When I am old and in my dotage, I will listen to the young CADlets that gather at my knee;

‘Gee grand-pops’ they will say – ‘were you really there?’

‘Yes!’ I will say. ‘I was at D3DLive 2013!’

 D3D Magazine takes to the road

D3D Magazine specialises in telling interesting stories, from interesting Designers and Engineers, including the digital tools that support their workflow. D3D Live brings these interesting people to you so that you can hear their interesting stories first hand.

What is unique and special about the event that the D3D team have created, is that they have captured the enthusiasm of the CAD industry as a whole. Those of us that use CAD tools, and those of us that make them.

It is remarkable, that Al Dean and Martyn Day (Chief agitators at D3D) aren’t always even nice to the CAD vendors. However their passion for digital design and engineering comes across as admonishing – rather than criticizing of the CAD companies;

Come on [Insert CAD Vendor of your choice], We know you can do better!

With 932 attendees out of the 1,400 registered, this years D3D conference, held at Warwick University in the heart of the UK, has certainly grown from he D3D team’s first tentative steps into live events last year.

D3DLive! 2013 was streamed into six tracks – product design and engineering, sustainable design,design visualization, 3D printing and prototyping, simulation & workstation technology.

Unfortunately for me I didn’t get to attend any of these classes, I was far to excited by what was going on in the keynote speeches on the main stage.

Big Hitters

It is testament to the D3D teams enthusiasm and hard work that they managed to get such a great line up on the main stage, including Ping Fu – Vice president of 3D systems/Geomagic, Chris Randles – President of Spaceclaim, Gian Paolo Bassi - Vice President Research and Development Solidworks,  Jon Hirschtick – Founder of Solidworks and ‘Uncle’ Carl Bass – CEO of Autodesk.

The big scoop for the D3D team came via Carl Bass, who used his presentation to announce the pricing structure of Autodesk cloud based products.

So – what did we learn?

Well – desk top CAD isn’t dead. But the the current license model is on its way out. The general feel from all the CAD vendors is that the future of CAD is Mobile (You can access your data from wherever you are, whatever kind of Desktop/Laptop/Tablet/Phone you are using), Social (you can collaborate from wherever you are, with whomever you need to) and cloud based (scalable, one CPU core in the cloud for 100 seconds is the same cost as 100 cores in the cloud for 1 second).

There was a strong feeling from the CAD vendors that propriety CAD file formats are inhibitive, and while they won’t suddenly be all agreeing to using a single format, most of the CAD vendors have swapped file libraries – meaning that files from many different products will be opened natively in future.

The future of CAD is subscription based. You won’t own a CAD license in the future. You will negotiate the usage of the software for a limited amount of time (the more time you buy – the better the rate you will get). Additional features for your CAD software, such as rendering or simulation will be ‘Unlocked’ and made available to you for an additional fee.

This will create a new source of direct income for the CAD vendors, and will provide interesting times for the CAD resellers. ‘Pushing boxes’ is no longer an option.

The highlight to all this speculation was the panel discussion with Rhino, Autodesk, Belmont, Siemens, Geomagic and Spaceclaim all represented to answer your questions.

Bob McNeel – Rhino, Kevin Schneider – Autodesk Fusion 360, Jon Hirschtick – Belmont technology, Paul Brown Siemens PLM, Ping Fu Geomagic, Chris Randles – Spaclaim sharing the platform for the panel discussion

 In other news…

Despite my excitement about the presence of all those CAD industry heavy weights – it was interesting to note what a varied crowd the event brought in. The fact that the event was free, and held on a college campus meant that there were inevitably a lot of students attending.

The big surprise for me was the number of families with young children that  I saw – I heard that the draw was the demonstrations of 3D printing. I really hope that this event captured the imagination of the Designers and engineers of D3D 2063!

So – were you there?

I really think that we will look back at this event in the future with a sense of awe and wonder that a little UK based CAD industry magazine managed to pull of such a great event. But I don’t think that the Develop 3D team will stop here. Keep your eyes peeled on the D3Dlive site for Videos of the presentations, and make the effort to attend next year – before everyone hears about it ;)

A word from our sponsors.

 A final word of thanks goes out to the sponsors of the event who keep it FREE (Our favourite price!).

