DEVELOP3D February / March 2022 by X3DMEDIA

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STRENGTH BY DESIGN How Whipsaw took exercise home with Tonal

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WELCOME EDITORIAL Editor Stephen Holmes stephen@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3384 5297 Managing Editor Greg Corke greg@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)20 3355 7312 Staff Writer Claudia Schergna claudia@x3dmedia.com Consulting Editor Jessica Twentyman jtwentyman@gmail.com +44 (0)20 7913 0919 Consulting Editor Martyn Day martyn@x3dmedia.com +44 (0)7525 701 542

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pring is in the air, so now is a good time to start thinking about taking our health and fitness regimes to the next level, or at least beyond the short walk to the fridge. Thankfully, in this issue, design studio Whiplash has brought to our attention its work with home fitness equipment brand Tonal. It’s a great tale of taking a brand-new technology, and doing some serious digging into user interaction, ergonomics, form and aesthetics to create a breakthrough product. Elsewhere, size is everything, as we take in the sheer scale of direct energy deposition (DED) 3D printing, both with a guide to what this technology can achieve, and also a look at how Lincoln Electric is using contactless 3D scanning to take DED to the next level on its own factory floors. We also look at giant engines. The first of these is a national landmark in Luxembourg, a giant gas engine that has been digitally preserved by a museum to help inspire and educate young engineers. Then there’s a selection of modern marine engines, optimised in Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries for more economical use with the goal of a more sustainable shipping sector in mind. In 2022, the widespread roll-out of 5G looks set to have a significant impact on design, engineering and manufacture, so we also hear directly from UK5G, the national innovation network that has helped set up some exciting testbed projects to showcase how next-generation connectivity could boost industrial workflows. But by far the biggest news for us is the welcome arrival of Claudia Schergna to the DEVELOP3D editorial team. A talented journalist with an interest in all things art and design, Claudia has hit the ground running with a wonderful feature on the reverse engineering of some classic speedboats, as well as the intense prototyping carried out in the development of a new ergonomic keyboard, Glove80. It’s been great fun introducing Claudia to all of the technologies, tools and processes you all use every day. With the return of in-person events, she’ll soon have the chance to check these out first-hand – always the best way to learn. Which brings me nicely to my final announcement: our own event, DEVELOP3D LIVE, is due to return on 1 November 2022 in Sheffield. It will be great to head back to the Steel City and to see you all there. We’ll definitely be making up for lost time, which could push those new healthy-living plans back a few steps.

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CONTENTS FEBRUARY / MARCH 2022 ISSUE NO. 132

NEWS Siemens NX adds ‘intelligence-based design’, Keyshot ramps up options for speed and subs, and Carbon unveils M3 and M3 Max 3D printers

13 14 16 20 28 30 32 38 40 42 46 50 52

FEATURES Comment: Could 5G open the doors to more digital twins? Comment: SJ on the pressures of career progression Visual Design Guide: Scania Fencer bus COVER STORY Whiplash aces Tonal challenge Fits like a Glove80: Designed for keyboard comfort Cleaning up: Numatic’s approach to tool repair Tech round-up: DED 3D printing comes of age Sleeping giant: Artec 3D scans the Groussgasmaschinn Lincoln Electric goes large with Creaform Daniel Lee Boatbuilding brings beautiful vessels to life Ship ahoy: On course for sustainable marine transport Schiebel’s pioneering work on unmanned flight Non-profit LifeNabled’s prosthetics for remote recipients

REVIEWS 54 AMD Radeon Pro W6400 THE LAST WORD 58 Since virtual events replaced giant, in-person user conferences, customers have had fewer opportunities to provide 3D CAD vendors with feedback, writes Stephen Holmes 59 DEVELOP3D SERVICES

2022

1 November 2022 The wood used to produce this magazine comes from Forest Stewardship Council certified well-managed forests, controlled sources and/or recycled material

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NEWS NEWS

SIEMENS KICKS OFF 2022 WITH ADDITION OF 'INTELLIGENCE-BASED DESIGN' TO NX » New machine learning and advanced simulation capabilities are designed to help customers more quickly achieve their design and engineering goals

iemens NX has announced its first 2022 update, adding technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced simulation capabilities to the software as it looks to add significant productivity and capability enhancements. Increased AI takes the form of machine learning embedded in the Selection Prediction and Select Similar commands, which uses shape recognition to identify geometrically similar components. Combined with NX’s voice control function, the user can faster navigate multilevel menus and operations, as well as teaching the system words or phrases to carry out common tasks. Siemens gives the example of asking ‘Have we done something like this before?’ In response, NX will carry out a shape search using Siemens’ Geolus. A new NX Topology Optimizer setup helps create parts based purely on functional and design space requirements, resulting in editable convergent bodies that would be almost impossible to design and engineer manually. Design changes and optimisations can be made quickly and downstream features are updated automatically, which Siemens states will save time, effort and boost the reuse of design and engineering data.

Additionally, Design Space Explorer combines design space exploration with generative engineering, in order to help designers automatically optimise a design against multiple objectives. Siemens’ Simcenter 3D simulation gets a run-out in NX by marshalling its lattice structures, which can now be optimised to derive the optimal lattice structure in a singular environment, eliminating the multiple design analysis steps typically required. Elsewhere, Part Orientation Optimization brings nesting of parts and their associated supports within a machine build area, along with integrated cloudbased orientation optimisation processes to find the optimal build orientation for reduced thermal distortion. “With each new release of NX, Siemens is pushing the barriers of what product development systems are capable of,” said Bob Haubrock, senior vice president of product engineering software at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “Our shift to continuous releases of NX is proving incredibly popular with our community,” continued Haubrock, speaking at the 2022 launch, adding that this is enabling NX to add industry-leading capabilities faster than before. “This means providing access to new tools and technologies so they can

be applied to our customers’ design, engineering and manufacturing challenges to help them overcome them more quickly. We continue to improve the core tools our customers rely on every day, with over 1,200 customer enhancement requests delivered in this release.” In related news, Siemens has also announced that Daimler Truck has adopted its Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software with a view to developing next-generation, CO2neutral vehicles. This will provide Daimler Truck with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution it needs to transition its current development process to a full, digital-twindriven, multiphysics environment. In this way, Daimler Truck aims to improve the aerodynamic performance of vehicles, as well as explore innovative e-mobility propulsion and energy management systems, including battery cooling and hydrogen technology. The software will also help support legacy combustion engine and exhaust system design and associated CO2 reduction. In addition to software, Siemens and Daimler Truck have announced that they are to partner on the training of young engineers to become high-level simulation specialists. siemens.com

The latest update to Siemens NX includes over 1,200 customer-requested enhancements, to help designers and engineers innovate at speed

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NEWS

KEYSHOT RAMPS UP OPTIONS FOR SPEED AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

Etec rebrand at Desktop Metal

esktop Metal has announced it is rebranding its Envisontec product line as 'Etec', one year on from its acquisition of the resinbased polymer 3D printing company. Etec 3D printers are best known for their levels of detail and surface finish, and have built a reputation in the dental, medical and jewellery industries. Since Desktop Metal acquired Envisiontec in 2021, the company has launched a dental and medical offshoot, Desktop Health, where it believes Etec will continue to bloom with its 3D printing solutions by targeting volume manufacturing. desktopmetal.com

uxion has announced the release of KeyShot 11, with the big launch news centred on its streamlining of each aspect of the product visualisation process, to complement the entire product lifecycle. New features in KeyShot 11 reinforce what Luxion describes as “key feedback” from the real-life workflows of KeyShot users in areas including material design, information management, motion, automation and presentation. For example, KeyShot 11 introduces 3D Paint, a texture painting tool that enables users to further customise a model’s surface finishes by painting or stamping textures directly onto the surface. Physics Simulation, meanwhile, allows them to record the physics of an object and apply it as a keyframe animation.

And KeyShot Web Viewer enables users to easily share scenes by uploading them to KeyShot Cloud. With the latest release, Luxion is introducing subscription pricing for all new licenses, which the company claims will reduce upfront costs and transition users to a pay-as-you-go model. Subscription terms are generally over one year, during which time users receive all major releases and patches; access to subscription-only features like KeyShot Web Viewer; ‘self-service licensing’ that lets them activate and deactivate machines running KeyShot; as well as assisted phone and email support with remote desktop options. KeyShot 11 is available immediately for download and purchase online and through all certified KeyShot resellers. keyshot.com

Keyshot 11 could be the right prescription for teams looking to supercharge their viz workflow

Carbon promises faster, more intuitive 3D printing from its new M3 and M3 Max printers

collaboration and help to revolutionise how products are designed and made,” said Phil DeSimone, chief product and business development officer at Carbon. The M3 printer is now available for order and shipping while M3 Max will be shipped in the third quarter of 2022. carbon.com

MD has unveiled the AMD Radeon Pro W6400, a low-cost pro GPU designed for CAD and entry-level visualisation workflows. Priced aggressively at $229, the Radeon Pro W6400 complements AMD’s higher spec ‘RDNA 2’ pro graphics cards, the Radeon Pro W6600 ($649) and Radeon Pro W6800 ($2,249). With a low-profile form factor and up to 50W of peak board power, it can be used in both small form factor (SFF) workstations and full-sized towers. Our full review can be found on p54 of this issue. amd.com/radeonproW6400

Carbon unveils M3 and M3 Max 3D printers arbon is rolling out a new evolution of its Digital Light System (DLS) platform with two new models: the Carbon M3 and M3 Max. Both machines have been designed for faster, more intuitive 3D printing, with an upgraded heat management system that enables the printers to deliver more throughput per square foot in thermally limited scenarios. The M3 offers an increased build envelope over the M2 at 189 x 118 x 326mm, combined with a higher resolution. The M3 Max has a 307 x 163 x 326mm build area, and new 4K light engine that allows for the same pixel size and density as the basic model, but across a larger area. “We believe this new generation of Carbon DLS technology will empower more

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 launches

Artec unveils 2022 Artec Leo

rtec 3D has announced the launch of 2022 Artec Leo, a completely wireless 3D handheld scanner with a built-in touchscreen, optimised accuracy and multilingual interface. Key upgrades for this model include enhanced processing, AI capabilities “twice smarter” than the previous model, advanced accuracy, a new calibration kit, auto temperature control and advanced colour-capture capabilities. New algorithms adjust brightness levels automatically when scanning and reduce the size of texture by 2x, making it faster to process and load data to create trueto-life colour 3D models. artec.com

