Luxury yachts are not one of them.

They’re too expensive for any meaningful physical mock up. You need to know before you start sanding the first plank that the boat you build is going to be beautiful, seaworthy, efficient, and comfortable, or you’re wasting your time and money.

It’s not surprising, then, that smart high-end boat manufacturers start with a good 3D CAD system. One that gives them accuracy to the millimeter, realistic rendering tools, and excellent simulation and analysis capabilities.

And with that, I’d like to introduce you to CNB Yachts, a builder in Bordeaux, France, that is all about luxury, customer convenience, and digital mock ups. Find out more about this company and how it uses PTC Creo and PTC Windchill PDMLink in our newest customer video:

PTC recently joined forces with Connect Press to host a 60-minute Flexible Design with PTC Creo webcast. On May 14^th,  Brad Tallis, a 13 year PTC technical sales veteran who specializes in PTC Creo demonstrated how the PTC Creo Flexible Modeling Extension enables you to:

• Quickly and easily make late-stage design changes
• Easily modify both native CAD and imported 3D models
• Provide users with easy-to-use geometry editing, so that they can work fast and flexibly
• Accommodate model changes, even when the user doesn’t understand or want to rework design intent

Watch the 40-minute presentation followed by a Q&A session by heading over to the Connect Press PTC Creo Community page.  

Consumers have traditionally made buying decisions based on whether a product was well designed, useful, affordable, and/or attractive. Today, however, many consumers are weighing in a product’s sustainability—or lack thereof—as well so manufacturers must add the environmental impact of products to their growing list of requirements they must meet.

Everyone knows that designing for sustainability is good for the environment, but what many organizations are now finding is that it’s also good for business. According to the 2012 Sustainability & the CFO Study, conducted by Verdantix on behalf of Deloitte Touche, sustainability is now integral to how businesses run with nearly half (49%) of the CFOs surveyed identifying a significant link between sustainability performance and financial performance.

With the C-Suite on board, organizations are now turning to product designers and engineering departments to help implement sustainable product design, and the path to sustainable product design starts with the use of sustainable materials. The goal being to eliminate the possibility those products could contribute to emissions of greenhouse gases, destruction of rainforests, damage to workers’ health or seepage of toxic materials into soil or water.

Materials science accelerates to meet growing needs

Modern material science has gotten to the point at which newer, more sustainable materials will drive innovations that will meet the demands of future markets by boosting efficiency and reducing waste, which will ultimately increase companies’ competitiveness by lowering costs and meeting the needs of increasing green-minded consumers.

Sustainability has clearly influenced the advancement of new materials, such as durable bioplastics, recycled content products, printed electronics, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS), and molded ceramics. The goal of these new materials is the same: to lower environmental impact by using non-toxic materials that require a minimum amount of energy and water to produce, can be recycled completely or composted, and are part of a closed loop system.

One such material, Bioplastics, are derived from popanediol (PDO) obtained from bacterial fermentation of corn sugar and claim lower impact status through their use of renewable resources that sequester carbon during their growth. Another benefit is that they can be recycled at end of life. Smith Optics is currently using this material in the frames of its Prodigy ski goggles.

How to get started

There are various tools, guides as well as outside consultants that can help steer manufacturers in their quest for greener materials. One such company, Materials Connexion, offers material intelligence consulting that has helped big-time manufacturers, such as BMW, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Nissan, Nokia and Samsung, in their sustainable product design efforts.

The company has also partnered with the founders of Cradle to Cradle design to create a global design platform for developing innovative, sustainable materials and products. Using their respective knowledge of sustainable materials and product development processes, they work closely with manufacturers to design and develop sustainable products. Materials Connexion also offers online materials libraries with over 4,000 materials.

Engineering and design tools are also evolving to help guide engineers in the design of sustainable products. Early-stage, eco-impact assessment tools, such as Sustainable Minds’ LCA and PE International’s GaBi software all offer a comprehensive approach to selecting sustainable materials and one that doesn’t require designers to sacrifice product performance to achieve environmental gains.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that sustainability is not just a materials issue. It must also take into account the environmental impacts of the design and manufacturing processes; the efficient use of natural resources; and the impact of the product on human health and safety. Companies have to start somewhere, however, and carefully choosing the materials with which to create new products is a very good start on the road to sustainable product design.

Question: What do the QWERTY keyboard, the railroad, and shoelaces have in common?

