The CAD Insider

Nature Can Adapt Internal Structure – Why Can’t We?

(picture courtesy of www.digitalefolien.de) 

If you study the internal structure inside the head of a human femur, cutaway above, you can see the variations of the internal structure. The structure is very dense inside the surface of the ball, where most of the stress would be from contact with socket. The fibers of the structure get long as it delivers the load to the long part of the bone. The structure is sparse in the lower left of the ball, where there would be little stress.

You could not have designed it any better. Because you don’t have the software tools.

Image from Autodesk’s Netfabb product page shows and internal structure that is of uniform size and shape in all three directions.

So as we are used to making parts solid, but then asked to make them lighter and/or use material, we should consider an internal structure. CAD programs, if they offer that option, will give you a few choices of shapes and structures. They all seem to use the 3D lattice approach, which means geometrically perfect, made of uniformly sized cells or members and extending linearly and unwaveringly in 3 dimensions.

Not at all like our femur.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the design software would have enough insight to “grow” the internal structure, varying the cell size for example, decreasing it when stresses were high, increasing it when stresses are low? And, while we are at it, can we position the structure so that it lines up along the stress path? Once it is done, it can be subjected to another load case, which adds material to compensate for a stress flow – without taking away from the first solution. Each successive load case builds up the part so, in the end, it has grown up exactly as needed. It is no more and no less of the part it needs to be.

In the world of engineering and design software, we are increasingly seeing “upfront optimization.” Programs such as Dassault System’s Tosca and Hyperworks Optistruct do exactly this – but only for solid parts. I’ve not seen anything that can optimize shells with internal structures.

Should any vendor be able to create an internal structure that can accommodate various load cases with an adaptive internal structure, it would certainly have our vote for software of the year.

Hello, CEO Anagnost. Autodesk Fills Top Position.

 

In his welcome message, the always articulate and passionate Andrew Anagnost, delivers an invitation to meeting each and every one of the 8,000 Autodesk employees in his new role as CEO. He means it. 

So, after 4 months with no one single leader, Autodesk announced that it will be Andrew Anagnost who will be installed as CEO and president of the company. In the same breath, we heard Amar Hanspal, who was in the running for the top spot, will be leaving. Amar’s termination date is July 10, according to his separation agreement, though I expect he will not be in his office until the end.

Amar and Andrew were co-CEOs while competing for the CEO position, a position vacant since Carl Bass left in February. Autodesk was also conducting an an “international search” for additional candidates. It is not known who else, external to Autodesk, had thrown their hat in the ring.

Goodbye, Amar

I’ll assume Amar Hanspal, who started at Autodesk 23 years ago and worked his way up from an AutoCAD (R14) product manager in the Carol Bartz era, was a bit miffed at being passed over.

But being almost #1 at Autodesk, the 18th biggest software company in the world, may be like losing at the Super Bowl. At least you got a lot of attention. Popping up as CEO at another company would not be unexpected for Amar. And as California voids non-compete clauses, a head of an engineering or design software company is not out of the question. 

Hello, CEO Andrew

Andrew is no slouch as a technologist. He holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University. For most of his 20 years at Autodesk, he has functioned as its lead evangelist, always offering spirited explanation, Autodesk answers to industry questions and problems, most often with cloud-based applications. Odd for a technologist, Andrew had been promoted to lead marketing, a position from which he managed to do no harm and probably punched a ticket on his ascension. He showed business and political skills in architecting and internally promoting Autodesk’s complete and utter shift to subscription -- a first such shift among major design and engineering software companies -- away from its longstanding perpetual license model.

Looking back on it, a technology evangelist would have been the front runner to lead the company. Carl Bass, himself was a champion of technology, and Andrew, a natural successor.

Good luck to Andrew. He now has to handle customers, the Autodesk board of directors (who can be prickly should they be joined by an activist) and the stock holders and the switch to subscription, which still needs to show a turnaround, after 8 straight quarters of losses¹ now. 

