The CAD Insider

The New York Times Discovers Generative Design

Generative design, the overhyped and ultimately disappointing technology, one that was to have computers design perfect part, may have finally been discovered by the popular media – but only because it is being grouped under the public’s latest shiny object: AI.

In “35 Ways Real People are Using A.I. Right Now,” the 5^th real person is a NASA research engineer who has used a generative design program to make the lightweighted part for a satellite. Which generative design software we will never know, because the  venerable publication succumbing to the fever over the hottest tech story in years (ChatGPT and AI) attributes the design to AI.  Not once is “generative design” or “topology optimization” used in their article.

It’s not like the Times doesn’t cover technology. They have a Technology section. The paper’s Wirecutter reviews of tech products are great plain-English information that can boil an ocean of products into one or two recommendations.  To be fair, they did cover generative design 2 years ago -- though it was only for its novel use in jewelry design.

Should we even expect the popular media, even the best, to go deep into technology? The Wall Street Journal, does a commendable job on the business side of tech, even brushing on the science. 

I shouldn’t complain. The lack of depth in real technology coverage is an opportunity -- and job security -- for tech journalists.

The Shape of Things to Come

Stephen Hooper, Vice President & General Manager, Design & Manufacturing Cloud Solutions at Autodesk, is about to reveal what is coming up in generative design. He is at a Q&A session at Accelerate 2022 conference. He is not making an official announcement as the technology is still in R&D. If it were up to the PR watchdogs in the room, he would go no further. But Hooper’s enthusiasm is not to be bridled.

“We’re going to use ML [machine language] to look for similar shapes,” he says about the next generation of Autodesk’s generative design, which will, no doubt, be manifest itself in Fusion 360, the company’s do-all design and manufacturing platform.

We will be able to create a 3D map of your shape and match it with another existing shape, he states. Engineers reinvent the wheel all the time, he implies.

We asked if the generative design of this future could not only look for similar parts, but look for similar elemental or primitive shapes, such as I-beams or round tubes, the shapes engineers rely on.

Yes, says Hooper. It certainly will.

Hooper, whose youthful figure belies decades of CAD experience, tells of his initial introduction to CAD with Unigraphics. His conversion to Autodesk came when he realized that, despite Unigraphics superiority in CAD, its expense was a hindrance.

“For what we paid for a few UG seats, we could outfit a hundred engineers with Fusion 360 today,” says Hooper.

He invokes a Moneyball reference, the movie with Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) creates a pennant winning major league franchise (the Oakland A’s) by recruiting underrated (and therefore underpaid) players and creating an overall better team when tradition was to win with one or two (very expensive) superstars. While this could be considered an admission of PC-based AutoCAD’s inferiority to the workstation-based CAD, the point Hooper is making is consistent with Autodesk’s humble approach to democratizing design, simulation and manufacturing software.