Cadalyst - December 2007 - (Page 14)

techtrends World Press Day in San Francisco but still reverberating in Paris recently, were “There’re only three companies that have PLM problems, and you know who they are [Dassault, PTC, and UGS].” Stripped of the semantics, what Autodesk calls digital prototyping and what Dassault calls product system simulation may well be quite similar, but Autodesk isn’t about to use its competitors’ language to advocate its products. Bits and Bytes Replace Clay “Every car is designed using our software,” Bass asserted during his presentation in Paris. Known for its ability to create Class A surfaces with a high degree of curvature continuity, AliasStudio has become the standard 3D modeling tool in automotive design. At Renault, for example, moviemaking has become an integral part of the automotive design workflow. For design proposals and project presentations, Renault uses a combination of AliasStudio (for modeling), Maya (for animation), and Mental Ray (for rendering) to produce high-quality cinematic sequences that show new car models racing across photographic backgrounds or virtual environments. These movies are the basis for Renault executives’ decision-making process. In fact, the footage is so realistic that Renault sometimes has to screen a sequence showing something physically impossible — a car with deflated tires spinning at an odd angle, for example — to convince the skeptics that what they’re looking at is a virtual vehicle, not a finished model. “Last year alone, we produced more than 3,000 movies,” Denis Visconte, Renault’s general manager of digital desing development process, verified. Those movies also save Renault a significant number of physical models it would have had to produce and present to the decision makers. Christopher Dupont, Renault’s director of design development process, estimated, “Producing a physical, scale-one model in clay requires from two to three months for a team of five, whereas a digital model requires the same time but can be produced by a single person” (“Renault Design Combines Alias Tools and Physical Models to Create the Optimum Design Process,” July 12, 2004, www.autodesk.com). Each clay model could cost $1 million or more, estimated Autodesk’s Jones. New TurboCAD® Pro 14 includes all the powerful and innovative technology you need to create stunning designs – for less. • Hundreds of 2D /3D Drafting and Modeling Tools • New Google™ SketchUp Support • Import/Export support of 30+ CAD and graphics formats including, DWG, DXF, STEP, IGES, DGN, 3DS and export to PDF • D-Cubed Geometric and Dimensional Constraints • ACIS® 3D Solid Modeling • LightWorks® Photorealistic Rendering To order by phone call 1-800-833-8082 or visit www.turbocad.com For a 15-day free trial, go to www.turbocadtrial.com/CA For Windows® XP and Vista TurboCAD Technology Partners VI SIT US ONLI N E © 2007 IMSI. All rights reserved. TurboCAD and the IMSI Design logos are trademarks of IMSI/ Design, LLC. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Design’s Ecological Footprint Can Autodesk products — or any CAD software packages, for that matter — play a role in spawning green 14 December 2007 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com http://www.turbocad.com http://www.turbocad.com http://www.turbocadtrial.com/ca http://www.autodesk.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - December 2007

Cadalyst - December 2007 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Autodesk Gets Digital Top Honors - Saluting Outstanding CAD Products NX 5, Part 2 — CAD/CAM/CAE Software Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 —3D Modeling, Animation, and Rendering Software Document Management: Is It Still Valid? Standardizing 3D Modeling Nomenclature Share and Share Alike Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Cad Fidential

Cadalyst - December 2007

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