It’s Not About the Money, But…

We can expect Andrew, 52, to reap immediate and significant financial gain. His base salary will more than double (from $423,231 to $800,000). His beyond-salary compensations (bonus, equity, non-equity and stock award could swell the total compensation to more that 10 times the salary. Predecessor Carl Bass is estimated to have a $1.1 million base pay and over $10 million in total compensation in FY2017. Autodesk CEO windfalls can be in the hundreds of millions. A 2006 report summing up Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz stock option for $230 million in 12 months was never disputed.

Amar Hanspal will receive a little over $1.5 million in severance pay and “special payments” according to the separation agreement made public as part to the company’s SEC filings.

Notes:
1. Autodesk maintains this period of decline was expected during the transition to subscription, the business is still healthy, deferred income continues to rise and any one who really understands business, like investors, continue to support the company. Indeed, the stock price continues to go despite quarterly losses.  

2. Correction: Amar's severance pay was $1.51 million.

Manufacturing Too Important to Leave to Machines: Autodesk

In the recently held International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS)—the show that packs McCormack Place every two years with over 100,000 hard-core manufacturing professionals and a dazzling array of machines that can make most anything—here was Autodesk with a message: It’s really all about software.

It would be a challenge for any other company. But Autodesk is not afraid—not of the robotic arms that can take your head off or the million-dollar multi axis, room-sized machines that turn nondescript blocks of material into shiny parts and curly threads of metal. The company is also not afraid of the 3D printing machines that are renting more of the show floor than ever—the big ones, not the microwave-sized toy makers insisting they can spit out parts like never before possible.

Nope, Autodesk is saying it is in control of all of that.

 

The Job of Design Software

Amar Hanspal, senior vice president at Autodesk, explains how software is the master of hardware. Autodesk’s collection of software aims to address design and manufacturing and was on display at the Additive Manufacturing Conference, which shared a venue with IMTS.

Before anything gets made, it can exist virtually. That’s the job of design software, where Autodesk is a big player. Autodesk software can completely define a part. It has, over the years, also acquired a band of companies that also can help make the part—or control the machines that make the part. Autodesk bought one of the leading companies, Delcam, a few years ago, as well as HSMWorks. And its Fusion360, first a design tool, does CAM too.

Just plug in the MoriSeiki metal-cutting machine, the 3D printer or, if you are really cutting edge (get it?), the KUKA robotic arm with a cutting head and out comes the part.

Or as Amar Hanspal, senior vice president at Autodesk, tells it, just 3D print it. That’s total freedom. The 3D-printed part does it all, Hanspalsaid. It’s even cheaper.

 

Cheaper—Really?

If you weren’t ready for that and were thinking 3D printing is slow and expensive per part, you need to hear why.

It’s cheaper because you don’t have to make the factory, said Hanspal. You can make one or two parts. 3D printing is close to making push-button manufacturing happen.

But be careful you don’t go too fast, cautions Hanspal. Critical parts will still need checking and simulation. I’m sure parts that go in a plane or a car will have to be tested and simulated with some sort of validation. But for all others, why not?

This part could only have been made with software that can handle additive and subtractive manufacturing, said Mark Forth of Autodesk. The part has also been light weighted with generative modeling.

Mark Forth of Autodesk, a Delcam veteran, would be expected to know CNC—which is also known asor subtractive machining in light of the popularity of additive manufacturing and is really the only type of machining we have ever known.

Delcam, the CAM industry stalwart based in Birmingham, UK, was acquired by Autodesk in 2014 but has kept its British identity. But this time around, Forth proudly wears Autodesk colors, signifying that the spirit of independence is now over, that Delcam is now happily part of the Autodesk family.

Autodesk has bundled all of its CAM tools—and there are many—under the “Future of Manufacturing” flag. Under it are HSMWorks, Delcam, NetFab (3D printing), Majestic (composites) and Fusion360, which seems to be the platform of the future and the hope of design and manufacturing for Autodesk.

