Jeff Ray, CEO of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks.
Ever since 1982, when Professor David C. Gossard manipulated ghostly images of geometric models on a black computer screen in an MIT lab, the future of CAD has morphed into jaw-dropping reality. Despite all of the spectacular achievements to date, CAD still has far to go in terms of performance, simplicity, connectivity and intelligence.
I predict:
We will stop waiting for our CAD systems to catch up to our commands
Despite advances in processing power and software performance, users of any CAD system today still have to wait for large assemblies to open, photorealistic images to render and simulations to complete. This is improving, but every performance increase invites new complex, processing-hungry capabilities. Multi-core processors and new powerful graphics processing units are particularly promising solutions.
The user experience will simply excel
Parametric 3D CAD software is one of the most powerful applications on earth and one of the most complex. As a result, there is the occasional hiccup, which is why every savvy CAD user saves early and saves often. CAD software needs to be as reliable as other applications, for example, database, browser and office tools. Getting this done is a high priority. Expect major advances in the near future.
'CAD overhead' will disappear
Anything that stands between a designer's vision and executing the design is CAD overhead. I'm referring to the details, workflows, special techniques and master workarounds, particular to CAD software, but not to engineering per se; for example, feature order, sketch conflicts, and mating issues. 3D CAD software, through approaches like SolidWorks Intelligent Feature Technology, or SWIFT, has solved a lot of these issues, enabling the novice to work like an expert. Users can increasingly focus on what they want to accomplish, not on the rules of 3D CAD software. These capabilities will get even better.
Upgrade? No problem
It's still too complicated to get a team up and running on new CAD software or upgrades. Look for the internet to change all this, whether CAD becomes a service from the ‘cloud’ or delivery just improves. Either way, everyone will have the latest and greatest tools in real time.
The term data management will become obsolete
Even a very good data management product requires some attention to use and administer. In the future, data management will be an integral part of every CAD operation. Every operation on every part or assembly will be automatically recorded, saved and preserved. Save early and often? Forget about it, CAD will do it for you. Search, meanwhile, will be intuitive and automatic and deliver your intended target every time.
Anytime-anywhere design access
Superior data management also means you can access a design from any place, from any device, at any time and do what you need to do with it. Need to switch out a part while you're sitting in the airport? Hit a key on your iPhone and you're in the model. Drag, drop, sign-off and take a nap.
CAD as an engineering tool, not just a design tool
Although CAD software is becoming easy enough for anyone to use, in the future it will automatically perform more of the heavy lifting of a world-class engineer. Simulation will become one and the same as design. As you create products, CAD will run FEA, cost analysis, manufacturability testing, motion simulations and more.
Thoughts from our Founder
During February's SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, Florida, Jon Hirschtick — co-founder of SolidWorks and the company's first CEO — detailed his vision for the future of CAD, which I'll summarise here:
- Touchscreen interfaces: The process of using your hands, rather than a mouse or keyboard, to interact with an application is already here — think the iPhone or Wii. SolidWorks World attendees saw a demonstration from our R&D lab of how a design engineer might use a touch motion interface in the future. Expect to see this technology drive the CAD industry to become a hardware business as more users look for hardware designed specifically for CAD.
- Internet applications: We're already running e-mail, using word processing or checking our bank accounts from a browser and small CAD applications are starting to come online as well. An example of this is BluePrint Now, available at http://labs.solidworks.com/Products/ Before, if you were travelling and sent a DWG file to review, you would require a computer with some kind of DWG viewer/editor. BluePrint Now relaxes this requirement, giving you the ability to load and proof from anywhere.
- Video game graphics: Video games have amazing graphics, the quality and speed of which, it can be argued, are superior to what's found in CAD. The CAD industry has to exploit this technology even more in the future. Towards this end, SolidWorks software already has a feature borrowed from video game technology called ‘Ambient Occlusion,’ which enables designers to make models appear more realistic.
- 3D Printing: 3D Printing is not a new concept, so the question here is really, “What's new?” The past few years have shown great advancements in colour, speed and model quality. In many cases, it's possible to produce high quality 3D prints that are almost as good as the finished product. These improvements and falling price points for printers will help make 3D printers even more integral in the future for CAD users' work. At SolidWorks World, attendees heard how our customers New Balance and Sony Ericsson use 3D printing throughout the design process. Both companies are in industries where time-to-market is essential, so technologies such as CAD and 3D printing are key to their ability to quickly introduce new designs.
However the future of CAD shakes out, it is a bright one. As ever, it is becoming the state-of-the-art as we speak.