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HP Z DESKTOP WORKSTATIONS UPDATED WITH G9 EDITIONS

ROUND UP Hexagon has announced the launch of Sixth Sense, a new platform designed to take start-ups with advanced technology from minimum viable product (MVP) to global commercialisation, leading the way for more open innovation in the smart manufacturing space hexagonmi.com

P has announced it is adding three new models to its HP Z desktop workstation range: the HP Z2 SFF G9, the HP Z2 Tower G9 and the HP Z1 Tower G9. As with the HP Z2 Mini G9, which was unveiled in January with the low-profile Nvidia RTX A2000 GPU, the focus with these new models is on cramming evermore powerful graphics into smaller chassis. That could make them particularly attractive to those working in space-constrained environments, such as home offices. The HP Z2 SFF G9 is the first small factor workstation from a major vendor to support a full-height, full-length graphics card, up to and including the Nvidia RTX A4000 (16 GB). This makes it suitable for a wide range of graphics-intensive workflows, such as real-time visualisation, GPU rendering and virtual reality. Small form factor workstations are typically 50% smaller than equivalent towers. As a result, they are usually limited to low-profile graphics cards, which are best-suited to less demanding workflows such as 3D CAD. While HP has yet to confirm how the Z2 SFF G9 is able to accommodate a full-size graphics card, we expect this is achieved using a riser board, so that the graphics card itself sits parallel to the workstation’s motherboard. This approach to small form factor workstation design was first championed

by Fujitsu in 2015 with the Fujitsu Celsius J550, albeit using the shorter Nvidia Quadro K2200. In terms of specs, the HP Z2 SFF G9 includes 12th Generation Intel Core K-Series processors and up to 128 GB of DDR5-4400 memory. Storage options include up to three M.2 NVMe 2280 SSDs, one 2.5-inch HDD and one 3.5-inch HDD. For those with even greater graphics requirements, the HP Z2 Tower G9 offers up to the Nvidia RTX A5000 (24 GB) and AMD Radeon Pro W6800 (32 GB), plus more storage bays. The HP Z1 Tower G9, meanwhile, is billed as the company's "most affordable entry desktop workstation" and brings ISVcertified hardware and industry-leading security for professional workflows. HP also highlighted the sustainability credentials of the new machines, featuring up to 55% of recycled plastic. The new HP Z Workstations are expected to be available in March. hp.com

An early look at the new HP Z2 Tower G9, scheduled for availability from March 2022

Cambridge Flow Solutions has updated its Boxer software product line with a new release of its simulation software Boxergeom. The product helps users predict the impact of components from erosion, particulate buildup and potential blockage, in order to optimise their designs or model damage boxersolutions.com

Manish Kumar named new Solidworks CEO

anish Kumar has been named CEO and vice president of R&D at Solidworks, in an announcement made by Dassault Systèmes (DS) at its 3DExperience World event this month. Kumar, who already plays a key role in the development of Solidworks product and technology strategies, will now lead Research and Development (R&D) and user community relationships. According to DS executives, this will accelerate Solidworks adoption and signals the company's

“commitment to and investment in Solidworks R&D that has been a hallmark of the brand.” Kumar joined the Solidworks R&D team in 1998 as a software developer and was a key contributor to the CAD system’s early development in areas such as translators, surfacing, modelling, sketcher, assembly, weldments, sheet metal and drawings. He also led 3DExperience development within Solidworks R&D. Gian Paolo Bassi, the 7-year CEO of Solidworks, will now lead Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience Works organisation as executive vice president. solidworks.com

Solid Edge now includes CAM Pro 2.5-axis milling for users with the CAD package, providing a pathway to maintain full associativity with design data, along with automated toolpath creation and visualisations for optimised machining processes solidedge.siemens.com

Manish Kumar takes on the CEO role at Solidworks after more than two decades at the company

EOS has updated its existing network of contract manufacturers with the launch of a new ‘End-ToEnd Production Network’. This is designed to connect companies of all sizes with high-quality additive manufacturing production capabilities from certified EOS partners eos.info

UK Solidworks reseller Solid Solutions has announced the completion of its acquisition of Desktop Engineering, meaning it now supports nearly 15,000 UK and Irelandbased businesses. In 2021 the company also acquired solutions partner Design Rule Limited solidsolutions.co.uk

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COMMENT

In 2022, 5G technology will open the doors to more digital twin deployments and more effectively link real-world data with the design and engineering process, writes UK5G’s Vicki DeBlasi

n 2020, the UK manufacturing industry accounted for £191 billion of output and 2.7 million jobs, with average wages 13% higher than the rest of the economy. But the sector is facing significant challenges in the aftermath of COVID-19, amid shifting markets and a looming skills gap. Effectively planning and designing processes and plants has become more complex, and companies can no longer rely on always having an expert on hand to deploy operations in person. 5G could transform the sector, facilitating more efficient and effective ways of working. For a start, it will enable better and more informed decision-making. By increasing the number of sensors that can be deployed, 5G networks can facilitate the creation of live digital twins, replicating the entire manufacturing environment digitally. This allows for more thorough testing of product and plant designs, without wasting valuable time or money. Processes can also be analysed in greater detail and maximised for both efficiency and sustainability. No more secondguessing what might happen if you made a certain change; with digital twins, you can run theoretical scenarios in a risk-free environment, using real-world data. Many businesses may feel that they have already made the necessary investments in technology and connectivity but the speed, volume and reliability of 5G is unmatched. Fifth-generation connectivity will ensure manufacturing technicians and engineers are able to collaborate quickly, remotely and more effectively than ever before in the design and planning of plants and processes – and it is the UK economy that will reap the benefits.

5G IN ACTION UK vehicle battery manufacturer Hyperbat is using 5G to deliver a virtual reality digital twin proof-of-concept (POC). Hyperbat design and engineering teams will be able to virtually walk around and

 interact with three-dimensional, life-size objects in real time, via a single, selfcontained device. Employees in different locations will be able to build a 1:1 scale physical product on the factory floor, review designs in real time, explore form factors such as maintenance and crash detection of an electric vehicle, and retrofit high-performance batteries into specific dimensions. The key enabler is the high speed, low latency and large data-handling capabilities of a private 5G network. Jeremy Spencer, 5G Innovation Senior Manager, BT Enterprise Unit, who has led the POC development, says: “The 5G digital twin solution is a powerful reminder that 5G connectivity and edge compute is very much here now, delivering real business benefits.” He continues: “We have seen how 5G connectivity, combined with the latest technology, can produce incredible efficiency gains which are so important in boosting the UK manufacturing sector in a post-Covid recovery era.” According to a survey from LNS research, 25% of manufacturing executives surveyed said they believe a digital twin could help increase throughput, while Hexagon found that 30% of manufacturing executives believe a digital twin would reduce costs.

DIGITAL TWIN BENEFITS Digital twins enable manufacturers to determine how best to streamline the production environment before physically changing any processes. Designing in a digital realm before implementing in the physical world increases efficiency, productivity and reduces operational risk. This delivers several benefits, including a potential 10% reduction in rework, which not only has financial implications, but also improves worker satisfaction. Additionally, it can enable an environmentally friendly 10% reduction in scrap, according to analysis from Hexagon.

Digital twins enable manufacturers to determine how best to streamline a production environment before physically changing any processes

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What’s more, as a part of the UK5G Testbed and Trials Programme, 5G Factory of the Future is using 5G and mixed reality to reduce design costs, improve productivity and increase outputs. The consortium is creating a shared hybrid reality space that will be used in a variety of ways by their teams, not least in supporting the design process. Critical discussions can not only happen more quickly and easily, but travel costs will be reduced by an estimated 65%, arising from worldwide collaboration. Similarly, 5G-ENCODE is using shared virtual and augmented reality, running over a private 5G network it has deployed within the National Composites Centre. The technology is being used to support and assist the manufacturing design process and the team anticipates a 20% cost reduction as a result. From the Industrial Revolution to Industry 4.0, manufacturing has always been a cornerstone of the UK economy. Continuous innovation has been the driving force behind this, yet the need for change has never been greater. 5G provides a solution – and that solution is expected to add up to £6.3bn to the value of the UK manufacturing industry by 2030, according to research from Vodafone. The powering of digital twins by fifthgeneration connectivity is just one of the many ways in which manufacturers can realise this promise.

GET IN TOUCH: Vicki DeBlasi has worked in the tech industry for more than 15 years and believes passionately in the power of technology to solve some of society’s biggest challenges. Since joining innovation network UK5G as head of marketing in 2020, she has been exploring how 5G can be fully understood and embraced by key industries and sectors. On Twitter, she’s @Mrs_VDB DEVELOP3D.COM FEBRUARY / MARCH 2022 13

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COMMENT

To manage or not to manage? Career progression can bring with it a whole stack of worries and concerns. For 2022, our columnist SJ has made the resolution not to opt out when it comes to new opportunities

s a student, I changed my major six times because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be ‘when I grew up’. And most of that was decided by process of elimination. I knew exactly what I did not want to be. I did not want to be a lawyer, a politician, a pilot, a teacher, or an actuary – so I became an engineer. It sounds weird saying it out loud, but at the time, I was constantly being quizzed: “So, what do you want to be when you graduate?” And now that I’m ‘grown’, the question I keep running from is: “So, when do you want to become a manager?” I hear that question and I run in the other direction. Today, if there’s anything I know that I do not want, it’s to be a manager. At least, that’s what I thought. But in 2022, I’m embracing the philosophy of not counting myself out. After all, if someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t stand there debating over the window or aisle seat.

in the bathroom before and after big presentations from my nerves being fried. Here’s another unhelpful belief: “Managers are less technical.” After all, when your job consists of managing people and projects all day, it makes sense that you might not get to make use of all the technical skills you once had, let alone keep them sharpened to a fine point. Instead, your day-to-day consists of planning, organising and directing the resources you’re given to achieve a specific outcome. You’re often not on the floor doing the physical labour, or in the meetings where design decisions are made. Your primary role is truly one of support – in helping those who do the work achieve overarching team or company goals. But as the saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. I’m terrified of losing all the niche lessons learned on the floor once I’m crammed into a corner office. And here’s another unhelpful belief: “I’m not good with people.” I once had a professor who told us that every time he walked into a room, someone ran out crying. It was something about his personality. Knowing him, I found he was harsh but fair. The way I see it, dealing with people is the most unsavoury part of being a manager. There’s a chance that some day, you’ll end up having to fire someone or lay off an entire team. If something goes wrong, you’re the person who will have to shoulder the responsibility. Sometimes, you may have to enforce rules or company policies that go against your beliefs. Your team may get mad. Your team may not even like you. Which is fine, I suppose, because as a manager, you’ll have even fewer friends at work.