 

Design, Manufacture—and Use

We’re not done, says Hanspal. The story is not over after the part goes out the door. Once the part is in use, all sorts of things start happening to it. Let’s make this part situationally aware. Let’s outfit it with sensors and transmitters so it can let us know what is happening.

What you thought was the one-stopshop, from concept to manufacture, has been extended. Autodesk has now realized that we can, with the Internet of Things and big data, feed what the part is experiencing back to the designers and engineers

Now, wouldn’t that be ultra-useful?

Connectivity—the Achilles Heel of Onshape

Recent funding could strengthen company against hard-charging Autodesk, but reliance on Internet connection hurts.

Onshape, the CAD world’s richest startup, wants to empower the next generation of CAD users, and could do so, if not for its Achilles heel: reliance on an Internet connection. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Onshape, everyone’s favorite CAD startup, got a whopping $105 million round of financing last month. Had it not been for intrepid analyst Monica Schnitger, it might have gone unnoticed. 

The latest round brings the total raised to $169 million, according to CrunchBase, making Onshape the richest startup CAD since … ever.

No one argues that the investments are made on faith. The company has yet to reveal the number of paid seats or revenue figures. But since Onshape contains the entire founding nucleus of SOLIDWORKS, including the highly respected Jon Hirschtick, the last guy to cause a CAD revolution, they have had no trouble getting investors to turn their pockets inside out.

More investment is always good, right? Now Onshape can execute on bigger plans. Or, is it seeing the end of the runway as it tries to take off?

Where Art Thou, Revenue?

As a private company, Onshape does not have to supply revenue figures or paid license counts. But as acknowledged by Onshape, revenue, whatever there may be of it, will come in smaller chunks. CAD programs sold with perpetual licenses had one big advantage—when a company sold a seat, it was an immediate infusion of thousands of dollars. Every time Onshape gets a user to upgrade to a paid license, it gets only a $100—for that month. And how many are paying, considering you can use the exact same product for free? Onshape’s pricing model, based on GitHub, an open-source development platform, has never been attempted in the CAD world.

Betting the House on the Internet Connection

One can imagine Onshape as a company where employees sit on bales of cash and a line of wealthy investors extends out the door. Or is this latest round of funding time for a gut check for Onshape executives? If sales of Onshape have not reached braggable heights, is it time to examine why not. One reason, Internet connectivity—or the lack of it—be Onshape’s Achilles’ heel?

Quite simply, the main reason Onshape is not already ubiquitous could be that the program doesn’t work without an Internet connection. An Onshape user is simply dead in the water unless they are connected to the Internet.

A “full-cloud” CAD program may have seemed like a good idea initially—and sold well to venture capitalists quick to seize absolute connectivity as the very modernization of CAD, especially when it was suggested by guys who were themselves the heart and soul of CAD. It’s not hard to buy into the concept if you are coming from a broadband world, always on, a Starbucks-sipping, airport-hopping, boardroom-dwelling, iPhone-tapping world of the VC investor. But for the potential user with the project due yesterday, the reality of the connection, around the clock, around the world, can be far different and far from ideal.

Who, among the users, is going to bet the house on the reliability of their ISP?

Here Comes Autodesk

Why bet the house if you don’t have to? What if you could have everything Onshape promises, the use-anywhere, almost robust CAD, when you needed it, for however long and at no risk to your credit card limit—and still be able to work when offline?

All this attention on Onshape has stirred up the giant Autodesk—and the giant is grumpy. Autodesk had cloud-based CAD ahead of Onshape, and its Fusion 360 is functionally the equivalent of Onshape—maybe even more functional—and, as some would say, it’s racing ahead.

It’s time to closely examine the value of the one claim for which Onshape is most famous. Onshape is “full cloud.” There is no install on your computer or your tablet. All of its data storage is online.  

CAD did need a facelift, and the cloud was ready to provide it, but having a product that only worked when connected may have been a jump too far.

