Engineers should not fear “the cloud”

February 16th, 2010 Posted in cfdesign, fea, quickcam, upfront cfd
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I’m going to go on record to state that I’m a huge fan of “the cloud”. They are two words that seem to really send people into a bit of rage lately. People want a definition, they want clarity What is the cloud? Call it what you want, I don’t care, I know what you mean and I want it. I want it now.

I think my friend, “the cloud”, has gotten a bad rap. It definitely took a ribbing at SolidWorks World 2010, where engineers were trying to make a drinking game out of it all. :) My sense is that its easy to make fun of something that you either don’t quite understand or that you don’t exactly see the value. I suspect its the latter in most cases.

If you have read anything on The Virtual Engineer, you will know that I am a huge fan boy of the good ole “cloud”. What is my definition of the cloud? In very simple terms it is web-enabled, web-based, web-hosted, web-stored, web-collaborated computing. Common theme here, “the web”. We all use it, many of us depend on it and some of are are even slightly addicted to it.

upfront cfd external flow simulaiton

So, why does using the word cloud cause anxiety? I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because I clearly don’t get it. Am I the minority? Not sure. But, it dawned on me the other day that I have felt the pain of “the old way”. If you haven’t, I’m not sure you will appreciate the value. The old way is a collage of bloated hard drives, sorry-ass USB external drives, various copies of files, handfuls of thumb drives full of stuff. I’m tired of being a VPNing, remote desktoping, begging for more horse power, tired of ftp-ing slave to status quo. I want a new way. I want to have access to my files, wherever, from whatever- laptop, netbook, iphone. If I want to share my files, I want to be able to send a link to someone with highly encrypted password protected safety. I want to be able to, at a minimum, preview my files in a browser. How can I be the minority? Doesn’t everyone want this?

But, the above is just the tip of it. I’m a simulation driven, upfront CAE doing, design guy. I am drinking a Big Gulp size of the the Kool-Aid. But, you want to talk about pain. I’m not sure there is a better reason today for engineers to openly embrace the cloud than in the simulation community. But not just the simulation community, the “upfront cfd” simulation community. Why?

  1. Design engineers tend to want to try numerous what-if scenarios, resulting in numerous back to back runs that ideally could run around the clock
  2. CFD models are getting bigger and bigger and are requiring more and more power
  3. Every design engineering department on the planet is trying to reduce cost of hardware, minimize capital investment- so paying for what you need, when you need it is a no-brainer
  4. More and more engineers find that they are on the go, out of the office and need access to their data, models, computing power from anywhere

I think we are on the cusp of a major break through in the way we engineer. There are a ton of things that need to be figured out. Security, licensing, bandwidth, hardware etc are simply just the basics that need to be worked out. Exciting to see some of the most talented people in the world working on it.

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Upfront CAE should help drive design decisions

February 15th, 2010 Posted in cfdesign, fea, logitech, quickcam, upfront, upfront cfd, yahoo voice
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If you are leveraging upfront CAE (fea, cfd & the like) than kudos to you. You are most likely a step ahead of your competitors. I’d love to hear your candid experiences, both good and bad. There was a big push for upfront CAE about 10 years ago. CosmosWorks, Design Space and others really gave some street credit to upfront structural and some thermal simulation. Hats off to them. They did a great job waking up the engineering community and making “upfront” a reality in the minds of engineers.

Unfortunately, they took the “top down” approach. They were both respectively veterans in the CAE space that had “analyst” tools that were successful in their own right, and now they were changing their tune and exposing their technology to the design community. They found themselves in a very difficult place. They were taking what they knew and tried putting it in different terms. So, the end result was making FEA “easy to use” and making structural analysis “possible for design engineers”. But, I bet if you poll engineers and ask them how many are looking for an “easy to use FEA tool” or an FEA tool created for “design engineers”. I suspect, you will get a mixed bag. Let’s face it, most engineers are not looking for an FEA tool or a CFD tool, for that matter.

Engineers and their managers are looking for a tool that allows them to make better design decisions, reduce the number or physical prototypes, provide information whether a design passed or failed based on some failure criteria. Right? Most engineers could care less that its FEA or CFD. They expect and in many cases, demand that its easy to use. They also should not have to deal with status quo. They need tools that help them make decisions.

Where am I going with this? Don’t be fooled when looking to improve your design process. Don’t just get in line and assume that the “traditional analysis” companies or even worse, the MCAD companies, really understand how to help you make better design decisions. Each one of them is focused 100% in what they do. And what they don’t do is upfront CAE.

