3DVIA tagged posts

In this week’s episode, Jonathan manages to show two amazing things about Seemage in less than two minutes. First, there is the search function, which allows you to rapidly find anything you need in a Seemage model.

More interestingly, by showing that it’s possible to search a Seemage model for metadata without having the part’s geometry loaded, Jonathan is making clear a fundamental point about Seemage: that Seemage is a property editor.  Anything (and everything) in Seemage is simply a property. So, if you want to search for a part number, it’s not dependent on the geometry.

It takes some thinking to grasp the concept, but once you do it’s clear why Seemage is both powerful and fast.

Thanks again to Jonathan for this week’s episode.

In high tech circles, Geoffrey Moore’s 1991 book, Crossing the Chasm, is considered gospel. In it, Moore talks about the stages of technology adoption and groups users into stages based on their relative enthusiasm for new technologies. The last (and largest) group of people to receive the benefits of any new technology are the “late adopters”.

I been thinking about what I heard Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks say at DS’s industry analyst event last week. Jeff said that the opportunity to convert users from 2D is orders of magnitude larger than winning customers from competitors. (On that point, the competition is seriously left in the dust based on what I’ve seen of SolidWorks 2008).

Then, last week, I came across this very interesting article by Luke Davis from Cadalyst which is clearly tar...

This week’s episode demonstrates an important capability in Seemage: application integration. In this video, you will notice that Seemage is being used to integrate 3D data with procedural information in a custom application. The application includes the business logic required to prevent users from making errors or skipping parts of the process. Notice also in the video how the XML architecture of Seemage improves the creation of these product procedures.

This video illustrates that when we talk about content authoring in Seemage, it is not limited to production of PDFs and Word documents, or even the planet’s best product animations. It includes programmability. It’s a pretty amazing capability of Seemage, and one customers are increasingly taking advantage of.

This week’s podcast episode has three related and interesting things to see(mage).

First, Jonathan shows us how to hide parts. This is useful not only to reduce file size, but also to make it easier to work on create documentation for the specific function or part of the product desired.

Next, Jonathan shows us how to manually reduce the accuracy of the product data to secure the intellectual property contained in that digital data. While this can be useful, Seemage offers an even better way.

Jonathan demonstrates Seemage Secure3D technology to quickly and easily secure the IP while also displaying parts and assemblies correctly.

We hope you enjoy this video podcast episode and my thanks again to Jonathan Riondet for the recording.

 

This week’s episode is, as they say in the movies, a blockbuster.

Jonathan Riondet’s topic this week is deceptively simple: applying styles to Seemage content. You will be impressed with the ease and flexibility Seemage styles offer.

But then, about 2 minutes into this episode, things get very interesting: You witness the power of the XML-based architecture of Seemage as Jonathan changes the display language of the graphical image via modification of the external XML style information.

Consider the importance of this: automatic display of content in local language based, for example, on the language in use on the desktop. Being able to programmatically add languages whenever necessary. Elimination of reams of printed versions of product documentation.

This episode is an extraordina...

This week Jonathan Riondet elaborates on one of the features that users consistently tell us makes Seemage so useful: the ability to substantially reduce the size of files. In this example, Jonathan shows how to take an already-small Seemage file and by cloning geometry in the file, reduce the size of the Seemage file even more.

Many of you may remember the rock band called Talking Heads. And you may also remember their famous movie, Stop Making Sense, in which lead singer David Bryne appears onstage in an ill-fitting “big suit.”

Both the title of the film and the fit of the clothes pretty aptly describe what we think of Parametric Technology’s announcement of a “comprehensive, out-of-the-box solution for creating, publishing and delivering technical service manuals.”

We wonder why you need four separate applications – none of which are widely-deployed standards – to author content. Will tech writers prefer Microsoft^® Word^® or Arbortext^® Editor^tm? How eager do you think users are to learn a new text editing tool? PTC’s press release says, “The success of any new solution hinges on an organizationâ€...

This week, our podcast episode demonstrates Seemage’s technological superiority in creating animations directly from 3D data. This episode, recorded by Franck Soulier (thank you, Franck!), shows how to create movement in Seemage animations.

I especially like that the object being animated here is a relatively simple thing: a skate board. This allows you to focus on the steps Franck uses to make that simple thing do something that is fairly complex: rotate and flip in space.

The real beauty of Seemage is that getting results like these is well within the capabilities of most users: you do not need to be an engineer or designer. Simple actions, sequenced on a simple-to-understand time line, make creating Seemage animations fast and easy.

