Desktop Engineering - 2012-01

January 2012 / deskeng.
com
SolidWorks 2012
Review P.36
Simulating Hybrid/
Electric Vehicles P.21
TECHNOLOGY FOR DESIGN ENGINEERING
Sustainability
vs.Affordability Can engineers save some
green by going green? P.15
3DBOXX 3970 XTREME REVIEW P.40

MOBILE ENGINEERING APPS P.29
SURROGATE MODELING P.33
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Degrees of Freedom by Steve Robbins
Engineering Convergence
I
’ve been traveling a lot recently, first to the Siemens CAE ers have two of these. We’ll need more efficient floating point
Symposium at the Joe Gibbs NASCAR Racing facility processors to reach exaflop computing levels.
outside of Charlotte, NC, then off to Supercomputing Huang predicted reaching exascale computing somewhere
2011 in Seattle, WA, and finally to Las Vegas to attend between 2019 and 2022, and the goal is to reach this scale using
Autodesk University. They say travel broadens the mind, and about 20 megawatts of power. That still sounds like a lot, but if
my trips were no exception to that rule. we can reach that for exaflop/s computing, a 5-watt device like a
I had the pleasure of meeting with engineers whose abil- smart phone or tablet will have the power to run a few teraflop/s
ity to create great designs has been positively changed by the of compute power and today’s workstations, with 1,000 watts,
adoption of new technologies. I saw the results of companies will run at hundreds of teraflop/s. This translates into real-time
using new modeling tools, simulation software, PLM and en- multiphysics simulations on your desktop in about 10 years.
gineering data management, rapid prototyping and 3D print-
ing, all enabled by faster computer technologies. I’m lucky to Speed Delivers on Technology’s Promise
be an editor at DE, because it allows me to see all that is hap- Meanwhile, as software has been eyeing the cloud, our work-
pening in the design engineering world. stations and local HPC systems are getting much more pow-
Many of you experience only the tools your companies or erful. CAE, simulation and analysis software are becoming
organizations use. You have seen new technologies that might increasingly easier to use while becoming exponentially more
be of great benefit to you and our team, but often, it takes years powerful. Being able to send models out to the cloud to be
to adopt what has been available for decades. If engineers were rendered, or sending a CFD simulation job to the cloud to run
a large number of times works in certain situations, but keep-
ing things local would be more efficient. In the next couple
of years, we will see a dividing line in our work, with more
CAD/CAM/CAE is going where compute power on our desks and access to very large amounts
no engineer has gone before. of data and compute power on the cloud.
Sharing and collaboration will become increasingly impor-
tant and will produce unexpected results. Security will come
to the forefront. PLM and data management will be able to
left to their own devices, most would be early adopters of new deliver the promise of ease of use, data reuse, and sharing to
technology, but often there is a layer of management asking you the complete enterprise. It will be used by everyone in engi-
to justify an investment in new technologies. Well, the world is neering, small or large companies, designers, manufacturing
about to change. We are at an inflection point. engineers, sales people and management.
Direct modeling and one-button analysis will be the norm
Change is Coming Fast during the creative processes. Running multiple simulations
History has shown us that technology increases in perfor- on large assemblies locally before prototyping the complete
mance as it decreases in cost. Think VCRs to DVDs and now, design using many different materials will change the way we
to streaming video; personal computers to workstations to local work. And simulation isn’t limited to the mechanical model,
high-performance computing and the cloud. At Supercomput- it will include motors, electronics, and control systems. We
ing 2011, Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, discussed where will be able to determine manufacturability before handing
we are today and where computing will be going in the future. the design off to the factory floor.
The world’s fastest supercomputer is currently running at 10.51 In 2012 we will see many changes. It will be a year of ex-
Petaflop/s . That’s 10 quadrillion calculations per second. How- ponentially moving forward as software meets the challenge
ever, Huang said the power requirements of these machines is of using increasingly powerful hardware technologies now
tremendous, with a 6-petaflop/s computer using about 9 mega- available. CAD/CAM/CAE is going where no engineer has
watts of power. So how are supercomputer companies going to gone before. DE
power the next generation of computers? These exaflop com-
puters will need about as much power as a full-sized aircraft Steve Robbins is the CEO of Level 5 Communications and
carrier if they use conventional CPUs. The A4W Reactor used executive editor of DE. Send comments about this subject to
by the U.S. Navy produces 104 megawatts. Most aircraft carri- DE-Editors@deskeng.com.
2 DESKTOP ENGINEERING January 2012 /// deskeng.com

March 2011 January 2012 VOLUME 16/ISSUE 7
VOLUME 17/ISSUE 5
ENGINEERING COMPUTING
29 Make Me a System with Everything
Boundaries blur as the desktop, mobile apps and the cloud merge.
By Kenneth Wong
38 Plenty of Power at an Attractive Price

The entry-level Dell Precision T1600 workstation proves that
performance can be affordable.
By David Cohn
40 Smart and Fast

The 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME harnesses several
new technologies to deliver incredible performance.
By David Cohn
DESIGN
33 Surrogates Promise Better, Faster Designs
Using an approximation model is often the best way to address
a challenging problem or to accelerate a lengthy process.
By John Edwards
COVER STORY
36 SolidWorks 2012 Marks Debut of Cost Analysis
Sustainability
SolidWorks Costing calculates manufacturing costs during the
design stage.
By Kenneth Wong
vs. Affordability TEST
15 Consumers are increasingly

demanding more
environmentally-friendly
44 Noise, Vibration & Harshness Roundup
The latest products to help engineers with NVH testing.
products at lower prices,

so design engineers are FOCUS: ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY ENGINEERING
charged with making it faster,
better and cheaper as well as 18 University of Michigan Refines Solar Car Design
sustainable for the environment. Building a competitive solar car from scratch is a big project.
By Mark Clarkson
Fortunately, a number of
software packages and plug-ins 21 Simulation of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles
can help you determine how The automotive industry is engineering its future with integrated
much that sustainability will cost multiphysics simulation software.
vs. the environmental benefits it By Scott Stanton and Sandeep Sovani
provides. Kenneth Wong explains
26 The Eco-Friendly Prototype
some of your options. Recyclable and biodegradable additive manufacturing materials.
By Debbie Sniderman
28 Streamlining the Prius

ON THE COVER: There’s a balancing act between cost and SimuTech Group uses CFD software to analyze aerodynamics.
environmentally-friendly design. Images courtesy of Granta, By Jamie J. Gooch
Autodesk and Bigstock.

SOLAR ENERGY: These type of collectors utilize solar
energy by heating a fluid flow that is then used to generate
electricity. Heat is transferred by surface-to-surface radiation
from the outside shell to the pipe walls. Shown is the heat
flux vector and temperature on both surfaces.
Capture the Concept.

With COMSOL Multiphysics® you are empowered to build simulations that
accurately replicate the important characteristics of your designs. The key is
the ability to include all physical effects that exist in the real world. This
multiphysics approach delivers results—tangible results that save precious
development time and spark innovation.
comsol.co /booklet
comsol.com
comsol.com /reactor
© 2011 COMSOL. COMSOL and COMSOL Multiphysics are registered trademarks of COMSOL AB. Capture the Concept is a trademark of COMSOL AB. Other product or brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
January 2012 VOLUME 17/ISSUE 5
DEPARTMENTS 14 What’s New

What iBASEt’s Solumina software
2 Degrees of Freedom does for PLM. EDITORIAL
Engineering technology convergence. By Jim Romeo Steve Robbins | Executive Editor
Jamie J. Gooch | Managing Editor
By Steve Robbins Kenneth Wong | Senior Editor
43 Editor’s Picks Anthony J. Lockwood | Editor at Large
8 Kenneth Wong's Products that have grabbed the editors’ Heather Pittinger | Copy Editor
Virtual Desktop attention. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Brian Albright, Mark Clarkson, David S. Cohn, Barbara
Autodesk takes a swim in the PLM pool, By Anthony J. Lockwood Goode, Mike Hudspeth, Susan Smith, Peter Varhol,
NVIDIA opens Pandora’s Box in the cloud, Pamela J. Waterman
mobile apps for analysis and infrastructure 45 Spotlight PUBLISHER
models, and more. Directing your search to the companies Thomas Conlon
that have what you need. ADVERTISING SALES

12 Fast Apps 603-563-1631 • Fax 603-563-8192
Engineering case studies. 46 Tools of the Month Erich Herbert | Sales Executive (x263)
New products for engineers. Jeanne DuVal | Account Manager (x274)
ART & PRODUCTION

47 Advertising Index Darlene Sweeney | Director (x257)
A LEVEL 5 COMMUNICATIONS PUBLICATION

48 Cool Tool Steve Robbins | Chief Executive Officer
Thomas Conlon | President
HSMWorks’ HSMXpress CAM system.
ADVERTISING, BUSINESS, & EDITORIAL OFFICES
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HP recommends Windows® 7.
Advertorial /// High-Performance Computing
Getting a Step Up On the

Competition
Engineers need the best and fastest
workstations to get better products to market.
By Peter Varhol
M
ost design engineers work in highly competitive in-
dustries. The difference between success and failure
is small, and is often driven by the ability to get su- Screen image courtesy of ANSYS
perior products to market ahead of the competition. Because
resources so that they can be used in separate and distinct com-
of the time and effort needed to produce new designs, often
putations, with system and I/O performance comparable to
getting to market first can be a matter of luck.
that found natively on the workstation. The combination of an
But smart engineering groups can tilt luck in their favor through
HP Z800 Workstation and Parallels Workstation Extreme means
the use of better design tools and smarter processes. HP Z800
users have access to virtual machines on their desktop which can
Workstations enable engineers to perform computations and
operate independently of user interaction. Highly computational
analyses at the speed of a supercomputer only a few years ago.
analyses can run in the background on the same machine without
With up to two Intel® Xeon® processors, 12 total cores, and
interfering with the user doing their day-to-day design.
192GB of memory, the HP Z800 Workstation excels at executing
Further, the virtual machine side of the HP Z800 Workstations
long-running jobs that can be broken up into many independent
can be networked together to form a virtual machine workstation
and parallel computations. More of these types of jobs can be run
cluster to run analyses and simulations on designs in progress.
locally, on the workstation, rather than being sent off to a cluster.
Using the second gigbit Ethernet interface, multiple HP Z800
And even if they do require a cluster, the problems can be better
Workstations can be configured into a private network that can
defined than they could be in the past.
pool those resources into a cluster configuration. A cluster of up
But it is also designed for detailed interactive work, such as
to eight workstations can provide dozens of cores and hundreds
creating a design visually or with computations. With NVIDIA
of gigabytes of memory for demanding computations.
Quadro or AMD FirePro graphics and up to 12GB of graphics
The best part about this configuration is that it all runs in a
RAM with two Nvidia Quadro 6000 cards, it’s possible to create
virtual environment, enabling the engineers to continue design
fast visual designs with intricate detail and stunning realism.
work on the native workstation environments.
The best tools can be game changers. Engineers can express
their skill and creativity without being concerned about the limita-
tions of the tools. The HP Z800 Workstation provides the graphics Making Designs Successful
and computational flexibility for engineers to work effectively on Engineers want their designs to be commercially successful. Most
any project. have the technical ability to achieve that success. What is often
lacking is the tools to translate that ability into concrete designs.
Better Design Tools Are Only Half the Answer The HP Z800 Workstation provides many of the tools that can
take good designs and help make them commercially successful.
But better tools don’t always result in better products or faster
It does so through a combination of high performance, flexibility,
time to market. They may simply accelerate poor work processes.
and the ability to seamlessly multitask between design and analy-
Engineers also have to look at their design processes to find ways
sis. Using the best set of tools doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a
of improving how designs are developed and evaluated, while
superior product to market before your competition, but it greatly
also reducing redundant or unnecessary steps.
improves your chances. DE
The HP Z800 Workstation with two Intel® Xeon® processors
provides the features needed to both accelerate design processes For more information on an
and make them more efficient for today’s demanding markets. HP Solutions please go to
HP’s alliance with Parallels means that Parallels’ Workstation Ex- www.hp.com/go/solver
treme, a virtualization tool that enables engineers to partition off or call 800-888-0261.
© 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are
set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not
be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Microsoft, Windows, and Vista are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel, the Intel
logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
deskeng.com /// January 2012 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 7

Virtual Desktop by Kenneth Wong
Autodesk’s 180 Turn with Nexus 360

I
n 2007, addressing the press crowd
inside Zeum Theater in San Fran-
cisco, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass
took a few jabs at his competi-
tors who specialize in PLM (product
lifecycle management) software suites.
His memorable words were, “The only
people who need PLM are the ones
selling PLM … PLM is a solution in
search of a problem.”
Last December, at Autodesk Uni-
versity (AU) conference in Las Vegas,
Bass faced many of the same members
of the trade press and said, “When I Autodesk gets into PLM market with the unveiling of Nexus 360, a cloud-
looked back at my anti-PLM rap, it hosted solution scheduled to debut next year.
pleased me that we didn’t do it until we
could do it right.” With these words, agement and collaboration; and Steve Bodnar, Autodesk’s vice presi-
Autodesk prepared to take a swim in • Autodesk Nexus, for business pro- dent for data management and PLM,
the PLM pool it had previous shunned. cess management. shared his views on PLM. “PLM is a
Autodesk’s PLM brand, dubbed The first two components are ex- lot more than engineering and PDM
Autodesk 360, will come in two flavors: isting products, but the last item is a (product data management),” he said.
360 for PLM (for manufacturing) and newly developed application, built on “We do believe PDM and CAD should
360 for BIM (for building information the cloud and meant to operate as SaaS be tightly coupled … PDM users and
modeling, aimed at architecture, engi- (software as a service). Judging from the PLM users are not the same people.”
neering, and construction industries). screenshots and video captures shown There are surprisingly few references
The one for manufacturing includes: to the press, Nexus will allow you to to mobile apps in Autodesk’s debut PLM
• Autodesk Vault, for product data build your own customized flowchart- vision, despite the long list of mobile
management; style business process map in a drag- apps the company has released to accom-
• Autodesk Buzzsaw, for project man- and-drop interface. modate engineering and design software
users. Autodesk’s PLM competitor, Sie-
mens PLM Software, has released the
Autodesk Wants You to Sketch and Solve on iPad
S
second incarnation of its PLM mobile
imulation, generally associated with pow- app, Teamcenter Mobility. PTC is hard at
erful desktop workstations and server work on its first, Windchill Mobility. Au-
clusters, is getting the iPad treatment, todesk’s Bodnar said, “In the beginning,
dubbed Autodesk ForceEffect. [mobile devices] will be supported via
Available now from Apple App Store, the web browsers. Over time, we will develop
mobile application allows users to sketch specific mobile apps.”
diagrams that represent joints and connec- In the same week, Autodesk signed
tions in a mechanical assembly, define loads an agreement to acquire Horizontal
and constraints, and then run the solver to simulate the force’s impact on a Systems, a provider of cloud-hosted
particular design. BIM software. Most likely, Horizon-
“For almost all customers, simulation has become mission critical,” according tal’s platform will become part of Au-
to Scott Reese, Autodesk’s senior director of digital simulation. todesk 360 for BIM.
For complex analysis jobs (such as multiphysics and computational fluid Autodesk hasn’t specified how or for
dynamics), most engineers and designers may still rely on workstations and serv- what price it will market its PLM prod-
er clusters, but for simple stress analysis jobs and force-impact calculations, they uct. However, it states that it plans to
now have the option to use mobile devices. Other software makers who share sell it at a price point much lower than
this vision have also developed and released mobile apps. Examples include NEi its competitors, targeting small and
Software’s NEi Stratus and Maplesoft’s Maplesoft Player. midsize businesses primarily.

CATIA Adds 3D Sketch
L
ast November, Dassault Sys- greater flexibility and expressiveness The announcement calls CATIA
tèmes launched what could in geometry. The use of touch-re- Natural Sketch part of CATIA V6,
be a powerful comeback sponsive tablets, like the iPad, also al- Dassault’s comprehensive design
against Autodesk Alias and lows Autodesk to experiment further suite, but doesn’t mention whether
Maya. CATIA Natural Sketch, ac- with apps like SketchBook Mobile. Natural Sketch will be delivered
cording to Dassault, “brings together Traditional mechanical CAD pack- as part of CATIA’s CAD modeling
the intuitiveness of creative 2D paint- ages offer simple sketching functions, features, an optional plug-in, or an
ing gestures and the power of accu- but they hardly rival the capacity independent title. The video clip
rate, realistic 3D modeling.” found in Spline- or NURBS-based shows the software operating on a
In the last few years, Dassault’s drawing programs. Wacon tablet, but it’s unclear if such
rival Autodesk has made headway in Dasssault’s latest offering, CATIA a device is essential to using the
introducing sophisticated sketching Natural Sketch, seems to take a simi- software.
functions to its mechanical design lar approach, allowing users to draw According to Dassault, “CATIA
software users. Autodesk titles like editable, malleable Spline objects in Natural Sketch completes the CATIA
Alias and Maya, used by many in 3D space. (Dassault posted a YouTube for Creative Designers solution, which
industrial design and digital content clip to illustrate the software at youtu. now combines 3D sketching, concept
creation, offer Spline-driven sketch- be/66FoxykeT0w.) Details on the soft- modeling, class-A surface modeling,
ing in 3D space, a method that offers ware, however, are still a bit sketchy. rapid prototyping and visualization.”
NVIDIA Opens Pandora’s Box

Y
ou’ll find Pandora’s box in the able in mobile tablets and consumer tablets powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 2
cloud, in a manner of speak- laptops would be inadequate to render mobile processor to show how to navi-
ing. Project Pandora is the a complex 3D scene in a timely fashion, gate photorealistic scenes, composed of
joint effort between Autodesk but the use of remote GPUs over a web millions of polygons, in under a minute,”
and NVIDIA to enable Autodesk 3ds browser can make this possible, as shown Miller wrote.
Max users to tap into cloud-hosted Tesla in early prototypes of Pandora. Neither company has specified dates
GPUs to render time-consuming scenes “At AU 2011 Las Vegas, we’re using for Pandora’s public availability.
and clips. Last December, NVIDIA
opened Pandora’s box at Autodesk Uni-
versity, demonstrating it alongside its
newly launched Maximus workstations.
Discussing Pandora’s magic in a com-
pany blog post, Phil Miller, NVIDIA’s
director of software product manage-
ment, said, “Project Pandora harnesses
the compute power of a GPU cluster on
any Flash-capable PC running 3ds Max
and [NVIDIA’s rendering engine] iray.
This allows 3ds Max users to add virtual
dual-GPU rendering machines to their
workflow on demand. Unlike ‘batch’
network rendering, where each machine
renders one frame, Project Pandora coor-
dinates the entire cluster to accelerate the
current frame. Jobs that used to take over NVIDIA’s Project Pandora, on demonstration
a day can now be done in under an hour at Autodesk University 2011, is expected to let
by leveraging dozens of cloud nodes.” Autodesk 3ds Max users render scenes and
Typically, the computing power avail- animations using remote GPUs.

