The Virtual Engineer

We just posted a brand new version of Falcon. This allows designers to leverage geometry from anywhere. As we stated before, Falcon initially was piloted toward Alias users. This was the plan from the beginning. We wanted to test the concept in a new market and the feedback has been fantastic.

Along the way, it became clear that everyone wanted access to Falcon. We now have a standalone version (same install as the Alias plugin). It provides the ability to read in models from anywhere via STL. Instead of spending Black Friday shopping, I was designing in Autodesk® 123D and simulating via Falcon.

The implementation is super simple. Take model of choice, export to STL and import into Falcon and sit back and enjoy. You can also snag models from the gallery on 123D and have a go. Simulation is evolving and the limits are being pushed by customers who are continuing to push the envelope. One of the most critical thing that I have noticed in today’s engineering world is competition is high, deadlines are tight and the pressure to deliver has never been higher. We, as engineers, must continue to self-evaluate our processes and stay 2 or 3 steps ahead of the pack.

We have written about “upfront CFD” many times over the years. As the name implies, its allowing engineers and designers to perform FAST simulations early in the design process. Many companies have benefited from this approach to simulation, but Autodesk is taking it one step further.

They have simplified the approach to one-click to perform wind tunnel simulations. This Project is available on Autodesk Labs. It is called Project Falcon. The initial release of Falcon was targeted to Autodesk® Alias users. A tight integration with Alias, allowed designer with zero experience to visualize their designs. The key word is visualize. Although it is solving the same equations as traditional CFD, the emphasis on this project was to reduce the decisions an inexperienced user would need to make. Significant thought and energy was put into the design of the UI, the underlying technology as well as the workflow. Check out the workflow below.

The feedback from Alias users has been great. It’s really fun to visit some of the top automobile companies in the world and listen to their challenges and collaborate to make a solution without the baggage of legacy code etc. This is what Autodesk does really well. We have the flexibility to look at things differently. We have acquired significant amount of simulation technology over the years, as well as starting with a clean sheet of paper and building product that customers love.

There is a lot going on in the Simulation industry right now. We are taking it very serious and are open for your ideas. What challenges are you having today? Where can we help?