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August 2014 / deskeng.com
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Degrees of Freedom by Jamie J. Gooch
IoT: Talking the Talk

I
f your alarm clock tells your coffee maker to start brew- who have to make multiple versions of their apps so that
ing 15 minutes before you get up, but your coffee maker they’ll run on both platforms. With the IoT, where hardware
doesn’t speak alarm clock, you’ll have to wait to get your and software converge into connected devices, design engi-
caffeine fix. That’s a problem for the future Internet of neers will likely face a similar increase in product complexity.
Things (IoT), in which billions of devices are expected to Google and Apple aren’t the only tech giants interested in
communicate with one another. ensuring your fridge can tell your car to pick up more milk
A lack of communications standards has repercussions be- when you’re driving past the grocery store. Atmel, Broad-
yond you having to manually start your coffee maker, however. com, Dell, Intel, Samsung and Wind River have established
The IoT may someday affect traffic patterns, health care op- the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), which according
tions, car insurance rates, manufacturing schedules and even to a recent announcement is “focused on defining a common
how farmers harvest their crops. It’s been more aptly called communications framework based on industry standard tech-
the “Internet of Everything,” but what language should “ev- nologies to wirelessly connect and intelligently manage the
erything” speak? There is already a platform war brewing that flow of information among personal computing and emerg-
could make VHS vs. Betamax (or Blu-ray vs. HD DVD for ing IoT devices, regardless of form factor, operating system or
you younger readers) look like a minor dust-up. service provider.” The OIC is initially targeting smart home
and office solutions, and expects to follow with standards in
The Battle Begins at Home automotive, health care and industrial markets.
Apple’s recently announced HomeKit framework would Will this be the one standard design engineers can use to
allow iOS apps to control connected devices in the home by ensure their products connect with everyone else’s? Not so fast.
talking to them via Siri voice commands. The devices would Late last year, Qualcomm announced the formation of
need to be MFi-certified, as in made for the iPhone, iPad the AllSeen Alliance, a cross-industry consortium intended
or iPod. As the biggest technology company in the world, to advance the IoT. Microsoft, LG, Panasonic and Cisco are
Apple’s platform is something design engineers may need among its 50+ members. The Alliance’s framework is based
on expanding Qualcomm’s AllJoyn open source project.
What language should the A War Worth Fighting

Internet of Things speak? Research firm Gartner expects the IoT to add $1.9 trillion
to the global economy, with 26 billion connected devices by
2020. Another research firm, IDC, predicts the IoT will grow
to take into account when developing connected hardware. by more than $5 trillion over the next six years to reach $7.1
While HomeKit could bring some clout to bear in organiz- trillion in 2020. Standardization efforts, even if fragmented
ing the array of proprietary connected home products on the among a handful of large players, can help make those fore-
market, it’s unclear whether it would work with products that casts come true.
don’t connect via Wi-Fi because of power constraints. With that kind of growth, it’s too much to ask for one stan-
Enter Nest Labs, makers of connected thermostats and dard to design toward. That makes the interdisciplinary and
smoke detectors (thus far). Although it was recently acquired inter-departmental collaboration efforts we focus on begin-
by Google, Nest has joined with six other companies to form ning on page 14 all the more critical to design engineers con-
the Thread Group to develop Thread, a new IP-based wire- fronted with the IoT.
less IPv6 networking protocol that puts a focus on longer In a press release announcing the OIC, Glen Robson, VP
battery life. According to the group’s press release: “Thread and CTO for Client Solutions at Dell, noted that “consum-
is not an application protocol or a connectivity platform for ers and businesses alike will need a strong base upon which
many types of disparate networks. Thread is an IPv6 net- to build the vast array of solutions enabled by a global In-
working protocol built on open standards, designed for low- ternet of Things.” In the short term, at least, there will be
power 802.15.4 mesh networks. Existing popular application multiple bases upon which to build. DE
protocols and IoT platforms can run over Thread networks.”
Apple’s walled ecosystem vs. Google’s more open ap- Jamie Gooch is the managing editor of Desktop Engineering.
proach may sound familiar, especially to software developers Contact him at [email protected].
2 DESKTOP ENGINEERING August 2014 /// deskeng.com

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Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 12118
August 2014 VOLUME 19/ISSUE 12
SIMULATE
32 Joints and Connections in FEA
The Here’s how to make difficult decisions when
INTERNET
simulating connections and joints within a
finite element analysis.
By Tony Abbey
of THINGS ENGINEERING COMPUTING

36 Exploring CAE in the Cloud
A large-scale experiment finds why and when
the Cloud might make sense.
By Wolfgang Gentzsch and Burak Yenier
40 Customizable Workstation
4 Skills for the

The Digital Storm Slade PRO workstation from a
California-based system integrator is much more than entry-level.
By David Cohn
Internet of Things ENGINEERING SERVICES
14 The Internet of Things may

be the next big thing, but
44 Working Together
How design engineers can work with outside service providers to
engineering groups need develop new designs and new product concepts.
By David Geer
to bolster competencies
in embedded software, 46 Design Collaboration
Good (and complex) technology can
communications, instru- come in small packages.
mentation and data secu- By Jim Romeo
rity to ride the wave of

FOCUS ON THE INTERNET OF THINGS
transformation.
By Beth Stackpole 19 Feeling the Heat
The shift to circuits, systems on
chips, and software driven-products
redefines mechanical design’s role.
By Kenneth Wong
24 Simulating M2M System Communication

PROTOTYPE Building machine-to-machine embedded systems can be complex and
error-prone without simulating the communication among devices.
28 Ease of Use Drives By Peter Varhol
3D Scanner Adoption
The 3D scanning market is
getting bigger, even as the scanners
themselves are getting smaller.
By Brian Albright

RF MEMS SWITCH: Model of a thin micromechanical
bridge suspended over a dielectric layer. Results show the
contact force and displacement when the device is pulled in.
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August 2014 VOLUME 19/ISSUE 12
DEPARTMENTS 12 Editor’s Picks

Products that have
2 Degrees of Freedom grabbed the
IoT: Talking the Talk. editor’s attention.
By Jamie J. Gooch By Anthony J. Lockwood
EXECUTIVE EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Tom Conlon
8 Virtual Desktop 43 Spotlight
EDITORIAL
A tuna robot swims into biomimicry, PTC Directing your search to the Jamie J. Gooch | Managing Editor
Live Global wrap-up, Dassault Systèmes companies that have what you need. Kenneth Wong | Senior Editor
Anthony J. Lockwood | Editor at Large
helps recreate Jess Lulka | Assistant Editor
a D-Day operation and 47 Advertising Index Heather Pittinger | Copy Editor
a manufacturing industry CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
expert discusses attracting new talent. 48 Fast Apps Tony Abbey, Brian Albright, Mark Clarkson,
David S. Cohn, John Newman, Frank Ohlhorst,
By Kenneth Wong & Beth Stackpole Additive manufacturing has reduced Beth Stackpole, Peter Varhol, Pamela J. Waterman
lead time for aerospace parts and the
11 Rapid Ready Tech University of Michigan’s human submarine ADVERTISING SALES
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Systems talks high-speed printing, pres- Jeanne DuVal | Sales Executive (x274)
sure-controlled SLA, and 3D printing aids in
ART & PRODUCTION
tumor removal. Darlene Sweeney | Director (x257)
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Virtual Desktop by Kenneth Wong & Beth Stackpole
Tuna Robot Navigates

Biomimicry Waters
N
ot only is the tuna a strong PTC Creo’s Interactive Surface Design satisfied with the shape.
swimmer, but the front por- Extension (ISDX) was instrumental in Creo’s simulation capabilities also fac-
tion of its body remains stable capturing the exact design. tored into the overall design effort. “Any
as it propels itself through “A tuna profile changes along the time you can cycle something in motion
water. This style of movement was the length as it does along the width,” says on the screen, it lets you look for ‘got-
inspiration for a U.S. Navy project, which Will Ober, an engineer involved in the chas’ that engineers might not see oth-
employed biomimicry practices to create project. “If you took a cross-section, erwise,” Smithers says. He notes that the
the optimal design for an autonomous you’d see it doesn’t produce an easily and team used Creo’s simulation capabilities
unmanned underwater vehicle. mathematically predictable profile.” to calculate forces and trajectories while
The so-called tuna robot, designed The software’s parametric modeling also checking for interferences. “Without
in partnership with Boston Engineering, and freeform flexibility allowed the de- being able to cycle something in motion
builds upon the seaworthy profile of the signers to build curves in multiple planes and simulate the environment in CAD,
tuna and includes a propulsion system, simultaneously, Ober explains, while also you find out problems only after proto-
a single oscillating foil, appropriately ensuring they could add surfaces be- typing, which is time and money.”
placed fins, and a finely tuned muscular tween curves and modify until they were — B. Stackpole
and sensory control system. The full set
of technology makes the tuna robot ef-
ficient at a variety of speeds — unlike a Not Your Father’s CAD Company
P
traditional thruster propulsion system.
By mimicking the tuna, the robot is TC has been moving away from its mechanical engineering roots for quite
optimized for a range of applications — some time, expanding into application lifecycle management (ALM) with the
from seeking out mines in the shallow 2011 acquisition of MSK Integrity and branching out even further with the
waters of harbors or along shorelines, or Servigistics deal, which launched it into the service lifecycle management (SLM)
for locating contraband like hidden drugs space. But with last December’s $112 million acquisition of ThingWorx, PTC set its
or guns. There are also possible applica- sights on the Internet of Things (IoT) landscape. During the June PTC Live 2014
tions in the oil and gas industry, such as event, it revealed its roadmap for the future. Beyond the launch of Creo 3.0, the
using the robotic tuna to do more fre- event was chock full of keynotes, customer presentations and announcements in the
quent monitoring of gas pipelines. SLM, embedded software, and IoT space.
The fact that the tuna’s front portion “Once upon a time, products were all mechanical, so you could call yourself a
of the body doesn’t move when in mo- product development company with just a CAD offering,” said PTC CEO and
tion is essential to the in-water robot de- visionary Jim Hepplemann. “Today, if all you have is a CAD offering and you call
sign, says Mark Smithers, VP and CTO yourself a product development company, people are going to snicker.”
at Boston Engineering. “It is important In PTC’s vision of a closed-loop product lifecycle, Creo is used for the physi-
because when you are carrying sensors, cal hardware design; Integrity covers the software design; systems engineering
you don’t want everything moving all capabilities are delivered via new capabilities from its recent Atego acquisition; and
over the place and messing up what you Windchill comes into play to manage all the configurations and to support global
are carrying on board,” he explains. collaboration. PTC’s SLM suite, courtesy of Servigistics, covers the product through
PTC’s Creo 3D CAD tool was criti- the distribution and service stage.
cal to the modeling effort, particularly The ThingWorx technology, a platform for building IoT applications, is the linch-
for the surfacing and simulation aspects. pin, providing the core connectivity for completing the dream of closed-loop system.
The team used a 40-in. tuna caught off “If you think about that vision and concept, it dramatically transforms the way com-
the coast of Gloucester, MA, as the basis panies can create, operate and service products,” Hepplemann said. “This is the most
for the CAD model. Because nature exciting time in our industry I can remember, and I’ve been around for a while.”
doesn’t follow easy geometric formulas, READ MORE ➜ deskeng.com/virtual_desktop/?p=8872

Time for Manufacturing to Shed Old Image?
“
Dark, dirty, dangerous —
that’s what most people’s
perception of manufacturing
is,” observes Bill Boswell,
Siemens PLM Software’s senior
director of partner strategy. “To
convince students to go into manu-
facturing, we have to change that
perception. That’s not what manu-
facturing is today.”
Boswell points to Volkswagen’s
Transparent Factory in Dresden,
Germany, designed by architect
Gunter Henn. Complete with pol-
ished hardwood floor and curved
glass surfaces, the building looks
more like a modern art museum or
a high-tech firm’s headquarters than
“The Future of Manufacturing” report sounds an alarm
an automotive plant.
bell about unfilled jobs.
“Not every plant is going to look
like this one,” Boswell admits, “but that’s
what the future of manufacturing is —
certainly not dark, dirty and dangerous.” facturing jobs globally — an indica- Competition that Really Matters,” a
tor of a serious skill shortage. The report by the Center for American
New Skills Required report states, “Stories of shortages Progress, observes, “In 2007 [China]
Similarly, the skills needed for abound, including 600 openings surpassed the U.S. in the number
manufacturing have also changed, he for skilled tradespeople at AAR, a of science and engineering doctoral
points out. Anybody can be trained Chicago-based aviation parts maker. degrees awarded. As of 2008, Chinese
to turn a wrench, push a button or Indian firms have imported tens institutions of higher education pro-
lift an engine block, but that’s not of thousands of Chinese workers duced 1.14 million STEM bachelor
what is needed to know to design to build and operate power plants, degree graduates a year, up from
and build today. “They need to know steel mills and telecommunications about 360,000 in 2000.”
industrial automation, need to know towers. Due in part to labour short- Siemens is on a multi-city initia-
their iPads can be used for design,” ages, Brazilian wages and inflation tive to foster skilled graduates that
Boswell says. are rising as the country struggles to would be ready for employment in
Siemens recently issued a free sustain its rapid growth. The China major U.S. manufacturing firms,
student version of its Tecnomatix Daily reports that the city of Dong- many of whom happen to be Sie-
Jack and Jill software, which lets users guan, where most of the world’s toys mens customers. It involves both
simulate and identify ergonomic is- are made, is a million workers short, schools and universities and poten-
sues using digital humans. The com- while other Chinese cities have been tial employers in Detroit, Richmond,
pany has also begun exploring mobile offering health benefits and housing VA, Worcester, MA, and Norwood,
tablet applications. Its Teamcenter subsidies to attract workers.” OH. “The secret sauce is industry
PLM software is now available as a leaders providing internships,” says
mobile app, for example. Getting the Word Out Boswell, “so when the students come
According to “The Future of If the U.S. doesn’t make concerted out of school, they’ll be ready.”
Manufacturing: Opportunities to efforts to invest in education to train Boswell lists Procter & Gamble
Drive Growth,” a report by the and produce skilled graduates to fill and GE Aviation as among the manu-
World Economic Forum, there’s these roughly 10 million positions, its facturers participating in the program.
roughly 10 million unfilled manu- major global competitors will. “The — K. Wong
deskeng.com /// August 2014 DESKTOP ENGINEERING 9

Virtual Desktop by Kenneth Wong & Beth Stackpole
Gliding into the Past: Dassault Systèmes

Recreates Operation Overlord
I
t was a mission so perilous, D-
Day’s head of airborne operations
predicted 70% of the planes and
up to half the men involved would
be lost, according to PBS’ NOVA
episode “Reconstructing the D-Day
Gliders.” The mission was to deliver an
advanced force behind enemy lines to
secure some of the bridges and cross-
ings before the primary assault began
on World War II’s D-Day, June 6, 1944.
The idea was to have C47 planes
tow a series of gliders across the English
Channel. Upon reaching the landing
site, the towropes would be cut to let the
glider pilots land the planes, which were
made of mostly wood and fabric. Adding Dassault Systèmes helped the TV program NOVA recreate many D-Day
to the danger, the pilot would have to operations in virtual models, including a glider-landing mission.
land the unwieldy gliders in the dark —
in about three minutes’ time. “It took two days to scan the mu- serves as a tourist attraction.
seum plane,” Tayoubi recalls. “It was “No gliders were used there dur-
Reverse Engineering a Glider in point cloud with colored points ing the [D-Day] Overlord operation,”
Seventy years after D-Day, a few — more than 7 million points. Three- notes Tayoubi, “but it looks quite the
people from Dassault Systèmes got to hundred-and-fifty million points were same as the Normandy bocage with
experience what it was like to land a captured in an open ASCII format hedgerows and small fields.”
WWII-era glider in the tree-strewn file. The point cloud was converted to The team also used a mix of maps
French countryside. They were part 3D-editable mesh, and we recreated and original aerial pictures taken in
of the production team that helped [the digital glider] manually using the 1944 by the Allies as reference to get
NOVA recreate the D-Day landing for different references we had. It helped information such as the height of the
a documentary series. a lot to understand the full structure of hedgerows and field size.
The first task was to build a virtual the glider, and to make some measure- Tayoubi and his team used CATIA,
replica of the glider. Mehdi Tayoubi, ments directly to the point cloud.” part of Dassault’s 3D Experience Plat-
Dassault’s VP of digital and experiential form, and CATIA Dynamic Behavior
strategy, and his colleagues couldn’t A Digital Landing Site Modeling to compute the flight dy-
easily extract meaningful volumes and To virtually recreate the landing opera- namics in real time. “We succeeded al-
measurements out of poorly preserved tions, the team also needed a virtual most 50% of the time at the end of the
WWII blueprints of the gliders. Their landscape that closely matched the trial,” Tayoubi reports.
best hope was to find a surviving aircraft. French countryside that greeted the While maneuvering a virtual plane
They found a match in the American WWII glider pilots. To get their land- behind a joystick, Tayoubi says, he
heartland, 4,000 miles away from Nor- ing site, the team rebuilt inside the came to have a better understanding of
mandy. At the Fagen Fighters World computer the Arromanches Artificial the difficulties faced by the WWII pi-
War II Museum in Granite Falls, MN, Harbor. The area was considered a lots. The glider landing recreation was
Tayoubi and his team set out to capture high priority target by the allied forces part of a larger project that aims to turn
the dimensions of a restored glider during D-Day. An artificial port set D-Day operations into a virtual experi-
hanging in the museum using Faro Fo- up there served to supply the invad- ence at 3DS.com/DDay.
cus3D laser scanning equipment. ing forces with ammunition. Today, it — K. Wong