The CAD Setter Out - AutoCAD and Inventor Tips, Tricks & Tutorials.

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Do you use Autodesk Inventor for Furniture design, Joinery, Cabinet making or Millwork? You do? Great!

Over the last few weeks a number of stories have caught my eye that might also interest you.

Ellis furniture – Inventor user of the year

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation. This years ‘Inventor user of the year’ was won by a UK based furniture manufacturer – Ellis Furniture.

Ellis Furniture director, Tom Ellis, explains: “Ellis Furniture has a real focus on continual improvement, and having identified the tangible benefits to be had from streamlining the design and manufacturing process, we wanted to maximise our investment.

Whilst the integration of CAD and ERP systems is a relatively new initiative for companies of our size, we saw it as an opportunity to bring everything together, reaffirming our position at the forefront of our industry whilst reducing costs and improving our time to market with new products.

We are really excited about the true extent of the opportunities and benefits to our customers that this investment brings. From now on we will be able to launch more new products in a continual manner, ensuring we keep things fresh for our customers.”

It is quite unusual for a company outside the united states to win this coveted title. Well done to Ellis furniture and also to Symetri for thier support.

About Ellis Furniture

Established in 1891, Ellis Furniture is a privately owned family business, now in its fourth generation. The company produces a wide range of furniture from its modern 200,000 sq.ft. factory based in West Yorkshire, England. For additional information, visit Ellis Furniture – Inventor of the year

About Symetri

Ellis furniture were aided in their move to Inventor by Autodesk VAR Symetri. An Autodesk Platinum Partner, operating in the oil, gas, nuclear, transportation and manufacturing sectors, Symetri supply 2D and 3D CAD design software, as well as specific third-party software applications. For additional information, visit Symetri.

In other news…

Also announced this month, Autodesk training centre and consultant Studioworx have put together the first Autodesk Inventor training package aimed directly at the woodworking industries.

Studioworx is known for its Autodesk Product Design suite training, but because the applications can serve multiple industries, standard training courses may cover areas not relevant or useful to your job role, and miss out others which are.

Our Industry Specific courses are designed to train users in the areas most useful in their industry, and aren’t restricted to just one application either, meaning you get a well rounded course which helps you get the best of the tools at your disposal.

This course is aimed at new users to computer aided Joinery Design who want to gain a thorough understanding of 3D design, 2D Drawing creation and presentation techniques using Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Showcase.

For more information visit Studioworx

And finally…

Autodesk VAR Microconcepts recently announced that it has entered into agreement with UAB Čeli APS, an Autodesk Value Added Reseller and Autodesk Registered Developer to resell Tools4Inventor, comprising of Woodwork4Inventor and WoodworkCAM4Inventor.

Micro Concepts are continually looking at ways to help customers improve their time to market and retain innovation. Woodwork4Inventor and WoodworkCAM4Inventor can really speed up the process of generating bespoke and custom cabinet work, furniture and joinery” says Graham Mansfield, Business Development Manager at Micro Concepts Ltd.

It addresses many areas that an Autodesk Inventor designer would have to model on a daily basis. Edge banding, sheet material definition, adding ironmongery and hardware with holes, part and blank size calculation with full cutting list generation are all areas that can be shown to improve design time by 30 – 50%.

For More Information Visit Microconcepts

Inventor Gains momentum for woodworkers

It’s great to see the UK’s manufacturers, CAD Trainers and Autodesk VAR’s using and supporting Inventor for woodworking. Keep up the good work one and all!

The CAD Setter Out - AutoCAD and Inventor Tips, Tricks & Tutorials.

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Connecting building product manufacturers with architects & other specifiers within the construction industry.

Darren Lester, founder of  ’the CAD cube‘, has now re-branded his site as ‘Specified by‘.

The main difference for us is that we no longer see ourselves as a CAD library, but a specification library. This means rather than hosting a library of manufacturers CAD models, we will host a range of manufacturers digital files, including CAD models, but also BIM components, technical/specification documents, case studies and more.

The site offers the same mix of 3D CAD models in various formats, but will now include specification information to go with it and (Gasp!) BIM content ;)

You can find out more about this change of direction on the ‘Specifiedby‘ Blog.

