Ken Grundey's Blog

Solid Edge ST4 “Student Edition”… FREE!

2011-09-02T15:06:00.001-05:00

A few days ago Siemens PLM introduced a student edition of Solid Edge ST4 for free (http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/forms/solid-edge-student.cfm).

The student edition is the full commercial version with only 2 restrictions:

Any file saved in the student edition cannot be opened in the commercial editions.
All drawings will have a printing watermark across them stating that it is in a student edition.

After you install it, there are quite a few learning aides that can be found under the Help menu and there is also a student forum available as well (instructions when you sign up for a copy).

Happy Edgeing!

Solid Edge ST4 Launch Event (aka “The Solid Edge Summit”)

2011-06-16T21:32:00.001-05:00

Six years ago, the last Solid Edge Summit was held in Cincinnati Ohio. It was a wildly successful event. The following year, someone made the decision to roll Solid Edge into the PLM World event and dissolve the Summit. Needless to say it was a very bad decision as the attendance dwindled over the next 5 years to essentially a handful of individuals which most likely happened due to a variety of reasons such as the poorly handled transition, higher cost for less value, a weakening economy, and a loss of the Solid Edge identity and community at an event that appeared to cater to NX/Teamcenter.

This year, the Solid Edge Summit was back! Disguised as a Solid Edge ST4 Launch Event, it was essentially a 2 day user conference (June 15-16) held in Huntsville, Alabama which happens to be home of the Solid Edge Development office. Needless to say, we as users have gotten to meet many of the development, certification, support, planning, marketing and the management team. The agenda included a half day comprised of a business update, keynote presentation, and ST4 Introduction, followed by a day and a half of a 3 track agenda of presentations, hands on training and round table discussions. The night before the event there was a welcome reception, and at the end of the first day, we all let our hair down at a social event held in a local arcade/bowling alley/bar & grill.

Besides the obvious training opportunity, one of the biggest advantages of going to these types of events is the building of “community”. At the Solid Edge ST4 Launch Event, that community was building fast. Everywhere you looked, you would see Solid Edge folks. Sit down at breakfast or lunch, and you were sitting with Solid Edge folks. At the social events, you were talking with Solid Edge folks. A lot of folks knew each other from the newsgroup or phone calls/e-mails, but there is something about meeting folks face to face that cannot be duplicated any other way.

Everybody was very positive about this event and I’m certain they are already looking forward to next years event as much as I am. For those who were not able to attend this event, I sure hope you can make the next one.

Of Clouds and the PS3

2011-05-14T11:37:00.001-05:00

No doubt you’ve heard of the cloud. It’s this nebulous new “old” thing that excites people both positively and negatively. In the realm of CAD, it has been the subject of much controversy. A few folks have mentioned that if CAD looked to the advances in gaming over the past few years, a cloud based CAD system could work really well. Others point out you are increasing your failure risk as you are involving a whole host of new dependencies to make it work. Technical feasibility is one thing, practicality is totally another.

I’d like to point out a recent example based on gaming and the cloud that really exemplifies the risk of this potential new frontier in CAD… The PlayStation Network! The PlayStation Network (PSN) is a cloud ran by Sony that allows PlayStation gaming consoles to connect to online gaming, stores, and other services. On April 20th, Sony pulled the plug on the PSN due to a security breach by some hackers. The hackers also made off with tons of personal account information. Sony has not restored service as of May 14th as I’m writing this. What’s better yet, evidence suggests that the hackers rented time on Amazon’s cloud servers to perform the breach. I’m pretty patient on such things, after all I’m not paying for access to the PSN, but I do pay for Netflix on-line video streaming through my PS3 that is no longer working and I also have a couple hundred dollars in games of which are useless with out the PSN.

I guess the moral of this story is this: While CAD on the cloud may be technically feasible and can provide some tangible benefits, is it practical for you to go without your CAD system for a month or better when they system is down due to a breach or other unforeseen issue? Is the gaming industry a shining example?

My answer, and I’m guessing yours as well is: “HELL NO!”.

