VizWorld.com

Big news from PTC, they’ve just released a nice free modeling package called “Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express 4″.  SolidSmack has the news:

Do you remember CoCreate Modeling Personal Edition? No? Well, this is what Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express (Can we just shorten that to DME? Yes? Ok.) is based off of… or repackaged as… or re-released as. In fact, it’s much the same except you can’t move the toolbars around. It standardizes on the Creo ribbon layout, Structure Browser and the pop-up Property setting for each feature. As in CoCreate PE, you can save as .stl and .vrml, but are apparently limited to only 2D iges import. (Tried 3D iges and step with no success.) Also like CoCreate, it remains simple to use for basic direct modeling.

via PTC Excretes Creo Bliss. Direct Modeling Express Available for Free. – SolidSmack.com.

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SolidSmack brings us news that PTC Creo 1.0 has finally hit the streets, and coinciding with the release is the announcement from Luxion that KeyShot 2 is ready to go from day 1.

“We are excited to offer the first visualization solution for Creo”, says Dr. Henrik Wann Jensen, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Luxion. “This demonstrates a strong commitment to our joint customer base. Creo customers immediately have the ability to use the best rendering solution in conjunction with the world’s most advanced modeling solution.”

High-end rendering in CAD Modeling is frequently forgotten in the pursuit of easy & fast.  It’s becoming more important, and lots more obtainable thanks to offerings from companies like Bunkspeed and Luxion.  Having it integrated so tightly on Release Day is a big win for PTC and Luxion.

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Information has been a bit slow to come out regarding the PTC Creo announcement from yesterday, but I’ve finally found a good description of what exactly they’ve done.  Essentially, it’s a 2-fold announcement.  First off, they’ve created a wholly inclusive product that combines CAD, Simulation, Verification, and Design Management all into their product.

For instance, a Creo app for a manufacturing engineer will include capabilities for validating tool paths for a suggested design concept and can run machining simulations while the analyst’s app will be optimised for data analysis supported by direct modelling visualisations and the service planners app will interact primarily with engineering software to display detailed assembly and disassembly processes.

This is a great addition to any CAD product, and runs the risk of encroaching on territory traditionally owned by companies like ANSYS.  We’ll have to wait to see just how good the simulations are, but no doubt they’ll continue to improve them over time.

The other one is they’ve adopted a highly modular approach.

Selling the bitesized applications (possibly from an Apple style online ap-store) will make it easy for small organisations to buy just the applications they need for their current priorities and although specific pricing will not be clear for some time yet, a PTC representative said yesterday at a London press briefing that the intention was to make the cost meet a level that a manufacturing or design manager could sign off from their personal budget without the need for capital approval.

This is in sharp contrast to approaches taken by companies like Maxon, who have abandoned module design in favor of product suites.  Seems everyone is being bitten by the “App Store” bug.  Personally, I think it’s great for end-user consumers, but bad for professional users.  A few thoughts:

• A Professional wants to just Buy the Product and be done with it.  Not have to go back and buy module A, then module B, then module R.
• Business offices & Finance types want to plan for the 1 big buy of the product, and be done.  Thoughts that the pricing makes it under capital approval is a short-lived affair, that’ll be quickly ‘fixed’.
• It makes large-scale deployments a nightmare for systems administrators.  Rather than a single install & deployment, it’s a collection of little apps that all have to be pushed out and maintained.

For the casual user or educational institution, it’s a big win.  They can get just the few modules they need, and save their precious cash and disk space for other stuff.

All in all, it sounds like PTC is making some great strides forward in the CAD market.  Beta’s will be available in Spring 2011, with a short-lived 1.0 in the Summer and 2.0 in the Autumn.

via Alerting all CAD users! – The Manufacturer.com – Promoting best practice in Manufacturing.

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