Desktop Engineering - 2011-09

September 2011 / deskeng.
com
3D Printing in Color P.28
Review: Corel Designer

Technical Suite X5 P.24
SPECIAL
FOCUS:
TECHNOLOGY FOR DESIGN ENGINEERING Metrology
Simulation
Takes Flight Parker Aerospace clusters its multicore HP
workstations to boost simulations in ANSYS HPC.
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•SOLID EDGE WITH SYNCHRONOUS TECHNOLOGY 4 P.40

•ON-THE-GO ENGINEERING P.36
•LASER SINTERING SOLUTIONS P.34
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Degrees of Freedom by Steve Robbins
DE is on the Case
J
ust a year ago, we reported on how multi-core work- Better Designs Faster
stations could be used to create a cluster. With com- When an engineer wanted to perform a simulation, he or
puters using the new Intel Xeon processors, a modern she used to load the project into a scheduler to wait for its
workstation may have 12 cores, many more than an turn on the company’s dedicated cluster in its data center. Big
engineer would use while creating CAD models, or or small, the engineer sometimes had to wait days or weeks
using email, Excel, or Word. Granted, engineers could for the work to return. Now, engineers send their smaller
use these cores with some software that was optimized for simulations to the four-workstation cluster. This not only
multi-core processing — like some analysis and visualiza- saves time, it allows engineers to create better designs via
tion software, Labview or MathWorks — but often those additional simulation and analysis. And the dedicated cluster
cores just sat idle in an engineer’s workstation. When en- returns large jobs faster because it’s not bogged down with
gineers did want to tap into those extra cores, some soft- smaller jobs. Everyone wins.
ware vendors charged for additional licenses. Creating a workstation cluster is scalable. You only
Now, a year later, workstation clustering continues to assign the cores you won’t be using. And you can change
advance. Many analysis software vendors are providing those assignments easily if your workload changes and
more cost-effective plans to access multiple cores. Multi- you need more power. You can use your existing multi-
threaded software that takes advantage of multiple cores is core workstations and add more if needed. If you can’t
becoming the norm. Virtualization technology is allowing convince the boss to spring for a dedicated high-perfor-
workstation cluster computing power to be easily assigned mance computing cluster, you might be using computers
and managed. that are ready to configure into your own local, virtual
workstation cluster. If not, you will probably be upgrad-
ing soon and might be able to show management how
You might be using computers cost effective upgrading to the right computers can be.
that are ready to configure into The DE team is very excited about reporting on the
Parker Aerospace story. In addition to the articles in this
a virtual workstation cluster. issue, we will continue to cover Parker in the next two
issues as we take this story to its finish. We will be releas-
ing video of our visit to the company, and have also writ-
Show Don’t Tell ten a white paper on how Parker Aerospace implemented
But we wanted to do more than just tell you about the its workstation cluster. You can get a copy of the white
advances of workstation-based cluster computing. We paper at deskeng.com/workstationcluster.
wanted to show you an example of how a workstation clus-
ter could be set up, and the real-world benefits it could Show Us Your Story
provide. We found that example in Irvine, CA, at Parker We would like to report on other applications our read-
Aerospace, a division of Parker Hannifin. DE’s contrib- ers are using to create better designs. We know that you,
uting editors Kenneth Wong and Peter Varhol recently our readers, come up with new and innovative ways to
visited Parker Aerospace to bring you the details on how solve problems every day. Let us know what systems,
the company turned four HP workstations, used by their technologies and processes you are using to help you
engineering team in their regular day-to-day work, into perform your job better.
a virtual cluster without affecting the performance of the Send your ideas and stories to de-editors@deskeng.
design engineers’ typical workload. com. In the subject line, type “DE is on the Case,” which
The workstation cluster was built using Parallels is the name of our new series of in-depth case studies.
Workstation Extreme so that some workstation resources We will review every submission, and, who knows, we
could be assigned to the cluster and some could be used might just make your case study the cover story. DE
for the engineers’ day-to-day tasks, like CAD. This allows
the workstation cluster resources to be used during the Steve Robbins is the CEO of Level 5 Communications and
day while engineers use their workstations, not just when executive editor of DE. Send comments about this subject to
their workstations are idle after hours. [email protected].
2 DESKTOP ENGINEERING September 2011 /// deskeng.com

March 2011 September 2011 VOLUME 16/ISSUE 7 VOLUME 17/ISSUE 1
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
24 Bundle of Joy
Corel Designer Technical Suite
X5 is a collection of tools
designed to provide a complete
illustration workflow.
By David Cohn
40 More Option,
More Opportunity
Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology 4 shifts the focus
from form creation to productivity, assembly management
and advanced analysis.
By Kenneth Wong
RAPID TECHNOLOGIES
COVER STORY
28 The Value of Color
Workstation-based
DE looks at a range of vendor options
that create direct-from-the-system
color parts beyond the classic white,
Virtual Cluster off-white and clear results.

By Pamela J. Waterman
Speeds Simulation 34 It All Adds Up
16
The beginnings, benefits
Parker Aerospace, a top- and business of
tier aircraft component design-driven
manufacturing with
manufacturer, was relying on laser sintering.
its dedicated high-performance By Andrew Snow
computing (HPC) cluster
to process all its simulation HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING
and analysis jobs. This led to
efficiency-draining bottlenecks. 36 Computing for the Mobile Engineer
Engineers on the move need more than just a single laptop.
By combining its workstations By Peter Varhol
into a virtual cluster, the
company’s engineers have the
resources they need to perform FOCUS: METROLOGY
higher quality simulations as part
of the up-front design process. 44 Benefits of Digital Metrology
They can now consider a greater Manufacturers save time with 3D metrology.
number of design alternatives, By Debbie Sniderman
ultimately leading to the
creation of optimal products.
48 Lofy Goals Demand Precise Positioning
SpaceX looks to accomplish tasks that are literally out of
this world.
ON THE COVER: Multicore workstations have the computing

power to speed simulation. Images in the photo illustration
51 Tools of the Month
courtesy of ANSYS and HP. Metrology products for engineers.

Ultrafast
Multiphysics Simulations
High-performance computing has
become key to dramatically speeding
up the design process. The technology
has become so mature and flexible
that it is possible to configure very
small experimental clusters ad hoc
and excel at much grander scales,
reaching previously unseen perfor-
mance levels. The blend of COMSOL,
cluster, and cloud provides you with a
powerful tactical toolset that enables
you to conquer today’s largest and
toughest technical challenges.
Learn more, download your free

whitepaper “Dramatically Improve
Compute-Intense Applications in the
Supercomputing Cloud”
comsol.com / hpc
comsol.co
September 2011 VOLUME 17/ISSUE 1
DEPARTMENTS 52 Editor’s Picks

Products that have grabbed
the editors’ attention.
2 Degrees of Freedom By Anthony J. Lockwood EDITORIAL
DE is on the Case. Steve Robbins | Executive Editor
Jamie J. Gooch | Managing Editor
By Steve Robbins
54 Fast Apps Anthony J. Lockwood | Editor at Large
Heather Pittinger | Copy Editor
8 Kenneth Wong's Engineering case studies.
Virtual Desktop CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Mark Clarkson, David S. Cohn, Barbara Goode,
A Closer Look at Lifecycle Components Mike Hudspeth, Susan Smith, Peter Varhol,
Pamela J. Waterman, Kenneth Wong
Win a $5,000 workstation,
3D PDF authoring, introduc- PUBLISHER
Thomas Conlon
ing Autodesk Simulation
CFD, and 3D Systems and ADVERTISING SALES
603-563-1631 • Fax 603-563-8192
Alibre partner.
Erich Herbert | Sales Executive (x263)
55 Commentary Justin Makris | Sales Executive (x239)
Jeanne DuVal | Account Manager (x274)
14 What’s New Upfront engineering is
ART & PRODUCTION
Get the feel for modeling with Sensable’s real business. Darlene Sweeney | Director (x257)
FreeForm Plus Organic Design System. By Miles Parker
A LEVEL 5 COMMUNICATIONS PUBLICATION
22 What’s New 56 Cool Tool

Steve Robbins | Chief Executive Officer
Thomas Conlon | President
HP representatives explain their part in National Instruments’ LabVIEW 2011. ADVERTISING, BUSINESS, & EDITORIAL OFFICES
Parker Aerospace’s virtual workstation Desktop Engineering® magazine
cluster. Level 5 Communications, Inc.
1283D Main St., PO Box 1039 • Dublin, NH 03444
603-563-1631 • Fax 603-563-8192
53 Spotlight E-mail: [email protected]
www.deskeng.com
Directing your search to the companies
SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE
that have what you need. Desktop Engineering® magazine
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51 Advertising Index 847-559-7581 • Fax 847-564-9453
E-mail: [email protected]
Desktop Engineering® (ISSN 1085-0422) is published
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monthly by Level 5 Communications, Inc., 1283D Main
Street, P.O. Box 1039, Dublin, NH 03444, 603-563-1631.
Periodicals postage paid at Dublin, NH, and at additional
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A CAD system that makes
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AG. NX is a trademark or registered trademarks of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in
other countries. All other logos, trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective holders.
Virtual Desktop by Kenneth Wong
Design a 3D Mouse,
Win a $5,000 CAD Workstation
C
onventional mice, as many of
you know, have been a major
source of wrist injuries from
repeated motion. True, the
invention of the computer mouse made
text input and selection a lot easier. But
it also brought a host of ergonomic
dangers previously unknown to com-
puter users. Now, with the emergence of
touch computing, most mobile devices
are bypassing the mouse by allowing
you to navigate 3D models using your
fingertips. (See “The Great iPad Race:
DWG on the Go,” June 21, 2011, and
“The iPad Army’s Latest Conquest:
Teamcenter,” April 7, 2011, at the Vir-
tual Desktop blog.)
So what should the mouse of the
future look like? 3Dconnexion, a spe-
cialized 3D mice developer, is going to
entice you to get involved in its brain- 3Dconnexion’s 3D mouse controller (shown here inside Autodesk Inventor),
storm. The company is running another part of 3Dconnexion’s design challenge called “3D Mouse of the Future.”
3D Design Challenge, dubbed “3D
Mouse of the Future.”
Here’s how it works. You download criteria is to ensure your design integrates SpaceNavigator 3D Mouse (third prize).
a zip file containing a 3D model of 3Dconnexion’s existing controller cap,” The challenge will wrap up at the end
3Dconnexion’s standard controller (af- the company says in its announcement. of September with the selection of the
fectionately known as “hockey puck” At the end of each month, a panel Grand Prize winner, to be picked by
in some circles). The zip file contains of judges will pick three winners for public votes from monthly winners. The
several industry-standard 3D formats, first, second and third prizes. If you’re Grand Prize is a custom workstation
including STEP, IGES, OBJ and Solid- picked, you stand to receive a SpacePilot valued at as much as $5,000.
Works. Next, you “design your ultimate PRO 3D Mouse (first prize), Space- For more information, visit
3D mouse—no holds barred! The only Explorer 3D Mouse (second prize) or 3Dconnexion.com/challenge. DE

A Template-driven Approach to 3D PDF Authoring
Q uadriSpace, which special-
izes in developing software
for 3D data reuse, is taking
a dramatic step to reach
out to more people than ever. Its lat-
est product, SHARE3D PDF ($199,
with $49 for maintenance), gives you a
template-driven approach to creating
interactive 3D PDF documents.
The software comes with robust
support for industry-standard neutral
files (STL, IGES, STEP, OBJ and so
on), along with the ability to import
native parts from SketchUp, Rhino,
AutoCAD, SolidWorks and Autodesk
Inventor. Once the CAD file is in A 3D PDF document published in SHARE3D PDF shows the embedded
SHARE3D PDF, you’ll see the model, 3D model, interactive links and a toolbar for rotating, spinning and cross-
along with its model tree (for assem- sectioning the design.
blies with structures).
SHARE3D PDF lets you create a
series of illustrations that work like key- templates (found under the Publish tab), plete with active buttons, allowing the
frames, with editable backdrops and text with preset text fields and placeholders recipient to follow along your presenta-
fields. There’s a basic material library, so for logos and corporate images. tion flow. The software adds anima-
if your model lacks luster, you may apply A few quirks I noticed: When in lay- tion to provide transitions from one
common materials such as glass, metal, out mode under the Publish tab, there’s keyframe to another. Because the docu-
paint or plastic. Keep in mind, though, little or no text formatting options, so ment is a 3D PDF, if you have a reader
that the stock library is very basic and you’re stuck with the text as formatted capable of visualizing 3D PDF, you’ll
the program is not meant for producing in the template. There’s no easy way to be able to spin, rotate and inspect cross-
impressive renderings. resize the fields in the template, so it’s sectional views of the embedded model.
Moving parts around is fairly difficult to see how the published results At $199, SHARE3D PDF is worth
straightforward. You can use the Move will look if the text flows beyond the considering just for the PDF creation
Parts tool under the Illustrate tab to designated space. By default, the layout alone. You’ll also need to spend at least
drag components along an axis. (No part window always displays the entire page, $299 for a copy of Acrobat X Standard
rotation option is provided, however.) with no option to zoom. from Adobe just to get the ability to
The software comes with a rich set of The published documents are com- publish PDF documents. DE
deskeng.com /// September 2011 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 9

Autodesk Launches Its Own CFD Package
I
t must have been Autodesk’s box with Autodesk Simulation
plan all along to offer its own CFD,” he said. “When you
computational fluid dynam- install, you will have access to
ics (CFD) product. But before both. This includes a connec-
it could offer something under its tion tool that takes your Fusion
own name, it had to go out and find models directly into Autodesk
one worthy of the purpose. In the Simulation CFD to create de-
acquisition of Blue Ridge Numer- sign studies.”
ics (maker of CFdesign ) in March,
Autodesk felt it had found the right One Click Simulation
technology. So in August, Autodesk The announcement empha-
launched its own product: Autodesk sizes, among other things,
Simulation CFD. what Autodesk describes as
The new offering “builds on One-Click Simulation. Under
computational fluid dynamics capa- this method, users may rely
bilities that Autodesk gained in the on the software to scan the
Blue Ridge Numerics acquisition in CAD geometry and automati-
March 2011,” according to the an- cally identify and load certain
nouncement. input values they would oth-
“Making informed, up-front erwise be forced to specify
decisions about air flow, fluid flow on their own (flow inlets and
or electronics cooling is critical to outlets, for example). They
help design and manufacture safer, may also rely on the software
quality products or construct more to identify and suppress non- Autodesk Simulation CFD is based on
energy-efficient buildings,” said essential features to speed up the technology acquired from Blue
Buzz Kross, Autodesk’s senior vice CFD solving. Ridge Numerics in March.
president of manufacturing. Another feature, dubbed Design
Study Automation, will let you set up
Product Fusion multiple design scenarios and solve
So what did Autodesk bring to them simultaneously. The function will to run it on an open engineering com-
the table, besides rebranding Blue let you simulate fluid flows in your de- puter while I accomplish other things.
Ridge Numerics’ established prod- sign under various thermal values, ma- This would not have a cost associated
uct? The short answer is, Autodesk terials and boundary conditions before with it.” On the other hand, “[If] I have
Inventor Fusion. The standalone leaving CAD. Still another feature, Re- an engineering desktop computer that
direct-editing package, Autodesk mote Solving, will make it “easy to har- I want to run a simulation on, and I
points out, will let engineers “mod- ness all available computational power have another simulation that I want to
ify or simplify geometry quickly and on any user’s network,” the announce- run simultaneously on another system,
easily from virtually any CAD sys- ment states. The feature comes at no this would require two solver licenses,”
tem when running simulations.” additional cost to users. However, be- which requires additional cost.
Unlike Autodesk’s flagship para- cause solver and interface are licensed For sharing CFD results with
metric modeler Autodesk Inven- separately, you may need to purchase those who may not have a com-
tor, Inventor Fusion offers a lower additional licenses if you wish to run patible software program to view
learning curve and easier ways to multiple solvers at the same time. analysis outcome, Autodesk offers
create and edit 3D design via direct Mehelcic explained by depicting two Autodesk Simulation CFD Viewer.
editing (by pushing, pulling, and ro- different remote-solving usages: “For The free, downloadable viewer can
tating faces and features). example, if I have a laptop that is not be used as a standalone program
Luke Mehelcic, Autodesk’s CFD powerful enough or needs to be run- or as a plug-in to Microsoft Pow-
product manager, clarified the subject. ning other applications, I can set up the erPoint, Microsoft Word or a web
“Inventor Fusion is included in the simulation on my laptop and choose browser. DE

