P.U.M.A.: Personal Urban Mobility & Accesibility. This innovative experimental vehicle provides a fresh approach to personal mobility by expanding on the proven versatility of Segway’s existing transporters. Unlike the existing PT’s in Segway’s product line, the PUMA provides seating for two. Seating, being a key element as existing products are all operated while standing. The PUMA is a fully electric vehicle and exhibits the same manueverability and intuitive operation as Sagway’s signature products.
The PUMA is simply another exciting contribution to the all electric vehicle market that is currently unfolding in front of us. In this writers opinion, this announcement shows the dedication and belief in what can be and what is in store for all of us as consumers. We won’t all fit the mold for this type of vehicle but like concept vehicles they are painting a picture of the possibilities for the future.
Below you can see the experimental vehicle as well as the fully enclosed concept vehicle. Watch the video to see the PUMA in action.
Regardless of your opinion of the vehicle, you have to admit, it looks like fun!
It’s great even in the current tough economic times that we are still moving towards greener machines to move us around. CADmech is thrilled with the electric cars that are nearing the showrooms. Battery technology and cost is still one of the largest concerns about the success of the re-introduction of the electric car. One of the most exciting promises of new technology is in the works and we can’t wait to see it come to fruition. This technology of course is EESTOR and it will be a true game changer.
Read some of the latest news about Zenn and EESTOR recently covered in Canadian Business:
I hope we are getting closer to seeing all electric on the roads soon and at a price we can afford. I believe it is a very exciting time in the automotive world.
Enjoy the article. Hopefully you will be as excited as me about the future of electric vehicles.
Jason
With the constant news of “doom and gloom” as we tend to classify it here in the office, it’s great to see news like this for a change. With several very successful transit manufacturers in Canada, like New Flyer Bus, Daimler Bus North America (Orion), Nova bus and Bombardier, this should spell good news for these companies. Have a look at the summary published by the Community Transportation Association: http://web1.ctaa.org/webmodules/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=23&z=2
Have you ever wondered how your company could use its CAD data to gain a competitive advantage? Actually there are several ways that this could be achieved. One of them would be to start using 3D CAD based animations to communicate your ideas and knowledge. The best part of this is that when it comes to creating animations you are only limited by your imagination. Here are some real world examples of how several companies and their customers are benefiting from animations:
Animated computer simulations are being added to business proposals in order to show customers a preview of how a design solution would work
Many service manuals now include animations that demonstrate how to repair or do maintenance on a product
Plant floor computers have animations that instruct production teams on how to assemble a product
Web based animations that demonstrate how to use a product are being created for customers
Animations of kinematic motion are used to help engineers improve their designs
FEA software can create animations that show stresses and deflections of a product under different scenarios
Animations of automation equipment are created to analyze how conveyors, pallets and other mechanisms move and work together
Animations are now required by marketing teams to present a new product or idea to customers
You probably have heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. If a still shot holds a thousand words imagine the impact that motion can bring to an image. Considering that many individuals prefer to visualize sequences or instructions rather than reading a long description instead. Also, imagine what would happen if all your competitors handed in paper proposals but you submitted proposals that were enhanced with 3D animations of your conceptual designs. Certainly this is one way that animations can provide you with a competitive advantage over your competitors.
Below is an excellent example of an animation from Teknion Furniture. This animation communicates their design concept perfectly. Images and words in a brochure are useful; however, they alone would not have been able to fully capture the ideas behind this design. At least not as quickly and with the same clarity as an animation can. In conclusion, animations not only enhance the work you do, they also allow others to visualize your knowledge and ideas resulting in a strong competitive advantage to your company.
Have you ever stopped and wondered about all the different ways that your CAD data is being used throughout your organization? There are many reasons why this is an important question. Looking for answers could yield some interesting results and empower you with valuable knowledge about your organization. If you are not sure how to begin your quest, start by asking yourself these questions:
Is your CAD data being used strictly for product development purposes or are there other groups such as marketing who use it?
Do the service manuals and manufacturing documents in your organization reuse your original CAD data for their technical illustrations or are these illustrations being completely redrawn by someone else?
Have you used your CAD data to create 3D animations of assembly instructions for your product?
Are you using 3D animations of your product to enhance your business proposals and to communicate ideas to your customers?
Do your product catalogues contain CAD data?
Are you already sending CAD files to some of your customers?
Are there potential customers who would like to see 3D images of your products on your website?
Finally, is your marketing team benefiting from CAD based renderings of your products?