Virtual Desktop by Kenneth Wong
Bentley Puts Plant Structures in the Cloud
S
tructural Synchronizer View, the latest addition to Bent-
ley Systems’ iWare app family, is now available at Apple
app store as a free download. With this app, Bentley
software users can store infrastructure data in the cloud
and access it from an iPad. The app advances Bentley’s Integrated
Structural Modeling (ISM) vision by providing field technicians
with what the company describes as “information mobility.”
According to Bentley, “Structural Synchronizer is the core
component of an ISM workflow. Facilitated by i-models (con-
tainers for open infrastructure information exchange), it pro-
vides data synchronization, change management, revision his-
tory, and model viewing.”
The Structural Synchronizer View iPad app gives you direct
access to plant structure models stored in Amazon S3, Project-
Wise databases, Dropbox, and other online storages. You can use
the device’s touch sensitivity to zoom, pan, rotate, and navigate
your 3D structural data using fingertips. You can also use its
filtering system to turn on or off selective layers and floors to in-
vestigate the model in various permutations. You can select iden-
tifiable components (beams and trusses, for instances) and further
query them for their item numbers, locations, orientations, and
placement points.
Huw Roberts, Bentley global marketing director, pointed out
that Bentley’s ISM innovations give customers “the ability to ac-
complish structural modeling, analysis, design, documentation, Bentley Systems extends its iWare mobile
and detailing within synchronized and flexible workflows — further app collection with the release of Structural
empowering intelligent structural design practices.” Synchronizer View.
3D Systems Adds Color with Acquisition

J ust a few months ago, 3D Sys-
tems snatched up Alibre, a low-
cost CAD package that’s gaining
ground among makers and hob-
byists. In December, the company
Corp also offers a line of 3D scan-
ners — portable, handheld devices
that can capture the shape of objects
in point clouds.
When the transaction closes, Z
sys and Objet, to name but two).
3D Systems is buying not just Z
Corp but also Vidar Systems, which
makes medical and dental imaging
systems. Both are subsidiaries of
signed an agreement to buy Z Corp, Corp’s printers and scanners are Contex Group, an imaging systems
a competing 3D printer vendor with expected to bolster 3D Systems’ provider. The sale of Z Corp and
color-printing technology. lineup, which spans from low-cost, Vidar Systems suggests Contex has
Among competing rapid pro- hobbyist-friendly models (BotMill, decided to return to its origin, to
totyping vendors, Z Corp distin- RapMan, ProJet, and V-Flash) to focus on large-format scanners. DE
guishes itself with machines that professional, production-capable
can print 3D models in multiple models (ProJet, iPro, sPro, and VX Kenneth Wong is senior editor of
colors — an advantage for those brands). The pending merger puts Desktop Engineering. Contact
using 3D printing for sales and pressure on other major players in him via de-editors@deskeng.com, at
marketing or those using it to study the rapid prototyping market, domi- deskeng.com/virtual_desktop or via
finite element analysis results. Z nated by a handful of names (Strata- Twitter @KennethwongSF.

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All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners.
Fast Apps Engineering Case Studies
Squeak, Designing Safer When Push

Rattle and Roll Bioprosthetic Heart Comes to Shove(l)
Applus IDIADA uses Abaqus FEA to help
design out distracting vehicle noises.
Valves with CFD/PIV VISI’s software helps deliver a new
collapsible snow shovel, designed to
University of California researchers use
help motorists avoid getting stranded.
Tecplot 360 CFD visualization software
to help identify vortex abnormalities.
In 1960, Dr. Albert Starr successfully

implanted the world’s first prosthetic
heart valve, a mechanical device that
he co-invented with M. Lowell Edwards,
a prominent engineer. More than 50
years later, millions of patients’ lives have
So you’ve finally bought your shiny, new been saved or improved by technologi-
car. But then one day, the noise starts— cal advancements based on the work With its two-hinged handle, the Senior &
an unidentifiable, repetitive, distracting of pioneers like Starr, Edwards and oth- Dickson collapsible shovel is designed
sound coming from somewhere inside ers. Today, more than 250,000 patients and manufactured with the help of spe-
your vehicle. In no time at all, that receive prosthetic heart valves each year. cialist CADCAM tools from Vero Software.
annoying sound is driving you crazy. Senior & Dickson specializes in plastic
The problem is called squeak and injection, rubber molding and die-casting.
rattle (S&R), and it’s been driving The UK-based company develops ideas
the automotive industry crazy, too. from concept through to working proto-
Paradoxically, while great progress has types and on to production tooling, as
been made in other areas of noise and demonstrated by the snow shovel project.
vibration (N&V), the fact that modern While the snow shovel is aimed at
automobiles run more quietly than ever motorists because of its handy folding
has made lingering S&R issues even design, the manufacturer also expects it
more apparent. With engine and road to become an essential tool for helping
noise diminished, smaller sounds that householders keep their driveways clear
used to be hidden become magnified of snow and other debris with its inter-
to the driver’s ear. Patients who undergo heart valve changeable shovel and fork heads.
S&R is often located in the interior trim replacement have a better quality of life. The VISI suite of CADCAM software was
of a vehicle, such as the dashboard, Still, complications can occur from device instrumental in designing these head
but the exact source can be hard to failure, damage to the valve caused by configurations, specialist handle and 3D
pinpoint. “Squeak” happens when infection, poor valve design, material tooling, along with the CNC toolpaths.
components periodically slip and stick deterioration, or host tissue overgrowth. All design work and electrode extraction
together. “Rattle” occurs when parts hit Ahmad Falahatpisheh, a Ph.D. candi- is performed in the CAD office, while
each other intermittently. Both noises date in the Kheradvar Research Group toolpath generation is carried out on the
usually stem from inconsistent assem- (KLAB) at the University of California, shop floor next to the milling machines.
bly tolerances or lack of stiffness. Irvine, is pioneering research to improve Senior & Dickson Technical Director
“Since we’d already been using bioprosthetic heart valves. With the Chris Hodgson explains the advantages
Abaqus in vehicle cockpit design and help of Tecplot 360 CFD visualization of taking the toolpath creation out of the
testing for thermal, impact and normal software to view and analyze his Digital CAD office.
modal analyses, it made a lot of sense Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) data, “We moved the CAM onto the shop
to simply develop a new load case for he is helping develop the first bi-leaflet floor, as the machinists are closest to
squeak and rattle inside Abaqus,” says bioprosthetic mitral valve with a dynam- the action and can react immediately
Inés Lama, project manager, design ic saddle annulus designed to mimic the without having to wait for the design
engineering, for IDIADA. natural mitral valve. team,” Hodgson says.
MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabdgn.htm MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabdgp.htm MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabdgr.htm
➜ For the complete application stories visit deskeng.com/fastapps

Future Focus Engineering on the Edge
SME Lists Innovations NASA Tech Demonstrated
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers
(SME) has revealed a list of seven inno- to Auto Industry
vations called “Innovations That Could Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center
Change The Way You Manufacture.” hosted a workshop that included more
HRL Develops Ultra-Light This year’s list included:
• Smart magnets: Magnetic material can
than 30 exhibits demonstrating the latest
NASA technologies that could benefit the
Micro-Lattice Material now be “reprogrammed” with multiple automotive industry. The workshop was
HRL has developed a new material poles of varying strength, opening the arranged by The Manufacturing Advocacy
that makes Styrofoam feel overweight. door for new applications like precision & Growth Network in Cleveland (MAGNET)
This new metallic micro-lattice material switches, self-assembling toys and and the Center for Automotive Research
has a density of 0.9 mg/cc. It is the furniture, and even robots that can scale at The Ohio State University.
result of a team effort by HRL, The walls without touching them. During the workshop, which was held
California Institute of Technology and the • Graphene: This 1-atom-thick sheet in Glenn’s aircraft hangar, attendees
University of California, Irvine. It has been of carbon is strong (50 times stronger learned about technologies such as
found to have complete recovery from than steel), flexible, transparent, and can advanced materials, including metal
compression exceeding 50% strain and conduct electricity. and fiberglass foam, nanotechnology,
extraordinarily high energy absorption. • Quantum dots: These nanoparticles of extreme environment sensors, and
The “micro-lattice” cellular architecture semiconductor material have optical and power generation via fuel cells and new
consists of 99.99% open volume electrical properties. Controlling their size battery gels. The goal was to inform the
by designing the 0.01% solid at the allows a manufacturer to determine the automotive industry about cutting-edge
nanometer, micron and millimeter scales. color of light emitted. technologies that could be leveraged
It could have a number of applications, • Remote presence robots: These robots to improve automobile performance,
including use for battery electrodes, can “stand in” for a person who wants efficiency and manufacturing processes.
catalyst supports, and acoustic, vibration to remotely attend a meeting using Web Attendees had the opportunity to
or shock energy damping. cams, digital video and sound, and have one-on-one conversations with
MORE ➜ engineeringontheedge.com/?p=450 guided laser pointers. According to SME, NASA innovators to discuss their
companies like Procter & Gamble are near-term technology needs and how
3D Printing already using them.

Check out the rest on the Engineering
NASA’s research and development
could help address their future
Robotic Spiders on the Edge site. technology requirements.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute MORE ➜ engineeringontheedge.com/?p=338 MORE ➜ engineeringontheedge.com/?p=288
for Manufacturing Engineering and
Automation in Stuttgart, Germany hope
to use selective laser sintering to create
small, low-cost robots that look and walk
Sensors Help
like spiders. The team can generate Man Fly Electric
interchangeable, modular parts for the
robots using the 3D printers.
Multicopter
Potential applications include rescue
scenarios, in which the spiders could
P erhaps you’ve seen
the Parot AR.Drone
quadricopter. It’s a toy helicopter
carry video cameras and sensors into
with four rotors that can be controlled via an iPhone, iPod or iPad. As the saying goes, the
hard-to-reach areas.
only difference between men and boys is the cost (and the size) of their toys.
MORE ➜ engineeringontheedge.com/?p=379 A company in Germany named e-volvo has built a man-sized multicopter. It has 16
rotors, four on each of the four jibs that jut out from a central hub where the test pilot,
Thomas Senkel, sat during it’s first flight, which lasted 90 seconds.
The multicopter, which measures a little over 16x16 ft. and weighs about 176 lbs.,
uses a position sensor to ensure the correct position in space and permanently
balances position changes with rotary speed adjustment, according to the company.
Its lithium batteries enable flight times of up to 20 minutes, depending on payload.
MORE ➜ engineeringontheedge.com/?p=368
➜ For daily covrage on the future of engineering technology, visit EngineeringOnTheEdge.com

What’s New iBASEt’s Solumina Software
Supporting PLM and Workflow

BY JIM ROMEO
Product design often entails product life- match as-designed, or have explicit
cycle management (PLM) software for the approvals on record for any deviations.
maintenance and subsequent production Quality and performance metrics help
of a manufactured product. engineers identify areas where design
As such, engineering design software improvements can make a big impact to
must be able to integrate with other soft- the manufacturing or service processes.
ware and databases to promote workflow,
cut production time, increase accuracy DE: How does Solumina help designers?
Solumina provides oversight and
and ensure the supply chain supports the CL: There is enormous pressure to get
control of supply chain quality
product. DE recently spoke with Conrad new products out to market quickly. This
management, manufacturing and
Leiva of iBASEt, Foothill Ranch, CA, to is driven by a couple of forces: customers
aftermarket services operations.
understand what its Solumina software demanding more product variants, and
does for PLM. technology advancing faster than ever.
Solumina helps expedite the incorpo- addressed by enterprise resource planning
DE: How does iBASEt work? ration of engineering changes into work- (ERP) and PLM solutions. The users also
CL: Our software suite, Solumina, pro- in-process at the shop floor, and ensures find the workflow-driven, integrated-busi-
vides the execution side of the extended the traceability of the changes to the ness processes among the Engineering,
enterprise PLM system, providing over- ECNs coming from the engineering sys- Operations, Production Control, Inventory
sight and control of supply chain quality tem. The end result is that as-built and and Quality Management departments
management, manufacturing and after- as-designed are always in sync. very appealing.
market services operations. Solumina
excels in industries where integration DE: Can you give us an example? DE: What are the greatest challenges
with engineering data and workflow is CL: Let’s say an issue is discovered at facing product design engineers?
critical to product quality, such as aero- the shop floor, and an urgent ECN is CL: Besides the challenges of support-
space, defense, electronics, medical issued as a result of the investigation ing more product variants and quicker
devices and industrial equipment. and corrective action. In Solumina, the product launches that we discussed
In Solumina, manufacturing and quality manufacturing engineer can place all earlier, there are also challenges in
engineers define the work and inspection- the affected work orders on hold until meeting stricter regulatory-compliance
process details that will guide mechan- the ECN is processed, and all of the guidelines, and working with foreign
ics and inspectors to produce quality work orders are updated with the latest partners and suppliers, while maintain-
products consistently. This information specifications and updated work instruc- ing intellectual property (IP) protection
package is delivered to the shop floor via tions. This process is facilitated by a wiz- and compliance to International Traffic
a completely paperless-execution system ard in Solumina that groups work orders in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
that enforces the management disci- according to their status, while assess- The Solumina software suite pro-
plines, including handling of exceptions, ing the impact of the change. After a few vides an integrated “execution” solution
deviations and continuous improvement clicks, the changes are incorporated—or that ensures regulatory compliance
to the planned procedures. the wizard guides the engineer to addi- to the strictest quality management
The Solumina system maintains tional steps where conflicts are found. guidelines in highly regulated industries,
cross-referenced data to the engineer- including aerospace, defense, nuclear
ing models, drawings and specifications DE: What features would you say are and medical devices. DE
used as the basis for planning work and most appealing to end-users?
inspection. The business processes for CL: The software is designed to streamline Jim Romeo is based in Chesapeake, VA.
managing changes are integrated first specific processes for specific users and Contact him via de-editors@deskeng.com.
with engineering change notices (ECNs), specific industries—mainly documenta-
and flow down to inspection and work tion and verification processes that are
orders at suppliers’ sites and production traditionally clerically intensive, tedious INFO ➜ iBASEt: iBASEt.com
shop floor. This assures that as-built and and error-prone. The product addresses For more information on this topic,
as-maintained configurations always areas of functionality that have not been visit deskeng.com.

CAD /// Environmentally-Friendly Engineering
Sustainable Design
as a Balancing Act
Eco-impact calculators become part of design engineering.
BY KENNETH WONG
T
he sleek mobile tablet at your fingertips, the stylish sun-
glasses in your pocket, and the point-and-shoot camera
you use to capture your Kodak moments—they all have
an ecological lifespan that’s much longer than you think. The
time the product remains in your possession—its duration of
operation and service—may be just a few months (a pair of sun-
glasses) to a couple of years (a tablet or a digital camera), but its
ecological footprint has been established long before you pick it
up from your local mall. It will continue to grow long after its
disposal. A series of decisions made in the manufacturing pro-
cess—using polycarbonate instead of scratch-resistant borosili-
cate materials for a lens, or using injection molding instead of
machining for a latch—affects a product’s environmental impact.
Depending on the size of the product and the ease with
which it can be recycled, many products will likely end up in
a waste stream, literally swelling the size of a landfill some-
where. Many city-dwelling consumers would gladly reclaim
some precious countertop and desktop space by getting rid
of old microwaves, broken electric fans, and damaged LCD
monitors, but, confronted with inconvenient disposal options,
they’ll be tempted to dump them with the trash or leave them
in a street corner.
Developed first and foremost to express a product’s geomet-
ric shape, most engineering software titles can now help you
evaluate a design’s aesthetics (with photorealistic rendering),
durability (with finite element analysis), and manufacturability
(with simulation of computer-controlled machining), but they’re
still primitive when it comes to environmental assessment. How-
ever, in the last few years, a number of companies have begun Using Sustainable Minds’ browser-based environmental
to develop software tools to address lifecycle assessment (LCA). impact calculator, designers at Fred Sparks examine
There’s still no consensus on where the lifecycle begins and greener alternatives to existing solutions. Shown here is a
ends: In your environmental assessment of a design, should you, comparative report of different versions of sunglasses.
for instance, include the ecological impact of early prototypes
later discarded? But most LCA software users and software de- distance from Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. The firm has,
velopers seem to agree that impact calculation has to include quite literally, helped shaped many familiar household prod-
more than the manufacturing bill of materials (BOM). ucts, ranging from football helmets and golf bags to outdoor
furniture.
A Sustainable Baseline Who is Fred, you ask? Well, there is no Fred per se. It’s
The office of Fred Sparks, an industrial design agency, is just a personification of the three founders: Ken Harris, Aaron
perched along South Kingshighway Boulevard, within a short Brookhart and Brandon Hefer.