Good luck to Darren with this new venture.

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Did you miss out on AU 2012 this year? If so – shame on you ;)

Not to worry. It’s not too late to have the best of the content come to you. Including the LIVE recording of my first ever class at Autodesk University:

How to Drive Autodesk® Inventor® with the Top Down: “Alternative” Assembly Modeling Master Class

You can watch the video, and download PDF’s of the handout and power point from Autodesk University class catalogue here. Thanks very much to all 150 people who attended. I hope that I will see you again at AU in future.

This class is aimed at anyone who’s been tempted to make the move to 3D, but who is struggling to get started. The class demonstrates the three main strategies for creating parametric assemblies, and guides you through the basic techniques you will need to create reliable, predictable parametric assemblies.

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Top down, bottom up, skeletal modelling  multi-body master part—if you are having difficulty turning your part models into assembly models do not despair! There are many alternative assembly techniques that can help you to produce great results.

This class is for drafters who have made their way through a basic Autodesk Inventor software training course, but who are having difficulty using Inventor in production, particularly on bespoke, one-off projects. This class focuses on “alternative” assembly modelling techniques in Inventor that can help you build unique, fully parametric models quickly and simply without the nightmare of assembly constraints and circular adaptive references.

This class will benefit drafters from all engineering and manufacturing industries. Attendees should have working knowledge of Autodesk Inventor. If you produce bespoke, unique, one-off digital prototypes—this class is for you.

You can also check out the virtual class for more details of the techniques involved, and an iLogic surprise Easter egg :D

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Content is King, so why waste time building up your library when you can download it for free?

TheCADcube is the latest of many web sites dedicated to providing you with 3D models to help you build up your library. CAD Cube is aimed at the Architectural industry, but interestingly there is no mention of BIM in sight…

‘BIM may well be the future for the construction industry, and the demand for BIM is steadily growing, but CAD users are going to be in the majority for the foreseeable future.’

In this post I’m talking to Darren Lester, 26 year old Architectural technologist, resident Entrepreneur at Edinburgh University and founder of the CAD Cube.

The CAD Cube – the skinny…

The CAD Cube service is aimed at both manufactures and Architects. The idea is that Building product manufacturers sign up to the service, providing their models for free or paying a small fee for CAD cube to model them up.

The manufacturer gets statistics on who is downloading their content, and the hope that it is more likely that their product will be specified. Architects get to download 3D CAD models for free.

The site is well laid out and easy to navigate. While I don’t necessarily agree with Darren’s views on BIM, I understand that there are a great many CAD users out there who need content. Want to know how the CAD cube stacks up with the competition? Check out the CAD Olympics.

Q: What inspired you to create The CAD Cube?

I used to find the CAD modeling process extremely frustrating in terms of timescale and felt that other CAD libraries available were either too expensive or had no quality control. I wanted to come up with a way to provide designers with free, quality content, but in a way that was sustainable from a business perspective. This led me to manufacturer specific content and the realisation that a lot of manufacturers have CAD models of their products available but aren’t doing much with them, and that they are actually a very powerful promotional tool.

Q: How many models does CAD Cube host?

We have just over 400, so we are still small but we are growing.

Q: What file formats are the models available in?

We accept .DWG, .MAX, .3DS, .SKP and .OBJ and encourage manufacturers to provide at least a couple of these for each model.

Q: The CAD Cube is membership only, how much does this cost?

theCADcube is currently free for designers who wish to download CAD models. This has a limit of 20 downloads per day and each model can only be downloaded twice. We plan to keep it this way with perhaps introducing a premium, unlimited downloads account when we have a large enough library.

Q: Do you have any plans to host BIM compatible content?

I think we need to be either CAD or BIM. Once you start trying to be a solution for everyone’s problems, you start diluting your value proposition and end up being OK for everyone rather than great for a specific area, which for us is CAD. Perhaps one day we will launch ‘theBIMcube’ as a spin-off!

I think BIM is fantastic, but I just can’t see it getting anywhere near wide-scale adoption in the foreseeable future.

Darren has recently announced a new service, combining the 3D CAD models, with all the specification information an Architect could need. You can find out more at Specifiedby.com

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2012 has been a year of change at CSO. This year I started a new job as CAD manager at Halstock, moved house and was Interviewed by CADalyst magazine and Autodesk Care!