These questions show us that CAD data isn’t just for product development. Certainly, product development teams everywhere benefit from using CAD data, but did you know that sharing and reusing CAD data particularly 3D data can be of great benefit to an entire organization? A good example is technical illustrations of products. Technical illustrations are used in product documentation such as service manuals and assembly instructions. Many times these illustrations are hand drawn or completely redrawn using software like Adobe Illustrator. But why redraw everything when you have already have CAD models of your product readily available? Think of the time your organization could save if you somehow reused your CAD models when creating technical illustrations. Especially when you consider that nowadays you can link your CAD files to technical illustration files in such a way that if there is a change in the CAD design data the technical illustration will update automatically. Compare this to a hand drawn technical illustration that would need to be completely redrawn if there is a change in the CAD design data.
Below is an example of a high quality technical illustration that was created with documentation software that reuses the original CAD data. Note that reusing the CAD data allowed us to create this technical illustration very quickly in approximately a couple of minutes. Consider that redrawing this technical illustration would have taken a couple hours to complete.
Here is another interesting fact: a customer once told us that they now have more computers in their plant floor than in their office. While this might be surprising to some, the truth is that computers have become indispensable in the plant floor. In fact, computers have given production teams access to e-mail, MRP software, and even electronic product documentation. Interestingly enough, this same customer told us that there is an ever-growing demand by production teams to see product documentation in lightweight electronic 3D formats that include animations, such as: eDrawings or 3D PDF.
Click here for a 3D PDF document that was created using the original CAD data. Try clicking the different views and then rotate the model. Now imagine your production team using documents like this one in addition to paper copies, or even some day replacing paper copies altogether. Below is an example of an animation of a car owner’s manual, yet another way of leveraging CAD data.
In conclusion, your company’s CAD data can be reused to reduce the time it takes to create product documentation and at the same time enhance the quality of your production documents. Your company has probably made significant investments in time and money on software, hardware and designers to create your CAD data. It only makes sense to get the most value from it and to discover the hidden potential that your CAD data has to offer.For more information please contact us here.
CADmech recently traveled to San Diego to participate in the American Public Transit Association (APTA) Expo held on October 2nd thru the 5th 2008. The show is held every three years and is the industries premiere event. Every major bus manufacturer in North America was there to display their latest creations. As well, many equipment suppliers to these OEM’s were there in order to display their own contributions to this demanding industry.
As you might expect, the theme was definitely “Green” and many of the newest hybrid vehicles were displayed, some for the first time. This included New Flyer’s release of its latest low floor bus, the Xcelsior.
The Xcelsior is a 40-foot diesel-electric vehicle and employs the latest developments in technology including ISE’s energy storage module (seen above on a NABI bus).The hybrid module uses equipment from Siemens and high-density ultracapacitors from Maxwell Technologies. The exterior of the bus continues to challenge industry norms with its flush mounted windows, streamlined lines and industry’s only LED headlights.
Orion displayed several of their latest products including the 60 foot Daimler branded bus. Their 40-foot hybrid electric low floor bus was also on display and uses BAE’s hybrid electric technology. This is the same bus you can see on the streets of Toronto.
The Proterra, an independent government funded project, was on display and consists of a fully carbon fibre body design driven by a fuel cell hybrid electric powertrain. Looks like carbon isn’t just for racecars anymore. That’s a lot of carbon!
Other interesting firsts included a bus presented by BCI, which was designed and manufactured in China. Of course this bus won’t meet the stringent “buy America” content rules but does boast to have the highest safety testing results in the industry according to one BCI spokesperson.
Keeping the chill in the air, many HVAC suppliers had their own products on display. We definitely witnessed the push for roof top mounted A/C units. The most common in this industry including Carrier and Thermo King were there but we were pleased to see the local favourite, MCC with their latest unit. Pegged to be one of the lowest profile units in its class, this roof top HVAC system has a unique fresh air intake path and a patent pending pressure relief design to ensure the pressure in the bus stay’s equalized. This means the fresh air can keep pumping without the risk of occupants becoming uncomfortable due to an increased pressure within the bus.
Another unique approach to changing the norms in the industry came thru a collaborative project including the City of Santa Monica and the Art Center College of Design with their project called the Bus of the Future. This was a unique approach to defining what a bus in the year 2050 should look like in the hopes of increasing rider-ship. For more information on the Bus of the Future and to see more of their ideas like Positive Emissions and exterior TiOx grills that break down ozone into oxygen, click here.