Environmentally-Friendly Engineering /// CAD
that creates the least impact. For consultants like Fred Sparks,
the first task is establishing a baseline.
“We have to know what the impact of a particular product
is,” says Harris. “We can disassemble an object, weigh its materi-
als, use Sustainable Minds to get a benchmark, then we use dif-
ferent design strategies to reduce the environmental footprint.”
System BOM
Just as CAD users would catalog the content of their assem-
bly in a BOM, Sustainable Minds subscribers use the software’s
web-based input system to create an itemized bill of a prod-
uct’s lifecycle. In this case, the lifecycle includes not only a list
of objects to be manufactured (camera housing, lens, battery,
First released as an optional module, SolidWorks
memory chip release latch, etc.), but certain aspects of manu-
Sustainability Xpress has since become a standard design
facturing that are bound to have an impact on the environment
evaluation tool in subsequent releases of the software.
as well—such as transportation methods, choice of materials,
Shown here is the software’s dialog window, suggesting
and disposal methods.
similar materials that may be greener or less costly.
You might think of Sustainable Minds as the LCA equiva-
lent of TurboTax. Whereas TurboTax will automatically tally
up your income statements and deductions, and provide you
with an amount owed to the government, Sustainable Minds
provides you with an estimated eco-impact of your design, cal-
culated using the TRACI metrics (Tool for the Reduction and
Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts)
developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
(EPA’s) Office of Research and Development. Measurements
are made primarily in anticipated carbon dioxide (CO2) volume,
with accompanying assessments for ecological damage, human
health damage, and resource depletion.
One of the much-debated items on Sustainable Minds’ sys-
tem BOM may be the line item dubbed “Unit of Measure” for
In SolidWorks 2012, the software adds a cost analysis measuring the impact of a product over its life expectancy. “It’s
module, allowing you to weigh a product’s manufacturing an estimate,” Harris acknowledges, “but as long as you use the
cost against its sustainable features. same unit of measurement for two different concepts, as long as
their lifecycles are the same, your comparison will be valid—like
Fred Sparks is often hired as a design consultant to develop comparing apples to apples.”
sustainable solutions to existing products. Because its role is For example, Fred Sparks is currently engaged in design-
consultative, the firm doesn’t always have access to 3D CAD ing (or redesigning) a brand of ready-made reading eyewear,
models of the products. “Sometimes, those files exist in a factory the kind you can purchase at your local drugstore without a
somewhere in China, and the factory doesn’t want to give up prescription.
that [intellectual property],” observes Harris. “We interviewed some consumers, found out the frequency
By contrast, Harris finds that it’s a lot easier to obtain a of use, asked them how long their readers lasted, then we fig-
physical unit of the product itself, allowing him and his team ured out the [unit of service] by [multiplying] the typical hours
to disassemble it to understand how its subcomponents work of usage per day with the lifespan of the glasses,” Harris explains.
together. For Fred Sparks, the ideal LCA software turns out In seeking greener alternatives, the team discovered that
to be Sustainable Minds, an environmental impact assessment “manufacturing methods and transportations are big [impact
program delivered in a browser-based interface. generators], because we now make so many products in Asia and
Terry Swack, co-founder and CEO of the program’s epony- import them,” he adds.
mous, Cambridge, MA-based manufacturing company, will tell Sustainable Minds software allows Harris and his colleagues
you there is no such thing as a green product. There are only to play what-if scenarios, by switching materials, manufacturing
greener products. Every product has some impact on the envi- options and transportation options. Fred Sparks also investi-
ronment. Nevertheless, as responsible designers, you can make gates possible secondary use: For instance, a product package
an effort to reduce the anticipated impact, or find an alternative that can be reused as a stand reduces the consumer’s tendency

CAD /// Environmentally-friendly Engineering
to throw away the package after unwrapping.

“We look at designing packaging to make it apparent that
it can be recycled,” Harris adds. “We look at developing recy-
cling programs at end of life. During brainstorming sessions,
we look at all of those strategies.”
Still, Harris admits, some metrics are not guaranteed:
Consumers may still choose to dispose of the product im-
properly instead of recycling it.
Based on your input, Autodesk Inventor’s Eco Materials
CAD Integration Adviser gives you an estimate of your design’s eco
Sustainable Minds works as a standalone web-based program, but impact, along with its cost and Restriction of Hazardous
the company has worked with Autodesk to ensure that, if you Substances Directive (RoHS)-compliant status.
upload a BOM exported from Autodesk Inventor CAD package,
the appropriate fields are automatically populated with the right
numbers—for instance, component volumes and material speci- easy way to evaluate the structural integrity of their proposed
fications, as deduced from the 3D CAD assembly model. design. Current crops of LCA tools may be harbingers of things
Increased attention to LCA and green design has prompted to come, paving the way for such features to become the norm.
some CAD software makers to add environmental impact assess- “Sustainable is here to stay, by way of consumer desire
ment tools to their 3D modeling interface. SolidWorks and Au- or government regulation,” says Harris. “Those who’re not
todesk Inventor—two fierce competitors in the design software making it part of their offerings, either as design consultants
market—have both incorporated the function. or manufacturers, are going to miss the boat—and somebody
First released as in 2009, SolidWorks Sustainability Xpress will each their lunch.”
has since become a standard part of the software’s design evalu- But a sustainable product with a high price tag isn’t a
ation tools, taking its place alongside stress and surface analysis practical solution. In the final analysis, cost still drives most
tools. Once you’ve specified material choices and manufacturing consumers’ purchasing decisions. It’s also a critical factor that
methods for a part, Sustainability Xpress can begin calculating its dictates most manufacturing decisions, such as choice of ma-
environmental impact, expressed in four categories: carbon emis- terials, production sites and manufacturing methods. (In the
sion, energy usage, air pollution and water pollution. The module latest release of SolidWorks, the software adds a cost estima-
also lets you identify materials with similar strength and cost that tion module to its 3D modeling interface.)
might be a better substitute (that is, greener or cheaper materials). In the service industry, conventional wisdom suggests you
In the optional module SolidWorks Sustainability (which can reasonably expect—and get—two of the three basic char-
requires an additional fee), you can evaluate the impact of en- acteristics: fast, cheap or good. If the service is fast and cheap,
tire assemblies, not just parts. In addition to metrics available it won’t be good; if it’s cheap and good, it won’t come fast;
in Xpress, the full version of Sustainability takes transportation and if it’s good and fast, it won’t come cheap. Most service
into account in its calculations. providers will tell you that to expect a service to be all three
A little more than a year after the debut of SolidWorks is just unreasonable.
Sustainability Xpress, Autodesk released its version, called In manufacturing today, the challenge is to find the right
Eco Materials Adviser. Integrated right into the 3D model- balance of durability (how well does the product perform under
ing interface of Autodesk Inventor, the module lets you obtain duress?), sustainability (how safe is it for the environment?), and
estimates on your design’s manufacturing cost, water usage, cost (how much does it cost to make it?). It is, indeed, a tall
energy usage and carbon footprint. The initial release of Eco order to come up with a design that satisfies all three criteria,
Materials Adviser is meant for parts analysis only, not assem- but such is the demand of the consumers today. DE
blies. SolidWorks Sustainability Xpress allows you to evaluate
multiple designs with different geometry (for instance, com- Kenneth Wong is senior editor of Desktop Engineering.
paring two versions of a camera housing with different wall Contact him via de-editors@deskeng.com, at deskeng.com/vir-
thicknesses), and generate a comparison report. To perform a tual_desktop or via Twitter @KennethwongSF.
similar task in Autodesk Eco Materials Adviser, you’ll need to
run two different sessions of analysis (one for each version of
the design) and compare the reports on your own. INFO ➜ Sustainable Minds: SustainableMinds.com
➜ Autodesk: Autodesk.com
Three Pillars
In most engineering software, basic stress analysis tools have ➜ SolidWorks: SolidWorks.com
become standard, providing designers and engineers with an For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

University of Michigan
Refines Solar Car Design
Building a competitive solar car from scratch is a big, expensive and
somewhat secretive project.
BY MARK CLARKSON
F
or the last year-and-a-half, Andrew Huang has been the Power Electrical Engineer Joe Menzia drives Quantum
interim engineering director of the University of Michigan along Grand Traverse Bay during the team’s mock race in
Solar Car team. He helps guide the engineering compo- Michigan last summer. Photo courtesy of Evan Dougherty
nent of a team of more than 100 students designing and building
a solar-powered car to compete in the World Solar Challenge driver), has a coefficient of drag (CDA) of less than 0.1, and should
in Australia—where they recently took third—and the American easily break 100 mph. Its predecessor, Infinium, was clocked at
Solar Challenge in the U.S. Not all of these students are engi- 105 mph. “I would expect Quantum to have a higher top speed
neers; some are involved in business, logistics and operations, and much better acceleration than our previous car,” says Huang.
media relations, etc. “Unfortunately, I can’t give you any numbers or estimates with-
“We build a car every two years,” says Huang. “We’ll race the out revealing too much information about our battery pack.”
car twice: once in the Australian race and then again in the North
American race.” CAD, Of Course
The bi-annual races are held on alternate years. DE was unable to obtain any sexy engineering drawings or CAD
The team’s current car, Quantum, weighs in at 320 lbs. (sans models to accompany this article; they’re also top secret, although

we have been assured they exist. After all, not
using CAD on a cutting-edge project like this
wouldn’t just be crazy, it would be … philo-
sophically impossible.
“Our design philosophy,” says Huang, “is
that anything that exists on the car has to be
modeled and assembled [in the computer first].
You can’t just say, ‘It looks good to me,’ without
knowing that the bolts will actually fit.”
The team does its mechanical design and The solar car team and their car, Quantum, pose with
visualization in SolidWorks, which has been a team sponsor Jack Roush, founder of Roush Fenway Racing and one of
since 2006. “We used SolidWorks to model all of our mechanical the team’s gold sponsors. Photo courtesy of Diane Thach.
components,” says Huang, noting that includes the suspension,
steering system, carbon monocoque chassis and wheels, among part of the students’ tuition. If they’re not available, well, “soft-
other parts. “We used SolidWorks to make sure power electrical ware companies tend to be very charitable,” says Huang.
systems would have enough space inside their enclosures. The The team employed COMSOL multiphysics to do optimiza-
circuit boards themselves—fuses, circuit breakers, the battery tion on the car’s battery pack.
cells and so forth—all take up physical space.” “Our first battery pack had some issues with overheating, in-
The team also uses SolidWorks to generate drawings for ternal resistance … all that sort of business,” says Huang. “We
the manufacturers, sending designs out to professional machine used COMSOL to model our connections within the battery
shops to get the actual parts made. pack and look for places where there was too much current.”
The team was able to fix the issues, and Huang says he can
Other Software foresee multiphysics software “playing a big role in further op-
The solar car team uses a number of software packages to help timizing the car.”
design and optimize the car, most of which are available to as a The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) component of the
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design requires its own specialized software. Huang reports that run across Australia’s Outback is north of $1 million — al-
the vehicle’s aero team does all of its modeling in Siemens NX though Huang is quick to point out that “we actually don’t
Unigraphics, the meshing in BETA CAE Systems ANSA, and see nearly a million in cash. Most of that is in-kind dona-
the solving in ANSYS FLUENT. tions.” Those donations include everything from raw car-
bon fiber to machine shop time.
No Free Ride Still, there’s a lot of money that goes into building the car.
Free software notwithstanding, the cost of putting together “A lot of components we need tend to be hard to get
a competitive solar car capable of making an 1,800-mile for free, and are rather expensive,” says Huang, “It’s
mostly because they’re custom, and they’re the cutting
edge in performance.”
BUT WHAT’S IT GOOD FOR? Solar cells, for example, are expensive and not, Huang
S
says, something you can generally get for free: “The bat-
ure, the University of Michigan Solar Car proj- tery pack is a huge part of the car, so that’s one of our large
ect is fun for the students involved, but does expenditures. We try to get the best cells that we can.” The
anything practical come out of all this time car uses Panasonic lithium-ion batteries, which are not cur-
and money? Yes, says Andrew Huang, the team’s rently available to the public.
interim engineering director.
“The solar car is essentially the most efficient A Team Effort
battery-electric vehicle possible,” he says. “We use the Huang has been impressed by how dedicated people are to
most advanced batteries, carbon fiber composites, elec- the solar car team.
tric drivetrains and aerodynamic designs to create such “This summer, sometimes we would spend 90 hours a week
an efficient car. These are incredibly critical areas of on the car for about four months straight,” he says. “A solar car
development to an auto industry that is moving toward seems simple in principle, but to make a really great car, you
battery-powered vehicles. To meet consumer require- have to spend all this time to make the tiniest, 0.5% improve-
ments, companies will have to increase their vehicle’s ment that will put you ahead of the competition. [You have to]
battery capacities, decrease their weight, and waste get your craftsmanship up to those really high levels.”
less energy in their motors and to aerodynamic drag.” Plus, the cars are never really done. There’s always the
Huang admits that the public will likely never see next race to get ready for and, after that, the next car to de-
a purely solar-powered car for sale—not unless you sign and build.
want a car with an 8-hp motor. However, he notes that “You’ll finish the original design and you’ll think, ‘This
“we do a lot of work in increasing the power output, looks a little strange; we should change that,’” says Huang.
and thus viability of solar cells for power generation. “Or, ‘Oh, we left out a heat sink in this place.’ It’s just constant
“Our 2007 car, Continuum, had a concentrator sys- revisions all the time.
tem (co-developed with Boeing) that reflected sunlight “We have a saying: Good grades, solar car and a social
off parabolic mirrors and concentrated them onto a life—pick two. It’s kind of a rough life.” DE
much smaller area of solar cells,” he offers as an exam-
ple. “This essentially gave us an array the size of the Contributing Editor Mark Clarkson is DE’s expert in visualiza-
mirrors, which were much less expensive per unit area tion, computer animation, and graphics. His newest book is “Photo-
than the advanced cells used in the concentrators.” shop Elements by Example.” Visit him on the web at markclarkson.
Technologies similar to this are being developed and com or send e-mail about this article to de-editors@deskeng.com.
deployed in the southwestern US and other sunny plac-
es of the world—concentrated photovoltaics, he says.
“Companies like Amonix, Concentrix and Solfocus INFO ➜ ANSYS: ANSYS.com
are developing technologies very similar in concept ➜ BETA CAE Systems USA: ANSA-USA.com
to our system to generate electricity for the grid,”
Huang continues. “I’m not implying they derived it ➜ COMSOL: COMSOL.com
from us, but it is cool to see these technologies being ➜ Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks: SolidWorks.com
developed. I would even venture as far to say that ➜ Panasonic: Panasonic.com
our work is applicable to the computer industry—all
the microelectronic systems that control the car and
➜ Siemens: Siemens.com
broadcast telemetry (the car’s status for battery level, ➜ University of Michigan Solar Car team:
temperatures, solar input, etc.) to our race caravan are SolarCar.engin.umich.edu
designed to consume as little energy as possible.” For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

Multiphysics /// Environmentally-Friendly Engineering
Simulation of Hybrid
and Electric Vehicles
The automotive industry is engineering its
future with integrated multiphysics
simulation software.
By Scott Stanton and Sandeep Sovani
W
ith concerns over air pollution and petroleum sup-
plies, the use of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)
and electric vehicles (EVs) has come to the fore-
front as alternatives to conventional gasoline and diesel en-
gines. Governments worldwide are promoting HEV/EV re- HEV battery pack
search. The U.S. government has announced $2.4 billion in cooling flow paths with
funding for new designs of battery packs, electric motors and temperature distribution
other components, setting the goal of 1 million HEVs on the on cells.
road by 2015. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that
by 2030, alternative vehicles will comprise 28% of the total
U.S. light-duty cars and trucks—a 20% increase from 2005
(source: Annual Energy Outlook 2007 with Projections to 2030, pack—as well as the cells within. For example, batteries gen-
report DOE/EIA). erate heat while charging and discharging. The temperature
To meet these increased demands for HEV/EV applica- of all cells within the battery pack must be strictly maintained
tions, competition is intense to develop improved and cost- within a few temperature degrees of each other. Otherwise,
effective electric powertrains. In meeting these demands, harmful internal current loops can form within the pack that
leading automotive companies with HEV/EV initiatives are drastically shorten battery life. This necessitates a cooling sys-
focusing on development efforts driven by simulation, rather tem—whether by air or liquid—and sometimes creates a side
than prototype testing. challenge of minimizing noise close to the passenger cabin.
Numerous software solutions are available for the diverse Drivers of HEV/EVs expect an ultra-quiet driving experience,
types of analysis needed in such development work including which is not compatible with a loud cooling system.
mechanical, electrical, electromagnetic (EM), electrochemical, Engineers must also take into account the physical place-
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and thermal management of an electric battery pack within the HEV, as well as any
ment applications. stresses the battery will experience under a range of driving
conditions. The battery must be designed to safely withstand
Design Challenges multiple variables such as external heating, over-charging,
Today’s automotive engineers are challenged with designing over-discharging, nail penetration, crush or external short.
new electric powertrain technologies almost entirely from The same safety goals apply to crash scenarios, in which pas-
scratch. Key components included in this task are electric sengers must be protected from toxic acids released from the
battery packs, electric traction motors/generators and power battery during such an event.
electronics. The design of these HEV components involves • Motor/Generator: For years, automakers invested rela-
complex physical problems—and an enormous amount of tively little time and money in electric machine (that is, the
challenging system integration: electric traction motor/generator) design because the internal
• Battery Packs: As engineers design batteries with large combustion engine was so widely used. These conventional
energy capacity and greater power output, they must con- engines accomplished what they needed to: Consumer re-
sider the thermal, structural and EM influences on the battery quirements were met; emissions regulations were not as strin-

