U.S. computer scientist, Patrick J. Hanratty is widely regarded as the father of what we now know as Computer Aided Design (CAD). In 1957, he invented PRONTO (Program for Numerical Tooling Operations), the first commercial numerical control system, and while working at the General Motors Research Lab helped to develop DAC (Designed Automated by Computer), one of the earliest graphical computer aided design systems. Soon after in 1961, fellow computer scientist, Ivan Sutherland presented a thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which detailed another groundbreaking technology “Sketchpad”, the first tool to allow users to manipulate objects with a light pen on a CRT monitor, blazing the trail for modern CAD and the development of computer graphics. Advancement continued and by the end of the Sixties, Pierre Bezier, a French engineer, introduced UNISURF, a system developed to assist car body design and tooling, marking the first steps into 3D.
Years later, many lessons learned and versions created, a more condensed, but all the while far superior version of CAD is now commonplace on desktops in engineering and design firms all over the world. But the idea of what CAD is continues to evolve as other forms of design and technology shake up what users want and need from their digital toolbox, particularly in the case of additive manufacturing.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) and mobile applications are just two formats which have broken past the boundaries of simply being cool to offer up a new mode of design that can be quicker, more hands on and accessible.
At the end of last year, software developer, Leopoly launched a new set of tools to allow businesses and individuals to create 3D models in VR. The new app, named ShapeLab allows users to draw with digital sculpting and painting tools in a virtual environment and makes it easy for objects to be brought back into the physical world with 3D printing. Describing content creation as “one of the most exciting things” about VR, Roland Manyai, CEO at Leopoly, explained how it allows users to view and experience products as if they were real.
“We are entering a new wave of digitisation changing the way we view, design, share, manufacture and distribute products. This phenomenon has multiple layers, including 3D printing, scanning, new types of CAD software, marketplaces and supply chains,” Roland explained. “VR and AR bring whole new dimensions to how we can benefit from our new digital worlds. They provide not only fun experiences but real added value to view, modify, create products not yet produced in a real life-like environment and also to engage customers and makers in a very new way.”
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Leopoly ShapeLab app allows users to create models in VR.
ShapeLab has been successfully Greenlit on the Steam platform and will be available to HTC Vive users soon. The current version is limited to a single user experience with a reduced number of features but new design tools and a co-creation experience are set to be on the horizon. Already working closely with companies such as HP, Lowe’s and Bosch on tailored software solutions, Leopoly is intent on bringing these new capabilities to business-orientated VR solutions designed for 3D printing, retail, health care, toy and interior design industries. Offered as white label solutions, products include VR experiences for shopping, customisation of video game characters, and simple view and assembly applications for components.
“I see three major trends in CAD software development. The first one is to offer more tools and smart algorithms for handling files for 3D print-ability,” Roland commented. “Second, there are more and more tailor-made CAD solutions to a particular problem to make or prepare digital files for manufacturing or just for presenting. Third, as more and more people joining this great new wave of digitisation, tools have to be easier and it is not surprising that more and more big and small companies talk about the disruption of CAD by offering easy to use solutions. And the extra layer now is the VR that makes it very exciting for the industry and us too.”
It’s not the first time we’ve seen freehand modelling in VR, Google’s VR drawing app Tilt Brush already lets users paint in the space around them and Oculus Medium allows users to model organic looking shapes using touch controllers and then 3D print them. It’s not designed for precision engineering but for beginners it provides a tangible way of making models that feels akin to drawing and simplifies design for 3D printing.
Away from VR for direct design, the technology is being used for validation and collaboration as Dassault Systèmes’ showed at CES 2017 with its 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which now allows users to view, explore and validate product designs with the HTC Vive Business Edition VR system. The idea is that during product development, industrial designers, mechanical engineers, marketers and project managers can use a VR headset to access a virtual model on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and gain a deeper understanding of an object’s depth, solidness and design.
Portability
From the huge UNIX systems of the 1960s down to tiny tablets, mobility is something that’s causing developers to adapt their systems so that users can create, view and edit their designs on the go. We saw an example of this a while back in an update from Adobe which now allows Photoshop users to export 3D PDF files and view them in Adobe Acrobat, making it much easier to share and review 3D models without requiring access to full the full software.
