Desktop Engineering Blog

Ease of Use

The guiding principle for the development of MSC Apex has been ease of use. Through the intelligent design of an intuitive interface users need no formal  training and can be productive after watching a few short videos.  All the features of the product have both written and video instructions making it easy to learn as well as use. 

Prepping Computer Aided Design (CAD) geometry for Finite Element Analysis (FEA) can be a complex, time consuming and error prone activity. 

Global Warming - Global Driving

Foremost on the political agenda across the world is global warming. Whether you believe it or not, and there is one notable leader who doesn’t, there is little point in ignoring the fact most world governments have it on their agenda.

This has led to initiatives of eliminating internal combustion engines on our roads. 

Additional Rules

This is the seventh article of a series concerning how to implement and use modelling methodology in CATIA V5.

In this article, we will discuss additional rules to be considered when defining part files. This article closes the main set of modelling methodology for prismatic geometry driven parts, with single body.

Defining features

This is the sixth article of a series concerning how to implement and use modelling methodology in CATIA V5.

How do you get recognition of your skills or you want to be involved in better work or been seen as making a difference - how do you show your difference?  

It’s all about having something unique that gives value to your employer.

Or if when job seeking how do you differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack? I had a friend who said you should draw pretty flowers on your CV! – whether he ever did that I don’t know, but in the competitive world we live you have to have a difference. That’s what sells. In sales jargon it’s called a Unique Selling Point, and when going for a job or looking to improve your position, that’s what you need.

The modelling stage

This is the fifth article of a series concerning how to implement and use modelling methodology in CATIA V5.

In this article, we will discuss the modelling stage in detail.

This is the second stage of the creation process; we already have all the elements defined in the Skeleton group, so now is the time to start modelling the solid geometry.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform from Dassault Systemes has played an important role in winning 2 awards in the Construction industry.

The Institution of Structural Engineers has awarded the 2017 prize for Construction Innovation to the team that designed and built The TallWood House at Brock Commons - an 18-storey mass timber hybrid building at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada.

At 53m high, this student residence building has been recognized as the tallest mass timber hybrid building in the world. It is comprised of 17 storeys of five-ply cross laminated timber (CLT) floor panels, glue laminated timber columns.

Key to proving the construction process was the use of 3DEXPERIENCE to simulate the construction methods, from delivery of prefabricated parts to the work processes involved in assembling the building. CADMakers* used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to simulate in real time all these interactions and hence improve on methods in a digital world before committing to the real world.

See this video to compare the virtual with the real.

Zaha Hadid Architects used CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE as the platform for the design of the world’s longest asymmetrical single stay bridge in Taiwan – The Danjiang Bridge. The design teams based in 3 locations across 2 continents used CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE On Cloud as the design and collaboration platform. 

This greatly improved communication of ideas, management of information and enhanced the collaboration across the teams. The design team at Zaha’s were awarded the 2017 innovation in Collaboration Award from the Computing Construction Awards.

Read the full case study here >>

Both these awards show the gains that the construction industry can get from adopting the 3DEXPERIENCE platform as not only a 3D BIM tool but as a collaboration platform on which to store, control and manage all project data – meeting the requirements of BIM Level 3.

*VIRTUAL DESIGN MODELLING: CadMakers Inc

A recent emergency landing by an Air France A380 aircraft inspired me to this blog article.  Birdstrike is a standard consideration for any air vehicle but not an easy thing to model accurately with regular FEA software.  The events are typically short duration, involve the failure of materials and a loading complicated by secondary impacts as the bird fragments.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever sat down and asked yourself ‘what can we do to improve our product quality?’ but struggled to find the most cost-effective way to do this. 

As the complexity of product designs increases, so too does the need to find the right materials and techniques to bring these designs to life. This is where composite materials come into their own. 

Here’s how your organisation can benefit from the use of composite materials and how the aerospace and automotive industries are making strides in the use of composites.