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Copyright © 2011 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Core, Xeon, Core inside, and Xeon inside are trademarks of Intel
Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Printed in USA.
3D Systems and Alibre:

From Partnership to Acquisition
Y
ou might remember that, Reichental said, adding that it ex- “In our mind, we’re not in this to
in May, rapid prototyping cludes less-expert users. “We believe be CAD vendors,” he added. “We’re
printer maker 3D Systems there is room, there is space—par- here to offer design productivity tools.
and CAD software maker ticularly for the do-it-yourself users That will include some of the SY-
Alibre struck up a partnership to bring and garage entrepreneurs—to create CODE plug-ins.”
you a RP-CAD bundle for as little as a simple, intuitive CAD package for India-headquartered SYCODE,
$1,500. It appears the partnership was those audiences. And also for young- which develops and markets plug-
just prelude to an acquisition. sters—kids in elementary, middle ins for major CAD packages, was
“There was already a deal in prog- school and high school ages to par- founded by Deelip Menezes, who
ress at the time we announced the take in this exciting 3D revolution.” also maintains a blog about the
marketing partnership in May,” Abe Direct modelers like SpaceClaim CAD industry. In April, 3D Systems
Reichental, president and CEO of 3D have had great success by allowing acquired Menezes’ company and
Systems, revealed. “It was coincidental, users to use Google SketchUp-style gave him directives to establish 3D
in that our 3D printer channel man- push-pull modeling methods to Systems India.
ager approached Alibre to discuss and create 3D geometry, bypassing the “We’re particularly excited about
suggest a partnership, not knowing the need to learn parametric principles the opportunity to expand the field of
two companies were already engaged altogether. Other parametric soft- use in bona fide education and con-
in advanced acquisition discussion. So ware makers, such as Siemens PLM sumer applications at entry level, and in
we just allowed [the marketing part- Software, PTC and Autodesk, are full-fledged manufacturing applications
nership] to happen organically.” revamping their own flagship para- on the high end,” said Reichental.
metric CAD packages to include Part of the challenge in preparing 3D
Create and Make more direct-editing features. models for 3D printing is the need to
In August, 3D Systems bought Ali- strip out certain features or to adjust the
bre Software, bringing an affordable A Simple Plan geometry to make the model fit for print
CAD package into its portfolio. Reichental wasn’t specific about (increasing the thickness of wafer-thin
“With Alibre in our portfolio, we how he plans to simplify Alibre walls so they can be printed without the
are personalizing and integrating software, but one possible approach risk of collapse, for example). Bundling a
design and manufacturing produc- may be to follow in the footsteps of consumer-level 3D printer with an easy,
tivity,” Reichental explained in the rival packages like Siemens’ Solid intuitive 3D editing software will go a
announcement. “The combined af- Edge with Synchronous Technology, long way in making 3D printing more
fordability and user friendliness of PTC Creo/Direct and Autodesk Fu- accessible, especially in emerging mar-
our expanded 3D content-to-print sion to include more direct-editing kets where buyers usually don’t own or
solutions offer a clear and compel- tools. It’s worth noting that Alibre routinely use CAD software.
ling choice for engineers, designers offers push-pull modeling in its For more, listen to the com-
and makers to create and make in- higher-end professional package, but plete audio interview with Abe
stantly, at work and home.” not in its low-cost Personal Edition. Reichental at deskeng.com/virtual_
Beside traditional engineers and de- For Alibre software users, little desktop/?p=4071. DE
signers, Alibre also caters to hobbyists, change is expected, as Reichental
tinkerers, homegrown inventors and plans to use Alibre’s own distribution Kenneth Wong writes about technol-
craft-fair traders with its Alibre Personal channel and support network to keep ogy, its innovative use, and its impli-
Edition ($199). One of the hurdles new the well-oiled sales machine going. cations. One of DE’s MCAD/PLM
users must overcome is Alibre’s para- “We’re very impressed with the experts, he has written for numerous
metric modeling—well-known among quality of [Alibre’s] reseller chan- technology magazines and writes DE’s
longtime CAD users, but not always nel … we’re excited about their own Virtual Desktop blog at deskeng.com/
easy to grasp for beginners. online, outbound sales capability,” he virtual_desktop. You can follow him on
“Classic parametric technology re- said. His grand plan is to “evolve Ali- Twitter at KennethwongSF, or email
quires too much of a learning curve,” bre from a company into a brand.” him via [email protected].

©2010 The MathWorks, Inc.
Q
Find it at
mathworks.com/accelerate
datasheet
video example
trial request
MODEL
PHYSICAL
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What’s New FreeForm Plus Organic Design
Get the Feel for Modeling

BY JIM ROMEO
Today’s design environment is get- by holding a Sensable Phantom force
ting more complex, and designers are feedback device instead of a computer
most reliant on precise and complex mouse. The device pushes back on the
engineering software solutions to help user’s hand, allowing users to literally
them with sophisticated 3D model- “feel” the digital clay model as they KEVIN ATKINS
ing. Bringing forms and models from sculpt and carve in a manner similar
concept to design can be challeng- to traditional clay modeling. They can
ing—and that’s precisely the need that even “pop through” to the inside of 3D shapes of all items at once.
Sensable’s FreeForm Plus Organic the digital model and sculpt from the Some CAD systems are great for
Design System seeks to fulfill. inside out. making manufacturable models, but
Kevin Atkins is a corporate applica- cannot make complex organic models;
tions engineer for this product line at the Q. How does this help shorten the others can make very complex models,
Sensable Corp., based in Wilmington, time to manufacture, in your view? but cannot evaluate or modify them for
MA. DE spoke to Atkins to understand A. Designers with products that need manufacturability. FreeForm is capable
his product and how it helps the engi- complex organic shapes, intricate of doing both, with tools such as real-
neering design community: sculptural details and textures face world units and measurements, draft
particular challenges, because most analysis and automatic correction,
Q. Tell us a little about the FreeForm 3D design systems take far too long to articulation, thickness analysis and
Plus Organic Design System. create these types of designs—if they never-fail shelling.
A. It is designed specifically to model can do them at all. FreeForm provides
complex, organic forms that other- fast 3D modeling as well as a full com- Q. How is FreeForm priced, and
wise take too long or are just not pos- plement of advanced tools that enable what’s an expected return on invest-
sible to create in traditional CAD mod- designers to analyze how easily their ment (ROI)?
elers. It uniquely allows designers to models can be manufactured, tools A. Sensable’s 3D Design products
combine multiple geometry types, such as draft analysis, repair tools include top-of-the-line FreeForm Plus
including surfaces, solids, meshes and creating complex parting sur- organic design system for manufac-
and voxels, in one integrated environ- faces. These tools allow the designer turability, FreeForm organic design
ment. FreeForm is complementary to to strike the perfect balance between system, and Claytools digital sculpting
traditional CAD packages like Pro/E, aesthetics and manufacturability prior system. Pricing starts at $5,900.
SolidWorks and Rhino, allowing to handing them off—reducing engi- The economic benefit and ROI to
users to easily incorporate sculptural neering reviews and design iterations, using FreeForm is huge. FreeForm
details into solid models and prepare and expensive and time-consuming helps companies save weeks or
models for tooling, whether for mold retooling costs. months from total design to manufac-
or die creation. turing—getting their goods to market
Q. What features do you believe are faster, and capturing timely market
Q. How exactly does it work? most appealing to end-users? opportunities that otherwise would
A. FreeForm combines voxels, haptics A. For projects requiring sophisticated, have been missed. We have many
(force feedback) and an intuitive user complex deformations, FreeForm’s customers who recoup the cost of
interface to provide product design- Lattice Deform tool provides an purchasing FreeForm many times
ers with incredible speed, creative interactive way to target and restrict over in just the first year of use. DE
freedom and ease of use. Because deformations to very specific areas of
FreeForm is based on voxels—think 3D the model—or allow multiple pieces Jim Romeo is a freelance writer based in
pixels that can easily be repositioned to be deformed as a single unit. For Chesapeake, VA.
in space—it removes the constraints example, working with a multi-piece
of topology, such as mathematical model of a strategy-game miniature
definition, geometry format and order soldier with an intricately detailed INFO ➜ Sensable: Sensable.com
of operation, that are required in tra- uniform and accessories, the designer For more information on this topic, visit
ditional CAD programs. Users model can simultaneously reproportion the deskeng.com.

Application /// Parker Aerospace Series
Building a Virtual
Workstation-based Cluster
Parker Aerospace pumps more computing cycles from multicore
HP Z800 workstations while using ANSYS HPC.
BY KENNETH WONG
Parker Aerospace’s
Bob Deragisch has a
personal reason for
wanting to make the
best aircraft systems
and components: His
son is an airline captain.
B
ob Deragisch, Parker Aerospace’s manager of enter- Deragisch began to wonder: Is there a way to supplement
prise systems, needed a way to tame a whale of a high- the server’s shortage with the horsepower from engineers’
performance computing (HPC) job—growing at an workstations?
ever-increasing pace that was difficult to manage and control. The answer came to him when he recalled SETI@home,
The aerospace business unit he supports uses ANSYS soft- a scientific experiment that uses web-connected computers
ware to simulate, among other things, airflow and fluid flow to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Researchers at the
inside valves and pumps, and the effects of stress on them. University of California-Berkeley have figured out a way to
“We’re looking at hundreds to thousands of individual bundle together all the donated computing resources—un-
components, analyzed together as a unit,” he explains. “These used CPU capacity that average home users have decided to
are [hydraulic and fuel systems] that have to fly for 30 to 50 dedicate to SETI’s cause—into a single virtual server, pow-
years and meet certification requirements. We test them for erful enough to analyze the mounds of telescope-acquired
all foreseeable situations, all operating conditions.” data in an attempt to pinpoint signs of intelligent alien life.
The vast amount of calculation required makes most of these Deragisch would use a similar method to turn a bunch of HP
tasks ill-suited for individual workstations. It was the type of Z800 workstations into a virtual cluster, powerful enough to
analysis that could only be completed in HPC. But the daunting share the burden with the dedicated HPC server.
struggle of the in-house HPC server to keep up with the de- The success of this experiment, which led Parker Aero-
mand was evident in the job queue that stretched out like a long space to deliver much more robust designs within the same
tail. No amount of additional processors or server racks seemed timeframe, is now part of the company’s IT strategy. The ex-
enough to bring down the stack of pending analysis runs. ercise was made possible by, among other things, the highly

parallel nature of ANSYS software, Windows HPC Server
2008 DCC (Distributed Computing Cluster) software, Par- [Parker Aerospace’s workstation-based
allels Workstation Extreme virtualization platform and as- cluster] is a brilliant use of resources.
sistance from Intel and HP. Microsoft HPC server software works great
in a rack-mounted server environment,
The Setup
but for the smaller design shops that have
“Workstations are becoming extremely powerful. They are
cluster nodes in their own right,” notes Deragisch. workstations only, this allows them to run
As he looked into the possibilities, Deragisch estimated HPC workload on workstations.
that adding more Intel Xeon 5600 processors to the worksta- —Mike Long, Technical Solution Specialist,
tions would be far less expensive than expanding the HPC Microsoft Technical Computing
server with additional racks, floor space, cooling requirements
and processors. His choice was the HP Z800 workstation,
equipped with a pair of six-core Intel Xeon 5600 processors. rest of their computing cores function as parts of an HPC
The engineers’ 3D mechanical CAD software, which server. Partitioning the virtual cluster into head nodes and
performs single-threaded operations most of the time, ate processing nodes was done using Parallels Workstation 4.0
up roughly 10-20% of the workstation’s horsepower. So, in Extreme, which leverages Intel Xeon CPUs and Intel Vir-
each workstation, Deragisch reserved two to four cores for tualization Technology for Directed I/O (VTd) to create an
the engineer’s primary workload. The remaining eight to 10 environment where workstations could share resources.
cores were delegated to the pool of computing resources to
draw from, as part of a cluster. This workstation-based clus- ANSYS HPC Licensing
ter’s function was to process small and medium-sized jobs, to Parker Aerospace uses ANSYS Mechanical, ANSYS CFX
relieve pressure on the HPC server. and ANSYS Icepak for structural, fluids and electronics ther-
Parker Aerospace’s workstation-based setup is different from mal management, respectively.
what some call cycle scavenging or cycle stealing, where all idle “We really want to encourage our customers to take ad-
cores are made available as potential cluster resources. By con- vantage of [HPC] so they can examine their designs from
trast, Parker Aerospace created a cluster using a message-pass- the system level, not at the component level,” says Barbara
ing interface (MPI). In Parker Aerospace’s setup, workstation Hutchings, ANSYS’ director of strategic partnerships.
users are guaranteed access to a finite number of cores for their “ANSYS HPC pack licensing allows extreme scalability at
primary tasks, even though their machines are part of a cluster. an incremental cost. It can take advantage of hundreds, or
Whereas most clusters are assembled in a Unix or Linux even thousands of cores at a very modest cost.”
environment, standard workstations almost always come “Some software we use becomes prohibitively expensive
with Windows operating systems (OS). The HP Z800 work- when running on dozens of cores, because we’ll need a li-
station runs 64-bit Windows 7 OS. Therefore, Deragisch’s cense for each core,” adds Deragisch. “Getting ANSYS HPC
solution was to use Windows HPC Server 2008 DCC, which Pack offered us a significant advantage.”
lets users preserve Windows 7 on their desktops while the “The ANSYS software Parker Aerospace was using was
Microsoft HPC-enabled,” observes Mike Long, technical so-
lution specialist, Microsoft Technical Computing. “There’s
Taking a Deeper Look
T
a built-in job scheduler in the HPC product that allows
his article and the What’s New ANSYS product users to simply specify from their graphical
Q&A on page 22 are the first user interface the number of cores they want to use.”
two articles in a series that take Hutchings explains that ANSYS “did a lot of development
an in-depth look at one company’s engi- work to optimize our software packages for HPC, so it’s off-the-
neering practices. Desktop Engineering’s editors visited shelf capability—no extra work required from Parker Aerospace.”
Parker Aerospace to bring the story to you via magazine Microsoft HPC DCC suite is part of Microsoft’s vision
articles, podcasts, online videos and a white paper, to promote technical computing, powered by HPC, as a way
which was sponsored by Intel and HP. We hope this infor scientists, engineers and analysts to simulate and study
depth coverage will provide an example of how your com- the complex interplay of variables, as seen in biomechanical,
pany can adopt readily available technologies that can electromechanical, financial, genomic and climate systems.
give you the time and tools to optimize your designs. Find Long says he believes building the cluster as a Windows en-
out more at deskeng.com/workstationcluster and if vironment (as opposed to Unix or Linux environment) gives
your company would like to be the subject of an “On the users an advantage: “You start out with people who are already
Case” story, email us at [email protected]. familiar with Windows, so they’re not required to submit jobs to

