April « 2009 « The Virtual Engineer

Engineers want a formula for Social Media….

April 28th, 2009 Posted in ptc, social media, social product development

Social media has been quite the buzz lately covering the entire spectrum. Some engineers have grasped the idea, others are probably more the skeptical engineering type. There are alot of guys that want a better explanation to exactly what social media is and what it does for them. There are some guys that want a better explanation to exactly what social media is and what it can do for them. I get the feeling that some guys want a formula that can show what social media can do for them? I’m not sure it’s that easy.

I saw a post from COFES where an engineer jokingly stated that “…yeah, I’m not going to design a plane on facebook“. Pretty funny statement, brings a bit of reality to the topic. I have had conversation with guys about Twitter and other tools out there. Response is mixed, either they feel they “don’t get it” or feel its “not for me”. The reasons are all over the map– don’t care, no time, not interested. What I find interesting is that these same guys don’t have any issues frequenting certain forums of interest. I’m not sure Twitter is much different, it all depends on how you use it.

I do appreciate the skepticism, but I’m not a fan of narrow mindedness. Just because its different, just because you aren’t into it or understand it, doesn’t mean it has no value.

Simply put, social media, in my eyes is about communication, interaction, collaboration, knowledge gathering and knowledge sharing. Hmm, parallels engineering pretty closely from a top level? I’m the first to admit that there is a lot of fluff that all gets categorized as social media. But I think there is tremendous value being “plugged in, connected and informed”.

Not too long ago, PTC announced what they coined Social Product Development. Instantly, eyes began to roll as it looked life another acronym was in the works. BUT, I immediately got what they meant. They are right! Is My Space and Facebook going to take over product development? No. But the idea of collaborating via the web, staying in tuned with other sites across the globe is a requirement in today’s world. Tomorrow’s engineers don’t know life any other way. They will change the way we collaborate and view communication from a product development standpoint.

There are products popping up all over the place that allow engineers to communicate their design ideas across all of the aspects of product design. Check out vuuch. A tool that enables the design discussions within a cad environment. All of these tools will rise and fall over the near future. The strong will survive.

We will see the future of social media and product development begin to incorporate PLM/PDM info, text messages via iphones, instant messaging systems, video messaging, 3D mark-up, including FEA/CFD simulation and physical prototyping as well as 3D printing. Seem far fetched? Hang tight, folks, its coming.

A lot can be said for traveling by train…

April 19th, 2009 Posted in amtrak, train

4 Comments »

Some people are taking stabs on Obama’s claims of rail travel being green. I didn’t perform a massive survey, but common sense tells me that railroad travel can certainly help the environment. My travel schedule and mode of travel has changed drastically this year. Over the last four years, I traveled ~375k+ miles in the air. Things have changed a bit this year and I have chosen to take more local trips by train.

Here are some of the positives…

* Gives me a solid five hours of mostly uninterrupted time to focus on work.
* Requires significant less “early arrival” time than air travel.
* In my case, the train takes me from city center to city center
* Flexible booking and cancellation policies

There are a few negatives of train travel, but the flexibility of canceling and re-booking is amazing. I fell ill last week and literally waited until a few hours before the scheduled trip, I logged into my account and canceled a re-booked for another date. Try doing this on any airline, its a nightmare, not to mention fairly costly.

My biggest wish for rail travel would be reliable high speed internet service. I have been debating about snagging a 3G card for such trips, but can’t seem to justify the $60/month. I hope the rail companies take a serious look at trying to accomodate business travelers and provide internet (even if it were a paid service). I’d gladly pay $10/day for reliable access. Personally, I’d be interested in paying an annual flat rate. I know I’m not alone.

There is a ton of infrastructure work that needs to be done for the rail system. But, my experience has been fairly solid. It doesn’t compare to the service available in Europe, but wouldn’t require that much to be competitive. Let it be clear when I say not much – it would cost tons and require tremendous amount of work, but I think there are tons of people willing to pay for the service.

What is your rail experience like?

Is MCAD ready for the mac community?

April 17th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized

2 Comments »

Seems to be the buzz the last few weeks. Shaan Hurley has been posting about Autodesk’s uofficial or official dabble into supporting the OSX operating system. Not to mention the announcement at AU this year that Alias would be available on the mac. It seems like a natural progression that Alias folks would drive macs.

Look at the boys at DEVELOP3D, they have an entire site dedicated to the mac community. I have to admit really cool stuff to read about. No surprise to me that RHINO is leading the charge as only they can. Check out McNeel’s interview on the site above. Really cool stuff.

But, the question remains, are we ready?

My gut is that the number of early adopters and mac zealots will make it difficult, especially in today’s economy, to fund the development efforts required to port MCAD to OSX? But let’s look at the big picture. How many engineers are mac users? Some.

Bigger question, how many engineers are mac users “at work”? Hardly any. My point is that you will have a variety of engineers that would love to take home with them and maybe drive MCAD on their home machines. But do we really think that bean counters are willing to fork out money for mac hardware? Not that mac hardware is drastically more money than Dell Precision, but it is definitely more.

Also, how many companies will be willing to have the infrastructure (IT support) required to support dual OS machines in a network environment. I am sure I am opening myself up for the macheads out there to quickly jump on their soapboxes and begin to campaign. Save it. I am happy to be proven wrong, but from where I am sitting, the market just isn’t ready for it.

I’ll spare you my rant on how Linux really missed the boat on the mass engineering community. If one of the Linux distros had even a fraction of the cash of Apple, they could easily become an easy choice for many engineering managers out there. One can only dream..