Answer: Their inventors are long gone.

The QWERTY keyboard was the brainchild of American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes. He died in 1890, but if your left ring finger lands naturally on the letter “s”—thank Sholes.

The railroad evolved much more slowly than the QWERTY keyboard, starting with wagon ruts that were used to keep cars from straying off the road in the 1550s and earlier. Modern steel rails took off with the invention of the Bessemer steel process in the late 1860s, and today, steel rail lines and cars remain essential to industry all over the world.

If you want to know who invented the shoelace, you might have to ask Ötzi the Iceman. He lived around 3300 BCE. Archeologists found him mummified with his shoes still laced in lime bark string.

What’s my point? Well, that despite the quick pace of technology, some innovations outlast their inventors. Not just because they’re “exsanguinated” after an arrow strike to the shoulder (like unfortunate Ötzi), but also because people retire, change jobs, or go on long vacations and forget to recharge their mobile phones.

Yet, no matter how the original inventors go offline, their designs still may be valuable today. Too bad, because often the original design intent is just as lost as its inventor. And that’s the topic of this week’s Product Design Show.

Click the Play arrow to see how Vince and Allison recover a model and teach an old design a few new intents:

Pagani’s latest creation is the Huayra. Named after a god of the wind, the Huayra was in development for 7 years. In fact, it was only last year that the first of the car’s buyers took delivery. More than 60 more were on the list, waiting to pay $1.3 million each for their own Huayra.

What’s so special about this car? Well, everything.

Racing Legacy. Pagani began his career as an engineer at luxury sports car manufacturer, Lamborghini. But he but soon found himself intrigued by composites–particularly carbon fiber.  In the early 1990s, he opened his own shop creating custom composites for sports cars. The natural next step was to design and manufacture his own car. The Huayra is the first supercar from Pagani since his premiere car, the Zonda.

Speed. Fast. 370 km/hr. Or about 230 mph.

Spoiler—not! While most cars designed for speed include spoilers, the Huayra uses a system of flaps to control downforce. Much like the flaps you see on airplane wings, the electronically controlled system on the Huayra preserves the graceful lines of the car.

Materials. Much of the car is manufactured with carbon fiber materials using a proprietary recipe. Before materials are shaped and fitted, they are adjusted to ensure the seams of the weave align across pieces. In fact, some buyers of Pagani cars request that parts remain unpainted in order to show off this craftsmanship.

Engine and exhaust. 730HP Mercedes engine. V12 engine, twin turbochargers. But since turbocharged engines sound “weak and whiney,” the exhaust system has been specially tuned to produce a sound like a jet engine taking off.

There’s much more. Like control panel buttons designed to resemble clarinet keys, a leather interior inspired by a fine women’s handbag, gull wing doors (think 1980s DeLorean), and custom matching luggage.

While Pagani is a PTC customer, we have not yet received a comp car on the PTC loading dock. We’ll keep checking. Meanwhile, enjoy the profile of the Huayra in this segment of Tech Toys 360, a TV show that features “vehicles, gadgets, and gear.”

That’s the challenge the team from Metamora Township High School in Illinois faced when they signed on to the FIRST Robotics Competition.

In about half a semester, team MARS/WARS had to design, fabricate, and program a new robot that would then take part in the ULTIMATE ASCENT game. It works like this: two competing groups of three teams each place their robots on a flat, 27 x 54-foot field. Each “Alliance” competes to place as many discs into goals as they can during a two minute and fifteen second match.

The higher the goal in which the disc is scored, the more points the Alliance receives.

The match ends with robots attempting to climb pyramids located near the middle of the field. Each robot earns points based on how high it climbs.

It’s an endeavor and timeline that would keep even the most seasoned product developers up late. But we’re happy to report that PTC Creo and PTC Mathcad helped make it possible. Our software was there for all stages of the design process and for both mechanical and electrical systems design.

MARS/WARS competed at the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee on March 21st – March 23rd.  The team finished in 5th place with a record of 8 wins and 2 losses in the qualification matches. In this video, you can see them at work and hear more about what they liked about working with PTC.

(Psst. Go over and give them a thumbs up on their YouTube page if you like the video and the whole idea of a new generation getting excited about design and engineering. Go MARS/WARS!)

And by “old CAD design,” we mean a model developed by someone else, perhaps long ago. Someone who—despite your best efforts—you have no idea what they were thinking.

You may find yourself asking:

“How are these features related?”