I’ll Work When I Want

My most loved apps use the cloud but are still functional without it. The rough draft of this article was written in Evernote, before I connected on the airplane WiFi, which I know from experience will work well about 50 percent of the time. I check my landing time on WorldMate while still unconnected. I cross a few items off my to-do list on Wunderlist. When I land or get lucky in flight  I know all my data will sync up. I’ll not have missed a beat. Thanks, apps, for letting me work wherever and whenever on whatever. 

If Fusion 360 can match or surpass Onshape in ease of use, cost and functionality, which many say it has, its ability to operate with no Internet connection is an unbelievable advantage in the battle of next-generation CAD.

Full Cloud: Good or Bad?

Onshape executives may be sporting “full-cloud” tattoos and holding firm in their belief that full-time reliable connections are here—or will be soon. Is Onshape unconcerned about the ones who aren’t connected or the ones who cannot be? They do seem to believe that even the ones who have a full-time reliable connection most of the time will not be at all concerned about the few times they don’t.

I have to think of all the times I’ve heard CAD users state that they absolutely do not want to save their data locally. Hmm … never happened. Or the times they’ve said they can’t tolerate one more install. Zero.

Onshape hanging onto “full cloud” as a unique set of features, when it really exposes a competitive vulnerability, is like Achilles bragging about his heel.

Architects Better Believe in Disruptions -- They Are In One

ATLANTA, GA (AIA Convention 2015) — Phil Bernstein, Autodesk’s chief visionary in all things architecture, never fails to impress. In what may already be a tradition, he holds court at an invitation-only evening event on Day 1 of the AIA annual meeting. Phil is talking about disruption.

But leave it to Phil, who is somehow paid by Autodesk to not only be their visionary but to also hold down a faculty position (at Yale) to point out that: What may be seen as continuing and increasing waves of pressure and distraction have really been several discrete disruptions. According to Phil, we’ve had several disruptions — and we are currently in one right now!

Disruptions

The disruptions we are about to hear about affect the way we design and make things. And the latest one is starting to radically change our industry. Some of the noticeable trends are:

• Smart buildings.
• More prefabrication of buildings. Example: “Just-add-water” hotels in China. Buildings are being made offsite and assembled in place.

Somehow Phil manages to weave in a mention of Tesla Motors. So glorious is the Tesla brand, it has to be mentioned at every conference. It’s a law. But to smoothly insert it into an AEC/BIM spiel is a credit to Phil’s talents; part of his ability to recognize trends wherever they are.

But I digress. Back to disruptions.

The first one Phil noticed in the architects’ world was about documentation. Drawings, in other words. How AutoCAD initially got famous? The computer replacing the drafting board.

The second disruption was 2D to 3D. 

Third was BIM. Building information modeling. More that just 3D geometry. Brought to you by Revit. [Ed. note: Or was it Graphisoft?]

The fourth disruption — and the one we are in the middle of — is the Data Disruption. “The best designers manipulate data, not forms,” says Phil. “I'm going to say that again for the older people in the room.”

It's Not Just Forms -- It's Data

The older architects are still enthralled with shapes. Either the exterior shapes or interior space. But Phil knows that these days, design is being created by data.

We see a truly awesome example of an architecture firm so advanced it has created a CNC machine to bend rebar in a variety of shapes, tag each one so the construction crews knows exactly where to place it, and then the architects can watch the building being made each day using 3D scans and point clouds against the 3D model of the building design. The building in progress compared to the building that was meant to be. How cool is that?

The data Phil speaks of is not just from point clouds but also from programs. Little programs that form the heart of “computational design.” If this is a new term to you, you probably are one of those older architects Phil has addressed. All the young ones are learning “computational design.”

 Learn Computational Design, Young Man

I ask Phil if all the architectural schools are teaching computational design. Could it be like 3D is to 2D, as severe a disruption, I am wondering. Is it in all the undergraduate architecture programs? “It’s in all the best graduate programs,” says Phil. I'm sure Yale is one of them.