Making Digital Designs Physical Rapid Ready Tech
Pressure-Controlled SLA 3D Systems Talks of the CreoPop.
Although it sounds
An Australian start-up has announced an
innovative approach to SLA 3D printing
High-Speed 3D Printing odd, CreoPop is
that fundamentally changes the design an actual SLA
of the printer, at a consumer-friendly (stereolithography
price level. Hardcotton’s Elemental apparatus) system built into a handheld
stereolithographic printer includes a device about the size of an extra-fat
proprietary pressure control system that magic marker. Just as is the case
regulates resin levels within the tank with traditional SLA systems, CreoPop
during the build process. draws in photopolymer ink that is then
Unlike traditional SLA printers, in hardened by UV lights built into the pen
As part of its deal with Google to develop around the tip.
which the object is moved within the
Project Ara, 3DS has been at work on Cool “ink” rather than hot plastic means
resin, the resin is moved around the
a high-speed additive manufacturing the new pen can be used to accentuate
object using the pressure system.
system that can compete with injection objects made from other materials.
During the build process, resin is cured
molding for both speed and accuracy. MORE ➜rapidreadytech.com/?p=6940
onto the surface of a removable build
3DS is calling these new AM systems
platform in the center of the vat to
fab-grade. Instead of a print head moving
create the first layer of the object. The
pressure control system allows the flow
over a fixed build plate, an assembly line 3D Printing Aids Tumor-
of material from a control chamber in
moves build plates past print heads. This
not only increases the speed of a build,
Removal Surgery
the vat into the build chamber. The Surgeons in Barcelona used 3D printing
but allows 3DS to manufacture parts to create a model of a tumor and the
405nm laser system cures the next
incorporating both stereolithography and surrounding tissues to remove the tumor
layer, and the process is repeated.
selective laser sintering. from a five-
The Elemental is in its final stages of
development, and the company plans to MORE ➜ rapidreadytech.com/?p=7154 year-old boy.
launch the printer through a Kickstarter The surgeons
campaign. Initial units will be available to
backers for less than $1,000.
Stereolithography Pen at the Hospital
Sant Joan de
The next stage in the evolution of
MORE ➜ rapidreadytech.com/?p=7226 AM-capable pens has arrived in the form Deu were able
to practice the
surgery multiple
President Obama times before performing it live. Two
previous surgeries were unsuccessful
Attends First White because of the number of blood vessels
House Maker Faire and arteries surrounding the tumor.
S ince his inauguration, President The team used CT scan and MRI data
Obama has backed a number of to create the model with technology from
alternative energy source projects, Fundacio CIM at Universitat Politècnica
and was responsible for an increased de Catalunya. The tumor was printed in a
focus on advanced manufacturing soft resin, while the surrounding organs,
that paired government and private funding to start a network of research blood vessels and arteries were printed
and development institutes across the nation. America Makes (previously using more rigid materials. They also
NAMII) was the first institute to get under way, with two more on the horizon. produced a tumor-free model of the area
Continuing in the same vein of promoting advanced manufacturing so they could see what the organs should
and innovation, President Obama declared June 18 as the National Day of like after the tumor was removed.
Making. To celebrate the day, The surgeons practiced the procedure 10
the White House hosted a Maker Faire. The U.S. government will also days before the actual surgery, allowing
seek to support new businesses in the tech fields with the Small Business them to determine the most effective way
Administration’s Accelerator competition, which will hand out $2.5 million in to remove the tumor without damaging
$50,000 chunks to winning startups. the surrounding tissues.
MORE ➜ rapidreadytech.com/?p=7050 MORE ➜ rapidreadytech.com/?p=7236
➜ For more coverage of rapid technologies, visit RapidReadyTech.com

Editor’s Picks by Anthony J. Lockwood
Each week, Tony Lockwood combs through dozens of new products to bring you the ones he thinks will
help you do your job better, smarter and faster. Here are Lockwood’s most recent musings about the
products that have really grabbed his attention.
AMD Unveils FirePro W9100 Graphics Card

Company describes the technology as engineered for 4K workstations.
The FirePro W9100 graphics card offers be 5.24 TFLOPS. All of which means that
16GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 memory, you should be able to do things like
which AMD says is an industry first. It load entire datasets or large 4K files
has a 512-bit memory interface and 320 into internal memory and get great
GB/s bandwidth, providing more than performance out of your simulations,
2.6 TFLOPS of double precision compute renderings and similar compute-
performance. Peak single-precision intensive applications.
floating-point performance is reported to MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=14686
Discrete Element Method Software Updated

Platform includes preprocessor, solver, postprocessor and extension modules.
EDEM from DEM Solutions is a high- says that it is the only commercially
performance DEM (discrete element available software capable of generat-
method) simulation software that helps ing the DEM simulations and analysis
you design and optimize equipment for required to solve complex problems in
handling and processing bulk materials the design, prototyping and optimization
through understanding how materials of equipment to handle and process
behave in your system and how they bulk solid materials.
affect the machinery. The company MORE ➜deskeng.com/de/?p=14854
Enterprise-Wide Intelligent Document and Data Exchange

Solution allows users to create multiple specialized PDF documents.
3D PDF Publisher lets you save a file as annotations galore. Essentially, it makes
an interactive 3D PDF document from a dynamic document out of a design file
within your native CAD environment. You that communicates design intent and key
can expand the utility of your document associated data.
with attachments like spreadsheets, Publish 3D is able to scale for use by
Word documents and bills of materials large teams, although a solo designer can
(BOMs). You can also have media like use it.
movies, live links to external data and MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=15450
Personal 3D Printer Uses Engineering-Grade Materials

Airwolf 3D’s new AW3D HDx is available for under $3,500.
The AW3D HDx 3D printer is a desktop- development and lots of the unit’s
sized prototyping system (24 x 18 x 18 internal organs.
in.; 39+ lbs.). It offers a 12 x 8 x 12 The AW3D HDx uses the company’s
in. build envelope, and resolution can JRx hot end for 3D printers. It can
be as fine as 0.002-in. Its tempered continuously hold temperatures of up
glass enclosure allows you to see the to 599°F (315°C), which lets you use
colored filaments winding around to more durable materials.
the print nozzle, the prototype under MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=15828

Get Quotes on Metal Sheet Prototypes Instantly
SolidQuote for Creo allows users to create requests for quotes in program.
Rapid Sheet Metal in Nashua, NH, has design and then identifies and prices out
capabilities like laser cutting, forming, features such as hems and hardware
welding, machining, punching, wire EDM, in real time. And these price numbers,
roll forming, powder coating and silk according to the company, are real,
screening. They’ve also released a proto- up-to-the minute accurate. This real-time
type quoting application for PTC Creo. aspect lets you play with materials,
SolidQuote for Creo automatically finishes, quantities and budget.
takes this information, applies it to your MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=1575
HP Brings Virtual Workstations to Engineers

Technology is in a 2U form factor and uses the HP DL380p Gen8 server.
The HP DL380z uses Intel’s Xeon 384GB of DDR3 memory.
E5-2600 v2 series of multicore proces- Expansion comes in the form of
sors, which are suitable for data center six internal slots. You also have seven
servers and cloud environments. It’s USB 2.0, one serial, two VGA and one
your choice here: These Xeons have SD (internal) external ports to plug
6 to 12 cores, 15MB to 30MB cache things into. Available network interfaces
memory, and clock speeds from 2.4 to include 1GB and 10GB HP Ethernet.
2.8GHz. The HP DL380z supports up to MORE ➜deskeng.com/de/?p=15785
Quality Module Extends PLM Solution

Software from Arena helps build processes for ISO standards, FDA regulations.
Arena Quality embeds quality manage- items, changes, requests, files and proj-
ment functionality into Arena PLM’s ects. You can have links to associated
processes. It provides your teams — say, enterprise systems such as ERP (enter-
design, operations and supply chain prise resource planning) and external
partners — visibility into quality issues data sources, including things like legal
within the context of a product’s complete and warranty claims, field service reports
record. You have in-context visibility and and regulatory databases.
collaboration functionality on affected MORE ➜deskeng.com/de/?p=17166
Automate Inspection Processes and Reports

Dassault Systèmes releases SolidWorks Inspection.
Among the notable benefits of SolidWorks When you’re working with a PDF
Inspection is that it enables you to re- or TIFF drawing, you can instruct
use existing design data and content to SolidWorks Inspection to tell your OCR
create inspection reports, which should (optical character recognition) reader to
speed up everything and provide greater read and identify the nominal dimension,
accuracy than manual methods. This plus and minus tolerances as well as the
data, by the by, can be legacy data, such type of dimension.
as a SolidWorks file, a PDF or a TIFF. MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=17454

Focus on The Internet of Things /// Design
4 Skills for the

Internet of Things
The Internet of Things may be the next big thing, but engineering groups
need to bolster competencies in embedded software, communications,
instrumentation and data security to ride the wave of the transformation.
By BeTh STackpole
T
he Internet of Things (IoT) is
the latest trend being hyped by
analysts and prognosticators
as having disruptive potential — so
much so that it’s prompting product
design and engineering organiza-
tions to ramp up new competencies,
and requiring manufacturers to re-
think and transform their business
models.
IoT generally refers to what some National Instruments’ cRIO-9068 controller, programmed with LabVIEW
call the next-generation Internet, system design software, enables engineers to use a single, graphical
where physical objects are connected development environment to build and test cyber-physical systems.
via the standard Internet Protocol Image courtesy of National Instruments.
(IP). Anything from cars to indus-
trial machines to medical devices
can be involved — even people and vice perspective, that real-time data tion and health care. IoT is already
livestock. Using an array of embed- can provide a technician with every- playing a role in orchestrating more
ded sensors, actuators and a variety thing he or she needs to know about efficient energy usage via the rise of
of other technologies, these loosely how to address a particular problem, smart grids, facilitating highly coor-
connected “things” can sense aspects to be properly prepared with the right dinated disaster response efforts (see
of their environment and communi- parts and equipment before going “SERS Project Puts IoT in Rescue
cate that information over wired and on-site to resolve it. Finally, all of the Mode,” page 16). IoT is also the
wireless networks, without human failure and performance data can be brains behind the new sci-fi crop
intervention, for a variety of compel- fed back into internal product devel- of autonomous vehicles, from the
ling use cases. opment systems, giving engineering Google Car to unmanned drones.
Consider the potential of IoT in teams valuable insights that can drive
terms of remote diagnostics. A trac- future product generations. A New Economy
tor, for example, could be outfitted That’s just a start. Beyond prod- Big-picture, visionary applications
with sensors that collect data about its uct development and manufacturing, aside, there’s already significant IoT
operation in the field, providing real- experts see huge potential for the momentum thanks to the explosive
time insights into performance and IoT to help tackle many of the global growth of tablets and smartphones.
proactively flagging part failures be- society’s thorniest problems, includ- Cisco estimates that there will be
fore they actually occur. From a ser- ing climate change, urban conges- 25 billion devices connected to the

Internet by 2015, and 50 billion by conference attendees in June. Four IoT Competencies
2020. This sets the stage for a sea PTC is betting big on the IoT, for Design Engineers
change in types of products and IoT having doled out $112 million last Building smart and connected prod-
applications brought to market. In year to purchase ThingWorx, which ucts designed to live in the world of
addition, a recent McKinsey Global makes an application platform for IoT will require engineering organi-
Institute report predicts that 80% to building IoT applications (see “PTC zations to master some new areas, and
100% of all manufacturers will be Rolls out ThingWorx v5.0,” page also get better at competencies that
using IoT applications by 2025, and 15). This is in addition to PTC’s have been around awhile, like multi-
the IoT has the potential to unleash earlier acquisition of MSK Integ- disciplinary and systems engineering.
as much as $6.2 trillion in new global rity, which focuses on software life- While there’s lots of talk about the po-
economic value annually by 2025. cycle management capabilities, and tential of IoT, and most analysts agree
Industry watchers are projecting more recently, Atego, a developer of about its significance for the future,
entirely new business models spring- model-based systems and engineer- it’s still early days in terms of com-
ing up around the IoT. In this new ing (MBSE) applications. panies making wholesale changes to
world, companies aren’t just selling “The fact that we are trying to their product development and engi-
physical products, but rather the keep our strategy refreshed and rele- neering processes. That’s according to
subscription services built around vant speaks to the complexity and so- Stan Przybylinski, vice president of re-
these next-generation products. phistication of products right now,” search for CIMdata, a market research
“Smart and connected products Hepplemann said. “You need lot of firm specializing in engineering.
raise the bar on design, and smart- different talents to get one of these “We’re not really seeing it yet,” he
ness opens up a whole new world smart connected things out the door, admits. “There’s a lot of people out
of possibilities in delivering value but you can’t not make them smart there talking, but there isn’t a lot of
through services,” Jim Hepplemann, and connected. If you don’t, you’ll be action. People are still having prob-
CEO of PTC, told PTC Live 2014 a dinosaur.” lems doing basic stuff.”
CM
MY
CY
CMY