CADmech was very pleased with the information that was available at the show and proud to support our many clients that had products on display there. As in the automotive industry with vehicle introductions like GM’s Volt, we see the huge push towards greener technologies. Hopefully in three years time we will see a greater development in battery technology and witness as many fully electric vehicles on display at APTA Expo 2011 as compared to the hybrids we saw in 2008.
If anyone would like more information about APTA 2008, please do not hesitate to contact me. For a video overview of APTA 2008 see the short movie below.
Last Tuesday, Javelin Technologies held a SolidWorks 2009 Launch Event at the Colossus Movie Theatre in Vaughn. This was a unique opportunity to see SolidWorks 2009 in the big screen and also to connect with other SolidWorks users. Just before the show began the audience was treated to popcorn and pop, courtesy of Javelin. Alex Arevalo and Jeremy Jobin, both from Javelin Technologies, hosted the presentation. The presentation was divided into two halves. The first half covered SolidWorks enhancements, and the second half covered enhancements to SolidWorks Simulation (formerly known as COSMOSWorks).
SolidWorks Enhancements
Alex began by showing us some new functionality in SolidWorks Sketches. One of my favourites is the Stretch Entities command, which allows you to stretch multiple sketch entities as a single group, rather having to modifying one entity at a time. Another helpful enhancement is that you can now specify zero and negative values for sketch dimensions. The audience was also delighted when Alex showed us new commands to automatically create straight and curved slots.
There are also significant improvements to the graphical user interface in SolidWorks 2009, such as dual monitor support. What exactly does this mean? Basically, it means that the Task Pane, the Property Tab and the Command Manager are now, all dockable. So, for instance you can have SolidWorks maximized in one monitor and have the Task Pane docked in the second monitor, thereby saving on screen real estate. Also, a magnifying glass tool has been added, that allows you to make selections without changing the overall view. This is particularly helpful for adding mates to small parts, since you no longer have to be zooming in and out while selecting the faces to mate.
There are also many enhancements to assemblies in SolidWorks 2009. SpeedPack allows you improve assembly performance by creating a simplified representation of an assembly. This is very useful if you need to mate large subassemblies together, but only need to mate a couple faces (i.e. you don’t need all the faces loaded into memory). With SpeedPack you get to select the faces that will be included in operations such as creating mates, thereby decreasing memory usage. Note that SpeedPack simplifies without suppressing. In other words, it does not lose references. Alex asked the audience, “How many times has someone asked you for a BOM of your assembly, and you did not have a drawing and had to create a drawing just because you needed a BOM?”. Well now in SolidWorks 2009 you can create BOM’s and Balloons right in the assembly, and thereby save time.
Here is a performance improvement to SolidWorks 2009 drawings that really impressed the audience: you can now select which drawing sheets you want to load. This is particularly helpful when you want to open a drawing that has many sheets, but you don’t need to load all the sheets at once (e.g. you are only going to work on one or two drawing sheets). This greatly reduces file open times of large assembly drawings.
Another crowd pleaser was the Convert to Sheet Metal command, which allows you to convert a solid block-like part that has not been shelled into a sheet metal part. This is very helpful for converting a simple conceptual design into a sheet metal part; and it is also very useful for converting imported geometry into sheet metal as well. Below is a video that demonstrates this new functionality.
Weldments have been greatly improved in SolidWorks 2009. For example, you can now simultaneously add end caps to multiple faces; while, previously you could only create one end cap at a time (i.e. each cap had to be a separate feature). Also, SolidWorks 2009 allows you to group different segments together into one structural member, thereby automatically trimming them. Previous versions could not group segments, which resulted in more structural member features being created and more manual trimming operations by the user. And finally, an option to automatically add chamfers to gussets has been added as well. For more information, here is an excellent article on SolidWorks 2009 Weldments by Ricky Jordan.
PhotoView 360, which is new in SolidWorks 2009, was created for users who would like to do quick renderings, but do not have the time to learn PhotoWorks. PhotoView has a very simple to use interface, renders very quickly and can create some very realistic renderings. Alex showed us that PhotoView also allows you to multitask, since you can still be working on a scene while it renders in the background. Just to clarify SolidWorks 2009 has two rendering tools: PhotoView 360 and PhotoWorks. So, should you be using PhotoView 360 or PhotoWorks? That depends on your needs. If you require something that is very easy to learn and do not have much time, the choice is PhotoView 360. However, PhotoWorks is a more mature product with more functionality (e.g. PhotoWorks has decals, and PhotoView 360 does not) and would be our choice for challenging rendering projects. Here is a great comparison of PhotoView 360 and PhotoWorks by Rob Rodriguez.