UNHELPFUL BELIEFS

In 2022, I’m embracing the philosophy of not counting myself out. If someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t debate window or aisle seat

Still, I’m aware of unhelpful beliefs that could hold me back from taking the opportunities that I’m offered. For example: “I’m not that person.” Managers are supposed to have all of the answers. By contrast, I don’t even know how to properly file my taxes most of the time. Managers are meant to be chameleons, blending into upper leadership conversations while also being able to talk shop down at the pub on Fridays. I can hardly handle the social anxiety of turning off ‘mute’ in a Zoom meeting. Managers exude confidence and charisma from every pore. I’m still throwing up



FOCUS ON THE DESTINATION What I’ve learnt is that the main thing is to focus on the destination. When I first joined the workforce, I understood only a conventional view of career progression: you either took a managerial route or took the technical expert route. With more years of experience under my belt, and a lot more mentorship along the way, I now understand that these two routes can criss-cross in all kinds of ways. It’s not an either/or situation. I now see that, by avoiding management roles, I could be closing myself off to opportunities, as others have told me. The opportunity to help others succeed and grow. The opportunity to learn more about my strengths and weaknesses. The opportunity to create a positive, healthy work environment for others. Opening ourselves up to opportunity can be hard – especially when you’ve only looked at them in one context or from one perspective. But I’m challenging you (and myself) not to opt out, before you opt in. Take that rocket ride to the top. See how it goes. And don’t worry. I already called dibs on the window seat.

Is a desk in a corner office your destiny as an engineer – or something to avoid?

GET IN TOUCH: SJ is a metal additive engineer aka THEE Hot Girl of Metal Printing. She currently works as a metal additive applications engineer providing AM solutions and #3dprinting of metal parts to help create a decarbonised world. Get in touch at @inconelle on twitter

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VISUAL DESIGN GUIDE SCANIA FENCER F1

This new single-deck bus, produced by Scania in partnership with the Chinese brand Higer, promises UK passengers a safe, sustainable and comfortable ride

SAFETY FIRST An advanced driver assistance system, which includes collision warnings and emergency braking, partners with more physical design elements, such as frontfacing, high-backed passenger seats fitted with three-point belts

QUIETER AND GREENER Thanks to a compact silencer equipped with catalytic converters and a particulate filter, the Fencer’s 9-litre engine meets Euro 6 standards and optimises fuel consumption. A battery EV version is due for launch later in 2022

CHASSIS FRAME CONSTRUCTION The rigid front axle design supports different layout options, including a wider aisle for greater passenger accessibility

The Scania Fencer is available now More information: scaniafencer.co.uk

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DRIVER AREA To maximise driver comfort, Fencer 1 is equipped with an ergonomically designed seat and adjustable instrument panel with easy-reach controls, helping reduce fatigue while aiding visibility, and a joystick roller switch for extending dipping operations

LOOKS MATTER From the outside, the Scania Fencer F1 boasts flowing lines, highlighted by the low position of the front and side windows

MODULAR BUILT ELECTRICS A new power supply architecture, featuring improved control units, speeds up production times and simplifies maintenance and repair

BRIGHT TRAVELS The use of light plays an important role in this design. At the front, LED light clusters stand out with their slim, vertical design. Consistent use of lighting inside creates a bright and airy ‘lounge’ environment

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Tonal offers fitness fans a wide range of resistance workouts via a single wall-mounted unit

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COVER STORY

FIT FOR PURPOSE » Faced with a novel technology, product design agency Whipsaw spotted a tantalising opportunity to develop a standout piece of home fitness equipment. Stephen Holmes speaks to the team behind the design of Tonal about honing the design to create the perfect form

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or Dan Harden, the story of his involvement with Tonal begins when inventor Aly Orady arrived at Harden’s Palo Alto, California home with a small cylindrical electric motor. The motor had a pulley and cable attached to its side, and under his arm, Orady was carrying a laptop. Within minutes, Orady had the motor clamped onto Harden’s dining table and the computer hooked up. He asked Harden to take a seat and grab hold of the cable. “I pulled on the cable and there was resistance,” Harden recalls. “My mind was going, like, ‘Oh shoot! How?!’” He still had his doubts about how adjustable or smooth this experience could be – until Orady tapped away at the laptop and told him to pull again on the cable. This time, the resistance was even stronger. “It was one of those clairvoyant moments,” Harden says. As CEO of Whipsaw, a design agency with offices in San Jose and San Francisco, Harden and his team have worked on a wide range of projects, spanning many different industries and verticals. These include personal electronics and wearables for the likes of Google, Samsung and Nike, as well as medical diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical products. Also in the mix are landmine detectors, weld defect scrubbers and an AIdriven robotic false eyelash applicator.

1 So while the appearance of an inventor on Harden’s doorstep may not be an everyday occurrence, you get the strong impression that this former employee of Frog Design and Henry Dreyfuss Associates always welcomes genuine innovation. “Every client that comes to us has a set of problems,” he says. Sometimes, these are mostly cosmetic, as in the case of client TP Link, which worked with Whipsaw on creating “gorgeous” routers, he says. The Tonal project, by contrast, presented the agency with a multidisciplinary challenge, he says: “It had to be beautiful. It had to be functional. It had to be safe. It had to be manufacturable.” The user experience (UX) part of the puzzle was particularly demanding, he continues. “The interaction on the screen had to be extraordinary and deeply integrated into our design solution. Where are the buttons? How do you control this thing? How do you move the arms up, down, left, right and out? That’s problem solving.”

1 Sketching kicks off ●

design at Whipsaw, helping visualise early-stage ideas

POWER OF RESISTANCE Three and-a-half years after the initial dining-table test, Tonal was launched, immediately making waves in the home fitness technology market with its new type of resistance training.

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COVER STORY It’s part ‘‘ invention

and then part shrinkwrapping and figuring out certain ergonomics and movements on the inside

’’

Hanging on the wall like a flatscreen TV, the device uses Orady’s compact electromagnetic resistance motor, controlled by smart software and machine learning, to provide a constantly changing, smooth and precise resistive force. Tonal is capable of replacing a huge swathe of gym equipment. A pair of independently moving arms pivot out on vertical columns and move up or down to accommodate every workout, ranging from standing lat pull-downs to low squats and lateral chest flys. Sensors control the weight resistance and respond to the user automatically. If you’re struggling to complete a rep, the machine will automatically spot you. The large display brings live coaching and interactive video workouts direct to your home. “It’s like this new category of technology design,” says Cole Derby, one of Whipsaw’s directors of industrial design. “It’s part invention, and then part shrinkwrapping and figuring out certain ergonomics and movements on the inside – the motors and pulleys and all this stuff that needs to happen.” Smart fitness technology has boomed since the arrival of brands like Peloton, but with Tonal, there’s a shift away from the notion of heavy equipment taking up space in a room. “That’s a big distinction of this product, because you’re not standing or sitting on it,” says Derby. “It’s not a treadmill.

It’s not a bike. We can’t rely on gravity or your own body weight. And if you’re pulling up to 200lbs, what are you attached to?” Tonal is mounted directly onto a wall, a method that Harden says took some convincing for the client, who didn’t like the idea of a product needing professional installation and the impact that might have on elements like online sales. “He was really sceptical about putting it on the wall – but to us, that was one of these truths that we had to discover,” says Harden. “We wanted users to be reminded about their health and encouraged to work out, so we hung it on a wall.” Another of Whipsaw’s directors of industrial design, Ari Turgel, suggests that the ability to wall-mount the system changes how people think about managing their exercise equipment. “You start to pair that up with the understanding of the environment, so it’s the user’s home,” he says. “It’s not a gym. It’s probably a tech-savvy user, maybe a little bit affluent; they understand some of the basics, but it’s a totally new thing. And then they have their own user tendencies. So, you start to map all those out, whether that’s in your mind or on paper, and you start to discover these insights.”

SCAVENGER HUNT Harden describes the product development process Whipsaw undertakes as like a scavenger hunt. Each tiny element provides the next hint to where the design can lead. For him, ideas begin as sketches with pen on paper. “That’s how I work, as I’m old fashioned,” he laughs, “and I suck at CAD!” But this traditional approach also frees his mind, he adds. “I don’t think about, ‘Oh, how am I going to make this surface in CAD?’ No, I’m thinking about, ‘What do I want this product to be?’ That analogue process for me works, because it allows me to be really connected with the design solution itself, or at least a concept.” The team talks about the importance of iteration in its process: starting wide and then narrowing down, before going wide again, and once again narrowing down. For Tonal, the design went through over 30 iterations, with the team working tirelessly over mechanical elements, form factors and ergonomics. “Each time you [iterate], the concept matures, so that the 10% of ideas that actually rose to the top then get really dug deep and have to fail a lot,” explains Turgel. “You’re sketching, you’re meeting with the client, you’re going back, you’re making mock-ups, you’re testing out with real size humans. We have tall people and short people in the office, and you’re putting them in front of foam cores. And ultimately, you start to then see some opportunities materialise.”

2 CAD models were used to ●

check Tonal’s ergonomics and user view angles 3 ● 4 The intricate mechanism ●

is designed to move the arms up and down, while allowing them to disappear into the form as part of the body

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A lot ‘‘ of those

clues are responding to some of those external factors: Who’s going to use it? How big is this?

’’

Sketches and Solidworks models combine, and physical prototypes are built. Derby explains that Whipsaw has a ‘boneyard’ of Tonal prototypes and form mock-ups, full-size models made of cardboard, foam core and plywood, all the better to help find the next clue in the scavenger hunt. “A lot of those [clues] are responding to some of those external factors: Who’s going to use it? How big is this? If it is wall-mounted, it can’t stick off your wall. If it’s in somebody’s home, it needs to be as thin as possible. And a lot of that’s driven by the technology. The motors are a certain size. And so this is where we start to connect the dots.” Other elements gave the team further clues as to where to go, such as the display and likely interactions with it. Harden explains that they first started with a 13-inch horizontal screen, but quickly realised that it would need to showcase fitness coaches demonstrating exercises. The design rotated to portrait mode, and kept growing in size, until they realised the front could feature a 24-inch touchscreen as part of a continuous glass surface. The length of the arms determined the height of the product, but then a clever mechanism allows the columns to turn and point the arms inward, tucked alongside and disappearing off the TV, says Derby. “So you don’t see a ‘buff mannequin’ [shape] mounted to your wall.” The digital design tools Whipsaw uses include Solidworks and Rhino for CAD, Keyshot and Cinema 4D for visualisation, as well as in-house 3D printers and external service bureaux. All of these have had a positive impact on this process of repeated reworkings and problem-solving. “CAD, rendering and 3D printing have had such a massive and fantastic impact in our world. You end up doing more of everything and

everything is sped up. Design processes got faster, faster, faster. But it hasn’t made the design process easier. It’s made it more complex, but ultimately, much better.” Turgel confirms that even with all the tools at their disposal, it’s about understanding what you’re trying to achieve as a designer and then choosing the right tool. “It’s all about understanding every single tool in the toolkit, including the staff – strong points in the way that individuals think. And then pairing those up together with the right challenges and problem-solving tools.”