Companies committed to pushing also critical for IoT development. in products out in the field now can
their products to the next level need to “It’s got to be a higher level of soft- be attributed to the increased role that
consider the following four disciplines ware knowledge, as opposed to pro- software plays, and its ability to throw
as part of an IoT engineering makeover: gramming,” says Jim Tung, MAT- people off their game.”
1 Embedded software is fast be-

coming a staple of all kinds of
physical products, not just cars and
LAB Fellow at MathWorks. “It’s
important to have software architect
skills while programming skills be-
2 Communication capabilities
become a critical part of the de-
sign, with devices and products of all
airplanes. With the IoT fast approach- come less important. sorts connecting to the Internet to
ing, there is no turning back. Mechan- While software skills have been a interface with other “things” (Editor’s
ical engineers need to interface regu- priority for many engineering organi- Note: For more on this, see “Simulating
larly with software specialists so both zations for some time, some traditional M2M System Communication,” page 24).
design aspects of the product evolve shops are still lacking in this area, ac- Engineers will need to choose from
concurrently. This is preferred over a cording to CIMdata’s Przybylinski. dozens of proprietary and standard
siloed approach, which can often in- “Software has been a creeping in- communications protocols, and fac-
troduce problems later in the game, competence for a lot of companies as tor in things like network protocols,
when it’s more costly to address. it’s found its way into products,” he potential radio frequency (RF) noise
The level of software expertise is explains. “A lot of the issues you see and interference, and the physical fit
and placement of new communication
components as part of their require-
SERS Project Puts IoT in Rescue Mode ments-gathering and formal design
N
processes.
ational Instruments, MathWorks and a variety of other organiza- “Mechanical and electromechanical
tions are trying their hand at state-of-the-art Internet of Things design teams now have to think about
(IoT) applications as part of the SmartAmerica Challenge — a communications as a first-class citizen
government mandate to explore how cyber-physical systems (another in the design process, and consider it
term for the IoT) can create jobs and bring socioeconomic benefits to as another set of domain constraints
the United States. in what is now multi-domain system
Nine organizations helped devise the Smart Emergency Response design,” MathWorks’ Tung explains.
System (SERS), which combines numerous technologies to create a
self-contained environment for disaster response. Using ground and
aerial robots, human-in-the-loop telerobotics, advanced sensors,
3 Instrumentation is crucial to
leverage the data collected by
a smart product to institute a change
search-and-rescue dogs, adaptive electronic communications, and (like remote programming a new func-
something called computer-enabled optimal resource allocation, the tion) or to initiate proactive service.
team created a coordinated and adaptable framework for smart emer- First, though, the design team needs
gency response. Volunteers can be automatically authorized and regis- to understand how the device is to be-
tered, and their efforts integrated with first responders. It’s all accom- have in the field so it can be properly
plished through communications tools like smartphones and social outfitted with sensors to collect the
networking — even when the infrastructure is seriously degraded. right information.
A possible SERS scenario might deploy a rescue dog outfitted with Understanding the functional as-
a harness equipped with a camera, sensors and a GPS to transmit pects of how the equipment is to
information back to a control center, while an overhead drone provides behave will help design engineers
the on-demand Wi-Fi network to collect all the data. The drone could anticipate potential failure modes
also deliver cell phone connectivity, so first responders could access much more effectively, which in turn
a crowdsourcing app that might direct them in real-time to problem effects how they spec the instrumen-
spots, along with funneling valuable feedback from people on the tation into the design, explains Brian
ground to help them better orchestrate the rescue mission. Thompson, vice president for Creo
“This conveys a mindset that we can create devices and systems Product Management at PTC. At this
for which, through their interconnected nature and ability to create stage, the design team needs to discern
and share data, we can substantially improve the quality of life for what types of sensors make the most
everyone,” says Ray Almgren, vice president of marketing for National sense for the product, and the kind of
Instruments. data they’re trying to collect.
Learn more at SmartAmerica.org/teams/smart-emergency- “Engineers should be working with
response-system-sers. field and service teams to ensure the

instrumentation strategy covers all expertise of most design engineers.
the bases,” Thompson says. “Custom- “Engineers can’t be building de-
ers are only now just starting to think vices in isolation if they want to take
about this.” advantage of the possibilities,” notes
4 Data and security should be

at the heart of any IoT-enabled
product. After all, the data collected
Ray Almgren, vice president of mar-
keting at National Instruments. “It
can bring in a whole other set of chal-
will have some sort of impact on the lenges, because your device is going
design, whether it’s to make a change to be getting data or serving up data
to its functionality via a software up- to some database, and that informa-
date, or to feed back into internal tion can be acted upon automatically
product development systems to direct without human intervention to make
future design iterations. Securing that better decisions.”
data is equally important.
As a result, IT, typically the domain Case in Point
that has ownership of data, needs to be All Traffic Solutions, a manufacturer
brought into the engineering fold so of smart traffic signs, went down the
they have some sensitivity to the system path of IoT-enabled products almost
design aspect of the actual devices or five years ago — and hasn’t looked All Traffic Solutions leveraged
“things” that will be physically harvest- back. Initially, the company’s first- and PTC’s ThingWorx rapid application
ing and responding to that data. There second-generation smart signs, which development platform to retool
are also new latency and data security are primarily marketed to municipali- its street signs for the smart and
aspects to consider — again, areas that ties, collected data on traffic and speed connected world of IoT. Image
fall outside of the traditional domain profiles, but it had to be manually courtesy of All Traffic Solutions.
SIMULATING SYSTEMS
FLOW − THERMAL − STRESS − EMAG − ELECTROCHEMISTRY − CASTING − OPTIMIZATION
REACTING CHEMISTRY − VIBRO-ACOUSTICS − MULTIDISCIPLINARY CO-SIMULATION
[email protected]
www.cd-adapco.com
Desktop Engineering advert April 2014.indd 1 1717:27

01/04/2014
deskeng.com /// August 2014 DESKTOP ENGINEERING
downloaded from the physical sign of the unit drive what the unit looks it. Because if you’re not monetizing it,
using a traditional serial cable and like or how it ends up functioning,” why are you doing it?” DE
eventually a portable device. Today, explains Graef. “We had to work hard
the third-generation signs collect data to get everything in the same package Beth Stackpole is a contributing editor
and serve it up to an Internet-based we were already using for the non- to Desktop Engineering. You can contact
database. This not only allows for eas- connected product.” her at [email protected].
ier access, but also makes it possible to More than any challenge to en-
deliver robust searching and analytical gineering, the real work came with
capabilities, according to All Traffic reorienting the entire organization INFO ➜ All Traffic Solutions:
Solutions President Ted Graef. around IoT and transitioning the AllTrafficSolutions.com
The company’s engineering group business model to be less about selling
➜ CIMdata: CIMdata.com
had to master a number of new com- signs and more about marketing sub-
petencies, however, including beefing scription services. ➜ Cisco: Cisco.com
up knowledge of antennas and other “The real message is that IoT is ➜ MathWorks: MathWorks.com
communications elements. The signs not an engineering project, it’s a busi- ➜ McKinsey Global Institute: McKinsey.com
incorporate a modem, which raised nu- ness project,” Graef concludes. “Con-
merous design challenges trying to get nectivity is a business process, not a
➜ National Instruments: NI.com
an off-the-shelf cellular modem into technology. You have to get set up so ➜ PTC: PTC.com
the sign’s already optimized footprint. you can take advantage of the prod- For more information on this topic,
“It was a case of not letting the guts uct’s connection so you can monetize visit deskeng.com.
PTC Rolls out ThingWorx v5.0 Platform for The Internet of Things
A
s part of its push to conquer the emerging Internet
of Things (IoT) landscape, PTC released v5.0 of
ThingWorx, its rapid application development plat-
form for building and running IoT applications.
Released initially in 2011 and acquired by PTC in
December 2013, ThingWorx has been aggressively pursuing
first mover advantage in the world of IoT. It’s currently enjoy-
ing nearly 500% growth since its inception, according to Russ
Fadel, president and general manager of ThingWorx. The
latest release delivers a number of notable enhancements,
including flexible deployment options, more efficient and ThingWorx Rapid Application Development Platform v5.0
secure communications protocols, and a new security model. increases developer activity and offers server federation
Citing widely used industry figures that there will be 50 capabilities with options for cloud, on-premises and on-
billion specialized “things” connected to the Internet in 2020 device deployments. Image courtesy of PTC.
and up to 1 trillion in 2035, Fadel says there is a growing
need for applications to support those “things.” It’s a gap he capability that lets apps be deployed in the cloud, on-
notes was the impetus for starting ThingWorx. “Until recently, premises, hybrid or even on-device. This feature ensures
no one was talking about building apps — but without apps, companies can put applications at the location where it
deploying these ‘things’ is not practical,” he explains. is best suited from a number of perspectives, including
ThingWorx delivers a single stack that provides all the reliability and security.
foundational services to build IoT apps, including the com- • The patented AlwaysOn Protocol is a low-latency, bi-
munications business logic, data storage, system integration directional communications protocol that can be tuned for
and representational state transfer application program minimized power consumption and bandwidth usage.
interfaces (REST APIs), among other capabilities. This • The ThingWorx MatrixMultitenancy Security Model
approach greatly reduces development time, Fadel says. ensures secure visibility and access control to devices
and information that directly maps to complex business
ThingWorx Platform v5.0 includes: ecosystems.
• Flexible deployment options via a new federation Learn more at ThingWorx.com.

Systems on a Chip /// Focus on the Internet of Things
Feeling the heat

The shift to circuits, systems on a chip, and software-driven
products redefines the design engineer’s role.
By KEnnETh Wong
E
very year, Mentor Graphics asks
its customers to submit their
most complex printed circuit
boards (PCBs) to its Technology Lead-
ership Award program. Over time, the
submissions by Fujitsu, Samsung, Qual-
comm, Johnson Controls, and other
PCB makers revealed a pattern, a sta-
tistically significant PCB evolution. In
1995, Mentor Graphics saw 649 dispa-
rate components spread across 101 sq.
in. In 2012, it saw 2,216 components
crammed into 58 sq. in. In other words,
as the number of components grew
greater, the size of the PCBs got smaller.
At the end of 2013, InformationIs-
Beautiful.net published an infographic
showing how many lines of code are in
the well-known apps, devices and prod-
ucts we use every day. As its basic unit
of measure, the widely circulated chart
used 1 million lines of code (the equiva-
lent of 18,000 printed pages of text, or The Power Tester device from Mentor Graphics is used to test and verify
14 times the length of Tolstoy’s War and the performance of printed circuit boards. The output from this test usually
Peace). The Chevy Volt electric car, for becomes the basis for further thermal simulation by the mechanical designer.
example, has 10 million lines of code. Image courtesy of Mentor Graphics.
That’s not as much as the Boeing 787’s
14 million or the F35 fighter jet’s 24
million. But even those numbers can’t turn, the shift encourages designers to as a judge in the recent EcoCar 2
match the content of an average high- explore more miniaturization and sim- competition, aimed at encouraging
end car’s software, estimated to be 100 plification opportunities through the use next-generation engineers to design
million lines of code — far more than of SoCs on PCBs. energy-efficient vehicles.
the 61 million lines powering Facebook. For future engineers, the embedded “On those teams, there are kids
The explosion of software code in microprocessors and control software working on control systems, antilock
products is a direct consequence of are an integral part of product design. brakes, and so on,” he points out. “For
manufacturers’ shifting emphasis from It’s a trend to which the current crop of them, the control software is as much a
mechanical to electrical functions. To mechanical CAD (MCAD) and product part of the design as the brake pedal is.”
reduce the number of mechanical parts, lifecycle management (PLM) products
which are costly to produce, with in- is seeking to adapt. The Impact of Software
tegrated circuits or Systems on a Chip For example, Bill Boswell, senior Humair Mandavia, executive direc-
(SoCs), engineers and designers must director of partner strategy for Sie- tor of PCB design software maker
rely on software-driven operations. In mens PLM Software, participated Z u k e n ’s U. S . R & D o p e r a t i o n s

Focus on the Internet of Things /// Systems on a Chip
(dubbed SOZO), reflects on his own
From Semantics introduction to coding as an electrical
to Numbers engineering student.
M
“I was required to take several
ichael Munsey, Dassault classes on C++ programming and
Systèmes’ director of other programming courses to un-
semiconductor strategy, derstand the relationship between
describes what at first seems like an hardware and software design,” he
issue of semantics, arising from the recalls. “In my program, the focus was
need for system-level simulation. still more on digital IC design; today,
“Take the high-level requirement engineers need to think at the system
for a car,” he suggests. “It says the level. Coding has always been part of
car must have an anti-lock braking engineering, but the dependencies
system. But as it moves down the pro- have grown larger now.”
duction chain to the people who need For products in automotive and
to design the brake system, they need aerospace, the complexity of what the
to translate that English language into embedded SoCs must do is increasing.
engineering values [torques, pres- “There are so many dependen-
sure, stress, safety factor, etc.]. Then cies in the system, because all these
when it gets to the semiconductor devices are talking to one another.
level, it has to be described as electri- When the Internet of Things (IoT)
cal signals and how they interact.” becomes widespread, SoCs and the The increased density of PCBs
Designers need a method to trace software that goes into it will become generates significant heat gain.
all the numerical tests and verifica- even more complex,” Mandavia pre- Thus, managing the heat in consumer
tions done in each phase of the design dicts. “The more functions we put on products like smartphones is critical.
development to the high-level require- the SoCs, the more code we’ll have. Image courtesy of Mentor Graphics
ments from where they originated. There’s a direct correlation.”
This traceability issue is not confined John Winter, mechanical engi-
to automotive; it affects every product neering manager for radio frequency the chassis) limits the room available
that incorporates software and SoCs (RF) equipment maker Bird Technol- for the PCB. But in new product de-
as an integral part of design. ogies, provides a historical perspec- velopment, Winter acknowledges the
To an extent, the traceability tive. “Eight years ago, we had two board design tends to take precedence
problem remains invisible because programmers,” he says. “Today, we over mechanical considerations.
“everyone has solved it at his or her have eight in my department, about “The electrical engineers will get
own domain level,” Munsey says — the 12 total in the company — that’s the board working first, in what-
mechanical engineering department around 40% of our engineers.” ever shape they see fit,” he explains.
has its own method for correlating the “Then, when it’s ready, they’ll begin
abstract requirements to mechanical The Tug of War for Space the back-and-forth process with me-
engineering parameters; the electrical Winter describes his firm’s typical chanical engineers.”
engineering department has done so workflow: “The mechanical designer The competition for space on the
for itself; and so on. will give the contractor [hired to de- PCB itself is also fierce. John Isaac,
Dassault Systèmes offers simula- velop the PCB design] the board out- director of market development for
tion lifecycle management (SLM) line, mounting holes and connector Mentor Graphics, compares the
products under its ENOVIA and placements. The contractor would shrinking of PCB physical space and
SIMULIA brands. They were initially give us back the design so we could the increase of circuits on the board
developed to cater to the mechani- place it in our assembly to check to “putting 10 lbs. in a 5-lb. bag.”
cal design industry, but have been placement. Then we give the green “What used to be a processor sur-
refined so they can be deployed in light to buy the board. Sometimes the rounded by 10 memory chips is now
semiconductor design as well. Part of contractor tells us how much room one integrated SoC,” he adds. “That’s
the software lets users visually map they need; sometimes we tell them going from 11 components to one.”
out the relationships between test how much room they have.” Zuken’s Mandavia agrees. “Talk
results and the requirements they’re In refinement of existing products, about tug of war, things are getting
intended to satisfy. the established form factor (especially very tight,” he says. “Now we’re try-

ing to put the SoCs inside the sub- program, to design their RF devices. ibility, Winter points out, is favorable
strate of a PCB.” Unlike a history-based parametric to the iterative MCAD-ECAD back-
CAD package, SE with ST lets de- and-forth workflow to negotiate the
Things are Really Heating up signers quickly execute geometry PCB’s space envelope and location in
Heat management is becoming a big changes without having to retrace the product.
issue, says Mentor Graphics’ Isaac: the historical steps required to cre- As Zuken’s Mandavia observes,
“As the SoCs fitted on the board are ate the geometric features. That flex- “It’s great to be able to put all these
getting tighter, you have very hot
components getting closer and closer
to one another, housed in very small
factors like cellphones and tablets.”
Lenovo® recommends Windows.
Even if the ECAD components are
causing the heat, both the creation of
the product’s top-level assembly (rep-
resented in CAD) and thermal analy-
sis typically fall into the responsibility
of the MCAD user. Thus, the me- WORKSTATION PERFORMANCE
chanical engineer will feel the heat,
so to speak. AT A DESKTOP PRICE.
Mentor Graphics offers T3Ster
hardware and software for testing and The New Lenovo® ThinkStation® P300 starts at $729
verification of SoCs and PCB pack- If you’re looking for more power, more capacity and more
ages. The thermal output from this creativity, look no further. Much more than a traditional desktop,
can be imported into FloTHERM, a a ThinkStation® P300 from Lenovo® can give you the performance
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) you need for your engineering and manufacturing applications.
software package for simulation and > INTEL® XEON® PLATFORM
analysis of board component behav- > ERROR CORRECTING CODE MEMORY
iors. This allows the designers to sim-
> PROFESSIONAL GRAPHICS
ulate the behavior and interactions of
> KEY ISV CERTIFICATIONS
the chip with the end product — while
the product is still in development and
only exists as a digital 3D model.
The Electro-Mechanical
Handshake
Winter points out that the Super
Video Graphics Array (SVGA), a
computer display unit, is a critical
component in Bird Technologies’
products — and thus a critical factor
in design. “It has a microchip on it,
so the mechanical engineers have to
manage the heat from it,” he explains.
“We need to position it in a way that
let the heat escape through the chas-
sis, or with fans and heat sinks.”
If the heat increases beyond what’s
recommended by the chip maker, the
chip’s performance itself begins to
degrade, Winter says. He and his col-
leagues use Siemens PLM Software’s
Solid Edge with Synchronous Tech-
nology (SE with ST), a direct-editing www.lenovo.com/workstation