Franck’s demonstration is a good example of ...

Whenever we get a chance, we take the opportunity to share our product information everyware vision with industry analysts and journalists. Having been part of those meetings for a year now, there’s a consistent reaction when the product architecture behind our vision becomes clear to the analyst or journalist: they have an epiphany.

Last week, an analyst we were briefing had the classic full-body reaction and, suddenly, he grokked Seemage. Then he said, “But unless you explain this more, you won’t ever become famous for your architecture.”

Our response? People don’t (or shouldn’t) buy IT architectures. They do (and should) buy products...

This week Jonathan Riondet shows how content creators have complete control of the presentation of 3D information. In addition to the main points about view control, there are some interesting things to notice in this week’s episode.

We start with SolidWorks, once again featuring our new integration with this popular design system. Next, you will notice the Jonathan is using Seemage Viz. I think this might be the first time we’ve shown Seemage Viz in the podcast, and Jonathan shows how very useful Seemage Viz is for content creators. Seemage Viz is the entry-level Seemage application.

Finally, Jonathan shows us the results in a PDF. This makes a point visually that we often write about: that PDF is nothing more than a container…a convenient transmission medium...

Today, Seemage and Dassault Systèmes announced that Seemage has become a CAA V5 partner, ensuring tighter integration between Seemage and Dassault technologies. Download the complete press release using the link below.

We’re back from a long holiday weekend here in the US, and I wanted to pick up the discussion thread started last week when we posted our assertion that the file translation problem has been solved.

Articulating that fact resulted in this comment from Deelip Menezes:

In the response to Scott Shepard, Alex says, “the manic focus on converting things obscures the need to do something with the info”. I could not agree more. I have a small question though. How the hell are you going to do something worthwhile with the info if you do not have the correct info to begin with?

With apologies to Deelip, I don’t want to get pulled into the sub-topic of file-format conversion accuracy, because that is, ahem, a religious war without solution.

Suffice it to say that I am happy to use a digital came...

This week’s Seemage podcast episode is presented by Franck Soulier who demonstrates Seemage Path Planning. First, Franck shows how Seemage can solve an abstract problem very easily: the path a ball must take to get out of a maze. That alone would make this a gripping video to watch. But then Franck goes further to show us a real-life application: how to remove parts in a maintenance situation.

Don’t you wish the engineer who put spark plug #8 under the air intake in your car had used Seemage path planning? I certainly do.

Thanks so much to Franck for the great video, and as always, we welcome your comments on this podcast and our blog in general.

We are very pleased to post here an unabridged version of the article Gordon Benson of NACCO Materials wrote for Machine Design magazine.

As you read Gordon’s paper, we hope you will agree that the issues and challenges Gordon describes are universal no matter what CAD and/or PLM system your company uses, and that his approach to solving those problems in his company is applicable to your company as well.

Gordon places special emphasis on the ROI of better product documentation, something we believe is more and more evident inside manufacturing companies today. It’s the kind of thing you might expect software vendors to talk about. But it’s so much more authentic reading Gordon’s perspective than simply hearing it from us.

We want to thank Gordon for allowing us to post the original...

Here at Seemage, we marvel at the amount of time and energy people spend thinking about file format conversions. In a nutshell, we believe this is a solved problem…that people who want or need to convert file formats can and do, easily and accurately.

We think the real issue isn’t about conversion…it’s about content creation. Customers tell us they need technology to allow departments outside engineering and design to create useful, accurate product deliverables. Our customers’ real challenge is to make it possible for end-users to achieve this in a compatible, secure way. (Naturally, we think Seemage matches this customer need perfectly.)

So, it never ceases to amaze me when I read a review of a product whose entire purpose…its complete market aspiration…its raison d’être is ...

Seemage is pleased to announce that Snecma Services is using Seemage as a vital part of its training and educational services. Read the press release below.

I was reading the “Engineers without Fears” blog and came across this post in which Matt Moore describes some of the core issues that arise in documenting very complex products, especially their long lifespan and the need to transfer information from one person to another over multiple careers.

Matt summarizes the problem succinctly:

Powerplants and fighter planes tend to be expensive and have long lifespans (as long or longer than the career of individual). Given that a proper understanding of how a complicated product operates takes a long time to build (often 10 years minimum), knowing who knows what around a specific component or assembly is vital. And yet often it is not known.

We agree these are important issues...

I was reading the PLM-oriented blog at http://www.plmsavvy.org/ (it’s not really a .org) and ran across this post about a CIMdata PLM survey.

