dumb Files Aren't Dumb

As CAD systems have matured, more and more intelligence is being
embedded in the file. This intelligence includes design intent,
proprietary data definitions, unique formats, and history trees. Unlike
parametric software, Kubotek technology doesn't put intelligence into
the file. Instead the intelligence is in a tool that can discover
features and patterns hidden in the geometry. Other translation tools
experience limitations since they try to translate only the dumb
"B-rep" (boundary representation) data or attempt to decipher the
history tree.

"Even dumb geometry has a certain amount of inherent intelligence,"
stated Ken Versprille, Ph.D., PLM research director, CPD Associates,
LLC. "In the industry's rush to parametric-based modeling techniques,
it overlooked possible advances in recognizing the pure core
intelligence in explicit geometry. By exploiting the growing computing
power now available to users, Kubotek has uncovered a way for users to
get deeper into the heart of a model and make it more usable."

Availability

REALyze will be licensed as a single seat or enterprise concurrent use
license. The product begins shipping on February 15, 2006. Kubotek will
demonstrate REALyze at SolidWorks World next week. (Booth #102)"

jon

"I may have many faults, but being wrong ain't one of them." ... Jimmy
Hoffa