Focus on the Internet of Things /// Systems on a Chip
functions on a single package or a industry standard MCAD programs information. “That only solves the
chip, but now you have to think about — what Zuken calls “3D ECAD/ problem on the MCAD side,” he
its thickness and placement inside the MCAD co-design.” continues. “With CR-8000 Design
product.” To that end, some ECAD Zuken’s CR-8000, CR-5000 and Force, we support the import of me-
developers like Zuken have begun CADSTAR products, Mandavia says, chanical data, such as housing infor-
working on accommodating 3D ge- can export not only the geometry mation so that PCBs can be designed
ometry transfer between ECAD and of the PCB but also the conductive with accurate mechanical constraints
to solve the problem on the ECAD
side.” Electronic design automation
(EDA) companies are now working
more closely to help realize a more
collaborative design process.
Simulating the Interplay

In June, the Design Automation
Conference (DAC) was in full swing
at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.
It was also where ANSYS’ director
of high-tech industry marketing and
strategy, Sudhir Sharma, used the cell
phone in his hand to illustrate a point.
“If my hand is impairing the anten-
na’s reception in a significant way, or if
I get inside a building so the reception
As MCAD and ECAD users work to define the PCB’s space in the assembly, gets weaker, the signal amplifier in the
it’s essential that they have a way to display the complete PCB model with phone increases the amount of power
conductive data inside the MCAD environment. This image shows a PCB to compensate,” he said. “That drains
design with enclosure within Siemens NX CAD program, a workflow made the battery and increases the heat in-
possible by Zuken. Image courtesy of Zuken. side the device. The person designing
the phone needs to recognize the in-
terplay. So he needs a thermal-electri-
cal-structural analysis that combines
everything in the system; he can’t treat
them as discrete operations.”
Lunchtime conversations and hall-
way exchanges at the DAC, Sharma
pointed out, reflected the new think-
ing: “Everyone is talking about multi-
disciplinary, multi-physics simulation.”
In May 2012, ANSYS made the
move to acquire ESTEREL, a com-
pany founded by two French research-
ers who invented a control program-
ming language. (The language was
named after the Esterel Massif moun-
tain range in southeastern France.)
Today, ANSYS’ portfolio includes
what was formerly an ESTEREL
product — the ANSYS SCADE soft-
ware suite, a systems design and mod-
A PCB model with conduct placement and routing with accurate 3D eling tool for embedded software sim-
mechanical constraints, as seen in Zuken’s CR-8000 PCB design program. ulation and code production.
Image courtesy of Zuken. “SCADE is a modeling environ-

ment, but it can also automatically Previously, mechanical designers and control devices with natural spo-
generate millions of lines of code that only had to deal with the placements ken language and gestures, the term
you can immediately implement in of circuit boards in their design. Their “pushing buttons” may be remem-
the engine control unit of a car, or concerns were more or less limited to bered as nothing but an outdated
your device,” Sharma said. reserving sufficient space within the metaphor. DE
assembly so the electrical components
‘The Long Pole in the Tent’ could fit within it. But perhaps that’s Kenneth Wong is Desktop Engi-
The keyboard on previous-generation a simplistic way of looking at design. neering’s resident blogger and senior
flip phones used to be a collection of “Now, lots of functions are con- editor. Email him at kennethwong@
tiny mechanical parts, manufactured solidated into SoCs,” says Michael deskeng.com or share your thoughts on
at considerable cost and prone to Munsey, director of semiconduc- this article at deskeng.com/facebook.
break from stress. But today’s multi- tor strategy for Dassault Systèmes.
touch screens reduce the operation “The boards themselves are getting
into software and circuits. so small. The massive integration and
INFO ➜ ANSYS: ANSYS.com
As Mentor Graphics’ Isaac points consolidation have made the systems
out, in today’s smartphones, you’d a lot smaller and complex. So we ➜ Bird Technologies: BirdRF.com
be hard pressed to find any mov- should think of new ways people can ➜ Dassault Systèmes: 3DS.com
ing mechanical parts beside the on- interact with these devices.”
➜ Mentor Graphics: Mentor.com
off switch and the battery. “You can SoC and the shift to software
design and produce your hardware, paved the way for the iPhone’s voice- ➜ Siemens PLM Software:
PLM.automation.siemens.com
your chips, and everything else, but activated Siri and Windows’ upcom-
software development is usually what ing personal assistant Cortana. Ten ➜ Zuken: Zuken.com
holds up the process,” he adds. “The years from now, when software and For more information on this topic,
software is the long pole in the tent.” circuits make it possible to command visit deskeng.com.

Focus on The Internet of Things /// Embedded Systems
Maple and MapleSim can effectively model

communications among processors controlling
different automotive subsystems.
Simulating M2M
System Communication
Building machine-to-machine embedded systems can be complex and
error-prone without simulating the communication among devices.
BY PETER VARHOL
A
s the Internet of Things (IoT) ramps up and millions Machine to Machine, Defined
of devices become connected to the Internet, there is Simulation is an essential element of building an IoT net-
also a push to enable communication among all types work. These networks are starting to become complex and
of devices available on the Internet. These devices include pro- ubiquitous, and the communication among these systems
cess control systems, power line communication (PLC) de- can be unpredictable without a lot of modeling. Many of
vices, precision machinery, and various types of infrastructure. the technologies and applications are new, necessitating
For example, imagine the system of monitors and con- creative design strategies and good technical decisions.
trollers it will take to control driverless cars on a highway Machine-to-machine, or M2M, is a type of IoT de-
— car sensors and control systems, manufacturing systems, sign that typically involves no human interaction. It
traffic signals, wireless access points, systems working with might involve feedback systems between engine and
Big Data, and likely even satellite monitoring. All of these braking actions in an automobile, or control systems
components need to communicate with one another, ac- monitoring temperatures and chemical reactions in in-
cept and process data, and provide feedback to a variety of dustrial plants. These devices have performed relatively
control systems. simple, single-function tasks in the past, but are now
Simulating these systems is a challenge, but it’s neces- being called upon to operate more autonomously, in
sary to understand the behavior of the system and how to conjunction with other devices.
make it better before actually building it. They consist of Because many of these systems have at least soft real-
many hardware components, multiple software packages in- time requirements, getting the timing right is a critical
cluding different operating systems, different programming part of design. If engineers had to physically build it to
languages, and different types of connections. Most of the do so, tweaking the design could take significant time
IoT for specific applications will operate on small network and cost a great deal. Thus, simulation is increasingly the
segments for specific purposes, but some will connect with starting point to the design and implementation of these
hundreds, thousands or even millions of other devices. embedded networks.

Simulating Processors and Communication MapleSim to execute those models as a part of a simulation.
System parameters and design goals may require simulating The result is a combination of mathematical tools for engi-
the different types of processors and processing at the hardware neers with the ability to build and execute models of complex
level. In some cases, this could be done as hardware-in-the-loop real world systems. While Maple is used for a lot of designs and
(HIL) simulation. According to Jim Tung, MATLAB Fellow simulations within the automotive industry, these tools can be
at MathWorks, communication between devices can occur in applied to any engineering problem that requires sophisticated
multiple ways: “Ethernet, both wired and wireless, Bluetooth mathematics.
or LTE.” During the design process, engineers are often look- In support of HIL simulations as well as other types of in-
ing at tradeoffs between cost and performance want to simulate tegrated simulations, MapleSim offers a large and continually
different communications options. growing array of connectors to other engineering software and
Tools such as MathWorks Simulink provide a robust method hardware systems. It enables engineers to easily connect sup-
of simulating both devices and communication between those porting hardware devices, and simulate the communications
devices. Simulink provides a means of executing a MATLAB activity among them.
model to determine the operating characteristics of a design. Simulating processors is usually necessary only at the most
For those interested in performing detailed communications basic level, if hardware isn’t available yet or if the project is at the
simulations, MathWorks also offers downloadable toolboxes for conceptual phase. Instead, designers are typically able to employ
specific media and protocols. These include the signal process- HIL to include existing processors or other hardware devices
ing, radio frequency (RF), communications system and wavelet into the simulation as they look at other aspects of the distrib-
toolboxes — enabling modeling and simulating different types uted system, such as application performance, communications
of communications to be done at a high level of abstraction. and real-time responsiveness.
Maplesoft’s Maple and MapleSim also enable engineers and
system designers to create communications designs. The two Building in Applications
work together — Maple to produce formal analytical models Verifying that the infrastructure operates as expected is an impor-
based on mathematical representations of system behavior, and tant part of the simulation exercise, but simulating what is sup-

Focus on The Internet of Things /// Embedded Systems
tion and control software. While DDS was

intended to be a specification for operating
software, it can also be implemented and run
on top of a large-scale system simulation, as
well as with the resulting product.
Some simpler M2M networks don’t re-
quire this level of peer-to-peer control, but
it is becoming more common with systems
requiring real-time data and feedback for
control systems. DDS specification devel-
oper Real-Time Innovations, for example,
reports significant use in hospital and medi-
cal environments, command and control sys-
tems, and aviation communications.
MathWorks Simulink shows signal values
when stepping back and forward through From Simulation to Product
a communications simulation. M2M networks are an evolving set of sys-
tems, including processors, ASICs, network
communications, operating system instruc-
posed to happen on the processor, field-programmable gate tions and communicating applications in a complex, interact-
array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) ing network. The set of systems is usually self-managed in that
is another matter entirely. In most cases, engineers simply sim- it uses data generated by data acquisition devices to make and
ulate expected inputs and outputs, with the expected real-time implement simple decisions on the systems being controlled.
lapse for data acquisition and processing. It’s relatively easy to Organizations seeking to develop their own internal M2M
implement on devices, if the primary goal is to test communi- network, or plugging into the larger and more public Internet,
cations operation and latencies. will find simulation to be a faster and more reliable network
There are cases, however, where the bulk of the on-chip of devices without having to build and rebuild it multiple
application actually exists, such as in control systems that have times. Simulating communication systems with hardware, or
in the past operated independently. In these cases, HIL using simulating the hardware and applications also, can make the
existing hardware and applications makes sense. In that way, difference between a smoothly functioning network and one
engineers can run most, if not all of the actual applications that needs continuous adjustment once in production. If the
— and focus specifically on the communications parameters network is used in a manufactured product, such as an au-
among them. tomobile, any error or inefficiency in design could result in
recalls or field adjustments of the entire product line.
Managing Network Communications A comprehensive approach requires simulating the hard-
The last step in building and managing such a system is inte- ware, operating system, management software and even apps.
gration, data exchange, and control across many nodes. This Because communications represents such a large part of the
requires a strategy that lends itself well to distributed manage- unknown and difficult to predict, HIL simulations are often
ment systems. While this can be difficult to simulate, there are appropriate. Either way, the end result of simulating commu-
solutions that can run in an HIL configuration with a focus on nications systems can be better designs that are less costly dur-
different types of communications and different media. ing the design process. DE
There is a specification and public standard for such con-
trol software, maintained by the Object Management Group. Contributing Editor Peter Varhol covers the HPC and IT beat for
This standard, called Distributed Data Service (DDS), ad- DE. His expertise is software development, math systems, and systems
dresses publish-subscribe communications for real-time and management. You can reach him at [email protected].
embedded systems. This approach enables new components
to be added to the network at any time and subscribe to global
data, an essential element of any large-scale network. DDS INFO ➜ Maplesoft: Maplesoft.com
introduces a virtual Global Data Space where applications can ➜ MathWorks: MathWorks.com
share information by simply reading and writing data-objects,
addressed by means of an application-defined name.
➜ Object Management Group: OMG.org
Any simulation incorporating many different nodes and ➜ Real-Time Innovations: RTI.com
requiring complex data interactions must also include mitiga- For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

Workstation Upgrade Sponsored Report /// Lenovo®
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includes the methods you use to design it, the software you use additional software features all need to be taken into account.
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combine to give you a creative and innovative competitive edge. years. Larger files and applications take longer to process in
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workstations are a key element of this. and more storage. This happens gradually, so many designers
don’t notice it changing. We see this change as our systems
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Prototype/Test /// Scanning
Ease of Use Drives

3D Scanner Adoption
The 3D scanning market is getting bigger, even as the
scanners themselves are getting smaller.
By Brian alBrighT
D
ata from Research and Mar- or that want to quickly generate 3D the inspection side will overcome that
kets published last year put models. There are now hand-held, small inaccuracy.”
the 3D scanning market at industrial-grade scanners that can be The growth in 3D scanning has
roughly $2.06 billion, and set to dou- had for less than $20,000 — providing also been affected by the introduc-
ble by 2018 with a compound annual a viable alternative for users who don’t tion of lower cost scanners in the
growth rate (CAGR) of 14.6%. Much need the extremely high level of reso- sub-$5,000 range (in some cases, sub-
of that is being driven by medical ap- lution and accuracy provided by large, $1,000). Most of these scanners are
plications and dentistry, but proto- more expensive units. targeted at consumers, who use them
typing, reverse engineering, quality “When scanners first emerged on in conjunction with 3D printing ap-
control and other applications are the market, they weren’t widely ac- plications. That’s the case with 3D
also expanding. cepted because people didn’t trust Systems’ Sense scanner, MakerBot’s
That growth has been driven in that they could be accurate,” says Digitizer Desktop unit, the Kick-
large part by the steady increase in Burt Mason, regional sales manager starter-funded Fuel3D scanner, and
speed and accuracy of the scanners at Hexagon Metrology. “Now they’ve similar devices.
themselves, along with falling prices. proven their worth. You give up a “There are a lot of people inter-
The scanners are also smaller, easier little bit of accuracy compared to a ested in 3D scanners that are not con-
to use, and can provide an increas- hard probing system, but the speed, cerned about accuracy, because you
ingly valuable service for companies the amount of data you can capture can do so much with low-accuracy 3D
that need fast, accurate measurements, and the color mapping you can get on scanners,” says Thomas Tong, global

Far LeFt: LMI technologies’ HDI 120 uses blue LeD projection technology
to capture 3D scans for reverse engineering, inspection measurement,
and visualization applications. It is dust-proof and water resistant for
harsh environment operation.
LeFt: the Hexagon Metrology WLS qFLaSH is a stereo vision

system with low sensitivity to machinery vibration, industrial light,
and temperature changes, making it suitable for capturing 3D
measurements in shop floor environments.
rIgHt: the Hexagon Metrology t-Scan 5 is targeted at non-contact laser

scanning for CaD-to-part inspections and reverse engineering applications.
sales manager for high-definition im- In addition to providing greater lution, software capabilities, ease of
aging (HDI) products at LMI Tech- accuracy and resolution, higher-end use, and overall scan time from start
nologies. “Not everybody needs to scanners can monitor environmental to finish,” says Gleb Gusev, CTO at
capture the last micron of accuracy all conditions that affect measurement Artec Group.
the time. With the emergence of the accuracy like temperature, air pres- “Professional grade scanners pro-
consumer 3D printer, the consumer sure and humidity, along with desk vide more dependability and repeat-
market has really elevated the status vibration or movement. “Professional ability,” Tong adds. “They also pro-
of 3D scanning.” scanners outperform low-cost laser vide a workflow from beginning to
Although the scanners are less ac- scanners in accuracy, stability, reso- end. If you have a reverse engineering
curate than their industrial cousins,
they are popular with home users,
small businesses and hobbyists. ENGINEERING
SERVICES
However, in the bulk of professional
applications, consumer-grade scan-
ners do not provide the accuracy or
resolution required for most design AN EXTENTION
OF YOUR BUSINESS.
3D. ENGINEERING. DESIGN. SIMULATION.
and production applications. These
scanners can create point clouds, but
they aren’t accurate enough for in-
spection applications — and most of
the devices aren’t robust or rugged
enough for the shop floor.
For companies or designers
drawn to the technology by these
consumer models, investigating
professional-grade equipment can
lead to a fair amount of sticker
shock. “When we’re talking to cus-
tomers, we have to explain the dif-
ferences to our clients,” says Evgeny
Lykhin, vice president of product
management at Artec Group. “You
have to know what applications the SERVICES 1.855.939.4446
_ Product Development www.creaform3d.com
consumer scanners are built for, _ Numerical Simulation (FEA/CFD)
_ Advanced Surfacing
and what the industrial equipment _ Reverse Engineering
_ 3D Scanning
is built for. We’ve had to conduct _ Inspection
training with our distributors to _ Turnkey Projects and Staff Outsourcing
discuss these issues with customers.”