Environmentally-Friendly Engineering /// Multiphysics
Thermal management is a major concern with power
EMI/EMC of an Insulated gate electronics in HEVs. The entire power delivered by the elec-
bipolar transistor. tric powertrain to the wheels (as well as the power needed
to recharge the battery) has to travel through the power
electronics. Therefore, even the slightest power loss in the
electronics creates a large amount of heat. The heat needs
to be carefully managed and dissipated under a wide range
of operating conditions, such as driving in a hot desert or
in sub-zero winter conditions, to avoid heat damage to the
power electronics and nearby components. Optimally, the
electric losses in the electronics need to be accurately cal-
culated, and heat dissipation paths need to be identified and
designed to ensure effective cooling.
• Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility
(EMI/EMC): Because the power supplied to the motor needs
to be controlled at relatively high switching frequencies, the
gent; and oil prices were not a concern. EMI among the various electrical components becomes an
Today, all that has changed, with a huge amount of inter- important concern. If EMI is unaccounted for, it will destroy
est in new motors—and a correspondingly huge pressure on signals and prohibit the motor from operating. This requires
companies to develop the most efficient, cost-effective electric a comprehensive study of the EM fields in and around the
design. Brainpower and investment dollars are flowing into motor, bus bars and nearby components while these compo-
this area, and the electric motor, just as with the electric bat- nents are operating in an interconnected, coupled way.
tery pack, poses its own set of design challenges.
The motor/generator plays an essential role in the propul- From Theory to Practice
sion of the vehicle. It also recharges the battery via regen- Multiphysics (MP) simulation software allows engineers to
erative braking. HEV/EV traction motors are different from understand how a design will perform under various loading
other motors because they must work reliably in a demand- conditions before prototyping takes place. Not only can physi-
ing physical environment. Motors must operate consistently cal, real-life scenarios be modeled with accurate simulation,
under extreme hot and cold temperatures, severe vibrations, but the effects of and interactions between fluids, mechanics,
hard duty cycles and rough road conditions. In the HEV, an thermal physics, electrochemistry and EM forces can be simu-
electric motor is also exposed to high temperatures produced lated and the design adjusted based on those models. In this
under the hood by the engine. All of these variables must be way, designs can be generated faster—and systems can be op-
addressed in motor design. timized up front in the cycle, to avoid surprises and problems
Customers also expect high fuel efficiency from HEV/EVs. that might occur in the later stages of product development.
Fuel efficiency, low emissions, safety and performance aspects Simulation tools for HEV/EV development span a wide
of a vehicle drive consumer purchasing decisions and, there- range. They include CFD, EM, mechanical, thermal and
fore, directly affect market success. Because the electric motor electrical issues. These tools can be used in tackling the chal-
design determines how much electrical energy provided by lenges of developing individual powertrain components—
the battery is transformed into physical energy used to run electric battery packs, electric traction motors/generators
the vehicle, designing a highly fuel-efficient motor is one of and power electronics—as well as the tremendous complexi-
the most important challenges HEV/EV powertrain engineers ties when these subsystems are integrated into the complete
face today. vehicle powertrain.
• Power Electronics: The “heart and brain” of an electric • Battery Pack Simulation: For cylindrical cells, engineers
powertrain system must precisely control the power transfer typically employ an air-cooling strategy in which pack hous-
between the battery and the motor/generator, and also imple- ings are shaped for optimal cooling, provided by a blower and
ment the logic to adjust the powertrain to various driving con- guiding vanes to direct an adequate airflow. For rectangular
ditions and driver inputs. To operate at the highest efficiency cells, cooling generally is accomplished using liquid circulat-
under a variety of driving conditions, power supplied to the ing through heat exchanger elements in contact with cells. A
traction motor needs to be carefully controlled at a relatively control algorithm is used to vary loads on different cells, based
high switching frequency. This is accomplished through deon temperatures and charger status.
vices such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), based In evaluating and optimizing the various thermal manage-
on position, speed, temperature, etc., via feedback continu- ment configurations, parameterization and methods such as de-
ously received from sensors monitoring the motor. sign of experiments (DOE) are used in combination with CFD

solvers for analyzing the complex 3D cooling flows and conjugate

(solid-to-fluid) heat transfer. For evaluating pack performance for
long driving cycles, the linear time invariant (LTI) method is use-
ful for efficiently performing such real-time simulations.
Engineers can apply electronics circuit simulation tech-
nology in evaluating the control algorithms for studying
overcharging, high-current charging/discharging, external
shorts or other electrical problems that could reduce battery
life and risk battery explosion. The software can be used for opti-
studying such algorithms because of its ability to tightly in- miza-
tegrate 3D physical models (CFD and mechanical) into the tion soft-
control circuit simulation. ware can be
For solving structural problems caused by incidents such used to define the Insulated gate
as a crash or foreign body penetration of the battery pack, main elements of the bipolar transistor
structural mechanics software can be leveraged to evaluate motor/generator, includ- temperature
the structural integrity of the assembly to prevent toxic bat- ing magnet materials, coil distribution.
tery contents from escaping, or damage to cells that could configurations, number of turns,
cause thermal runaway and battery explosion. Such virtual air gaps and more. Parasitic extraction tools can be used to com-
prototyping is also useful in studying vibrations, as well as pute the machine’s electrical properties.
durability and fatigue life of the battery pack. These outputs can be entered into EM field simulation
• Motor/Generator Simulation: In developing the motor/gen- software, which computes the torque profile of the machine—
erator, the design team must focus considerable attention on the that is, how the torque ramps up over time for driving the
EM of this electric machine. From initial CAD drawings and re- vehicle in motor mode, as well as electrical resistance in stop-
lated engineering specifications of the assembly, electronics design ping the vehicle in brake mode. Vehicle weight is brought into
HSMWorks ad #1

Environmentally-Friendly Engineering /// Multiphysics
temperature-dependent performance variables, such as energy
drained from the batteries to ensure that heat levels do not
exceed specified limits to adversely affect IGBT performance.
From this temperature profile, engineers can utilize the
thermal-structural analysis capabilities of FEA software to
determine the resulting thermal stresses. Electronic design
analysis tools can be applied to calculate EM forces acting on
motor/generator components to determine deformations and
mechanical stress distributions on the structure. Engineers can
then modify the structure to eliminate stress concentrations
and excessive deformation—or conversely, to lighten regions
that may have been overdesigned with excess material.
• EMI/EMC Simulation: In HEV/EV development,
switching speeds of IGBTs ranging from tens to hundreds of
FEA mesh for shaft motor-
kHz—with turn-on rise times and turn-off fall times in the
generator. Image courtesy
order of 50 nanoseconds to 100 nanoseconds—can cause two
Kato Engineering.
major EM problems:
the analysis to determine acceleration and stopping time for 1 Conducted emissions (through current-carrying structures)
1.
various scenarios. can cause power integrity issues or set up reflected waves of en-
The computed torque output may be used further in ergy that can potentially damage the inverter and the motor.
structural mechanics software for computing stresses, loads, 2 Radiated EM fields (through air) can affect the rest of the
2.
deformations and vibrations of the physical parts of the pow- vehicle’s many electronic systems.
ertrain, including the driveshaft and gearing. Vibration analy- Both types of interference problems must be considered.
sis is important because tractions can be a prominent source of Engineers must design for EMI/EMC in vehicles.
noise in EVs, which are expected to be quiet by nature. CFD To accurately characterize the behavior of a switching de-
analysis may be used for studying thermal management issues, vice such as an IGBT, engineers typically begin by using a
mapping energy losses, and determining heat distributions in parameterization wizard that takes into account performance
the motor/generator assembly. curves and tabular data from vendor-supplied specification
Throughout the EM and mechanical development pro- sheets. This process automatically extracts the required pa-
cesses, integrated MP software coordinates the actions and ex- rameters to aid in creating a semiconductor circuit model of
changes of data among the various tools in the many computa- the IGBT.
tions performed for different load scenarios, and in comparing Next, the physical layout of the power inverter is imported
various design alternatives. This MP co-simulation process is from CAD geometry into parasitic extraction software, which
facilitated by the software all running on a single unified envi- then computes the frequency-dependent resistance, partial in-
ronment with a smooth flow of data among programs. ductance and capacitance (RLC) along the conduction paths.
• Power Electronics Simulation: For thermal management The tool is used to create an equivalent circuit model for sys-
of the HEV power electronics, engineers enter representa- tem simulation.
tions of IGBT characteristics (switching voltages, current Results of these simulations can be used to examine radiated
waveforms, etc.), control algorithms (for turning the IGBT emissions, enabling engineers to calculate the field intensity at
on and off) and the motor/generator into power electronics
circuit simulation software for virtual analysis. From this data,
the software determines how the levels of electrical current
flowing through the entire system vary at given times for ve-
hicle acceleration, cruising and braking.
Using electronic thermal current tools, engineers then
specify the geometry of the major heat sources in the pow-
ertrain system (IGBTs and current-carrying parts of the
motor/generator). Through parametric analysis, each heat
source is applied individually at major points of interest in
the system, with air circulation and conducted thermal energy
taken into consideration. Software then processes this data
and generates a thermal model, which engineers use to deter- Hybrid electric vehicle and electric vehicle system
mine overall temperature profiles of each IGBT together with simulation spans EM, thermal, fluid and structural physics.

any given point in space to determine whether the inverter pack- having to meet challenging demands in a market with huge
age is in compliance with federal and international standards. potential gains for cutting-edge companies. Instead, MP-based
simulation-driven development can be used to balance the in-
System Integration tricate, interdependent and often-conflicting mechanical, elec-
System integration is perhaps the largest challenge in electrical, EM, fluidic and thermal management requirements. DE
tric powertrain development. Each component of the electric
powertrain has distinct characteristics, attributes, strengths and Scott Stanton is technical director and Sandeep Sovani is
other complexities that must be taken into account. The objec- manager of Global Automotive Strategy for Canonsburg, PA-
tive is to ensure that the entire electric powertrain performs at based ANSYS Inc.
the highest overall efficiency under a wide variety of loads and
operating conditions experienced in real-life driving scenarios.
Because subsystems and components work together in a coher- INFO ➜ ANSYS Inc.: ANSYS.com
ent, tightly coupled way, they cannot be developed entirely in For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
isolation from one another. Rather, the performance of each References:
subsystem must be carefully matched with those of all others. • J.S. Hsu, C.W Ayers, C.L. Coomer, R.H. Wiles, S.L. Campbell, K.T.
To successfully simulate such complexities in the HEV/EV Michelhaugh, “Report on Toyota/Prius Motor Torque Capability,
powertrain, simulation solutions should be capable of multidi- Torque Property, No-Load Back EMF, and Mechanical Losses,”
mensional, multiphysical and multiscale simulation, providing Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Institute for Science
the technology needed in addressing the many mechanical, and Education, ORNL/TM-2004/185.
fluid, electrical, electrochemical and EM issues of these com- • S. Stanton, D. Lin, Z. Tang, “Interior Permanent Magnet
plex powertrain systems. Machine Analysis Using Finite Element Based Equivalent Circuit
The pace of HEV/EV development is incredibly fast, with Model,” IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference 2009
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers alike proceedings, pages 291-294, ISBN 978-1-4244-2600-3.
Lenovo® recommends Windows® 7 Professional.
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Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time, without notice. Lenovo makes every effort to ensure accuracy of all information but is not liable or responsible for
any editorial, photographic or typographic errors. All images are for illustration purposes only. For full Lenovo product, service and warranty specifications visit www.lenovo. com The following are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, For Those Who Do and ThinkStation. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, Intel vPro, Core Inside and vPro Inside are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or
service marks of others. ©2011 Lenovo.

Environmentally-Friendly Engineering /// Rapid Tech
The Eco-Friendly
Prototype
With the advent of recyclable and biodegradable additive
manufacturing materials, interest in sustainability grows with demand.
By Debbie Sniderman
A
dditive manufacturing (AM) technologies speed pro- resin code 9 or ABS, are the most commonly known recy-
totyping by allowing design engineers to make proto- clable plastics used in AM.
types on demand, rather than using large amounts of ABS and PC are among some of equipment producer Stra-
energy and raw materials for a small number of items. That, in tasys’ fused deposition modeling (FDM) recyclable material
itself, is environmentally friendly. choices, which, according to Bill Macy in a Direct Part Manu-
Parts can be produced using many materials: plastics, waxes, facturing Workshop at the March 2011 Midwest SAMPE
paraffins, glass, metals, ceramics, composites, sand, even paper. Conference, “are 100% recyclable.” Others he mentioned
Though many of these materials are recyclable, parts produced currently in use include Ultem 9085 and FDM-PPSF (poly-
by some AM techniques can’t be recycled because their compo- phenylsulfone thermoplastic).
sition is changed with additives, stabilizers, finishes and bind-
ers. As AM becomes mainstream, some are beginning to look Bioplastics
toward recyclable and biodegradable plastic material options. Over the last year, technologies for recycling items made from
the biopolymer polylactic acid (PLA), formed from glucose
On the Horizon and currently available for 3D printing, have improved. Near-
According to Dr. Ian Gibson, founder and advisor of Global infrared recycling separation processes have matured, and are
Alliance of Rapid Prototyping Associations (GARPA) and as- now able to distinguish among PLA, polyethylene terephthalate
sociate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineer- (PET) or HDPE for effective sorting in mixed waste, so recy-
ing at National University of Singapore, sustainability in the cling PLA is becoming easier and more widespread. PLA will
AM industry is not yet an immediate concern for two reasons: also degrade in commercial composting environments, accord-
1 “The processes are not so cheap as to make parts in a
1. ing to Cargill’s Natureworks, maker of Ingeo PLA biopolymers.
throw-away fashion,” he says. “People are still concerned Polyamide (PA) 11 (Nylon 11), a bio-based engineering
about cost when they build, and therefore, need to justify the thermoplastic polymer produced from renewable castor oil
actual fabrication.” sources, is available in fine powder form and is used in the se-
2 The volume of machines and parts has not yet intensified,
2. lective laser sintering (SLS) market. It can be recycled in some
Gibson points out: “One city probably creates more polymer cities under plastic resin code 7, Other or O. Material produc-
waste than all the AM machines of the world.” ers such as Arkema, through its French partner Agiplast, col-
But, he notes, sustainability is likely to become a concern in lect, sort and reuse production scraps, pellets and end-of-life
the future, when the industry experiences a rapid increase as a articles made from Rilsan technical polymers, including PA11.
result of low-cost machines aimed at personal use.
“None of the large printer manufacturers have yet to in- Biodegradable Biomedical Materials
troduce machines to the world. When they do, they will have The biomedical industry is developing structures from com-
automated assembly plants capable of generating a veritable posite materials, combining biopolymers as binders with bio-
flood of machines. This is the tip of a potentially huge ice- ceramics, which are more rigid (and brittle) to achieve their
berg,” says Gibson. desired material properties.
“There are numerous biodegradable materials available for
Currently in Use AM technologies that were developed specifically for medical
Polycarbonate (PC), recycled in some cities with resin code applications,” Gibson says, “but there is no reason why they
7, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) recycled with cannot be developed for mainstream manufacturing. Many of

the materials have sufficient strength to withstand heavy and recycle—financial or otherwise.”
regular use, and it is possible to ‘tune’ the degradation rate to In 2009, Hiller explored an AM approach that enabled the
suit a particular application, including its recycling.” same physical material to be used multiple times. Under a
Some biodegradable materials currently used with AM Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Programmable
technologies include: Matter grant and National Science Foundation research fel-
• Mirel bioplastic, made through fermentation of sugar. lowship, he demonstrated a method in which printed items
•P oly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), a biodegradable semi-crystalline could be completely recycled using “digital material elements.”
polymer derived from lactic acid used with AM for bone tissue His fabricator assembled repeated elements. In the future,
and other biomedical applications. they could be made small enough and with sufficiently high ac-
•H ydroxyapatite (HA or HAp), a biodegradable bioceramic curacy to form products that appear natural to the human eye.
available in powder form for SLS, a complex phosphate of Units called “voxels” can be pre-made in a range of sizes, and
calcium (Ca (PO4)3OH) that occurs as a mineral. lock together or be used with binders that do not change their
•P GA poly(glycolic acid), a newer material PLGA — properties, but hold them together during assembly and use.
bioresorbable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), and PLGLA. A structure was “printed” using steel and Delrin spheres
and binder. At the product’s end of life, the binder was dis-
Sustainability solved, disassembling the repeated elements, which were
Gibson says the AM industry needs to look at sustainability sorted and placed back into the fabricator bins. A different
in many ways, and material use is just one of them. structure was then printed from the reclaimed material.
“Currently, very few AM applications include plans for Hiller says he believes multi-material AM is the way of
material degradation,” Gibson says. “Most products are de- the future, so when other materials are mixed together in
signed according to the desired function, and very few of an object, they could not be melted down and reformed, but
these functions focus on the lifetime of the product. This disassembled voxels could be sorted by material. The goal of
issue should be given more attention, since we are aware that his research was “to draw the attention of printing manufac-
most AM materials do not have considerable longevity when turers and consumers to encourage a focus on total lifecycle
compared with many commonly used industrial polymers.” analysis, and think about how to fully recycle,” he says. Over
Usually, other manufacturing methods are considered when time, as more users consider the lifecycle of the materials
high durability is concerned, Gibson adds, and AM is used to fab- they use, and demand grows, the cost-effectiveness of re-
ricate the less-durable, but customizable features of a product. usable materials should help make them feasible. DE
“One concern would be to examine the use of composites in
AM,” he points out. “Many processes use a non-polymer filler Debbie Sniderman is an engineer, writer and consultant in
material to enhance the overall material properties. Another manufacturing and R&D. Contact her at VIVLLC.com.
thought might be to specifically develop recyclable materials
and processes for short-term part applications, like prototyping.
“Finally, we really need to raise the awareness of this po- INFO ➜ Agiplast RCycle Program: Agiplast.fr
tential problem to the increasing number of users through ➜ Biodegradable Polymers: MDPI.com/1996-1944/2/2/307
a comprehensive training and education program. If the po- ➜ Durable BioResins: PTonline.com/articles/bio-resins-tackle-
tential risks are realized, we can prepare this new technology durable-applications
in a way that won’t result in the next plastic-bag nightmare.”
➜ End of life roadmap for PLA biopolymer: NatureworksLLC.
com/Data/Flash-Items/EOL-Flash.aspx
Fully Recyclable Digital Printing
Some AM processes, such as FDM and fused filament fabri- ➜ Fully Recyclable Multi-material Printing: CreativeMachines.
Cornell.edu/sites/default/files/SFF09_Hiller3.pdf
cation (FFF), that lay down streams of layered plastic such
as ABS, produce parts that could be recycled by “starting ➜ PLA in RepRap: RepRap.org/wiki/PLA
over” and melting down the whole object as if it were raw ➜ PLA Recycling: InnovativeIndustry.net/pla-recycling-
material. But most parts created by AM processes are still infrastructure
not recycled for re-use.
➜ PLGA Biopolymers: PCAS.com/expansorb-range-
Cornell University researcher Jonathan Hiller explains: resorbable-polymer-excipient.html
“The fundamentals of some AM technologies cause materials
to undergo irreversible processes, such as polymerization, in- ➜ Rapid Assembly for Physical Voxel Manufacturing:
CreativeMachines.Cornell.edu/Rapid_Assembler
filtration with a binder, or UV curing, making further re-use
of the material impossible. At the current low volumes, there ➜ Rilsan PA11: Arkema.com/pdf/EN/products/technical_
are prohibitive costs, a lack of recycling infrastructure, and polymers/rilsan/Rilsan_PA11_Renewable.pdf
virtually no incentives for consumers and manufacturers to ➜ Stratasys: Stratasys.com

Environmentally-Friendly Engineering /// CFD
Streamlining the Prius

SimuTech Group uses computational fluid dynamics software from
ANSYS to analyze aerodynamics on the Toyota Prius.
BY JAMIE J. GOOCH
W
hat can you do to sell more cars when you’ve al-
ready got the best-selling hybrid in America? If
you’re Toyota, you go for the cool factor. Some
might find 50 miles per gallon to be cool enough, but for
those not convinced, Toyota has released the Prius PLUS
Performance Package.
“PLUS enhances the driving experience for Toyota hy-
brid enthusiasts by offering cool and fun accessories that
add sporty looks with performance handling,” according
to the car manufacturer’s news release. “It features several
Toyota accessories that complement the Prius’ core values
of Eco and Advanced Technology.”
Complementing core values means the PLUS package The Toyota Prius PLUS Performance Package was proven
doesn’t have a negative effect on the car’s biggest selling to improve aerodynamics thanks to CFD software.
point: gas mileage. Before making that claim, Toyota made
sure the ground effects kit, which includes front and rear
spoilers, side skirts and a rear diffuser, were aerodynamic.
CFD for MPG