station-based cluster, which came at a modest investment in

additional hardware, freed Parker Aerospace’s dedicated HPC
We realized that today’s workstations
server to concentrate on larger jobs with fewer interruptions,
are tremendously underutilized. We allowing the company to explore more design alternatives.
made a conscious decision to identify and Deragisch says the wall clock time for the wait for results
execute a new strategy in order to achieve is shorter for two reasons:
greater value from our hardware and 1. The short/medium jobs are no longer run on the
software investments. The results speak company’s dedicated HPC server, so the number of jobs
for themselves: We have significantly pending is fewer.
increased our throughput, and we are using 2. Because the short/medium jobs run on the worksta-
all the available technologies at Parker tion-based cluster, and do not have to wait behind long-
Aerospace to expedite design decisions running large jobs, the overall turnaround time for these
smaller jobs is shorter.
from applications like ANSYS, CFDesign
“The short jobs are not competing with the large jobs for
and LS-Dyna. server cluster resources,” he adds. “On the basis of individual
—Bob Deragisch, Parker Aerospace’s jobs, [you might see] little or no improvement, maybe even a
Manager of Enterprise Systems slight degradation when running on workstations versus the
HPC server. But it’s not just about individual jobs; it’s about
substantially reducing the queue of jobs sitting on what was
a Unix or Linux cluster.” This eliminates the hassle of convert- previously a single resource [the HPC server], by offloading
ing jobs to a Unix- or Linux-compatible format, he points out. small and medium jobs to the workstation-based cluster.”
“Certainly there are small [design and engineering] shops
Wired Workstations that don’t have clusters today. They probably can’t justify
Because all the cores from individual workstations must work buying a dedicated cluster,” notes David Rich, from Micro-
on the same dataset in parallel, network connectivity—the soft’s technical computing division. “But if they get used to
speed with which the machines “talk” to one another—is using a cluster through their workstations, they might dis-
critical to the performance of the virtual cluster. cover that there’s enough return on investment to buy a
“Because you’re taking a single computation, dividing it into small, dedicated cluster.”
pieces, and running it on several processors, at some point those ANSYS’ Hutchings says she believes familiarity with, and
processors have to communicate with one another, because the deployment of, HPC among engineers will eventually lead
pieces of the problem they’re working on are interdependent,” to better designs, as users will be able to examine models
says Hutchings. “We have done a ton of software tuning to op- with higher fidelity. In other words, their models will feature
timize the message-passing component of our products.” greater mesh density and more geometric details, providing a
Each HP Z800 workstation comes with onboard network more accurate depiction of the designs under consideration.
interface cards (NICs). Those who need to pass a large volume In addition, with access to HPC, engineers and designers can
of data in a workstation-based cluster may opt for additional
10G NICs to speed up message passing among individual
A Comment on Solid State Drives
I
nodes. The new Intel iWARP provides direct node-to-node
memory transfers to further increase performance. n Parker Aerospace’s tests to replace tradi-
Each workstation node has two Gigabyte-Ethernet tional hard drives with the more stable, higher
switches connecting it to the network. With Intel VTd I/O, performance solid state drives, Bob Deragisch
Parker Aerospace dedicates one NIC to the enterprise net- sometimes saw additional power gains. But he cau-
work; the other acts as HPC fabric. tions, “If you’re running on very few cores, the ben-
efit from the lack of latency and responsiveness of
Shorter Queues, Better Design solid state drive doesn’t help that much. When you
After Parker Aerospace’s workstation-based cluster came on- get to hundreds of cores, solid state drives make
line, engineers began seeing relief in the bottleneck. a tremendous difference—roughly a 30% to 50%
“Some analysis jobs run for hours or days,” noted Deragisch. reduction in computing time. Gains from using
“Now, these long-running jobs no longer tie up all our re- solid state drives depend upon the I/O (input/out-
sources, and smaller runs can be executed on the workstation put) profile of the application as well; some appli-
‘cluster’ to dramatically shorten our job queues.” cations are I/O-intensive, and solid state drives are
The supplementary computing capacity from the work- of significant benefit in this instance.”

conduct simultaneous studies of multiple design iterations, has written for numerous technology magazines and writes
allowing them to select the best option afterward. DE’s Virtual Desktop blog at deskeng.com/virtual_desktop.
Currently, the high cost of HPC resources puts so- You can follow him on Twitter at KennethwongSF, or email
phisticated computer-aided analysis and simulation be- him via [email protected].
yond some manufacturers’ reach. Thus, the use of this Editor’s Note: This article is part of a package of related content
technology is often confined to validating a concept, or that includes an article written by DE on behalf of ANSYS for its
proving that a product would perform as intended in prac- magazine, as well as an HP and Intel-sponsored white paper.
tice. ANSYS and its partners expect the rise of HPC will
reverse the trend. They hope that, with more affordable
HPC setups like that of Parker Aerospace, designers and INFO ➜ ANSYS: ANSYS.com
engineers will begin identifying the most promising con- ➜ HP: HP.com
cepts in the early phase, then spend the rest of the devel-
opment cycle perfecting the design. ➜ Intel: Intel.com
Deragisch has a personal interest in delivering more ro- ➜ Microsoft: Microsoft.com
bust fuel, hydraulic and flight control systems for aircraft: ➜ Parallels: Parallels.com
“My son has just been made a captain. He flies every day.” DE
➜ Parker Aerospace: Parker.com
Kenneth Wong writes about technology, its innovative use, ➜ SETI Institute: SETI.org
and its implications. One of DE’s MCAD/PLM experts, he For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

What’s New Q&A
Workstations Work as Clusters

BY PETER VARHOL Tom
Salomone
The workstation-based high-perfor- tage of Intel’s VT-d technology. That
mance computing cluster that Parker allows their software to implement virtu-
Aerospace uses to speed its simulation al machines on the workstations, which
turnaround times (see “The Core of a can be directed to use only certain parts
Workstation-based Cluster” on page 16) of the workstation.
was made possible by the nature of the
company’s principle hardware—the HP Q. The traditional way of clustering
Z800 Workstation. DE contributing editor workstations is often known as cycle
Peter Varhol interviews HP executives to stealing, but that’s not what Parker
discuss the characteristics that made Aerospace is doing, correct?
Dan
it ideal for clustering. Responses are A. Correct. Any time you’re running mul-
Bennett
provided by Tom Salomone, HP segment tiple things on a workstation, you’re com-
manager for CAD and Design Engineering peting for resources, and unless there’s
Industries; Dan Bennett, an HP technical an intelligent way of putting bounds on
consultant for the Z Workstations series; one of those tasks, so that it does not
and Mike Diehl, the HP Z800 Workstation steal the resources of the workstation,
product manager. it’s going to slow down the engineer
interacting with the computer. And that’s
Q. What are the primary characteristics what Parallels Workstation Extreme
of the HP Z Workstations that make does. It takes advantage of some of the
them adaptable for workstation-based design characteristics of the HP Z800
cluster computing? Workstation. For example, the dual Mike
A. The HP Z series family provides great network interconnect provides a means Diehl
computing power, and a great interac- for clustering on a fast private network,
tive experience for someone sitting at while also giving the interactive engineer
the workstation. At the same time, you a separate connection on the enterprise operations. And GPU companies like
are using otherwise unused resources local network. That really helps in terms NVIDIA are reaching out to application
on the workstation to contribute to a dis- of keeping workloads separate. companies to support GPU computing as
tributed compute solution. The HP Z800 a part of their solver engines. Combined
Workstation is especially appropriate for Q. And that’s also important because with the HP Z800 Workstation running
this type of usage pattern, in particular the cluster workload is dependent upon Parallels Workstation Extreme virtualiza-
because it’s a dual-socket design; that a fast network interconnect, right? tion solution, this could be a very power-
is, it can have two Intel Xeon processors, A. That’s correct, although it depends ful solution. DE
each of which can have up to six cores. on the workload. Some applications
Another key, and a very important point and jobs have to move a lot of data, Contributing Editor Peter Varhol covers
in terms of the technology included in and would really benefit from this con- the HPC and IT beat for DE. His expertise
these workstations, is the use of Intel’s figuration. For example, the HP Z800 is software development, math systems, and
Xeon processors, because they sup- Workstation has enough power and avail- systems management. You can reach him at
port a technology Intel calls VT-d, short able slots to be able to put two high-end [email protected].
for Intel Virtualization Technology for graphics cards into the workstation. The
Directed I/O. engineer sitting at the workstation has
access to one of those graphics cards INFO ➜ Hewlett-Packard: HP.com
Q. Why is the support for Intel VT-d for work, while the other card could ➜ Intel: Intel.com
so important? incorporate a GPU that could be used to ➜ Parallels: parallels.com
A. The way we’re implementing this accelerate the execution of the cluster For the full story on how Parker Aerospace
workstation cluster computing model is job, if the application supports GPU com- implemented its virtual workstation
to use Parallels Workstation Extreme, puting. That would be very useful for jobs cluster, download the white paper at
and it uniquely takes very good advan- that have a high ratio of floating point deskeng.com/workstationcluster.

See your way to a
better design.
Explore, Discover, Improve...

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product ef ficiency, safety, and reliability—while Download Customer Papers on Isight at
reducing time and costs—are mission critical goals. www.simula.com/isight
Our customers are achieving these goals by leveraging
Isight for simulation automation and design optimization.
Isight enables the integration of CAD, CAE, test data, and

other applications into consistent and repeatable simulation
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enables you to use powerful design of experiments and
optimization tools to quickly—and affordably—explore and
improve product performance.
Computer-Aided Design /// Software Review
Bundle
of Joy
Corel Designer Technical Suite X5 is a collection of tools designed to

provide a complete illustration workflow.
BY DAVID COHN
T
he needs of engineering, marketing and technical to that product. If you’ve ever worked with CorelDraw,
publishing are quite different. Engineers require the Designer interface will seem quite familiar.
tools to help them design products so that they The program provides a collection of tools to help
can be manufactured. Marketing needs pretty pictures users create technical illustrations. There are tools for
for ads and brochures. And the tech pub folks often creating and editing shapes, adding text and callouts,
want simplified drawings for catalogs and manuals. It’s and so on. You can rotate objects into the desired orien-
quite common for each team to create entirely new im- tation, add dimensions, insert tables for bills of materi-
ages from scratch—a disconnect that results in wasted als, and add various artistic effects.
effort and inaccuracies. Although Designer is actually a 2D program, one of
Corel Designer Technical Suite X5 aims to elimi- its most interesting capabilities is being able to draw on
nate that disconnect. Users can start projects based planes aligned to appear to be 3D. Once these planes
on almost any source material—including numerous are created, you can easily draw and place text so that
CAD formats, most vector and raster file types, or from it looks like it is part of a 3D object. The new X5 re-
scratch—to create illustrations, diagrams and technical lease features enhanced isometric drawing capabilities
documentation, and produce output for print or online with improved gravity snapping and temporary dynamic
distribution in an equally wide array of formats. guides that appear based on snap points to help users
align, draw and move objects in relation to other ob-
The Heart of the Suite jects. Users can now modify objects in isometric views
Central to the Designer Technical Suite is Corel De- and create persistent rounded corners. There’s also im-
signer, the company’s specialized application for vector proved callout capabilities with automatic renumbering.
drawing, page layout and diagramming. In 2001, Corel While an artist could certainly use the tools in Corel
acquired MicrographX; Corel Designer is the successor Designer to create new illustrations from scratch, a big

part of the program’s power comes from its
ability to open more than three dozen different
file formats, including CAD drawings saved in
AutoCAD DWG format, PDF files and native
Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files. Once
open in Designer, you can use any of Design-
er’s tools to convert those assets into a finished
technical illustration.
CAD Conversion Tool

But the Corel Designer Technical Suite X5
doesn’t stop there. The package also includes
Right Hemisphere Deep Exploration CSE.
With Deep Exploration CSE, you can open
AutoCAD DWG files—as well as various other
formats including 3DS Max, VRML, SketchUp
and drawings produced in Creo (formerly Pro/ Integration with Right Hemisphere’s Deep Exploration CCE lets
ENGINEER) and CATIA. users open CAD models, adjust parts as needed, and then send the
Because most CAD programs can save files to one of results to Corel Designer or Photo-Paint.
the supported formats, CSE might be enough. But those
who prefer to work with their native CAD formats can Once any of the supported CAD files is open in
purchase Deep Exploration CCE (a $1,699 add-on), Deep Exploration, you can apply cross-sections and
which adds support for more than 80 additional for- exploded views. Deep Exploration includes dedicated
mats, including Inventor, SolidWorks and NX, as well workspaces for technical illustration, high dynamic
as IGES, STEP and SAT. range (HDR) rendering, training, and sales and mar-
Lenovo® recommends Windows® 7 Professional.
IDEAS SHOULD RACE FROM

DESIGN TO TESTING.
NOT FROM ONE MACHINE TO ANOTHER.
Meet the all-powerful ThinkStation® C20. Unlike other workstations, this
machine is built to handle everything from design to simulation. Which means
you can get your concepts up and running on a single machine. ThinkStation
C20—it has all the power you need to get your ideas into production, a lot faster.
• Featuring up to Dual NVIDIA®

Quadro® 5000 GPUs and Dual Intel®
Xeon® processors with up to 12 cores
• Genuine Windows® 7 Professional
• Maximum memory of 96GB to drive
even the largest of models
• Super fast 15,000rpm SAS drives
www.lenovo.com/thinkstation
The low-profile and power-efficient Quadro® 600 professional graphics solution delivers the best
performance per watt in its class and drives both small form factor and full height workstations.
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.

sired effect, such as converting colors to gray-
scale, and then send the bitmap image to De-
signer or CorelDraw.
Although Deep Exploration is a standalone
application, it is tightly integrated with Corel
Designer. When working in Designer, selecting
3D Import automatically launches Deep Explo-
ration so that you can open and prepare a 3D
model. And in addition to the tools in Deep Ex-
ploration for quickly sending files to Designer
or Photo-Paint, there are also batch conversion
tools for converting or rendering files.
Lots in the Box