DE_CES_4.625_4.75in_EN.indd 1 2014-06-27 13:24:30
Prototype/Test /// Scanning
application, these scanners provide a complete workflow plete feature set or performance characteristics. They’re
to get you from the original part to a digital model, at a looking for mobility and ease of use, and whether you can
relatively quick pace. The consumer models can get you a connect different or multiple scanners to the solution.”
3D model, but you can’t depend on that data because the Scanner manufacturers have made it easier and faster
accuracy is so low.” to configure and set up the scanners so that users can
quickly start scanning objects with minimal training and
Ease of Use start-up time. New scanner acquisition software is han-
While technical specifications are still important to com- dling pre-processing tasks to speed delivery to CAD sys-
panies evaluating new scanners, ease of use has become in- tems via features like built-in data editing, alignment and
creasingly important as the scanning function moves from merging capabilities.
trained technicians and specialists to less-experienced Wider integration with design and engineering soft-
users within an organization. ware solutions is another important feature. Artec, for
“Users have moved beyond price, accuracy and speed,” example, is releasing a software development kit (SDK)
Tong says. “They are more interested in having a com- this year that provides integrated support of the com-
pany’s scanners for software developers. “What end users
are looking for is an integrated experience, and a secure
package where they can do all of their work,” Lykhin says.
Reality Capture Devices as QA Tools
P
eter Fritz and his colleagues at 3M’s Automotive Scanner Selection Criteria
Aftermarket Division are currently exploring the When it comes to actually selecting a 3D scanner, know-
use of additive manufacturing (AM) in what they ing your application is critical. It seems obvious, but many
do. Fritz, 3M’s Manufacturing Technology Manager, companies approach what can be a very expensive pur-
said, “In our business, we focus on collision repair and chase without clearly defining what they want to scan,
car care. We provide our customers with total solutions what they want to accomplish with the data, and where
for refinishing automotive bodies.” the scanning will take place.
Fritz and his team have found that AM could be used Outlining the application will determine the size of the
to custom-produce parts—for instance, a jig or a compo- equipment, the resolution and accuracy, and the level of
nent a body shop might need to perform the repair. But ruggedization the equipment requires. “You have to know
they also want to implement quality control, while the what you are trying to accomplish, otherwise you wind up
part is still in production. “We need a way to spot-check buying a scanner that turns into a paperweight,” Tong says.
and make sure the component we’re producing or what “There’s no point in buying a $200,000 industrial scanner
we’re printing meets the desired quality criteria and if you don’t need that accuracy or those performance char-
dimensions, that it’s within a certain range of accuracy acteristics. But it’s also a waste of time to spend $10,000 on
and tolerance,” he said. For that, they’re looking to real- a product that will not do what you need it to do.”
ity capture tools—specifically, the MicroScribe digitizer. Application requirements will help guide the purchase
Fritz’s division uses several 3D printers, employing decision based on technical specifications that include:
a mix of fused deposition modeling (FDM) and Polyjet Set-up time: How long will the scanner take to warm
printing. They have begun using the MicroScribe device up, mount, position and calibrate? Part preparation will
to measure the critical dimensions while producing the also affect set-up, because some parts may require a coat-
AM part to ensure the printed components meet their ing, special lighting conditions, or the application of tar-
expectations. gets. Some newer units require very little warm-up time,
“What we like about the MicroScribe is its portabil- which means scanning will occur faster.
ity,” he said. “With it, we can move from location to loca- Versatility: Not every scanner can be used to scan or
tion, set up, and run diagnostics relatively quickly. The measure every object. Determine whether the scanner can
accuracy of the dimensions we measured is adequate handle the range of parts you need to scan.
for what we’re doing now.” “When people buy a scanner, they assume they can
Fritz acknowledges the approach and the workflow scan anything, and that’s a common misconception,” Tong
are both at their infancy at the present, so he and his says. “Most scanners are narrowly defined devices, so if
colleagues are still experimenting and learning. They you need to scan coins, you will need a different piece of
hope to share their findings with industry consortiums equipment than if you want to scan a car.”
in the future. Also, consider whether you will need hard probing ca-
--Kenneth Wong pabilities, or other measurement tools to work with the
scanner. “The scanner is not a silver bullet solution,” Tong

says. “Most people looking for scanners have a measure- distances, and see how it performs with variable materials
ment task or problem they want to solve, and they think like paint, chrome, or light-absorbing surfaces.
a scanner can do everything for them. You have to under- “Don’t get overwhelmed by just having the ability
stand that a scanner doesn’t replace calipers or other tools. to scan,” Mason says. “It’s easy to be impressed by the
It’s just another tool in the toolbox.” amount of data you can get, and overlook some of the
User requirements: Who will do the actual scanning? realities of your environment and how they will affect the
If a designer or non-specialist will actually use the scan- scanning performance.” DE
ner, then ease-of-use, versatility and set-up time consider-
ations will be even more important. Brian Albright is a freelance journalist based in Columbus, OH.
Accuracy: This is the degree to which the scanned data He is the former managing editor of Frontline Solutions maga-
matches the physical object, and tolerances will vary based zine, and has been writing about technology topics since the mid-
on the application. For critical design features in engi- 1990s. Send e-mail about this article to [email protected].
neering applications, that accuracy may need to be in the
range of 0.001 to 0.010 in. However, specifying inappro-
priately tight design tolerances can drive up cost. INFO ➜ 3D Systems: 3DSystems.com
“The most demanding industrial customers are in man- ➜ Artec Group: Artec3D.com
ufacturing,” Lykhin says. “They need the highest resolu-
tion and precision possible to make a comparison of the ➜ Fuel3D: Fuel-3D.com
real object vs. the modeled one.” ➜ Hexagon Metrology: HexagonMetrology.us
“You really have to look at how the spec is developed, ➜ LMI: LMI3D.com
because specifications for laser scanners are all over the
map,” says Hexagon Metrology’s Mason. “If you see the
➜ MakerBot: MakerBot.com
scanner listed at 30 microns, what does that mean? We test ➜ Revware: Revware.net
our systems with the laser scanner attached to the portable For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
arm, and certify the entire system. Some companies give
you just the accuracy of the scanner by itself.”
Resolution: Resolution refers to the spacing between
the sampled points, and the required resolution will de-
pend on the size of the smallest features that have to be
scanned. Again, the application will determine how fine a
resolution is required: Package design, for example, can
have a coarser resolution than reverse engineering or digi-
tal archiving for remanufacture. Ultra-fine point resolu-
tions can swell the size of the point cloud file, so define
tolerances accordingly.
Scanner performance will also change with use. “The
claimed precision of a scanner degrades with time because
of temperature fluctuations and other factors,” Lykhin
says. “The stated precision and resolution are typically
determined with factory calibration. What customers
should look into is the ability to recalibrate the scanner
later without sending it back to the manufacturer.”
Scanner size and range: If you have to scan large ob-
jects or parts in service, the size and weight of the scanner
(and its ability to be used in a mobile scenario) will be
important. The range of the scanner (field of view and
depth of field) will also affect scanning procedures. If the
object exceeds those ranges, then stationary scanners will
require multiple scans. The scanner’s coverage will also
affect its ability to scan line of sight constraints like holes,
undercuts, and channels.
Once you have a scanner in mind, test it on the larg-
est part you plan to scan to verify its accuracy at different

Simulate /// Finite Element Analysis
Simulate Joints and

Connections in FEA
Here’s how to make difficult decisions when simulating connections
and joints within a finite element analysis.
By Tony ABBey
Editor’s Note: Tony Abbey teaches live NA- has meant a major resurgence in the use tween the connectors and the surround-
FEMS FEA classes in the US, Europe and of bonding. ing structure is critical, as in the case of
Asia. He also teaches NAFEMS e-learning Connections can be of a continuous pre-loaded bolts and inter-rivet buckling.
classes globally. Contact tony.abbey@na- nature, such as in large surface regions Let’s take a look at the various model-
fems.org for details. of plates, flanges and where other abut- ing assumptions and implications when
M
ments exist. Alternatively, lugs and pins, considering bolted type connections.
ost structures involve some clips or similar connectors may form dis- Other connections, such as spot welds,
form of jointing or connec- crete load paths. continuous welds and bonding, will be
tion. Using rivets to connect The engineer is faced with a difficult considered in a future article in DE.
structural plates is almost as old as the in- decision, then, when attempting to simu-
troduction of bronze, and then iron into late such connections and joints within a Bolting Requirements
early civilization. Bolted connections be- finite element analysis (FEA). In many Fig. 1 shows the main characteristics of a
came possible with the advent of screw cases, the details of each individual con- typical bolted joint. The bolt consists of
cutting methods, and usage was acceler- nection can be ignored if an overall stiff- a shank and a head. The end of the shank
ated by the standardization of pitch and ness or strength assessment is to be made is threaded to accept the nut. There’s
thread, for example. and the connection is assumed reason- usually a washer underneath the nut, and
Even today, fabricated structures ably continuous. possibly also the bolt head.
such as aircraft and ships use many However, there may be doubts about In some applications, the thread is al-
thousands of bolts and rivets to connect the local flexibility and load paths de- lowed to extend into the grip length. The
components together. Other large-scale veloped with this assumption. It may be grip length is the part of the shank con-
connection technologies include weld- that the assessment of local behavior of taining the plates, flanges or other com-
ing and spot welding. The improve- the connector is essential to a safety case ponents that are being connected.
ment of adhesive technology, coupled — with main attachment fittings, for ex- Most bolts are preloaded, which we
with a much wider use of composites, ample. In some cases, the interaction be- will discuss in more detail shortly. One
Fig. 1: Bolt terminology. Fig. 2: Bolt tension and shear loading conditions.

Fig. 3:. Modeling of a bolt using 3D elements Fig. 4: Bolt pre-load schematic.
and non-linear contact.
of the primary actions, therefore, is to this becomes a viable simulation method. Ideally, the preprocessor or embedded
clamp the components together between We will look at other alternatives shortly. CAD environment should be able to au-
washer faces or nut washer and head face. Fig. 3 shows a typical setup of trans- tomatically detect potential contact sur-
These two faces also constrain compo- ferring load between two plates via a faces, and present these to the user in a
nents from separating axially as a result bolt. The simplified geometry is shown highly visual manner. It should then be a
of external forces applied to them. for clarity, rather than the FEA mesh. straightforward housekeeping exercise to
A typical tension load scenario is In particular, we can see that the bolt allocate connector properties and delete
shown in Fig. 2, together with a single- head, shank, nut and washers have all unwanted connections. If the implemen-
shear load scenario. An alternative to been morphed into a single object. The tation is labor-intensive, it is probably a
the single shear can exist when there are effective stiffness of the combined bolt good idea to avoid this type of approach
three plates; this is called double shear head and washer and combined bolt nut — as the amount of data required in even
and is preferred, as no offset moment oc- and washer has to be checked. There is a simple situation as shown in Fig. 3 be-
curs. In most industries, the shear load no representation of the thread, and we comes unworkable.
transfer path is by plate-bearing loads, assume the three primary load transfer Notice that in Fig. 3, the three main
causing shearing across the bolt shank. paths are as shown in the figure. load transfer paths have been idealized as
To balance the shears, particularly in sin- The main challenge for this type of shearing, plate touching and bolt clamp-
gle-shear loading, complementary bend- modeling is to make sure that the con- ing as shown with the inset figures. The
ing distribution occurs in the bolt shank tacts are set up properly. Each contact plate-touching zone is usually quite small
and can also be reacted by contact of consists of a pair of regions that are and localized around the bolt. To extend
the components under the nut and head joined by a connector and have a con- the mutual contact among the plates over
under high distortion. nection property. Each contacting region the complete plate surface is usually un-
Some industries, such as civil engi- is defined in the solver by a zone of ele- necessary, and adds a lot of computational
neering, require the load transfer via ment surface topology; however, for ease effort to the solution. It can also result in
shear-only loading to occur through of preparation we can usually define this convergence problems. The plates can be
friction between heavily clamped com- via the parent geometry. tied together via normal springs in this
ponents and bolt head and nut. A gap be- The connection is the definition of zone if difficulty arises.
tween bolthole and shank and very high which region pairs are potentially in con- In a non-linear analysis, various pit-
pretension loads are required to achieve tact. The property defines the contact falls arise — including stability and con-
this type of load transfer. method. The contact could be glued (per- vergence. During initial load steps of
manently locked shut), general non-linear a non-linear analysis, a full load path is
FEA Simulation contact or various other types. Other in- not achieved. This means that the bolts
The most intuitive form of FEA simula- formation such as friction and interference have an indeterminate solution and we
tion is by using solid elements and non- tolerances can also be defined. may observe bolt spinning or chattering
linear contact surfaces. If there are rela- When deciding whether to use this in position. Remedies include moving all
tively few bolts in the system, and CAD type of connector modeling, assess the bolts and components into initial bearing
geometry of the bolt details is available, ease with which contacts can be set up. contact, by updating the CAD geometry,

Simulate /// Finite Element Analysis
Fig. 5: Bolt pre-load method in an FEA Fig. 6: An example of the 1D bolt modeling Fig. 7: Deformation modes of bolt
solution, applied to parent geometry. method, shown here with 2D shells. and plate.
and preventing rigid body motion of that hand calculation of the internal load which the preload will act. The elements
the bolts by including very weak system balance when an external load is applied or geometry containing the bolt head sec-
springs. This is especially effective for to the components can be difficult. Bolt tion and nut section are also defined.
spinning of bolts. load diagrams can be created, but they The preload is applied by various
The contact surface technology in the make simplistic assumptions about how methods, including a constraint equation
solver should be mature enough to fit a the external load is transferred into the that literally pulls the two split services
continuous smooth surface through the pre-stressed bolt, nut and component through each other to apply a pre-stress.
nodal points that form contact between system. These diagrams can be both mis- Various options include allowing an
the bolt and the bolthole. This will leading and unrealistic. initial preload, which remains constant
smooth out any point loadings stemming The best approach when attempting throughout any external loading, or a
from mesh discretization. to validate an FEA pre-load system is preload that can be unloaded because
to carry out simple test models, such as of external forces applied to the compo-
Bolt Preload clamping of a pair of back-to-back plates nents. The implication of these two op-
Most bolting systems involve a bolt pre- in pure tension or pure shear, similar to tions should be carefully checked with
load. In the real world, this is applied the loading actions shown in Fig. 2. the test cases described earlier.
by torqueing the bolt against the nut There are several ways that the bolt Various other forms of pre-loading are
and pre-stressing the shank. In an FEA preload can be introduced into an FEA available in some solvers, including the so-
simulation, it would be unusual to model model. One of the earliest approaches called mesh-less bolt, where the bolt itself
the full thread engagement between the gives the bolt material a coefficient of is not modeled but a balanced pressure
bolt and the nut. Very detailed 3D mod- thermal expansion, and the remainder load is applied to the footprint of the head
els that simulate this effect are possible, of the model zero coefficient of thermal and nut onto the facing components.
but they are extremely computationally expansion. A thermal load case applies a
expensive — and pretension is very sen- temperature differential to the bolt mate- 1D Bolt Modeling
sitive to correct friction properties and rial. This creates thermal strains, which If a large number of bolts are to be mod-
geometric accuracy. are used to simulate mechanical strains eled, the use of solid element representa-
The general principle of preten- present in a preload. The temperature tion can be far too burdensome in terms of
sion is shown in Fig. 4. The tensile bolt differential is tuned to give the correct setup time, contact complexity and com-
load creates a reactive compressive load preload value. putational cost.
between the components and the bolt A more modern approach uses a dedi- One alternative is to use a 1D beam el-
head and nut. A common goal is to keep cated bolt preload option, such as shown ement representation. This can also use a
the components in compression under in Fig. 5. A datum plane splits the shank of similar preload method. A typical example
external loading — to improve fatigue the bolt. The datum plane can usually be is shown in Fig. 6. There are many dif-
life, for example. One of the difficulties defined either via pure geometry or by a ferent implementations of this approach,
when calibrating this type of FE model is group of nodes. A bolt axis is defined along but we will focus on a method that uses a