HOME WORKOUTS Since the launch of Tonal, Whipsaw has worked on more home workout technologies, and the company has observed a shift in how such equipment fits into a home. After the success of Tonal, clients and customers now want equipment that blends into the surroundings, but which doesn’t fade from the user’s gaze – whereas before, the idea was to design something as small as possible, so it could be shoved in a closet. For Tonal’s users, having such equipment in their homes is about getting full use out of it and having the freedom to work out whenever they get a spare moment in their day. To illustrate the point, Harden references his guitar in the corner of the office, perched neatly on a stand. “That guitar, I could keep that in the case down in the basement. And it would be better protected, it wouldn’t get dusty,” he says. “But you know what? I play that thing every single day, because it’s staring at me and saying, ‘Come over here play me.’” Out of sight, after all, often means out of mind. Tonal, by contrast, is always ready for action and poised to work all the angles – much like the designers at Whipsaw. whipsaw.com

6 5 The innovative motor ●

combines with a wide range of angles, adding versatility to workouts 6 The continuous glass front ●

with its 24-inch touchscreen displays workouts and virtual gym classes 7 Tonal fits neatly on a wall ●

in the home, but still remains in view and front-of-mind for its users 8 The product had to work for ●

users of all sizes, leading to multiple physical prototypes being tested

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COVER STORY

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SPONSORED CONTENT

THE MOBILE WORKST From performance and thermal management to customisation and durability, we explore what makes a mobile workstation stand out from a standard business laptop

ith today’s flexible working environment, designers and engineers can work from anywhere. But splitting time between office and home doesn’t have to mean compromises when it comes to computing hardware. The modern mobile workstation is not only massively powerful, but extremely portable, reliable and durable. But what makes these 24/7 mission critical machines stand out from a standard business laptop?

also be configured in a RAID 0 array to boost performance further. Alternatively, mirror the drives in RAID 1 to protect from data loss in the rare event of a failure. Pro-grade features of ThinkPad P Series also extend to the display. For colourcritical work at high-resolutions, such as design visualisation, optional 4K displays are colour calibrated in the factory. This helps ensure colours on screen are as close to the intended reality of the physical product in development.

Built for design professionals

The workstation CPU advantage

Product designers and engineers are some of the most demanding users out there. Whether modelling in 3D CAD software, rendering an animation, or running a mechanical simulation, mobile workstations are key to providing a fast and reliable experience. Lenovo ThinkPad P Series mobile workstations are purpose-built to handle the most demanding compute- and graphics- intensive workflows. Powerful workstation-class Intel processors and dedicated GPUs deliver phenomenal levels of processing that simply can’t be matched by a standard business laptop. With up to 128 GB of super-fast memory, the ThinkPad P Series has significantly more capacity than typical laptops and can handle the most complex engineering datasets. With high-speed NVMe Solid State Drives (SSDs) data can be fed to the CPU very quickly. And with dual SSDs, drives can

Durability and reliability all ThinkPad P Series mobile workstations are put through the US Department of Defence’s stringent MIL-STD 810G standard tests

The ThinkPad P Series features workstation-class Intel processors which are heavily focused on performance. Unlike business laptops, which often feature low wattage processors, the ThinkPad P Series offers processors with the highest frequencies and lots of cores. This is critical for both single threaded workflows such as CAD, and multithreaded workflows such as simulation, rendering and generating CNC code for machining. Intel’s workstation-class processors can also deliver other benefits. Select models support Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory to help protect against data corruption errors. This can be particularly important for engineering simulation, as hours could be lost if a crash occurs in the middle of a complex calculation. Some Intel processors are also purpose built for flexible business environments. With Intel vPro technology, for example,

IT managers can remotely maintain, protect and repair machines, even when off, and reduce workstation maintenance and administration.

Cool operator

Mobile workstations not only feature powerful components, but they must be able to maintain the highest levels of performance for extended periods of time. With a complex mechanical CAD assembly, for example, it could take several hours to render out a dynamic, exploded view animation. And no one wants their system to throttle, or even shut down completely, because it can’t be kept cool. With an advanced thermal design, ThinkPad P Series mobile workstations have been specifically developed to handle the most demanding processor-intensive workflows. Larger vents at the side and rear ensure maximum air flow, while dual fans and heat pipes dynamically spread the thermal load. This can help ensure the CPU stays in ‘Turbo’ for longer, maximising single or all core frequencies depending on workload. This level of cooling is simply not available on a standard business laptop.

Test,test and test again

Such meticulous attention to detail can be seen in all aspects of a ThinkPad P Series mobile workstation portfolio. Build quality is of paramount importance, and Lenovo designs, tests and optimises all its systems to help ensure long term

TATION DIFFERENCE

reliability and durability wherever customers choose to work. Lenovo’s in-house ‘torture tests’, refined over the 30-year history of the ThinkPad brand, include dropping the laptop from different angles, subjecting the LCD panel to stress, testing hinge reliability with thousands of cycles, and even spilling coffee / cola on the keyboard. To demonstrate their toughness, the entire ThinkPad P Series is also put through the US Department of Defence’s MIL-STD 810G standards, which include tests for mechanical shock, humidity, cold, heat, sand & dust, vibration and more.

Tuned for pro workflows

All product development software is different and can put stresses on various parts of the system. As a result, ThinkPad mobile workstations are highly customisable. To help designers and engineers maximise performance and make the most of their IT budget, there is complete flexibility when specifying CPU, GPU, memory, storage and display, among other components.

Lenovo works closely with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to certify ThinkPad mobile workstations for a wide range of professional applications. This can help ensure critical software runs reliably, provides optimal performance and delivers a high-quality user experience. It also helps Lenovo understand which combinations of components work best with specific software and then engage with customers to help them decide which configurations might work best for them. Of course, with 3D design, all datasets are different. Customers can even share their actual workloads, allowing Lenovo to test with numerous different configurations, analyse system performance, and provide detailed reports to help customers make the right decisions. It could be that maxing out memory and striping SSDs in RAID 0 dramatically brings down solve times in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software. Likewise, a customer might find a cost saving on key components without missing out on tangible performance.

Conclusion

At first glance, a mobile workstation might look like any other laptop, but on closer inspection there are many important differences, exemplified by the Lenovo ThinkPad P Series. ThinkPad P Series mobile workstations are designed specifically for demanding applications like CAD, simulation and visualisation. And with a huge emphasis on thermal performance, build quality, durability, and customisation, they can make a massive difference to product designers and engineers wherever they choose to work.

Lenovo ThinkPad P Series mobile workstations come in a range of form factors from thin and light performers to fully expandable powerhouses. All laptops can be configured for a range of different workflows lenovo.com/thinkworkstations

FEATURE

SLEEPING G Until engineers could finally return to digitally record its form, the Groussgasmachinn had lain dormant for years. We speak to Artec 3D’s engineering team about the mammoth task of scanning this huge gas turbine

he Groussgasmaschinn is the largest blast furnace gas engine ever built – so when the Luxembourg Science Center set out to preserve it, it made sense to record its form digitally for the benefit of future generations. Also known as Gas Engine Number 11 (GGM11), it’s listed as a national monument in Luxembourg. And it’s so large, it could contain an entire tennis court, and then some: 26 meters long, 10.5 meters wide, 6.5 meters high and weighing in at over 1,100 tonnes. Its four cylinders, each with a capacity of 3,000 litres, were built with the capability to produce 11,000 bhp, or up to 7,000 kilowatts of power. Built in 1938 by German manufacturing company, Ehrhardt & Sehmer, it finally shut down in 1979, still the largest ever built and one of the last of its kind, due to the emergence of more efficient steam turbines. After lying dormant for almost three decades, the Ministry of Culture in Luxembourg ordered its preservation and restoration in 2007. As part of this project, the Luxembourg Science Center reached out to Artec 3D in 2016, with plans to digitally capture the engine. At that time, however, even the best of the scanning technology available was no match for a task of this scale. Today, however, this mammoth job is underway. “We’ve been meaning to scan this engine for a very long time, and we’re glad that the technology is finally here to help us do it,” says Nicolas Didier, president of the Luxembourg Science Center. “There is no other gas engine like this one, and it’s crucial to capture it in its current state.”

CAPTURE CHALLENGE The Artec 3D Ray was chosen as the primary scanner for capturing the Groussgasmaschinn in its entirety, due to its ability to laser-scan large objects from a distance with accuracy. An Artec 3D Leo wireless handheld 3D scanner was chosen as a secondary device, specifically for capturing high detail from smaller elements and harder-to-access sections of the engine. “GGM11 is not only the largest object we ever scanned, but it’s also a very complex one,” says Vadim Zaremba, an Artec 3D deployment and technical support engineer who undertook much of the scanning. To save time, the team split up. The first team positioned the Artec 3D Ray at various locations, at one particular angle, 5 to 15 meters away from the engine.

1 Built in 1938 by ●

Ehrhardt & Sehmer, the GGM11 is the largest gas engine ever built 2 The size and ●

complexity of the target meant that two different 3D scanners were needed

3 The Artec Leo was ●

used to capture highdetail scans in hardto-access areas 4 A render of the ●

final 3D model allows people around the world to interact with GGM11 5 The full-size 3D ●

model of the national monument weighs in at 300 million polygons

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G GIANT 5 The second team followed along behind, scanning smaller sections with the Leo, staying out of the Ray’s field of view. One of the most challenging tasks was to scan the engine from above, using a rickety old cabin positioned some 10 metres above GGM11. This required the team inside that cabin to remain frozen in place for several minutes, in order to avoid disturbing the scanner while it did its job. Overall, it took the team four days of shifts lasting up to four hours to complete the project. The engine required 18 different angles with the laser scanner, and these were later combined in Artec 3D Studio software with 67 additional detail scans made using the Leo. The final size of the project came to 186 GB in total - 170 GB of Leo scans and 16 GB of Ray scans.

