Cadalyst - December 2007 - (Page 16)

techtrends The Autodesk Digital Workﬂow At the recent Autodesk Manufacturing Summit in Paris, Autodesk product managers demonstrated how manufacturers might tackle the various stages of digital prototyping using the company’s products. Here’s what they’ve proposed: solutions and one of the most vocal advocates of digital prototyping, acknowledged, “No one is going to take the number of physical prototypes down to zero. No one would want to fly in an airplane that has never been fly-tested before in real life. Our contention is that, the more you can iterate digitally, the less iterations happen on the shop floor. The shop floor is not a good place to innovate. It’s for solving problems.” Jones pointed out, “Until now, you’d always have to make a physical model to study lighting, because you could never model it properly. But the real-time ray-tracing features that are becoming available now let you create a fully functioning digital model with realistic light bounces and reflections.” In August, Autodesk acquired Opticore, which provides real-time ray-tracing though its Opticore Autodesk AliasStudio for exploring design concepts, from initial sketches to 3D digital models Autodesk Showcase for creating photorealistic, high-resolution renderings for presentation and decision making Autodesk Inventor for creating an accurate 3D engineering digital model, for dynamic simulation, for thermal and stress analyses, and for exchanging data with AutoCAD AutoCAD Mechanical for creating digital documentation of mechanical design work AutoCAD Electrical for creating 3D electrical connectivity schematics Autodesk Vault and Autodesk ProductStream for managing engineering data Opus Realizer and Opus Studio products. Currently, AliasStudio offers ray tracing through software rendering features. The one place where the digital prototype falls short, Jones admitted, “is the sense of scale.” The Eiffel Tower may be the best argument for that. You cannot take a walk around the base of a digital Eiffel, as you can with the real one, to marvel at its enormous scope and breadth. On the other hand, if you’re building something as monumental as the Eiffel, creating a life-size functional physical mockup probably is a ludicrous proposition. For more information on digital prototyping, see “Virtual Reality” by Jeffrey Rowe, published in the MCAD Tech News newsletter on March 2, 2006. c Cadalyst contributing editor Kenneth Wong explores the innovative use of technology and its implications. E-mail him at Kenneth.Wong at cadalyst.com. make the TM Choose Colortrac SmartLF Large Format Scanners Optimized for YOUR Technical or Graphic Needs Smart Choice. ONLY COLORTRAC gives you a choice of scanning technology customized for your specific wide format applications. 888.722.6434 www.geiwideformat.com © 2007, GEI WideFormat is a trademark of Graphic Enterprises Inc., sole North American authorized distributor for Colortrac SmartLF, trademarks of Colortrac Ltd. 16 December 2007 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com http://www.geiwideformat.com http://www.geiwideformat.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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