Simulation Enhancements
After the presentation on SolidWorks enhancements we all took a break to talk to other customers and the folks from Javelin. Javelin treated the audience to more popcorn and pop as well as tokens for the arcade at the Colossus theatre.
After the break, Alex and Jeremy covered enhancements to SolidWorks Simulation (formerly known as COSMOSWorks). Here is a list of some of these improvements:
·The new sensors tool warns you if your model has reached a certain limit such as a maximum allowable length, mass, or displacement.
·There are new tabs available for Simulation and Motion studies.
·After running a study you can save the deformed geometry into a new model or configuration (e.g. you can create a deformed configuration for a press fit).
·There is now an Exclude from Analysis option that allows you to exclude certain components from an assembly study without having to suppress them.
·SolidWorks weldments are now automatically recognized as Beam Elements.
·Mesh selection is now automatic (e.g. sheet metal is meshed as shell elements).
·A Compare Results tool has been added to help users compare different studies.
We were very pleased with the presentation and with all the enhancements. It was a pleasure to meet other SolidWorks users, as well. We are looking forward to using SolidWorks 2009 along with SolidWorks Simulation. For more information on What’s New in SolidWorks 2009 please look at this PDF. Finally, a big thanks to Javelin for putting together a good show.
A very informative Central Canada Regional Users Group (CCRUG) Conference was held last Thursday at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.In case you were not aware, the CCRUG is a volunteer organization that serves the common needs of users of Siemens PLM Software in Central Canada. The conference began with a corporate update by Terry Bergin, the Director of Sales at Siemens PLM Software. The update was then followed by several presentations. The presentations were organized into three streams: A NX track, a SolidEdge / Velocity track, and a Teamcenter / Simulation track. In this post we shall focus on three presentations from the NX track: Synchronous Technology in NX6, What’s New in NX 6, and NX6 Process Automation. Robin Spick an application specialist with Siemens PLM Software in Canada was the presenter. Robin did an outstanding job in all three presentations.
1) Synchronous Technology in NX6
A few years ago, History based modeling revolutionized the CAD industry. For the first time users were able to capture the design intent of a product and make rapid changes to their designs. However, as good as it is, History based modeling does have limitations. For example, there is no simple way to handle multi-CAD data, since generally imported CAD data is made up of dumb solids that cannot be easily modified. Also, an unplanned change can require the editing of several features and can be time consuming to the point that some customers end up remodeling entire parts. And finally, it can be quite difficult and time consuming to make changes to models created by other users, especially if they did not do a good job of capturing the design intent. Synchronous Technology (ST) was developed to address these limitations by bridging History based modeling with History free modeling.
It is important to note that you can still do History based modeling in NX6 if you wish. Basically, there are now two modes: History mode and History free mode (or Synchronous mode). You can switch back and forth between the two modes by simply clicking the right mouse button.
An important feature of ST is its powerful selection tools that allow you to quickly and easily collect the geometry you need to use. For example, you can select a group of faces that are coplanar and simply drag them to move their location. Robin also showed us an example where all the holes in an imported model were selected simply with a window select and then deleted. All of this would have taken much longer in previous versions of NX.
A very exciting feature of ST is its ability to work with multi-CAD data. Robin selected several slots in an imported model and was able to rotate them very quickly. In another example, Robin was able to cut and paste a mounting boss from an imported Pro/E model into an NX model using simply drag and drop. These are things that previously would have been extremely time consuming.
Also exciting is the way that driving dimensions can be added to any face and then one can modify the model’s geometry by changing these dimensions. This means that you do not need to know how a model was designed in order to change it. And it also means that you can add driving dimensions to an imported model and hence modify it very easily.
Next Robin showed us some of the major changes to the interface in NX6. There is now a full screen mode, which includes a toolbar manager that can be docked anywhere in the screen. Also, one can now scroll through icons, this saves on the amount of screen real estate required. In addition to this there is now a command filter that allows users to quickly find a command and then use it right away. Another enhancement is True Shading: a new functionality that allows all NX6 users to do simple renders.
NX6 will introduce the NX Relations Browser, which displays a visual diagram of all the relations and wave links in a part or an assembly. This is something that many users can benefit from. Other enhancements include: Geolus (a geometry search engine), a fully customizable hole wizard, as well as design study and optimization tools.
Of course ST is the single biggest enhancement to NX6. There are also many other enhancements to NX6 that we were not able to cover due to time constraints. Here is a link to some of these enhancements.