AWAKEN THE GIANT Following data capture, all the Ray scans were processed with Global Registration by Artec 3D engineer Dmitry Potoskuev. Then, each of 18 scans were processed into triangulated meshes using Artec Studio’s Ray Scan Triangulation algorithm to clean up the scan surface. All the meshes were processed using Artec Studio’s Sharp Fusion algorithm to create a single mesh of the engine. Adding the details captured with Leo had to be broken down into several steps, given the amount of data with which the team was working. A duplicate of the huge single mesh was created and simplified to under 10 million polygons. Next, the Leo scans were added and registered with the simplified mesh to achieve a higher quality alignment of data. After all the Leo scans had been registered, the team selected the original Ray mesh and four to five raw registered Leo scans and applied the Sharp Fusion algorithm to create a new mesh, repeating the process until all the Leo scans were processed.

‘‘ GGM11 is

not only the largest object we have ever scanned, but it’s also a very complex one

’’

This created a final mesh consisting of a staggering 350 million polygons, which was then reduced to 10 million polygons for further post-processing, using such features as hole filling tools, the smooth brush and bridges. The total processing time for the project was just 80 hours.

FINEST DETAILS Speaking about some of the issues faced when working on the model, Potoskuev says that time was the greatest challenge. “This project was so big, not only did scanning and processing take a long time, but transferring the data from the scanners to the computer and then into Artec Studio, could take up to as much as five to six hours – just for transferring!” “We’re talking about almost 200 gigabytes of data. It’s the largest and most time-consuming object we’ve processed.” But the team’s patience paid off. “It’s amazing that with the 3D scanning technology we have today, something so vast and inaccessible has been digitised right down to its finest details,” concludes Potoskuev. This massive task may now be complete, but the Groussgasmaschinn story is far from over. Plans are in place to use the scan data to restore missing parts and preserve the giant engine in its current state, “so even if it loses its shape with time, we can still go back to this 3D model and show it to our future visitors, and use it for restoration purposes,” says Didier. The renovation of the engine is due to be completed by 2027/28, when it will become an integral part of the Science Center, as an interactive exhibit that visitors can not only see, but also interact with. And for the future, the museum has invested in two handheld Leo scanners for its Future Skills programme, in its work to inspire and educate the next generation of engineers. science-center.lu

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FEATURE

HEAVY METAL Lincoln Electric is a brand synonymous with welding. Stephen Holmes speaks to the team there about how it has expanded its automated DED additive manufacturing capabilities, and the role played by Creaform’s contactless QA in building some of the largest parts ever seen

hen engineers at Lincoln Electric say the company makes ‘large-format’ additive metal parts, it’s hard to grasp just how enormous these builds are, until its expert team starts chatting about recent projects. “That part was 5,500lbs, 8 feet in the long axis – a single piece,” says Mark Douglass, business development manager for additive solutions at Lincoln Electric, discussing a recent build for a chemicals plant. It was six weeks of continuous, 24/7 3D printing in one of the company’s 18 huge systems enclosures, confirms his colleague Amanda Dodge, an additive solutions engineer. Once a week, the team would enter the build enclosure, in order to 3D scan the giant part. This would give them the ability to compare it with the CAD model as it was building, making sure that nothing was going awry and that enough material was building up where needed. “For that part, we were scanning it throughout the print, because with the MetraScan, you can scan it without needing to put dots on it or touch it, and the part can be hot,” says Dodge. Traditional measurement systems prevented the team from measuring parts on the production floor. “Minimising the movement of parts is important to us. We knew that a CMM or arm was not going to cut it. So, we looked at alternatives and 3D scanning fit the bill,” says Douglass.

WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE Lincoln Electric has a wealth of experience in metals welding, and by some definitions, has been ‘3D printing’ parts for decades. Only in these cases, it wasn’t a machine but a person that was responsible for building up layers of metal to quickly fabricate or repair an industrial part. In 2019, the company launched its additive solutions business unit down the road from its main headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Having pioneered its own large-scale robotic metal 3D printing technology, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions now creates prototype, production and replacement parts from steels, stainless steel, Invar and nickel alloys, using wire-fed DED 3D printing. Its customers are all from the heavy industry sector and already significant users of welding. These include clients involved in oil and gas, farm and construction equipment, power generation and ship building – all “big stuff”, as Douglass puts it. “A lot of people we’re going after, they think 3D printing’s what they have on a desktop, right?” he explains. “You can print little trinkets, you can do dental work, which is all great stuff – but they never thought that they could print a 5,000lb part. It doesn’t even compute!” The process used means Lincoln Electric can produce or repair critical parts with complex geometries in superfast turnaround times. No lengthy waits for a casting to be made or for replacement parts to be shipped.

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GEOMETRY CAPTURE For parts of this size, simulating build processes and final part dimensions with finite element analysis (FEA), as you would for smaller scale 3D printing, would take too long, says Douglass. “The compute horsepower needed to do parts this large isn’t there, we found. So we just go with good engineering principles,” he says, pointing across the table to his colleague. “Smart people like Amanda figure out how to do it and make sure it’s done well.” Checking everything is where 3D scanning comes into play. To meet this need, Lincoln Electric opted for Creaform’s MetraScan 3D, a fast and highly accurate portable 3D scanner that is built for shop floor environments and capable of scanning objects without need for clean-up or targets and regardless of temperature. That’s a huge time saving when you need to capture parts mid-way through a build process. Some of the parts are so large that they need to be scanned in situ. “It’s difficult to get the scan all in one piece, because we can’t get around to the other side,” says Dodge. To solve the problem, she explains that they merge the two scans into one model, using a mix of Creaform VXelements software and most often Lincoln Electric’s own software, SculptPrint OS.

3D scanning enables Lincoln Electric to ensure that massive AM builds go smoothly

“It started off as a complex curve machining software for 5-axis machining,” explains Douglass of SculptPrint, “and we approached [the developer] with the concept of flipping it inside out. Instead of the software modelling removing material, it would be adding material. He was intrigued, and eventually we absorbed the software into our company.” The final part has to be machined from the near net shape 3D-printed part. Ensuring the desired part still fits within the printed geometry and finding the best fit is key to a successful outcome, especially given the cost and timescale of producing such parts. The optimal placement of the ‘part within the part’ can be difficult to gauge, so 3D scanning helps ensure everything is well within the necessary parameters and boundaries. “A lot of times, we have parts with unique features,” says Dodge. “3D scans enable us to assess all the complex features we are printing—and verify that all those features are correct.” Douglass concludes: “We’re trying to find customers who don’t know that we can solve their problem. It’s not on their radar that it’s even possible. So getting their attention is pretty hard.” But as the technology gains wider recognition, more companies are beating a path to Lincoln Electric’s door. Once there, the only question is: How big can they go? additive.lincolnelectric.com

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BUOYANT BEAU Boatbuilder Daniel Lee blends traditional methods with the latest technologies to bring beautiful vessels to life. He speaks to Claudia Schergna about how digital tools help his dreams take to the water

s long as he can remember, Daniel Lee has always been around wooden boats. As a little kid, his dad would take him fishing. His grandad always had boats parked in his driveway and had a passion for carpentry. Unlike his father and grandfather, building and repairing boats in his spare evenings and weekends was not enough for Lee. “It was always just a hobby for them, an interest,” he says. “I’m the first generation to actually make that jump.” Although his business is relatively young, Lee is hardly a novice in the field. As a former electronics engineer and an experienced woodworker, he has brought a great deal of manufacturing experience to the venture. And by combining handcrafting and high-tech equipment, he has been able to create an innovative workflow that is taking that business to the next level. By watching countless YouTube tutorials, he taught himself how to use 3D CAD programmes, starting with SketchUp, but soon moving on to Autodesk Fusion 360. “To begin with, I started just modernising old plans and I realised I could sell them digitally. It’s a bit of an additional income; there’s a bit less pressure on the daily work to pay all the bills,” he explains. “I really like old plans from the 1930s and 40s, so the first thing I did was modernise those with modern manufacturing methods using CNC machining and designing the whole boat in CAD,” he says. Fusion 360 has provided Lee with a key tool for both restoration works and boatbuilding. When his new digital designs caught the attention of American naval architect Michel Berryer, the two started working together.

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PROFILE

AUTIES

1 The sleek lines of Daniel ● Lee’s Miss Isle boat, captured out on the river 2 Daniel Lee carefully 3D ● scans a clinker dinghy using the EinScan H 3 A Chris Craft boat ● undergoing painstaking restoration work 4 The same Chris Craft ●

boat, shown in its prerestoration condition

5 The full hull of a Stapley ●

ski race boat, scanned and viewed in the EXScan software

CLASSIC COLLABORATION

One of the first projects Lee and Berryer worked on together, the Temptress, was a classic boat model first designed by Berryer over 20 years ago. Lee quickly fell in love with it. “Michel designs on a software called Key Creator,” explains Lee. “He models the whole boat, and he does all the calculations for hydrostatics weight and strength calculations. Then he sends me a model, which I put into Fusion 360 and do all the kitting stuff to turn it into something buildable.” The final product is a 3D model that can either be built by Lee or by the customers themselves, in the form of a kit. The combination of Fusion 360 and 3D scanning has also been life-changing – but when Lee first purchased an EinScan H scanner from Shining 3D, he wasn’t actually thinking about its application in boatbuilding. “The reason for getting the scanner was that I was doing some van floors for a campervan conversion company,” he explains. “They wanted van floors that looked like a boat, to have that ‘marine’ feel to them. I started off making floors for them and very quickly found that trying to measure the shape of a van floor is really difficult, because nothing is square on it. So that sent me down the route of looking for a 3D scanner.” He then experimented with scanning a boat in his workshop that had originally been built back in the 1970s. “A few people were interested in potentially buying a new production version of it. So, I scanned that and reverse engineered all the moulds and everything that you need to make it.” DEVELOP3D.COM FEBRUARY / MARCH 2022 43

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PROFILE

‘‘

I really like old plans from the 1930s and 1940s, so the first thing I did was to modernise those with CNC machining and designing the whole boat in CAD

’’

HULL CAPTURE To start, Lee used the 3D scanner to digitally capture the entire hull. He realised EinScan H was the right tool for him, as it is easy to manoeuvre around big objects and does not require the application of targets. Transferring data from Ein ScanX software to Fusion 360 is pretty straightforward, as he explains: “I get a mesh file from the 3D scanner, which I put into Fusion 360. Then I take a series of cross-sections - or ‘stations’ as they would be called for a boat – which are basically slices at 90 degrees through the boat, at maybe ten different points. Then I create a new whole skin, which comes out smooth, because it takes out any deviations that might be in the old boat, or that the scanner might pick up. From that, you’ve got a whole new skin.” The final step is to create the framework and structure for the boat: “That is cut on the CNC machine. So, I end up with a crisscross, egg-box shape in the middle, which forms the shape of the boat, and then I build the skin over the outside of that.” EinScan H has turned out to be very convenient for scanning wood, says Lee: “I like it because it captures the colour and the texture of the surface, as well as the physical shape.” Originally designed for scanning people and skin textures, he explains, it also tracks well on wood surfaces. Use of a 3D scanner brings several advantages in his daily work. For a start, it saves time, enabling Lee to plan ahead effectively. “Of course, the first question people ask me is, ‘How much is it going to cost me?’,” he says. “I can very quickly mock-up the moulds in CAD enough that I can get the material quantities. That was the main exercise for scanning and drawing up the moulds – just to very quickly get a rough price, and then see if there’s any actual feasibility in it. Because if it came out ridiculously high, and no one was prepared to pay that much, I just wouldn’t bother doing any of the rest of the work on it.” This process can now be done in a fraction

of the time previously required. “It probably took me an hour to scan it, and maybe two to three hours to draw up all the moulds and everything in CAD. If I was to loft that traditionally, I think it would be two or three days, probably. And if it’s just for the purpose of trying to get a price to build one, that’s a lot of time invested.”