Solid Edge ST4 Global Launch Event

2011-04-08T09:42:00.001-05:00

For those who may not have heard, Siemens PLM is hosting an Solid Edge specific user conference June 15th-16th in Huntsville, Alabama. (https://www.seeuthere.com/rsvp/invitation/invitation.asp?id=/m1312dbb-43068LPQEN9MJ)

The event will not only show what’s new with ST4 and how to use it, but will also feature productivity sessions to help you get more done faster with current functionality. The other key aspect of this event is it is in the Solid Edge Development office’s backyard (not literally, it’s in a local hotels convention center), so you won’t be learning from an Application Engineer who took a training class and is trying to pass on information second hand. You will be learning directly from the Product Managers who wrote the specs for the software… from the horses mouth so to speak :) The agenda shows the typical morning keynote and large group welcome and introduction items the first half of day one, but the second half of day one and all of day two are comprised of three tracks of items with one of them being “hands on” sessions, so there will definitely be something for everyone throughout. https://www.seeuthere.com/ui/18/182678/TheSolidEdgeST4GlobalLaunchEventGuide022711.pdf

Aside from the structured agenda, the evening before the conference and the evening of the first day, there will be plenty of time to meet fellow users and Siemens staff and discuss whatever you like. You will also have time at breakfast & lunch to do the same, but we all know how breakfast is for most of us who are dependent on caffeine :)

I Hope to see you all there! Conference cost is $250 through April 22nd, and $350 thereafter.

Ken

Solid Edge ST3 Revealed!

2010-10-13T11:35:00.001-05:00

So Solid Edge ST3 has been revealed today. Between all the “professional” bloggers out there, it has been dissected quite a bit, so I’m not going to attempt it. Instead, here is a list of links at which you can find out information:

Official Siemen's site on ST3 - http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/solidedge-st3/index.shtml

Post one of Deelip's 11 part Post - http://www.deelip.com/?p=3618

Matt Lombard's post on ST3 - http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=4035

Jon Sutcliffe's post on ST3 - http://www.synchronoustechnology.net/blog/679/solid-edge-st3-bares-all/

Al Dean's post on DEVELOP3D - http://develop3d.com/reviews/solid-edge-st3

Kathleen Maher on ST3 - http://gfxspeak.com/2010/10/14/solid-edge-st3-arrives/

I’ll add more as I find them.

Solid Edge ST3 Impending Announcement on October 13th

2010-09-24T10:57:00.003-05:00

Siemens PLM will formally announce Solid Edge ST3 on October 13th. There are a number of events being held across North America starting on that day and through the month of December in a variety of cities. 2 of them are Siemens PLM hosted “National” events which the agenda shows will have a little more content in them, and the rest are Partner hosted events. If interested in attending one of these events, you can sign up on the Register link at the following page: http://am.siemensplmevents.com/?elqPURLPage=4232
Now seeing that we have around 2-1/2 weeks before the formal announcement and there has been much speculation about what’s new with ST3 in regards to Synchronous Technology, I thought it would be interesting to invite your comments about what you think is new with Synchronous Technology in ST3. Ground rules are that you must be polite and on topic. This BLOG is mine and is not bound by your right to free speech, therefore comments are moderated and I reserve the right to reject any comments I perceive to violate the ground rules.
Now let the speculation begin!

Technorati Tags: Solid Edge,ST3,CAD,Siemens,PLM

Solid Edge ST3 – Post 4 of 4

2010-09-08T11:37:00.001-05:00

As promised, this is the last in a series of posts about what has been publicly released about Solid Edge ST3. It’s been a while between posts, and if you scour the web you may have found this information already, but I thought I would post it anyways as ST3 media activity has slowed a bit and it has not yet been released (tentatively October from what I’ve seen posted).

Drafting is one of those areas where there is still such a big dependence. It’s the final piece of the product development assembly line and is highly utilized by downstream departments. With ST3, there were a large number of enhancements in this area but unfortunately I can only share a very select few of the user requested enhancements.

Parts List’s have been enhanced and one of the enhancements (there’s others) is an option to create a fully exploded and indented list.
Unicode character support has been added so you can now mix & match languages in a single draft file as well as use the extended range of special characters.
The Draft environment including Solid Edge 2D Drafting (Free 2D) now supports drawing view scaled measuring and sports a new measurement tool called Smart Measure which works like the Smart Dimension but does not actually place a persistent dimension.
Callouts now support tolerances, limits, and dual dimensioning.
A new print utility that lets you nest and print multiple drawing sheets from multiple files at once.

So that pretty much sums up what I can reveal about ST3 at this time. What has been revealed is just the tip of the iceberg of the user requested enhancements and doesn’t even touch on new features, or the “Bridge”. Those that have seen the BETA agree this is going to be a monumental release, but your going to have to wait until the launch in October to see it. I can certainly say that I really hate having to work on the old version (ST2) and can’t wait till I can get ST3 into production.