Autodesk Changes How You Buy CAD Software

In a historical announcement today, Autodesk announced it will stop selling software — and start renting it. After February of 2016, you will only be able to get Autodesk desktop* software on a "subscription model."

See the announcement here .

Autodesk lists advantages of subscription model (above). From presentation by Autodesk's Andrew Anagnost this morning.

It finally happened.  With this announcement, Autodesk joins the current trend in software sales favored by other industries. The very successful Salesforce.com, the most cited example, is available only on a monthly or annual subscription model. Adobe's professional bundles are now only on a $50/month plan. Just about any application newly minted is available only this way. Basecamp, Dropbox, Infusionsoft, web hosting . . . not one of them is available for "perpetual license."

Autodesk is fully aware that not all current users will be happy with this plan. The company seems to have held back on embracing this new model for years due mostly to the hue and cry from its millions of CAD users, the largest professional CAD user base in the world. For more than 10 years, Autodesk has been working on coaxing reluctant AutoCAD users to switch to subscription. Smaller CAD companies, such as Bentley, in particular, had been achieving better results switching their user base.

CAD users are not alone in wanting to buy software once and own it forever. Microsoft faces the same problem with its Office software as the software giant tries to transition to subscription. For many users, the software is good enough when it is initially purchased. They don't want to keep paying for it

There are many reasons for vendors to switch to pay-as-you-use models. Chief among them is that it evens out the revenue stream. Traditional software sales of established products rely on updates. Big annual releases had to be packed with new, useful features so users would buy the updates. A lot of them would. The revenue would spike. Only to trail off for the rest of the year, with increasingly less spectacular quarters.

Now, in a bold, no-turning-back move, Autodesk has embraced what it sees as the future of software licensing. I expect other CAD vendors will follow suit.

---

*Autodesk is calling its individual products "desktop." Its industry-bundled products, or suites, will continue to be sold with perpetual licenses — though the company stopped short of saying it would do this perpetually.

For more information:

• Perpetual Licensing Changes - from Autodesk, includes FAQs
• Autodesk’s Standalone Software to Go Subscription-Only in 2016- Bryant Frazer, Studio Daily, Feb 4, 2015
• Autodesk Moves to Subscription Service in 2016 - Kyle Maxey, ENGINEERING.com, Feb 4, 2015
• Autodesk Goes Desktop Subscription Only in 2016 - CAD-a-Blog, Feb 4, 2015

You Thought You Knew 3D

New technologies that bring 3D models of the existing world will be displayed and discussed in “reality computing’s” first conference, REAL 2015.

Most of us work in 3D. Quite a few buildings are 3D BIM. Product design is done with solid modeling. Even mapping and GIS professionals realize the world is not flat. But, while making and visualizing in 3D, we often have only our imagination to see our creations in the world in which they will exist. A new building has to be imagined on the city block. A car has to be imagined being put together on the assembly line.

That is about to change.

3D digital model of factory was made using photogrammetry and is displayed amidst existing infrastructure.  Image courtesy of HKM, from Autodesk blog post.

New technologies are quickly emerging that promise to make it easier to model the existing world, the context of your creation, so you cannot just imagine it, but see it in all its glory – before it is created. This will have BIG implications for the work we do as architects, civil engineers and product designers.

• Architects could place a skyscraper within a skyline. Or hear how the wind might inadvertently howl in the space between buildings.
• A production engineer can see a CAD model of the latest car going through an existing production line. And see problems before they shuts down the line. (Volvo is actually doing this, see below)

A CAD model of a car heads down a 3D model of an assembly link, created from multiple 3D laser scans. (Image courtesy of Volvo)

So Many Questions. How Do I Get Started?

Either an architect or an engineer would be hard-pressed to model an existing city or an existing production line. There’s not enough time for that much modeling -- that much detail. But what if you could take a few photos with a point and shoot camera and bam! There's the 3D model.