Fig. 8: Bolt strengths assessed Fig. 9: Poor local bolt connection Fig. 10: Recommended local bolt
from FEA forces and moments. modeling. connection modeling.
rigid element to spider out the head and These springs can also be used to adjust local stresses will “blow up.” This can
nut tend of the bolt to the top and bottom the axial stiffness if required. be awkward to explain in a report, and
plate respectively, and can connect to 2D By using this technique, the stiffness of should be avoided.
or 3D element representation. the joint can be modeled very effectively. It doesn’t take much effort to introduce
The rigid element takes up the cross- However, as mentioned before, the local the approach shown in Fig. 3, with stresses
sectional area of the bolt shank, and dis- load transfer between the bolt and the shown in Fig. 10. Although the stresses are
tributes the load out to the periphery of plate is inaccurate — as the bolt is rigidly not accurate, they do not dominate the
the plate hole. This can be used in a linear bonded to the hole. loading in the plate.
analysis, which is another big advantage. Although the stresses are locally quite
The downside, however, is that the load poor, they do not dominate the overall Consider Your Objectives
path in bearing between the bolt and the stress distribution in the plate, and the Modeling of bolted joints needs careful
plate is incorrect, as the back face is being spurious local stress region can be ignored. consideration of the analysis’ objective.
pulled in tension. This can be improved Instead, the bolt transfer loads are ex- Are the bolts critical members that need
upon by having a 180° spider aligned with tracted from the analysis results and used individual modeling, or can the load trans-
the bearing surface. This does mean that in a post-FEA solution for a plate-bearing fer path be adequately represented by 1D
the load path has to be accurately pre- strength assessment. This is an established idealization? If strength assessment of
dicted, so that it is aligned with the spi- process, and does not warrant detailed multiple bolts is to be tackled, consider
der orientation and the bolt is still rigidly FEA. Similarly, knowing the forces and using traditional post-FEA calculations
bonded into the plate over 180°. moments in the bolt can quickly assess the for bolt and plate strength.
If a beam element is used to repre- strength of the bolt. If these are extracted, The time needed to model bolts using
sent the bolt, the bolt bending and shear one can carry out simple, but effective non-linear 3D contact may be prohibi-
stiffness are reasonably representative. hand calculations, as shown in Fig. 8. tive. Pre-tension in bolts should always
Some FEA implementations have a more What should be avoided, though, is be checked using simple test models to
advanced form of beam representation a point connection from the end of the understand the initial loading and stress
to model the short stiff beam that a bolt beam into the plate that ignores the load distribution, and the subsequent redistri-
represents. However, what is missing from distribution of the pin circumference. bution under external loading. DE
this representation is the bearing stiffness Fig. 9 shows a stress contour plot of a
of the plate and beam. plate loaded by several bolts, where the Tony Abbey is a consultant analyst with his
The stiffness can be visualized by look- load transfer is occurring at individual own company, FETraining. He also works as
ing at Fig. 7, which shows the deforma- nodes. This is a situation where a finite training manager for NAFEMS, responsible
tion modes associated with the pin and the force is transferred through an infinitely for developing and implementing training
plates. We can put back the bearing stiff- small area, and creates a singularity at classes, including a wide range of e-learning
ness by introducing springs between the each connection. If we increase the mesh classes. Send e-mail about this article to de-
top of the beam and the spider element. fidelity, we chase the singularity and the [email protected].

Engineering Computing /// The Cloud
HPC Options, Part 3
Consider CAE in the Cloud
A large-scale experiment finds why and when the Cloud might make sense.
BY WOLFGANG GENTZSCH AND BURAK YENIER
C
ost savings, shorter time to market, better quality, less
product failures — the benefits that engineers and sci-
entists can expect from using technical computing in
their research, design and development processes can be huge.
But relatively few scientists and manufacturers use servers
when designing and developing their products on computers;
the vast majority still performs virtual prototyping or large-
scale data modeling on workstations or laptops.
Many of these professionals face problems stemming from
the lack of performance of their machines. More accurate ge-
ometry or physics, for instance, may require more memory than
a desktop can accommodate. System vendors have developed a
complete set of products, solutions and services for high-per-
formance computing (HPC), and buying an HPC server for a
small- or medium-sized business is no longer out of reach.
Another option today is to use a cloud solution that allows
engineers and scientists to keep using their workstation for daily
design and development work, and to “burst” larger, more com-
plex jobs into the cloud when needed. Thus, users have access
to quasi-infinite computing resources that offer higher quality FIG. 1: Computational domain including the iliac veins
results. A cloud solution helps reduce capital expenditure, offers (inflow), renal veins (inflow), and the inferior vena
greater business agility by dynamically scaling resources up and cava (IVC). The pressure on the surface of the vessels
down as needed, and is only paid for when used. is shown; a slice, colored by velocity, down the center
of the IVC is also shown.
The UberCloud Experiment
Since July 2012, the UberCloud Experiment has attracted
1,500 organizations from 72 countries. It includes 152 teams to-end process of accessing and using cloud resources, and to
in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element identify and resolve the roadblocks. End-users, software pro-
method (FEM), biology and other domains, and tracked their viders, resource providers and computing experts collaborate
experiences and lessons learned via a compedium of case stud- in teams to jointly solve the end-user’s application in the cloud.
ies. UberCloud TechTalk provides educational lectures for Let’s start by defining what roles each stakeholder plays to
the community. And the UberCloud Exhibit offers a cloud make service-based HPC in the cloud come together:
services catalog where community members can exhibit their • End-user: A typical example is a small or medium-sized
cloud-related services or select the services they want to use manufacturer in the process of designing, prototyping and de-
for their team experiment or for their daily work. veloping its next-generation product.
Intel sponsored the first compendium in 2013, with 25 • Application software provider: These are software own-
CAE case studies. In June, the second Compendium of ers of all stripes, including independent software vendors (ISVs),
UberCloud case studies was published, sponsored by Intel public domain software organizations and individual developers.
and Desktop Engineering. It can be downloaded for free at • Resource provider: This pertains to anyone who owns
deskeng.com/de/simulation-cloud/. technical computing resources networked to the outside world. A
The UberCloud Experiment provides a platform for scien- classic HPC center would fall into this category, as would a stan-
tists and engineers to explore, learn and understand the end- dard datacenter used to handle batch jobs, or a cluster-owning

Cloud resources provide a mechanism to address the com-
puting requirements of cardiovascular simulations. Specifi-
cally, the use of cloud-based CFD alleviates the need for large,
in-house clusters. In addition, cloud resources may enable the
timely execution of parameter and sensitivity studies, which
are important for biofluids simulations that often contain un-
certain or variable model parameters. Hence, the purpose of
this experiment was to explore the use of cloud-based simula-
tion solutions for enabling cardiovascular simulations.
Despite several obstacles, the team accomplished its goal
of running a patient-specific cardiovascular flow simulation in
the cloud (see Fig. 2). Also, the user experience and the results
of this experiment demonstrate the potential success of fur-
ther cloud-based cardiovascular flow simulations.
FIG. 2: Sample results: (a) streamlines,
colored by velocity and (b) pressure on Team 99: North Sea Asset Life Extension,
the surface of the vessels. Assessing Impact on Helicopter Operations
Team members: End-user was Dan Hamilton from Atkins Energy;
software provider James Britton, CD-adapco; resource provider
commercial entity that is willing to offer up cycles to run non- Jerry Dixon, OCF with its cloud service enCORE HPC; and team
competitive workloads during periods of low CPU-utilization. mentor Dennis Nagy from BeyondCAE.
• Computing experts: This group includes individuals The team tested the feasibility of using HPC-as-a-Service
and companies with technical computing expertise in areas (HPCaaS) for the simulation of airflow over an offshore plat-
like cluster management and software porting. These experts form using STAR-CCM+ from CD-adapco, to determine the
work as team leaders, with end-users, computer centers and
software providers to help glue the pieces together.
For example, suppose the end-user is in need of additional
compute resources to increase the quality of a product de- Personal CNC
sign or to speed up a product design cycle. Perhaps the goal
is to simulate more-sophisticated geometries or physics or to Shown here is an articulated humanoid
run many more simulations for a higher quality result. That robot leg, built by researchers at the Drexel
Autonomous System Lab (DASL) with a
suggests a specific software stack, domain expertise and even
Tormach PCNC 1100 milling machine. To
hardware configuration. The general idea is to look at the end- read more about this project and other
user’s tasks and software, then select the appropriate resources owner stories, or to learn about Tormach’s
and expertise that match certain requirements. affordable CNC mills and accessories, visit
www.tormach.com/desktop.
As a glimpse into the practical use cases, below is a look at
four CAE cloud projects out of the 152 UberCloud experi-
PCNC 1100 Series 3
ments. More details and 17 full case studies can be found in
the second UberCloud Compendium (see page 38).
Team 62: Cardiovascular Medical

Device Simulations in the Cloud
Team members: End-user Mike Singer is the founder and presi-
dent of Landrew Enterprises. Software and resource provider Sanjay
Choudhry is the CTO at Ciespace Corp. Oleh Khoma, the HPC
expert, is head of ELEKS’ HPC unit.
The project investigated flow through a patient-specific
blood vessel, and represents a typical CFD use case for car-
Mills shown here with
optional stand, machine
arm, LCD monitors,
diovascular flow. The patient-specific geometry is extracted and other accessories.
from CT image data obtained during a normal medical imag-

ing exam. The triangulated surface mesh geometry contains
the inferior vena cava (IVC), the right and left iliac veins, and PCNC 770 Series 3
the right and left renal veins (see Fig. 1). www.tormach.com/desktop

Engineering Computing /// The Cloud
to be undertaken. This is typically done using
in-house hardware; however, the flexibility of
HPCaaS was appealing as a potential overflow
solution.
For OCF, the availability of the STAR-
CCM+ “Power-on-Demand” licensing was the
ideal fit for the enCORE service. Once the in-
stallation was debugged, the user experience of
using STAR-CCM+ in batch on enCORE was
identical to that on in-house hardware.
Because the simulation files can be large, en-
CORE’s policy of not charging for bandwidth
usage is appealing. Having a resource like en-
CORE allows users to bid for and propose work
requiring computational resources that exceed
what’s available in-house.
FIG. 3: Airflow through an offshore platform. Team 118: Coupling In-house

Streamlines are colored by air velocity. Thermal FE Code with ANSYS Fluent CFD
plumes from power generation turbines are shown. Team members: End user was Hubert Dengg from
In this case, these plumes do not affect the ap- Rolls-Royce Deutschland, software providers were Wim Slagter and
proach path of the helicopter. René Kapa from ANSYS, resource providers and team experts were
Thomas Gropp and Alexander Heine from CPU 24/7, and Marius
change in conditions within the helideck landing area as a re- Swoboda from Rolls-Royce Deutschland acted as HPC/CAE expert.
sult of geometrical changes stemming from a life extension In the present test case, a jet engine high-pressure com-
project on an existing North Sea asset. pressor assembly was the subject of a transient aerothermal
High-temperature sources, such as the exhaust from power analysis using FEA/CFD coupling techniques. Coupling is
generation equipment, can result in significant variations in achieved through an iterative loop, with the smooth exchange
temperature over the topsides depending on atmospheric wind of information between the FEA and CFD simulations at each
conditions; upwind structures generate downwind turbulence, time step, ensuring consistency of temperature and heat flux
for example. High variations in temperature and high turbu- on the coupled interfaces between the metal and the fluid do-
lence can result in increased pilot workload for helicopter op- mains. The aim of the HPC experiment was to link ANSYS
erations on the platform. Fluent with an in-house FEA code. This was done by extract-
For this project, Atkins used CFD to assess the expected ing heat flux profiles from the Fluent CFD model and ap-
range of wind and operational conditions at the platform. A plying them to the FE model. The FE model provides metal
complete study requires a large number of CFD simulations temperatures in the solid domain.
This conjugate heat transfer process is very consuming in
Download the UberCloud terms of computing power, especially when 3D CFD mod-
els with more than 10 million cells are required. As a conse-
Compendium with CAE Case Studies
T
quence, it was expected that using cloud resources would have
his document is valuable resource for engineers, a beneficial effect regarding computing time.
scientists, managers and executives who believe The computation was performed on the 32 cores of two
in the strategic importance of High-Performance- nodes with dual Intel Xeon processors. The calculation was
Computing-as-a-Service (HPCaaS) in the cloud. It’s a done in cycles in which the FE code and Fluent CFD alter-
collection of selected CAE case studies from the partici- nated, exchanging their results.
pants in Rounds 3 and 4 of the UberCloud Experiment. Outsourcing of the computational workload to an external
Among these case studies, you will likely find scenarios cluster allowed the end user to distribute computing power in
that resonate well with your own engineering computing an efficient way — especially when the in-house computing
challenges. Download a free copy to benefit from the resources were already at their limit. Bigger models usually
candid descriptions of challenges encountered, problems give more detailed insights into the physical behavior of the
solved, lessons learned and expert recommendations. system. In addition, the end user benefited from the HPC pro-
This second UberCloud Compendium can be downloaded vider’s knowledge of how to set up a cluster, run applications
for free at deskeng.com/de/simulation-cloud/. in parallel based on message-passing interface (MPI), create a

Table 1: Comparison of DeskTop, ClouD anD HpC solving opTions
Simulation Solving approach approximate time to complete inveStment required
Engineering Workstation +
Local Desktop Machine 800 hours (1 month)
Simulation Software License
Local Desktop Machine + Cloud
24 hours (1 day) Simulation Software License +
Computing
$1,200 Cloud Compute Fee
Local Desktop Machine + Private HPC Simulation Software License +
24 hours (1 day)
Cluster + Multiple Solver Licenses 30 Node Compute Cluster + 30
Simulation Solver Licenses
host file, handle licenses, and prepare everything needed for with one simulation license on a single workstation, this would
turnkey access to the cluster. have required 800 hours (approximately 30 days) to complete
if the simulations were running nonstop one after another.
Team 142: Virtual Testing of Severe Table 1 compares the approximate time and investment that
Service Control Valve would be required for various solving approaches.
Team members: End user was Mark A. Lobo from Lobo For more information, download the UberCloud Compen-
Engineering. Autodesk provided Simulation CFD 360 (SimCFD) dium at deskeng.com/de/simulation-cloud/. DE
and the supporting cloud infrastructure. The HPC/CAE application
experts were Jon den Hartog and Heath Houghton from Autodesk. Wolfgang Gentzsch is an industry executive consultant
For a valve to be properly applied in fluid management for high performance, technical, and cloud computing. Burak
systems, low control valve specifications include performance Yenier is an expert in the development and management of
ratings. Control systems sort out input parameters, distur- large-scale, high availability systems, and in many aspects of
bances and specifications of each piping system component to the cloud delivery model. Both are founders of UberCloud.
react and produce a desired output. System response is chiefly Contact them via theubercloud.com.
a function of the accuracy of control valves that respond to
signals from the control system. Valve performance ratings
provide information to the system designer, then, that can be INFO ➜ ANSYS: ANSYS.com
used to optimize control system response.
The premise of this project was not only to explore virtual
➜ Atkins: AtkinsGlobal.com
valve testing, but also to evaluate the practical and efficient ➜ Autodesk: Autodesk.com
use of CFD by the non-specialist design engineer. As a bench- ➜ BeyondCAE: Home.BeyondCAE.com
mark, the end user had no prior experience with the Autodesk
➜ CD-adapco: CD-adapco.com
software when the project initiated, and no formal training in
the software. He depended on the included tutorials, help util- ➜ Ciespace Corp.: Ciespace.com
ity and documentation to produce good results and good data. ➜ CPU 24/7: CPU-24-7.com
One of the benefits for the end-user was that cloud com- ➜ ELEKS: ELEKS.com
puting enabled accessing a large amount of computing power
in a cost-effective way. Rather than owning the hardware and ➜ Intel: Intel.com
software licenses, engineers can pay for what they need when ➜ Lobo Engineering: Lobo Engineering.com
they need it, with no substantial upfront investment. ➜ OCF: OCF.co.uk
In this project, more than 200 simulations were run in
the cloud. Given the runtimes involved and allowing for data
➜ Rolls-Royce Deutschland: Rolls-Royce.com
download upon completion of the runs, it is possible for all of ➜ UberCloud: TheUberCloud.com
these simulations to be solved within a day. For an engineer For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