Solid Edge ST3 – Post 3 of 4

2010-08-02T14:48:00.005-05:00

As Promised, here is my 3^rd post on Solid Edge ST3’s customer driven enhancements. This time, the topic is Piping, Framing, and Weld enhancements.
Let’s start with Frames. Frames are made up of 3 items for each frame member: The sketch defining the path, the cross section defining the shape, and the resulting member as a solid model. With ST3, some work was done with the cross sections to add additional attachment points which are used to attach the cross sections to the paths. In addition to the prior default of the geometry Range Box showing the 8 points defining the rectangular extents boundary around the shape and the center point, you can now define the cross section’s path attachment point by using key points (end/mid/center/etc.) on the cross section’s defining sketch (including reference elements) or the cross section’s area centroid.

In addition to the new locating methods, cross sections are now associative to the members that they have defined (so changes to the cross section in the library updates the solid model in the Frame assembly) and also support specifying Wurzelmaß standard hole locations (DIN Standard). If you don’t know what Wurzelmaß means, you’re not alone. It’s German, and it’s literal translation is “Back Pitch” in English. It has been explained that it is the allowable location on flanges where holes may be placed.

Piping has a few enhancements specific to it as well. Pipe fittings can now be graphically rotated.

Pipe gradients are now supported for drainage situations. Fittings will tolerate a specified deviation from the standard fitting angle to allow for the specified gradient.

In prior releases, pipe fittings were required to be added to the Standard Parts library to be used. That requirement has been lefted and now pipe fittings can now be placed directly from disk or managed environments (Insight/Teamcenter).
Both environments have benefitted from the new ability to pattern Pipe or Frame components.

Parts Lists now support “per item” and “cumulative” mass for pipe/frame components and the mass calculation accounts for removed material in mitres and assembly features. Mitre cut angle can also be included in the parts list as well.

In Welding, a new algorithm has been introduced that produces weld beads that support many more geometric conditions, exactly matches input faces to eliminate interference, and also transition smoothly around sharp corners.

As I stated before, this is just a subset of user requested enhancements. There is a lot more that I cannot publish yet, not to mention we haven’t touched on new features or the “Bridge”. Stay tuned, more to come soon.

Solid Edge ST3 - Part 2 of 4 - Part, Sheet Metal, and Assembly

2010-07-22T11:56:00.004-05:00

As promised, I'm back with some additional information about the upcoming release of Solid Edge ST3 (later this year). This post will hit on some of the customer driven enhancements in the Part, Sheet Metal, and Assembly design environments. As a reminder, this is in no way a complete list of enhancements in these areas.

New to ST3 Sheet Metal is the Etch feature. It allows text or other sketch elements to be created on sheet metal faces which will then be transformed with the model when flattened. When the Flat Pattern is saved to DXF, text is translated to a "stick" font engraving ready!

New Closed Corner types have been added to Sheet Metal such as U & V shaped, Square and Mitred.

Tabs and PMI can now be added to the flattened Sheet Metal model and they will not display in the folded model. This flattened model can then be saved to JT.

Interpart relations are now shown in Part & Sheet Metal Pathfinder allowing easier navigation and investigation. The listed items can include: Context Assembly, Included Edges, Feature Keypoints, Interpart Copies, Linked Variables, and Reference Planes. It is even available if the part is opened outside of the context of the assembly.

Interpart relations are also shown in Assembly Pathfinder showing a clear indication of whether the link is Driving the selected component or the selected component is driving something else. Also new is the ability to Freeze or Thaw Interpart links. Freeze will allow you to inactivate links for instance on release files to prevent updates and Thaw will allow you to reactivate them later so they will update when performing a revision.

Display Configurations have received an overhaul and there are several new capabilities:

Configuration Manager which provides a "spreadsheet" like view of all configurations and components. and allows you to modify each configuration as well as identify new components since the configuration was last modified.

Snapshot which allows a quick capture of the current display state which can be retrieved quickly later.

Copy Current Display which will allow you to copy the current display state of selected components to an existing configuration
New Drop List which will allow multiple configurations to be selected and applied together and it also allows selection of Zones to be applied as well.

Now the last item I'm going to mention is not something I can not show you in a BLOG post, so your going to have to wait to see it in a Siemens PLM demonstration of Solid Edge ST3 or when the software ships to you, but it is quite important and quite remarkable so I feel I need to mention it... It is a 3D graphics performance improvement of up to 10X. That's right, 10X! Now Solid Edge was pretty fast before, but depending on the display settings used frame rates could drop on larger models. Now expect those models to fly on the screen.

