Category CAD

This week, Tod continues to build out his technical illustration that he started last week. He covers several options for ballooning the illustration, and then outputs the view to line art format.

Watch closely as he performs the following:

• Sets up the default balloon widthC
• Creates Bill Of Material id’s for different levels of the assembly
• Creates BOM id’s using part names and meta properties
• Controls the how the balloons are aligned
• Quickly changes the styling of the balloons
• Updates a view with his changes
• Outputs the view to an interactive line art (CGM4 or SVG) while controlling the desired line weights of outlines, silhouettes, and shadows

It takes Tod less then 5 minutes to cover these topics and generate a fully interactive technical illustration...

Here is yet another in-depth demonstration of a 3DVIA Composer integration to ENOVIA SmarTeam. This time you will see 3DVIA Sync Integration, 3DVIA Composer, CATIA, and ENOVIA SmarTeam all comimg together to create a very robust environment for creating, managing, and updating 3D animated content.

The example will show how SmarTeam meta data can be integrated into the 3DVIA Composer content, how the 3DVIA Composer file can be managed and updated by SmarTeam, and how CATIA modifications to the product structure can be automatically propagated into 3DVIA Composer.

Thanks again to Evgeniy Fedotov for the great sample integration and video.

 

Back in Episode #64, you saw a great example of the power of 3DVIA Sync Integration and the ease and speed by which a SmarTeam integration can be built.

This podcast shows another example of integrating 3DVIA Composer into ENOVIA SmarTeam, in particular the ability to update Composer data with meta data modifications. The combination of Composer’s XML structure, associative labels that reflect current meta data values, and the ability to tie it all together into SmarTeam provides exceptionally robust capabilities for just about any customer-specific integration requirement.

I am pleased to announce that 3DVIA Composer can be seen at the upcoming ENOVIA Americas Customer Conference, May 6-9 in the Orlando World Center Marriott.

Please be sure to stop buy the Dassault Systèmes booth at the ENOVIA Americas Customer Conference. Also, on Tuesday, May 6 @ 2:30 pm, stop by the Solutions Theater for a 3DVIA Composer presentation.

 

Back in podcast episode #44, you saw how easy it was to create complicated motion paths using the simple technique of combining assembly movements with part movements.

Yesterday I was browsing the 3dmojo forum, and I found a very good question posted by 3DComposter (clever and humorous username, by the way!). I thought the answer to this question would make a perfect podcast episode — how you can create a complicated motion path using very simple techniques.

Enjoy this podcast episode, and please feel free to continue posting questions to the forum. And if you have created any of your own interesting animation techniques, please feel free to share them with us by posting them directly into our forum under the “Share It” thread.

Newsflash: 3DVIA Composer has been added to the breakout session grid at COE!

Chris Williams, the General Manager of 3DVIA Enterprise, will host an in-depth session titled Revolutionizing Design Communication: Creating Product Information with 3DVIA Composer. This presentation and discussion will begin on Tuesday, April 29 at 4:30 pm, as part of the “COE Briefing Center #1” track, in the Australia 3 room. This news is so late-breaking that the COE website has not yet been updated with this information.

You may recall the Dewoitine D520 example that Laurent BEAUVAIS had created in 3DVIA Composer. Mr. BEAUVAIS had done a fantastic job of creating all of the views needed to show how to assemble the model plane — and this podcast episode will show you how easy it is to reuse those views and build an animation from them.

3DVIA Composer is all about giving you many ways to reuse and leverage your content, so that you can get your job done more quickly than ever before.

 

This blog post got me thinking about the way that technical illustrations have evolved over the past few years, from the days of airbrushing and photography to a new digital era of creating illustrations on a computer. It also got me thinking about a January 2008 article in Intercom magazine, entitled “Three-Dimensional Illustration for Technical Communicators” which has this to say about the evolution of technical illustrations from flat 2D images into robust 3D images:

“You don’t need to be a skilled illustrator to create effective 3-D graphics. Three-dimensional illustration allows the technical communicator to respond quickly to project changes and create imagery appropriate for most publications or multimedia...

We are often asked about whether 3DVIA Composer can be integrated into a PDM or PLM system. The answer, of course, is a resounding “yes”. With the power of 3DVIA Sync Integration and our open XML architecture, our customers have been able to create very robust integrations to their business systems such as Agile, SmarTeam, ENOVIA VPM, and many others. And the best part is that they were able to complete those integrations very quickly.

Jonathan RIONDET was in Dassault Systèmes Russia last week and had the chance to meet Evgeniy FEDOTOV, one of the application engineers for ENOVIA SmarTeam. To prove how easy it is to integrate 3DVIA Composer into SmarTeam, he was able to insert our free 3DVIA Player ActiveX control into SmarTeam, to enable 3DVIA Player as the viewer for SmarTeam...