For Budapest-based startup, Shapr3D, their aim is to make CAD as assessable as possible by bringing around 30% of the features of full-scale CAD packages to the iPad. Available in both free and subscription-based packages, Shapr3D allows anyone from beginners to professionals to create and modify 3D models using an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil. Describing what he envisions as the next wave of “the mobile revolution”, the company’s Growth Marketer, Gabor Papp believes the demand for portable and accessible design tools is only going to grow.
"There will be a lot of new applications that are specifically designed for tablet use because these tablets will eventually overtake the PC market,” Gabor explained. “What we are doing at the moment is not only bringing CAD to tablets but also trying to be a leader in this shift and show people that you can actually use your tablet for productive work, for actual serious work and not just for watching YouTube videos or playing games. But you've got to build software specifically for these devices.”
Shapr3D drawing on iPad Pro.
Even with the iPad Pro’s professional-grade computing power, you might not want to trade in your desktop just yet. Currently Shapr3D runs only around 10% of the functionality of a full CAD programme, how far they take it is really only limited by the power of the hardware but the company hopes to introduce more advanced features such as simulation tools in the near future.
A company that’s already tackling the simulation process is SimScale. Founded in 2012, the product is designed to make simulation easier and less costly by offering a browser-based cloud platform that can perform simulation of structural dynamics, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, acoustics and particle phenomena. Taking a web-based approach, users are able to leverage data from completed simulations in Public Projects, meaning you don’t need to start from scratch.
CAD to Manufacturing
The impact of 3D printing on software has been substantial. CAD programmes have had to re-learn what a 3D shape constitutes, which can mean complex, multi-faceted, lattice-like forms that you wouldn’t have seen in production a few years ago. This has gone hand in hand with generative design, which mimics nature’s approach to structure based on specific design parameters to produce weird and wonderful shapes that can’t easily be manufactured in any other way. However, as the software has gotten more sophisticated, there’s a pull from the opposite end of the spectrum from makers and hobbyists who are crying out for a simple software solution that will allow them to create and print their own designs.
"What we see with 3D printing is that as more and more people have access, there is a very big difference in people downloading something off the internet and printing it out versus you sitting down and creating it,” Gabor added. “When you actually hold that thing for the first time, that's when you have the revolution that I created it and the machine printed it. That is very important and we usually try to focus on the second part. What has been one of the biggest struggles is that there has been no winner in an entry level product that is intuitive to use but still professional, not a kid's toy.”
Mars Rover model from Shapr3D
Throughout CAD’s lifespan, four main players have remained consistent including Autodesk, which this year is celebrating 35 years in the industry since the launch of AutoCAD. As one of the biggest providers of design software, Autodesk boasts an extensive portfolio of products covering just about every form of design and manufacturing technology you could imagine (AutoCAD itself now exists in 17 different versions) all intended to give designers and manufacturers more power over the production lifecycle and embrace innovations like VR to provide a more immersive experience.
“With the evolution of VR technology, manufacturers can now also easily transfer their CAD models into a virtual environment for even further optimisation and development,” Asif Moghal, Senior Manufacturing Industry Manager at Autodesk. “Through VR goggles, they can see real-sized virtual prototypes of their designs, allowing them to explore detailed models for quality checks and reach decisions at the earliest stage possible, before their concepts are brought to life with a physical prototype.”
Moving onto manufacturing, Asif also notes how developments in CAD have enabled better cohesion with CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software to overlap stages of the making process and keep production lines running smoothly.
“Thanks to improvements in visualisation, modelling, maintenance and data analytics, CAD now allows engineers to create products faster and with higher precision and quality than ever before,” Asif added. “What’s even more exciting however, is that to keep up with the manufacturing demand, we are now seeing CAM being integrated with CAD. Such integration is enabling manufacturers to have even better control over additive manufacturing or CNC machines and to connect the entire product development process.”
Monochrome to colour, desktop to tablet, 2D to 3D, linear to additive manufacturing, CAD has changed dramatically since its invention. Whilst doing some reading for this article, I came across an old blog post, which highlighted remarks made by SOLIDWORKS at their annual event back in 2009 about how CAD might look in ten years time. Key predictions included touchscreen interfaces, viewing in VR and access to design from anywhere on any device. If these predictions are anything to go by, it looks like we’re already ahead of schedule, who knows what another 10 years could bring?