Since first introducing CorelDraw in 1989,
Corel Corp. has long been known for its award-
winning graphics software. The Ottawa-based
company also has a reputation for bundling lots
3D models exported in bitmap format can be refined and enhanced of different tools with each of its programs.
in Corel Photo-Paint. Nowhere is that more evident than in this
latest Designer Technical Suite. The package
includes nearly a dozen separate components.
In addition to Designer, Photo-Paint and Deep
Exploration CSE, Technical Suite X5 now in-
cludes a full copy of CorelDraw, the latest ver-
sion of Corel PowerTrace for raster-to-vector
conversion, the Corel CAPTURE screen cap-
ture utility, the SWiSH miniMax Flash anima-
tion software, the PhotoZoom Pro photo en-
larger plug-in for Photo-Paint, Microsoft Visual
Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) and Mi-
crosoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
There’s also a wide assortment of fonts, photos
and clip art. Our installation consumed more
than 6.5GB of disc space.
The new Corel Connect application is a
standalone content browser that helps users
search for and preview content stored both lo-
cally and online, then quickly add that content
to their designs. Once content has been located,
Corel Connect can be used as a standalone program or as a docker
you can place it into a tray at the bottom of the Connect
in Corel Designer, CorelDraw, and Corel Photo-Paint. Assets in the
window. You can then open the content in CorelDraw,
docker are synchronized in all of the Technical Suite programs.
Designer, Photo-Paint or in its native application (if
available). You can also simply drag content from Con-
keting materials, so you can quickly achieve the de- nect and drop it into an active CorelDraw, Designer or
sired look. While working in Deep Exploration, you Photo-Paint document.
can still see the entire part assembly tree and manipu- Among the new features and enhancements in the lat-
late individual objects. est version of Designer is a new color management system.
Once you’ve got the model displayed the way you While the software includes presets for various standards,
want it in Deep Exploration, you can send vector data users can now adjust any setting and embed color pro-
to Corel Designer or raster data to Corel Photo-Paint files within saved documents to help ensure color fidelity
with a single click. If you send a rendered image to throughout the production process.
Photo-Paint, you can then use tools to create the de- The new X5 version of PowerTrace has been enhanced,

and users report that it produces better raster-to-vector
results than ever before. Designer’s overall performance
is also improved, with support for multi-threading to take INFO ➜ Corel Corp.: Corel.com
advantage of modern, multi-core processors. Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X5
Once you’ve completed your illustration, Technical Price:
Suite X5 provides lots of output options. Users can save
to a wide assortment of formats, including PostScript • Full copy: $999
Level 3, PDF, PDF/A, WebCGM, S1000D and Flash. • Upgrade: $499
• Right Hemisphere Deep Exploration CCE Add-on: $1,699
A Complete Suite
System Requirements:
With all of the different applications included, Corel
Designer Technical Suite X5 presents a bit of a learning Operating System: Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP2 or later),
curve. Of course, if you’ve used a Corel product before, or Windows XP (SP3 or later); 64-bit or 32-bit
you’ll likely catch on pretty quickly. For those who take CPU: Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64, or AMD Opteron 1GHz
the plunge, Corel Designer Technical Suite X5 delivers or greater (2GHz or greater recommended)
a very complete, cost-effective solution for your techni- Memory: 1GB RAM (3GB recommended, more for 64-bit
cal communication needs. DE Windows)
Disk Space: 1.4GB free disk space for installation (1.6GB for
David Cohn is the technical publishing manager at 4D typical installation without content; up to 6.7GB needed to
Technologies. He’s a contributing editor to Desktop Engi- install extra content)
neering and also does consulting and technical writing from
Video: 1024x768 VGA, Microsoft DirectX v9 (3D hardware
his home in Bellingham, WA. The author of more than a
accelerated graphics card with 256MB of RAM, OpenGL 2.0
dozen books has been benchmarking PCs since 1984. You
and Shader Model 3.0; support for HDR rendering.
can contact him via email at [email protected] or visit
DSCohn.com. For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
modo® 501 image by SeventhStreet – SeventhStreetStudio.com
Ready for adventure
20110610.DesktopEngineering.quad.halfpage.indd 1 deskeng.com /// September 2011 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 27 AM

6/10/2011 10:57:29
Rapid Tech /// Color Parts
The Value of Color

DE looks at a range of vendor options that create direct- from-the-system color
parts beyond the classic white, off-white and clear results.
PAMELA J. WATERMAN
M
ost people can tell you the exact scene in the 1939
film The Wizard of Oz when the production switches
from sepia/black-and-white to full Technicolor. That
stunning achievement was the result of switching out physical
film types to run three different strips, sensitized to red, green
and blue, through one large camera at the same time.
Switching from black-and-white to color in today’s world of
rapid manufacturing technologies, particularly in additive man-
ufacturing (AM), can be a much less labor-intensive job.
Why Color?
“Most 3D printing and rapid prototyping technologies work
in monochrome, where only one color is used—and that is the
base color of the material,” says Joe Titlow, vice president of
product management for Z Corp. “The definitions of what it
means to print ‘in color’ differ widely between technologies.”
If you’re talking Technicolor AM, Z Corp. equipment leads
the pack. But life is always full of trade-offs; Z Corp. materials
are targeted to the visual and prototyping markets, and may
not have the strength or surface finish needed for certain ap-
plications. Other vendors, such as Stratasys, envisionTEC, 3D F1 racecar parts were built in high temperature Accura
Systems and Objet Geometries, offer dozens of materials with Bluestone composite resin on a 3D Systems SLA
enhanced properties such as superior stiffness or high heat machine. Image courtesy 3D Systems.
deflection temperature, but only come in single-color materi-
als with a few multi-color variations.
But why color in the first place? Titlow says the benefits pos- Full Spectrum of Color Options
sible with color cover a wide range that not everyone sees when Z Corp. offers five models in its 3D ZPrinter line, three of
first evaluating AM systems. For example, users can create indi- which build parts with fully ranging colors. Standard 24-bit
vidual parts (each a different color), assemble them and clearly HP color-inkjet printer heads mix cyan, magenta, yellow, black
differentiate each part within an assembly. Some color systems and white inks into a clear binder-fluid. Done on the fly dur-
can handle two colors on a single part to create a label, complete ing printing, this approach offers a natural set-up for applying
with text—or to differentiate a small section from a larger one. more than 390,000 different colors within each layer of the
Look beyond these uses, and color also offers new ways of powdered, plaster-like base material.
viewing traditional models and data. A system that can create The resulting pixel-level color variations help Z Corp.
photorealistic color variations across a build volume opens up customers convey complex information to potential clients in
the manufacturing world to final-appearance prototype parts many ways. For Stanley Black & Decker, this approach lets
and packaging designs. It supports architects, urban planners, designers generate concept prototypes without computed nu-
scientists and health professionals with full-color 3D models merically controlled (CNC) machining or time-consuming
depicting buildings, geographic information and CAT scans. hand-painted detailing. Models can be turned around in 48
And it offers a truly 3D approach to viewing stress or tem- hours, enabling more concept-model generation earlier in the
perature variations analyzed with FEA or CFD software. development cycle.

From another point of view, Z Corp.
customer Hydroforming Design Light AB
finds color is critical for demonstrating the
value of hydroforming to potential clients.
Compared to drawing or stamping, the pro-
cess uses pressurized water to expand alu-
minum or steel into molds. Its consistent,
even force minimizes weaknesses in finished
parts, but it is a more expensive process. Z
Corp.-printed parts have replaced Power-
Point slides for communicating the details
of finite element analysis (FEA)-determined
stress levels across part geometry. The color
variations clearly show how hydroforming
avoids manufacturing problems.
A very different AM technology, fused
deposition modeling (FDM), builds up parts
from actual industrial thermoplastics deliv-
ered to the equipment as pure-color fila-
ments. Developed by Stratasys, FDM oper- Designers at Dana Corporation created the
ates across a broad line of systems, creating durable parts 3D CAD model of an automotive clutch
suitable for functional testing and end-use. assembly and then built the corresponding
The Stratasys Fortus production systems can run with physical model, assembled from parts made in
nine different thermoplastics, optimized for various proper- different colors on a Stratasys Fortus AM system.
ties such as tensile strength or flame/smoke/toxicity certifica- Images courtesy Stratasys and Dana Corporation.
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tion. Three of these are variations of acrylo-
nitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastics that
come either in solid colors such as black, dark
gray, red, blue, olive green, nectarine and flu-
orescent yellow (as well as ivory), or translu-
cent versions of red, amber and natural.
By building parts from different colors
(switching out the color reel each time), de-
signers can put together assemblies where
each part clearly stands out. This type of
application is useful for Stratasys customer
Dana Holding Corp., a Tier I automotive
supplier whose products include cooling
systems, differential cases and under-the-
This dental model was laser-sintered hood filtration systems.
on the FORMIGA P 100, and the metal “During the design stage, we add colors
crown shown was produced using the to the components of assemblies (such as
EOSINT M 270. The model was made in PA 2105, a colored polyamide an automotive clutch),” says Bruce Vani-
that offers color contrast with dental prostheses, making the veneering sacker, designer for Dana’s Rapid Pro-
process easier. Image courtesy EOS. totyping/CAE Services. “Then we build
FDM prototypes in the same colors.”
The Fortus parts help the designers visualize whether as-
semblies meet key form and fit requirements. In some cases,
Color of the adds Vanisacker, the parts are so strong they can be used for
Beaten Path
C
performance evaluation, too.
olor options are not envisionTEC is a German AM company with a strong
the exclusive realm presence in the dental and jewelry industries. Its photopoly-
of industrial AM merization process, based on mask projection using Digital
systems. Light Processing (DLP) technology, takes a different approach
• 3D Systems than SL to solidifying layers of photosensitive resins. Materi-
is the new owner als for the company’s Perfactory and Ultra systems include
of the RapMan Kit a number of color options with varying material properties.
(do-it-yourself) and
BfB3000 (assembled) systems developed by Bits Color Me Innovative
from Bytes. These AM systems deposit melted plas- From here on, the actual colors for a given system tend to be
tics through a heated nozzle (double and triple nozzle secondary to material properties, but still yield some interest-
upgrades available). Biodegradeable poly lactic acid ing results, particularly in the case of Objet Geometries.
filament stock comes in solid black, white, purple, yel- Objet’s PolyJet systems operate by jetting photopolymer
low, blue and green and translucent clear, red, blue materials in ultra-thin layers onto a build tray, with each layer
and green. ABS material is available in white, black, cured by UV light immediately afterward. For the company’s
red, blue, green and yellow (bitsfrombytes.com) line of Connex 3D Printing systems, a dual-jet operation lets
• Mcor Technologies is a growing presence with its users fabricate composite on the fly. This PolyJet Matrix pro-
plain-paper lamination system. You can load the unit with cess simultaneously jets two proprietary materials chosen from
stacks of colored paper per your desired design and gen- 14 different base materials (of the same type/different color or
erate functional striped parts (mcoretechnologies.com) different types) and combines them in specific concentrations.
• Chefs at the French Culinary Institute in NYC The result is 51 possible “digital materials” whose properties
(psfk.com/2011/01/3d-printing-at-the-french-culinary- vary in flexibility, hardness, temperature-handling and toughness.
institute-video.html) have been experimenting with two Although Objet says the company is focused more on these as-
generations of Fab@Home AM systems, using liquid pects than color, transparency and opacity, the approach does let
and paste versions of frosting and other foods, while users create parts with some creative variety. Because the various
a group at the University of Exeter have been focusing base materials come in blue, black, white and transparent, differ-
on printing in chocolate (epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/video- ent combinations can produce 11 shades of gray, artistic patterns,
audio/corporate/Pages/chocolateprinter.aspx). rubbery soft-touch sections and even color-transparent areas.

Not surprisingly, the broad line of equipment from 3D ership in Advanced Laser Materials, a Texas business dedicated
Systems can build parts in quite a few different colors besides to invigorating the development of powder-based AM materials.
white—but again, it’s pretty much a case of one color per ma- ALM President Donnie Vanelli says that achieving color can be
terial. For example, depending on the stiffness you need, pho- a challenge for sintering systems, because you basically blend
topolymer resin options for stereolithography (SLA) equip- white nylon 12 with black carbon filler: “The result is more of
ment include gray, opaque gray, blue, peach or light green. a salt-and-pepper effect, giving the material a dark gray look.”
3D Systems Multi-Jet-Modeling 3D Printers offer the ALM also offers 605A, an aluminum-filled nylon similar
VisiJet line of acrylic plastics in blue, gray, dark blue and dark to EOS’ alumide material. What’s special is that polishing one
green—each with its own values for tensile strength, flexural of these parts creates an appearance almost like metal. In ad-
strength and elongation at break. And the company’s selective dition, ALM just announced the availability of its own 850
laser sintering (SLS) systems create plastic parts in black and Black material, a straight black nylon with the pigment in the
gray, depending on whether you choose the ABS-like Dura- powder itself.
Form EX or DuraForm GF (glass-filled) options. Huntsman is an international business whose Advanced
In the realm of rapid subtractive manufacturing, Roland DGA Materials division is heavily invested in formulating SLA res-
remains a cost-effective player for applications without internal ins for easy processing, high throughput and a range of me-
geometries and where true end-materials are desired. Color chanical properties. Its RenShape SL line includes SL 7820,
choice is up to you when you use, for example, actual ABS plastic which produces dark-brown to black parts, while two of the
stock on the company’s MDX-540 desktop milling machine. materials listed as medical grade support “selective coloring”
(more about that later).
Variations on a Color Theme DSM Somos is another material supplier for SL systems.
For several vendors’ systems, third-party sources develop and The company has been involved in this field since the early
market dozens of compatible materials that give users more 1980s, paralleling the development of 3D Systems’ equipment.
choices for final properties; several of these come in colors. Nearly two dozen material options are offered, each with
EOS markets AM systems that sinter either plastic or metal properties that give SLA users more choices for their specific
powdered materials. In 2009, the company took majority own- system and application needs.

