Default Conversion Settings – Giving Faster Conversions

Scan2CAD now offers more intuitive and accessible control over your conversion settings.

From selecting the objects you want to convert to fine-tuning individual tolerances, you have granular control over every aspect of the process. We know that choosing the right settings can feel overwhelming when you’re first learning the software, so we’ve redesigned how these options appear.

All conversion parameters are now neatly organized under a new Settings button. A conversion begins the moment you click Convert, allowing you to focus first on getting results and then refine settings if needed. If the initial output isn’t quite right, simply adjust your settings and convert again.
For those just getting started, we recommend choosing the preset that best matches your use case, you can always fine-tune the details afterward.

Drawing Tools

You may notice that Scan2CAD’s drawing tools are now hidden by default. To view them, simply navigate to View > View Drawing Tools.
We made this change because new users sometimes assumed that Scan2CAD was intended to replace their full CAD editor, which is not the case. While Scan2CAD includes basic drawing tools for quick edits, detailed design work is still best carried out in your primary CAD application.
If you need to make a small tweak before exporting, the drawing tools are still only a click away. For anything more substantial, simply export your DXF/DWG file and continue editing in your usual workflow.

Account Improvements

If you’ve logged into your Scan2CAD online account recently, you may have already spotted some major enhancements. Over the past year, we’ve introduced several improvements designed to make account and license management more transparent and user-friendly:

• You can now view the activation status of all your licenses, including who activated each one, a major convenience for teams managing multiple seats.
• You can switch from monthly to yearly billing, or change your subscription tier, directly from your account. There’s no need to cancel your existing plan first.
• License installation instructions now appear directly beneath each license, along with relevant download links.
• We’ve also simplified and modernized the overall account interface for a cleaner, more intuitive experience.

More to Come

You can keep track of all updates in our change-log in which you’ll find constant improvements to the Scan2CAD software. If you’ll not already a Scan2CAD user you may try for yourself today.

Auto-clean

Preparing an image for conversion is an integral part of the conversion process.You may have noticed the new Auto-clean toggle above the Scan2CAD canvas. When enabled, Auto-clean automatically cleans your raster image by removing common problematic attributes and generating an image that’s more suitable for conversion.

It’s important to note that Auto-clean won’t be ideal for every image. It’s designed to apply the most appropriate cleaning steps to the majority of images, but there will be scenarios where its automated adjustments may not produce optimal results.
In those cases, simply disable the Auto-clean toggle and manually clean the image using the tools found under the menu; ‘Edit‘ > ‘Clean Raster Image‘.

Enhanced OCR

Scan2CAD includes OCR (optical character recognition) to convert text from both raster and vector images into fully editable CAD text strings. With the introduction of Enhanced OCR, you can now expect significantly improved conversion results compared to Standard OCR.

Enhanced OCR not only delivers higher text-recognition accuracy, but it also greatly improves geometry conversion—such as lines, arcs, and arrow lines—in drawings that contain both text and geometry. By reducing false positives, Enhanced OCR helps prevent geometry from being misinterpreted as text, and vice versa.

Wall Recognition

Architectural floor plans can represent walls in various ways—using single lines, double parallel lines, or solid blocks.
Scan2CAD has always supported the recognition of single-line and parallel-line walls.

With the latest update, we’ve added support for solid-block wall recognition through the Architectural + Walls vectorization preset. If your drawing includes solid walls, you can now choose whether to convert them into solid-fill polygons or outline polygons, depending on your workflow needs.

Real world benefits

These new features—Auto-clean, Enhanced OCR, and expanded Wall Recognition—were designed to simplify your workflow and help you achieve more accurate, dependable CAD conversions. Whether you’re simple plans or highly complex technical drawings, Scan2CAD offers even more tools to ensure high-quality results with greater efficiency. If you haven’t explored these updates yet, now is the perfect time to give them a try.

Why are PDF files such a pain? Let me to break it down for you:

PDFs are versatile

…By which I mean, they can contain data, text and imagery of different formats.

In the context of Scan2CAD, we deal with PDFs which can contain both raster and vector imagery, all of which we must appropriately convert to CAD or CNC data. Therefore the versatility of a PDF file brings a huge scope of elements which must be supported ‘out-of-the-box’.

There’s no true PDF standard

…I’m oversimplifying with this statement. There is a known way to support PDF files. But the problem is that this can be slightly (or sometimes radically) different for each PDF.   

There are tens of thousands of applications and hardware which create PDF files. Each may opt to encode a PDF in a slightly different manner. We have spent over a decade iterating upon our PDF interpreter and it’s still not unusual to find a PDF that has been encoded in a novel way which requires further development to support. You can see how much of our change log mentions added support for new PDF files.

PDFs are ‘wrappers’ for raster images

If you have a PDF which contains a raster image, you might tell someone that the image format is ‘.pdf’. It’s not quite the full story. PDFs are just wrappers which may contain any number of different raster image file formats, such as JPEG, TIFF and somewhat antiquated raster file formats such as JBIG2. This again means that quite extensive development is required to support these raster image formats contained within the PDF. In fact, as an example, we developed ‘jbig2codec’ a library dedicated to decoding just one of the raster image formats found within PDFs.

Many PDFs use solid-fill polygons to display the bounds of a page

Sometimes, you can open a PDF and it can appear blank when it’s not. This can happen when the application which created the PDF used a white solid-fill polygon to represent the bounds of the PDF page. So when opening a PDF in some applications, this white polygon overlays the contents of the page, and you get, what appears to be, an empty page.

To account for this in Scan2CAD, we automatically remove all solid white rectangles contained in the PDF be default. A setting which can be disabled if you so wish.

This one quirk of PDF files is a good example of the messy nature of the file format.

Hidden text layers are common

There are many situations that a PDF may contain useless text strings. This can happen when an application (including some document scanner software integrated with hardware) uses a commonly rudimentary OCR to create a hidden text layer, representing the text in a raster image.

I don’t really know why applications do this. I suspect it’s just feature bloat on their part. Adding a simple OCR to make images searchable.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hidden text layer – on a technical drawing – which is useful. The OCR-created text will usually contain a large amount of false positives, forming nonsense information.

What’s worse, when these PDFs are opened in a subsequent application, like Scan2CAD, the user may think that this new application is creating this nonsense text.

For this reason, in Scan2CAD, we added a quick method for deleting all vector text strings from a PDF, if required.

Conclusion

PDF files are a pain in the butt if you wish to extensively support them beyond a simple viewer. But they aren’t going anywhere. So software developers will instead rant in a blog post.

PDF files are particularly troublesome because the ‘market’ is full fo thousands of different PDF encoding methods.

In 2017 we first began a new library to support the JBIG2 raster image format. This format is commonly used as a method of embedding raster images in PDF files. We named the library jbig2codec.

The best testimonial we can offer is that we have relied upon this library to decode JBIG2 images for all of Scan2CAD’s users for the past 4 years. 

Please contact us if you would like to purchase a license to use jbig2codec. We will be happy to welcome you and offer developer assistance if required.

Scan2CAD Automate offers gives you the power to automate any feature of Scan2CAD with a simple, extendable Python API. We’re excited about how this new feature can bring Scan2CAD’s market-leading CAD conversion results to new companies and markets.

Example use-cases

Scan2CAD Automate is used in conjunction with the Scan2CAD app (available for macOS and Windows.) With a simple command, you can execute the app to run through whichever automation processes you wish. Due to the simplicity and accessibility of the API, the integration of this new feature within companies is extremely pain-free.

How can Scan2CAD Automate improve your workflow? With this flexible API, the possibilities are endless but a few simple examples would be:

• Batch-convert thousands of technical drawings to DXF/DWG in a single click
• Integrate Scan2CAD with your solution offering market-leading conversions to your users.
• Automate repetitive tasks for a manufacturing process-line, converting files to CAM/CNC format, reducing countless manhours.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Used by the world’s leading companies

For the past 20+ years, Scan2CAD has been trusted by the world’s leading design and engineering companies.