Now as I stated at the beginning, this is just a few of the customer driven enhancements in Solid Edge ST3. There is still much more than what I've covered. Stay tuned because in another couple of weeks I'll post some more about ST3.

Solid Edge Productivity Summit Tour

2010-07-13T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well, things in the Solid Edge world are certainly active these days, and Siemens PLM is being very serious about increasing user oppurtunities. The first big evidence of this is that the folks at Siemens PLM responsible for the Solid Edge product are hosting 17 regional events around North America for users to attend for FREE!

The current agenda posted on Siemens site (http://img.en25.com/Web/Siemens/Solid%20Edge%20Productivity%20Summit%20agenda_6188a.pdf) looks like this:

Solid Edge Productivity Summit Preliminary Agenda – Times and sessions subject to change by location

8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Check in and registration
Solid Edge Vision and Direction
Solid Edge Customer Success Presentation
Modeling in Solid Edge with synchronous technology
Patterning in Solid Edge
Networking Lunch
Synchronous Sheet Metal Modeling
Best Practices in Solid Edge Drafting
Regional Tips and Tricks in Solid Edge
Synchronous Assembly Modeling
Using Both Traditional &and Synchronous
Tips and Tricks in Solid Edge

Sign-up here:
http://am.siemensplmevents.com/?elqPURLPage=3363

Locations and Dates are:

Orlando, FL - July 27, 2010
Kansas City, MO - July 28, 2010
Clearwater, FL - July 29, 2010
Atlanta, GA - August 10, 2010
Houston, TX - August 11, 2010
Dallas, TX - August 12, 2010
Cleveland, OH - August 12, 2010
Montreal, QC - August 17, 2010
Toronto, ON - August 18, 2010
Huntsville, AL - August 18, 2010
Indianapolis, IN - August 24, 2010
Cincinnati, OH - August 25, 2010
Boston, MA - August 26, 2010
Philadelphia, PA - August 31, 2010
Phoenix, AZ - September 8, 2010
Cypress, CA - September 9, 2010
Seattle, WA - September 10, 2010

Ken

Solid Edge ST3 - Part 1 of 4

2010-07-07T13:34:00.001-05:00

The Siemens PLM Connection event is over. Given the change of date and venue due to the flooding of the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, it was a great success.

There were many excellent presentations and "hands-on" training sessions for Solid Edge (including mine) , and even though a formal announcement of the upcoming ST3 is some time away, we got a sneak peak of several new customer driven enhancements as well as some hint of:

A "bridge" to help existing users better adopt Synchronous Technology
Simulation enhancements
PDM enhancements
1000's of customer enhancements from modeling to the user interface

Over the next few weeks, I'd like to cover some of the items presented around the customer driven enhancements, but please keep in mind there are still a whole lot of items that will not be presented until the official Solid Edge ST3 launch later in the year.

For this post, I would like to cover the User Interface enhancements.

You now have full control of the Command Ribbon layout. You can add new tabs and groups, as well as move, add, or remove commands from any tab. The customizations can be performed for all environments from a single environment, and customizations can be saved as a Theme.

A new customizable Radial Menu is available in all environments which will hold 16 commands right where you need them and accessible with the right mouse button.

Command Bar has been replaced with a horizontal on-screen "Smart Step" ribbon bar where it's easily seen and no longer competes with viewing the Pathfinder...

and both Pathfinder and the Live Rules pane can now be transparently displayed on the graphics screen which means Edgebar can now easily be left hidden most of the time.

There is still a whole lot more that I have not touched on, and this is just in the area of UI enhancements. I will be following up in the following weeks with additional customer driven enhancements in other areas.

April showers, Tulip Time, and CAD

2010-04-13T09:42:00.001-05:00

So, it's a busy time of year for me, and I'm guessing many others too. Spring has sprung. April has been warm and coupled with an excellent supply of water, my grass needs seriously mowed. Taxes are coming due (April 15th). We are also marching towards Tulip Time (May 4-8) in my town where we have a 3 day (5 this year due to 75th anniversary) festival all about Dutch heritage and Tulips (http://www.pella.org/aspx/traveltourism/plan/extra.aspx?cid=0&sid=5&n1id=10&n2id=70#Tulip_Time). Not sure if the tulips will make it till then, as some of them are just starting to bloom.