Among these are DSM Somos ProtoTherm 12110, a
high-temperature, water-resistant resin that happens to be Color via Consumer Demand
D
cherry red, and ProtoGen 18920, which creates gray ABS-
like parts and exhibits different material properties depend- assault Systèmes 3DVIA design software
ing on machine exposure control. subsidiary has teamed up with service
Speaking of control, engineers are often at their best try- bureau Sculpteo to 3D print anyone’s design
ing to push the standard operational limits of a given piece of through an online service. Parts can be built in white
equipment. This fact is evidenced by a recent online discussion or black plastic on Sculpteo’s in-house EOS Formiga
within the Additive Manufacturing Users Group on LinkedIn. P100 system (example price $42 for a 2-inch part) or
SLA system users compared notes on how to darken a in full color on the company’s ZCorp 650 3D Printer
precisely defined section of an SLA part during the build (example price $48 for a 2-inch part: 3dvia.com).
process to highlight an internal detail. The approach is to For a stand-out variation on classic photography,
vary the laser exposure-time in that area; the trick is to do 3DPhotoWorks can take a 2D color digital image and
so without distorting, melting or charring the part. Sugges- give the image a dimensional feel. The process uses
tions included running a fan directly across the build layer a computer algorithm to separate various aspects of
and always exposing the smaller area first to give a double- the data, create a bas-relief substrate with a depth
exposure more time to cool down. up to 1.75 inches and print the image on the raised
Huntsman’s RenShape SL H-C 9100 and Y-C 9300 res- shape (3dPhotoWorks.com).
ins are designed for just such specialized laser applications.
Normally clear, the areas on a layer where users selectively ducing rubber molds; they’re not seen by the end consumer.
target more energy turn violet in color; the two versions are Second, most AM parts can be post-processed with sur-
optimized for different wavelength laser sources. face color by dyeing, impregnating or painting some or all of
a part or assembly.
Color Footnotes And for a third possibility, Roland DGA markets the Ver-
No discussion of color in rapid manufacturing is complete saUV LEF-12, an interesting inkjet overprinting system that
without mentioning two other aspects of the topic: casting applies CAD-directed, 6-color imagery directly onto the sur-
and post-processing. First, systems from Solidscape (now face of 3D parts as thick as 3.94 in.
part of Stratasys), envisionTEC, 3D Systems and Roland If only Turner Entertainment had it this easy. DE
DGA run materials in impressive colors ranging from clear,
vivid purple to deep amber to photosilver. However, the re- Contributing Editor Pamela Waterman, DE’s simulation ex-
sulting parts are “just” models for lost-wax casting or pro- pert, is an electrical engineer and freelance technical writer based in
Arizona. You can send her e-mail to [email protected].
INFO ➜ 3D Systems: 3Dsystems.com

➜ Advanced Laser Materials: ALM-llc.com
➜ Dana Holding Coporation: Dana.com
➜ DSM Somos: DSMsomos.com
➜ envisiontec: Envisiontec.com
➜ EOS: EOS.info
➜ Huntsman Advanced Materials: Huntsman.com/
advanced_materials
➜ Hydroforming Design Light AB: designlight.se
➜ Mcor Technologies: Mcortechnologies.com
➜ Objet Geometries: Objet.com
These miniature “tires” are examples of color (solid ➜ Roland DGA: RolandDGA.com
and striped) parts built by using layers of colored ➜ Solidscape: Solid-scape.com
paper in an Mcor Technologies Matrix system. Parts ➜ Stanley Black & Decker: Stanleyblackanddecker.com
are approximately 3 in. and 1.5 in. diameter.
Image courtesy Mcor Technologies.
➜ Stratasys: Stratasys.com
➜ Z Corporation: Zcorp.com

HP recommends Windows® 7.
Advertorial /// High-Performance Computing
Taking Full Advantage

of Your Workstation Power
Virtualization with the HP Z800 Workstation
lets engineers truly multitask.
By Peter VArHoL
V
irtualization with the HP Z800 Workstation with Intel®
Xeon® processors lets engineers truly multitask.
How often do you have the luxury to do just
one thing? Today we no longer work serially, we perform
multiple tasks in parallel. The HP Z8 00 Workstation with
Intel® Xeon® processors running virtualization software can
do the same thing. Virtualization Increases Flexibility
Technical computing is undergoing a revolution that is radically To take this concept further, assume you want to run a higher fidelity
changing how engineers work. This revolution is being driven model and you know that model reaches beyond the capability
by new capabilities of engineering workstations, making it of your workstation. Today’s HP Z800 Workstations with Intel®
possible to create and analyze designs faster and in much Xeon® processors support a highly efficient and effective virtual-
more detail than in the past. ization technology. Intel calls this technology Intel Virtualization
Technology for Direct I/O (VT-d for short). This technology, along
Hardware and Software Leap Forward with the appropriate virtualization software, allows you to not only
create resource partitions on your workstation, it helps you create
Engineering workstations such as the HP Z series are entirely
a cluster of workstations that can act as a local compute cluster, or
different computers than past desktop systems. The processors
a micro cloud, capable of providing significant additional com-
themselves are very different — 64-bit addressing is included
puting resources without impacting interactive design activities of
in all processors, on-chip caches are far larger, and multiple
your fellow engineers. Using virtualization you can get results back
cores proliferate. Busses connecting processor, memory, and
much faster.
I/O have significantly greater bandwidth, letting more data and
code get to these cores in a given period of time.
Adopting Analysis-Driven Design
Engineering software vendors have jumped on these new
hardware capabilities, and CAD engineers benefit by the Today’s HP Z800 Workstations powered by two Intel® Xeon®
many innovative ways of using hardware and software to processors provide an interesting dilemma to consider. You can
become better and more productive engineers. continue to work serially or you can work in parallel and evaluate
Engineering software vendors like ANSYS, Autodesk, more designs and innovative ideas in less time. You can adopt
Dassault, PTC, Siemens and others recognized the advan- the concepts of analysis-driven design rather than using analysis
tages presented by HP’s Z800 Workstations with Intel ® as only a post-design tool that points out why a design fails after
Xeon ® processors. They have optimized their software to it is created.
leverage the available computational resources. The result is Now that you have tools like the HP Z800 Workstation
you, the engineer, now have access to powerful workbenches with Intel® Xeon® processors, you have the ability to funda-
where you can create, test and modify in a tight, highly mentally change your design process. DE
productive, design loop. These powerful workbenches can For more information on an HP
host integrated tools that combine the advantages of CAD and ANSYS Solutions please
with benefits of CAE. They are helping to make simulation- go to www.hp.com/go/solver
based design a reality and not a dream. or call 800-888-0261.
© 2010 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.

Rapid Tech /// Additive Manufacturing
It All Adds Up
The beginnings, benefits and business of
design-driven manufacturing with laser sintering.
BY ANDREW SNOW
I
t’s no surprise to any engineer that we learn by designing. There is a market-wide transition occurring among what
Lately, what laser sintering adopters learn by design—and were formerly called rapid technologies, additive fabrication,
teach one another—is a new approach to manufacturing. 3D printing, rapid prototyping, etc. In fact, ASTM Interna-
Here’s a recent example: Design consultancy firm Within tional committee F42 recently decided the term “additive
Technologies partnered with 3T RPD, a prototyping and ad- manufacturing” is now a more all-encompassing term for
ditive manufacturing firm in the UK, to explore a bold new these technologies, regardless their acronym and end use.
design for a heat exchanger. Neither company was aiming for
the conventional shell, tube or plate type of exchanger. Growing Parts: A Growing Business
Within used its Within Enhance optimization software Additive manufacturing via laser sintering is inherently differ-
to generate a strong, lightweight structure of repeated sub- ent from molding and subtractive processes such as cutting,
elements, including teardrop-shaped tubes for efficient heat drilling or grinding. It builds parts from the bottom up, work-
dispersion. Inside the tubes were “turbolators,” a series of baf- ing from a 3D CAD file that is divided into cross-sections.
fle-like struts that increased internal surface area and disrupted After the equipment deposits a single uniform layer of powder
liquid coolant flow to maximize heat transfer. onto a build platform, the CAD data guides the laser to sinter
On the outside of the tubes were self-supporting, inte- the powder. The platform then lowers, and the process repeats
grated cooling fins. Each sub-element was optimized so that layer-by-layer until it completes a three-dimensional part. The
the final heat exchanger could be reconfigured into almost any manufacturing sequence is automatic and can run unattended.
shape required (for instance, to fit inside an irregular space This process promises a number of benefits for designers:
under a race car hood). Overall, the final compact, scalable • No tooling, minimal set-up and fixturing, and hardly any
design was as geometrically complex as a beehive—and just as design change costs or amortization. Design tweaks have no
difficult to imagine manufacturing. downstream expenses attached, and can continue even during
3T RPD used direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) to man- series manufacturing.
ufacture the struts, tubes and fins all at once. The resulting • Reduced turnaround times, particularly for low-volume
structure is optimal in many ways: in weight—reduced up to series production. For example, the standard casting process
80%—in strength and in functionality. for metal dental implants limits technicians to making 20 a
This story is a microcosm of what designers are discovering day; DMLS can produce up to 450 patient-matched dental
worldwide: that rapid prototyping systems fill a market niche and, crowns and bridges within 24 hours.
in many cases, enables the series production of designs that are • Substantial weight reduction. Components made with laser
too costly or time-intensive to create by traditional methods. sintering can be lighter than their conventional counterparts.
Cutaway model of conformal cooling

channels (upper left). Cobalt chrome
dental implants. Images courtesy EOS.
with characteristics previously not available for laser sintering.
Companies that make end-products with laser sintering are
beginning to explore the demanding validation and certifica-
tion procedures of aerospace and medicine.
ASTM International technical committee F42 is devel-
oping standards for additive manufacturing. At press time, a
sub-task team is developing process control strategies for laser
sintering. It’s only a matter of time until there are military and
aerospace specifications for both the materials and the process.
The Advantages Accumulate

Because laser sintering systems aren’t dedicated to building
Titanium humerus for a proposed prosthetic limb. a single item, and are scalable across many industries, manu-
Image courtesy DEKA. facturing can switch instantly from one product line to an-
other, driven by market demand. They also offer more rapid
production than other methods, shortening time-to-market.
• Nearly unlimited geometric complexity of parts. This ca- Laser sintering can provide strategic advantages as well.
pability enabled an unmanned aircraft manufacturer to produce In place of centralized, “big smokestack” manufacturing,
all of the primary structures for advanced high-lift technologies, companies can localize their production and reduce their
such as leading-edge blowing, circulation-control flaps, and air- shipping and logistics for laser-sintered parts.
flow plenums, with the same plastic laser sintering equipment. The new technology can even benefit more traditional
• Part consolidation that integrates functionality, elimi- manufacturing: Companies can mitigate the risk of new high-
nating product assembly times and secondary operations. volume product lines by gradually scaling them up, batch-pro-
To demonstrate the strength of its lightweight laser-sintered ducing laser-sintered initial versions inexpensively instead of
nylon components for aircraft, EADS built the “Airbike,” a investing upfront in machining, hard tooling, injection mold-
rideable bicycle with each wheel, its bearings and the axle ing and other costly, high-production equipment.
integrated into a single manufactured unit. But the primary business benefit of laser sintering may
• Creation of features that are difficult in traditional come from the design freedom it provides. Mass customiza-
processes. Toolmakers, for instance, no longer need to drill tion can be used to enable input for personalized products
straight channels to carry off heat. Instead, they can “grow” that turn customers into stakeholders. Because laser sinter-
integral, conformally cooled serpentine channels that twist ing isn’t bound to any single design by fixturing or tooling,
or spiral as needed to give maximum cooling efficiency. it provides continuous opportunities for innovation, rather
• Mass customization. The European Union-funded than having to wait for the next scheduled generation of a
consortium Custom IMD is developing fully customizable product. In the same way, it levels the playing field for small
dental and orthopedic implants, including a craniofacial plate companies to compete with large ones without constant re-
made of polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Additive manufac- investment in equipment.
ture of these plates will be less expensive than cutting the Finally, as those who already manufacture with laser sin-
titanium plates now in use. tering can testify, it brings design imagination to life, in every
In a single manufacturing process, you can create a spiral, shape possible. DE
a chain link, a hinge—virtually any shape of which you can
conceive. And the part produced next to it, in the same batch, Andrew Snow is regional director, sales, at EOS of North America.
can have a completely different shape, or even be a completely
different part. Those capabilities enable design-driven manu-
facturing: designs that embody pure functionality, with no INFO ➜ 3T RPD Ltd.: 3Trpd.co.uk
compromises because of manufacturability restraints.
➜ BestinClass: BinC.biz
Building the Future ➜ Custom IMD: CustomIMD.eu
The near future offers even more promise, as laser sintering ➜ DEKA: DEKAresearch.com
could change the way we manufacture, the business of manu- ➜ EADS: EADS.com
facturing, and even the way we think about design.
Where is laser sintering going next? More materials, driven
➜ EOS of North America: EOS.info
once again by industry demands, are in the works: metal al- ➜ Within Technologies Ltd.: Within-Lab.com
loys for aerospace and automotive applications, and plastics For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

High-Performance Computing /// Mobile Engineering
Computing for the

Mobile Engineer
Engineers on the move need more than just a single laptop.
BY PETER VARHOL
Engineering on the go is dependent on a powerful server such as

Eurocom’s Panther 3, with a Xeon 5600 processor, up to 24GB
of memory, a RAID storage interface, and gigabit Ethernet.
E
ngineers have always had to travel to where their proj- ing technology for added computation performance. Many
ects are located. Whether the project is a major con- of these systems also incorporate NVIDIA graphics process-
struction effort, or a collaboration on an automotive ing units, which can also be used to execute applications de-
or aerospace system, design engineers may spend anywhere signed to make use of fast GPUs. And while these systems
from a few days to months at a time away from their normal often top out at only 8GB of memory, that’s enough for many
business offices. There are also consulting engineers who types of designs.
spend virtually all of their time traveling from one project But even a powerful laptop isn’t enough for many engi-
to the next. neering projects. The lack of memory can limit processing
But the computing power a mobile engineer needs has performance and the size of data sets. Plus, while the quad-
been difficult to come by. Today, some high-end laptops can core processor helps when running applications with a high
make acceptable engineering workstations. degree of parallelism, a second processor could come close to
The Intel Core i7 quad-core processor includes an eight- doubling performance under some conditions.
way multi-tasking capability and additional L3 cache for There are several ways of supplementing a laptop client
speeding up data and instruction transfers. These processors for engineers who travel, but need more horsepower for
also use Turbo Boost Technology and Intel Hyper-Thread- their work. One is cloud computing, which enables the cli-

ent to control processing that is done on a remote server or ing laptops as client workstations, but also a full-fledged
server cluster, accessible through Web protocols. A second computer network and one or more servers with enough
option is to take advantage of local computing power, by capacity and performance to take on many different types
joining the network at the current work location. It may of engineering design projects, including analysis and simu-
even be possible to set up a virtual private network (VPN), lation. The idea is to take your entire computing environ-
so that the engineer can connect to the home office net- ment with you, including servers, workstations, and net-
work via the Internet. work infrastructure.
Both of these alternatives have questions and limitations. It’s not as difficult as it may sound. Most professionals
While engineers can tap virtually unlimited computing already carry a laptop with them that could serve as a low- to
power in the cloud, or back at the home office, the Web in- middle-end engineering workstation replacement. Routers
terconnect is painfully slow for a lot of work—meaning that need only be as large as the number of Ethernet ports they
the client at best serves as the user interface, and does little have, and cabling can be purchased inexpensively at the des-
or no processing by itself. tination, or shipped separately.
And connecting to the local network, if there is one avail- The server might be a more challenging prospect. At the
able, opens the door to security issues on both sides of the heart of the engineering-on-the-go concept is the server on
connection. For the engineer, it may be necessary to protect the go—a capable engineering server that can provide the
the intellectual property being developed, and joining a new computational back end for design and low- to mid-range
network provides an entry point into the system. For the analysis and simulation tasks. While it might be odd to think
local network, whether partner or customer, letting a system of a laptop as a server, what really matters is the power of its
not under its direct control become part of the network may components.
not pass muster with the organization’s security policies. Most laptop configurations can run Windows Server or
a Linux server operating system, but don’t have the perfor-
You Can Take It with You mance necessary to be used for engineering applications. To
A third option, however, is beginning to emerge. Call it outfit such a system would require looking at processor op-
“engineering on the go.” It involves not only engineer- tions, memory and cache expansion capacities, and network
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High-Performance Computing /// Mobile Engineering
Workstations such as Eurocom’s Neptune pro-