“Why are these features related?”

“I’m going to miss my deadline, aren’t I?”

We can’t answer those first two questions here, but if you’re a PTC Creo Parametric user, we can tell you that don’t have to miss another deadline because of a perplexing old CAD model.

The PTC Creo Flexible Modeling Extension is for PTC Creo users like you who start with legacy models, make changes late in the design cycle, jump into projects mid-cycle, or work with files that have lost any memory of their design intent. It allows you to modify files no matter their constraints or relations.

Recently, we hosted a webcast that explores the PTC Creo Flexible Modeling Extension in depth. It was an excellent discussion of design flexibility and an overview of what the tool looks like. It demonstrates how you can work with files from other systems. You’ll also see how to make late changes and easily defeature a model for analysis.

If you’re a Creo PTC Parametric user, and you haven’t yet started using the Flexible Modeling Extension, see what it can do for you by signing up for and streaming the recorded webcast here.

Register now for a free PTC Creo Hands-On Workshop in a city near you. At the event, you’ll be guided through PTC Creo Parametric and the new apps, extensions and capabilities of the award-winning design suite. An introductory presentation will be followed by the opportunity for you to test drive the software.

PTC will be running two identical 3-hour sessions starting at 9:00 AM or 1:00 PM (complimentary lunch will be served from 12-1 PM).  When registering, please choose the session most convenient for you.

Dates and Locations:

• Dallas, TX (May 29)
• Houston, TX (May 31)
• Huntsville, AL (June 3)
• Detroit, MI (June 5)
• Washington, DC (June 7)

Workstations are limited and will be filled on a first come, first serve basis. Please register no later than May 24^th.  For more information about the events and to reserve your seat, go to the registration page. 

Sample Agenda:

Core Design:

• User Interface
• Modeling

Assembly:

• Lightweight Graphics
• Component Assembly

Detail Design:

• Evolutionary Design
• Late Stage Design Change
• 3rd Party Data Import
• Sheet metal Design

Extended options:

• Creo Sketch
• Freeform Concept Design
• 2D Concept Design
• Simulation

Padmini VNA Mechatronics is a privately held company in India that designs and manufactures automobile components like valves, sensors, and vacuum pumps. It uses PTC Creo for design. Many of its products are developed within the company’s own R&D, manufacturing, and test facilities. The company is considered small to medium, depending on your criteria, with somewhere between 100 and 200 employees.

Padmini Product Range

Traditionally, much larger and more dispersed companies invest in data management. They add hardware, consulting, and extensive training to efficiently version and secure CAD files. They use PDM enterprise software to make sure that multiple engineers can retrieve and work safely on product files without overwriting each others’ work.

Many smaller companies would say it’s too soon for a company like Padmini to think about a professional data management tool, especially since most of its work is done in house. Would you agree?

Padmini did not. It decided it wanted the big company benefits of a PDM system. So it added PTC Windchill PDMLink, a system scaled to medium-sized companies.

It was a smart move for Padmini.

The company works with a customer list that would make Don Draper tremble: General Motors, Honeywell, Hyundai, Renault. In all, Padmini ships more than 50 different products to OEMs in the US, Europe, China, Russia, Iran, and beyond.

It’s a complex business, with little room for error and tough competition. But with the PTC solutions, Padmini says it’s cut its already lean product development time by 15% and increased information sharing by 25%.

As a company that aims “to provide world-class service in meeting global customers’ expectations in terms of quality, delivery, and prices,” Padmini’s decision to implement PDM is keeping it on top. Turns out, it’s never too soon to get ahead of the competition.

Image courtesy of Padmini VNA Mechatronics.

The center, which will open in the fall 2013 semester as part of the College of Engineering, will serve as an educational tool related to engineering and manufacturing, said BU spokesman Colin Riley.

“The College of Engineering and [ENG] Dean [Kenneth] Lutchen have received an $18 million in-kind gift in software from PTC,” Riley said. “That software is the latest and greatest in manufacturing.”

The donation is the largest ENG has ever received, Lutchen said.

“It really validates the exciting ways in which we’re going to try to educate the engineers of the future of the United States and the world and continue to innovate technologies and products,” he said.

PTC donated two types of software, Lutchen said. The first allows students to create a virtual three-dimensional design of potential products [PTC Creo], while the second allows students to manage the development and eventual manufacturing and marketing of the product [PTC Windchill].

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