Way back in 2010 I wrote that I was receiving 200 page views a day. I’m proud to say that in the lead up to Christmas last year, this peaked at 1927 page views in a single day :D thanks very much to everyone who has visited CadSetterOut.com and Liked, tweeted, plus’d or otherwise shared the posts.

This years highlights

Once again I was extremely pleased to be asked to write for AUGIworld (The truth about sharing Inventor data) and speak at BIMshow live. I helped Curt Moreno with this Video tip for Autodesk Inventor, contributed this post on AutoCAD macro’s to CADnotes.com and had a cartoon featured on Engineer Vs Designer. I was even able to help Shaan Hurley out with a guest post for his Blog while he was away in Africa.

This year has held many firsts for me. I got my first article published in a proper print magazine (Inventor 2013 reviewed for D3D magazine) and I spoke at Autodesk University. I was asked to join the Autodesk Elite (I met Buzz Cross and Uncle Carl Bass in the process), and was honoured to receive the Autodesk Manufacturing community award (I’m not worthy!).

Thanks to all of you for your support, it means a lot to me.

This years most popular posts:

1. Wood Screw Head Types - 17,326
2. AutoCAD Line Type Scales, The Secret Truth - 17,073
3. 101 Autodesk Inventor tips - 13,517
4. How to optimize your AutoCAD DWG drawing files - 11,897
5. An introduction to AutoCAD 2013 - 9,433

Thanks very much to this years top referrers:

1. Autodesk Forums - 3,011
2. Facebook - 1,295
3. CADTutor - 767
4. CADdigest - 527
5. Wikihelp.Autodesk.com – 508

So what’s coming up in 2013?

With my change of job role, I suspect that I will be inspired to write more posts about managing the CAD department. I hope to keep writing on AutoCAD and Inventor, along with a good lump of content on creating great drawings, no matter what software you are using.

I also have four more CAD books sat here just waiting for me to review them and give them away – more on that soon.

I am really looking forward to D3D live 1013, the release of Fusion360 and am I am crossing my fingers that I get asked to speak at AU2013!

Good luck, best wishes and keep on drawing!

Paul

The CAD Setter Out - AutoCAD and Inventor Tips, Tricks & Tutorials.

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What does a good set of drawings look like to you?

Since starting my new job, I have been working hard to understand the needs of our internal customers – but there is a group that is harder to reach… YOU!

At least, those of you Architects, Engineers and Designers who are responsible for reviewing shop drawings or submittal drawing sets.

So, let me ask you – What do you look for when you review a set of drawings? What makes your heart leap with joy as you turn the page? What makes you grind your teeth in frustration? I’d really like to know…

I’d really appreciate it if you would leave a comment below, or contact me.

I have also started threads on this subject in the following forums.

Thanks in advance for your time,

Paul

 [Edit: I've already had some excellent feedback. Thanks very much to all who've commented so far - please keep up the debate!]

This is from David Koch on the AUGI forums:

‘Comments from an architect:

1. The most joy comes from reviewing a submittal where it is obvious that the submitter has actually looked at our drawings and has incorporated the design intent into their own, more detailed drawings.

2. I dread submittals that consist of our drawings (in whole or in parts) sent back to us. I already know what we drew, and even in the best of circumstances, what we show is design intent, not shop-drawing level detail or development. Simply sending me what I issued to you is not a submittal; I expect to see your detailed knowledge of your specific product or fabrication as it applies to this project, and, when applicable, how your specific product works with the surrounding construction and what requirements, if any, your work needs from the surrounding construction.