vides a lot of memory for design tasks, as well
as an Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor.
bandwidth capabilities. You won’t get a configuration that find systems to fit with mobile engineering. Most main-
replicates a high-end tower or rack-mounted server, but you stream computer manufacturers offer high-performance
may get close to comparable performance. laptops that can serve as desktop replacement systems for
Together with engineering laptops using the quad-core general use. However, in most cases, these systems max
Intel Core i7 processor, these servers can form the backbone out at 8GB of memory, which simply isn’t sufficient for
of a network that can serve many design engineering and most engineering uses.
lower-end analysis functions. In addition to providing com- Instead, engineers need systems that can accommo-
putational resources, it can provide centralized and protected date up to 16 or 24GB of memory, with at least four
access to other networks and the Internet, enforce security cores for design and rendering, and normal office work.
policies, provide access to storage, and offer a number of Outfitted with high-end graphics cards, design and ren-
other functions. dering still remain the best uses. However, it will also be
Why would an engineering team go through the trouble possible to do some low-end analysis computations. At
of assembling a high-end computational network like this? worst, engineering on-the-go systems can set up prob-
In effect, engineers take their own full network with them on lems that can be sent off to the home office—or to the
project deployments. An individual engineer can put a server cloud—for analysis.
and an engineering workstation laptop in a carry-on bag, and Most of the major systems vendors, such as Dell, Lenovo
have the beginnings of a network set up within a few minutes and HP, typically have a small number of such high-end
on-site. It can provide many of the benefits of a network over offerings. Alternatively, specialty suppliers focused on en-
an individual laptop. gineering and other performance markets, such as ASUS,
A more full-featured network-computing environment Eurocom and other small players, offer systems specifically
can be shipped in the baggage compartment of a passenger geared toward the mobile engineer.
aircraft. A properly padded steamer trunk can easily carry While high-performance systems using the Intel Xeon
half a dozen laptop-sized systems, along with a router and processors have been around for about three years, the
enough cabling to get started. engineering on-the-go concept was coined by Eurocom,
a maker of laptop systems for a variety of uses. Eurocom’s
Concept Buy-in Panther 3 highlights the server part of the solution, with a
If engineering on the go fits your way of working, the 6-core Xeon 5600 processor, up to 24GB of memory, and
first question you’re likely to have is where you can go to gigabit Ethernet, while the Neptune workstation includes

up to 32GB of memory and an Intel Core i7 Extreme Edi- difficult constraints on both engineers and the hosting orga-
tion processor. nization, and the options are limited. Engineering on the go
“Engineering on the go represents the reality of many of provides one of the best alternatives for many circumstances.
today’s professionals,” says Mark Bialic, president of Euro- It reduces reliance on local network services and providers,
com. He notes that security was a primary justification for while protecting engineering data that may be sensitive or
the concept. “Many of our customers on a distant project confidential. It may also provide a level of computing reli-
can’t trust that they’re protecting their intellectual prop- ability not available locally. And because of the size and rela-
erty. They can’t have that confidence using a local system tive power of the servers, it is readily transportable to just
or network.” about anywhere. DE
Some engineers see it as a matter of convenience. Jim
Turney, an independent engineering consultant, carries a Contributing Editor Peter Varhol covers the HPC and IT beat for
Xeon laptop server from Dell on all of his assignments. “I DE. His expertise is software development, math systems, and sys-
have everything I need, from my design applications to a tems management. You can reach him at [email protected].
firewall,” he adds. “I even carry a small router so I can join a
network at the company I’m working for.”
INFO ➜ ASUS International: ASUS.com
Not an Office Replacement ➜ Dell: Dell.com
Clearly, engineering on the go isn’t a replacement for hard-
wired clusters and powerful servers and workstations in a tra- ➜ Eurocom: Eurocom.com
ditional office environment. The systems supporting a fixed ➜ HP: HP.com
network often have multiple processors and more cores; in ➜ Intel: Intel.com
the case of clusters, they may be running dozens or even
hundreds of cores. ➜ Lenovo: Lenovo.com
But many engineers have to go1 to 8/2/11
Roland_Functional_DE.pdf the project,
12:52rather
PM than ➜ NVIDIA: NVIDIA.com
have the project come to them. The need for mobility places For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
CM
MY
CY
CMY

More Options,
More Opportunity
Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology 4 shifts the focus from form creation
to productivity, assembly management and advanced analysis.
BY KENNETH WONG
I
n the third release of Solid Edge
with Synchronous Technology (SE
with ST3) from Siemens PLM
Software, the software took a major
step (one small step in programming,
one giant leap for CAD): It managed
to consolidate history-free modeling
and history-based modeling into a
single environment. In Siemens PLM
Software’s lingo, history-free model-
ing—creating geometry via push-pull
action with little or no regard for fea-
ture history—is called Synchronous.
Its older cousin, history-based model-
ing, is called Ordered. The ability to
move features from Ordered to Syn-
chronous, then back to Ordered if one SE with ST4 lets you work with richer graphics—complete with ground plane
wishes, was a milestone, not just in the reflections and shadows.
brief history of SE with ST, but in the
history of CAD. els in a photorealistic mode, complete option to work in ray-traced mode.
SE with ST4, which debuted in a with ray-tracing and reflections in high Rather, if you’d like to produce a photo-
global launch event in May, introduces dynamic range (HDR) images. SE with realistic, ray-traced look of your design,
a number of noteworthy interface re- ST3 gives you the option to work with you can get into the Explode, Render,
finements, assembly management tools, ground plane reflections and shadows. Animate (ERA) mode under the Tools
and analysis functions to the software. If you’d like to work in a more tab to render your scene. You can ren-
They’re not milestones in themselves graphics-rich environment, you may der the entire scene, or just a portion
(it would be unrealistic to expect every choose High Quality or Rendering, of it by window-selecting the area you
release to be a milestone), but they add available in a dropdown window under want to render.
up to improved productivity. the View tab. It also gives you the op-
tion to set the sharpness of your display, Revolution in Navigation
For the Visual Creatures Among Us from levels 1 to 5. The higher the level, One of the most effective uses of the
Now that multi-core CPUs and GPUs the better the contrast. However, bear steering wheel control in SE with ST4
have pumped up graphics processing in mind that a higher setting requires is the ability to use its rotation circle to
in standard CAD workstations, many more computing time, so your system execute the Revolve command.
CAD software packages are taking response will noticeably slow down Suppose you have a 2D profile you
advantage of the added horsepower. if you don’t have a machine powerful need to revolve 360° to create a solid.
Autodesk Inventor 2012, for example, enough to compensate for its demand. You may choose the Revolve command
gives you the option to work with mod- SE with ST4 does not give you the in the menu, as you would normally do.

A B C
Using the steering wheel, you can instantly execute a Revolve on a 2D profile (A, B). The resulting solid contains a
nested 2D cross-section, available for dimension-driven edits (C).
But, bypassing the menu altogether, dimension-driven sketch. The numeric along a perfect arc in 180°, ending at
you may also align the control’s rota- changes you make will be reflected in the opposite end of the pipe. Upon exe-
tion point to an axis at the base (or top, the solid part created from it. cuting this command, ST4 will seek out
as the case may be) of the 2D profile and identify logical relationships based
and click on the wheel. This activates Directing your Copy on what’s in the initial cap (mated faces
the Revolve command automatically In assembly mode, placement of copied and aligned axes, for example). Then,
(you’ll see the Revolve icon appear in parts gets easier because you can now ST4 will prompt you with a choice to
the input bar). Now, all you need to do use the steering wheel to position your suppress the existing relationships, re-
is enter the desired degree of rotation to copied parts. pair them or accept them as transferred
complete the command. Suppose you need to place two caps to the new position.
The use of this command auto- at both ends of a pipe. You may select
matically creates a 2D cross-sectional the cap on one end, position the steer- Going on a Tangent
plane nested inside your solid. This 2D ing wheel to the midpoint of the pipe, The new release gives you an easier way
cross-section can be edited, much like a then steer a copy of the cap to travel to place holes on cylindrical objects,
Engineering Success...
Simulation Software for a New Frontier in Engineering Innovation.
For more inFormation:

[email protected] www.cd-adapco.com

the appropriate choices for extend/
trim treatment, model/set priority, and
single/multiple alignment. If you have
a pair of faces, the relationship seems
simple enough. But if you have more
than one face, the order in which you
select the faces affects how the align-
ment is performed.
At times, face relationships may also
come in conflict with ST4’s built-in Live
Rules (the set of rules that define how
features and faces align with one another
during your push-pull operations). In
some instances, you may need to cancel
or suspend Live Rules before the desired
In Simulation mode, you can use mid-surface analysis function to simplify face relationship can be established.
meshing and solving of sheet metal-like parts. In my view, a simpler implementa-
tion of this function may serve its pur-
pose better.
Mid-plane Drifters and Framers

In Simulation mode, SE with ST4 gives
you the option to analyze designs using
mid-planes only—a handy feature for
those working closely with sheet-metal
parts and solid parts with flat features.
When opening a part suitable for mid-
plane analysis, the mid-surface genera-
tor lets you create a 2D surface of your
flat (sheet metal-like) feature by offset-
ting from a chosen face (outer or inner).
With the mid-surface in place, you may
apply forces, define pressure, fix points,
then mesh and solve the analysis sce-
A new mesh type, Beam element, lets you simplify structural frames and nario. The resulting deformation, stress
beams into single lines, with nested volume and material information. distribution and displacement are avail-
able for output in animation, along with
such as shafts. It lets you drag holes have any correlations. numeric values.
along the circular surface on a tangent, For instance, you may select several Similarly, you can now use single
which eliminates accidentally placing faces tilted at different angles, then se- straight lines to represent frame struc-
holes misaligned with the center axis lect the Parallel option to force them tures for analysis. When conducting
of your cylindrical objects. If your de- to align themselves as parallel surfaces. stress tests on frame assemblies, you’ll
sign already consists of a nested 2D If you want this relationship to persist, see Beam as one of the meshing options
cross-section (like the revolved solid you can choose the Parallel Persist op- available. The function allows you to
mentioned above), you’ll see the 2D tion—essentially instructing the soft- reduce 3D structural frames into 1D
profile updated, with the cutout cor- ware to retain the parallelism during lines with nested volume and material
responding to your holes once you subsequent modifications. information. In giving you the option
complete the command. While the concept is simple, the to represent plate-like features as flat
process seems (at least to me) more surfaces or frames as straight lines in
Facing Relationship Hiccups complex than necessary. The series of analysis, SE with ST4 simplifies the
In SE with ST4, you can use the Face options you need to select is not always meshing and solving process—leading
Relate tab to automatically build re- easy to grasp. To make the parallel ex- to quicker results without a compro-
lationships between faces that don’t ecution possible, you’ll have to pick mise in accuracy. For those who have

a better understanding of meshing, SE the option to place a constraint with a Simulation tools in previous ver-
with ST4 gives the option to specify the range—essentially allowing you to cre- sions of SE with ST were robust
mesh-map profile to use. ate a range of motion with limits where, enough for basic linear stress analysis.
In Simulation mode, you can override without this limitation, the subassem- The addition of mid-surface analysis
or temporarily suspend material and vol- blies may travel along an axis infinitely and beam-element analysis advances
ume definitions in your parts. With this (for instance, a shaft fitted into a pipe). its reach. SE with ST’s initial claim to
option, you may, for instance, run analy- fame may have been easy geometry cre-
sis on a part originally specified as steel From Conceptual ation, experimentation and conceptual
at 3-in. thick as if it were an iron part at Design to Production design. Refinements in SE with ST4
4-in. thick. The quick, flexible approach With a novel take on history-free show maturity—a sign that the soft-
lets you try out different materials and modeling, the debut of SE with ST ware is ready to take its rightful place
volumes in stress analyses, without the forced many of its competitors to re- in production-grade work. DE
need to change part geometry or create examine their own code. Many CAD
multiple versions of the same part. programs now incorporate some ver- Kenneth Wong writes about technology,
sions of history-free push-pull editing, its innovative use, and its implications.
Other Improvements fundamentally changing the trajectory One of DE’s MCAD/PLM experts, he has
In drawings, if you have a table (say, a of mechanical CAD. written for numerous technology maga-
bill of materials) with a stack of cells In SE with ST4, a workflow that zines and writes DE’s Virtual Desktop
populated by identical numeric values, combines ordered (parametric) and blog at deskeng.com/virtual_desktop.com.
you may now combine them into a unordered (history-free) modeling
single cell block for a cleaner look. In continues. But R&D efforts in ST4
creating exploded views, you can now reflect an effort to move beyond INFO ➜ Siemens PLM Software:
manually draw flow lines to get better the wow factor, to settle on a more SolidEdge.com
control over how they look. thoughtful, efficient interface for part For more information on this topic, visit
In assembly mode, you now have modeling and assembly management. deskeng.com.

