Software technical conferences dominate NDES

Attendees at the National Design Engineering Show this year will not be at a loss for design engineering guidance with respect to software and hardware. At least 14 technical conferences, spread over four days, are scheduled to cover topics ranging from the future of 3D mechanical design to the role of the Internet in design collaboration. Here are some highlights (and time schedule) of what to expect at these technical conferences:

The Adaptive Supply Chain: Optimizing the Manufacturing Industry (Mon, 10 am)
Hewlett-Packard provides its manufacturing customers with solutions for common product information processes. HP's senior vice president of Global Operation Supply Chain, Dick Conrad, will talk about the use of IT in adapting the manufacturing industry, as well as the elements needed to electronically link engineering and manufacturing, demand and supply chain management, and driving PLC environments.

Creating Design Innovation Through Simulation (Mon., 11 am)
ANSYS' Barry Christenson, Manager of Product Management, speaks about the necessity of incorporating simulation tools within the product development cycle. Christenson will point to companies that have designed innovative products by applying simulation tools within their process.

Attribute Driven Designs with Behavioral Modeling (Mon., 1 pm)
Andreas Vlahinos, principal for Advanced Engineering Solutions, speaks about the role of behavioral modeling in the CAD environment. The workshop will include practical tutorials covering the basics of robust design, as well as demonstrations of how to use behavioral modeling to choose the best design solutions.

Moving Design Collaboration to the Internet (Mon., 3 pm)
Robert McGill, Director of SolidWorks Business Alliances, leads a discussion on the benefits of using the Internet for design collaboration. While costly time can be wasted in converting files between collaborators, the Internet can reduce errors and wasted time by enabling users to transmit 3D models and connect with suppliers and manufacturers.

The Future of 3D Mechanical Design: Lifting the Software Barrier to Creative Product Design (Tues., 10 am)
This industry panel discussion-moderated by Stephen Wolfe, publisher of CADCAMNet-discusses the current state of designing products in 3D CAD and how the technology can be improved to be a transparent set of tools. Among the panel: Charles Grindstaff, president of Products-PLM Solutions Line of Business for UGS PLM Solutions; Jim Heppelmann, executive vice president of software products and chief product officer for PTC; Ken Hoadley, vice president of engineering for Sensable Technologies; Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Solutions Division for Autodesk Inc.; and John McEleney, CEO of SolidWorks Corp.

Enabling our Quest for Six-sigma Quality with CAE Tools (Tues., 11 am)
Andreas Vlahinos, principal for Advanced Engineering Solutions, again speaks to NDES attendees, but this time he offers a demonstration on integrating Probabilistic Design System within ANSYS software and Behavioral Modeling within Pro/Engineer to create robust designs.

Design for Manufacturing at IBM (Tues., 11 am)
Showing one company's practical mechanical design and manufacturing applications, Mark Chitjian, CATIA manufacturing tech support specialist at IBM, will discuss IBM's use of CAD/CAM, Sheet Metal design, NC programming, and support for CAD/CAM technologies.

Manufacturing Design, Tooling, Process, and Quality Analysis and Simulation System (Tues., 1 pm)
Steve Tuszynski, president and CEO of Algoryx, presents a discussion on algorithms, taken from correlation and regression analyses, implemented through computational software. The software operates in a simulation mode to determine if certain changes reach the intended objective, yet without incurring the actual time and expense associated with the manufacturing process.

Finite Element Analysis and Design for Six Sigma (Tues., 2 pm)
Roberto Cammino of the Advanced Tools and Simulation Group at Motorola speaks about some common and not so common applications of the finite element method in structural analysis. Also included in the discussion will be ideas on combining simulation and experimentation to simplify and speed experimental testing.

Solving the Most Demanding Problems (Tues., 2 pm)
SGI's senior director of Manufacturing Industries, Larry McArthur, leads a talk on advanced collaborative visualization solutions, using industry examples to show how digital product development technology remotely brings design teams together, increases productivity, decreases costs, and increases creativity.

Use of Design and Process Wizards in CAD/CAM applications (Wed., 2 pm)
UGS PLM Solutions' Dr. Phanindranath Vedula, senior developer, speaks about the use of design wizards in its Unigraphics NX software, including the Strength wizard, Optimization wizard, and Mold wizard. Vedula will also address the benefits of using these design wizards instead of generic CAD/CAM software packages.

Software Tools that Enable Collaboration Between Mechanical and Control Engineers (Wed. 2 pm)
Greg Donahue, industry marketing manager for MathWorks, discusses the role of virtual prototypes replacing physical prototypes, the benefits of using simulation software tools, and the early design process collaboration required. Examples of companies choosing virtual prototypes over physical prototypes will also be presented.

Designing for Paperless Manufacturing (Wed., 3 pm)
Customers and suppliers will participate in a roundtable discussion covering the challenges of implementing paperless manufacturing in small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies. The discussion will also include what Autodesk is doing with its software to help small- and medium-sized businesses adapt to paperless manufacturing.

Manufacturing from Digital Engineering Definition (Thurs., 1 pm)
In this presentation, attendees will hear about the design engineering methods and tools available to apply to product dimensions, tolerances, and annotations. The automated tools and processes help users develop products from a single source of product definition.

For reports on how engineers are using CAD and other engineering software, go to the Advanced Search button on www.designnews.com and type in CAD.