SimuTech Group, an ANSYS Channel Partner based in
Rochester, NY, performed a computational fluid dynam-
ics (CFD) analysis for Toyota and its supplier Tiercon. Si-
muTech used ANSYS CFD software to conduct aerody-
namic comparison studies on the new PLUS Performance
Package. SimuTech engineers then performed simulations
to determine optimum airflow across the vehicle’s outer
body. As a result of using the software simulations, the en-
gineers verified that the ground effects kit developed for Testing the Prius PLUS Performance package’s
the new package provided an overall improvement in aero- aerodynamics in ANSYS CFD software.
dynamic drag for the Prius.
That’s right, not only did the PLUS package —which neering technical support and guidance to our ANSYS soft-
also includes “race-inspired” 17-in. forged alloy wheels ware users, we were more than happy to work with Tiercon
low-profile tires and lowered springs—not hurt the Prius’ and Toyota by providing advanced consulting services for
fuel efficiency, it improved it. That could help Toyota this particular analysis,” McKim said. DE
move the performance packages, which cost between
$2,999 and $3,699. Jamie Gooch is managing editor of Desktop Engineering
“We were pleased to work with Toyota and Tiercon to magazine. Contact him via de-editors@deskeng.com.
assure they achieved the results they were looking for,” said
Alan McKim, SimuTech vice president of customer services
INFO ➜ ANSYS: ANSYS.com
in a news release. The company says its upfront analysis helps
optimize designs without costly trial and error testing. ➜ SimuTech Group: SimuTechGroup.com
“Though the majority of our work is providing engi- For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

Mobile Apps /// Engineering Computing
Make Me a
System with Everything
Boundaries blur as the desktop, mobile apps and the cloud merge.
BY KENNETH WONG
H
ave you heard the one about a Buddhist
monk ordering pizza? The monk walks
into a pizza parlor and says, “Make me
one with everything.”
It’s OK if you didn’t get it. Apparently, the
Dalai Lama didn’t either. When Australian
morning show host Karl Stefanovic tried the
one-liner during his recent interview with the
Tibetan spiritual leader, the joke fell flat. The
punch line could mean “make me a pizza with
every available topping” or “let me be part of
the larger universe,” but somehow the double
entendre got lost in translation.
So why am I repeating the joke (at my own
peril) to a bunch of engineers who may or may
not be Buddhist? Because the product-design dis- CadFaster bridges the desktop and mobile devices
cipline, once confined almost entirely to desktop operations, is with a CAD plug-in for exporting mobile-viewable 3D
heading for a transformation. The new workflow is not con- files, an executable file with embedded viewing and
fined to local workstations and on-premise client-server setups. markup tools (shown here), and an iPad app called
It’s also augmented with mobile tablets, smartphones, cloud- CadFaster Collaborate.
hosted functions and online communities. To facilitate smooth
data exchange and collaboration these days, you’ll need a prod- dedicated to their multimedia content—as the hub for their
uct design system where everything becomes one. ebooks, songs, movies and photos.
The cloud’s connectivity to your desktop, notebook, Wi-
Reconciling Your Differences in the Cloud Fi-enabled tablets and smartphones is what allows Amazon
Some people who regularly shop at Amazon.com may not and Apple to keep your libraries in sync. It doesn’t matter that
even realize they have a virtual storage locker, a 5GB Am- you initially highlighted a passage in an ebook or on your PC.
azon Cloud Drive, waiting for them—free of charge. In You’ll be able to see the same highlight when you access the
March, the online retailer unleashed its Cloud Drive offer, title from your Kindle device or your iPad. (Amazon calls it
along with free music players for web-connected PCs and Whispersync, emphasizing its ability to quietly reconcile dif-
Android devices. It’s no coincidence that the size of Ama- ferent copies of your content in the background.) Similarly,
zon’s giveaway was identical to Apple’s iCloud offer, which when you add an appointment to your calendar on your
at the time was still several months away from going public. iPhone, you’ll find your desktop’s calendar automatically pop-
The Amazon offer, some industry watchers noted, was the ulated with the same appointment.
retailer’s plan to beat Apple to the punch. Without their link to the cloud, your mobile devices are little
So why are Amazon and Apple so eager to give away more than handheld hard drives. Without automatic synching
free storage? Because the cloud is essential to the appeal of through the cloud, you will have to painstakingly duplicate
mobile devices like Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad. Both every edit you make to your playlists, contacts and photo al-
companies foresee that, in the near future, many consumers bums, one device at a time.
would use a cloud drive—a small chunk of a remote server This September, Autodesk made a similar move, giving away

Engineering Computing /// Mobile Apps
Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter Mobility 2.0 gives you The 3DVIA Mobile app gives you the option to browse and
the option to work offline (in cache mode), then go back interact with 3DVIA community content, both members’
online to sync with files kept in Teamcenter repositories. and user-submitted 3D models.
3GB of online storage space free of charge to its subscription file (either as a host or a participant) with a number of others
customers. You may use the online vault to store your design in real-time at the same time. The use of the cloud also allows
files. But more importantly, many of Autodesk’s mobile applica- CadFaster to keep markups and annotations in sync, so notes
tions like AutoCAD WS Mobile and Autodesk Inventor Pub- added to the published model from the iPad app will be visible
lisher Mobile Viewer give you direct access to files stored in to anyone launching the file from the desktop, and vice versa.
Autodesk Cloud. (Because the .exe file with unknown origin can be mistaken for a
Autodesk’s rival Dassault Systèmes, which offers 3DVIA malicious file by some overprotective antivirus software, at press
Mobile app for iPhone and iPad users, gives you a 1GB quota time CadFaster is considering a thin client as an alternative.)
for free. If you need more, you can upgrade to a 3DVIA On- Previously limited to viewing functions only, Siemens
line Hosting account—a plan with 5GB to 100GB storage PLM Software’s Teamcenter Mobility now offers users a way
space for varying fees. to submit tasks into the workflow from an iPad. The app,
As more people begin using mobile devices for concept now in version 2.0, supports Facebook-style notifications
review, annotation and approval of design changes, the client- (showing the number of issues awaiting your attention on the
server approach (a central repository housed on the premises, launch icon itself) and limited markup. The app serves as a
accessible only through sanctioned desktop clients) shows its portal into Teamcenter databases, housed and maintained by
limitations. For product design to scale across multiple devices, Siemens PLM Software users. The software offers both an
the ability to host, share and synchronize mobile-viewable 3D offline mode (working from cached data in the device when
models (usually lightweight versions of CAD models) over the the device is disconnected) and online mode. Changes made
cloud becomes much more important. during offline mode will automatically be synced to relevant
files when it goes back online.
Collaboration across Multiple Devices
With an eye toward collaboration across multiple devices, new- Community Portals
comer CadFaster launched its business with plug-ins to some Long before the emergence of mobile devices, CAD vendors
popular CAD software titles (currently available for Bentley established user communities to foster friendship, file sharing,
MicroStation, Autodesk Revit and SolidWorks) and an iPad tip sharing and collaboration among their customers. Long es-
app. The plug-in allows you to publish mobile-viewable ver- tablished communities include SolidWorks’ 3D ContentCen-
sions of your 3D design files and directly upload them to your tral, Dassault Systèmes’ 3DVIA.com, and AutoCAD Exchange.
cloud-hosted drive (100MB for a start, with the option to up- New ones are also springing up, such as GrabCad and Solid
grade for more space). It also gives you the option to publish an Edge PART Community. Some—like SolidWorks’ 3D Con-
executable file, which functions as a self-contained viewing and tentCentral, 3DVIA.com and GrabCad—support multiple 3D
markup application for those who need to inspect the design, formats and are open to user-created content. Others, like Solid
but don’t necessarily need to edit the original CAD file. Edge PART Community, are limited to authorized part suppli-
Publishing options aside, what distinguishes CadFaster is the ers with downloadable part catalogs.
co-viewing function, which lets you discuss the shared design SolidWorks’ 3D ContentCentral, which houses both

/// High-Performance Computing
Mobile Apps
how to:
PRINT
IN 3D
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Th prints
e r o f 3D
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Visit
1. zoomrp.com
We’re your one-stop-
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HP ePrint lets you remotely print your drawings to ePrint-enabled printers in

your local area network and web-connected printers. You also have the option securely!
to save and share a digital version of your drawing. 2. upload file
You can upload as many
supplier content and user content, is power, available from remote CPU and
files as you’re ready to
integrated into the CAD modeling GPU clusters, delivered on demand over print. Review quantities
software itself, so you can search for the web. With the latest launch of Au- and prices and select
a part, download it and insert it into todesk Cloud, the company plans to offer your shipping option for
your design in progress, right from the its subscription customers cloud-hosted all your parts at once.
CAD modeling environment. 3DVIA. rendering, design optimization (for Au-
com content—both user profiles and todesk Inventor users), energy analysis
uploaded 3D files—is available on (for Autodesk Revit users), environment
3DVIA Mobile, so you can use a Wi- footprint calculation (for Autodesk Green Place Order
Fi-enabled tablet to browse models, Building Studio users), and project man-
view ratings and histories of users, and agement (for Autodesk Buzzsaw users). 3. push button
inspect the model from your preferred It’s really that easy. Our
mobile device. Solid Edge PART Com- Printing over the Web returning customers
munity works as an alternative to paper Even an operation once confined ex- come back for simple
catalogs, offering you a way to down- clusively to paper and stationary hard- convenience. We take the
load the standard part directly into your ware—printing—is getting a mobile overhead, the guesswork,
Solid Edge modeling environment. upgrade. HP, one of a handful of wide- and the wait out of
production every time.
With the introduction of 3DVIA host- format printer suppliers still in the mar-
ing service, you now have the option to ket, now offers a free mobile app: HP
embed a cloud-hosted 3D model into a ePrint for iPhone and iPad. With the
web page (in the same way you might app installed, you can remotely print
embed a YouTube video clip). After in- your design files to ePrint-enabled
stalling the 3DVIA viewer plug-in, visi- printers within your local area network
tors to the page can interact with the or web-connected printers.
hosted design model—zoom, pan, rotate, This would allow, for example, a
etc.—from a standard browser. facility manager to print a floor plan
directly to an owner’s web-connected
On-demand Horsepower printer by emailing the drawing to a
In some cases, desktop CAD software unique email address dedicated to the
will be augmented with additional horse- remote printer. That same drawing can

Engineering Computing /// Mobile Apps
also be saved as a digital copy and shared (you’ll need to cre- to a collection of hardware and software that act as one—a
ate an ePrint account), offering you a way to digitally col- desktop workstation, a traveling laptop, a mobile tablet, a
laborate and physically archive documents at the same time. smartphone and an online vault, always syncing among
themselves in the background.
Systemic Change For more on mobile computing’s impact on product life-
There’s a second part to the joke about the Buddhist monk’s cycle management, read “Get Ready for RLM: Wherever You
pizza order. After paying for his pizza with a large bill, the May Roam,” DE, October 2011. DE
monk waited for change, which never came. “Where’s my
change?” the monk asked. “Change must come from within,” Kenneth Wong is senior editor of Desktop Engineering.
replied the witty shop owner. Contact him via de-editors@deskeng.com, at deskeng.com/virtual_
Change is, indeed, coming from within software develop- desktop or via Twitter @KennethwongSF.
ers and user communities, inspired by the swift uptake of
touch-enabled mobile devices. But a eulogy for the desktop
PC is premature. With comparatively smaller hard drives, INFO ➜ AutoCAD: AutoCAD.com
mobile devices will have to rely on cloud-hosted storage and ➜ Autodesk: USA.Autodesk.com
remote servers, especially to appease those who routinely ➜ Bentley: Bentley.com
send, receive and share large 3D design files. The need to
reconcile and merge edits and annotations from multiple ➜ CadFaster: CadFaster.com
users using desktop and mobile hardware makes data sync- ➜ HP: HP.com
ing a critical feature in most apps. ➜ Dassault Systèmes: 3DS.com
I’ve always believed that the frequent use of the word sys-
tem (as in “my CAD modeling system”) to refer to a desktop
➜ DS SolidWorks: SolidWorks.com
machine is a misnomer. However, in the future, when engi- ➜ Siemens PLM Software: PLM.automation.Siemens.com
neers talk about their system, they may indeed be referring For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
HSMWorks ad #2

Surrogate Modeling /// Design
Surrogates Promise
Better, Faster Designs
Using an approximation model is often the best way to address a challenging
problem or to accelerate a lengthy process.
By John Edwards
E
xperiments and simulations lie at the heart of a wide with error bars—of what the performance is at untested
range of engineering design projects. From creating locations.”
aerodynamic vehicles to pinpointing the best place on In desktop engineering, the surrogate “killer app” is
a wing to place an aircraft engine, experiments and/or simu- design optimization, Sóbester says. Say, for example, that
lations are used to isolate design objectives and constraints. your parametric design has five variables. You can only af-
There’s a down side, however: Experiments and simulations ford to simulate the performance of 15 instances—15 sets
are both time-consuming and costly. of five variables. Conventional, so-called “direct” optimizers
One way of reducing the burden is by building approxi- have little chance of getting anywhere in 15 evaluations, he
mation models, otherwise known as surrogate models. notes—but a surrogate model might.
Surrogate modeling’s roots trace back several decades “A surrogate model of a 5d function based on 15 points
to the mining industry (minerals, not data), says Dr. An- may not be terribly accurate, but it will give you a good idea
drás Sóbester, a lecturer at the University of Southampton’s of the most promising region of the design space,” he says.
School of Engineering Sciences in England, and co-author Plus, he adds, “You can search the surrogate to your heart’s
of Engineering Design via Surrogate Modeling: A Practical Guide content (with direct optimizers), as its computational cost is
(Wiley, 2008). The goal in a mining environment is to find negligible.”
the location containing the highest ore grade using the mini- More designers are turning to surrogate models to meet
mum amount of test drilling. the accelerating development timeframes demanded by real-
To achieve this goal, engineers created a three-dimen- world business demands.
sional surrogate model of the ore grade function, based on a “We have recently completed a study supported by the
few known concentration values. Royal Academy of Engineering, looking into the acoustic
“A whole new science—geostatistics—developed around and aerodynamic performance of an unusual engine instal-
the question of how to do this most efficiently,” Sóbester lation geometry for passenger airliners,” Sóbester says. The
says. designers placed the engines on pylons on top of the wings,
Design engineering, beginning with the automotive and to use the wings as noise shields between the engines and
aerospace sectors, picked up many of the formulations devel- communities on the ground.
oped for geostatistics. “We could test the acoustic performance of about 40 dif-
“Oddly, it works much better in these fields than in min- ferent designs via experiments conducted in the University of
ing, as most of our functions are continuous and smooth— Southampton Large Anechoic Facility,” Sóbester notes. “At
ore grade variations are not,” Sóbester says. the same time, we were able to run a similar number of high-
fidelity computational simulations of the airflow around the
Quality on the Quick aircraft.”
Sóbester observes that surrogate modeling is all about reduc- By fitting a surrogate model to each dataset, the de-
ing time and cost without sacrificing accuracy. signers were able to locate the best trade-offs between
“It allows you to make the most of your experiments, noise shielding performance and aerodynamic perfor-
whether they are numerical or physical,” he says. “In es- mance—many of these designs being at untested points.
sence, if you can only afford to measure the performance “But at points where the surrogate had low error margins,”
of a parametrically defined product in a few points in the Sóbester points out.
design space, it gives you a statistical estimate—complete Sóbester notes that wider surrogate modeling adoption

Design /// Surrogate Modeling
Another Role for Surrogates
J
ust as surrogate modeling can eliminate or
reduce the need for expensive and time-
consuming experiments and simulations, sur-
rogates can also be used to make desktop design
software more flexible and easier to use. Dr. Niklas
Elmqvist, a Purdue University assistant professor
of electrical and computer engineering, says that
“surrogate interaction,” a term he and his fellow
researchers recently coined, could lead to a new
generation of intuitive desktop design software.
In a surrogate interaction design environment,
surrogates are used to present interactive graphi-
cal representations of real objects, with icons on
the side labeling specific parts of the figure. Elmqvist “Whatever changes you make to the surrogate will affect
notes that while many design software developers have the actual object you are working with.”
already incorporated surrogate interaction approaches Elmqvist says surrogate modeling will make life easier
into their products, the concept has so far evolved on a and more pleasant for designers, while shortening the
piecemeal, ad hoc basis. He maintains that a formal defi- time needed to accomplish specific tasks and, ultimately,
nition of what surrogate interaction is, and how it should slash project costs.
be used, would help speed its development and refine- “It changes the way designers work,” he says. On a
ment—while expanding the number of applications using car design, for example, one could easily and intuitively
the approach. change the placement of the wheels, the doors, the anten-
“Design tools incorporating surrogate interaction have na, etc. “As things exist now, I can’t make those changes
the potential to greatly simplify everyday design tasks,” to the drawing directly, but have to scroll through a bunch
Elmqvist says. “Conventional computer-aided design of menus or use arcane commands,” Elmqvist says.
(CAD) applications typically rely on the use of scores of Elmqvist notes that while design software makers
menus with hundreds of selection options.” have strived over the years to make their products more
Surrogate interaction, on the other hand, generates intuitive and interactive, the results have been mixed. A
images that aim to mimic real objects, giving users a big drawback, Elmqvist says, is that designers must learn
helpful, intuitive interface instead of a series of confusing new rules every time they switch to another developer’s
menus and selections. software—or sometimes, even products within a particu-
Elmqvist says that working on a design in a surrogate lar vendor’s line.
interaction design environment is almost like tinkering “There’s currently no coherent underlying principle,”
with the actual object. he says. “We want the surrogate interaction concept to
“You can click on a label to change a color or pull unify all of the other techniques that have been created
on a border to adjust its length or width,” he explains. over the years.”
has been blocked by a potential for ambiguity that has de- is the only weapon you have, so you might as well use it.”
terred many designers.
“Some of the mathematical apparatus behind surro- A Tool, Not a Shortcut
gate modeling is actually quite complex, and it makes Designers must take care not to view surrogate modeling as a
some assumptions regarding the underlying objective quick and easy shortcut, Sóbester warns. While the approach
function we are trying to model,” he says. “I think it took can save time and effort, care must still be taken to ensure
engineers a while to realize that, although we can almost that all the pieces are in place for quality results.
never be certain that our objective functions do not vio- “Like any sharp tool, (surrogate modeling) has to be
late these assumptions.” treated with some caution,” he says, noting that surrogate
He notes that in practice, however, this rarely matters. model formulations often have a large number of parameters
“After all, if you have 10 shots at a five-dimensional function that must be “trained” to the data at hand.
whose optimum you seek, you are not going to lose sleep “This process requires some care, in particular when the
over whether it is continuous for any ‘x.’ Surrogate modeling response being fitted is corrupted by noise—numerical or