Focus on Metrology /// Applications
Benefits of
Digital Metrology
Manufacturers save time with 3D metrology.
BY DEBBIE SNIDERMAN
D
E spoke with four manufacturers
who use 3D metrology tools in
their day-to-day operations. We
found how scanning, digitizing and auto-
mated probing physical parts helps design
engineers save time and money—and even
obtain more business.
Kooks Custom Headers:

New Products, Designed to Fit
One manufacturer, Kooks Custom Head-
ers has produced custom exhaust systems
for car owners and the automobile racing
industry for more than 50 years. Designing
a new custom exhaust previously involved
bending a tube and checking the fit at inter-
ference points (steering, motor and suspen-
sion) one at a time. If it didn’t fit, another It is much quicker for Kooks to develop new exhaust
would be bent. Depending on the vehicle’s intricacy, it could header tubes by digitizing its connections with a CMM
take a week-and-a-half to design an exhaust header set com- probe tip mounted on a Basis 3D arm.
ing from a motor, according to design and manufacturing
engineer Rick Kranz. haust systems by digitizing a car’s underside with a probe tip
Kooks R&D department recently began designing ex- on a Baces3D Arm CMM (coordinate measuring machine)
system and Rhino CAD software to check interference points
and generate surfaces. Designers can now manipulate digital
representations of tubes independently or as a single unit
using Rhino files in Tezet Tubing software. Tezet generates
bend data and downloads it directly to production bending
machines.
It now takes three days to complete an entire design. After
confirming the new part fits on the car and performs well,
the CAD files are also used to design weld tooling to make
production fixtures.
“Built the old way by hand, fixture building took a
week, and fabrication was inconsistent from one part to
the next, causing production problems,” Kranz recalls.
“Now, with digital prints and laser cut fixtures that can
The custom race header for a top sportsman-class drag be made in one day and used over and over, there’s no
car is a perfect fit. comparing the accuracy. It saves us money since there are

no rejects, and all pipes fit every time.” reduce the tooling required during assembly,” he explains.
Kranz also looks forward to stopping producing and “When complex tooling is needed, we are able to build and
storing “golden parts,” physical templates engraved with a validate it quickly using our laser tracker.”
number, date and rev. “We have hundreds—from years of C-CAT can also bring its portable metrology tools to ven-
manufacturing—taking up valuable floor space,” he adds. dors who don’t have inspection capabilities, and measure criti-
“The most expensive thing in manufacturing is square foot- cal parts as they are being made. Being able to verify specs and
age. After we go all digital, we’ll have more room to put check whether dimensions had changed before delivery is an-
equipment.” other important timesaving capability, according to Narayanan.
C-CAT: Portable Live Inspections

Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies
Inc. (C-CAT), a rapid prototyper and
flight hardware manufacturer of large-
The moment you trust the integrity of the
scale, carbon-carbon composite struc- results even before you start measuring.
tures for aerospace, military, government
and industrial clients, uses portable CMM This is the moment we work for.
systems, a Leica LTD700 Laser tracker,
a Leica Absolute Interferometer tracker,
and wireless contact Leica T-Probes dur-
ing assembly.
C-CAT performs live inspections of
its high-temperature composites that
change shape during processing as a qual-
ity check, to ensure things haven’t unex-
pectedly moved during the build process,
and at interim processing stages, after
thermally cycling materials.
“We’re able to check areas quickly, al-
lowing us to manufacture hardware faster
than in an R&D environment,” notes
Quality Assurance Director Raj Naray-
anan. “Instead of stopping to use old man-
ual measurement tools such as gauges, we
can measure while processes are running.”
By checking 1,000 points on a sur- // PRECISION
MadE By CaRl ZEISS
face in five minutes, he says his team can
tell the shape across 16 ft. of a smooth,
large, aeroshell surface with 500,000 data
points—and tell exactly what it is doing in
less than an hour.
“That value can’t compare to mea-
suring by hand or with another device,”
he adds. “It would take 10 times as long,
and we wouldn’t be able to check other
points.”
Narayanan estimates C-CAT saves
millions of dollars on large-scale proj- Trust comes from confidence in the precision of your metrology
ects, where hundreds of complex fixtures, equipment to give you accurate results. It is one of the tangible
gauge blocks and jigs are required for
benefits of a total system design—the perfect marriage of machine,
each massive structure design. Even fix-
tures for small structures are so intricate sensor, and software all developed by Carl Zeiss.
that they come at a very high cost.
“We are able to eliminate or drastically www.zeiss.com/metrology

Focus on Metrology /// Applications
A C-CAT technician performs a live dimensional Synergeering’s FaroArm inspects a 4-cylinder intake manifold.
assessment of the inside structure of an aeroshell test
vehicle for hypersonic flight theory to determine part • create prints from customers’ broken parts to fabricate
placement accuracy. more or reverse-engineer mating parts; and
• verify tolerances or designs on parts for third parties.
3D CNC Inc.: Verifying Precision with Automation “It took four to 10 times longer to inspect using ‘open lay-
3D CNC Inc. is a precision tool-and-die manufacturer fabri- out’ inspection methods involving granite surface plates, dial
cating close tolerance components (typically + .0001 in.) for indicators, vision systems, and gauge box electronic height
more than 90 customers in computer, medical, dental, mili- indicators,” Quality Manager Ken Wraspir recalls. “Adding
tary and aerospace industries. Its 3D inspections on a Zeiss extra time to create complex fixturing, it took up to 4 hours
Prismo Navigator CMM with a Vast Gold Active Sensor and to inspect a single part. Our automated CMM now gathers
Calypso software, and 2D inspections on an OGP Avant with more information in less than 30 minutes.”
an automated scanning probe are performed to: By making inspection results available to customers’ de-
• ensure incoming parts match prints; sign engineers, the team can be certain their parts meet tol-
• verify that work in progress remains in spec, after critical erance, eliminating time spent debugging or re-measuring.
processing steps and before shipping to customers; 3D CNC’s metrology tools also help its customers save
money by reducing unnecessary over-design. Incoming parts
# Passes Tolerance Mfg Time are measured to demonstrate realistic manufacturing times
and costs for varying tolerances (see Table 1). System capa-
1 +/- .002 1 hour
bilities and explanations of which tolerances require non-
2 +/- .001 1 hour 15 min standard tooling are presented to help designers take advan-
3 +/- .0005 1 hour 30 min tage of cost-saving production options. One customer was
1 hour 45 min able to reduce manufacturing costs in half by designing tight
4 +/- .0002
tolerances only in critical areas after a review with metrology
5 +/- .00015 2 hours personnel, for example.
6 +/- .0001 2 hours 15 min
7 +/- .000075 2 hours 30 min Synergeering Group, LLC:
Process Control for Repeatable High Accuracy
8 +/- .00005 2 hours 45 min
Synergeering Group, LLC offers rapid prototyping and
9 +/- .000025 4 hours 45 min manufacturing of large parts made with custom Rapid-
Nylon (glass-filled nylon) material and a laser sintering
TABLE 1: After inspecting a customer’s incoming part, 3D processes. Its 7-axis Quantum FaroArm with Laser Sca-
CNC creates a chart of manufacturing times performs nArm V3 scanner head and PolyWorks software are used
cuts with varying tolerances (Material: Carbide, Thickness: to control processes that make highly accurate and func-
0.125-in.; cut length: 1 in.). Charts such as these present tional parts for automotive, military, aerospace, medical
cost-saving options to designers when it is possible to and consumer appliance industries.
reduce over-design. In a flexible manufacturing facility that mixes builds,

REVERSE
products and customers on the same processing equip-
ment, inspecting every part takes too much time. Scanning
ENGINEERING EASY AS 1...2...3
calibration samples that test processing limits, with ex-
treme wall thicknesses and differing geometries, helps the
1
team quickly locate process and equipment problems, and
understand how much their equipment has drifted. Failure Collect Point
modes are recognized, and coarse or fine adjustments are Cloud Data
made so they don’t have to spend time on damage control
or rejects.
“By constantly chasing our processes and fix-
ing them, we can maintain high degrees of accuracy.
This prevents problems ahead of time, and saves time
troubleshooting problems later on,” says Synergeering
Owner Thomas Gogoe.
Before, removing samples from fixtures and manually
measuring with gauge blocks, calipers, rulers and CMMs
2 Create
a Mesh
with probe tips took a long time, was expensive, and didn’t
provide the data fidelity needed to understand production
processes beyond primitive shapes.
Now, line-of-sight measurements are made on samples
still in fixtures, and the high-fidelity metrology enables
3
much finer process control, creating parts with high value
to customers. Some prototype parts are so accurate that Create
customers use them as fully functional production repre- Surface Data
sentatives for testing.
“Metrology processes also lowered our throughput
time, and are key for making our lead-time predictable.
We complete most projects in less than a week,” Gogoe
says, “and even large parts, like a V8 motor with intakes,
can go from a CAD model to part in three days.” DE
Debbie Sniderman is an engineer and has her own manufac-

turing and R&D consultancy. Contact her at VIVLLC.com.
INFO ➜ 3D CNC: 3dCNC.com

➜ C-CAT: C-CAT.net
➜ FARO Technologies: Faro.com
➜ GoMeasure3D Baces Arm/Tezet: GoMeasure3d.com/
baceshome.html PC-DMIS Reshaper is an easy to use
➜ Kooks Custom Headers: KooksCustomHeaders.com 3D point cloud processing software
➜ Leica: Metrology.Leica-geosystems.com/en/index.htm that quickly creates high quality 3D
➜ OGP Avant: Smartscope.com.cn/en_page/video_systems/ meshes and NURBS surfaces. To learn
avant.htm how affordable PC-DMIS Reshaper
➜ PolyWorks: Innovmetric.com software can revolutionize your rapid
➜ Rhino: Rhino3d.com prototyping process, visit us online at
➜ Synergeering: Synergeering.com www.HexMet.us/de711.
➜ Zeiss Industrial Metrology: Zeiss.com/imt
For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

ROMER arm compatible

Focus on Metrology /// Case Study
Lofty Goals Demand

Precise Positioning
SpaceX looks to accomplish tasks that are literally out of this world.
W
ith the retrieval of Dragon from the Pacific Ocean,
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) became
the first commercial company to launch and re-
cover a spacecraft from Earth orbit. Placed into space atop
the company’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, Dragon completed
two orbits with speeds topping 17,000 miles per hour. After
its three-hour, 50,000-mile flight, Dragon splashed down at
the predicted time.
This was the first flight under NASA’s Commercial Or-
bital Transportation Services (COTS) program, designed
for companies to demonstrate International Space Station
(ISS) resupply capabilities. Following completion of COTS
missions, Dragon will begin regular flights to the ISS. For
these missions, SpaceX will again turn to its portable coor-
dinate measurement machine (PCMM) systems to maintain
the precision it achieved when first launching and returning
Dragon from orbit.
SpaceX is a different kind of company, thanks in part to
Falcon 9 lifts off from SLC-40 for the
its founder, CEO & CTO Elon Musk, who was co-founder
first test flight of Dragon Spacecraft.
of PayPal and is the CEO of Tesla Motors.
In a post-flight press conference, Musk said, “The reason
I’m doing SpaceX is that I just happen to have a very strong Ground Control
passion for space, and I want us to become a true spacefaring Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral AFS launch pad
civilization, and even a multi-planetary civilization. That is SLC-40 at 10:43 a.m. EST on Dec. 8, 2010. At 10:46 a.m.,
my goal for SpaceX.” the first stage separated. At 10:52 a.m., Dragon entered Earth
To make his goal a reality, SpaceX is changing 40-year- orbit. At 2 p.m., Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
old paradigms with a family of launch vehicles and space- According to the company, Falcon 9 delivered Dragon
craft that increase reliability and performance while reducing to orbit with “near bull’s-eye insertion,” and Dragon then
costs—ultimately by a factor of 10. The underlying philoso- splashed down safely into its targeted landing zone.
phy is a focus on simplicity to both increase reliability and The accuracy of the flight path required careful alignment
lower cost for vehicle development and launch services. of Falcon 9’s sections and precise launch vector positioning.
According to Larry Mosse, SpaceX’s tooling operations The SpaceX crew used its PCMM metrology systems, which
manager, the company counts on its PCMMs to help deliver included Leica trackers and Verisurf software.
this reliability and cost reduction. And it counts on Verisurf Falcon 9 is 157 ft. tall with the Dragon spacecraft, and has
metrology software to drive all these devices in a powerful, a 12-ft. diameter. Nine of SpaceX’s Merlin engines power the
yet simple way. first stage; the second stage uses a single Merlin Vacuum en-
“Verisurf metrology software is doing its part in main- gine. Final assembly of this piece of engineering is completed
taining precision in the shop and on the launch pad,” says at the launch site.
Mosse. “We use it for everything from tooling fabrication to To position and align Falcon 9’s components, SpaceX
pre-launch preparation.” used Leica laser trackers and Verisurf’s BUILD application,

SpaceX founder, CTO and CEO
Elon Musk stands with Falcon
dredth’s-inch deviation East to West, and three-hundredths
9 at Cape Canaveral AFS.
from North to South—and from the ground up, all sections
were at their nominal positions.”
Mosse notes that this alignment accuracy was possible
because of the controls used in manufacturing and assembly
operations at the company’s Hawthorne, CA, facility.
“We have a set of five fixtures that are used to position
rocket components and drill a pattern of 144 holes,” he offers
as an example. “These holes dictate the alignment of Falcon
9’s sections.”
As he did in pre-flight preparation, Mosse used Verisurf to
place the fixtures before committing to the drilling operations.
“With Verisurf, we are looking directly at the CAD model
which is a virtual gauge. The trackers fed measurement data and the measurement results,” Mosse states. “We see the
directly to Verisurf, which reported, in real time, the accu- measurements reflected against the 3D model. This makes
racy of each section relative to the CAD model used in de- the process faster and reduces mistakes.”
sign and manufacturing. He notes that before Verisurf, his team had to interpret
After assembly, the SpaceX crew raised Falcon 9 into its page after page of 2D drawing dimensions.
vertical launch position. To follow its intended flight path, “We had to rely on people’s ability to visualize 3D mea-
launch specifications allowed the vector of the vehicle to de- surements from 2D drawings, which results in interpretation
viate by only 0.02° over the 157-ft. length. Mosse says that problems,” he says.
they again turned to the PCMMs to confirm a “ready-to- Before assembly, Mosse used his PCMMs to measure parts
launch” status. and tooling during fabrication and manufacturing. For example,
“The specs allowed the nose to be off of vertical by 6 in.,” SpaceX will drive both Leica trackers and Romer arms with
he explains. “Verisurf reported that we had only a one-hun- Verisurf when measuring composite tooling or weld fixtures.

Focus on Metrology /// Case Study
“We inspect these items to the CAD data. In many cases,
we will inspect to profile tolerances only,” Mosse says. “We
aren’t drawing free, yet, but like the rest of the aerospace in-
dustry, we are striving to implement model-based definition
to achieve its many benefits.”
For SpaceX, the most important benefit is time. Model-
based definitions with profile tolerances eliminate the time
to document an engineering drawing; reduce the time to cre-
ate inspection plans and reports; and accelerate identification
and resolution of manufacturing issues. With an aggressive
schedule of more than 30 Falcon 9 launches over the next
four years, including 12 space station deliveries, every mo-
ment counts.
SpaceX’s philosophy is that through simplicity, it can de-
liver more reliable vehicles at a lower cost. SpaceX counts on
Verisurf to help deliver on this goal.
“With Verisurf, we have very quick assurance that we are
in the proper 3D space,” Mosse says. DE
This article was contributed by Verisurf.
Rendering of Dragon orbiting with INFO ➜ Leica: Leica.com

solar panels extended. ➜ Verisurf: Verisurf.com
For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
“SPEED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT VIA VIRTUAL WORKSTATION CLUSTERING”

A new white paper from the editors of DE.
Parker Aerospace had a problem: its simulation jobs

were too big to run on workstations that were also being
used for design, forcing it to rely on its dedicated high-
performance computing cluster to process them. The
simulations were taking days, and sometimes weeks to
process. The HPC cluster was a bottleneck to productivity
and creativity.
The solution was to create a virtual cluster from the idle

cores in the company’s engineering workstations.
The “Speed Product Development via Virtual Workstation

Clustering” report guides you through the creation of a
virtual cluster that will speed up simulations, visualizations,
and analysis, while saving you time and money. It details
the problems Parker Aerospace faced with its simulation
workflow, and the solution that was presented by Intel, HP,
Microsoft, Parallels, and ANSYS. The report also includes
a helpful set of discussion points you can use to show
management and IT how workstation clusters benefit the
designs you create.
Go to deskeng.com/workstationcluster
to get the free white paper.