Although we are announcing the official release of Scan2CAD Automate today, the feature has been available to users for some months. Over that time, we are pleased to see Scan2CAD Automate being adopted by Engineering and design companies large and small. From micro-sized manufacturing companies using Scan2CAD Automate to increase the efficiency of their production line-process to global engineering firms integrating Scan2CAD Automate into their solutions to offer conversion abilities to their users.

As usual, we continue to regularly release updates that will improve our automation offering as we continue to learn how our users are utilizing this feature.

Scan2CAD Automate is available on the Scan2CAD Business tier. If you have any questions about how Scan2CAD Automate can help you, reach out to Scan2CAD support and we’ll be happy to help.

This change does not affect any users who are running a current version of Scan2CAD (v10 and above).

Scan2CAD is native software that must be supported by your Windows and macOS Operating Systems. Since many years ago, Scan2CAD moved to a much-improved licensing system designed, tested and supported for modern Operating Systems. The licensing system supports all the common requirements of our users i.e. Standard licensing, Floating Network licensing, and Offline licensing.

It has become untenable to continue to support the licensing method used in very old versions of Scan2CAD because this third-party licensing system is not suitable for modern computing requirements. 

We want to make this transition as pain-free and as transparent as possible so here’s what we are doing:

• We have contacted all registered users of Scan2CAD v8 & V9 to inform them of this transition. Giving users 6 months’ notice to prepare for the sunset.
• All users with an active subscription can upgrade to the current version of Scan2CAD (v10 and above) at any time. All upgrades are included free in a subscription.
• If users do not have an active subscription – Users who have a legacy license have been offered a 40% discount on their first-year renewal to reactivate their subscription. The renewal discount can be requested here.

If you do not choose to renew your subscription you can continue using your legacy Scan2CAD license.  Importantly, the legacy software will not suddenly stop working.

The sunsetting of the legacy license system means that you will not be able to deactivate or activate the license in new locations.

If you intend to continue running the legacy software after the sunset date without renewing your subscription we recommend the following:

• Take a snapshot of your operating system so you can ‘roll back’ to a working version in-case you inadvertently upgrade something causing the legacy licensing to stop working.
• Consider that operating system upgrades may not be compatible with the legacy licensing software – Scan2CAD v8 was developed over a decade ago it is not designed for operating systems released since then.
• Ensure you have installed and activated the software in the location of your choice prior to the sunset date as you may not be able to move the legacy software to a new PC after that date.

If you have any questions, we’re always here to help.

This month’s news round-up will cover Matterport’s announcement of BIM 360 integration with deep linking; a former AutoDesk CEO being appointed to BOX’s board of directors, and Panasonic designing mould cooling channels with generative design and hybrid manufacturing.

Other stories we also checked out include how a hospital in Italy is using 3D printing to treat coronavirus patients; a 3D-printed hands-free door opener created by Materialise; and 3D-printed face shields produced by Nottingham University for NHS.

This edition of Coffee Break News is packed with so much information, so let’s get right to it!

Matterport integrates BIM 360 with deep linking

Matterport has announced integration with Autodesk BIM 360 in order to better support collaboration on various construction projects. This integration will focus on the professional-level contractors who are currently using BIM 360 for their projects.

With this integration, teams utilizing BIM 360 for construction projects, particularly organization and optimization, will be able to access and explore Matterport scans and digital twins in addition to the information already stored in their BIM 360 Project Home dashboards. Matterport can create what is known as “deep links” to specific locations within a scan, thus increasing the speed of decision making by allowing annotations to link directly to specific questions and problems.

Other features of this integration include allowing users to view Matterport 3D models on BIM 360 project pages by adding a URL from Showcase, adding a Matterport digital twin to information requests to demonstrate the reason, access to digital twin of a job site, and more.

Tomer Poran, Director of Business Development for Matterport, said, “By simply adding the Matterport Partner Card into their BIM 360 Project Home, construction teams can activate the Matterport integration to streamline documentation across workflows and collaboration between stakeholders.”

James Cook, head of integrations for Autodesk Construction Solutions, added, “Embedding Matterport’s 3D walk-throughs into the BIM 360 Project Home dashboard provides construction team members spatial context alongside essential project data so they can seamlessly collaborate and make decisions from any location, saving time and money to keep projects on track.”

Former Autodesk President and CEO joins Box Board of Directors

Cloud content management company Box announced last week that Carl Bass, former President and CEO of Autodesk, has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Bass was also formerly the chief technology officer and chief operations officer at Autodesk. Bass currently serves on the board of directors of several leading technology firms today, such as Built Robotics, Zendesk, and Planet Labs.

Talking about the appointment, Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie said, “Carl led Autodesk through an exciting period of growth and transformation, and he is a fantastic addition to our Board. Carl’s years of operational experience building one of the defining software companies will be invaluable as we execute on our strategy to drive product innovation and profitable growth as we scale.”

Bass, meanwhile, said, “Box has built the industry leading cloud content management platform and as work environments continue to evolve globally, they have an incredible opportunity to reshape how businesses of all sizes operate. I know first-hand that great software can empower creativity and reshape the way entire industries work. I’m thrilled to bring my experience building large software businesses and working with leaders to deliver value and innovation for customers to the exceptional team at Box.”

Bass was part of Autodesk for 24 years, holding a number of executive positions. He was CEO of Autodesk from 2006 to 2017. He co-founded Ithaca Software and Buzzsaw, both of which were later acquired by Autodesk.

Panasonic develops mould cooling channels through hybrid manufacturing and generative design

Life Solutions Company of Panasonic Corporation has announced the development of a new hybrid manufacturing method for mould cooling water channels combining 3D printing, milling, and generative design. In a post on the Autodesk Redshift blog, Panasonic said this conformal cooling system reduces cooling time by 20% compared to conventional drilled channels.

Seiichi Uemoto, an analyst for Panasonic’s Life Solutions Company Manufacturing Engineering Center, looked for ways to use generative design for automatically creating metal mould cooling channels, after he did optimisation work on cooling loops designs for box-shaped metal moulds. Uemoto thought that automating the design process with generative would deliver new designs.

Panasonic then worked with Autodesk to apply generative design to deliver optimised design outcomes to the mould cooling water channels, particularly for mass-produced fan blades in duct ventilation systems.

Uemoto said, “Topology optimisation can produce only one solution from the conditions provided to the system. It is difficult to produce something with smooth contours from the generated result. But it became apparent to me that generative design would inherently result in smoother shapes. I felt with generative design, we would be able to effectively generate multiple concepts that took manufacturing principles into account.”

Four different mould samples were manufactured using this method, all using the LUMEX Avance-25 hybrid system combining metal 3D printing with milling for manufacturing complex parts with complicated internal structures. Uemoto said the results were “quite remarkable” and successfully achieved their goal of applying automated design.

Other stories we checked out this month:

• This hospital in Italy is using 3D printing to treat COVID-19 patients, teaming up with Isinnova to manufacture respirator valves in 24 hours.

• Belgian software and 3D printing firm Materialise is offering its 3D-printed hands-free door opener for free to users all over the world as its contribution to help with containment efforts.

• Engineers from the University of Nottingham have also designed and produced 3D-printed PPE face shields for healthcare workers in the Nottingham area.

We covered several big developments over the last few weeks, including how PTC’s Vuforia Spatial Toolbox is being used to speed up the development of robotics interface; MSC’s unique business model which lets engineers innovate remotely anytime even during the COVID-19 pandemic; and Dassault Systemes’ revenue reports and forecast.

Other stories we followed include how BIM reviews are using virtual reality nowadays; the transformation of low-cost printers into high-tech output producers; and the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the architects of the world.

There’s so much interesting things to read about in this edition of our news round-up, so let’s get things started!

PTC’s Vuforia Spatial Toolbox Designed to Speed Up Robotics Interface Development

PTC Reality Lab has released its open-source platform called Vuforia Spatial Toolbox which is intended to let developers solve various spatial computing problems in a much more efficient way.