6 A kitting model for ●

the Temptress boat, as seen in Fusion 360

7 Dan Lee’s new ● design: the Marilyn 25 slipper launch boat

RESTORATION MAGIC Using 3D scanning is also great for restoration as it allows Lee to reverse-engineer the damaged parts of a boat and replace them with nearly identical pieces. “I’ve got a ‘30s Chris Craft that I’m restoring, which is a really old, rotten boat. It’s probably going to be 90% new wood, I would think,” he says. “So, because I’m replacing probably 90% of the wood on this, when it comes to putting cleats back on, you often lose your reference and where they should be. Now, I can refer to the 3D scan. And I can measure how far a cleat was from the transom. I can locate things like the waterline and position that vein in the same place that it was originally.” Once completed, the vessel will be yet another in a whole fleet that Lee has brought back to life, taking to the water as his dream career cruises in the right direction. danleeboatbuilding.co.uk

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FEATURE

SHIPSHAPE FOR SUSTAINABILITY

In the journey towards more sustainable maritime transportation, Hyundai Heavy Industries has reviewed how it collaborates and manages data in order to lead the way on developing more eco-friendly marine engines

nternational shipping has set itself on course to a zero-carbon emissions future. Targets drawn up by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations agency responsible for regulating shipping, aim to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, compared to 2008 levels. The IMO has called for the industry to embrace new technologies, new fuels and innovation, adding that exciting research and development into low- and zerocarbon marine fuels is already underway. One company leading the efforts is Hyundai Heavy Industries’

Engine and Machinery Division (HHI-EMD). Based in South Korea, it is one of the world’s largest marine engine manufacturers, with a 35% share of the global marine engine market. As well as making its own brand of mid-size engines under the HiMSEN brand, the company is also a leading manufacturer and supplier of eco-friendly marine facilities and onshore energy plants. These include eco-friendly gas supply system Hi-GAS, NoNOx selective catalytic reduction system, and ballast water treatment systems. An Kwang-hean, president and chief operating officer of HHI-EMD, says that the company’s plans to become the world’s number one sustainable energy provider for ship propulsion has seen it invest in its technology development. HiMSEN has recently shifted its attention to dual-fuel engines capable of running on both liquid and alternative eco-friendly fuels, such as liquefied natural gas, to become more efficient and reduce pollutants.

1 The HiMSEN engine ●

business at Hyundai Heavy Industries is expanding to include dual-fuel engines 2 3D models for ●

entire HiMSEN engines, including pipework, are now designed in Catia

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‘‘

As requirements for industrial decarbonisation increase, dual-fuel engines are expected to make a significant contribution to the sustainable shipbuilding industry

’’

2 “We’re seeing significant interest in alternative dual-fuel energy,” says An Kwang-hean. “Using dual-fuel engines can reduce carbon dioxide, sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions noticeably compared to using diesel. As requirements for industrial decarbonisation increase, dual-fuel engines are expected to make a significant contribution to the sustainable shipbuilding industry.” He adds that as the HiMSEN engine business grew, it uncovered a need for better engineering collaboration with its licensees, and data management.

IN SHIPSHAPE FASHION The first step was to transition its 3D models for HiMSEN engines to Dassault Systèmes Catia and utilise the 3DXperience Platform. “Our main users of the platform are design engineers, focused particularly on mass production development of the HiMSEN engines,” says HHI-EMD senior manager Kim Seungmin. “They use Catia for 3D modelling, as well as Enovia and Delmia for managing specifications, engineering BOM and manufacturing BOM. It was important for us to be able to handle everything within a single platform.” Now, engineers use Catia to design every facet of the HiMSEN engine and build a standard library of parts in Enovia. “The entire engine model is created using the dedicated capabilities in Catia for mechanical engineering,” says Seungmin.“And with the specific functionalities offered, we can easily model pipes. For 3D modelling, we also made a template that suits each business unit to build a standard library of parts to help with decisions around dimensions and shapes.” Taking advantage of the standardised workflows on the 3DExperience platform, HHI-EMD has been able to connect the dots across its product development processes, from design and engineering to manufacturing to enterprise resource planning (ERP). As it grows its engineering competence and pursues new joint ventures, HHI-EMD executives see the platform as enabling the company to collaborate with new licensees and ship owners, from wherever they are in the world. “We can work in multiple windows simultaneously with different parts in real time within the platform,” Seungmin says. “Our partners and customers can view 2D and 3D models on the web without having to open the CAD file. Also, when we share 3D models of large

assemblies, they load much faster and this makes the process more convenient.” In parallel with the platform implementation, HHIEMD consulted Dassault Systèmes to develop a longerterm digital transformation strategy for its evolving business.

ALL HANDS ON DECK Seungmin explains that the team consists of around 120 internal and external design engineers all using the 3DExperience platform. “Soon, we plan to introduce advanced planning and scheduling on the platform to strengthen our product development competitiveness and, ultimately, we plan to expand our use of the 3DXperience platform to make our production site even smarter,” he says. One key area to benefit from this is the way in which engineers now generate the bill of materials. “Before, we manually exchanged data between our CAD, PDM and in-house BOM systems,” Seungmin says. “All 3D models, 2D drawings and part list data from the CAD and other systems were sent to the BOM system after an internal approval.” Then, after going through modification and manual inputs, the final BOM data was sent to the in-house ERP system, he continues. “Now, we use Delmia to generate the production BOM from the approved design engineering BOM to reduce errors. We can also make changes to a design and all associated drawings, models and BOM data automatically update too.” As it sees the benefits of this approach, HHI-EMD is now looking at ways it can further achieve a seamless data flow across the entire product development lifecycle. “We plan to extend the scope of BOM in our manufacturing process,” Seungmin says. “This will enable us to connect the specification and engineering BOM to the manufacturing BOM and achieve a consistent and trackable BOM management system.” Working within a single unified environment, HHIEMD finds its engineers are able to focus on developing new technological innovations and solving new engine design challenges as they no longer have to spend time switching between different applications and converting data, keeping the development workflow as economical as its new engines. hyundai-engine.com

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Sponsored content

From Sketch to Reality Arroyo took Khoury’s ideas from paper sketches and immediately began to 3D model different shapes in Fusion 360, preparing renders and 3D printing prototypes. Quickly, a massive, edible magnolia flower with 15 different parts came to life. Arroyo and Khoury went back and forth to refine the design. “Being able to share a link to the design in a browser with Fusion 360 was incredibly helpful,” Arroyo says. “Philip could open the model and either send me an email or put a note in the 3D model about any changes needed. He knows how the material behaves, and chocolate can be quite unique. “At one point in the prototyping process, we realized the flower would work with 3D printed parts,” he continues. “But when made with chocolate, it wouldn’t open up because the tolerances were too small. With Fusion 360 and parametric modelling, we were able to change and fix that in just three different clicks.”

with creativity and flexibility. Coupled with the ease-of-use to 3D model with Fusion 360, Arroyo recommends all chocolatiers learn it. “Implementing these digital fabrication workflows in the kitchen completely change how they work,” Arroyo says. “It gives them freedom, and it saves time. There are no downsides to this process.” In fact, Khoury is doing just that and taking up Fusion 360 on his own. “After working with Agustín and seeing Fusion 360, I’m now using it to design moulds that I create with Mayku FormBox and 3D print them,” Khoury said. “I worked with some designers at Harrods who used different programs but struggled to get smooth results. “Fusion 360 has allowed me to do simpler shapes, and I’ve found it easier and more efficient,” he continues. “Chocolate moulds have some specific requirements—and whatever you’re moulding needs to be able to come out of the mould. Fusion 360 helps me make sure that happens!”

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At one point in the prototyping process, we realized the flower would work with 3D printed parts. But when made with chocolate, it wouldn’t open up because the tolerances were too small. With Fusion 360 and parametric modelling, we were able to change and fix that in just three different clicks. Agustín Arroyo, Lead Creator at Mayku

1 Philip Khoury assembling a chocolate magnolia flower 2 The magnolia flower model in Autodesk Fusion 360 3 Philip Khoury working with the Mayku Multiplier

26/01/2022 10:28

GOING THE D

emand for unmanned air systems (UASs) has grown massively over the last decade, with significant advances made in both the range and robustness of vehicles. Schiebel’s Camcopter S-100, able to operate both day and night, even in adverse weather conditions, and with a beyond line-of-sight capability of up to 200 km over land and sea, has proved to be one of the most versatile. The Camcopter S-100’s vertical take-off and landing ability make it ideal for rough terrain and marine uses, including maritime patrol, fire and emission monitoring, supply line surveillance, airborne laser scanning and aerial cinematography. To achieve this flexibility, the design of the S-100 perfectly balances fuel economy with toughness. Its carbon fibre and titanium fuselage allows it to reach altitudes of over 5,000m and to carry a 34kg payload, while staying airborne for over 8 hours. From its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Schiebel has engineered the S-100 to be as light as possible to increase

the vehicle’s reach, optimising the design for performance, while ensuring airworthiness. To ensure a perfectly tuned architecture and a lightweight design, while increasing stiffness and strength at the same time, Schiebel’s engineering team performed a wide range of simulations, especially to optimise the design of additively manufactured engine parts. Using Altair’s topology optimisation structural design tool, the team has managed to reduce weight significantly while maintaining a high stiffness level. Subsequently, the system was evaluated for laminar and turbulent flow simulation, as well as conjugate heat transfer simulation using Altair CFDTM.

