Category Archives: PLM

PLM: Product Lifecycle Management software

3DVIA your iPod #55: “3DVIA Composer data sheet

This 3DVIA Composer screenshot shows how users can work in 3D and produce all the deliverables they need, including 2D line art…as compared to 2D-based tools like PTC Arbortext IsoDraw

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.

Kobayashi CAD

kobayashi

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 for, say, IsoDraw or unraveling a feature history, the only thoughts in my head would be “turkey or roast beef?” “Wrap or pasta salad?” That’s because those technical topics would be less relevant to me than the cookies and the desert tray.

OTOH (and you can see this coming a mile away, right?) if the training were to help me make my own product deliverables directly from CAD data, and the training was geared to me, a non-engineering, non-CAD user, well, that’s a different story.

I’d still try to stuff 59.5 cookies into my mouth in 12 minutes, but I’d be sitting in the first row, with every brain cell that wasn’t involved in chewing focused on the training.

So, Mark, it’s about the content. And about making content-creators feel useful. The food is just intellectual lubricant.

3DVIA your iPod #54: “3DVIA Safe”

3dvia-composer-podcast-for-cad-and-plm-users-episode-54-3dvia-safe

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 attention when Jonathan says, “You can’t even take a dimension.” Yet the visuals are unaffected by the 3DVIA Safe “brush”. Being able to do both things: deliver accessibility and security at the same time is a critical factor in encouraging wide dissemination of 3D data.

Thanks again to Jonathan for a compelling demonstration of this.

3DVIA your iPod #52: “3DVIA Check”

3DVIA Composer podcast for CAD and PLM users, episode 52, 3DVIA Composer clash

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, concentrate instead on the action in the product as Jonathan shows you how the 3DVIA Check add-on module can easily help you manage the service, assembly and disassembly of your products.

Finally, I’d like to mention again that we have a new discussion forum at forums.3dmojo.com. There is a growing community and discussion going on there. We’d love to have your participation.

Dassault Systèmes Announces 3DVIA Composer

3DVIA Composer logo

Today, just six short weeks after acquiring Seemage, Dassault Systèmes announced that the former Seemage product has been enhanced and rebranded as 3DVIA Composer. You can read all the exciting details in the press release included in this post.

I would also like to remind everyone that we have a new “mini” website devoted to 3DVIA Composer at http://www.3dviacomposer.com/. Also, our forums are up and running for discussion at http://forums.3dmojo.com/ and, of course, the blog posts and podcast series will continue here.

As part of this news, we have officially retired the Seemage name. So, if you see it anywhere, please let me know so we can remove it. I am enlisting the community’s help in this because it can be a little bit of fun, and there are so many, many places we used the name that I doubt we have found them all. (We sure did try, though.)