Surrogate Modeling /// Computer-Aided Design
experimental,” Sóbester says. “An incorrectly trained model number of designers.

can be seriously misleading.” “If this technology is to be fully embraced by industry, it
Just about any designer can become reasonably profi- has to be made user-friendly without sacrificing too much
cient in surrogate modeling without going back to school mathematical rigor,” he says. “This is a challenge that will
or neglecting current work obligations, however. In fact, have to be addressed.”
Sóbester’s journey started with a pair of papers by Dr. Don Increased computational efficiency should help bring sur-
Jones, a mathematician working for General Motors, that rogate modeling more deeply into the design mainstream, he
were “easy to follow, yet based on solid foundations.” says, by making the necessary software tools easier to use and
Sóbester also recommends reading an introductory text- faster while reducing overhead costs.
book on the topic that “will highlight some of the main pit- “While querying surrogate models, once built, is usually
falls, without going too deeply into the statistical subtleties.” very cheap, their actual construction process can be compu-
Perhaps the best way to get started with surrogate modeling, tationally expensive at the moment, especially for large train-
however, is by practicing the technique. ing data sets,” Sóbester concludes. DE
“Depending on your favorite way of interacting with a
computer, there are a number of tools available,” Sóbester John Edwards is a technology writer based in Gilbert, AZ. His
says. “For the tinkerer who likes to customize a code to work has appeared in IEEE Signal Processing, Electronic Design and
their own specific application, there are some decent Mat- other publications. Contact him at jedwards@johnedwardsmedia.com.
lab codes out there.”
Meanwhile, designers who prefer a graphical interface INFO ➜ University of Southampton’s School of Engineering
and a higher-level approach will be glad to know that most Sciences: Soton.ac.uk/engineering
of the big design process integration tools now have a sur-
rogate modeling facility.
➜ Purdue University College of Engineering: Engineering.
Purdue.edu
Sóbester sees a bright future for surrogate modeling,
although he says he believes that the approach must un- ➜ MathWorks: mathworks.com/products/matlab/
dergo some changes to make it more appealing to a wider For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

Design /// Software Review
SolidWorks 2012 Marks

Debut of Cost Analysis
SolidWorks Costing calculates manufacturing costs during the design stage.
By Kenneth Wong
I
n the last several years, sustainability, durability and cost the feature that drives up manufacturing cost the most is not
have emerged as the three pillars of manufacturing. In necessarily what you think it is). Tight integration with a 3D
SolidWorks, you can address the first two with Sustain- model makes it easy to explore different alternatives. Cur-
ability Xpress (first previewed in 2009, now included with rently, the module can be used only to estimate costs on parts,
every license) and SolidWorks Simulation. In SolidWorks but you can get the roll-up cost of an assembly.
2012, you’ll get a new tool called SolidWorks Costing to ad-
dress the remaining pillar. Exploded Multi-body Parts
Although it’s in pre-release code at press time, in structure Several releases ago, SolidWorks introduced multi-body parts—
and setup, SolidWorks Costing is uncannily similar to Solid- parts with more than a single solid body. The easiest way to create
Works Sustainability Xpress. You can use the Costing mod- a multi-body part is to uncheck the Merge Results option when
ule to estimate how much it’ll cost to produce a sheet-metal you’re extruding a sketch profile into a solid volume. This creates
part or a machined part. The software calculates manufactur- a single part with two—or more—independent solid volumes.
ing costs using a set of preloaded templates with prices for In the new release, you’ll be able to create exploded views
standard sheet-metal and machining operations. (There’s no of such multi-body parts. When you choose Insert > Exploded
template for injection-molded plastic parts in this release, but View, you’ll get the option to drag and reposition the solid
perhaps one is in development.) To get more accurate results, volumes in your part along X, Y or Z axis, as though they were
most manufacturers should modify the templates by populat- sub-assemblies in an assembly model.
ing relevant fields with their own materials, known unit costs
and supplier quotes from previous transactions. Frozen Features
The module, found under Tools tab, is fairly straightfor- For those who work with complex parts with a lengthy fea-
ward. The moment you launch it, it begins calculating your ture history, SolidWorks 2012 offers the option to freeze fea-
design’s probable manufacturing cost. The software can tell tures. You can activate the tool by going to the application
the difference between a sheet-metal and a machined part, so setting options and checking the Enable Feature Freeze box.
you’ll only get the option that’s relevant to the part found in In doing so, you activate a feature-history marker—a line you
your modeling window. can drag up and down your feature history. Once you place
Calculations are done based on standard sheet-metal the line, features above the line become “frozen.”
punching or machining operations required to produce the This is a good method to prevent unnecessary geometry re-
features found in your geometry—for instance, the number of builds when you’re making edits that don’t affect earlier features.
pockets, holes and bends. The results are updated in real time. However, effective use of this tool requires a thorough understand-
(OK, “near real-time,” if you want to nitpick, because it does ing of parametric (or feature-based) modeling. If you’re making
take a few seconds for the software to crunch the numbers.) subsequent edits that reshape earlier geometry, freezing earlier fea-
Perhaps this is the type of calculation you’re used to doing tures may produce unintended deformations and error messages.
with pen and paper; perhaps you already have an Excel spread-
sheet with embedded formulas that can spit out the same esti- Balloons, Punch Tables and Large Models
mates based on manual input. Either way, you’ll find that the abil- If you have a series of balloon-nested text strings with criss-
ity to automate this grueling process comes with great benefits. crossing arrows, you’ll probably like to use the magnetic line
You may, for instance, change the thickness of a sheet-metal to untangle the mess. As the name suggests, the magnetic line
part, or switch from steel to iron to find out how it affects the behaves as a line to which you can stick your balloons. By
production cost. You may also experiment with removing or dragging the balloons within close proximity to the magnetic
adding features to see if you can reduce the cost (sometimes, line you’ve drawn, you can align the ballooned objects into a

SolidWorks 2012 marks the debut of SolidWorks Costing, In SolidWorks 2012, you can create exploded views of
a module you can use to obtain cost estimates on sheet- multi-body parts. Individual solid volumes in multi-body
metal parts and machined parts. parts behave like subassemblies.
Feature Freeze (shown here as a line marking the

freezing point in the history) prevents unnecessary The Magnetic Line function helps you align your ballooned
geometry rebuild during edits. text by anchoring them on an invisible line.
neat stack, pinned to the invisible line. debut Costing module. Other enhancements—such as Large
With sheet-metal parts, SolidWorks 2012 gives you the op- Design Review mode and Magnetic Line—are expected to
tion to include Excel-style punch tables in the drawing view of make assembly edits and drawing production easier and faster.
the flattened pattern. The table can contain punch IDs, quan- Feature Freeze, when used appropriately, will save time by
tities, locations of the holes (measured from X and Y axes), preventing unnecessary geometry regeneration. However, the
angle and other attributes. new version doesn’t sufficiently address an area where Solid-
For those who work with large assemblies, SolidWorks Works’ rivals have been making consistent improvement: di-
2012 provides a way to load them faster with the Large De- rect modeling. Bassi may change this in a subsequent release.
sign Review option (available as one of the drop-down options When asked to describe his vision for SolidWorks for both
when you’re opening a file). With this mode, you can load the the near future and long term, he replied, “Models need to
model—and its sub-components—into the program window have more freedom in the way they are designed, modified and
as display-only geometry, which demands less memory and behave. I will bring hybrid methodologies beyond geometric
processing power. It’s a useful tool for those who need to in- parameters to functional design.” (Editor’s Note: His reply is part
spect, but don’t need to modify large assemblies. of a Q&A published as a blog post titled “SolidWorks in Transition,”
which is available here at deskeng.com/virtual_desktop/?p=4454.) DE
Looking Beyond 2012
SolidWorks is going through a leadership change. Austin Kenneth Wong is senior editor of Desktop Engineering.
O’Malley, one of the original developers of SolidWorks (dat- Contact him via de-editors@deskeng.com, at deskeng.com/virtual_
ing back to version 95) has left his post as vice president of desktop or via Twitter @KennethwongSF.
research and development. O’Malley shepherded the com-
pany through eight major product releases. The post vacated
by O’Malley is being filled by Gian Paolo Bassi, founder and INFO ➜ SolidWorks: SolidWorks.com
CTO of RIWEBB. Bassi’s past roles included vice president To view a video demonstration of SolidWorks 2012’s features, visit:
and chief technology officer of ImpactXoft, director of think3,
and program manager at Computervision. • deskeng.com/virtual_desktop/?p=4438
SolidWorks 2012 is a notable upgrade, particularly for its • deskeng.com/virtual_desktop/?p=4325

Engineering Computing /// Hardware Review
Plenty of Power
at an Attractive Price
The entry-level Dell Precision T1600 workstation proves that performance can be affordable.
By David Cohn
E
ntry-level workstations are one of the hottest mar- The rear panel hosts a 9-pin serial port, line-out and line-
ket segments these days, perhaps attesting to tough in/microphone jacks, an RJ-45 connector for the integrated
economic times. Addressing the needs of budget-con- Intel 82579LM Gigabit Ethernet LAN, PS/2 mouse and
scious design professionals, Dell has introduced its Precision keyboard connectors, and six more USB 2.0 ports. A Dis-
T1600. This single-socket workstation is purpose-built for playPort connector is also provided for those systems with
professional 2D and entry-level 3D applications, and is inde- integrated graphics.
pendent software vendor (ISV)-certified for AutoCAD, Pro/
ENGINEER and other select software applications. Well-organized Interior
Based on Intel second-generation Core and Xeon pro- Unlike other workstations in the Dell Precision series, the
cessors, with a choice of Intel HD or add-in professional T1600 case opens on the left and reveals a clean, organized
graphics from AMD and NVIDIA, the Precision T1600 interior. A drive cage located near the base of the unit behind
comes housed in a gray and black, tool-less small tower chas- the front bezel accommodates up to two 3.5-in. hard drives.
sis measuring 6.73x17.64x14.25 in. and weighing just 20 lbs. Our evaluation unit came with a 3.5-in. 500GB Seagate Bar-
The T1600 looks like a scaled-down version of the T5500 we racuda 7200rpm SATA hard drive with a 16MB cache.
reviewed early last year (see DE, March 2011). A rather small (9-in.-sq.) motherboard provides four mem-
Like other systems in the Precision family, the front panel ory sockets that can accommodate up to 16GB of RAM. Our
provides two 5.25-in. drive bays, one of which came filled with evaluation unit came with 4GB, installed as a pair of 2MB
a 16X DVD+/- RW drive. Below these, a sloping panel con- 1333MHz DDR3 dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs).
tains microphone and headphone jacks, four USB 2.0 ports, The CPU socket occupies the center of the motherboard. You
and cleverly concealed hard drive and network activity lights. can order the T1600 with one of seven different Intel proces-
sors, ranging from a 3.1GHz dual-core i3 up to a 3.6GHz quad-
core Xeon E3 processor, including two with built-in Intel HD
INFO ➜ Dell: Dell.com graphics. Our evaluation unit came with a 3.4GHz quad-core
Dell Precision T1600 Xeon E3-1270 processor with 8MB of Intel SmartCache.
The motherboard also provides two PCI-Express x16 slots
Price: $1,875 as tested ($629 base price) and one PCI slot, all of which can accommodate full-height
System Specifications: cards. If you opt to forego the integrated Intel HD graphics,
•S ize: 6.73x17.64x14.25-in. (WxDxH) tower you can choose from among nine ATI or NVIDIA graphic
•W eight: 20.25 lbs. cards. Our evaluation unit came with an NVIDIA Quadro
• CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Xeon E31270 quad-core w/8MB L3 cache 2000, which provides 1GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory.
•M emory: 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (16GB max)
• Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro 2000 w/1GB memory Great Performance
• Hard Disk: one 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7,200 rpm drive Because the Dell Precision T1600 was equipped with just a
•O ptical: one 16X DVD +/-RW single quad-core CPU and midrange graphics, we anticipated
•A udio: onboard integrated four-channel High Definition audio decent performance, but nothing stellar. Boy, were we surprised.
(microphone, headphone, line-in and line-out) First of all, the system booted up in just 40 seconds—quite fast
•N
etwork: integrated Intel 82579LM 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN for a system equipped with only mechanical hard drives.
•K
eyboard: 104-key Dell USB keyboard On the SPECviewperf test, which looks solely at graphics
•P
ointing device: three-button USB optical roller-wheel mouse performance, the Dell T1600 turned in impressive results
•O
ther: one 9-pin serial, eight USB 2.0 thanks to its relatively fast CPU and NVIDIA GPU. While

Single-Socket Workstations Compared
Dell Precision T1600 @Xi Computer Digital Storm PROTUS BOXX 3DBOXX 4860 Lenov E20 BOXX 3DBOXX Dell T5500
workstation MTower workstation 226060 Extreme workstation workstation 8550XTREME workstation
(one 3.4GHz Intel (one 3.4GHz Intel Core workstation (one 3.33GHz Intel i7- (one 3.19GHz Intel workstation (two 3.33GHz Intel
Xeon E3-1270 quad- i7 2600K quad-core (one 3.33GHz Intel X980 six-core CPU over- i5-650 dual core (two 3.33GHz Intel Xeon X5680 six-core
core CPU, NVIDIA CPU over-clocked to i7-X980 six-core CPU, clocked to 4.15GHz, CPUs, NVIDIA Quadro Xeon X5680 six-core CPUs, NVIDIA Quadro
Quadro 2000, 4GB 4.1GHz, NVIDIA Quadro NVIDIA Quadro FX NVIDIA Quadro 5000, FX 580, 4GB RAM) CPUs over-clocked to 5000, 6GB RAM)
RAM) 5000, 16GB RAM) 3800, 12GB RAM) 12GB RAM) 4.2GHz, NVIDIA Quadro
5000, 24GB RAM)
Price as tested $1,875 $4,465 $6,545 $6,325 $1,224 $11,396 $9,242

Date tested 9/11/11 4/30/11 12/13/10 11/14/10 9/15/10 3/20/11 1/14/11
Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows 7 Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows
Operating System
XP 7 64-bit XP 7 64-bit XP 64-bit XP 7 64-bit XP 7 XP 7 64-bit XP 7 64-bit
SPECviewperf higher
3dsmax-04 83.61 81.72 n/a 89.36 88.15 87.07 n/a 90.25 66.73 64.98 95.97 95.441 75.05 78.72
catia-02 96.38 93.28 n/a 121.71 75.35 84.85 n/a 115.36 68.28 63.79 120.44 121.11 98.48 100.25
ensight-03 76.62 74.16 n/a 131.191 62.22 58.33 n/a 120.41 45.79 43.40 132.41 130.131 118.29 121.70
maya-02 297.27 270.53 n/a 465.88 174.45 218.33 n/a 458.21 185.81 157.57 529.89 476.951 490.95 435.44
proe-04 89.24 85.86 n/a 128.25 83.16 77.29 n/a 114.34 64.08 59.17 113.84 113.24 92.19 90.61
SW-01 169.31 160.611 n/a 239.78 174.74 157.70 n/a 233.03 97.07 89.67 221.31 214.06 180.49 169.75
tcvis-01 56.76 54.24 n/a 97.45 40.16 37.36 n/a 95.26 23.66 23.00 98.58 94.17 93.99 90.34
ugnx-01 43.40 42.47 n/a 88.871 37.46 35.49 n/a 88.75 23.15 16.93 89.32 86.90 89.31 87.95
SPECapc
lower
SolidWorks
Score seconds 106.631 n/a n/a n/a 106.511 n/a n/a n/a 153.29 n/a 106.561 n/a 146.86 n/a
Graphics seconds 34.241 n/a n/a n/a 32.171 n/a n/a n/a 58.71 n/a 35.331 n/a 58.42 n/a
CPU seconds 25.051 n/a n/a 27.481 26.871 n/a n/a 31.63 33.67 n/a 25.991 n/a 32.27 n/a
I/O seconds 48.261 n/a n/a 49.481 47.991 n/a n/a 54.68 65.44 n/a 46.511 n/a 60.76 n/a
SPECapc
higher
SolidWorks
Score ratio 8.041 n/a n/a n/a 8.041 n/a n/a n/a 5.21 n/a 8.231 n/a 5.32 n/a
Graphics ratio 5.741 n/a n/a n/a 6.071 n/a n/a n/a 3.25 n/a 6.081 n/a 3.23 n/a
CPU ratio 12.881 n/a n/a 11.741 12.011 n/a n/a 10.20 9.58 n/a 12.611 n/a 10.00 n/a
I/O ratio 6.561 n/a n/a 6.401 6.601 n/a n/a 5.79 4.84 n/a 6.811 n/a 5.21 n/a
Autodesk
lower
Render Test
Time seconds 82.21 60.51 n/a 49.81 53.51 46.31 n/a 39.61 222.31 203.01 34.01 19.01 42.01 28.01
Numbers in blue indicate best recorded results. Numbers in red indicate worst recorded results. 1: Hyper-threading enabled
it certainly didn’t set any records, it proved to be the fastest quad-core CPU running at its standard speed.
single-socket system we’ve tested that didn’t have an over- Prices for the Dell Precision T1600 start at $869. As con-
clocked CPU and gobs of memory. figured, our evaluation unit priced out at just $1,875. That
When we turned our attention to the SolidWorks bench- makes the Dell Precision T1600 a price/performance leader,
mark, which is more of a real-world test and additionally guaranteed to meet the needs of design professionals without
breaks out graphics, CPU and I/O performance separately breaking the bank. DE
from the overall scores, the Dell Precision T1600 truly held its
own—equaling or outperforming systems costing thousands David Cohn is the technical publishing manager at 4D
of dollars more, including several equipped with two CPUs. Technologies. He also does consulting and technical writing
On the AutoCAD rendering test, the T1600’s results were from his home in Bellingham, WA, and has been benchmark-
again very impressive. With hyper-threading enabled, giving ing PCs since 1984. He’s a contributing editor to Desktop
the equivalent of eight processor cores, the Dell Precision Engineering and the author of more than a dozen books.
T1600 completed our presentation quality rendering in 60.5 Contact him via email at david@dscohn.com or visit his web-
seconds—the best result to-date for a system with just one site at DSCohn.com.