In addition to all this, my CAD plate is also quite full between PLM World board meetings, projects at work, the upcoming Siemens PLM Connections event May 23-28 (http://event.plmworld.org/), and the inevitable Solid Edge ST3 BETA. No rest for the weary. Check back soon as I will post updates.

Ken

PLM and Sharepoint

2010-03-23T17:23:00.000-05:00

So you have all these PDM/PLM suppliers out there who have systems that vault data, manage workflows, manage revisions and control access to product data. Some of these systems have existed in one form or another for decades. All of it home grown because nothing existed that could be used as a framework to build upon.

Now decades later, we have Sharepoint. It is everywhere. It vaults data, manages workflows, manages revisions and controls access. What is missing? Not much. With Sharepoint 2010 soon to be released, the framework is there. All that needs to be done is create some webparts and templates, and a pretty finctional PDM system could be had. Some have already headed down this path. Solid Edge released Insight on Sharepoint 2001 and continues down this path supporting Sharepoint 2003 and 2007. PTC recently released Product Point based on Sharepoint.

I predict others will be following fast. How can they not? The functionality and userbase is there. And think about this: A new model where the applications interface to the PDM system, not the otherway around :)

Care to comment?

Viva Las Vegas!

2010-01-25T10:47:00.004-06:00

I just got back from Las Vegas. Aside from the terrible air travel problems which resulted from freezing rain in Iowa when I left, to dense fog in Chicago on my return, it was a good trip. It was one of those "kill 2 birds with one stone" trips where I was able to accomplish a couple goals. The main reason for traveling to Las Vegas was to attend a PLM World board meeting. It was held at the Rio where our 2011 and 2012 Connection events will be held. It also coincided with the International Builders Show held at the convention center of which Pella is an exhibitor.

I spent one day walking the builders show, seeing an amazing variety of products. One thing that really sparked my interest was an architectural CAD software product that could interface with a engineered structural wood software product resulting in plumbing and HVAC penetrations being pre-cut in the engineered wood products at the factory. Now the cool thing about this is, the cuts are made efficiently and intelligently. What this means is you no longer have to worry about a plumber or HVAC installer destroying the structural integrity of a beam or set of joist, nor are you paying them to spend a large amount of time to use a bayonett or hole saw to cut the penetrations by hand.

The following day and a half was spent with the PLM World folks discussing issues relating to our user group and the upcoming Connection event in Nashville on May 24-27. A great group of individuals, mostly volunteers like me, who care about providing all users oppurtunities to "connect" with one another and share information and ideas, not only at the annual conferences, but also with local/regional user groups and electronically as well.

I would definetly encourage all users of Siemens PLM software to check out the following 2 links. One is the PLM World main site and the other is specifically about the May event coming up. Be sure to sign up as a PLM World Citizen which will give you access to the forums and other stuff and it will give us a way to contact you to ask your opinions about things as well as inform you about upcoming events. If you're already a Citizen and it's been a while since you initially signed up and you've had e-mail changes, check your profile and make sure your contact information is up to date.

Oh, and I also had a great time in the evenings :) There is a lot to do in Vegas, and the Rio was a fun hotel to stay at. I'd love to tell you more, but as they say: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!"

Hope to see you in Nashville this May as well as in Vegas the next couple of years!

Ken

Solid Edge ST2 MP2 Released

2010-01-12T12:27:00.008-06:00

Siemens PLM just released MP2 for Solid Edge ST2 on Friday January 8th. This patch includes many updates as well as fixes for user reported issues. It can be found here (webkey acct needed): http://ftp.ugs.com/solid_edge/ST2/

For those unfamiliar with what Maintenance Patches (MP) are, they are software updates that vendors of most applications deliver on a regular basis or "as needed" to resolve issues with the application or enhance the application. They are typically installed on top of a major version of an application, and are generally version specific.

In the case of Solid Edge ST2, you would need to run the MP for that particular version once ST2 has already been installed. MPs are typically "all inclusive" meaning that installing the latest MP includes the content of all earlier MPs (MP2 included MP1 updates as well as MP2 updates). If running Solid Edge along with Insight Server or Embedded Client, you will need to also install the same version of MP for these items as well (All must have MP2, not a mix of MP1 and MP2).
I hope you find this information usefull.

Ken

Happy New Year!

2009-12-21T08:13:00.004-06:00

Well, the Christmas/Holiday season has passed us by and now we are in the year 2010. I am curious to see what 2010 will bring us, especially in the PLM market.

