This morning, the Local Motors website got a little bit of an update. As speculated yesterday, the automotive-centric design community is getting some software lovin’ from Siemens PLM in the form of a new software release. Solid Edge Design1. This new iteration of Solid Edge is a scaled down version of the full-blown synchronous modeling tool and with it comes a little catch.
Whilst walking down the path, she found the cracks within the garden wall expanding and contracting with a vibrant rhythm. Not only had she just noticed this, when a wee rabbit popped its head through a larger crack, turning its head toward her saying, “I am made of fur and kinks, but look in my…
The Rally Fighter by Local Motors. Image via SiemensPLM
Collaborative innovation is the name of the game and both Seimens PLM and Dassualt are knocking at the door of co-creating possibility. Except it’s less possibility and more actuality. This week both companies have revealed their plans to take collaboration to another a place where you can snuggle up with like-minded people via the warm glow of the web browser to develop ideas. Dassualt dished out their dreams at the Dassault Systemes Customer Conference (DSCC). Friday, Siemens PLM has their big announcement about a collaborative engineering effort with Local Motors, with whom they recently formed a Partnership for a “Revolutionary Crowdsourcing Design Approach.” Here’s how it all breaks down.
I awoke Tuesday morning to a disturbance in my inbox. Seven press releases from reverse-engineering software developer, Geomagic. Apparently they had released something… or a few somethings. Indeed they had. Their entire product line received a fresh, new update in the form of Geomagic Studio 2012, Geomagic Wrap 2012 and Geomagic Qualify 2012. Geomagic creates software that allows you to take scanned data and convert it into ussable 3D data across programs like SpaceClaim, SolidWorks Creo Elements/Pro, Inventor and CATIA. Here are the juicy bits from the geometry lovin’ magic makers.
Who cares about the Cloud, when the ability to grab our models is out there? Virtually, that is, in a very awkward, ‘why is this sneeze guard in front of me’, ‘dangit I spilled the ranch dressing on the sunflower seeds’ type of way. Yet, as we fall down the rocky gorge of 3D software technology, with each sharp outcropping shattering another rib as we smile gleefully at the pain and possibility of unlimited data manipulating potential, the idea of direct interaction with our model becomes more real. All compounded and emotionally secured by endless iterations of 3D geometry that haunt our dreams throughout the night. Fabulous times. But, which way will it go? Will we touch the 3D data or will it simply see where we are and adapt accordingly? Or both?