PTC’s announcement said, “Innovators and academic researchers can explore the power of Industrial Internet of Things [IIoT] and spatial computing, accelerate prototyping for machines, and develop leading-edge spatial augmented reality (AR) and IoT use cases to support digital transformation initiatives.”

According to PTC, this spatial computing platform can assist team in improving the operation of complex manufacturing environments and also grant easier control to IoT-enabled machines as far as on-the-fly programming. Developers can utilize the Vuforia Spatial Toolbox to create intuitive user interfaces that control and operate robots, and also allow them to build interfaces that improve the interaction between humans and machines.

Mike Campbell, executive vice president and general manager of augmented reality for PTC, said, “Many developers, innovators, and researchers recognize that AR can help democratize the programming and control of connected machines. What they need are solutions that help alleviate development overhead for prototyping these innovative, next-gen AR tools. PTC is helping them develop tools and interfaces to spatially interact with and program the world of interconnected things around them.”

CAE Leader MSC Changes Business Model So Engineers Can Work Remotely During COVID-19

MSC Software Corporation (MSC), one of the world’s leaders in the Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation software and services, has recently announced that it will give customers free offline licensing and remote access options to allow them to remain productive, especially while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roger Assaker, Chief Customer Engagement Officer for MSC Software, announced, “We are adapting to the needs of our customers, and are also adding a helping hand to support their business continuity so they can continue to design, engineer and perform virtual testing outside their place of work. We are facilitating the access to our software, knowledge base and support to enable the creation of even more value with our tools, helping companies to maintain productivity and innovation when many manufacturing lines are down.”

He added, “We appreciate that these are very challenging times for many of our customers, and we can guarantee that we will be supporting them to the best of our ability, every step of the way.”

Some of the offerings from MSC Software specific to this season of pandemic lockdowns include extension of licenses for work-from-home support or alternative access options for MSC Software CAE solutions, and free access to online learning resources for MSC Software products.

The manufacturing industry has always found remote work particularly challenging because many of its tools and system processes still revolve around old-fashioned workflows. As more and more companies are forced to find ways to work remotely, CAE and simulation tools are particularly useful in the migration.

Dassault Systemes Revenue Forecasts Lower Than Expected

Dassault Systemes SE announced on Wednesday that revenues for the first quarter of the year should grow 14% to 17%, based on preliminary data. This is lower than originally expected by Dassault, or about 2.5% to 5% lower than original projections because of lower new license revenue and services activity.

Still, Dassault stated that recurring software revenue, which makes up about 84% of its software revenue for the quarter, was still relatively in line with initial guidance and was the main driver of growth for this time period, mainly because of the good performance of its recent acquisition Medidata.

Other stories we followed this month:

• Firms all over the world are offering or utilizing BIM-enabled virtual reality setups during the pandemic.
• The United States Army has a new multi-polymer filament for desktop 3D printers, turning these printers into high-tech producers.
• Architects are finding creative ways to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for the future as the industry also grapples with the global situation.

There are many long press releases from companies during this period but we’re all too busy to concern ourselves with corporate babble.

So, to keep things succinct, I wanted to share with you a short note I sent to our subscribers this week.

Hi there,

I’m sure you’ve received a lot of emails during the COVID-19 crisis so I will keep this one short.

1. If you need a free 3-month home-use Scan2CAD license, email us and let us know.

2. If there is anything we can do to help your work during this time – email us and let us know. Maybe we can help, maybe we can’t. But we’ll try.

On our side, we’re all working from home and continuing to provide the same services as usual including free 24/7 support for all users.

Stay safe and be kind,

Luke and the Scan2CAD Team.

Some of the stories we thought you should not miss include the STEM challenge initiated by several engineering groups designed for pupils who are currently staying at home due to COVID-19 lockdowns; how BLOX is building hospitals in an Alabama facility to be sent to sites all over the United States; and how AI is being used along with radiology technologies in China in the continued fight versus COVID-19.

Additional stories we covered include Dassault Systemes’ efforts to produce a virtual of the human body; and how Autodesk has been recognized as one of the world’s most innovative companies in 2020.

This edition of Coffee Break News is packed with information, so let’s get right to it!

Great Exhibition at Home Challenge launched for UK students

With so many students worldwide currently unable to attend their classes due to lockdown and stay-at-home orders in place, educators and other concerned groups are coming up with innovative ways to keep students learning at home. The Royal Academy of Engineering and Big Ideas have collaborated on the “Great Exhibition at Home” challenge designed to encourage students to continue their STEM learning activities.

Taking inspiration from the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Great Exhibition at Home Challenge encourages learners to come up with various ideas for how engineers can use their skills and knowledge in protecting the planet.

Dr. Virginia Crompton, CEO of Big Ideas, said, “Our every day lives may have changed beyond recognition, but that’s all the more reason to offer engaging and meaningful content for young people, especially as schools are closing.”

This challenge has been formatted to be done in both the classroom and the home, for primary and secondary learners, and can be done alone or with a group. Students in the UK who will be participating in this challenge will join a seven-week project which will culminate in a video.

Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, explained, “Young people are natural engineers – creative, problem solving, adaptable. This is an amazing opportunity for them to think about how they might use engineering to help protect the planet and showcase their ideas, in the style of the famous Great Exhibition of 1851.”

BLOX using BIM, digitization to build hospitals and structures

Construction firm BLOX is using a manufacturing-forward approach to design and build structures with the efficiency and productivity level of a factory assembly line, utilizing BIM and digital workflow processes. Termed industrialized construction, this process brings together practices from different industries to enhance innovation and speed up the overall process.

BLOX is the brainchild of designer Chris Giattina, who drew inspiration from the practices in the automotive and aircraft manufacturing industries, including manufacturing their complex products using a series of prefabricated assembly lines.

From this concept, the team at BLOX came up with a modular method that Giattina called the Design Manufacture Construct (DMC). In this process, buildings are designed as a series of pre-assembled parts, then shipped and assembled at the building site itself, this cutting traditional construction times.

This DMC process is presently being applied for several hospital building projects across the United States. BLOX says using DMC, it can build up to 15 projects every year. “You can make a whole building in about three weeks and just keep them coming,” according to Giattina.

AI-assisted radiology technologies help in the fight against COVID-19 in China

Artificial intelligence has played a vital part alongside radiology technologies in the continued effort to stem the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in mainland China. In particular, computed tomography medical imaging is being used to detect abnormalities in the patients’ lungs. Radiological features of COVID-19 were included as one of the determining clinical manifestations to confirm that a suspected patient of COVID-19 does have the virus. CT images were enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that quickly triage patients to radiomic COVID-19 image signatures.

Through the use of AI, radiological reviews and diagnoses of COVID-19 patients have become faster, while also increasing the workload for radiologists and physicians. Another advantage of AI is allowing the radiologist or technician to guide the patient through the examination process completely contact-free, thus protecting the medical practitioner while also saving the consumption of personal protection equipment (PPE) which otherwise must be worn.

Other stories we followed this month:

• Dassault Systemes is pledging to come through with its plans of creating a virtual twin of the human body via its 3DExperience platform, in line with the company’s vision of helping to cure patients and expanding life spans.

• Fast Company has included Autodesk in its annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2020, along with other companies reflecting the resilience and optimism of various industries despite global volatility.

Other newsbits we checked out for this month include the use of 3D printing for producing safer helmet padding; how machine software can help in reducing waster from 3D printing; and the release of the world’s first fossil-free crib from Vattenfall.

There is so much to explore in this month’s Coffee Break News, so let’s go straight into it.

Dassault Systemes and Xometry Partner Up For Instant Parts Production

Dassault Systemes and Xometry are teaming up to provide their customers with a seamless and integrated way to produce parts in the manufacturing process. Engineers who utilize SolidWorks and Catia will have access to Xometry price quotes via the MAKE Marketplace for manufacturing parts without having to exit their design environment, thus allowing them to have a greater role in not only the design and manufacturing aspect of parts production, but also the cost to produce it.

The partnership was announced during the 3DEXPERIENCE World 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. With this new development, manufacturing price quotes from service providers can now be done instantaneously and in a one-click immersive experience using integration with SolidWorks and Catia, rather than having to go to a separate web interface that requires more clicks. Engineers will have access to Xometry price quotes in their design context, with the option to get manual or instant quotes from MAKE Marketplace suppliers.