Such is the promise. So vast is the implication. Can the entire world be so easily modeled? A digital home in which you can create, house your design, give context and scale? How do I get started? Is there more to it, more software to learn, hours spent manipulating point clouds, skills I don’t have or resources I have to contract?

Get REAL

Enter a new conference that explores this technology and hopefully answers at least some of these questions. REAL is taking place this February in San Francisco and it plans to address both the wonder and the reality of “reality capture.” Though being marketed to a broad range of interests (artists, visionaries, etc.), the conference will offer a lot to architects and engineers as well. Conference attendees should be able to get a reading on the state of the art in reality capture tools, such as:

• Photogrammetry – creating 3D models from simple digital photos
• 3D laser scanning, from expensive tripod-mounted rotating head laser scanners to cheaper “paint the model” hand-held scanners.
• UAVs (drones), which are incredibly cost-effective platforms that enable scans of large scale, from natural formations to square miles of a building site, highway construction, more.

The Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, defaced and defiled by the Taliban, were reconstructed digitally from tourist photos. Image from Autodesk post. 

If work-related stuff isn't enough, there are some really cool applications of 3D scanning you will have to see. Dr Louise Leakey, paleontologist (yes, from that famous Leakey family) has been able to bring some of the most famous hominid skulls to the world digitally -- on your computer for close examination. You don’t have to go to Tanzania.  And remember the Buuhas of Bamiyam UNESCO World Heritage Site destroyed by the Taliban? Autodesk was able to reconstruct the towering, irreplaceable statues digitally -- from thousands of tourist snapshots found online! (see video) I'm hoping for that presentation to be made at the conference. 

And did I mention the conference is in San Francisco? A great place to visit.

For more information

REAL 2015 - official website. Use discount code REALTeN to get 25% off the registration fee.

Autodesk Throws Party for Titan America

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - If you have a machine shop in America, you have a problem. There are thousands like you. Many are going under or about to, their machines idle, operators laid off, victims of large scale decline in domestic manufacturing.

What do you do? If you are Titan Gilroy, you appeal to America.

 

The burly and tattooed Titan, who gives his name to his business, looks every bit like the fighter he once was. A one time serious amateur boxer, it was street fighting that got him in trouble with the law (he served 3 years in prison). Somehow he ends up owning a machine shop in California's gold country. If that is not enough of a career twist, he is also now in the media business.

Titan Media has produced TV show and lined up Autodesk to throw VIP party to launch its premiere show, in which the Titan story is told.

Titan is perfect for adding the role of restoring pride in his country. Citing America at least one a sentence, he combines the fervor of a evangelical preacher with the beat of a Detroit rapper. The crowd in the Autodesk Gallerey is lapping it up. It may be that the show tells a good story or that the room is stocked with Titan employees, but whoops and hollers abound. We see how Titan's shop makes gun parts, his bullied youth, the boxing, a redemption by the Lord after the bout in prison. 

Titan Gilroy with Roopinder from the local liberal San Francisco press

It is a hell of a story. To hear it well received in ultra liberal San Francisco is a bit of a surprise.

With a "Fight for America" on his t-shirt, Titan is on a mission to not just keep his machine shop open, but to bring American manufacturing back to the forefront. It could tie into the buying local movement, which the San Francisco area has taken to heart, albeit for food. Why not buy locally made products? Yes, they cost more. But they keep guys like Titan and his employees employed. Off the streets. Off welfare.

Autodesk  CEO Carl Bass attends the Titan America VIP party

If business is an indication (company was expected to top $6M in revenue in 2008, according to a Wall Street Journal article on the Titan America website), Titan America does seem to be doing something right with its precision machining of high-value parts. In the video, we see Titan take on an order for hundreds of parts for thermal imaging rifle scope. Customer needs them by Thursday. Titan runs his machine shop around the clock and makes his employees do whatever it takes to produce the parts. We see one machinist almost getting fired after ramming a tool into a part causing a production delay. The parts are delivered almost on time. The machinist not fired (was actually spotted applauding during the premiere). A happy ending.

