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Ellipsis is the official blog of Autodesk's Technical Evangelist Team. We will discuss all things design and manufacturing related with a focus on industries such as automotive and transportation, consumer products, industrial machinery and building product manufacturing and fabrication. We also have resident experts who will blog about specific product developments in CAD, Simulation, Industrial Design and Data Management.
We look forward to providing you, our user community, with the most relevant and up to date developments in our industry, and hopefully with information that will assist you in doing your job better, faster, and more precisely.
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Road Trip Anyone?
January 11, 2010, 08:57 AM Rob CoheeI posed a question last week on Twitter (www.twitter.com/robcohee) Do you use technology to solve design problems, or do you use technology to document your design after you’ve solve the problem by other means? I was surprised at the results. Many people said that CAD is a documentation tool for them and it helps them solve design challenges in some situations….? I think this helped me in thinking about Inventor and other CAD related tools out there and how I go about describing Inventor to designers.It’s very topical because I’ve been asked a lot lately about my take on what is the difference between Inventor and SolidWorks, or Pro/E, etc. And I think it boils down to how you look at and use technology. If you use CAD as a 3D modeler then sure, I’ll contend that it’s hard to distinguish between Inventor, Works, or E. They all have the same buttons, located in different places (or different menus for you Pro users…) but all in all in one form or another I’m sure we can each model up each other’s designs with varying numbers of features, and oh yeah, clicks.
(Funny side note: I had to do a couple of demos where the company assigned a guy to count my clicks and another guy was timing me. Seriously. BTW, I won and we got the deal - but I never understood that way of evaluating software, you weren't buying me...)
And save your “I bet you can’t model up this part” stump the chump bit – trust me I’ve heard it, seen it, done it and rarely am I stumped. That isn’t the point of this discussion. I’m genuinely interested in learning if designers use the technology tools at their disposal to actually solve design challenges. This is where I think the biggest difference between Inventor and Works, E, etc. lies – in Inventor’s ability to solve a design challenge and create the geometry based upon the input given. So I want to see your designs that you could not have done without technology. The designs that made your product stronger, lighter, more environmentally responsible, unique, and helped you differentiate your product from your competition.Jay Tedeschi (www.twitter.com/ProphetPVD) has a great analogy about blogging; he says it’s like talking in your car to yourself, not sure if anyone is really listening or not. SO, I want to find out who is listening and who is willing to give us a little show and tell. I want to come out to see what you are doing, bring my camera along and lets show off your mad skills that are helping your company survive this downturn, or that are distinguishing your product over your competition.(Golf) Bags are packed. Who’s first?-Rob
Comments
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January 11, 2010 09:12 AM Brian Hall
I'm listening Rob. ;)
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January 11, 2010 10:42 AM Shaan Hurley
Maybe if Jay posted and had feedback methods instead of just talking to himself in a car. Blogging can be a vacuum, but only if you make it one. Rob Come on out to the west and bring your ski gear. Cheers, Shaan
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January 11, 2010 10:44 AM Shaan Hurley
More thinking about it. If "blogging is like talking in your car", why post a request to find those not listening on a blog? ;-)
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January 11, 2010 01:23 PM Paul Munford
I'm listening, from over here in the UK...
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January 11, 2010 02:06 PM Rob Cohee
Sweet! I love dialoge. Brian, I'm gonna come down and see you guys. Shaan, I have another 20 lbs to go until I can reasonably fit back into my skiing gear, but if we can go on a couple of customer visits we can make it work Paul, what do you use Inventor for?
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January 11, 2010 06:42 PM Brian Hall
Give it a couple of months Rob. Let the weather get better here in O-town so you can tee-it-up in shorts. You know what, on second thought...you're up there in the frozen tundra with no tanning bed. Belay my last... bring pants. :)
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January 15, 2010 08:49 PM Dennis Jeffrey
Come on down to Indiana March 17th and join Shaan Hurley, Lynn Allen, Sean Dotson, Brian Schanen, Don Strimbu, Alan Gager, myself and a whole host of others present "It's a Duesy II" Manufacturing Revival conference. Camera is welcome! Sorry, it will be too wet for golf ( is there such a thing?), but I'll even buy you a ticket and lunch! http://teknigroup.com for more details!
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January 22, 2010 10:29 AM Rob Cohee
Dennis, that sounds great thanks for the invite. I'll let you know if it works out. With Schanen there, we'd already have one of our team members there, but I'll try.
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February 18, 2010 05:48 PM Scott Moyse
So apparently no one uses inventor to solve design problems....... We design interiors with inventor and at this stage there are no accelerators for wood based products. It has plastics and metal design tools but no wood stuff. Which tools in inventor would you expect people to use to solve design problems rob?
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