Sebastian Massart, head of corporate strategy for Dassault Systemes, said, “We launched the MAKE Marketplace in 2018 to make it easy for customers to design and manufacture. Our partnership with Xometry takes this a step further. Customers can order high-quality additive manufacturing or CNC machining parts in one click at the right price, thanks to Xometry instant quoting capabilities. This is all part of our vision to continuously reduce the friction that customers face going from design to manufacturing.”

The partnership positions Xometry as the first “prime partner” of Dassault Systemes’ MAKE Marketplace. Randy Altschuler, CEO of Xometry, said, “Engineers need the right tools to do their job successfully, and this includes working with a responsive, trusted manufacturing partner. As the leader in 3D printing and on-demand manufacturing, we have served many customers in the MAKE Marketplace since its launch. Through our deeper partnership with Dassault Systèmes, we can directly connect with customers and make a commitment to provide a quote on every customer query. It’s all about faster manufacturing.”

Augmented Reality is Increasing Workforce Productivity in Manufacturing

The advent of augmented reality (AR), specifically the integration of high bandwidth, imaging technologies, and digitized information, has paved the way for a powerful new tool that increases industrial workforce productivity, thus becoming an advantage for assemblers, operators, and technicians.

This is the subject of an article by Tim Shinbara, CTO and vice president of manufacturing technology of the Association of Manufacturing Technology, published on MachineDesign.com, which talks about how augmented reality has allowed information, data, images, experience, and skills that workers can access easily and in real-time via their smartphones, tablets, or other smart devices has increased worker productivity and sped up the manufacturing process.

Amar Dhaliwal, CEO of Atheer Inc., said, “Augmented reality offers the promise of providing every member of the industrial workforce with relevant, contextual and customized information and guidance from across the enterprise into their field of view in a seamless, hands-free, intuitive manner that transforms the way they work.”

Specific areas that AR has benefitted positively include: maintenance and repair (diagnostics, maintenance, and repair of production equipment); technical field support (i.e. delivering remote support from the OEM without the need for physical delivery); inspection and surveying (reduced transport costs via drones and other unattended platforms); cargo and warehouse operations (efficient actions and applications through AR instead of paper printouts); and training and compliance (such as remote workforce training).

AR is expected to continue to grow quickly, with PwC estimating that up to 14 million workers will be wearing smart glasses by 2025, from just 400,000 in 2016. Dhaliwal said, “We have found that the manufacturing market still has a few misconceptions about AR, but when customers see that the applications of AR are extremely practical and straightforward, they understand how it can potentially benefit them. They often look for opportunities where the technology is likely to provide a step level change in their business, something with a 10 to 20% impact on ROI.”

Jon Peddie Research Releases 2020 CAD Report

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has released its 2020 CAD Report and is predicting a CAD market that is stronger than ever and continuing to grow, boosted by digitalization and other advances in design and engineering. According to the report, the CAD market is predicted to grow 2.4% over the forecast period 2018-2022, and reach revenue of US$9 billion by 2022.

Synergies are fueling strong growth in the CAD industry, particularly customers from automotive, construction, aeronautic, machine design, power, and process industries. These customers are rapidly adopting systems design and technological developments now accessible in the CAD market.

Analyst Kathleen Maher explains, “The leading CAD companies are finding room to forge their way in specialized markets as world industries transform their workflows via digitalization. The transition to 3D workflows is enabling CAD customers to build digital twins to test and model designs before they are built and monitor them in operation.”

The JPR report concentrates on 10 market leaders in the CAD industry, including Autodesk, Dassault, PTC, Siemens Digital Industries, Aveva, and Hexagon, and also collates data from 36 other CAD companies.

Other stories we checked out this month:

• 3D printing is now being used to create safer padding for helmets by a team from the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory and its HRL Laboratories partners.

• Researchers from USC Viterbi School of Engineering in California claim that machine learning algorithms and PrintFixer software are helping to increase accuracy and reduce waste in 3D printing.

• Vattenfall has announced the world’s first fossil-free crib, created without the use of any gas, oil, or coal, and it only cost $28,885 to build.

Stories we followed this month include the call of Autodesk’s CEO to use technology in designing products that are beneficial to society and generate better job opportunities; how architecture and landscape firm [delacourt] [van beek] used Marionette to design Van Goghplein, a plaza displaying a portrait of Vincent Van Gogh with an artful layout of interlocking bricks; and how a research group at Manchester University discovered a pioneering application of X-ray imaging technology for woven textile composites.

Other stories you will read about in this edition include the use of CT scans and 3D printing to ‘give voice’ to a mummified priest; robots and smart manufacturing taking centerstage at an event in Anaheim this month; and the announcement of the closure of the School of Architecture at Taliesin.

Enjoy this edition of Coffee Break News, and have a great month ahead!

Autodesk CEO calls for more efficient use of technology for better jobs, products

Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost, in a recent speech at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, acknowledged that technology can be both a positive and negative force, and companies must use it to manufacture better products, focus on sustainability, and generate better jobs with higher security for the growing population of the world.

“Because, although technology can be a positive force, there are forces pulling us in other directions. On the one hand, we know that a growing population is inevitable – as is a world with more automation – because so much more is needed. But at the same time, we fear there will be less jobs and less of our planet’s scarce resources,” Anagnost said.

He added that the growing middle class of the world is driving demand, and companies must recognize this and realize their responsibility. “Whatever your definition, the fact that 4 billion people enjoy mobility and prosperity is enormously good news. But with this increasing prosperity comes increasing demand: For more housing; hotels; more automobiles; and more airplanes. We know that more is inevitable. As we make more things for more people, we also know that we create more potential for negative impact. Making all we need with less harm to the planet and people is a reality that we all need to face up to.”

Anagnost also realizes that the challenge is great, but the opportunities are also there for the taking. “First, we have the opportunity to better use the world’s energy and materials. Using less is part of it, but it’s also about better: more renewable energy and more circular materials. Better is also about the health and resilience of the entire population, that means designing products without harmful materials that compromise our safety, or using supply chains that compromise people, it means designing buildings that prioritize health and well-being, and designing cities that are resilient in the face of climate change.”

Marionette in Vectorworks Used For Artistic Design

Architecture and landscape firm [delacourt] [van beek] utilized Marionette in Vectorworks to design Van Goghplein, a town plaza in the Netherlands with a prominent display featuring a portrait of Vincent Van Gogh using a layout of interlocking bricks.

In this video by Vectorworks profiling the firm, [delacourt] [van beek] founder Ton Vanbeek explains how they used Vectorworks for the ambitious project.

Composites Research Leads to Adoption in Aerospace Weaving

A research group at Manchester University postulated that X-ray imaging technology could be used for high-specification composite materials particularly in woven textiles. This is based on work that was published in the Journal of Composites Science and Technology where researchers showed a detailed picture of the evolution of damage in braided textile composites.

Textile composites are utilized for creating lightweight damage-tolerant structures, but the lack of adequate design and material performance data has hindered their adoption in the high-value manufacturing industry. However, the research group showed real-time data and 3D imaging processes detailing how carbon fiber composite tubes handle structural loading.

This offers great potential in designing and utilizing braided textile composites for aerospace and automotive drive shafts, sporting and hobby equipment, and other uses. Professor Phil Withers, chief scientist at the Henry Royce Institute, said, “In-situ X-ray imaging has allowed us to shed light on the 3D nature of the initiation and propagation of damage mechanisms in composite tubes for the first time.”

Other stories we followed this month:

• CT scans and 3D printing are being used to recreate the voice of Nesyamun, a 3000-year-old mummified priest.

• The ATX and D&M shows are taking place in Anaheim, California this February, and robotics and smart manufacturing are on display in the events.

• The famed School of Architecture at Taliesin is shutting its doors after 88 years of existence, after talks with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to keep the school open bogged down.