Solid Edge should have it's 3rd release of Synchronous Technology out if they continue to follow their traditional release cycle. This is one area that I'm watching with much anticipation. With ST2 we saw the birth of a new type of Synchronous feature which resembles a "history based" feature in that it is associative to it's defining sketch, but in this new type of feature, the sketch is not a separate feature, but rather becomes part of the Synchronous feature. This is not exactly new to Solid Edge, as it has always allowed sketches to be created as part of a feature in the older versions which is now the "Traditional" modeling environment, but this is new to Synchronous Technology and works a little differently. It was applied to the Synchronous Helix feature first and was delivered in ST2. What it provides is an axis and a cross section profile, each editable after the feature is placed. Now for all those who summed up Synchronous Technology as just another "direct edit" modeler, this is a departure from that "pigeon hole"! I imagine that in 2010 we will see the addition of the Sweep and Loft features joining the Helix feature with this new edit capability, and possibly the surfacing commands as well. And since the Solid Edge development group always seems to pack a ton of new features into every new release which appear every few months, I'm sure there will be plenty more as well...

Here's to hoping each of you have a great 2010!

Fortune Cookies

2009-08-10T14:02:00.003-05:00

Trying to figure out how the title ties into CAD :) Well, it doesn't unless you know my background.

Today, I was treated to lunch by my boss. Quite a nice gesture, and we had a good lunch at a chinese buffet (rough afternoon now!). One of the required items at any chinese buffet is the fortune cookie. Mine read "Your curiousity will lead you to great achievements.".

Got to thinking about it and it is so right! My curiousity about everything has given me a broad knowledge about a large variety of topics, including CAD. In fact, my success in the CAD world is in large part due to my curiousity. I like to know how things work. I used to tear apart mechanical items just to see what made them tick (my father was really upset about the rototiller and dirt bike). I treated CAD much the same. I had to know what was there and how it worked and I had to quiz the developers how things interacted under the hood. To me, it was fun. I craved it. I still do.

Here's to hoping that "great achievements" are just around the corner. Maybe my curiousity about the numbers on the backside of my fortune will yield a winning lottery ticket :)

Solid Edge ST2

2009-07-29T13:01:00.004-05:00

Solid Edge ST2 is now shipping to customers and is available for download. A couple notable new features are Solid Edge Simulation and Synchronous Sheet Metal.

Solid Edge Simulation is a an embedded implementation of Siemens PLM's standalone FEA product FEMAP. Prior to ST2, Solid Edge shipped with a feature called FEMAP Express (now called "Simulation Express" in ST2) which was limited in load/constraint options and to single parts. In ST2, Simulation Express is still what's included with the product but Solid Edge Simulation can optionally be purchased as an add-on license through your normal sales channel. The good news is that Solid Edge ST2 does come with a temporary license for Solid Edge Simulation good through December, so install early so that you can try it out.

Now as I mentioned earlier, Solid Edge Simulation is an integrated implementation of FEMAP. What this means is that it has a lot of FEMAP's capabilities, but the UI is Solid Edge's which means it's easy to use.

Now for a list of capabilities over Simulation Express:

Assemblies (Synchronous only)
Complete environment with dedicated ribbon bar and vertical feature tree pane
Additional Loads and Constraints
Multiple "studies"
Export to FEMAP ".MOD" files
Multiple results options including the ability to probe nodes

Synchronous Sheet Metal is a new environment based on the Synchronous Technology concepts introduced in ST1. It allows modeling and modification of sheet metal models through direct action to the model while still retaining the intelligence that it is sheet metal. What this means is that sheet metal can be created quickly and edited even quicker. Imported models can also be transformed into a Synchronous sheet metal models as long as they are comprised of common thicknesses.

Obviously there are many other enhancements and new features with ST2, way too many to mention here. I encourage you to try it out when you receive it, especially Solid Edge Simulation before the trial license expires at the end of December.

Digital Prototyping - Is it New?

2009-07-29T11:45:00.002-05:00

I thought I would throw out some thoughts out on a term that some individuals are throwing around like they just pioneered it. The term is "Digital Prototyping". Lets start of first by defining what it means. Essentially it means that whatever design checks you might have gone through with a physical model, you are now doing with a virtual model at least up front to reduce the number of physical models needed to prove a design.

