plm-system tagged posts

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...

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...

Last week at the PLM Road Map 2007 conference, Gordon Benson of NMHG gave a presentation on his company’s success in using product information in many different areas of their operations. Gordon has kindly consented to allowing us to post the presentation here for you to browse.

I picked the slide you see here to be the graphic image for this post because it summarizes why Seemage is in business: to help companies share and reuse this fundamental information. By the way, it also shows how manufacturers are beginning to realize and respond to the impact digital product definition data has on their operations.

Gordon presented this information in a way that draws on his many years of experience working with technology companies...

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...

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...

This is the second of two posts demonstrating the new integration of Seemage with SolidWorks.

Of note in this video is Jonathan’s demonstration of the ability to access all the detailed user information that was originally in the SolidWorks model directly in Seemage.

Read our press release announcing the integration here. Sign up to attend our free webinar on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 showing SolidWorks and Seemage integration here.

To play the .avi file, you will need a TechSmith codec, available here.

This week we have a special two-part podcast. In this post and the next, Jonathan Riondet features our new integration with SolidWorks, which as you will see, is as easy to use as making a menu selection.

In this first part, Jonathan shows some animation capabilities using a SolidWorks model. In passing, he mentions something that I think is very important: that the Seemage file created by the free plug-in can be opened in any Seemage product, including the free Seemage Player.

We’re very excited about Seemage’s integration with SolidWorks. You can read our press release announcing the integration here. Also, on Wednesday, August 29, we are holding a free webinar that will demonstrate the integration between Seemage and SolidWorks. Attendees are eligible for a free copy of Seemage Viz...

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.

This week for our 40th episode (!!), Jonathan shows a capability in Seemage that we all know would lead to better product quality: the ability to detect serviceability issues. Seemage Interactive Clash makes it quick and easy for users who must document (and use!) service procedures to see exactly what will happen under various circumstances. We’ve all opened the hood of a car and wondered, “Sheesh….how would I remove spark plug #6?” With Seemage, you’d know. And this animation could be easily supplied on CD or a website to the service people at the dealership.

As impressive as clash detection is, note what Jonathan does after discovering the clash: he non-disruptively imports updated information into the scenario to resolve the issue...

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.

 

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...

We often lament here about the costs and challenges of product lifecycle systems (PLM) systems for manufacturers. Almost as often, we complain that “PLM” means whatever the current speaker wants it to mean. Like the term “collaboration,” when you talk about PLM, it’s possible to get three knowledgeable people in the room and end up with 15 different definitions.

I was reminded of this when my Google alert for “plm” over the weekend contained this link to a definition of PLM from an entrepreneur in the clothing business. This aspiring designer of a clothing line has defined PLM entirely in the terms that make sense in the fashion industry.

So, here’s the question: would a PLM system today from a major vendor automate the fashion process defined by this writer? Sure, you could argue that...

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”...

As you may have already heard, Seemage is making its Japanese debut at the 18th DMS trade show in Tokyo this week. In addition to the exhibit at the trade show, our partner Rikei Group has been holding  a series of seminars to introduce Japanese manufacturers to Seemage. From the reports we’ve heard, these have been hugely successful.

Pictured above second from the left is Gordon Benson, Senior Engineer, NACCO Materials Handling Group, Portland, OR, USA and, third from left, our globe-trotting, Paris-based VP of WW Sales, Bruno Delahaye at the Rikei exhibit on the trade show floor. I think this photo was taken yesterday (US time).

I didn’t get a close-up photo of the Japanese collateral for Seemage, which you see here being modelled by the ladies to the left and right of Gordon and Bru...

For some of you, this may be the first post on 3DMojo that you’ve seen. If you are looking at this because you’ve found our blog as a result of the webinar we held last week or via an email we’ve sent you, welcome. We hope you find the information we post here (in English and, occasionally, in French) useful and that you find our video podcast, available here, interesting as well.

About our webinar…we’re only joking a little bit when we say that Paris Hilton (who’s currently in jail in Los Angeles) is just about the only person who couldn’t make the Seemage webinar we held last week. We were overwhelmed with the response, and are very grateful for all the comments and feedback we received. Here is some of that feedback:

“Let me take this opportunity to compliment your team for giving a wo...

So, now that Acrobat 3D has shipped and everyone is thinking about how they might use it, let’s separate the obvious uses from the not-as-clear applications.

It’s clear that Acrobat 3D offers great file translation capabilities. But we’ve consistently argued that this is, essentially, a utility function. As such, it’s not a strategic application. The addition of a new utility to the utility drawer, like the choice between WinRAR and WinZip, is always a good thing.

But file utilities are not the basis of entererprise collaboration infrastructures. Thinking about PDF (3D or not) as the ultimate collaboration unit-of-work misses the basic requirement for improving the use of 3D information throughout the enterprise: the ability to add value to that 3D design data.

I’m not talking about simpl...

This week Jonathan Riondet has produced another quick but fascinating vignette for your enjoyment. Jonathan shows how you can easily and quickly create cutting planes on any object and store customized views of the images you create.

You might also be interested to note that Jonathan is showing the capabilities of Seemage Viz, the entry-level product for content creation in the Seemage system. You can receive a free copy of Seemage Viz, worth $2600, if you attend our webinar on June 21. Just visit www.3dmojo.com/webinar to register.

Finally, note what Jonathan says at the end of this video: that end users using the free Seemage Player can also create cutting planes (if permitted, but that’s another topic for a video (-: ).

We hope you enjoy this podcast...

In a word, no. But based on some of the promises you hear, you’d think PLM itself was the source of creativity in design and engineering. Let’s face it, at the end of the day PLM is just like any other IT system: fabulous at tracking information as long as everyone uses it to do so religiously.

Kenneth Wong’s recent article in Cadalyst makes this point extraordinarily well. Kenneth describes two different companies in which the PLM system is used as we would argue it should be: simply as the repository for product information.

What’s fascinating about Kenneth’s article is that PLM-mandated workflow isn’t the source of success for these two users. They’re simply using the system for what IT systems are good at: documenting everything.

What’s this have to do with Seemage? It’s another ex...

This week’s podcast reintroduces our old pal, the transmission. But this time there’s a twist only Seemage can deliver. Notice in this animation how the parts list appears at the end. This can be produced easily and automatically from the BOM for the assembly. Naturally, that information can be extracted directly and associatively from an ERP system.

I’m especially fond of this animation because it shows quite clearly how the XML-based architecture of Seemage makes it easy to combine 3D design data with information from anything: PLM, ERP and even CRM systems. The XML capabilities of Seemage make it possible to produce accurate, annotated and compelling product documentation.

We hope you enjoy this podcast.