Smart and Fast

The 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME harnesses several new
technologies to deliver incredible performance.
By David Cohn
W
e’ve come to expect a lot from BOXX Technologies.
The Austin, TX-based company has been building
computers since 1996, and its systems epitomize
peak performance. The 3DBOXX 4860- and 8550-series work-
stations we recently reviewed (DE January 2011 and May 2011,
respectively) proved to be the fastest single and dual-CPU sys-
tems to date. So we were quite excited when we received the lat-
est BOXX workstation, the 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME—par-
ticularly because it incorporated several novel new technologies.
Like the other BOXX workstations before it, the 3DBOXX
3970 XTREME came housed in a beautiful, custom-designed
aluminum chassis sporting a brushed aluminum front panel with
the BOXX logo emblazoned in the middle. Above this panel are
two 5.25-in. drive bays and a panel containing two USB 2.0 ports,
two USB 3.0 ports and an IEEE 1394a (FireWire) port, as well as
headphone and microphone jacks with jack retasking. The panel
also includes a round power button, bright-white LED power
indicator, blue hard drive light, and a small reset button. The top- The 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME workstation from BOXX
most bay houses a 20X dual layer DVD +/- RW drive, while the Technologies houses an over-clocked Intel Core i7-2600K
second bay remains available. The sides of the 7.0x19.5x17.5-in. quad-core CPU in an attractive brushed aluminum case.
(WxDxH) tower case have removable black aluminum panels, Photo courtesy of David Cohn.
while the top continues the brushed aluminum finish.
The rear panel provides six more USB 2.0 ports, two ad- board. Here we found what made this BOXX workstation unique:
ditional USB 3.0 ports, and an antenna for the built-in Blue- The 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME is the first workstation we’ve
tooth 2.1. There’s also an eSATA port, six audio connectors reviewed to come equipped with an Intel solid state drive (SSD)
(separate microphone and line-in jacks, as well as jacks for taking advantage of Intel’s new Smart Response Technology. The
front, center/subwoofer, side and rear output channels), an 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME comes standard with a 20GB Intel
optical S/PDIF port, a RJ45 network connection, and DVI-D, SSD 311 series drive, which is used as a cache for frequently ac-
HDMI and VGA video ports for the built-in Intel graphics cessed operations. Coupled with a standard hard drive, the addi-
processor that are separate from the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 tion of this inexpensive (around $120) SSD speeds up hard drive/
graphics accelerator installed in our evaluation unit. main memory interaction. This results in faster apparent hard
drive speeds, reduced load and wait times, and maximized storage
Smart Response Technology utilization. Overall system power consumption also goes down by
The panels on either side of the case are held in place with reducing unnecessary hard drive spin.
captive thumbscrews. Removing the panel on the left reveals Our evaluation unit also came with a 1TB, 7,200rpm Western
a spacious interior. The ASUSTek P8Z68-V Pro motherboard, Digital SATA drive with a 64MB cache. This speedy 3.5-in. drive
based on an Intel Z68 chipset, takes up just a bit more than features 4.2-millisecond nominal latency and a 128MB/second
half of the case. Above this is a 620-watt Seasonic power supply. maximum transfer rate to help the 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME
An Asetek liquid cooling module covers the single CPU, with deliver excellent performance. The combination of the SSD and
its hoses routed to a front panel-mounted fan and radiator. A HD appear as a single drive, however, so that you only have to
second front panel-mounted fan cools the rest of the interior. deal with a single drive identifier. The system automatically learns
Removing the panel on the right reveals the hard drives, which files are accessed frequently and copies them from the HD
which mount to the rear of the panel supporting the mother- to the SSD. The next time you access these files, the system loads

Single-Socket Workstations Compared
BOXX 3DBOXX 3970 Dell Precision T1600 @Xi Computer Digital Storm PROTUS BOXX 3DBOXX 4860 BOXX 3DBOXX Dell T5500
EXTREME workstation workstation MTower workstation 226060 workstation Extreme workstation 8550XTREME workstation
(one 3.4GHz Intel Core (one 3.4GHz Intel (one 3.4GHz Intel Core (one 3.33GHz Intel (one 3.33GHz Intel i7- workstation (two 3.33GHz Intel
i7-2600K quad-core Xeon E3-1270 quad- i7 2600K quad-core i7-X980 six-core CPU, X980 six-core CPU over- (two 3.33GHz Intel Xeon X5680 six-core
CPU over-clocked to core CPU, NVIDIA CPU over-clocked to NVIDIA Quadro FX clocked to 4.15GHz, Xeon X5680 six-core CPUs, NVIDIA Quadro
4.5GHz, NVIDIA Quadro Quadro 2000, 4GB 4.1GHz, NVIDIA Quadro 3800, 12GB RAM) NVIDIA Quadro 5000, CPUs over-clocked to 5000, 6GB RAM)
4000, 8GB RAM) RAM) 5000, 16GB RAM) 12GB RAM) 4.2GHz, NVIDIA Quadro
5000, 24GB RAM)
Price as tested $4,048 $1,875 $4,465 $6,545 $6,325 $11,396 $9,242

Date tested 10/12/11 9/11/11 4/30/11 12/13/10 11/14/10 3/20/11 1/14/11
Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows 7 Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows
Operating System
XP 7 64-bit XP 7 64-bit XP 7 64-bit XP 64-bit XP 7 64-bit XP 7 64-bit XP 7 64-bit
SPECviewperf higher
3dsmax-04 n/a 99.031 83.61 81.72 n/a 89.36 88.15 87.07 n/a 90.25 95.97 95.441 76.05 78.72
catia-02 n/a 124.751 96.38 93.28 n/a 121.71 75.35 84.85 n/a 115.36 120.44 121.11 98.48 100.25
ensight-03 n/a 109.561 76.62 74.16 n/a 131.191 62.22 58.33 n/a 120.41 132.41 130.131 118.29 121.70
maya-02 n/a 399.431 297.27 270.53 n/a 465.88 174.45 218.33 n/a 458.21 529.89 476.951 490.95 435.44
proe-04 n/a 120.331 89.24 85.86 n/a 128.25 83.16 77.29 n/a 114.34 113.84 113.24 92.19 90.61
SW-01 n/a 231.441 169.31 160.611 n/a 239.78 174.74 157.70 n/a 233.03 221.31 214.06 180.49 169.75
tcvis-01 n/a 79.051 56.76 54.24 n/a 97.45 40.16 37.36 n/a 95.26 98.58 94.17 93.99 90.34
ugnx-01 n/a 65.911 43.40 42.47 n/a 88.871 37.46 35.49 n/a 88.75 89.32 86.90 89.31 87.95
SPECapc
lower
SolidWorks
Score seconds n/a n/a 106.631 n/a n/a n/a 106.511 n/a n/a n/a 106.561 n/a 146.86 n/a
Graphics seconds n/a n/a 34.241 n/a n/a n/a 32.171 n/a n/a n/a 35.331 n/a 58.42 n/a
CPU seconds n/a 26.441 25.051 n/a n/a 27.481 26.871 n/a n/a 31.63 25.991 n/a 32.27 n/a
I/O seconds n/a 47.011 48.261 n/a n/a 49.481 47.991 n/a n/a 54.68 46.511 n/a 60.76 n/a
SPECapc
higher
SolidWorks
Score ratio n/a n/a 8.041 n/a n/a n/a 8.041 n/a n/a n/a 8.231 n/a 5.32 n/a
Graphics ratio n/a n/a 5.741 n/a n/a n/a 6.071 n/a n/a n/a 6.081 n/a 3.23 n/a
CPU ratio n/a 12.201 12.881 n/a n/a 11.741 12.011 n/a n/a 10.20 12.611 n/a 10.00 n/a
I/O ratio n/a 6.731 6.561 n/a n/a 6.401 6.601 n/a n/a 5.79 6.811 n/a 5.21 n/a
Autodesk
lower
Render Test
Time seconds n/a 45.61 82.21 60.51 n/a 49.81 53.51 46.31 n/a 39.61 34.01 19.01 42.01 28.01
Numbers in blue indicate best recorded results. Numbers in red indicate worst recorded results.
them from the fast SSD rather than the slower hard drive. this quad-core “Sandy Bridge” processor works a bit differ-
The mounting panel provides a total of six drive bays, with ently than what we’ve seen in the past. The 2600K CPU,
power cables already in place. BOXX includes a bag full of ad- which is based on a 32nm process technology and has a maxi-
ditional power cables, as well as one more SATA cable, so you can mum thermal design power (TDP) of 95 watts, has a clock
easily add another hard drive. The company offers drives ranging speed of 3.4GHz and a rated maximum turbo frequency of
from 250GB to 3TB, and will preconfigure systems with multiple 3.8GHz. The “K” designation in the processor name indicates
drives and redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID). that the CPU can be over-clocked. Thanks to the way BOXX
has configured the basic input-output system (BIOS) of its
Boosting Performance 3DBOXX 3970 EXTREME workstation, the Intel Core i7
The Intel Core i7-2600K CPU in our evaluation unit was also CPU runs at 3.4GHz when not subject to significant compu-
somewhat unique. While the Xi MTower workstation we re- tational loads—what Intel refers to as the idle, or C-state. But
viewed in August also came equipped with this same processor, when pressed to do work, the processor shifts into a P-state,
BOXX over-clocked its CPU to 4.5GHz. But over-clocking increasing both the voltage and frequency, so that all four

cores—and with hyper-threading enabled, all eight threads— BOXX rounded out its workstation with a Logitech K120
reach a maximum frequency of 4.5GHz. We confirmed this by 104-key keyboard and a Logitech M500 laser mouse. Win-
running CPU monitoring software while performing some of dows Professional 64-bit came pre-installed. BOXX Technolo-
our benchmark tests. In addition, when the system is truly idle, gies backs its systems with a three-year limited warranty, which
the CPU shifts into higher C-states, allowing the processor to includes phone and email tech support Monday through Fri-
turn off unused components to reduce power consumption. day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST, and free return shipment if
Our evaluation unit came equipped with 8GB of RAM, in- necessary during the first year of ownership.
stalled as a pair of 4GB DDR3 dual in-line memory modules Even more amazingly, the incredible performance of the
(DIMMs). The ASUS motherboard can support up to 32GB 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME doesn’t cost as much as you’d
of memory using 8GB memory modules. The motherboard think. All 3970 XTREME workstations include the Intel Core
also provides a total of seven expansion slots—three PCIe i7-2600K CPU and 20GB Intel SSD. Prices start at $2,862 for
2.0 x16 slots, two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, and two PCI slots— and a system equipped with 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive,
supports both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX technology. and an NVIDIA Quadro 600 graphics card. The NVIDIA
There’s also on-board SATA, LAN, Bluetooth, Realtek audio, 4000 adds $816; doubling the memory raises the price another
FireWire, and USB controllers. $222; and moving up to the 1TB hard drive brought the total
Although the Intel Core i7-2600K processor includes built- cost of our evaluation unit to $4,048. Of course, you could
in HD Graphics 2000 with Intel InTru 3D technology, BOXX add even more memory and a higher-end graphics card, but
equipped our evaluation unit with an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for most applications, that seems a bit too extreme. As config-
GPU. This mid-range graphics accelerator has 256 CUDA ured, our 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME should more than meet
cores and a 2GB GDDR5 frame buffer; it provides two Dis- the needs of most users—delivering one of the fastest systems
playPort connectors and one dual-link DVI-I port. Although it’s available today without breaking the bank. DE
a single-slot board, BOXX included the optional three-pin mini
DIN stereo connector, which occupied a second rear panel slot. David Cohn is the technical publishing manager at 4D Tech-
The board also requires an auxiliary power connection. nologies. He also does consulting and technical writing from his
home in Bellingham, WA, and has been benchmarking PCs since
Incredible Results 1984. He’s a contributing editor to Desktop Engineering and
Because the 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME was equipped with the author of more than a dozen books. Contact him via email at
just a single quad-core CPU, albeit one that was tweaked for david@dscohn.com or visit DSCohn.com.
very fast performance, we weren’t expecting it to set any re-
cords—particularly when compared to other systems we’ve re-
cently reviewed that utilized one or even two six-core CPUs. INFO ➜ BOXX Technologies Inc.: BOXXtech.com
But then again, we weren’t quite sure what to expect with the BOXX 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME
addition of the SSD and Smart Response Technology.
To say that we were impressed with the performance of the Price: $4,048 as tested ($2,862 base price)
3970 XTREME would be an understatement. System Requirements:
On the SPECviewperf test, the 3DBOXX 3970 XTREME •S ize: 7.00x19.50x17.50-in. (WxDxH, w/handle) tower
equipped with the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 turned in some of • Weight: 27 lbs.
the best results we’ve ever recorded, surpassing even dual- • CPU: one Intel Core i7-2600K (quad-core) 3.4GHz
socket systems equipped with more expensive graphics boards (over-clocked to 4.5GHz)
on some of the Viewperf datasets. •M emory: 8GB DDR3 at 1,333MHz (up to 32GB supported)
Unfortunately, the system came with only Windows 7 in- • Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro 4000
stalled. This meant we were not able to obtain a complete set of • Hard Disk: Western Digital 1TB SATA 7,200rpm drive plus Intel
meaningful results from our SPECapc SolidWorks benchmark, 20GB SSD
because this benchmark only runs effectively under Windows •O ptical: Pioneer 20X DVD+/-RW Dual-Layer
XP. That said, the CPU and I/O performance scores were excel- •A udio: onboard integrated high-definition audio (microphone
lent, and we’d expect actual performance when running Solid- and headphone on front panel; microphone, line-in, front,
Works or any other CAD application to be quite fast. center/subwoofer, side and rear speakers on rear panel)
On our own AutoCAD rendering test, however, which clearly •N etwork: integrated 10/100/1000 LAN with RJ45 socket
shows the advantages of hyper-threading, the 3DBOXX 3970 •K eyboard: 104-key Logitech K120 USB keyboard
XTREME proved to be faster than any other single CPU-based • Pointing device: Logitiech M500 laser mouse
system we’ve ever tested. It rivaled the performance of some •O ther: Two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0 and one 1394a (FireWire) on
workstations equipped with two processors. In addition, the sys- front panel; six USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, one eSATA, optical S/
tem ran nearly silent, except when accessing the DVD drive. PDIF, DVI-D, HDMI and VGA on rear panel

by Anthony J. Lockwood Editor’s Picks
Each week, Tony Lockwood combs through dozens of new products to bring you the ones he thinks will
help you do your job better, smarter and faster. Here are Lockwood’s most recent musings about the
products that have really grabbed his attention.
Optimization Technologies for FEM and CFD Upgraded

FE-DESIGN releases new versions of TOSCA Structure system design software and
TOSCA Fluid topology optimization software for channel flow.
TOSCA Structure provides topology, shape, phase of industrial internal turbulent flow
and bead optimization. Its been updated systems and during optimization process-
with support for the latest solver versions es for existing designs. An interface for
such as Abaqus 6.11 and to work more STAR-CCM+ versions 5 and 6 and upgrad-
tightly with Siemens NX CAD. It also supports ed support for ANSYS FLUENT version
MSC Software’s MD Nastran. 12.1 are among the key enhancements in
TOSCA Fluid works with your CFD simu- the latest version.
lation solution at the conceptual design MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabcbg.htm
SolidWorks 2012 Unveiled

20th release of CAD software enhanced with more than 200 new functions.
SolidWorks just came out in its 20th itera- ing features, and, I’m sure, the quiet under-
tion, and what do you know? SolidWorks cover thing that maybe fixes a bug or vastly
2012 offers more than 200 new func- speeds throughput are ubiquitous through-
tions—and something like 90% of them are out the system. Assemblies and drawings,
based on feedback from engineers in the simulation, design costing, sheet metal,
trenches. animation, and product data management
The skinny on SolidWorks 2012 is that have all seen additions and improvements.
the new functions, enhancements to exist- MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabccr.htm
Design Aid Shows Resins and Materials Interacting

3D model demonstrates how finishes vary with resin choice.
Proto Labs is an online service provider and finishes (and quality) that Protomold
that manufactures your CNC-machined and offers. But that’s not the Protogami’s true
injection-molded parts for purposes such coolness. Every time you turn the Protogami,
as prototyping or short-run production. it displays six different resins side-by-side
The company’s Protomold division has in one of four finishes. You can see that the
a new design aid called Protogami. As you look of a particular finish can vary depend-
might guess, Protogami is a fold-together ing on which resin you apply it to.
gizmo. It shows off the types of resins and MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabcha.htm
New BOXX Workstation Boosts Processing Speeds

Liquid-cooled workstation features an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor.
The 3970 XTREME has the option of Intel i7 quad-core processor can crank up to 4.5
Smart Response Technology. This technology GHz. You can add up to 32GB of memory
automatically copies your frequently used files to the 3970 XTREME, select your graphics
from the 3970 XTREME’s hard disk drive to its accelerator (ATI, Intel, or NVIDIA), increase
solid-state drive. What this is means for you is storage, and so forth. And the system
that those files on the SSD boot up quickly and comes with the expansion slots, ports, drive
applications like SolidWorks load a lot faster. bays, etc. that you need.
Plus, the second-generation Intel Core MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabcmt.htm

Tools of the Month Noise, Vibration and Harshness Testing
F
rom the annoying squeak in a car’s dashboard
to the loudness of a dishwasher, noise, vibration 2 3
and harshness (NVH) testing is a critical step
in many engineering processes. Products must
meet consumer demand for quiet operation as well as,
in many cases, government regulations to prevent noise
pollution.
“There are national noise control laws in every country
and government agencies have defined ‘acceptable’
noise level ranges for various sources of noise,” accord-
ing to a market report by Frost & Sullivan, an industry
research and consulting firm.
At presstime, the firm was planning to release an up-
date of its “World NVH Test Equipment Market” report.
It says government regulations and new technologies—
such as electric vehicles and the trend toward portable
2 NI Releases Sound and
Vibration Measurement
Suite 2011
consumer electronics—are driving growth in the NVH National Instruments (ni.
test equipment market. com/soundandvibration) has These kits include a side-exit
A number of products are available to help engineers announced the latest version charge mode sensor, 10-ft.
acquire NVH data from sensors, condition that data via of its NI Sound and Vibration integral hermetically sealed
filtering and/or amplification, and pass it to a workstation Measurement Suite software, hard-line cable, and integral
via data acquisition hardware. Once collected, the data which provides a collection of ICP charge amplifier for mul-
can be analyzed by specialized NVH software. The prod- analysis and signal process- tiple power generation moni-
ucts listed here can help you measure and correct NVH ing tools for noise, vibration toring applications, including
so you can meet regulatory and consumer requirements and harshness (NVH) testing, placement on turbines,
for quiet operation of the prototypes you design and test. machine condition monitor- exhaust systems, and piping
ing (MCM) and audio test in extreme heat environments
1 Sound Probe Interfaces

with IEPE Input Devices
the company says meet the
requirements in IEC standard
applications. Engineers can
use the suite as stand-alone
of +900°F/+482°C.
G.R.A.S Sound and Vibration