Many people are familiar with this illusion of the “old lady, young lady” image. This old/new paradigm seems to be all the rage lately. On American television, we witness countless new reality shows featuring celebrities from the 80s and 90s, desperately trying to find new fame. While sometimes entertaining, there is also an embarrassing undertone to the shows, like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

It’s very similar to how PTC is reviving old Itedo Isodraw references and massaging them into wonderfully new Abortext Isodraw references. These retreads from the past, pure 2D technical illustration references, are being re-framed and re-branded as great new references that are fully leveraging 3D in new and innovative ways...

We have said this many times: visualization is not enough; viewing 3D geometry does not add any value to anybody, whatsoever!

That may sound like a provocative statement, but this humorous anecdote from clientcopia.com is a great example that not only is visualization not enough, it can be downright confusing.

Humor aside, it is not enough to simply look at a model on the screen, you need to learn something about that model. That model needs to tell you a story. So what matters most is context. When you can add additional product information to support the geometry, and can convey what should be done with that part and the ones around it, then you can tell a story and you can provide real value...

With apologies to our bilingual friends who have already seen this in a previous post, I am pleased to present to you a sample 3DVIA Composer file created by Laurent BEAUVAIS, a PLM Dassault Systèmes Consultant and also a big fan of fighter planes.

With his digital mockup of the Dewoitine D520 plane, Laurent created this assembly sequence during the weekend right after his first introduction to the product. (I especially like the part about how our users enjoy using 3DVIA Composer so much, that they like to use it in their spare time!)

That’s enough talking… click on the link below to download and explore this self executable file...

In a previous podcast, you watched Jonathan use 3DVIA Sync to automatically update his product deliverables. It is a very powerful demonstration, and I encourage you to watch it again.

This week, you will see a similar demonstration, but with a very key difference: all of the CAD conversion and publishing to 2D formats is done using 3DVIA Sync Integration. Using scripting and XML job file definitions, 3DVIA Sync Integration offers a powerful way to equip your PLM systems with the ability to automatically trigger the creation of 3DVIA Composer files and publish them into several deliverable formats.

Most importantly, with 3DVIA Sync Integration your PLM system can take engineering modifications and perform incremental updates to the 3DVIA Composer content, re-publish your deliverables, and...

On Tuesday, March 11, Technia, a 3DVIA Composer partner with several offices in Sweden, Finland, and Norway, will present a 3DVIA Composer webinar. They will also be holding a series of breakfast seminars in February and March. Details (in Swedesh) can be found in the PDF at the bottom of this post.

Technia breakfast meeting dates: 

February 26 in Göteborg
February 27 in Jönköping
February 28 in Karlskrona
February 29 in Örebro
March 4 in Stockholm
March 5 in Karlstad
March 7 in Sundsvall

For more infomation, please visit: http://www.technia.com/composer.

In Episode #54, Jonathan introduced 3DVIA Safe, and demonstrated how Secure 3D can be used to protect your intellectual property from reverse engineering. This week’s podcast shows another capability of 3DVIA Safe: “Right Manager”. Right Manager enables 3DVIA Composer authors to enable or disable certain functions in the 3DVIA Player.

Imagine if you had the flexibility to allow one 3DVIA Player user the ability to create cross-sections but not labels, or another user the ability to take measurements but not save them, or another user to only open the file for the next 10 days. With the Right Manager options of 3DVIA Safe, this flexibility becomes a reality. And not only can you set these options from within 3DVIA Composer, if you watch the previous podcast again, you will see Jon...

In any video program — podcast or network television — there’s occasionally a “can’t miss” episode. Number 57 — this episode — is one of those must see episodes.

In just about five minutes, this episode really puts it all together for you. Watch it over and over again to see the subtleties of what is going on and you’ll get the full understanding of what we mean by product information everyware.

In just a few minutes, Jonathan Riondet shows content creation, creating several deliverables so easily that it looks like one smooth motion. Then he shows how those deliverables can be automatically updated when the underlying product definition changes, such as when the CAD information changes. Of course, this data can be managed by a PLM system. And remember, we mean any 3D...

If it’s January, the entire SolidWorks community — both here in Concord and around the world — is gearing up for SolidWorks World in mid-January.

We’re very excited to participate in SWW again this year, this time as part of the SolidWorks family. So, be sure to look for 3DVIA Composer in the SolidWorks booth at the exhibit.

I also want to make sure you know about the in-depth session we are going to be delivering this year. It’s on Monday, January 21 at 4:30pm. The session title is Revolutionizing Design Communication: Creating Product Information with 3DVIA Composer.