This month’s Coffee Break News is loaded with so much important information we thought you should not miss. Stories we covered include a timely reminder on how the world can get back on track in meeting its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals; the launch of IronCAD’s Design Collaboration Suite 2020; and the development of a soft polymer material by a group of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology introduction of the Carbon Fiber 3D printer by Desktop Metal.

Additional stories we are featuring in this edition of the news round-up include the introduction of the Carbon Fiber 3D printer by Desktop Metal; the results of the House Challenge 2019 with the Desert House theme; and Phase Four’s launch of a new electric propulsion system using Xometry’s platform.

There’s a lot to read about so let’s get right into it!

Nature.com publishes editorial on 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

A timely editorial put out by Nature.com seeks to call the attention of all stakeholders and leaders on how the world can get back on track to meet its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. It should be remembered that back in 2015, world leaders met at a summit in New York organized by the United Nations with the aim of ending poverty, stopping environmental destruction, and improving the overall well-being of the global population. The world leaders signed on to the SDGs, a package of 17 different goals which include the eradication of hunger and extreme poverty, reducing economic inequality, taking steps to manage climate change, ending the loss of important ecosystems and biodiversity, and other targets, all within the 2030 timeframe.

According to the editorial, the world is poised to miss most of the goals as set forth in the 2015 agreement. “Just two of them — eliminating preventable deaths among newborns and under-fives, and getting children into primary schools — are closest among all the goals to being achieved. By contrast, the goal to eliminate extreme poverty will not be met because some 430 million people are expected still to be living in such conditions in 2030,” according to the article.

Particular areas of concern are climate change and environmental protection. “Targets to end hunger and to protect climate and biodiversity are completely off track. Whereas some of the richer countries are making a degree of progress in the SDGs overall, two-thirds of poorer ones are not expected to meet those that relate even to their most basic needs,” the editorial points out.

The editorial asserts that in order for the world to get back on track to meet these goals, international compliance needs to be stepped up. “To be achieved, the SDGs need to become mandatory — not necessarily in the legal sense, but in the sense that nations have to know that there’s no alternative but to make them happen,” the article reads.

Design Collaboration Suite 2020 by IronCAD Out Now

IronCAD, a popular 3D CAD platform in the metal fabrication and custom machine manufacturing industries, has launched IRONCAD 2020. The newly-unveiled Design Collaboration Suite was designed to enhance productivity for software users who need to get their products out in the market at a faster rate, while also improving performance and design functionality.

IronCAD relied on user feedback to focus on areas that needed enhancement in its 2020 release, and key improvements were centered on large assembly performance, streamlined workflows, and better design presentation and communication. “This year’s release, the main focus was on improving the ICD (IronCAD Drawing Environment) to increase productivity. With this in mind, our goal was to improve the 3D to 2D detailing process to reduce the design to manufacturing timing with better performance, improved commands, better accessibility to common commands, faster drawing creation with our automated bulk view creation tool that enable users to go from concept to manufactured products faster,” IronCAD’s official press release said.

Cary O’Connor, Vice President of Marketing for IronCAD, said, “Expanding on our recent 20th year release capabilities, IronCAD 2020 gains a significant leap in the ability to work and manage large assembly files commonly used among our custom machinery manufacturers. Users will feel improvements to the performance while working in 3D all the way through to the final production drawing output with the many improvements developed in the IronCAD Drawing Environment to speed up and aid the detailing process.”

Researchers develop soft polymer material using magnetic fields

A combined group of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Ohio State University has been able to develop a soft polymer material that uses magnetic fields to transform into different shapes. The material, called magnetic shape memory polymer, could usher in new possibilities in various applications and manufacturing purposes.

The new material was developed from a mixture of two types of magnetic particles, one for inductive heat and the other for strong magnetic attraction, as well as shape-memory polymers for locking shape changes into place.

Jerry Qi, a professor at Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, said, “This is the first material that combines the strengths of all of these individual components into a single system capable of rapid and reprogrammable shape changes that are lockable and reversible.”

He added, “We envision this material being useful for situations where a robotic arm would need to lift a very delicate object without damaging it, such as in the food industry or for chemical or biomedical applications.”

Other stories we followed this month:

• Desktop Metal has introduced its Carbon Fiber 3D printer, already its third 3D printing platform.

• The results of House Challenge 2019 competition with the Desert House theme have been released, and applicants came up with some very exciting concepts for temporary houses compatible with the harsh desert environment.

• Space propulsion startup company Phase Four utilized Xometry in developing a new electric propulsion system that is more cost-efficient, thus better equipped for the mass production of satellites.

Other stories we looked at this month include a focus on how quickly multi-material 3D printing is able to manufacture complex objects; the use of defect-detecting drones at Wembley Park to see structural issues; and how the Thanksgiving holiday in the US has become a high-tech event.

These stories are definitely worth checking out, so let’s get right to them!

Rwanda’s progressive architecture for the future

Transformation has become evident throughout the country of Rwanda, a country that is rebuilding after more than two decades of civil war and other tragedies. Contemporary architecture has become a symbol of the ongoing economic and societal reforms throughout the country.

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in the continent of Africa, yet it has one of the fastest-growing economies globally. With a predominantly rural population, Rwanda’s cities are undergoing transformation through an organized series of initiatives and beautification campaigns started by the government.

The shift in architecture started when people began to reside in the cities of Rwanda during the 1980s. Development was adjusted to the country’s geography and varied landscapes. For instance, the Bisate Lodge by Nicholas Plewman Architects reflects Rwanda’s organic culture and rolling hills, with its spherical rooms and lush foliage.

Another structure, the Rwanda Cricket Stadium, was a project of Light Earth Designs and was built using local construction techniques, thus avoiding having to import materials, while also lowering carbon emissions and supporting the local economy. The cricket stadium’s main enclosure was inspired by Mediterranean tile-vaulting, with geogrid reinforcing. The vaults of the cricket stadium follow the natural resolution of forces, thus looking like the hillside views of Rwanda.

Holographic beam shaping is enhancing additive manufacturing

A team from Cambridge University’s engineering department, with funding from EPSRC, is launching a three-year research program that will utilize computer-generated holography to control the laser’s energy distribution in three dimensions.

Tim Wilkinson, professor of photonic engineering and the project leader, explained, “Rather than using a single beam with a scanning mirror, we can use multiple beams at the same time. We can build up our structure in a more three-dimensional way, which allows us to control things like thermal stresses.”

Currently, one of the disadvantages of the process is the difficulty of predicting or controlling the intense heat at the focus of the laser. This fuses the metallic powder in additive manufacturing and causes thermal stress or distortion in the part being manufactured. The holographic approach, however, can correct for limitations.

According to Wilkinson, the hologram can be changed hundreds or thousands of times per second for energy distribution, and there are algorithms that can be utilized to correct for material properties, optical aberrations, and other aspects.

“The holographic approach allows us to make things which were impossible before. There are certain structures you can’t make because of the thermal stresses,” Wilkinson said.

Eviation completes prototype of zero-emission electric aircraft

Electric air mobility pioneer Eviation Aircraft has completed the first prototype of a zero-emission, fully-electric regional commuter aircraft called Alice. The electric air mobility company used Dassault Systemes’ 3DEXPERIENCE cloud platform to develop the prototype.

Omer Bar-Yohay, CEO of Eviation Aircraft, said, “The electrification of aircraft isn’t a question of if, but when. As we aim to make clean regional air travel accessible for all, we needed to be able to make a product that people trust, sit in and fly, and do it quickly.”

With regard to their choice of using the 3DExperience platform, Bar-Yohay explained, “he right way to go about it was to use tools that we would want to use in the long run, and to work in the cloud to ensure fast, secure access and global collaboration. When we selected the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we were an early stage startup with limited resources and time. We’ve developed our commercial-stage prototype faster than we imagined, and have already signed our first customer in the U.S.”

Once the Alice prototype is commercialized, it will be the first all-electric regional commuter airplane in the world, with the capability of carrying nine passengers and two crew members for 650 miles, flying at 10,000 feet and with a single charge.