It remains to be seen if the concept could work well for manufacturing as volumes of mass production, which is the strength of overseas manufacturing, notably that in China. Though Titan's shop is stocked with state of the art CNC machines and with an over abundance of American pride, there is still the reality of paying the American worker 10 times more than a Chinese worker. The Titan operation works well for high value parts (the scope housing was $8K each) and with ultra-demanding schedules, when the customers are from the military, aerospace and medicine.

But what if your customer is a Wal-Mart shopper?

For more information

Titan America CNC website

Titan American Built - TV series, Fridays at 7pm, on MAVTV, available on Dish and DirecTV

Titan American Built Premier: The Fight for American Manufacturing - Sharon Stark, 3DPrint Press, Oct 26, 2014

Grass Valley Manufacturing Titan Featured in New TV Series - Mark Glover, Sacramento Bee, Oct 24, 2014

A Tale of a Young Boxer's Redemption - Dennis Nishi, Wall Street Journal, Dec 2, 2008

Related articles

Machine-shop owner launches reality show about American manufacturing

Microdesk Shows 3D AEC, BIM Scanning Service at New San Francisco Office

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - BIM consultant and reseller Microdesk is open for business in San Francisco, with their new office in the financial district. In their first Tech Talk Thursday, they invited potential customers -- and yours truly -– to show how UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles a.k.a. drones) can photograph nearby buildings, leading to 3D models.

Microdesk got its start in the Boston area 20 years ago, and now has 11 offices around the country. It sells its products and services mostly in the architecture and construction industry. Their newest office is in San Francisco and houses eight employees.

Flying the Drone

Peter Marchese, who is Microdesk's 3D scanning ace, came from his Philadelphia location to fly the UAV overhead San Francisco – nearby and always within sight. During its time in the air, it took a few photos with its GoPro camera but not enough to make a model. In contrast, a previous project took 6,200 photos and about a day to process.

Models are stored as .rcp (recap) files. To view them, we have to download a trial version of Autodesk’s ReCap, which, frankly, seems to me to be a little too much work. I await from Autodesk a lightweight RCP viewer. 

Bargain 3D Modeling from Photographs

Peter gave a presentation to the 20 or so architects who were in attendance that showed, among other things, how camera-equipped drones might actually be employed. The photos are copied from the GoPro’s SD card, and then uploaded to an Autodesk's cloud-based service, which, as if by magic, stitches the pictures together to make the 3D model.

Autodesk charges just $5 per model but is limited to 250 photos. Peter uses Pix4D and Sensefly for projects with more photos. 

I suspect the process to make 3D models may be a lot more labor intensive than we are being led to believe. At previous demos, the demo jocks don't actually show me the process, except that days later they come back with a model. I am not a believer of miracles; I expect a lot of work transpired. I find that Autodesk takes 4 to 8 hours just to process the photos. Peter has to comb through the photos and "help" the not-so-good photos by "connecting the dots" in multiple photos: telling the application that something in 5 different photos is really the same thing. This helps the stitching. But even if you add up a person and toiling away for hours, this is remarkably less time, effort and money than a model from alternative means: from a blank screen with computer modeling, or from a point cloud from a LIDAR scan.

 

Peter Marchese, far left, flies a UAV equipped with a GoPro camera near Microdesk's recently opened San Francisco office

 Here is a glimpse of a real project Microdesk was involved with

The 3D model produced by the demo is not perfect, nor is the process very streamlined. It takes many photos to make a detailed model, and uploading them all to the cloud takes time. The resulting 3D model is not easily shared. It looks grainy. Parts of it near the edge are distorted. Black spots show missing details, and there are many of them. In other words, it's not exactly movie-quality imagery.

