Novedge Pulse™ of Paul Hamilton

Interest continues to grow in our industry for the flexibility and ease-of-use that comes with history-free direct modeling. Unfortunately there is still much confusion out there about just what direct modeling is and what value it adds to the process of product development.  [more...]

It should be no surprise that interest in direct modeling is continuing to grow, and at an ever increasing rate. Every major CAD vendor now has a strategy around direct modeling. These companies don’t do this because of some fascination with technology. Most are public  [more...]

As a manager or leader of product development, have you ever wondered what the real value is of all that CAD data that is being created? Are you getting a positive return on your CAD investment? Probably a strange question to ask since everyone seems to concur that  [more...]

It seems that almost all CAD companies are now investing in history-free CAD technology (direct, explicit). If a design/manufacturing company already owns a very capable CAD tool, why would they purchase a direct history-free CAD tool? What value are they getting from  [more...]

I know that most of you will consider the title of this post as being a contradiction in terms. I hope to show you otherwise. We are certainly seeing the makers of history-based parametric CAD tools attempting to add explicit like or direct modeling type functionality  [more...]

Designing products with the help of a CAD tool that is history-based (some call it parametric modeling) has been the norm for many years now. However there are thousands of companies around the world that have been successfully designing products with CAD tools that  [more...]

Wow! We are already well into 2011 and I haven’t posted to this blog since October. Happy New Year everyone! (Kind of late with that) Maybe I am imagining things, but it seems to me that in 2011 we are going to see some significant differences in the tools we use to  [more...]

History-based, parametric, history-free, direct, explicit, synchronous, dynamic, instant...Over the last few years CAD companies have introduced many new terms as they have announced new product capabilities. Most significant are the capabilities related to direct  [more...]

In my previous post titled Predictability with Direct Editing I showed a simple example of what it means to get expected and predictable results with “direct” or “explicit” editing. It was a simple example in that the geometry was mostly analytic – planes, cylinders  [more...]

Most CAD users are very familiar with history-based parametric modeling. It is likely what they learned in school and actually may be the only 3D CAD technology they have ever used. As a matter of fact, most do not know that there is even an alternative. When the  [more...]

While I certainly enjoy a good discussion and review of technology, especially the technology of 3D CAD, I equally enjoy a good discussing and review of the process of product development. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have had the opportunity to visit many  [more...]

John Abele from Boston Scientific was the keynote speaker for today. What a great story. He is a pioneer in many ways. Some of the statements that caught my attention included the following. “Pioneers have arrows in their back”, somewhat referring to the fact that  [more...]

As you would expect, I attended the PTC USER World event this year specifically to represent the PTC CoCreate family of products. With this post I hope to provide information related to the CoCreate solutions, including the CoCreate sessions and related activities.  [more...]

In my last blog post: Technology and the Product Development Process, one of the readers asked a great question:Paul, I know it is coming out in bits and pieces, but at SolidWorks World there is a good deal of reporting about solidworks enhanced direct editing, and  [more...]

In a recent post titled “Predictability with Direct Editing – Part II” I included a video that very briefly shows the creation of freeform surfaces by using a direct edit. Since then I have received several questions and interest in understanding more about how freeform  [more...]

I too was given the opportunity to see Inventor Fusion Preview II. I was a bit shocked when Autodesk invited me. I told them again that I work for PTC, but they still wanted to show it to me. I guess attention is attention. So here’s how it works (as near as I can  [more...]

I have written a few times about the need for predictability and getting expected results with direct editing. In the recent past I have received a few questions about what I am referring to with regards to “predictability”. So with this post I hope to explain this  [more...]

So what do the previous posts regarding direct and indirect editing mean to product design?As history-based modeling has been the dominant technology for many years it gets used for a wide variety of design. As history-free modeling becomes more robust and useful we  [more...]

In the previous post I discussed the technology around "indirect" editing. With this post I hope to review some of the technology around "direct" editing.Direct editing is now available in most history-based systems and is of course available in history-free systems  [more...]

While history-based systems are learning how to interact directly with geometry and are becoming more “explicit”, history-free systems are learning how to drive geometry indirectly, or “parametrically”.So what’s involved with editing 3D geometry? When we use a 3D CAD  [more...]

The Inventor Fusion preview is now available. I am anxious to see this thing. Inventor Fusion “Unites direct and parametric workflows”. This is one of the title statements found on the Autodesk Labs web site. I hate to burst the bubble but “direct” and “parametric”  [more...]

I hear the term "direct modeling" being used and abuse to describe many different things. To me direct modeling refers to a CAD systems ability to interact with edges, faces, features, parts and assemblies directly during the design process. It means that the CAD system  [more...]

It looks like Solid Edge is getting a lot of new functionality and modeling capability. I am not a user of Solid Edge and as such my “first impressions” have nothing to do with the new functionality. I will leave that up to the users and experts. What I am most interested  [more...]

I don’t mean to imply that if you are a “programmer” you are not a “designer” or visa-versa. The question is; as a CAD user do you spend more time designing or programming?Most CAD users are very familiar with history-based CAD. It is probably what they were initially  [more...]

The CoCreate products will again be represented at the PTC/USER World Event 2010. I will be there and have 2 sessions that I will be presenting along with one of our product experts. The two sessions are detailed below:Introducing CoCreate Modeling, the World's #1  [more...]

Everyone seems to have an opinion about CAD technology and what is best – including me. But I often question what it all really means to product development. In my current position at PTC I get to review and analyze the product development processes of many companies  [more...]

Indirect editing is typically used in parametric modeling, or history-based systems. With indirect editing, parameters, dimensions and other intelligence is associated to the 3D model and can be used to define possible transformations and relationships. In a history-based  [more...]

In Part 1 I described my observations regarding how Solid Edge ST3 lines up with some of the typical issues related to traditional parametric history-based modeling. In this Part 2 I will share some of the other crazy observations I have:Here is a statement coming  [more...]

As I mentioned a few times before, in my current position at PTC I get the opportunity to visit many companies. I just returned from a trip to Europe where I was able to visit two very large companies. One interesting thing I am recognizing is the growing power of  [more...]

Lately I have been pondering over some of the common product design terms we use in our industry. If you really think about some of these terms, you may find like me that in reality they actually make no sense at all. Perhaps they can tell us much about how software  [more...]

As I've mentioned before, in my current job I get to visit and interact with many people and companies involved with product development; several every week. Most of these people/companies use history-based modeling of some kind as their primary design tool. As I walk  [more...]

Part 3: Creo and “AnyRole Apps”Part 2One of the things you will hear PTC talk about in the context of Creo is AnyRole Apps. Creo is a scalable suit of right-sized, purpose-built, interoperable apps built on the common data model. It is all about providing the most  [more...]

Part 2: Creo and “AnyMode Modeling”Part 1There is a significant difference between using a parametric (history-based) system as your primary design tool and using a direct modeling (history-free) system as your primary design tool. These two technologies offer completely  [more...]

I have written about Fusion, SpaceClaim and recently Synchronous Technology, so I guess I should write something about Creo. I am an employee of PTC so I want to make it clear that what I write on my blog is my own personal opinions and may not reflect the opinions  [more...]