Metrology Products for Engineers Tools of the Month
1 2
1 ROMER Introduces
CMS108 Inspection and
Reverse Engineering Solution
to the seven-axis ROMER por-
table CMMs, which include
the Absolute Arm SE and the
Studio, Geomagic Qualify, and
Geomagic Wrap. This partner-
ship enables customers to
(faro.com) has enhanced
its FARO Gage product line
with hardware and software
ROMER Inc., (romer.com) a Infinite 2.0 SC Arm. seamlessly collect scan data improvements designed to
brand of Hexagon Metrology directly from Nikon scan- simplify users’ measure-
Inc., has launched the Geomagic and Nikon ners into Geomagic Studio ment workflow and enhance
CMS108, a non-contact laser Metrology Offer 3D Scanning software. Similarly, scan data the product’s portability.
scanner available for its por- Geomagic (geometricglobal. is immediately passed to Thanks to Bluetooth wire-
table coordinate measuring com) and Nikon Metrology Geomagic Qualify to graphical- less technology, users can
machines. Romer says the (nikonmetrology.com) have ly compare as-built parts with now inspect and transmit
CMS108 is adept at scan- announced a new cooperative digital reference models. data up to 30 ft. away—even
ning a range of materials agreement that enables Nikon through walls—without the
with enhanced sensitivity to
color and surface finishes. It
mounts with a kinematic joint
Metrology to fully integrate and
offer its range of handheld 3D
laser scanners with Geomagic
2 FARO Gage Uses
Bluetooth
FARO Technologies, Inc.
need for cables. FARO Gage
also features all new mea-
surement software.
Advertising Index /// Publisher does not assume any liability for index errors or omissions.
ANSYS ........................................................ 3 Micoway, Inc. ............................................. 53

BOXX Technologies ................................. CV2 National Instruments .................................. 15
Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology ................... 45 Newport Electronics, Inc. ............................ 1
CD-adapco ................................................. 41 Objet Geometries, Inc. ................................ 21
COMSOL, Inc. ............................................ 5 Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. ................... 49
Corel Corp. ................................................ 31 OriginLab Corp. ......................................... 37
Hewlett-Parkard Co. ................................... 33 Protocast, Inc. ............................................ 53
DE Virtual Workstation Clustering Report. .. 50 PSSC Labs ................................................. 29
Hexagon Metrology .................................... 47 Quickparts ................................................. 43
HSMWorks ApS, USA ................................. 19 Roland DGA............................................... 39
IMSI Design ............................................... 53 Sabalcore Computing, Inc. .......................... 53
Industrial Press .......................................... 53 Saelig Company, Inc. .................................. 53
IntegrityWare ............................................. 53 SC11 Conference ..................................... CV3
Intel Corp. ................................................ 8-9 Siemens ...................................................... 7
Intel Corp. ................................................. 11 Simulia ...................................................... 23
Lenovo ....................................................... 25 Stratasys-Fortus ...................................... CV4
Luxology LLC ............................................ 27 Synergeering Group .................................... 53
MathWorks ................................................ 13 Tormach LLC ............................................. 49

Editor’s Picks by Anthony J. Lockwood
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.
ZW3D 2011 CAD/CAM System Released

ZW3D 2011 to offer new direct editing function and auto-feature machining.
ZW3D 2011 is a 3D CAD/CAM application design with parametric dimensions created
suite that can serve you all the way from automatically. The QuickEdit feature provides
concept through 5-axis machining. It will be context-sensitivity so that if you touch or click,
available in levels—Standard, Professional, say, a face, ZW3D offers you the tools for that
Premium—that accommodate different enter- location. Then there’s a tool called SnapPick.
prise requirements. It automatically drives a point you specify to
Some things are really interesting to me intersections and critical points
about this version. First, it offers direct editing MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabbak.htm
Kubotek USA Releases KeyCreator 2011

Faster file importing, 64-bit support, and new dynamic editing functionality among
enhancements.
KeyCreator from Kubotek USA is the with features to make editing, extract-
successor to the venerable and revered ing, and modifying geometry in native or
CadKey of yesteryear. CadKey earned its imported CAD formats faster and more
chops and a devoted user base by being accurate. Its 3D DynaHandle has been
powerful and easy to use. KeyCreator has improved with a new look, new control and
done that reputation proud over the years. selection features, and more options.
KeyCreator 2011 has been enhanced MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabbbg.htm
Corel Adds CAD to its Technical Portfolio

CorelCAD offers 2D/3D design tools and compatibility with industry-standard CAD tools.
Corel has a history of developing applica- CorelCAD is a 2D/3D solid modeling
tions that are the workhorses of opera- CAD application for Windows and Mac
tions in many small- and medium-sized that’s suitable for designers, engineers,
firms. Corel Designer Technical Suite, for and architects. It works natively with the
instance, is widely acclaimed as being DWG file format, lets you customize and
both affordable and powerful. So, it’s no save as workspace environments, and you
stretch to say that the recent introduction can navigate between 2D and 3D.
of CorelCAD piqued my interest. MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabbce.htm
Simulation Analytics Tool Finds CFD Anomalies and Trends

Tecplot Chorus integrates metadata analysis, post-processing, and simulation data
management.
Tecplot has announced a soon-to-be- said to be designed to do is help you quickly
released application called Tecplot Chorus. figure out which CFD run is associated with
Basically, this is a simulation analytics a particular point on your metadata plot so
management tool for you engineers and that you can find, visualize, and examine the
scientists needing to discover trends and underlying fluid-dynamic phenomena of the
anomalies in all those large data sets your piece of data that caused these variations.
CFD studies produce. That is, what Tecplot is MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabbdn.htm

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Fast Apps Engineering Case Studies
MFG.com Quickens the Cobra

Cobra Technologies obtains high-quality parts and reduces
overall lead times by using the supplier discovery site.
Cobra Technologies designs and There are a variety
manufactures video pipeline inspec- of ways companies have
tion equipment, pipeline data collection traditionally found suppliers, includ- cost while reducing our overall lead
and management software for sanitary ing online and offline directories, trade time,” notes Ken Hockstein.
and storm sewers. For nearly 20 years, shows, search engines and advertise- Prior to MFG.com, Cobra Technologies
Cobra inspection units have been sold to ments. However, these methods of sup- used traditional methods of supplier
municipalities, contractors and govern- plier discovery are fairly superficial, and discovery, and had little visibility into
ment entities. it is difficult to find suppliers precisely true market pricing. Additionally, its lead
Finding qualified suppliers for custom matched to your needs that have capac- times were often as long as several
parts and components, however, is often ity, at the exact moment you need them. months. Cobra Technologies was looking
like playing a game of “eeny, meeny, It is also difficult to gain immediate vis- for a platform to source its new parts
miny, moe” for the Smyrna, GA-based ibility into references and pricing. and components more efficiently.
company. In these economic times in Previously, Cobra relied upon a small “We had heard about MFG.com for sev-
particular, with many manufacturing group of local suppliers that it had eral years,” Hockstein recalls. “Last year,
companies having gone out of business, worked with in the past. we decided to just give it a try. We are
finding competent suppliers that have “We were looking to add to our supply thrilled with the results.”
the right capabilities and capacity can be base and ultimately find additional sup-
a difficult task. pliers that made quality parts, at a lower MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabbtt.htm
Design Collaboration Produces Tooling ‘Right the First Time’

Provides aerospace company with aluminum tooling for a carbon composite seat shell.
BY MARK FREEBREY
The volatile nature of fuel prices has forcedengineer with considerable CAD/CAM fied to remove undercut areas and apply
the aerospace industry to make weight and tool design experience. It provides a blend radii on sharp edges, he says, adding,
reduction a high-priority focus. Reducing thecomprehensive range of design and manu- “Typically, blending can be a very complex
facturing services, from 2D drawings to 3D
weight of aircraft seating significantly reduc- task—and it is often necessary to explode
es aviation fuel consumption and carbon modeling and CAM programming. a model into surfaces and manually apply
dioxide emissions throughout the opera- For this project, the original CAD model the CAD modifications. VISI is very strong
was provided by the customer as a
tional lifetime of the aircraft, with every bit at switching between a solid and surface
of weight contributing to the running costs Unigraphics NX file. The part analysis environment, and this allows us to make
of an aircraft to the carrier. and tool design was performed using VISI complex changes where other CAD systems
DeltaCAD Ltd was founded in Devon, Modeling from Vero Software. often fall over.”
England, in 2010 by Dean Challis, a design “VISI is very tolerant of non-native data,” The manufacture of the tooling was per-
Challis points out. “Often, formed by Casting Support Systems Ltd,
when models are origi- a company that supplies large tooling to
nally designed, the manu- the investment casting, plastic molding
facturing requirements and gas turbine industries. In conjunction
are not always known. To with its sister company Versa-tote, Casting
make a part manufactur- Support Systems is also a forerunner in
able, it is vital to interact the design and manufacture of return-
with the data and make able transit boxes, picking and order tote
the relevant changes.” boxes for distribution and storage facili-
With authority from the ties across Europe.
All toolpaths were created original design team,
using VISI Machining. the tooling was modi- MORE ➜ deskeng.com/articles/aabbts.htm
➜ For the complete application stories visit deskeng.com/fastapps

Perspective by Miles Parker Commentary
Upfront Engineering
is Real Business
T
hose who have been patient travelers on the boule- Results on a recent wind blade design showed up to 25%
vard called concurrent engineering have recently seen cuts in weight and 70% cost-to-manufacture improvements
the pavement start speeding by at a breathtaking rate. on individual ply drops. Moreover, the same tools have met
Engineering software programs are running faster and NASA’s most stringent tests for space flight durability on an
smoother. Sophisticated design, analysis and manufacturing all-composite prototype space capsule.
tools are pushing deeper into an upfront engineering process The reach of upfront engineering is also touching produc-
once centered largely on building basic CAD geometry. tion system operations in ways almost unimaginable a few
This new convergence and integration of CAD/CAE/ years ago.
CAM tools is helping engineering transform from a “means- Process automation and design optimization in the steel and
to-an-end” journey—aimed at getting products on shelves and heat treating industries, for example, are allowing engineers to
into showrooms—to a real business strategy, with a clear av- select configurations best suited to perform within a range of
enue for addressing profitability at the point of design. desired manufacturing behavior. Tool settings, materials and
The goal of concurrent engineering has always been to design geometry are all treated as an interrelated set of condi-
drive everything as far upfront as possible. With product life- tions. These customized information loops work from sensors
cycle management (PLM) vendors and specialized engineer- and controls at the production level, and return data to the in-
tegrated CAD/FEA package for checking and re-analysis. Up to
40% improvement in yields has been reported. For such capital-
Concurrent engineering ... and material-intensive industries, this is a huge business gain.
is now in its adolescence. What’s Next?
Concurrent engineering, formed as a strategy in the mid-
ing firms striving to break down unproductive organizational 1980s, is now in its adolescence. The integrated all-digital
silos and interlink departments and supply chains, it is becom- development path associated with PLM is becoming more
ing increasingly foolhardy for financial managers to overlook mature as a foundation for effective upfront engineering—
the role upfront engineering is playing—not only in driving where the most problems get solved and where the greatest
innovation, but in attacking avoidable costs. opportunities arise.
We often think of the whole of design only in CAD-centric
Tangible Results terms. However, the very core direction of a design can be for-
Using process automation templates for CAD-to-finite element mulated well before modeling, as information develops from
analysis (FEA)-to-CAD hand-offs, a major American automotive teams with members as diverse as marketing and procurement.
original equipment manufacturer (OEM) last year saved three to Someday, perhaps, design programs will offer feedback even as
four weeks on an analysis of an oil filter adapter. For a cylinder models are in the concept stage, with little detail beyond crude
head deck lift analysis, time used for model setup dropped from geometric shapes.
about two-and-a-half days to less than 30 minutes. Greater ease- Boothroyd Dewhurst’s Design for Manufacture and Assem-
of-use is helping analysts and designers improve quality and speed bly (DFMA) methods and tools quantitatively guide decisions
as they tackle new performance benchmarks. about basic features, material and process choices that live on
Even quite exotic and complex FEA-related analyses, such into documentation, factory throughput, service, warranty and
as evaluation of composite structures, are becoming more in- end-of-life costs. This approach sheds light on how early infor-
tegrated within the design process. Design optimization, mar- mation can have an impact on the total organization. DE
gin-of-safety checking, and manufacturing analysis of com-
posites can now be done in a loop that connects CAD, FEA, Miles Parker is president of Parker Group in Providence, RI, and
material selection and virtual design testing more quickly— has observed and written about product development for more than
and less manually—than ever before. 25 years. He can be reached at [email protected]

Cool Tools National Instrument’s LabVIEW 2011
Hardware Integration
1 The 25th-anniversary version of LabVIEW, National Instrument’s system design
software, can interact with many hardware devices or deployment targets, includ-
ing the new multicore NI CompactRIO controller and the NI PXIe-5665 RF vector signal
analyzers. LabVIEW driver software supplies seamless integration across multiple
types of instruments, buses, and sensors, according to NI, including data acquisition
devices; boxed instruments; modular instruments; motion controllers and motor drives;
machine vision and image processing hardware; wireless sensors; and field-program-
mable gate arrays (FPGAs).
Built-in Analysis and Signal Processing

2 LabVIEW offers analysis and mathematical routines that natively work together
with data acquisition functions and display capabilities. This makes it possible
for them to be built into any application. In addition, LabVIEW provides analysis
routines for point-by-point execution. These routines are designed specifically to
meet inline analysis needs in real-time applications. Users can access thousands of
engineering-specific functions, including frequency analysis and curve fitting.
Data Visualization
3 NI LabVIEW contains a collection of drag-and-drop controls and indicators so
engineers can create user interfaces for their application and effectively visual-
ize results without integrating third-party components or building views from scratch.
Power users can customize the built-in controls via the Control Editor and program-
matically control user interface elements.
Automatic Multi-threading
4 Programming in LabVIEW involves creating graphical code that
resembles a flowchart. This is known as dataflow programming. Instead
of writing a sequence of commands that execute one-by-one, LabVIEW
TECH SPECS
programs contain variables and operations that connect one variable to the • NI LabVIEW can run on most
next. The LabVIEW compiler automatically determines the order of commands common OSs and deploy code
to execute to produce correct results. This also means that, with LabVIEW, to an array of hardware targets.
when two parallel sections of code are independent of each other, they can run LabVIEW development systems
at the same time on different cores of a multicore processor. In addition to are available for Windows, Mac,
programming multicore CPUs, LabVIEW can be used with other parallel and Linux, and users can run
hardware, including FPGAs, graphical processing units, and computing clouds. LabVIEW code on all three, as
well as on dedicated real-time
operating systems.
• Development systems options:

LabVIEW Base, Full, Profession-
al and NI Developer Suite.
• NI LabVIEW 2011 system

design software is priced from
$1,249.
➜ DO YOU HAVE A COOL TOOL? Desktop Engineering editors are always For full system requirements, visit
on the hunt for great tools to share with our readers. Send us your ideas ni.com/labview/requirements.
to [email protected].

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September 2011 / deskeng.

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Review: Corel Designer

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DEPARTMENTS 52 Editor’s Picks

22 What’s New 56 Cool Tool

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Answers for industry.

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Workstations Work as Clusters

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Isight enables the integration of CAD, CAE, test data, and

Corel Designer Technical Suite X5 is a collection of tools designed to

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INFO ➜ 3D Systems: 3Dsystems.com

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