Engineering Computing /// Workstation Review
Customizable Workstation
The Digital Storm Slade PRO Workstation from a California-based
system integrator is much more than an entry-level workstation.
BY DAVID COHN
W
e first encountered Digital Storm back in 2011 when
we reviewed its PROTUS workstation (DE, Febru-
ary 2011). Founded in 2002, this Fremont, CA-based
company originally focused on producing fast gaming comput-
ers and delivering “bleeding edge technology and performance
along with rock solid stability and support.” Recently, however,
it has also been selling custom-built workstations aimed at en-
gineering professionals.
The Slade PRO is Digital Storm’s latest entry-level worksta-
tion. Our evaluation unit arrived in a large box, but instead of
traditional foam packing material, the computer was suspended
between film membranes, providing a lightweight means of
protecting the system from shocks during shipping. COOLING is provided by a Digital Storm Vortex liquid
As was true for the previous Digital Storm system we re- cooling system.
viewed, before we could use the computer we had to remove
foam packing material placed inside the case to help prevent panels on the top and left sides that can accommodate two addi-
components from dislodging during transit. In spite of these pre- tional fans each. While our system ran quite cool without these
cautions, however, our system arrived with one hard drive com- fans, we suspect opening these panels and adding fans would
pletely dislodged from its cage and its power connector damaged. substantially increase the sound level.
Digital Storm quickly sent a replacement system, which arrived Easily removable magnetic dust filters protect the front, top
in perfect condition. Normally, I would not mention this, since it and side air intakes. We found it a bit too easy to dislodge these
was the result of careless handling by the shipping company. But panels, however, and an additional slot-mounted filter on the bot-
after my experience, I read a report of a similar problem. tom of the case kept sliding out whenever we moved the system.
Digital Storm is not really a manufacturer; it’s a system inte-
grator, assembling computers from an assortment of components Lots of Familiar Components
produced by others and readily available from various sources. The front of the case presents a monolithic appearance. All that is
For example, the Slade PRO comes housed in a large, black alu- visible is a brushed aluminum panel housing headphone and mi-
minum and steel ATX mid-tower case measuring 8.7x20.9x19.5 crophone jacks, a small reset button, a large round power button
in. (WxDxH). However, that case is actually an Obsidian Series and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. This panel is actually a cutout in a
550D manufactured by Corsair, available online for $130. What large door. An unusual hinge allows the door to swing open from
Digital Storm adds is skilled assembly, extensive testing, and a either side (or it can be completely removed). This door conceals
single point for support and service should it be needed. four 5.25-in. drive bays. The topmost bay contained an ASUS
The case lived up to its claim of providing excellent noise Blu-ray Disc player/DVD writer combo drive. The bottom bay
reduction and sound isolation. Our Slade PRO evaluation unit housed a media card reader with five slots and a USB 2.0 port.
was nearly silent, thanks in part to front and side panels lined Removing the left side panel revealed an incredibly spacious,
with sound-damping material and front air intakes angled away well organized interior. In addition to the front panel drive bays,
from the front of the case. the Corsair case provides six internal tool-free drive bays that can
But the case itself proved a bit quirky. Although the entire accommodate either 3.5- or 2.5-in. drives. Our Slade PRO came
system weighed just 34.5 lbs., moving it was hampered by a lack with a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro Series solid-state drive (SSD)
of any type of handle or other grip point. and a 4TB Western Digital Black Edition 7,200 rpm data drive.
The unit has two front-mounted intake fans and one rear Both drives come standard in the Slade PRO version we received.
exhaust fan. There are also press-to-release removable plastic As we soon discovered, the Slade PRO is actually available in

Digital Storm HP Z1 G2 HP Z230 Lenovo E32 SFF BOXX 3DBOXX Ciara Kronos 800S
Slade PRO workstation workstation workstation W4150 XTREME workstation
Single-Socket workstation
(one 3.4GHz Intel
(one 3.6GHz Intel
Xeon E3-1280 v3
(one 3.4GHz Intel
Xeon E3-1245 v3
(one 3.4GHz Intel
Xeon E3-1240 v3
workstation
(one 3.5GHz
(one 3.5GHz
Intel Core i7-2700K
Workstations Xeon E3-2687W
v2 eight-core CPU,
quad-core CPU,
NVIDIA Quadro
quad-core CPU,
NVIDIA Quadro
quad-core CPU,
NVIDIA Quadro
Intel Core i7-4770K
quad-core CPU over-
quad-core CPU over-
clocked to 5.0GHz,
Compared NVIDIA Quadro K4100M, K2000, 8GB RAM) K600, 8GB RAM) clocked to 4.3GHz, NVIDIA Quadro
K4000, 32GB RAM) 16GB RAM) NVIDIA Quadro K5000, 16GB RAM)
K4000, 16GB RAM)
Price as tested $5,804 $5,918 $2,706 $1,479 $4,273 $5,714

Date tested 5/10/14 5/3/14 11/24/13 11/10/13 7/31/13 5/31/13
Operating System Windows 7 Windows 8.1 Windows 7 Windows 7 Windows 7 Windows 7
SPECviewperf 12 Higher
catia-04 38.41 42.23 n/a n/a n/a n/a
creo-01 33.15 30.82 n/a n/a n/a n/a
energy-01 0.60 1.74 n/a n/a n/a n/a
maya-04 31.28 33.79 n/a n/a n/a n/a
medical-01 10.75 10.34 n/a n/a n/a n/a
showcase-01 20.65 21.12 n/a n/a n/a n/a
snx-02 34.12 40.37 n/a n/a n/a n/a
sw-03 50.78 38.66 n/a n/a n/a n/a
SPECviewperf 11 Higher
catia-03 69.41 63.80 46.17 25.14 72.37 96.39
ensight-04 47.76 61.56 29.32 15.47 49.20 83.26
lightwave-01 76.90 82.76 87.98 75.52 100.78 103.15
maya-03 101.12 128.09 92.05 51.32 131.31 153.01
proe-5 16.29 17.18 20.25 15.61 24.74 22.87
sw-02 63.66 67.75 57.31 41.99 78.27 84.51
tcvis-02 54.26 58.99 38.78 23.74 55.73 77.82
snx-01 52.98 65.58 34.09 19.56 53.95 83.21
SPECapc SolidWorks 2013 Higher
Graphics Composite 5.37 5.67 4.38 3.14 5.25 3.89
RealView Graphics 5.90 6.16 4.69 3.09 5.38 4.1
Composite
Shadows Composite 5.85 6.13 4.68 2.96 5.36 4.1
Ambient Occlusion 9.46 8.48 5.81 2.9 5.63 8.37
Composite
Shaded Mode Composite 5.30 5.55 4.75 3.25 5.12 3.79
Shaded With Edges Mode 5.45 5.79 4.04 3.02 5.38 3.98
Composite
RealView Disabled Composite 3.70 4.08 3.35 3.31 4.74 3.15
CPU Composite 3.70 3.12 4.15 4.27 4.07 4.92
Autodesk Render Test Lower
Time Seconds 38.25 45.00 49.00 48.66 42.00 58.33
Numbers in blue indicate best recorded results. Numbers in red indicate worst recorded results.

Engineering Computing /// Workstation Review
one of four different configurations, which can then be custom- price. The K4000 comes with 3GB of GDDR5 memory and
ized by choosing from a dizzying array of options. For example, 768 compute unified device architecture (CUDA) cores, and
Digital Storm offers systems with a four-core CPU, 16GB of provides one DVI and two DisplayPort connections.
memory, an NVIDIA Quadro K600 GPU, the same SSD in While the Slade PRO’s base eight-core CPU is a 2.26GHz
our unit, and a 1TB hard drive starting at $1,910. Or you can processor, Digital Storm sent us a system equipped with an Intel
buy a system based on a six-core CPU, 32GB of RAM, a K2000 Xeon E5-2687W v2, a processor with a 3.4GHz clock speed,
graphics board, and those same hard drives starting at $3,122. 4GHz maximum turbo speed, and 25MB cache, which added
The base level of the eight-core system we received starts $1,090 to the system cost.
at $4,453, which includes 32GB of RAM, a K2000 GPU, and Cooling is provided by a Digital Storm Vortex liquid cool-
the 256GB SSD and 4TB HDD we received. You can even buy ing system (actually a branded version of the Corsair H80), but
a system with a 12-core CPU, 64GB of memory, an NVIDIA again Digital Storm offers a myriad of other options. Users can
Quadro K5000, a 512GB SSD, and 4TB HDD for $8,859. You also have their systems configured with internal lighting, ad-
can also choose different cases and spend hundreds of dollars ditional airflow controls, and other modifications. The system
for exotic paint jobs. comes with a 750watt Corsair CX power supply, but again,
Nestled inside our Slade PRO was an ASUS Sabertooth X79 there are no fewer than 11 other options.
motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset (although Digi- The rear panel offers four USB 3.0 ports, six USB 2.0 ports,
tal Storm offers two other motherboard options). This system a PS/2 mouse/keyboard connection, RJ-45 network jack, an
board provides eight memory sockets, supporting up to 64GB IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port, two eSATA connection (one pow-
of memory. Our unit came with 32GB of DDR3 1,866MHz ered), one optical S/PDIF output port, six audio jacks (separate
RAM installed using four 8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro high- microphone and line-in jacks as well as front, side, rear and base
performance dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs). There output speaker channels), and a USB BIOS flashback button, all
are also two PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 slots, a third PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 supported by the ASUS motherboard.
slot that operates in x8 mode, two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, and a single
PCI slot. Our system came with an NVIDIA Quadro K4000 Unsurprising Performance
graphics board instead of the K2000, adding $430 to the base With its fast eight-core CPU and top-of-the-line compo-
nents, we were quite anxious to see how well the Slade PRO
would perform. On the SPECviewperf version 11 bench-
mark, the system held its own, but certainly didn’t set any
records. We also ran SPECviewperf version 12. Because the
Slade PRO marks only the third system on which we’ve run
this newer benchmark, we still cannot really make meaning-
ful comparisons. That said, this Digital Storm workstation
lagged behind the similarly priced HP Z1 G2 we reviewed
in the July issue.
The results on the SPECapc SolidWorks 2013 test were
excellent, with the Slade Pro equaling or outperforming
many of the other single-CPU workstations we’ve tested to
date. And on the AutoCAD rendering test, a multi-threaded
CUSTOMIZATION: Digital Storm offers an array of upgrade test on which faster systems with more CPU cores have a
options for the Slade PRO. distinct advantage, the Digital Storm Slade PRO set a new
all-time record for a system equipped with a single CPU,
completing the rendering in just 38.25 seconds.
We also ran the new SPECwpc workstation performance
benchmark. Again, the Slade PRO is only the third system on
which we have run this test. Three tests is not enough yet to
make any meaningful comparisons, but in general, this unit
lagged behind the HP Z1 G2.
Digital Storm pre-loaded Windows 7 Professional 64-
bit, but other flavors of Windows are also available. Because
configuring a Digital Storm system is truly an à la carte pro-
cess (and we did not request any additional options other
than those already mentioned), our system came without a
DESIGN: A front panel opens to reveal four drive bays. keyboard or mouse. Assuming that most users would likely

SPOTLIGHT
opt to purchase these, we added a Logitech Media Combo
MK200 keyboard and mouse when we priced the system
using the company’s online configuration website.
Digital Storm backs its computers with lifetime customer
SPOTLIGHT
care. A three-year limited warranty covers labor costs for Directing your search to the
three years and defective part replacement for one year —
something that we found a bit curious since many of the companies that have what you need.
components included in the system have longer warranties.
Warranties of up to six years, including four-year part re-
Molds
placement, are also available. Injection
& Parts CNC

When we configured our system, it priced out at $5,979, but
discounts reduced that price to $5,804 and added an additional
year to the labor and parts warranty. Digital Storm originally Rapid Prototyping
Cost
quoted us a price of $5,888 (without the keyboard and mouse).
The company no longer offers free UPS ground shipping.
The Digital Storm Slade PRO performed flawlessly Low Instant
Quotes
throughout our review process, and its benchmark results
were certainly within the expected range. You could purchase
all of the same components in our evaluation unit online for
around $4,650 and build it yourself. Its lack of independent
software vendor (ISV) certification makes us wonder whether RFQ: [email protected] www.ICOMold.com/de
it is appropriate for mission-critical engineering applications.
That said, the Digital Storm Slade PRO is well built, uses ex-
cellent components, and offers a lot of bang for the buck. DE
David Cohn has been using AutoCAD for more than 25 years and Download Our
Latest White Paper
Workstations:
Now is the Time
is the author of more than a dozen books on the subject. He’s the tech- to Upgrade
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could be hurting your productivity, innovation
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Desktop Engineering, and also does consulting and technical writing “Workstations: Now is the Time to Upgrade”
from his home in Bellingham, WA. You can contact him via email at is a solid, easy-to-read paper. It tells it like it Produced by the editors
is: Your workstation is old. It’s sapping your

Sponsored by Lenovo and Intel: of Desktop Engineering
[email protected] or visit his website at DSCohn.com.

productivity and hampering opportunities Workstations: Now is the Time to Upgrade 1
for innovation. Time to upgrade.

INFO ➜ Digital Storm: DigitalStormOnline.com
Digital Storm Slade PRO Produced by Desktop Engineering
and sponsored by Lenovo and Intel.
• Price: $5,804 ($1,910 base price)
• Size: 8.7x20.9x19.5-in. (WxDxH) tower Download it Today! www.deskeng.com/upgrade
• Weight: 34.5 lbs.
• CPU: one Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 (eight-core) 3.4GHz
• Memory: 32GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1,866MHz
(up to 64GB supported)
• Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro K4000
MILLIONS of FREE CAD Models
• Storage: 256GB Samsung SSD 840 Pro Series, 4TB Western • Download CAD models
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• Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Media Combo MK200 keyboard Check it out yourself. Join our other 1.5
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Engineering Services /// Collaboration
Working TOGETHER
How design engineers can work with outside service providers
to develop new designs and new product concepts.
BY DAVID GEER
D
esktop engineers benefit from external service provid-
ers who specialize where the designer is lacking. Ex-
ternal providers offer concept development expertise,
in-depth analysis and tools, and an array of engineering disci-
plines to bridge the gaps in resource pools, prevent costly design
errors, and keep deliverables on deadline.
Once the decision is made to bring in an outside firm, de-
sign engineers should confirm how the external provider plans
to insert its services into the designer’s workflow. According
to Craig Winn, CEO of Maumee, OH-based Applied Tech-
nology Integration (ATI), working with an external provider
should be the same as working with internal resources — ex- The team at Applied Technology Integration, an Ohio-
cept that the external resource needs to fit into the workflow based engineering services provider.
in a tighter package.
“This can improve the workflow and the end result, because within a document or contract: This states that the customer
in order to use an outside resource whom you don’t see every owns the rights to all intellectual property that it brings to the
minute of every day, you need to have the program laid out in a project or that the supplier develops during the project.
detailed fashion, in the Statement of Work,” he adds. 2. Two-way non-disclosure agreement (NDA): This
An external provider should identify deliverables and timing states that both parties will conceal any confidential informa-
more accurately. This can be a difficulty or hindrance for the de- tion or intellectual property that they share during a project.
sign engineer who hasn’t previously used an external resource, Protecting intellectual property requires certain types of seg-
or who is used to a more casual work environment. regation of information, too.
“But it can also be helpful if he needs to get to a certain stage “There is a competitive landscape for our clients that re-
in the project by a certain deadline, because the contractor takes quires that we have ways to firewall different programs within
deadlines seriously,” says Winn. our company,” says Peter Ma, VP of Engineering/R&D for San
External services should consider communication as integral Diego-based D&K Engineering. Ma notes that some clients
to the workflow. “We understand what the customer needs, and don’t want the project team to know their identities. This helps
when, and we let them know what we need, by when, in order to protect confidentiality rights and intellectual property rights.
to meet the deliverables,” says Winn. “Even when we do project prototyping, we set aside a place for
An outsourced provider should also work hand-in-hand with that work — and the buildings are locked and secured,” he says.
the designer, communicating via phone, online and in-person An external provider should offer options and flexibility in
meetings to clarify the progress of the design. “The relation- protecting intellectual property rights. “We can protect our cli-
ship should be closely monitored,” says Akbar Farahani, VP of ents’ intellectual property any way they choose,” says Eric Pre-
Global Engineering for Troy, MI-based Engineering Technol- issner, President of Ann Arbor, MI-based Preissner Engineering
ogy Associates (ETA). & Consulting, LLC (PEC). He notes that some clients want
NDAs; others want patent agreements. The NDA defines any
Protecting Intellectual Property communications about the intellectual property. “We protect
Design engineers should ensure that the outside vendor safe- Customer A so that Customer B does not see their project,”
guards their intellectual property and associated rights. Winn says Preissner.
notes there are two basic mechanisms his firm uses to protect The experts agree that design engineers should proactively
intellectual property: participate in a living NDA, and that it’s important to review
1. Intellectual property rights document, or a statement and update the agreement periodically. “We work with com-

panies in the U.S. and in Asia, and pay careful attention to the
non-disclosure agreements,” says Farahani. An external provider
should also ensure that employees follow International Orga-
nization for Standardization (ISO) standards and requirements
from the firm’s human resources department as they relate to
non-disclosure, so that confidentiality is maintained.
Design engineers should also require contract language that
specifies appropriate communications channels for intellectual
property data. “When we write proposals and contracts, we set
up a process based on customer requirements about how com-
munications and communication channels will be directed so
that intellectual property is protected,” says Farahani. Some
discussions may be permissible by phone, while others should
occur in person.
Advantages of External Provider Relationships