So for instance, if you were designing a new car door handle:

The old school method would be to get a physical prototype made of the actual material using temporary aluminum mold tooling costing 10's of thousands of dollars and waiting weeks to get it and then mount it into a special fixture with data aq and servos/pneumatics to simulate Bruno opening his car door. If it failed, start over, spend 10's of thousands of dollars again and wait weeks.

The Virtual Prototyping method would be to load your 3D CAD model into one of the many FEA packages available and test it the same day the model was completed. If it fails, redesign it and test it again before tomorrow afternoon.

So now that we know what it is, lets talk about "Is it new?". The answer is "Most definitely not!". Digital Prototyping has been around for at least the past 20 years. What is new is the widespread availability of it to virtually everybody doing 3D design work in every industry. Most 3D CAD products now include FEA software embedded in them, and what isn't included can easily be found and afforded from the multitude of analysis vendors on the market. Dare I say the phrase "So easy a cave man can do it"... The stuff is so easy to use too. Anyone can start up an FEA app and run an analysis with a very basic understanding of Model, Constrain, Load, Mesh. You obviously need to know a fair bit more than that to have a meaningful understanding of what your trying to accomplish, but the point is, the softare is darned easy to use.

Now I won't go into the argument of whether Virtual Prototyping can replace physical testing in all cases or the argument of whether Joe Blow Designer should be doing analysis or if it should be reserved for a analyst specifically schooled in the work. I will say that it is definitely a benefit, and if your designing without it, then your probably throwing a lot of time and money away.

So again, it may not be a new concept, but it's widespread adoption and use is.

Long Time, No See!

2009-05-20T14:57:00.005-05:00

It has been a really long time since I have posted (8 months!). What can I say, I've been busy! I'm sure you can relate. What have I been doing?

Work of course.
Getting ready for my oldest's graduation from High School (I'm feeling really old).
BETA Testing :)
Accepting a position on the PLM World Board of Directors.

Wait a second, what was that last one? Yes, I've taken on the role of representing You, the Solid Edge user, at PLM World. Now before you go off thinking "Wow! Grundey got himself a nice cushy board position making fat wads of cash.", let me burst your bubble and tell you; there is no compensation!

So why am I doing it? Well, there was a variety of reasons:

Somebody needs to represent Solid Edge at PLM World
Somebody thought I would be a good Solid Edge representative
I was silly enought to say "Yes"

Now, here's the hard part. I need your help. That's right, I can't do it all my self. So what can you do?

Well, let me fill you in on a little secret first. PLM World is unlike some other CAD/PLM user groups in that it is ran by the users, for the users. It is not a marketing arm of Siemens PLM. That being said, obviously it needs a lot of users such as yourself to participate in the events as well as just attend them. I would like to ask all Solid Edge users to become involved in some way. Below is a list of ways you can become involved.

Become a PLM World Citizen. Sign up is free, easy and non-commital (you will need your Sold To ID)
Provide constructive feedback on the user events you have attended to help improve them.
Attend the user events. There is the annual event as well as regional events closer to home, and the value of the training, tips, and networking far exceed the cost to attend.
Make a presentation. If you think you don't have something to present that someone else would be interested in, your wrong, and if that's not enough of an incentive, the event admission is FREE for presnters!
Take a leadership or membership role in a Special Interest Group or a Regional User Group.

For those who are already registered, I encourage you to attend the Solid Edge SIG Round Table meeting being held adjacent to and during the Industry Night even Sunday evening (May 31st) @ 6:30 PM for some socializing and informal discussion.

For those who have not registered yet, there is still time especially if you're close to Nashville :) And pay attention to the different events inside of the main event. If your just interested in Solid Edge, sign up for the Velocity Series Connection. It will save you some time and money.

Hope to "connect" with you soon!

Ken

Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology Delivered!

2008-09-04T12:17:00.002-05:00

It is quite obvious from the activity on the Siemens PLM hosted Solid Edge newsgroup that users have downloaded or been shipped their copy of Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology (from now on referred to as "ST"). It is also obvious that existing users of history based modelers must "unlearn" what has been ingrained in them over the years when they start using ST.

What they must "unlearn" is this: There is no magic time machine that will let you go back in history and erase something you did in your past.

Sounds like science fiction doesn't it?

No doubt you've seen the movies where some character goes back in time, steps on some bug, and then returns to the present and finds out they have changed the entire history of human evolution. Then they spend the rest of the movie trying to fix what they unintendedly did. Sound familiar?