3. I also dread submittals that show excruciatingly detailed internal construction, but give little or no indication of how that product or fabrication interacts with the surrounding construction. I have no objection to detailed internal construction – it may be very necessary on your end – but I want to see that you understand what the surrounding construction is (or how you need it to be) and how your product/fabrication integrates into it (including fastenings, joints/clearances/tolerances). I understand that some of that is not part of your contract – great, note it as such, but show it none-the-less. If the joint has to be bigger than what was shown in the design documents, show it and indicate why. I would rather deal with this in the submittal phase, than learn about it in the field, after it is already installed…’

Read more at on the  AUGI Cad managers forum

This from Organic on the CAD Tutor forums:

‘…Another thing that annoys me is when someone does something really well, then in other aspects of the design it is substantially lacking. Yes, it is great that you done component A really detailed and the design does look good. So why the heck didn’t you list any design data at all (no levels, grades, sizes, anything etc) for component B which is just as important on your construction documents?…’

Read more on the CAD Tutor forums

This comment from Jon Vales on G+

‘My clients and other companies I worked for in the past had their own style to stand out. When you saw a set of drawings, you knew who’s set it was if it was that good.’

Read more on Google+

I have also posted the question on the Autodesk CAD managers discussion group

Thanks very much to everyone who’s taken the time to contribute.

The CAD Setter Out - AutoCAD and Inventor Tips, Tricks & Tutorials.

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A big thank you to Curtis Waguespack and Sybex publishing for providing me with three copies of ‘Mastering Inventor 2013‘ to give away this week.

The first copy was one by AK at last nights Freshman orientation session (Thanks very much Lynn Allen for drawing the winner). I will give another copy away at my class on Thursday.

AK – winner of ‘Mastering Inventor’ #AU2012 #sybex twitter.com/CadSetterOut/s…

— Paul Munford (@CadSetterOut) November 27, 2012

To win the final copy, first you need to find me – then shout as loud as you can ‘INVENTOR ROCKS’ (Not in a class though or we will all get into trouble!)

Good luck, see you around.

Paul

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Congratulations – You made it to Autodesk University 2012! I’m sure that your going to have a great time and learn heaps. But if you haven’t been to before, where should you start?

You are now at the best event in the world to learn about your Autodesk tools, so my first tip is… go to as much as possible. That’s why I’m attending the AU freshman orientation session tonight and I think you should too. You can find out more about the freshman orientation session on Lynn Allens blog.

I’m attending this year as a mentor, if you see me come and say hi.

AU 2012 the exterior route to the convention centre

Paul’s top five tips for getting the best out of AU 2012

1. Hydrate

Nevada is dry, air conditioning is dry and the casinos and bars can be smokey. Drink plenty of water and fruit juice and avoid coffee, soda and beer. Lip salve is vital.

 2. Go outside

Las Vegas casinos are renounced for being built so you can’t see any exits, or tell what time of day it is. But you’re only human, so get out and enjoy the sunshine (see my handy exterior route map to the convention centre above).

3. Talk to everyone

Some of the best tips I’ve learned from AU have been from chatting to people at breakfast, or in line for the gents. Everyone at AU is a CAD geek. Don’t be shy, say Hi.

4. Move classes

If you’re not getting what you want out of a class – go to another one. No one will mind, just have a little consideration for the people that are staying and leave quietly.

5. Retain what you’ve learned

AU is well supported by speaker handouts, some classes will also be online as part of AU Virtual, so don’t worry about making copious notes. Just concentrate on remembering what is possible.

To help you remember what you learned in class, spend a little time reviewing your notes or the handout each evening (before going for a beer!). Set aside some time to review your notes again next week to seal the deal.

Be good – have fun and stay lucky.

Paul

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Would you like to see a physical manifestation of your Architectural 3D digital CAD model? Would you like to hold it in your hand – or show it off to your clients and colleagues?

3D printing sounds good. In fact, it sounds great! But printing scale models of buildings has its problems.

3D printing is a process involving various techniques for laying down material, layer by layer to form a 3D object. 3D printing can work very well when you simply require a full size object from your digital model file.

However buildings can be really, really BIG. Printing at 1:1 scale isn’t usually practical or necessary. If you take an Architectural element such as a truss, a window mullion or a handrail and try to print it at 1:100 scale, the element becomes so thin that it simply won’t print.

If you try to ‘thicken up’ some of these elements so that they will print without warping or falling apart, you can easily spend so long re-modelling the job that you really aren’t saving any time or money by reusing data.

But the good folk at 3DMTP believe that they have the answer…

Check out this article what I wrote for CAD Digest magazine,about this brand new service which is being offered by 3DMTP.

3DMTP For 3D Printing of Architectural Models

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