Dassault Systemes’ David Ziegler, the Vice President for Aerospace and Defense Industry, commented, “Dassault Systèmes works with companies of all sizes, including new companies like Eviation Aircraft that participate in a true Aerospace Renaissance, changing the way the world travels and commutes. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform delivers solutions tailored for these innovators to implement new ways to conceptualize, design, manufacture, test, certify and operate their programs.”

More stories we followed this month:

• With a new method called multimaterial multinozzle 3D that allows 3D printing with up to 8 different inks at up to 50 times per second, 3D printing becomes faster and easier.

• A fleet of drones will be used by contractor John Sisk and Son to conduct quality checks on the external structure of PRP’s tower projects at Wembley Park.

• Technology has now taken over Thanksgiving as well, as 3D printing and IoT devices are now being used in cooking and preparing Thanksgiving dishes in the US.

This edition of Coffee Break News is quite different because instead of our usual habit of giving you tidbits of several different stories in the areas of CAD, engineering, design, architecture, technology, and other related fields, this month we are focusing on just one major event that took place this month: PTC’s acquisition of SaaS product development platform provider OnShape.

This major acquisition by PTC was just completed at the end of October, and it puts PTC in a unique and enviable position as a leader in the industry’s rapid transition to SaaS. PTC is an international software company with a global presence, with cutting-edge and market-leading products and services offered. According to PTC’s President and CEO Jim Heppelmann, “PTC has earned a reputation for successfully pursuing new innovations that drive corporate growth. Building on the strong momentum we have with our on-premises CAD and PLM businesses, we look to our future and see a new growth play with SaaS.”

OnShape, meanwhile, delivers computer-aided design (CAD) combined with data management and collaboration tools in a Software as a Service (SaaS) product development platform that is the first in its industry. OnShape was started in 2012 by notable CAD pioneers and tech innovators, including the inventors and former executives of SolidWorks: Jon Hirschtick, Dave Corcoran, and John McEleney.

The SaaS model is becoming more and more commonplace in the industry. OnShape’s software offering, for instance, is accessible from any geographic location or device with an active connection, thus lessening the need for additional hardware and expenses, and also reducing the workforce necessity. Because the software is in the cloud, collaboration is improved, efficiency is enhanced, and the amount of time needed can be lessened. 

OnShape’s Hirschtick explained, “At Onshape, we share PTC’s vision for helping organizations transform the way they develop products. We and PTC believe that the product development industry is nearing the ‘tipping point’ for SaaS adoption of CAD and data management tools. We look forward to empowering the customers we serve with the latest innovations to improve their competitive positions.”

PTC’s Heppelmann explained further about the $470-million acquisition, “Today, we see small and medium-sized CAD customers in the high-growth part of the CAD market shifting their interest toward SaaS delivery models, and we expect interest from larger customers to grow over time. The acquisition of Onshape complements our on-premises business with the industry’s only proven, scalable pure SaaS platform, which we expect will open new CAD and PLM growth opportunities while positioning PTC to be the leader as the market transitions toward the SaaS model.”

The SaaS model has become the biggest trend in software markets and domains as manufacturers look to cloud-based solutions to support innovation-related processes, including design review, quality management, supplier cooperation, and service delivery.

Other stories we are serving up in this roundup include the successful 3D printing of a miniature human heart by US scientists, the support of New York’s designers and architects in the recent Global Climate Strike, and Fieldwire raising the stakes in its bid to compete with PlanGrid.

Enjoy reading this month’s news lineup! 

AutoDesk and ANSYS’ automotive Partnership

Major software names Autodesk and ANSYS have recently announced that they are collaborating in a new partnership that is geared towards the automotive industry. This collaboration will feature the integration of Autodesk’s automotive visualization and prototyping application VRED with ANSYS’s lighting simulation tools. 

Autodesk’s Thomas Heermann explained, “VRED is the leading-edge, industry-standard 3D visualization and digital decision-making tool in the automotive design studio. With the ANSYS collaboration, we can offer an integrated workflow—merging physics-based simulated optical ray files with complex and dynamic lighting scenarios directly into VRED.”

According to the two firms, this integration will allow automotive designers to produce photorealistic visual representations of vehicles they are working on, and this will, in turn, improve workflows and accuracies in physical reflections. 

For their part, ANSYS’s Eric Bantegnie said, “We are excited to collaborate with Autodesk to bring automakers our gold-standard lighting simulation. This collaboration represents a win-win scenario for both companies—but more importantly, for our joint customers who are looking to rapidly take advantage of industry megatrends like next-generation autonomous driving and electrification.”

UK and Korea collaborating on space battery designs

The UK’s Leicester University and National Nuclear Laboratory are teaming up with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in designing space batteries. The organizations announced their agreement which will focus on combining research on radioisotope thermoelectric power generators for utilization in space explorations. These technologies are designed to power space missions that probe distant, cold, dark environments in space. 

Aside from the cooperation on research and development, the partners will also develop international standards and safety protocols that are associated with these systems. 

Leicester University and National Nuclear Laboratory are part of a European Space Agency program which is developing radioisotope generators and heater units. According to Prof. Iain Gillespie, the pro-vice-chancellor of research and engineering for Leicester University, said, “Missions using nuclear power offer greater versatility in challenging environments. In many cases nuclear systems can enable missions that would otherwise be impossible.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Young Uk Jeong, the senior vice president for quantum science convergence for Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute or KAERI, said, “This memorandum of understanding will provide our respective countries with opportunities to pursue new avenues of collaboration and to discuss ways of increasing substantive cooperation in space nuclear power systems.”

Dassault joins AMRC

Dassault Systemes has officially joined the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC). The partnership was recently announced by Dassault Systemes, the French software company that envisioned the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The collaboration is intended to accelerate the manufacturing industry in the UK. 

Severine Trouillet, Global Affairs Director for EuroNorth at Dassault Systemes, said, “We strongly believe that we have entered the Industry Renaissance, a new era where experience will be at the heart of everything we do, from the way we innovate to the way we produce goods. The tools of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, whether automation, robotics or visualization, are the basis on which we are building a radically new world where entire sectors will be turned upside down.”

The AMRC was founded in 2001 and is the center of numerous research projects revolving around manufacturing, machining, and advanced materials. It counts over 100 partners. Recent collaborations include its hybrid 3D printing THREAD collaboration with engineers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its project with Toyota Motorsport GmbH to develop new lightweight automotive materials. 

Specifically, the team-up with Dassault Systems will focus on the Made Smarter initiative with UK manufacturers, with the goal of developing an open-access Smart Factory testbed where companies can enhance productivity, minimize defects, and reduce the time it takes to reach the market. 

Rab Scott, Head of Digital for AMRC, said, “With Dassault Systèmes as a Tier 1 partner, the AMRC is ideally placed to deliver the sustainable step-changes in productivity that the UK economy desperately needs. Its suite of digital technologies strengthens the AMRC’s portfolio of advanced manufacturing capabilities and puts us at the forefront of Industry 4.0 research and development.”

More stories we followed this month:

• Scientists from Chicago-based biotech company Biolife4D have successfully 3D printed a miniature human heart. This is a major step towards the goal of eventually being able to produce a full-sized human heart that is viable for transplants. The miniature heart featured the standard structure of a full-sized heart, including four internal chambers.
• Architects and designers from renowned firms in the New York City area joined the Global Climate Strike on September 20 spearheaded by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Designers and architects from Snohetta, Joe Ducet, Selldorf Architects, and Wood Bagot were among those in attendance at the event which was simultaneously held in over 150 countries to call for swift climate action.
• Fieldwire, known for its task management software for commercial construction teams, just raised an additional $33.5 million in Series C funding, led by Menlo Ventures, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Hilti Group, and Formation 8. The funding props up Fieldwire’s bid to better compete with rival PlanGrid, which was purchased last year by Autodesk for $875 million. 