However, I get the sense that improvements will be forthcoming. Photogrammetry is simply too compelling a technology, its uses so varied, and its cost of entry too low, for it not to attract users, adherents, and investment. The cost of the hardware is minimal compared to alternatives. The UAV is essentially a radio-controlled aircraft, available in toy stores. The whole rig, plane and camera, costs less than $2K, says Marchese.

With this demo, Microdesk is positioning itself as a leader in photogrammetry services for AEC and civil applications.

For more information:

• Microdesk's site: http://www.microdesk.com/
• senseFly - processes photos to make 3D models, plus sells UAV's and controllers
• Pix4D - processes thousands of photos to create geo-referenced 2D mosaics and 3D models

Related articles

Is That a Drone? Run for Cover

Autodesk ReCap Makes 3D Photos

senseFly brings UAV insight to AgGateway

From Their Cold, Dead Hands: How to Pry Users from their CAE Programs

From Their Cold, Dead Hands: How to Pry Users from their CAE Programs

LAKE OSWEGO, OR - Autodesk’s NEi Nastran acquisition gives the company instant credibility in the CAE (computer aided engineering) community. No longer can CAE users dismiss Autodesk as that pretentious CAD company that did little more than assemble a rag-tag collection of little-known analysis applications.

Nastran is serious CAE. It's what the big boys use. It puts planes in the sky and cars on race tracks. I'm not sure I would have boarded the Boeing 737 on which I am writing this had I know Algor¹ was used in its analysis.

Nastran NEi used for Cessna. From NEi website.

But now the acquisition of NEi Nastran changes the game. Your PhD friends will not laugh at you for using Autodesk software. You can just tell them "It's Nastran, dammit!"

CAE applications garner loyalty beyond that of CAD users, owing to the fact that CAE applications take much longer to learn, are harder to use, require higher educational qualifications, and cost a lot more money. These factors combine to create an atmosphere of exclusivity and clubby camaraderie. No serious CAE user is going to switch CAE programs without a fight just to save a few bucks.

Autodesk admits it will not be able to pry current CAE, except from "cold dead hands," but also shows no panic at the prospect. Autodesk can afford to be patient, and wait, because CAE is not their core business. They can sell their CAE products all around the entrenched CAE users and to CAD users. But the lower price, when coupled a deep and protracted commitment to the market, can't help but over time erode the hold of CAE companies of even their most stalwart supporters.

Commitment is really is the key; that low initial cost of the software is secondary. Autodesk has not yet shown it can support CAE users in the manner to which they hard core analysts are accustomed. Will users be able to pick up the phone and get a reseller who has a PhD in mechanics and so can tell users when to use Von Mises failure theory -- from years of experience? Both ANSYS and MSC provide this level of support.

Should you have been paying attention in your Mechanics of Material classes, you may not need support for basic questions, but how many would you build the next Boeing aircraft without an advanced level of backup?

Can Autodesk fly his plane? David Weinberg, founder of NEi Nastran, and Lt Colonel, Aircraft Commander at USAFR. From LinkedIn.

CAE companies instilled and maintained a culture that worships theory, academics with advanced degrees, deep knowledge, years of experience, cultivation of engineering judgment ... qualities that narrow the field of prospective support personnel. CAD companies, on the other hand, set the opposite tone: ease of use, democratization, ... everything that CAE is not.

As the products of CAD companies and CAE companies converge (see ANSYS Acquires SpaceClaim...), note that eventual success depends not only on product portfolios or the pricing (no matter how low they go), but on something that is much harder to establish: credibility, built on trust.

Market leaders establish trust after providing years of excellent service and great products. And so if indeed an analyst can nail that new composite tailfin panel analysis, if he or she really can do it in less time, or can run it from an iPad, if I can be cool and still hold my head up among my peers, or we can be sure the application has already kept planes in the air... yeah, then, maybe we will try it.

See Also

Autodesk Nastran - Autodesk product page

---

Footnote

1. Algor was a midrange analysis program purchased by Autodesk in 2009. Although a general purpose solver, it never achieved the status of Nastran or ANSYS. It is currently called Autodesk Simulation.