Both the blogger (hey, you should sign your posts with a real name) and CIMdata miss what I think is the most imporant point.

Simply: over 60% of respondents did not say that “PLM was enabling business processes” (see CIMdata’s written analysis of the poll at the newsletter archive here). Instead, CIMdata adds together two minorities that answered different, unrelated questions to reach the conclusion that “This combined 60% reflect that PLM has become more than just an engineering solution – it is important to the entire business.”

The blogger at plmsavvy...

This week’s podcast shows in less than four minutes several amazing features of Seemage that we talk about all the time. Watch closely as Jonathan shows you how to combine BOM information with CAD models to produce very flexible documentation, including — and this always impresses me — technical illustrations directly from 3D CAD data.

This short podcast episode clearly shows why we believe there’s nothing else available that unites CAD, PLM, ERP and other enterprise systems as quickly, compatibly and easily as Seemage. In short, you can see major proof of our product information everware slogan right in this short video snippet.

If you’d like to see more, please register for a webinar replay here. Thanks for taking a look and donwloading this podcast.

On July 19, we held a live webinar session that was very well-received. I sent a link to watch the Flash recording of the webinar to those who’d signed up for the live presentation but who weren’t able to attend.

And an amazing thing happened: in addition to the people who got a chance to watch the webinar they’d missed, we noticed that people to whom we had not sent the invite were watching the replay — and forwarding the link along to others to watch it .

So, we’re going to do the obvious: put the link up here in our blog. Please consider this an invitation to register for the replay, even if you didn’t previously sign up to watch the live presentation...

 

This week, Jonathan shows us one of the more astonishing capabilities of Seemage: the ability to update content with revised or changed geometry.

Because Seemage can quickly and easily integrate change into content, you never have to wait for the CAD changes or for a PLM system update to prepare product content. Instead of documenting the product when it’s “done” (if it ever really is), you can create content at any stage. Then, when the PLM and/or CAD system information is updated, simply update your Seemage content.

Consider the case where you are writing a service procedure in which a part has to be removed. Seemage makes it clear there a clash or other problem. You can easily make engineering aware of the service impact, then integrate the change as soon as it’s ready.

To see a...

This week, Jonathan demonstrates (in less than 2 minutes!) how accurate and easy measurements are in Seemage. Pay special attention to the end of this podcast when Jonathan compares the Seemage measurements to the original measurements taken on the part in CATIA. As you would expect, they are identical. This demonstrates Seemage’s ability to accurately produce product deliverables in full fidelity to the original design.

Once again, there are two versions of this podcast: an AVI file (that requires the free TechSmith codec to play in Windows Media) and an iPod-formatted (and slightly smaller) version for our subscribers in iTunes.

Thanks again to Jonathan and we hope you enjoy the podcast.

This week, Jonathan Riondet shows us something new in Seemage 4.2: the ability to very flexibly manage coordinate systems. Using a CATIA V5 file, Jonathan imports the part directly into Seemage and then does some amazing things with the coordinate systems.

As has become our recent habit, I’ve posted both an .avi file which is both larger in size and bigger in resolution as well as a .m4v file, which iPod subscribers to our feed in iTunes can download directly onto their iPod.

We thank you for your interest in the new series of podcasts showing interesting capabilities in Seemage and, as always, welcome your comments.

Our founder, Eric Piccuezzu, forwarded a link to me last week from my old friends at Business Advantage in the UK who’ve recently posted a new report. This one details a finding that 88% of the people surveyed by CAD Spaghetti have never heard of PLM.

You won’t be surprised to hear that we believe the reason is because PLM is more a concept than a product in many cases and the term itself is repeatedly redefined by whomever is using it. I think it’s also because people don’t spend time deploying something that requires enormous commitments in advance of delivering real benefit to end-users.

In contrast, Seemage people often talk about how our products deliver on the “promise of PLM”...

When we talk with customers or present Seemage to new prospects, we consistently hear several things. One is the very high result-to-effort ratio. This week’s video podcast, once again courtesy of Jonathan Riondet, makes that point beautifully.

In less than three minutes, Jonathan shows how to annotate an assembly using many different sources and styles of annotations, including the ability to create annotations from data contained in PLM systems. As Jonathan says in the audio recording, this is a very important point.

Even more subtly, in this podcast, Jonathan is showing one of the underlying architectural reasons Seeemage is so fast, flexible and easy to learn and use. That underlying idea is that everything in Seemage — be it geometry, annotations or anything else — is just a set of p...