With the advent of the new multi-function printers from HP, whoever said, “Paper is dead?” Not me. With these new printers, paper has a long life ahead of it for communication in the MCAD community.

More information about the HP Graphics Solutions portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/designjet


The Week’s Top 5

At MCADCafé we track many things, including the stories that have attracted the most interest from our subscribers. Below are the five news items that were the most viewed during last week.

i GET IT Provides Engineering Knowledge Management Support for Ford Motor Company
i GET IT announced its support of Ford Motor Company's global "Next Generation" release of CAD/CAM/CAE/PIM (C3P-NG) software tools. i GET IT is an engineering knowledge management portal that allows Ford's Digital Innovation group to deliver all global C3P-NG methods through a single access point. Methods content can be configured to support the specific needs of individuals or groups and delivered to each user's custom learning path. Accessed by over 6,000 people and 100 suppliers globally, Ford utilizes i GET IT to deliver podcasts, process workflows, and a threaded discussion board in addition to internally developed C3P-NG tool usage methodology documentation. The latest C3P-NG release provides the collaborative tools needed to drive One Ford behavior (One Team, One Plan, One Goal), which Ford believes is critical to their global success. i GET IT supports the challenge by providing a single web based application for the secure acquisition and transfer of engineering knowledge assets such as methods, best practices, and other forms of implicit engineering knowledge.

DS SolidWorks Surpasses One Million Licenses
DS SolidWorks announced that an athletic equipment company has bought the one millionth license of its 3D CAD software. In the 14 years between this landmark and DS SolidWorks’ first sale to a robotic arm designer, thousands of innovative products have been developed with SolidWorks software. Utah-based OGIO International, Inc. bought license number one million for aluminum design engineer Sean Peterson, who is working on OGIO’s new line of motocross racing accessories. Peterson will use SolidWorks software to design products such as ramps, stands, and hardware for motocross bikes. OGIO is famous for designing creative and edgy athletic bags with innovative features like the zipper-less ball pocket on its golf bags. The company’s designers use SolidWorks software to model injection-molded plastic pieces such as carrying handles, wheels, and golf bag frames. OGIO has been a SolidWorks customer for four years. The company brought CAD in-house so its designers didn’t have to rely on a third party’s interpretation of a sketch to produce a 3D model. Jon Hirschtick founded the company in 1993 to provide Windows-based 3D CAD software that offered sophisticated features and functionality in a reasonably priced, easy-to-use format. Dr. William Townsend’s then-new company, Barrett Technology Inc., was SolidWorks’ first customer. Fourteen years later, Barrett’s WAM robotic arm is now in every major university and has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most advanced robot.

Green Ocean Energy Harvests Power of Ocean Waves With Autodesk Inventor
Autodesk has named Green Ocean Energy Ltd. (Green Ocean), a renewable energy company headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for April 2009. Green Ocean used Autodesk Inventor in the development of the Ocean Treader and Wave Treader, floating devices that convert the motion of the ocean into clean, renewable energy. The Ocean Treader is much like a buoy with a pair of arms, and is meant to be moored one to two miles offshore in open water. The Wave Treader shares a similar design but is intended to be mounted on the base of a static offshore structure, such as a wind turbine or tidal turbine. Both devices work on the same principle: as the ocean causes the floating arms to rise and fall, the motion is harvested by hydraulic cylinders that generate electricity, which can then be exported back to shore via cable. The Inventor of the Month program recognizes the most innovative design and engineering advancements made by the extensive community using Autodesk Inventor software - the foundation of the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping. One of the primary challenges Green Ocean faced was building a device that could withstand the rough waters of the North Atlantic, where wave heights range from a relatively small six to 10 feet, to as much as 30 feet during winter storms. Every working part of the Ocean Treader needed to be thoroughly analyzed and tested to help make it have the strength to survive in such a powerful and dynamic environment. These models have allowed the company to prove its concept through extensive indoor wave-pool testing. The team is currently raising funds to develop a full-size prototype to start offshore testing in 2011.

CAD Schroer delights Linux community with FREE 2D/3D CAD package
CAD Schroer today announced growth in the user base for MEDUSA4 Personal, the 2D/3D CAD product suite for private use. The company logged twice as many new users in the first quarter of 2009 as in the same period last year. Linux users outnumber Windows users in over half of the 109 countries of origin. They are voicing their appreciation of a fully featured CAD product that runs on their platform of choice. MEDUSA4 Personal is a fully featured advanced drafting system with smart editing and drafting power tools, basic 3D, parametrics, and a sheet metal design module. It supports Windows as well as six different Linux distributions (CentOS, Fedora, Mandriva, RedHat, SuSE, and Ubuntu). The percentage of Linux users among the MEDUSA4 Personal audience varies significantly from country to country, and totals approximately 35%. While in Germany, the top download location, about 13% of users work with Linux. In Italy, the second largest download group, Linux users outnumber Windows users by nearly three to one. To run MEDUSA4 Personal, users register to receive their free 6-month license. This can be renewed via the CAD Schroer Website, giving designers the opportunity to download the latest release. MEDUSA4 Personal is regularly updated in line with the professional MEDUSA4 software releases. Download MEDUSA4 Personal for free at:
http://www.cad-schroer.com/index.php?ziel=Products-MEDUSA-M4Personal&ref=pr0903_m4p

Graphics Systems Launches FEA Consulting Division
Graphics Systems Corporation (GXSC), a provider of SolidWorks engineering software solutions, announced the launch of its design analysis and consulting division, Sim3 Engineering Consulting. Sim3 was created in response to customer demand for product analysis to improve designs, reduce material costs, and design safer products. Sim3 specializes in assisting companies to improve products using finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), kinematic studies, and design optimization. Sim3 Engineering Consulting is comprised of an expert analysis team with over 40 years of combined experience in automotive, consumer, industrial, and other industries. By establishing strong customer relationships through in-depth and cutting-edge analysis and software, Sim3's mission is to help companies test, analyze, and modify designs to create the best products for their customers.


Jeffrey Rowe is the editor of MCADCafé and MCAD Weekly Review. He can be reached at Email Contact or 408.850.9230.



This Week

Lead Story

HP Printers Prove That Paper Still Rules in MCAD


Product and Company News

DS Reports Q1 2009 Financial Results In Line With Preliminary Announcement

PTC Announces Q2 Results

ANSYS, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2009 Results and Updates Outlook

CPDA Releases Report on Requirements-Driven Product Development

ANSYS 12.0 High-Performance Computing Capabilities Mean More Productive Use of Engineering Simulation

DS SolidWorks Extends Support for SolidWorks 3D CAD Software

SME Honors Rapid Prototyping Practitioners and Researchers at RAPID 2009



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-- Jeff Rowe, MCADCafe.com Contributing Editor.