FLIGHT CHECKS Since 2020, Schiebel has had in-house metal 3D printing capabilities. It uses an EOS M 400-4 metal 3D printer to manufacture landing gear brackets and titanium parts for its S-100 rotor engine, helping maximise durability and power output from the smallest possible weight and size.

1 ●

The Camcopter S-100 is engineered to be as light as possible in order to increase its reach 2 ●

An EOS M 400-4 metal 3D printer was used to manufacture parts for the unmanned air system

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FEATURE

Schiebel has used the latest design technologies to optimise its aircraft, enabling its unmanned craft to go further than ever before. Stephen Holmes hears how Altair simulation tools helped get this optimised, 3D-printed design off the ground

E DISTANCE To push the design for additive manufacture even further, Schiebel took advantage of its access to Altair Partner Alliance solutions and applied tools such as Additive Works Amphyon to simulate the AM process, including predeforming the parts to achieve the required accuracy of the end part. Amphyon was also used for thermal stress simulation, allowing engineers to identify thermal hotspots and simulate the strength of the support structure. Members of Schiebel’s engineering team say that the combined use of additive manufacturing and simulationdriven design has helped reduce the weight of components by up to 50%, while increasing stiffness and strength by the same amount. Another major benefit of this simulation-led approach is a reduction in printing costs, as Amphyon simulations identify issues that might arise during printing before they occur, thus avoiding additional print jobs due to manufacturing defects. “Altair solutions helped us create a topologically

optimised engine part for our Camcopter S-100 and an efficient design that meets all demands. Using simulation enabled us to leverage the full potential of additive manufacturing and allowed us to accelerate our time to market,” says Schiebel head of additive manufacturing, Dominik Kohl. “Thanks to Altair’s technology expertise and support, we are able to realise significant time and cost savings and offer our customers exceptional cost-benefit ratio.” Every gram saved on the aircraft allows Schiebel to further increase endurance or payload capacity, keeping the company at the leading edge of aerial innovation and giving its designs the widest range of possible uses.

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LIFE-CHANGIN On a mission to provide prosthetics for recipients living in a remote area of Guatemala, LifeNabled’s volunteers digitised their design and manufacturing workflow, enabling them to rapidly increase the number of patients they could help and improve prosthetic devices at the same time

ifeNabled is a charity established in 2006 to provide free clinics and prosthetics to those in need in remote areas of the northern Petén region of Guatemala. It’s a region where poverty is widespread. Many people there survive and feed their families on just $3 dollars a day. Surrounded by dense jungle, the inaccessible nature of many villages means there’s zero access to basic medical care, let alone prosthetic services. Losing mobility in an area like this often means missing out on education or being unable to provide for your family. Stigma around disability adds to the desperate situation many find themselves in. LifeNabled’s volunteers first began to tackle this challenge

with traditional fabrication methods. That involved taking a cast of an amputee’s remaining limb during an evaluation session, and then using the cast to create a custom mould to thermoform the socket. The socket would then be connected to off-the-shelf components in order to manufacture the necessary prosthesis. Finally, the prosthetist would fit the device to the patient and make necessary adjustments to ensure a good fit. But evaluating, manufacturing and fitting prosthesis to the 30 to 50 patients they would see at its week-long clinics took a real toll on the LifeNabled volunteers. That prompted the charity, cofounded by prosthetist/orthotist Brent Wright and his wife Meredith Wright, to reassess its processes. As part of that overhaul, it has recently taken steps to fully digitise the design and manufacturing stages that require the most expertise. The far more efficient new process worked like this: First, two team members flew to Guatemala to take 3D scans of patients. In just two days, they were able to evaluate 35 amputees. Then, using the scan data, Brent Wright was able to design and customise each device and manufacture the sockets using HP’s MultiJet Fusion 3D printing technology from his base in North Carolina. Finally, the team returned to Guatemala a month later to deliver the devices and fit them to patients, who left the clinics walking on some of the most advanced prostheses in the world.

INNER LINING TECHNOLOGY

Essential to the new prosthesis design was its inner liner. This is designed to ensure that the socket remains comfortable for the wearer, even after hours of use. Moreover, it must be breathable for hygiene reasons - a particularly important point in the hot, humid jungle environment of this region of Guatemala. But traditional gel-like inner liners restrict airflow, cost more than $160 each, and have a limited lifespan of only three to six months in this kind of environment. In other words, these represented a prohibitive expense for the target audience in this case. Instead, 3D-printed foam provided the answer. Flexible

‘‘ This is a

human story. This is not a story of how we get a profit out of humans. It’s a story about how we get people walking

’’

1 For recipients, a ●

decent prosthetic from LifeNabled can mean access to education and the ability to support their families 2 Software from ●

nTopology enables LifeNabled to design inner socket liners that match the unique physiology and preferences of the individual patient 2 3D models are ●

exported from nTopology to HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printers for fabrication

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FEATURE

ING LATTICES inner socket liners feature lattice structures capable of imitating the properties of traditional foams. These are manufactured from an elastic TPU material and offer the design additional benefits. For example, properties can be tuned from soft foam to stiff plastic according to the physiology or preferences of the patient. This effect was achieved by closely controlling the design input parameters of the lattice, such as beam thickness and porosity, using nTopology. Without nTopology, Wright says this step would have been a “brutal process”, since the software he previously used for such work would often take hours to generate a result. “Designing custom flexible inner liners was going to be a challenging task if we would do it in any other software other than nTopology. Once the workflow was done, all I had to do was to swap out meshes. The process ran over and over again,” he says. Using the mesh of the patient’s 3D scan data as input, a shell with variable thicknesses was generated. nTopology’s latticing blocks were then used to create a flexible inner liner that provided the necessary level of cushioning. To repeat the process and generate a new design, LifeNabled’s designers only had to swap in a new input mesh with 3D scan data from another patient. With nTopology’s reusable workflows, the team says it saved more than a whole day of error-prone computational processing during the design phase and produced higher quality and error-free results. To manufacture the parts, the team opted for HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing process and its TPU material, which contributed overall to the digital process that saved the team on average three days of fabrication and replaced a laborious manual step with streamlined digital manufacturing.

devices, this can be generated using the automated processes that the team has developed. “There are millions of people that need prostheses worldwide,” says Wright. “It’s a team effort to reach all of them. This is a human story. This is not a story of how we get a profit out of humans. It is a story of how we get people walking.” From a technical perspective, Wright continues to refine his designs to make them even more cost-effective. For example, his team is currently creating lighter socket ribs with a simulationdriven geometry using a field-driven design approach. People who could not possibly afford a prosthesis now have access to some of the best in the world, helping them take steps towards a better life.

lifenabled.org

NEXT STEPS Wright says that with 3D printing systems located worldwide, even in developing countries, the next step is to scale the digital process and create a global network. Local physicians can be trained through video calls to evaluate patients and fit prostheses. As for the design of

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AMD Radeon Pro W6400 » AMD’s new entry-level GPU is tuned for CAD and is very aggressive on price. Unlike other GPUs in its class, it has hardware ray tracing built in. This should offer some level of future-proofing as popular 3D design tools begin to evolve, writes Greg Corke

ith all the exciting new developments in design visualisation, it’s easy to forget that many designers are still only interested in modelling geometry. And this can have a major influence when choosing components for a workstation. While real-time viz thrives on a high-end workstation GPU, the graphics requirements for CAD tools like PTC Creo, Autodesk Inventor and others are much lower. In fact, in some cases, you’ll see no discernible performance difference between a £200 GPU and one that costs ten times as much. CAD software tends to be very ‘CPU limited’, so it doesn’t matter how much GPU horsepower you throw at your models, frame rates will not increase, or only by a tiny bit. With this in mind, entry-level workstation GPUs remain incredibly important to product designers and engineers. They typically feature fewer processing cores, less memory and lack

» Product: Radeon Pro W6400 » Supplier: AMD Price: $229 amd.com/ RadeonProW6400

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021 FSAA - shaded with edges 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

FHD

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

2.28

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021 FSAA - shaded with edges 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

2.5

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB) AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

1.38

0.3

0.6

1,920 x 1,080 resolution

0.9

1.2

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

1.5

TUNED FOR 3D DESIGN The Radeon Pro W6400 is very much designed for mainstream CAD workflows. Most product design datasets should fit comfortably within its 4 GB of GDDR6 memory, and it comes with a level of graphics processing that should be well matched to CPU-limited CAD applications. To expand on this point a little further, 3D performance in CPU-limited applications is largely bottlenecked by the frequency of the CPU, so there is little point in throwing more graphics processing at the task. In fact, when testing high-end GPUs with CAD software in the past, we have seen as little as single digit percentage GPU resource utilisation. In other words, the software doesn’t allow these graphics processing supercomputers to even get out of first gear.

FLEXIBLE GRAPHICS The Radeon Pro W6400 comes in a flexible low-profile form factor, so it can fit in both small form factor (SFF) workstations and

FHD

FSAA - RealView, shadows & AO

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

2.38

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

3.30

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

3.0

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021

3,840 x 2,160 resolution

3.5

FSAA - RealView, shadows & AO

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

0.43

0.0

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

1.88

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

the specialist features of their high-end counterparts. Historically, this might be stereo or multi-GPU support. More recently it’s been hardware ray tracing. Nvidia, for example, has divided its pro graphics range in two. The more powerful ‘Nvidia RTX’ series has hardware ray tracing built-in, while the entry-level ‘Nvidia T’ series does not. AMD is taking a different tack for its pro graphics family. All ‘RDNA 2’ AMD Radeon Pro GPUs come with dedicated ray accelerators for hardware ray tracing. This includes the new entry-level Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB), which launched last month with an aggressive $229 price tag. The Radeon Pro W6400 costs significantly less than the $649 Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB) (read our review tinyurl.com/D3D-W6600). It’s also half the price of the $450 Nvidia RTX A2000 (6 GB), which is Nvidia’s lowest cost equivalent. The Nvidia T600 (4 GB) comes close on price, but does not include hardware ray tracing.

0.64

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

1.76

0.0

0.5

1.0

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

1.5

2.0

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HARDWARE REVIEW

standard towers. The retail box includes both half and full-sized mounting brackets and you’ll need a small Philips head screwdriver to swap between the two. To help hit the very competitive $229 price point, AMD has reduced the number of display outputs it typically uses on its entry-level cards. The Radeon Pro W6400 comes with two full-sized DisplayPort outputs instead of four Mini DisplayPort, which was the case with its predecessor, the Radeon Pro WX 3200. This could be a deal-breaker if you use more than two displays but, as AMD found through research, most of its customers do not.