This is exactly what we have been doing for the past 20 years in history based modelers... going back in time before the feature we want to remove existed, and erasing it. We then go back to the present to see what our change to history has done (sometimes expected, but often unexpected and we spend the next few hours fixing what we unintendedly did).

ST brings us out of the science fiction and puts us back into reality. To delete a feature, you stay in the present and delete the faces that make up the feature, or you fill in over it. The remaining faces adjacent to the deleted feature fill in to heal the solid or the embedded faces disappear. But nothing unexpected!

Definitely more straight forward and understandable, but for those who have been using the magic time machine, it is a foreign concept. ST is here, it's time to return to reality!

July!

2008-07-07T12:58:00.002-05:00

The first full week of July is here. I hope that those who reside in the States had a great holiday weekend. I enjoyed a nice 4th of July weekend with the family which included a trip to an amusement park, watching fireworks, and some grilling. Now it is back to work. For those who do not live in the States, I hope you decided to celibrate it with us anyways (aren't you always looking for an excuse?).

Now that a lot of the media buzz has ended concerning Synchronous Technology, things are kind of boring. Kind of looking forward to the buzzing to start again once it is released and people start writing article about it. I've been doing my testing, and am anxious to hear what others have to say about it.

That's it for now.

Ken

Video Screen Capture Software

2008-06-19T20:10:00.002-05:00

They say a picture paints a thousand words. So to find out how many words video paints, do we multiply that by the frames per second multiplied by the number of seconds the video runs?

I think we will all agree that seeing a video of something done on the computer with a narrator is much more efficient than looking at static images with a few strings of text attached. I wanted to pass on some free tools that I have found that will allow you to capture your PC screen while your using it and create a playable movie from it.

The first tool is Window Media Encoder (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx). Works OK, but settings are confusing and best screen capture quality still leaves shaded surfaces banded. Output is a WMV file. This tool has a lot of other capabilities besides just screen capture so if your into encoding other video sources such as from a camera, you might want to check this out.

The other tool is Jing from TechSmith (http://www.jingproject.com/). Exceptionally easy to use and excellent quality, but I have not yet really got into all the posting options. The file output appears to be a Flash file. They say it is a temporary project, so it may stop working someday, but it's ease of use and good quality make it an acceptable risk. Still trying to figure out how to efficiently view the output file stored on a fileshare though. I've been pulling them up in a web browser.

Hope this helps someone out. I'll post more on Jing when I get it all figured out.

Ken

Synchronous Technology

2008-04-26T12:41:00.003-05:00

So, on April 22nd, Siemens PLM Software released a bomb on the CAD world about a new modeling paradigm. There looks to be a lot of promise to this new technology, and I have high hopes for it.

One problem I regularly see today with the sketch/feature/history based modelers is that concept modeling and production modeling are at odds.

What I mean by this is:

An engineer while in the concept modeling phase is concerned about creating geometry to fill a needed form. They may make many variations of this model, some with minor differences and some with major differences. They do not care about building in design intent or making the model easy to modify, so they use what I term "hack and whack" modeling. What is left when they are done is a model with a feature tree that would put Frankenstein's monster to shame.
After the concept phase comes the documentation phase. This is where ease of modification and design intent is a concern. This usually results in a model being remodeled which is of course rework and is never desired.

This problem appears to be solved with Synchronous Technology. The concept model can be "hacked and whacked" into the needed form (with more ease promised) and when it is ready to become a production model, the user can simply apply the needed parameters to preserve the design intent (no remodeling needed). I see this as a huge time saver.

Another issue I regularly see with sketch/feature/history based modelers is that part-time users (a couple days a month) still have difficulty using them for design work due to all the historic and associative relationships to planes, sketches, and other features that the user must be constantly concerned with. If modeling could be made easier and more intuitive as the Synchronous Technology claims to be without reliance on those historic and associative relationships, that would be a huge benefit.

There will apparently be a Solid Edge launch on May 21st. I'm sure the CAD media will be buzzing then.

I'm "Blogging" Down!

2008-03-05T08:03:00.002-06:00

I apologize to all whom have been awaiting new content on my blog. I have been preoccupied with other stuff, but am still here. Things I have been working on in the Solid Edge world:

Solid Edge V20 implementation - Went extremely smooth with little to no problems.
Spec'd a couple of new workstation PCs for the campany - switched from Dell to HP, running the xw4600 and the 8510w.
Trialing TeamCenter Engineering - this has been taking all my time.

I will try to post more often.