Beth Stackpole
Autodesk Partners with NetSuite to Take On ERP/PLM Integration in the Cloud
It’s no secret that Autodesk has staked its bet on the cloud as a key differentiator for its PLM 360 offering. Now the company is touting a partnership with ERP cloud provider NetSuite Inc., making closed-loop integration with ERP another ace in its quest to build out a winning PLM hand.
Dispersed Team Nabs $1 Million Prize in DARPA FANG Challenge
It’s no surprise that the winner of the $1 million prize in DARPA’s Fast Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle (FANG) mobility/drivetrain challenge was a three-person team with members dispersed in Ohio, Texas, and California.
The challenge, the first of which kicked off in January, aims to spark innovation around the design of the vehicle, not only from inside traditional defense industry circles, but also from the outside world. Equally important to the competition, however, was putting a new genre of development tools to the test in the hopes of significantly compressing the design-to-production cycle of complex defense systems, according to Army Lt. Col. Nathan Wiedenman, program manager for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Continue reading
Leave a commentIs Our CAD Use All Wrong?
Are CAD jockeys just that—folks who are adeptly skilled at working the CAD tools to do surface modeling and other complex tasks—or are they engineering wizards simply employing a tool to get the job done?
The question of whether the “D” in CAD is more about enabling good drafting or good design is the subject of a heated debate in the Desktop Engineering LinkedIn Group. Cydesign’s Derek Cheng posited the idea that drafting is not the same as design. He says companies can run into trouble if they leverage CAD too early in the cycle to create beautifully meshed and rendered 3D models prior to do the mathematical work that is foundational to good design.
Dassault Debuts HT Body For High-Tech Electronics Design
No longer considered mainly a utilitarian device, consumers are actively engaged in a love affair with their electronics gear, upping the ante for product development teams now tasked with creating seductive designs on top of the traditional engineering challenges.
Call that an opening for Dassault Systemes, which is aggressively trying to promote its wide and varied 3D design, digital mockup, and PLM tools under its 3DEXPERIENCE umbrella into integrated solutions for specific industries. The latest in Dassault’s string of such offerings is HT Body, a broad-reaching platform aimed at engineers and designers in the electronics manufacturing sector and with a specific focus on the enclosures and chassis that are the most obvious hallmark of such devices. Continue reading
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Lagoa Brings 3D Rendering to the Cloud
Those engineers chalking up the cloud to be a passing fancy or a platform that’s ill-suited for professional-class design tools might want to reconsider.
In yet another example of a full-function engineering tool making its way to the latest software delivery model, startup Lagoa has just released a full 3D rendering and collaboration platform, entirely browser-based and running solely in the cloud. Continue reading
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