This month, some stories that tickled our fancy include these proposed alternatives for keeping buildings cool aside from airconditioning; a new Reverb VR headset from HP geared towards CAD engineers; and Vectorworks’ acquisition of ConnectCAD. Other happenings we thought you should not miss include this survey indicating that employees would rather be replaced by robots than real people; the widespread use of 3D printing technology in the US military establishment; and how waste material is being converted to jet fuel on Humber Estuary.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Innovations in cooling buildings

Air-conditioning accounts for 10% of the world’s energy consumption, and in 2016 contributed to about 1045 metric tons of CO2 emissions worldwide. According to the International Energy Agency, by 2050 air-conditioning will reach 37% of the global total energy demand. Because of this, architects and engineers are coming up with various creative ways to keep buildings cool while reducing the need for air-conditioning. 

Popular building materials used nowadays because of their heat-insulation properties include stone, earth, and concrete. These dense materials have excellent thermal conductivity properties (for passive cooling), thermal lag (slowing down the transmission of heat), lower redistribution of heat or reflectivity, and higher volumetric heat capacity. Projects that have successfully utilized these materials include Santorini’s Summer Cave House by Kapsimalis Architects and A-cero’s Concrete House II. 

Also becoming popular is the use of green roofs, which provide shade, reduce heat from the air, lessen temperature, and also provide aesthetic appeal. Structures that utilize green roofs include the California Academy of Sciences (designed by Renzo Piano), Nanyang School of Art (designed by CPG), and Villa Bio (a project of Enric Ruiz-Geli). 

Could HP’s Reverb become a common tool for the CAD Engineer?

A new VR headset from HP, the HP Reverb, is being geared towards professionals with deeper pockets and with more demands on comfort as well as high definition sound. The HP Reverb has a $600 price tag, and it even has an enterprise version that will set you back $649. The HP Reverb is being pitted against other mainstream VR headsets: the Samsung Odyssey and the HTC Vive Pro. 

The Reverb features specs that edge out competitors: 2160×2160 resolution per eye, 114-degree field of view, 2.89-inch LCD displays over OLED, squircle-shaped view, asymmetrical Fresnel lenses, and a display of 24 to 25 pixels per degree. 

The HP Reverb also features built-in headphones, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and Bluetooth in-headset for convenient pairing. The $600 consumer version is sold with a machine-washable foam facepiece, while the $649 enterprise version has a leather facepiece. 

The initial rollout of the HP Reverb ran into some stocking and display issues, but the problems have since been resolved and HP has assured its customers that the VR headset should be available at the HP website and through their retail partners. 

Vectorworks acquires ConnectCAD

Design and BIM software solutions provider Vectorworks has acquired connectCAD, a systems design solution that caters mostly to the AV industry. connectCAD has been available since 2009 as a plugin for Vectorworks software, with functions for designing broadcast, AV, IT and lighting networks, and other connected systems. 

Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar said, “connectCAD has been a great partner product for Vectorworks over the years and has gradually built a product for Vectorworks that creates a powerful, yet intuitive interface for generating audiovisual system designs and reports. In response to the growing audio needs for our customers, connectCAD was an obvious choice because it’s a high-quality product that naturally extends our AV capabilities for our users.”

With the acquisition, connectCAD’s Founder, Managing Director, and Programmer for tools Conrad Preen will commit to at least two years with Vectorworks in order to continue developing connectCAD. Top priority will be the conversion of Vectorscript tools and commands to C++ utilizing Vectorworks SDK in order to enhance the connectCAD plugin’s performance. 

Vectorworks CEO Sarkar added, “The driving force for the acquisition was to get our foot in the door of the AV installation market. This will help us not only better serve those that do AV installations, but also those involved with broadcast and systems designs. The capabilities of the Vectorworks Spotlight product—plus the capabilities we’ve added in other new modules and acquisitions—has helped us to evolve our product offering into one that is built to be a total design and production solution for the entertainment industry.”

Here are some more stories worth checking out this month:

• According to a study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Rotterdam’s Erasmus University, most employees from Europe and North America would much rather be replaced in their own jobs by robots rather than other employees.
• The United States military has been actively embracing the potential of 3D printing or additive manufacturing, especially as the technology offers a powerful and efficient method of manufacturing. 
• A consortium which includes Shell and British Airways is building Europe’s very first waste-to-jet-fuel plant on the Humber Estuary, with the goal of converting up to half a million tons of household and commercial waste to jet fuel every year. 

Other stories we thought you might find interesting include: the new Joyride shoes from Nike designed to make your runs more comfortable; a knee-powered energy harvester for electronic devices; and a new probiotic clothing concept for healthy skin, activated by sweat!

There’s so much to get into in this month’s Coffee Break News, so let’s get started. 

Autodesk earmarks undisclosed investment towards prefab construction firm Factory OS

The construction firm is known for its heavy use of software in its construction of homes, thereby minimizing waste while also speeding up the process. Two years ago, Google worked with Factory OS in a $30 million project to construct short-term housing for its employees in the San Francisco Bay area. Autodesk has already partnered with Factory OS previously via its foundation arm, giving the firm free use of donated software licenses to help the startup in its initial phases. This investment, however, will be the first impact investment made by Autodesk towards Factory OS. 

Joe Speicher, executive director of Autodesk Foundation, explained, “I would argue that looking at the short-term horizon, modular construction looks to be ripe to solve some of our housing challenges. Engaging in this deeper relationship allows us to explore how we can add value.”

Autodesk and Factory OS are looking to integrate and streamline their software platforms in order to simplify design, fabrication, and supply chain management processes. The deal will also maximize Factory OS’s waste material reduction abilities in construction through the use of new digital technologies. Speicher added, “Most companies are very aware that automation and machine learning are disrupting many sectors. They are actually doing something about it.”

Aside from Autodesk, there are several other tech companies channeling substantial investments towards innovative strategies for solving the problem of affordable housing in hot markets such as Seattle and Silicon Valley. Recent investments have included Amazon’s $6.7 million-Series A funding for Plant Prefab.

AMD launches the new Radeon Pro WX 3200 graphics card

The product was launched with relatively little fanfare, but this graphics card is seen to fill a niche that AMD sees a lot of potential in, which is the AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) and manufacturing industries. The Radeon Pro WX 3200 is ISV-certified, fits into small-form CAD workstations, and is quite affordable, staying in the under-$200 budget. 

AMD touted its compact and cost-efficient graphics card in a blog post which also detailed the software programs compatible with the new product, including ANSYS, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, CNC Software Mastercam, Dassault Systemes Abaqus, Graphisoft ArchiCAD, Siemens PLM Software Solid Edge, and many more. 

According to AMD, the Radeon Pro WX 3200 is about 33 percent faster than the WX 3100 which came before it. The graphics card works with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, 128-bit interface. The driver set for the graphics card is AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise, along with other AMD Radeon Pro GPUs. 

Design firm Morpholio is now using augmented reality to bring to life a range of iconic furniture designs

Morpholio is teaming up with manufacturer Knoll and leading AR visualization company Thei Interactive to showcase the works of such known designers like Eero Saarinen, Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer, with the help of AR. 

Morpholio is pushing the limits of how far they can use Augmented Reality in this industry. Anna Kenoff, the co-founder of Morpholio, said, “Knoll’s collection is not only beautiful; the attention to detail made the furniture a perfect argument for why AR needed to go further using Apple’s new USDZ 3D file format.”

The team needed to hurdle two major obstacles, the first one being the detail. As Kenoff explained, “Consumers and interior designers do not rely on cartoonish shapes to make critical decisions about color, space, scale and texture. They need to see detailed finishes, patterns and even stitching to understand how something might really work in an environment.” Morpholio’s popular Board App now combines the abilities of Apple’s ARKit, USDZ 3D file format, iOS13’s “People Occlusion”, and Theia’s AR expertise to solve the detail conundrum.

The other obstacle was answering the question of why AR would be needed in this regard in the first place. Morpholio’s goal was to make AR part of an even bigger process. Mark Collins, co-founder of Morpholio, said, “This isn’t about hitting the buy button on a single piece of furniture. This is powerful visualization technology that needed to be plugged into the entire interior design workflow, helping homeowners and designers alike to imagine and curate spaces holistically.”