(gras.dk) has released the
50GI sound intensity probe
61043* for a class-1 intensity software or combine it with
probe. The ¼-in. CCP preampli- NI hardware and NI LabVIEW
fiers are designed to ensure system design software to
3 Measure Sound
from 35 to 130 dB
Omega Engineering’s (omega.
for direct connection to signal minimum disturbances to help simplify test system com) Handheld Sound Level
analyzers or data acqusition the sound field for accurate development and control. Meter has an electret con-
devices with IEPE inputs. measurements in the full fre- With its new vibration data- denser microphone with a
The probe includes a pair of quency range. logging functionality and other Lo range of 35 to 90 dB and
phase-matched prepolarized enhancements, the Sound a Hi range of 75 to 130 dB.
precision microphones, which Microflown Releases and Vibration Measurement The handheld device has a
Scout 422 DAQ Suite 2011 is said to help liquid crystal display with a
1 The
T Scout 422 is a 24-bit engineers more easily cus- maximum reading of 1999,
resolution USB data acquisi- tomize and automate any an accuracy of +/- 1.5 dB and
tion device from Microflown MCM or NVH test or monitor- a dynamic range of 55 dB.
Technologies (microflown.com). ing application. It features a maximum hold
It is developed for noise and function, slow and fast fre-
vibration measurements with Accelerometer Kits quency weighting and AC and
Microflown probe based solu- Designed for Gas Turbines DC output functions.
tions. The Scout 422 has four IMI Sensors (imi-sensors.
inputs, one output, an ampli- com), a division of PCB Data Acquisition and Process
fied output, tacho input and a Piezotronics, Inc., (pcb.com) Monitoring Software
external trigger channel. It also has launched the 600B13/ Coda is m+p international’s
supports other sensors like B14 high temperature accel- (mpihome.com) new software
microphones, accelerometers, erometer kits for vibration platform for measurement,
IEPE sensors and tachometers. measurement in gas turbines. data acquisition, signal anal-

ysis and process monitoring. (signalxtech.com) MajX database queries and “what
According to the company, it Shield helps engineers design if” metric calculations. 4
provides quicker time to test and deploy NVH metrics for
by eliminating costly applica-
tion programming and long
learning curves through out-
use in machine condition
monitoring (MCM) applica-
tions, automated production
4 PULSE 16 Analyzer
Released
PULSE is Brüel & Kjær’s
of-the box functionality. High- NVH tests, and laboratory test (bksv.com) platform for
channel count applications stand automation. Metric for- noise and vibration analy- ISO 3744 and IEC 60704-
using hundreds of channels mulations developed in Shield sis. The platform consists 2-4, and the ability to listen
can be configured within a are deployed using the com- of PULSE Reflex, Acoustics to your SPC results, turn
short time, according to the pany’s MajX NVH Controller, and Structural Dynamics paths on and off, listen over
company, and are handled which operates at the direc- components. New function- a time or RPM range, com-
safely and efficiently. Coda tion of a test stand control ality includes a module for pare different sets of results
SPOTLIGHT
supports a range of VXIbus system. The MajX Data the Desktop NVH Simulator back-to-back or apply filters.
and LXIbus frontends. Manager retrieves data pro- suite used for auralising the Engineers can create “what-
duced by one or more NVH exterior sound that would if” scenarios, and listen
Signal.X Technologies controllers and can sched- be experienced by a pedes- to what the product could
Announces MajX Shield ule delivery of automated trian, updates to the latest sound like if certain modifi-
Signal.X Technologies’ reports based on storable required standards such as cations were made. DE
SPOTLIGHT Directing your search to the

companies that have
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Simulation & Analysis /// Composites
Options for Composites

Analysis and Simulation
Find your comfort zone with
today’s software tools.
BY PAMELA J. WATERMAN
Expand Your Industry Exposure
F
iber-reinforced technology is seeing extensive use for
its low weight-to-strength ratios—as well as other
benefits. But working with composites is rarely a
1-2-3 process. If ever there was a need for close coopera-
tion among designers, structural analysts and manufactur-
ing engineers, this is the time, and optimization plays a key
Modal analyses (left) of carbon-fiber sounding board
for a dulcimer musical instrument (right), are performed
with NEi Nastran software by consultants at ALLRed &
Associates. Image courtesy of ALLRed & Associates.
with Article Reprints!
role across the board. With dozens of software packages
addressing these challenges, DE takes a look at what’s new,
are high compared to ‘traditional materials,’” explains
Markku Palantera, general manager at Componeering.
OM-DAQ-USB-2401,
Printed reprints, as well as locked and unlocked PDFs

what’s critical and what challenges remain. “Therefore, the superior performance of the end product
Composites: Why now?

Simulation
must be achieved by careful design, which eventually in-
volves software.”
$495, shown smaller
Defining&
YourAnalysis
The term composite covers material compositions ranging /// Composites
from glass-filled liquid resins to “fabric” sheets with em
bedded carbon fibers. (See “The Life of Composite Materi
em-
Materi-
als,” DE May 2007.) Just that difference helps explain the
Role
Componeering, which markets ESAComp, is one of a num-
ber of companies focused on composites-specific software.
than actual size.
variety of software packages targeted to the field. How these firms can help you depends partly on your spe-
Depending on the exact formulation, composite materials cific project, partly on your existing CAD and CAE soft-
Seamless workflows be-
are available. Reprints are personalized with your

display such positive attributes as easy formability, strength ware, and partly just on your preferred approach to working
with light weight, excellent long-term weathering and resis
resis- with these materials. tween VISTAGY’s FiberSIM
Terminal Block
tance to corrosion and chemicals. These advantages, in turn, Not surprisingly, opinions run strong and deep insoftware
this and MSC.Soft-
ware’s SimXpert move a
Laptop not included.

may make it easier to integrate multiple parts. Plus, proper
proper- corner of the design world. Dr. John Klintworth, Simulayt’s
ties such as good thermal stability and high thermal conduc
conduc- design from preliminary siz-
founder and managing director, points out the major source
(4 included).
tivity are increasingly useful in special applications. for differences in perspective is whether you operateinginto
a final part validation.
However, achieving these desirable properties is a chalchal- CAD environment or an analysis environment. The parallel process helps
lenge at every step—from initial design to hand-done or designers and analysts
“Any conventional [finite element analysis, or FEA]
automated part creation. package cannot do design and manufacture, and cannot optimize the part based
“The material and manufacturing costs of composites even create a decent composites model,” he continues. on weight, performance,
company name and logo for better branding.

design specifications, and
manufacturing costs.
1 DESKTOP ENGINEERING May 2011 /// deskeng.com Image courtesy of VISTAGY.
TMQSS-125U-12,
ing the export plybook with flat patterns of the plies to be manu-
factured. All partners involved in this process can exchange data.
In addition, as a pre- and post-processor, Laminate Tools in-
are deeply embedded in CATIA V5, Abaqus/CAE, SolidWorks
and Femap, and allow users to define plys on individual finite ele-
ments, reflecting the actual manufacturing process.
$26.95.
terfaces with standard CAD and FEA applications to produce As an example of its power, you could define a part with 200
composite-specific results. It also offers an embedded interface plies, then with the push of a button automatically generate 2,000
with Solidworks, Nastran and ANSYS, as well as with Anaglyph’s laminate properties—a task impossible to do by hand.
hand layup ply-placement software, PlyMatch.
STRAND7 is a general-purpose FEA package with an op- Multi-layered Challenges
tional laminated composite module tightly integrated with the A metal is a metal, but composites are a whole ’nother ballgame.
KMQSS-125U-12,
rest of the system. Users can easily combine traditional plate/shell As Firehole Composites’ Shrader puts it, “The biggest software
composite elements with 1D prismatic beam elements, as well challenge in working with composites is simultaneously captur-
as 3D brick elements. The company notes that its price/perfor- ing all of the physics involved, while also maintaining reasonable
$26.95.
mance ratio in the FEA software arena is particularly appealing computational time and resources.”
for small organizations because it supports the full spectrum of You definitely need specialized tools to achieve this balance.
design concept evaluation, detailed analysis and the production The good news is, as users realize there’s a good return on invest-
of layup schedules. ment in specifying these materials, the software developers are
Contact Jeanne DuVal

Simulayt’s solutions for the composites field have been in right there, expanding their support. DE
continuous development for 20 years. As the developer of Layup
Technology, which incorporates advanced fiber simulation and Contributing Editor Pamela Waterman, DE’s simulation expert, is
ply modeling capabilities, the company is positioned to offer soft- an electrical engineer and freelance technical writer based in Arizona.
ware tools running in both CAD and CAE systems. The products You can send her e-mail to DE-Editors@deskeng.com.
®
6
Reprinted from May 2011 Desktop Engineering with adaptations.
Copyright© by Level 5 Communications, Inc., 1283 Main St., Dublin, NH 03444, All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this topic, please visit deskeng.com.
DESKTOP ENGINEERING May 2011 /// deskeng.com

603.563.1631 x274 • jduval@deskeng.com omega.com
© COPYRIGHT 2012 OMEGA ENGINEERING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Tools of the Month New Products for Engineers
makes product and cam-

era animations easier than
before, according to the
company. In addition, the
solution includes improved
asset management and
1 2 part interaction. KeyShot’s
import pipeline has been
expanded to now support
1 SuperWorkstations
Showcased
Supermicro (supermicro.
entry-level SuperWorkstation
SW5037A-T.
Curve Intersection. OriginPro
includes all the new Origin
features as well as advanced
Parasolid-based file formats
such as NX, Solid Edge and
SolidWorks on both PC and
com) premiered its lineup OriginLab Releases statistical tools in the area of Mac, and also includes more
of SuperWorkstation solu- Origin 8.6 and OriginPro 8.6 Principal Component Analysis than 400 new materials and
tions at Autodesk University. OriginLab (originlab.com) has and Cluster and Discriminant more than 40 new lighting
The application-optimized, released Origin and OriginPro Analysis. environments. Luxion also
server-grade systems are version 8.6. OriginLab now announced KeyShot 3 will
designed to run 24/7. They
incorporate hot-swappable
HDDs or SSDs, optical drives
offers a native 64-bit version
of the software, which will
support customers as they
2 Luxion Releases
KeyShot 3
Luxion (keyshot.com) has
support Autodesk 3ds Max
and Autodesk Maya.
and cooling subsystems. work with large datasets. In announced KeyShot 3, Remcom Releases XFdtd 7.2.2
Systems range from the addition to increased data stor- the next generation of the Recom (remcom.com) has
Ultra High Performance age, version 8.6 also features company’s rendering solu- released an update to its
4 GPU SuperWorkstation three new gadgets: Vertical tion. KeyShot 3 includes electromagnetic simulation
(SS7046TG-TRF) to the Cursor, Sigmoidal Fit, and an animation system that software, XFdtd Release 7
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(XF7), with expanded
import functionality and
specialized options for
4
biological EM applica-
tions. This update,
Release 7.2.2, also
features enhanced func-
tionality for Remcom s
CAD Merge capability, 3
according to the company, 5
with support for printed cir-
cuit board (PCB) models now
included. available for purchase during NCG CAM v11, the latest ver- hundreds of new features
the first quarter 2012. 3D sion of its stand-alone CAM that make it easier, faster
New 3D Printer Material Systems says VisiJet Black is solution, which includes a and less costly for organiza-
for the ProJet 6000 designed to print functional new true surface machining tions to bring new products to
3D Systems (3Dsystems.com) snap-fit parts that deliver option, new analysis func- market. The new benefits fall
has announced VisiJet Black, visual impact with exceptions, improvements to along into three areas: 1) amplify-
a new black print material for tional surface finish and high curve passes (2D geometry), ing engineering, 2) simulat-
its ProJet 6000 3D printer, definition accuracy. the ability to create “clean” ing complex systems and 3)
which the company says curves from the surfaces, driving innovation with high-
produces functional and
snap-fit plastic parts. The
high-performance, VisiJet
3 NCG CAM Updates Stand-
Alone CAM Solution
NCG CAM Solutions UK
and improvements to the
folder management for data-
bases with a large number of
performance computing. The
company says ANSYS 14.0
automates many user-inten-
Black print material will be (ncgcam.com) has released folders. New analysis func- sive operations, which helps
tions have also been added. product developers minimize
time spent setting up prob-
Advertising Index Mentor Graphics

Announces FloEFD
lems. The ANSYS suite is said
to capture the interaction of
Publisher does not assume any liability for index errors or omissions. Mentor Graphics (men- multiple physics—structural,
tor.com) has announced fluid dynamics, electrome-
ANSYS.. ................................................... CV2 the next generation of the chanics and systems interac-
BOXX Technologies. . ................................ CV3 FloEFD concurrent computations—with deep physics and
CD-adapco................................................. 19 tional fluid dynamics (CFD) from within a single simula-
COMSOL, Inc............................................. 5 simulation product, which tion system.
it says addresses a broader
DE Reprints............................................... 45
Formtek, Inc... ............................................ 45
Hewlett-Pakard Co...................................... 7
range of real-world chal-
lenges such as radiation,
combustion and hypersonic
5 3Dconnexion Announces
3D SpaceMouse Pro
3Dconnexion’s (3dcon-
DE’s Virtual Workstation Clustering Report.. 46 flows. FloEFD is available nexion.com) SpaceMouse
HSMWorks ApS, USA................................. 23 with two new optional mod- Pro, combines the com-
HSMWorks ApS, USA................................. 32 ules: FloEFD with Advanced pany’s six-degrees-of-
Module for Combustion freedom (6DoF) sensor
Industrial Press.......................................... 45
and Hypersonic Flows, and for 3D navigation with an
Lenovo.. ..................................................... 25
FloEFD with HVAC Module for ergonomic design and
National Instruments................................... 3 Radiation Flow and Comfort. on-screen display, accord-
Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. . . ................. 35 ing to the company. Four
Omega Engineering..................................... 1
Omega Engineering.................................... 45 4 ANSYS 14.0 Released
ANSYS (ansys.com)
has launched the newest
customizable function keys
provide fingertip access to
frequently used application
Solid Concepts, Inc.. . .................................. 31
release of its engineering commands, while the new
Stratasys-Dimension 3D.. .......................... CV4
simulation technology suite, on-screen display provides
Super Micro Computer, inc......................... 11 ANSYS 14.0. The company visual feedback on function
Tormach LLC . . ........................................... 35 says ANSYS 14.0 includes key assignment. DE

Cool Tools HSMWorks’ HSMXpress CAM System
4 3
Free for SolidWorks Users

1 HSMWorks’ HSMXpress is a free CAM system for registered
users of SolidWorks 2010 or newer. It is designed to help CNC Editor
designers and engineers begin machining prototypes and
short production runs using computer numerical control (CNC)
machines, and to help smaller manufacturers affordably imple-
4 HSMXpress includes HSMXpress Edit, a
CNC program editor with side-by-side file
compare, NC-functions, backplotter, and 1-port
ment a workstation-based CAD/CAM solution. DNC. HSMXpress Edit allows users to make modi-
fications to CNC programs such as offsets, line
CAM Features numbering/re-numbering, mirroring, and editing
2 HSMXpress is built on the same 64-bit, of comments—tasks that can be handled quickly
multi-core CAM kernel as HSMWorks, without having to regenerate or repost programs
the company’s flagship CAM product. where the original geometry has not changed.
HSMXpress offers 2D and 2.5D machin- HSMXpress Edit also supports DNC or drip-feed
ing strategies including: face, 2D pocket, serial communications with standard serial
contour, slot, thread, bore, and trace. machine tool interfaces, according to HSMWorks.
It also features 2D Adaptive Clearing,
a strategy for high-speed roughing and
2
material removal. It includes an HTML TECH SPECS
Setup Sheet generator, user-configurable
Javascript-based Post Processor System, • Microsoft Windows XP, Windows
and CNC program editor with file compare, Vista or Windows 7. (64-bit versions
NC-functions, backplotter, and 1-port DNC. supported).
SolidWorks Integration • SolidWorks 2010 or newer.

3 HSMXpress offers users the same user-interface integration
as HSMWorks, including use of the SolidWorks Command
Manager, SolidWorks Feature and Property Manager, and view-
• 1GB of main memory. 2GB or more
is recommended, especially if work-
port workspace. All toolpath data is stored in the SolidWorks Part ing with complex parts.
and Assembly files facilitating PDM and PLM integration, accord-
ing to the company. • Intel or AMD CPU. Multi-processor
and dual/quad/six-core CPUs will be
used when calculating toolpaths.
➜ DO YOU HAVE A COOL TOOL? Desktop Engineering editors are always For more information, visit
on the hunt for great tools to share with our readers. Send us your ideas hsmxpress.com
at de-editors@deskeng.com.

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Prices applicable in the United States. Additional options, shipping, applicable taxes and/or duties not included. ©2011 Stratasys, Inc.

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January 2012 / deskeng.

TECHNOLOGY FOR DESIGN ENGINEERING

3DBOXX 3970 XTREME REVIEW P.40

To help you see every possibility and keep every promise.

Realize Your Product PromiseTM

Temperature and Miniature Portable Wireless Portable Data Logger

© COPYRIGHT 2012 OMEGA ENGINEERING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

2 DESKTOP ENGINEERING January 2012 /// deskeng.com

38 Plenty of Power at an Attractive Price

40 Smart and Fast

vs. Affordability TEST

15 Consumers are increasingly

products at lower prices,

28 Streamlining the Prius

4 DESKTOP ENGINEERING January 2012 /// deskeng.com

Capture the Concept.

DEPARTMENTS 14 What’s New

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deskeng.com Desktop Engineering® (ISSN 1085-0422) is published

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Advertorial /// High-Performance Computing

Getting a Step Up On the

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Autodesk’s 180 Turn with Nexus 360

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NVIDIA Opens Pandora’s Box

deskeng.com /// January 2012 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 9

Bentley Puts Plant Structures in the Cloud

3D Systems Adds Color with Acquisition

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Squeak, Designing Safer When Push

In 1960, Dr. Albert Starr successfully

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3D Printing already using them.

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Supporting PLM and Workflow

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to throw away the package after unwrapping.

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deskeng.com /// January 2012 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 21

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solvers for analyzing the complex 3D cooling flows and conjugate

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Lenovo® recommends Windows® 7 Professional.

IDEAS SHOULD RACE FROM

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26 DESKTOP ENGINEERING January 2012 /// deskeng.com

deskeng.com /// January 2012 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 27

Streamlining the Prius