Traditional FEA/CFD companies are focused on working with analysts. MCAD companies are focused on 3D design. Each has a “solution” for you or so they claim. But, the reality is they are not focused on what you need.

There are very few companies that know and own the “upfront” FEA and CFD markets. Go out there, bang on google, cream rises to the top.

Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself. But, don’t believe the hype. Make sure you are making the right decision.

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Week of snow ended with a Trey show at Electric Factory

February 13th, 2010 Posted in phish
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Spent the last week or so somewhat couped up in the house with the family thanks to the 45″+ of snow we received over a few days here in Philadelphia. I’m all for a little snow or even alot of snow. But, I’m done shoveling digging cars out, pushing snow off the roof etc..

I had tickets for two TAB shows. One at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville and one for the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. Needless to say, my cville trip was cancelled dude to lack of train service, so I ate that ticket. But, thankfully not trying to venture south, allowed me to hang with my brother and catch the show at the Electric Factory.

Trey at the Electric Factory in Philly

We both had to fight our way downtown and hooked up some pre-gaming at the North 3rd Bar in Northern Liberties. Classic bar with fantastic food and beers. Can’t say enough great things about this place.

Cruised up to the Electric Factory and got ready for a 3.5 hr jamming show. Highlights for me were Sand, Let Me Lie and an uber energetic First Tube as the final song in the encore.

Sound quality is rough, but I think you get the sense that the energy is high. The band was having a great time. Really solid way to end a blizzard of a week. Read the rest of this entry »

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The forecast for SolidWorks is Cloudy with a ton of awesomeness

February 1st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized
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Gotta admit, this morning’s presentation by Joe Dunne and company on some of the future of SolidWorks development was well worth my trip in itself. All kinds of chatter going on via twitter prior to them taking the stage. There was a  big “white” monitor that had a black drape falling off of it as well as a small netbook up on the main stage. Many were anticipating buzz on support for the MAC. But, what we got was way more than that. We are talking full web based, new way of thinking about MCAD, OS agnostic goodness. Pictures say a million words, let’s take a look.

Joe Dunne on main stage with a netbook

Full OS agnostic MCAD (see my buddy on the end?)

The future of MCAD – search/access/reuse

DS is helping drive the cloud with V6????

Sketch objects, not "sketcher"
Sketch objects, search, reuse- really awesome!

multi-touch for engineers

There is so much I can say about what they were showing. Just so spot on with vision and understanding of the problem with really slick innovative solutions. The timeframe is unknown right now, although they promise something with Enovia in 2010. I can speculate what that is, but let’s hang tight and see what they come up with.

Pictures don’t really do it justice. The most exciting part of it all is that this is just the beginning. Things will change in the near future. The biggest change that I am anxious to see worked out is the licensing and access. Companies like salesforce.com are blazing the way based on user login. Over lunch,  I heard guys worrying about security. Honestly, this is being worked out in other industries such as CRM and banking, engineering data will follow suit.

BUT, who owns the data? What happens when the cloud goes down? What happens when you are late on a payment? What happens when a storm knocks internet out? All real, relative things that need to be worked out. Glad its these guys taking the lead.

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Dassault Systemes has a big presence at #sww10

February 1st, 2010 Posted in cfdesign
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General Session #1 started off with a bang this morning. Big crowd pushing to get into the theater, rock music blaring and lights blazing all over. Attendance is in excess of 5000, over the 4300 last year. Not bad. The vibe is high energy, as usual with this lot.

Jeff Ray got up and introduced Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault Systemes. This, apparently, was the first time that Mr. Charles has attended a SWW. He gave a good insightful presentation on who Dassault Systemes are, gave a bit of history and referred to them as an investor in SolidWorks. He spoke about the six “lovemarks” in DS – specifically, SolidWorks, Catia, Simulia, Enovia, Delmia and 3dvia. Lovemarks still makes me giggle, probably sounds better in French :) At the end of it all, I think it went over fairly well. But, can’t help feeling like big brother was up there about to drop a bomb on something. Here is an image of the “brands”.

He then did a demo of 3dvia on an iphone. I am getting a much better idea of what 3dvia is all about. I met Cliff Medling last night and over a few Fat Tire’s he schooled me on some of the coolness that is 3dvia. Check out 3DVIA TV.

At the end of the day. I think Dassault Systemes has had a very positive effect on the SolidWorks product and organization. They may come across as this large corporation, but its clear in my next post that their input in “cloud” technologies is huge for SolidWorks.

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