10.4 vs 3.54 Teraflops of single precision performance) — not to mention more cache and more memory bandwidth. But, as we found out, bigger is not always better. In Autodesk Inventor 2022, using the InvMark benchmark, we saw at most a 4% difference in 3D performance between the two GPUs, even at 4K resolution. We experienced similar in Autodesk Revit 2022, using the Advanced Sample Project. It was only in realistic view mode at 4K that the Radeon Pro W6600 pulled away a bit. The Solidworks 2021 SPECapc benchmark painted a different picture, with a clear performance lead for the Radeon Pro W6600, especially at 4K PERFORMANCE IN CAD resolution. This isn’t entirely surprising, We tested the Radeon Pro W6400 however. Since the 2019 release, the using a variety of CAD applications. For software has featured an updated comparison, we used the more powerful graphics engine which is much less CPU Radeon Pro W6600, which has double the limited than the one Autodesk uses in memory (8 GB vs 4 GB) and significantly Revit and Inventor. more processing grunt (1,792 vs 768 Stream While numbers on charts are important, processors, 28 vs 12 Ray Accelerators, and so is context. And the end user experience

InvMark for Inventor 2022

1,920 x 1,080 resolution

200

400

800

1000

1200

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

Render time (secs) (smaller is better)

811

200

400

600

800

1000

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

(by Cadac Group and TFI) 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

1.23

434

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

InvMark for Inventor 2022

1,000 passes, accurate quality (1,500 x 1,500 resolution)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

1,141

600

Design visualisation software by its nature is much more demanding than 3D CAD. With a primary focus on visual quality with realistic materials and lighting, and a greater need for high frame rates, architectural focused applications like Enscape, Lumion and Twinmotion generally require much higher-grade graphics cards than the Radeon Pro W6400. In fact, we had to adjust our standard benchmarks, as the demanding datasets

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

1,116

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

’’

PERFORMANCE IN VIZ

Computer model (no denoising)

1.23 Graphics benchmark score (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

other GPUs in its class, such as the Nvidia T600, will likely deliver comparable performance in today’s CAD software, the W6400’s trump card is hardware ray tracing

is what truly matters. With the SPECapc Black Owl computer assembly, we got a perfectly smooth 57 Frames Per Second (FPS) at 4K resolution when navigating in realistic view mode ‘RealView’. Even with a highly detailed 2,300 part snow bike assembly, we got an acceptable 18 FPS at 4K in shaded with edges mode. In short, unless you’re working with very large 3D CAD assemblies, the Radeon Pro W6400 should be more than capable.

Solidworks Visualize 2021 SP3 (ProRender)

FHD

(by Cadac Group and TFI)

‘‘ Whereas

1.23 Graphics benchmark score (bigger is better)

953

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

996

200

400

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800

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Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

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HARDWARE REVIEW

EXPLAINER: WHY IS RAY TRACING IMPORTANT FOR AN ENTRY-LEVEL GPU? If the Radeon Pro W6400 is primarily focused on CAD and BIM, and not on design visualisation, then why bother building in hardware ray tracing? In our opinion, this is all about the future of CAD software. Here’s why: Most current generation CAD tools feature graphics engines with older graphics APIs like OpenGL and DirectX 11. These rely solely on rasterisation, a process that turns 3D vector data into pixels (a raster image). But CAD developers are already working on next-generation graphics engines that use more modern APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan. They combine rasterisation with

Autodesk’s new OGS reference application

we typically use, need way more than 4 GB of GPU memory. Even with some lighter models, the AMD Radeon Pro W6400 struggled to keep pace with the W6600. That’s not to say that the W6400 is not suitable for real-time viz. With smaller models, particularly at FHD resolution, it can probably do an OK job. Also, Radeon Pro Viewport boost (tinyurl.com/D3Dviewport), which dynamically reduces viewport resolution, may help here. However, if design viz is a key part of your workflow, you’d be much better served by the AMD Radeon Pro W6600 or W6800, Nvidia RTX A4000, A4500 or A5000 — or even the Nvidia RTX A2000. The Radeon Pro W6400 can also be used for GPU rendering in applications

Revit 2022

FHD

Advanced Sample Project (shaded view mode) 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

that include or work with AMD Radeon ProRender, such as Solidworks Visualize, Rhino, Cinema4D, and 3ds max. However, as we found in our Solidworks Visualize benchmark, expect longer processing times. And, because of the 4 GB threshold, you’ll probably be limited to smaller models.

CONCLUSION With the AMD Radeon Pro W6400, you really do get a lot for your money. Whereas other GPUs in its class, such as the Nvidia T600, will likely deliver comparable performance in today’s CAD software, AMD’s trump card is hardware ray tracing. This should prove important as tools like Inventor get new 3D graphics engines that

Revit 2022

FHD

Advanced Sample Project (realistic view mode) 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

combine rasterisation and ray tracing in the viewport (see box out above). Naturally, until these hybrid viewports materialise, it’s hard to say how effective the Radeon Pro W6400 will be at powering them. High-end GPUs will likely be able to flip into ‘ray traced’ mode much quicker, just as they do now when going from ‘shaded’ to ‘realistic’. However, it’s great to see AMD building some degree of futureproofing into this entry-level product. Of course, for those who take visualisation a bit more seriously, AMD faces strong competition from Nvidia. The Nvidia RTX A2000 looks great on paper, and while it might cost twice as much, we expect it will significantly outperform the Radeon Pro W6400 in real-time visualisation and GPU rendering workflows.

Unreal Engine Paris interior scene

1,920 x 1,080 resolution

15.8

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

14.7

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

16.1

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

14.8

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

Revit 2022

Advanced Sample Project (shaded view mode) 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

12.2

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

12.6

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

FHD

(courtesy of Benoit Derau)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

techniques into a real-time environment, so it doesn’t impact performance. So how far away are we from CAD and BIM viewports getting this new functionality? We’re hopeful we might see the first incarnations this year or next. In 2021, Autodesk gave a public demonstration of its new One Graphics System (tinyurl.com/ inventor-GPU), which should make its way into Inventor, Revit and other Autodesk applications. Dassault Systèmes has also shown Project Romulan (tinyurl. com/SW-graphics), a nextgeneration graphics engine for its mechanical CAD software Solidworks.

ray tracing techniques to deliver a much more realistic viewport. The idea is that CAD users will be able to flip into ‘ray traced’ mode, in much the same way they currently do with shaded, wireframe and realistic. The aim isn’t to use ray tracing to deliver true photorealism – for that you’d need a high-end CPU or GPU and an application like Chaos V-Ray. Instead, the raster engine will be given hints using a limited number of precisely calculated rays to show where shadows might fall or to render reflections or ambient occlusion more accurately. The aim is to get ray tracing

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

157

100

150

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

Revit 2022

LumenRT

Advanced Sample Project (realistic view mode)

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

1,920 x 1,080 resolution

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

8.6

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB) 3

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

16.0

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

12.3

FHD

Roundabout model

3,840 x 2,160 resolution

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

200

30.2

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

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LAST WORD

The giant in-person user conferences of pre-Covid times have been replaced with virtual events, giving customers fewer opportunities to provide the sort of feedback to vendors that drives real change, writes Stephen Holmes

othing demonstrates quite as clearly the difference between an in-person event and its online equivalent like the reception that greets news of ‘user-requested updates’. I’ve sat in the crowd at packed user conferences, with attendances bigger than some professional sporting events, and watched grown men well up with emotion at the mention of a new function or a command path that might save them a handful of mouse clicks each day. Each announcement is met with raucous whoops and cheers from the crowd. So over the past couple of years, it’s been odd to see tech updates announced to the dead silence of the internet. Online, nobody can hear you scream – or whoop. This has got me wondering what this means for the sense of community that can grow up around a CAD system. Despite attendances reaching into the thousands, those who fill the halls at user conferences tend to be a potent and vocal type of user – power users. These are people who mainline their CAD system for 8 hours a day, and then spend extra hours in user groups, forums and training. For some of us, this devotion can seem quite alien, but those big, in-person user events are an important bonding session for a brand and its power users. Some online events have gone to some lengths to try and retain that sense of community and interact with the audience directly. Similar to social media and gaming streams, some platforms enable audience members to comment in real time via text chat as a presentation progresses. Others

have set up YouTube streams for breaks between presentations, such as the Core Podcast at 3DExperience World, which allows online attendees to meet up and talk about new features, just as they would at an in-person event. Power users have some of the best insights into how CAD systems can improve and evolve, and these communication channels are important. These are the type of loyal customers who every brand prays it will acquire. They’ve bought into the brand, they have skin in the game, and they pay their way while feeding back nuggets of information that can fuel improvements for all users.

A SENSE OF DISTANCE However, while an online event can certainly connect people, bring in new users from the other side of the globe, and boost those all-important marketing metrics, it still leaves some distance between the crowd and the presenters. And these brands miss out on negative feedback, too. Courting the affections of your users is a twoway street, and while a glamorous event and face time with executives are a boon to users, it’s also a chance for them to air concerns, grievances and less favourable opinions, and an executive presenting on stage can feel this on a very personal and uncomfortable level. The past two years have seen CAD companies double-down on the transition to cloud-based CAD systems, bolstered by a global shift during the pandemic towards virtual working and more dispersed teams. But that shift has often been



While a glamorous user event and face time with executives are a boon to users, it’s also a space for them to air concerns, grievances and less favourable opinions



met unfavourably by power users with mountains of legacy data and no easy (or cheap) way to take that with them into the proposed brave new online world. 3DExperience World this year was as much about the Dassault Systèmes cloud ecosystem as it was about its traditional Solidworks heartland, if not more so. But with no crowd present, much of the positive and negative discourse around the event’s big announcements could only be found in online comments. At one particular conference roundtable discussion, where questions could be put to executives via online chat, the perceived ‘filtering out’ of ‘difficult questions’ put to the panel caused palpable discord among those who had joined the session online. A step change is on the horizon. The takeup of cloud-based CAD systems during the pandemic has skyrocketed, but everyone involved has an opinion about this shift. The danger here is that loyal power users are going to be left feeling unloved and unheard. After all, if there’s nobody in the room when this tree falls, will the CAD companies know what kind of noises some of their most die-hard users are making?

Without in-person events, will customers still get their say on CAD product development?

GET IN TOUCH: Having spent so long watching online conferences these past months, Stephen is (whisper it) quite excited about getting to attend user events and exhibitions in person again this year. He will not, however, whoop. On Twitter, he’s @swearstoomuch

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