Bill Fishkin of Theia sums it up, “By bringing these pieces into AR, we’ve changed the way people can interact with and consider the furniture that will surround them when creating their ideal home or office.  The result is a first in the space and truly redefines how we understand what good AR can do for the design industry.”

Other stories we thought you should check out:

• Nike’s new Joyride shoes use tiny beads and an adaptable cushioning system to make your runs more comfortable. 

• A new knee-powered energy harvester from researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong generates enough power to keep small electronic gadgets working. 

• Researcher and designer Rosie Broadhead has collaborated with microbiologist Dr. Callewaert of Ghent University to develop a probiotic clothing concept activated by sweat. 

In this edition of Coffee Break News, we will talk about popular AutoCAD alternative DraftSight no longer being free, forecasts ahead for the CNC market as a whole, and tiny-home treehouses designed by Studio Precht for Baumbau. Also included are stories on innovations of outdoor workspaces in an office block in Nice, how demolition waste is being repurposed into chandeliers and candelabra, and airless tires which would be available to consumers by 2024.

There’s a lot to cover in this edition, so let’s get right down to it!

DraftSight 2019 is no longer free

Dassault Systemes has announced that Draftsight 2019 for Windows will only be offered in paid versions. This means if you are using a free version of DraftSight (2018 or earlier), it will no longer run after December 31, 2019.

Meanwhile, users who download and install the free 30-day trial or the purchased version of DraftSight 2019 will no longer be able to download or access previous free versions of DraftSight.

According to Dassault Systemes, DraftSight 2019 is a major software upgrade showcasing user-requested capabilities and functions, with powerful new features and flexibility. 

For the DraftSight Standard, there will now be an annual charge of $99. The purchase can be made directly from the DraftSight Online store. DraftSight Professional is available at an annual subscription price of $199, while DraftSight premium clocks in at $499 per year. 

The CNC market is expected to continue growing

According to industry forecasts, the CNC market will continue to grow from 2019-2024 at a projected rate of 7.3%. This is according to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s report entitled “The Computer Numerical Controls (CNC) Market – Worldwide Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2019-2024). According to the report, the market growth will be driven by the continued increase in demand for productions efficiency.

Production efficiency refers to the ability of CNC machines to streamline various operational processes through reduced production time and minimal operator error. In addition, the increased competition in the market has made rivals more focused on enhancing the efficiency of their manufacturing and production techniques, through redesigned facilities and equipment.

One area of interest is Asia-Pacific, where the rapid establishment of manufacturing facilities has driven up the usage of CNC in various sectors. Developing economies in the region, including China and India, have seen rapid industrialization growth, thus contributing to the increased demand for CNC. According to the report, automated manufacturing in the industrial sector is another reason for the growing demand for CNC machines, as well as power generation.

Modular treehouses are coming to Baumbau

Design firm Studio Precht has created truncated timber treehouses for eco-building start-up company Baumbau, with the concepts created by Chris Precht and his spouse Fei Tang Precht. The modular houses are inspired by a mood of playfulness and shaped by the actual forest, with the perspective of children looking at nature and architecture. 

This is the first time that Precht and Baumbau have collaborated on a project. Baumbau is a start-up that focuses on building tiny homes, treehouses, and buildings mainly for alternative tourism. According to Precht, “We took a playful look at this project and wanted to create a rather unique character than a conventional building. A quirky looking character that becomes part of the wildlife of a forest. I think this quirkiness can create feelings and emotions. And maybe these are attributes in architecture that are missing these days.”

The truncated treehouse design is called Bert, and the modular building system consists of prefabricated factory parts which are then assembled on-site. The houses have solar panels, a composting toilet, and a water treatment facility located on the ground floor. The first structures are expected to be completed by spring of 2020.

Other stories you should check out this month:

• This unique Anis office block in Nice is covered in outdoor workspaces, designed by architects Dimitri Roussel and Nicolas Laisne.
• London design studio JamesPlumb has been using demolition waste to create a unique collection of chandeliers and candelabra. 
• Automotive giants GM and Michelin are teaming up to bring airless tires to passenger cars by 2024. 

There’s a lot of exciting news for us to cover in this edition of Coffee Break News. There’s billionaire Jeff Bezos’ announcements of a concept for a lunar lander as well as plans for orbital space colonies, the 19_19 concept car from Citroen which promises to be as smooth as a “magic carpet ride” for passengers, and the big reveal of this year’s “Big Ideas for Small Lots NYC”.

Other stories we thought you shouldn’t miss include the release of Mola’s third Structural Kit to Kickstarter, a proposal from MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab on how islands and coastlines can be grown in the face of climate change, and the release of a Robo-Walker designed to give mobility to kids with cerebral palsy.

Let’s get right down to it!

Bezos’ Blue Origin unveils the lunar lander and plans to put up orbital space colonies

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave the public a look into the Blue Moon Lander, designed by his company Blue Origin. The announcement was made on May 9 during a special event held by Blue Origin.

The Blue Moon Lander has a cargo variant which is designed to 3.6 metric tons to the lunar surface. There is also a human-rated ascent stage variant of the lunar lander with a carrying capacity of 6.5 metric tons. The lunar lander, according to Blue Origin, can comply with the current US administration’s goal of putting Americans on the moon by 2024.

The lunar lander is powered by the BE-7 engine with a 40Kn (10,000 lbf) thrust specified for large-scale lunar payload transport. The engine is propelled by a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The Blue Moon is multifunctional and a double-decker lander with the capability of deploying a maximum of four rovers from its landing site. It can also launch orbital satellites.

Aside from the Blue Moon Lander, Bezos also detailed the company’s grandiose plans of launching orbital space colonies in the near future. The colonies will be housed in rotating cylinders, complete with simulated gravity, vegetation, and accommodation.

The concept was inspired by a proposal from Gerard O’Neill, a physicist who first came up with the idea in his 1976 book called The High Frontier. In the original concept, the cylinders featured illumination from reflected sunlight or artificial light, with the capability of supporting plant life.

“This is Maui on its best day, all year long,” according to Bezos. “No rain. No earthquakes. People are going to want to live here.”

Marking its 100th anniversary, French automotive brand Citroen announced its 19_19 concept car.

This fully electric and autonomous vehicle was described as a “living room on wheels”, borrowing from aviation design with its streamlined car body very similar to an aircraft fuselage.

The concept car also has a helicopter-like transparent bubble, and a suspended cabin supported by Citroen’s Progressive Hydraulic Cushion. This suspension makes the car body look and feel as if it were levitating above the wheels, thus eliminating bumps or potholes and offering an experience akin to a magic carpet ride.

In addition to the elevated cabin and suspension, the car also has oversized 30-inch wheels developed together with Goodyear. The wheels have a porous texture designed to absorb impact and eliminate noise. The tires come with embedded smart sensors monitoring road conditions when the car goes into autonomous mode. The 19_19 reaches speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour in 5 seconds, and a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

Pierre Leclercq, head of design for Citroen, said, “With 19_19 Concept, we sought to rewrite the automotive rule book with a high-impact vehicle featuring a strong and powerful design inspired by the world of aviation.”

Finalists for the Big Ideas for Small Lots NYC design competition have been announced

The competition was announced in February 2019 calling for proposals from architects and designers to develop high-quality and affordable housing concepts on small, irregular lots spread out across New York City.

‘System for Narrow Living’ by design firm Only If. (Source)

444 proposals from 36 nations were submitted to the competition which is part of the city mayor’s Housing New York 2.0 plan. The plan enhances efforts by the city to identify and find solutions for various housing sites that are particularly difficult to develop due to their size or irregular characteristic. Spearheaded by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, the competition narrowed down the proposals to five finalists.

Finalists included the Michael Sorkin Studio, 101+Kane AUD, OBJ, Only If Architecture, and Palette Architecture.

More stories we loved this month

• Mola releases their third Structural Kit to Kickstarter
• MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab proposes new way of growing islands and coastlines and minimize the effects of climate change 
• Kids with cerebral palsy now have a better way of moving around, thanks to this Robo-Walker