There seems to be no shortage of product news from CAD vendors surrounding efforts to make their products more accessible to non-traditional users without taking a major toll on functionality.
Alibre Inc., which has positioned itself as the only sub-$1,000 a seat 3D solid modeling tool, is upping the ante with a new $1,595 bundle that packages its Ailbre Design Expert parametric solid modeling tool with FreeDesign Inc.’s FreeDimension tool for free-form modeling and design concepting.
By combining the two technologies, officials claim even novice users can create organic shapes in FreeDimension and then pass those 3D surfaces to the Alibre solid modeling environment for additional work. Officials are positioning the bundle as a good fit for design professionals in the areas of marine design, mold making, jewelry and consumer products, in particular.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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