3) NX6 Process Automation
Have you ever wanted to automate your designs without programming? If this is the case you might want to look into Product Template Studio (PTS).
Robin mentioned an interesting statistic that 60 to 80 percent of parts are recreated from other parts. What PTS allows you to do is to make any part a template that can later be used to generate new parts. These templates capture design rules and have a graphical interface where a user can easily enter design inputs, this way a non-CAD user can easily create a new part. What if someone enters a design input that is invalid? PTS has validation and checking tools that warn the user if a design input they entered is not valid (e.g. a hole is too big for a boss).
The best part is that the design rules are embedded into the template, so if you e-mail a PTS template to another user, they will be able to use it right away. Note that with some other Process Automation products you would need to e-mail a database as well as the template. Note that there is a PTS author license for creating templates and a PTS user license.
Finally, Robin wrapped up by saying that thanks to ST users will be able to use PTS on imported models. This is something that many customers will find very helpful. Below is a demo of PTS from YouTube.
In conclusion, these were very interesting and helpful demonstrations. Even outside of these presentations there was much talk of ST at the conference. In another presentation Cory Goulden from National Steelcar described how ST is helping them reduce their CAD rework. We also heard Marc Lafontaine from Maya Simulation describe how ST can help analysts modify geometry very quickly without having to spend time trying to understand how the model was built. Note that that what Cory and Marc described are common challenges in CAD. ST was created to help customers with these challenges.
Thank you, to CCRUG for a very informative conference.
In a recent project we had the pleasure of working with Cancoil Thermal in a very interesting Design Automation project. Cancoil is one of the fastest growing manufacturers of commercial refrigeration products in North America. The team at Cancoil prides itself in its ability to design and manufacture products specific to its customers needs. In this project we helped Cancoil Thermal reduce the product development times of their finned tube coils by automating key areas of their design process. Here are some interesting notes about this project.
The project began with a customer’s needs analysis. This is a very important step that is done to gain an understanding of the customer’s business. Interviews were held with Cancoil’s team members in order to identify their requirements and to outline their design process. In addition to this, some of Cancoil’s previous designs were reviewed in detail. The needs analysis was instrumental in helping us develop a design automation solution as well as a comprehensive implementation plan.
Here is a list of Cancoil’s requirements:
·Consistent and repeatable design approach by all designers
·Solution must capture design rules and generate new designs
·Solution must be implemented in a relatively short period of time
Three (3) possible solutions were considered to automate the design process:
1. To create a custom VB.Net program that uses the SolidWorks API
2. To create an Excel Design Table in SolidWorks
3. To develop a rules-based solution using DriveWorksXpress
Option 1 was discarded since the customer wanted to avoid the additional costs and maintenance that come with a customized programming solution. Option 2 was also discarded since Design Tables are used to create new configurations and the customer needed to create new independent models for each new design. We chose Option 3 since it met all of the customer’s requirements (e.g. it did not require additional software and did not require programming). In addition to this DriveWorksXpress gave the customer an upgrade path (i.e. they could in the future upgrade to the full version of DriveWorks for additional automation and functionality).
The next step was to develop the new design process. During the interviews we found out that the design of the End Plates followed very clear rules. This prompted us to decide to use DriveWorksXpress to automate the design of the End Plates. We then decided to use standard SolidWorks tools to semi-automate the design of the tubing and other components, since they had rules that required more flexibility. The following new design process was completed:
1. Create a new Coil assembly
2. Generate new End Plate design using DriveWorksXpress
3. Add Library components such as tubing using SolidWorks Smart Mates to the Coil assembly
4. Create Header Subassembly using the Library
5. Generate Manufacturing drawings
Here is a flow diagram of the process:
Once the process was developed the next step was to test it in order to ensure that the new designs were generated quickly and accurately. To do this we re-engineered several existing designs to see how much faster we could generate them with the new process and also to ensure that there were no errors. All of our tests showed that the new process was not only faster but that it greatly reduced the chances of making mistakes.
After the testing was concluded the new process was officially implemented at Cancoil. This new automated design process resulted in several benefits to Cancoil such as:
·Design tasks that previously were very time consuming are now streamlined via a Rules-Based System (e.g. the End Plate Design)
·Designers can quickly generate and release Manufacturing Drawings for production
·Previously the design process took 2 days; now with the Design Automation Solution it takes 4 hours to complete a design. A 75% reduction in time.
To see how your company could also benefit from design automation please feel free to contact us.