D&K Engineering protects its clients’ intellectual property
Design engineers should explore the advantages of working
in secure buildings.
with available external firms before making a final selection.
“You can get some unconstrained thinking. The ideas our
guys come up with may not meet all the requirements on Day ones an available firm can best offer. These can include packag-
One. We have to tighten them up over time. But we’re more ing ideas and concepts, and turning a product into a device that
likely to have some fresh ideas because we’re not constrained by manufacturing can produce.
all of the controls of the large corporation,” says Winn. “In almost any industry, this includes weight reduction con-
An outside designer can also have more depth in certain cepts and mass production concepts,” Winn says. “And then
areas than the customer or internal designer does. “We tend to there are fuel economy concepts with almost any entity that
have more in-depth design and analysis background than the has things that move, such as airplanes, trucks, cars and trains.”
typical design engineer because that’s all we do,” says Winn. Other early-stage design concept developments customers
The additional engineering disciplines that are available with accept include materials designs, and the use of new technolo-
an outside provider are another advantage. “We have all the gies like additive manufacturing (AM). “These are the concepts
required disciplines to do whatever our customers want us to we put in front of customers quite often,” says Winn.
do,” says Ma, noting that D&K Engineering works with plastic “We work on early-stage requirements such as problem
injection moldings, microfluidics and systems engineering, for solving and establishing requirements. That takes a lot of col-
example. “We can develop a product very quickly and at a lower laboration, white boarding sessions, and talking through design
cost than an in-house team.” needs,” says Ma.
Then there’s the ability to leverage the detailed and robust An examination of the design space is especially helpful early
analytical tools that the provider has to offer. “Even a mid- on, Preissner points out. “We can evaluate different choices in
sized customer does not have these tools,” Preissner points the design space more rapidly than a design firm can put a de-
out. Whether it’s computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or tailed model together,” he says, noting that an external provider
high-end finite element analysis (FEA) tools, they require a can look at potential solutions at the top level, and eliminate
certain level of experience and buy-in financially to keep and things that are not fruitful to pursue. “We can help them to
maintain. A company that does manufacturing may need them more rapidly focus on viable designs.” DE
at the beginning of a project, but not throughout. With an
outside provider, a designer does not have to pay for a service David Geer is a technology writer based in Northeast Ohio. Contact
when they don’t need it. him via [email protected].
Other advantages can include being faster, more efficient,
and more cost-effective than in-house processes. “We enable
a designer to move to a variable cost that is controlled during
INFO ➜ Applied Technology Integration: ATIIntegration.com
the different project phases,” says Farahani, noting that this can ➜ D&K Engineering: DKEngineering.com
reduce overall project costs. ➜ Engineering Technology Associates: ETA.com
Desirable Early-stage Concept Developments ➜ International Organization for Standardization: ISO.org
Design engineers should ensure as large an intersection as pos- ➜ Preissner Engineering & Consulting: PEC-LLC.com
sible between the early-stage developments they need and the For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.

Engineering Services /// Product Development
Design Collaboration
Good (and complex) technology can come in small packages.
BY JIM ROMEO
D
esigning a product for useful, but complex engineering
functionality is a tall order that requires a collaborative
and proactive design team. When the Tucson-based
Rigaku Raman Technologies team wanted to design the next-
generation material analyzer, they looked for a design partner
who could incorporate all the needed ingredients, plus have the
right synergy with their own personnel. This partnership was
the genesis of the Progeny and Progeny X2 analyzer design.
The Progeny and Progeny X2 analyzers are portable instru-
ments designed for high-performance chemical analysis using
Raman spectroscopy — employing laser technology to decipher
chemical makeup by measuring the amount of scattered light
that bounces off various materials. The scattered light is com-
pared against a library of thousands of known chemicals. Prog-
eny analyzers are used in a variety of applications, including raw
Early concept sketches created during the design process.
material identification, research and development, quality assur-
Images courtesy of Progeny.
ance, anti-counterfeiting, homeland security and teaching labs.
In its latest design effort, Rigaku sought an analyzer that
could be used with a variety of applications. A Progeny ana- The team began to develop and test configurations in-
lyzer can examine powders, liquids and solids. crementally, so that they could isolate the functionality and
“The opportunity, and challenge, of this design effort was performance of its characteristics. BDD worked with foam
to accommodate a large and varied group of end users and ap- models to create Progeny’s product embodiment, prototyping
plications,” says Boston Device Development (BDD) Principal early and often to test different configurations.
Derek Hatchett. Every subsystem had to be explored and decoupled from the
whole to achieve the best result. They used a decision-matrix
From Concept to Production analysis called the Pugh method, where pros and cons are evalu-
Newton, MA-based BDD was responsible for all phases of de- ated against one another in relation to a baseline option.
velopment, from early concept efforts and industrial design to
engineering and production. The two teams worked closely Process Discipline
throughout the project. The team structure and its interactive processes played a criti-
“BDD’s experience in all areas of product development cal role in making productive progress. The BDD-Rigaku team
helped drive the project from concept to manufacturing,” ex- collaborated every week, both remotely and in person. BDD
plains Rigaku VP of Product Development Claude Robotham. also held regularly scheduled internal and external project meet-
“They expertly built a physical unit that supported our unusu- ings on a weekly basis.
ally varied target market.” As Eric Sugalski, the founder and principal of BDD, ex-
The partnership set out to define design parameters to set plains, “We provide real-time files through our FTP site. Our
the objectives for the final product. This helped align all stake- clients can watch our progress literally on a daily basis if they
holders in the design team. want to because our project management dashboard shows
“There were a number of opposing design parameters progress in small increments. This approach is very different
that required our careful consideration and balance. The final than what product design firms did in the past, when client
device needed to be extremely lightweight, while also being and project teams worked more or less in isolation from each
able to offer swappable batteries and survive a drop test,” says other, with one big unveiling after three months of effort.”
Hatchett. “These parameters ultimately led to the device’s thin The entire project lasted for less than one year, from con-
walls and exterior material choice.” cept to production — ahead of schedule.

A rendering of the line. Rigaku showed tremendous business creativity in lever-
complete Progeny aging its expertise in optics with BDD’s proficiency in product
Analyzer. development to build a market-expanding device like Progeny.
What the team accomplished was something that probably
would not have taken place years ago — they were disparately
“BDD’s approach produced a final product much faster located, but acted cohesively thanks to technology and a well-
than what we originally anticipated,” Robotham says. “By structured design process. The BDD team excelled at manag-
working collaboratively, we were able to meet a very aggres- ing a multi-faceted team located in multiple locations. Com-
sive timeline and budget.” munication was critical in maintaining cohesion among BDD
Prototyping the analyzer was a key step in the process. BDD engineers in Massachusetts, Rigaku engineers in Arizona, and
provided initial renderings based on Rigaku’s vision, followed by suppliers located in multiple states.
a detailed Pugh analysis to determine the best option. “Never underestimate the amount of communication that
“We had a unique opportunity to develop one of Rigaku’s is required for a virtual, at-a-distance project environment,”
first products in a few years,” Hatchett says. “We were, there- Hatchett says. DE
fore, in a position to look at how Progeny’s design language
could refresh and build upon the Rigaku brand.” Jim Romeo is a freelance writer based in Chesapeake, VA. Send
Part of the development also looked at existing products with e-mail about this article to [email protected].
competing features and technology. This allowed them to shape
the analyzer’s final characteristics with its viability in the mar-
ketplace. “BDD looked at the competitive Raman spectroscopy INFO ➜ Adobe: Adobe.com
landscape. As a team, we researched existing products and pro- ➜ Boston Device Development: BostonDevice.com
duced product positioning maps that charted where we wanted to
be in comparison to others in the market,” Sugalski says. ➜ Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks: SolidWorks.com
➜ Robert McNeel & Associates: Rhino3D.com
Technology Begets Technology ➜ Rigaku Raman Technologies: RigakuRaman.com
The specifics of the product design entailed working with
For more information on this topic, visit deskeng.com.
various pieces of design software. The BDD team used Rhino,
SolidWorks and the Adobe Creative Suite. These programs
were used through both the mechanical engineering and indus- Advertising Index
trial design efforts. The software allowed BDD to work easily
with the Rigaku team, which used several CAD packages.
ANSYS ......................................................... C2
“The project benefitted greatly from using Master Mod-
CD-adapco ................................................... 17
els in SolidWorks. Rather than having to rebuild the database
COMSOL ...................................................... 5
from scratch when major project changes occurred, the team
remained nimble in the face of unexpected changes,” notes Convergent Science, Inc. ............................... 25
Lead BDD Engineer Rob Colonna. Creaform, Inc. .............................................. 29
But as with any technical and complex design, the team had Infolytica Corp. ............................................ 23
some stumbling blocks and challenges along the way. Lenovo-Pop Quiz ............................................. 7
“Two of the biggest design challenges included instrument Lenovo ......................................................... 21
weight and the desire to have a completely sealed device,” Col- Lenovo-Q&A ................................................ 27
onna reports. “The team wanted to develop a robust instru- Livermore Software Technology Corp. ........... C3
ment, but also needed to keep the device weight reasonable.” MSI Computer Corp. .................................... 15
National Instruments ...................................... 3
The Team Machine Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. ..................... 31
Project teams that pursue research and product development
Proto Labs, Inc. .............................................. 1
simultaneously will always encounter unavoidable changes.
Stratasys-Objet ............................................. C4
“The result of conducting fundamental research simultane-
ously with product development,” Hatchett explains, “is that Tormach LLC ............................................... 37
when changes are made, it creates a ripple effect throughout the
project, thus requiring a team to be flexible and pivot quickly.”
★ SPOTLIGHT ★
The Progeny project effort also reveals the opportunity in ICO Mold ..................................................... 43
combining a company’s core internal strengths with an outside Lenvo ........................................................... 43
partner to provide fresh perspective on an existing product Traceparts ..................................................... 43

Fast Apps Engineering Case Studies
Project Propelled Forward.

Metrology and 3D printing distributor Burton Precision apply
their 3D printing know-how to solve a variety of CAD issues
and challenges for producing a plastic propeller design for a
human-powered submarine.
Grand Rapids, MI-based Burton Precision is a machine tool
distributor specializing in the application of metrology and 3D
printing products. Their involvement in manufacturing criss-
crosses the breadth of industries with technologies that have a
direct impact on successful product design and manufacture. Rick Kerkstra, Burton Precision vice president, performed
The University of Michigan’s Human Submarine Team recently the coordinate measuring of the propeller with a portable
contacted Burton Precision to enlist its assistance: The team CMM arm at Burton’s demo facility in Grand Rapids, MI.
was dealing with some CAD issues related to producing a propel-
ler for a submarine that is designed and built by students. printing products when one of the GR Makers staffers men-
Rick Kerkstra, Burton Precision vice president and 3D tioned that his brother belonged to the Human 3D Printed
printing specialist, recounts that this particular inquiry came Propeller for Human Powered Submarine Team at the
through a circuitous path. University of Michigan.
“We held an open house at Burton Precision for GR Makers “He said they were having problems with a point cloud file
in Grand Rapids, which is an open community lab that incorpo- for a propeller design,” Kerkstra recalls. “More specifically, they
rates elements of a machine shop, a workshop and a design couldn’t convert the file to a ‘friendly’ file that they could put to
studio,” he explains. “Members there work on projects that a cutter path on a computer numerically controlled machine to
range from the industrial to the delicate arts. It’s a unique com- make the part. I gave him my card, and Jeremy Werner called.”
munity that focuses on enabling personal expression, providing Werner is with the University of Michigan’s Naval
education and supporting entrepreneurship.” Architecture and Marine Engineering Department ...
Kerkstra was demonstrating Burton’s metrology and 3D MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=18004
Winging It
the repair. It creates most production components by applying
composite laminate strips onto layup tools. Many jobs also
AM reduces tooling cost and lead time to produce require fixtures to locate secondary operations such as drilling.
composite aerospace parts.
Old Methods
Advanced Composite Structures (ACS) repairs helicopter rotor In the past, ACS typically produced layup tools, drill fixtures and
blades and other composite structures for fixed- and rotary- consumable core patterns on computer numerically controlled
wing aircraft. The company also produces low-volume produc- (CNC) machines. Another option was producing a model using
tion composite parts for the aerospace industry. a CNC machine or power tools and using it to mold a composite
Both offerings require tooling. On the repair side, the com- layup mandrel.
pany normally uses a mold with a contoured surface to guide It typically cost around $2,000 to hire a machine shop to
produce a metal composite mold. Producing a model and
molding a composite layup tool cost about the same. In both
cases, lead times were eight to 10 weeks.
Initial tooling design sometimes presented problems,
however. In these cases, ACS incurred substantial additional
expenses — and the project was delayed while the tooling was
repaired or rebuilt from scratch.
New Efficiencies
More recently, ACS has switched to producing nearly all of its
tools using additive manufacturing (AM) on STRATASYS’ Fortus
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) machine ...
MORE ➜ deskeng.com/de/?p=18015
➜ For the complete application stories visit deskeng.com/fastapps

Livermore Software
Technology Corporation
Four New Solvers for
Multiphysics Purposes
Discrete Element Sphere (DES)
The DES (Discrete Element Sphere) is a particle-based solver that implements the Discrete Element
Method (DEM), a widely used technique for modeling processes involving large deformations,
granular flow, mixing processes, storage and discharge in silos or transportation on belts. In
LS-DYNA, each DE particle is a FEM node, making it easy to couple with other rigid or deformable
structures by using penalty-based contact algorithms. The DE is highly parallelized and is capable
of simulating systems containing over several hundred-million particles.
Here are some distinct features of the bond model:

1. The stiffness of the bond between particles is determined automatically from Young’s
modulus and Poisson’s ratio.
2. The crack criteria are directly computed from the fracture energy release rate.
3. The behavior of bond particles is particle-size independent.
Incompressible CFD
The incompressible flow solver is based on state of the art finite element technology applied to fluid mechanics.
It is fully coupled with the solid mechanics solver. This coupling permits robust FSI analysis via either an explicit
technique when the FSI is weak, or using an implicit coupling when the FSI coupling is strong.
Electromagnetics
The Electromagnetism solver calculates the Maxwell
equations in the Eddy current (induction-diffusion) Upcoming Classes
approximation. This is suitable for cases where the
propagation of electromagnetic waves in the air
(or vacuum) can be considered as instantaneous.
Intro to LS-OPT
Applications include magnetic metal forming, Basudhar
welding, and induced heating. October 28-31, 2014
MI
CESE/Compressible CFD NVH
The CESE solver is a compressible flow solver
based upon the Conservation Element/Solution
Y. Huang
Element (CE/SE) method, originally proposed November 4-5, 2014
by Dr. Chang in NASA Glenn Research Center. CA
This method is a novel numerical framework for
conservation laws.
For more information email: [email protected] or visit www.lstc.com

Livermore Software Technology Corporation, 7374 Las Positas Road, Livermore, CA 94551, USA
So many combinations-
it might blow your mind.
[COLOR + RUBBER + TRANSPARENT + RIGID]

Introducing the Objet500 Connex3 from Stratasys, the world’s only full-color and
multi-material 3D printer. Select from incomparably brilliant and consistent
colors, plus a full palette of transparent colors — the only 3D printer to
offer such a wide array. And it’s the only 3D printer that prints flexible
materials in a broad range of shore values. All with ultra-fine detail creating
the most true-to-life modeling possible. Stratasys is the proven leader
in multi-material 3D printing. For whatever your mi nd
ca n i ma g i n e, vi si t st ra t a sys . co m/O bj et 5 0 0 Co n n ex3 .
©2014 Stratasys, Ltd.

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So many combinations-

it might blow your mind.

[COLOR + RUBBER + TRANSPARENT + RIGID]

©2014 Stratasys, Ltd.

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