In the session, we will have user of 3DVIA Composer will explain his implementation and how it has revolutionized their use of SolidWorks as a source for product publishing...

It is a real pleasure to begin yet another year with a new amazing demonstration of the power of product information everyware, as implemented by 3DVIA Composer.

One of the questions I hear almost every time we talk to CATIA users is, “what about metadata?” How does 3DVIA Composer re-use this critical CAD data when I want to create compelling product documentation directly from my CATIA V5 3D CAD data?”

And it’s an important question because that metadata — data about the 3D CAD data — is critical to producing accurate assembly instructions, technical illustrations and more. If you can’t easily get the data about the data from the digital product definition into your deliverables, then a significant piece of effectively automating the documentation process would be missing.

As you can ...

This week, I am putting a new data sheet for 3DVIA Composer into the podcast feed instead of our usual video “vignette”.

I wanted to make sure everyone has an opportunity to see it, as it contains the first screenshots we have published with the 3DVIA Composer UI. Past PDFs we have put into the podcast feed have been extremely popular.

The blog and podcast will return in early 2008. Until then, everyone at 3DVIA wishes you and yours a happy holiday season.

I expect that everyone has heard of Takeru Kobayashi, a Japanese competitive eater who until 2007 had won six consecutive hot-dog eating contests.

I mention Kobayashi (even though he has been dethroned by Joey “Jaws” Chestnut in the Nathan’s contest) because the image of people just wildly stuffing their faces popped into my head as I read Mark Kiker’s post on the caddmanager.com blog about CAD training, free food and the rules for making sure the people who come to a lunch-and-learn really are going to be there to learn.

Never one to pass up a good meal for free, even when I can’t make heads or tails of the content, I kinda, sorta sympathize with Mark’s plight.

On the other hand, the real cure is simple: make sure the training is something people care about.

If I got a training invite fo...

This week, Jonathan gives us a compelling overview of 3DVIA Safe, technology that is part of 3DVIA Composer which absolutely, positively guarantees that users of 3DVIA Composer-generated data will not be able to copy it and abuse your design’s intellectual property.

Think about it for a moment: if we are really moving to an era in which 3D information becomes as commonplace as text, how are we going to secure this information? If everyone has 3D product data, how do we protect our digital product definition? After all, digital product data today is the product in many respects.

3DVIA Composer’s answer is that you do it in a way that encourages the use of the data but which makes it impossible for those uses to be diverted in ways that endanger the digital definition.

Pay special atte...

This week’s podcast episode is courtesy of super-AE Tod Cruikshank who demonstrates some nifty options and techniques for making superior animations in 3DIVA Composer.

I was especially impressed with how Tod demonstrates the ability to have the rings appear in the animation, then “settle in” to the proper slots on the piston.

As always, we hope you enjoy this video episode. I also want to invite people to our new discussion forums, where increasing numbers of people are participating. Please go there (or post a comment here) to thank Tod for this episode (and to ask him to create more!).

Next Wednesday, December 12 at 14:30 CET, Idé-Pro, a 3DVIA Composer partner based in Copenhagen, will present a 3DVIA Composer webinar.

Details (in Danish) are in the PDF you can download at the bottom of this post. For those who do not speak Danish, you might want to join in anyway to see the 3DVIA Composer demonstration, as our intrepid colleague, Garth Coleman, will deliver the demonstration in English.

You can register for the webinar (or watch a replay later) here. We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

I was reading, and frankly, not completely understanding, this very interesting story in the MIT Technology Review about the creation of 3D particles in a new chemical process and it got me to thinking about the “end state” of ubiquitous 3D.

I wondered what the cultural and business meaning is of particles with “precisely structured internal parts”, a sort of 3D chemistry that expands 3DVIA Composer’s “product information everyware” vision in ways we’ve never thought about before.

What if the vision isn’t just about 3D for everyone, but becomes instead 3D chemistry in everyone? 

When microfluidics can efficiently make “particles with exquisite internal structure” don’t we have a classic assembly? Would there be a product tree for these particles?

It’s fun to speculate about what a ...

I am very pleased to be able to bring yet another video episode to you today. You may notice that while the name of the podcast has changed to reflect our new branding, the actual video was recorded by Jonathan using the product formerly known as Seemage. (Prince fans, please forgive me.) That’s because we prepare these episodes in advance of their publication. With our hectic schedules,  the podcast contributors record episodes when they can, and I select the order in which we present them. The content is so good and has been so popular that I think it’s better to share episodes recorded before we shipped 3DVIA Composer than to waste these fascinating looks at the capabilities 3DVIA Composer offers.

So, with that offered as an explanation for what you see in the menus, concen...