NOVEDGE: Tools to Design the Future is the leading online software store for design professionals. From architects to engineers, from filmmakers to graphic designers, we go to great length to find all the software you need, so you can focus on your projects.
Our website offers unparalleled search and comparison charts, with clear licensing information for over 7,000 titles. Our team is knowledgeable and can offer unbiased advice, guiding you to the right products for your specific needs and our prices are the the most competitive in the industry.
We recognize the everyday creativity of all the professionals designing the future today: your passion and innovation make our world possible.
Dave Schultze: I am an industrial designer focusing on a dynamic range of products, most of which have a technology component. In the last few years, I have designed robots, computers, cell phones, science and educational products, housewares, furniture, and lighting. I even designed a musical tooth brush for Hasbro called “Tooth Tunes”, which became the number one-selling toothbrush on the market when it launched in 2007.
Novedge: You have a Design Manifesto. What is it and how did it come about?
Dave Schultze: Funny story! The manifesto is not even complete yet, but somehow people have noticed it on my website and starting asking about it. It was initially inspired when I tried to build my own 3D workstation computer. I never found a PC case that was even remotely attractive as an Apple product, which really surprised me, since so many companies are prolific copycats of Apple. Out of this frustration, I started sketching a retro-inspired computer that ended up becoming the Philco PC. The goal of the design was to create something that was both new and familiar, but above all, had a unique and compelling personality with a touch of humor.
By contrast, if you look at the current lineup of smart phones; they are all black, shiny slabs that are indistinguishable from each other! I wanted my design to have more of an emotional connection and allow easy upgrades for sustainability purposes. Above all, I wanted to make a commodity computer less of a commodity and inspire people to hang on to it long term. As the Philco PC design neared completion, a competition came up from V-Ray, makers of the popular rendering plug-in. I entered the computer renderings and won Top Three honors. I then decided to share the news and wrote a press release, sent it to a few of my favorite websites and that is when the coverage exploded. The design was featured in the New York Times, on the front page of Engadget and Gizmodo, and ultimately in 25 magazines, including one cover.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Dave Schultze: A recent project that is just hitting the shelves is Nancy B’s Science Club. It is a line of educational / science products aimed at younger girls and designed for Educational Insights of California.
The force behind the line is Nancy Balter, a former science teacher with an MA in Education whose mission is to spread the joys of science to kids everywhere. For this line, she observed that both boys and girls have equal aptitude for science at a younger age, but somehow the girls end up getting pink microscopes and they deserved better. Five products later, we have a full line and the sales are going great!
Novedge: What software do you use?
Dave Schultze: My primary 3D & design software is Rhino and I’m loving the new version 5.0 that just came out. Since compelling visuals can make or break selling you design, we couldn’t work without the V-Ray plug-in for rendering. The other mandatory plug-in is T-Splines, a brilliant set of tools that handles organic modeling beautifully. Of course, we have the entire Master Collection of the Adobe products to prepare and present the work. My favorite is After Effects, which we use to create all of our videos. I found After Effects so incredibly useful and just plain FUN, that I added it to the curriculum where I teach at Otis College of Art and Design. In the series of 3DVisualization classes that I teach, it’s the students favorite thing to do.
Novedge: What keeps you inspired?
Dave Schultze: Fortunately (or unfortunately), I am inspired by almost anything that captures my attention, which can get very distracting. I love great design of any kind, but I’m also inspired by architecture, movies, books, photography, museums, and now my latest hobby, paragliding.
Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business?
Dave Schultze: The reward is having total freedom with my schedule, but that is also a challenge since I frequently have the ‘freedom’ to work seven days a week. But, the freedom does allow me to work on one design research project or competition per year. Our most publicized design research project was the Philco PC, but the first one was a cell phone I designed for an LG Design Competition in 2008. My ‘Roto Retro’ cell phone design came in first place amongst a total submission of over 500 entries. It was extremely cool to win, but it also told me I was on to something with a re-thinking of current design aesthetics.
Novedge: If you could go back in time, what would you say to your younger self before embarking in your current career?
Dave Schultze: I might suggest not working so hard, but then again, I enjoy what I do too much to slow down. So, to answer the question, “nothing different.”
Did you watch this week's Novedge Webinar? Michael Gunther-Geffer introduced us to high-end surface modeling in Rhino with VSR Shape Modeling. You can watch the entire live recording on our YouTube and Vimeo Channels.
A few of your questions went unanswered because of time constraints, so we sent them to Michael, who provided us with the answers.
Q: Can you do curvature analysis on the mesh? In Alias I use this to layout my primary surfaces.
A: We have e.g. a section command with curvature analysis on top, but the result is not smoothed, and therefore probably useless on meshes.
Q: Is there a function similar to the detach command in Alias?
A: As far as we can judge, the Rhino Split function covers this functionality, therefore we don't see a need for a VSR function doing that.
Q: Can you work with meshes resp. scan data?
A: We have several functions allowing the creation of curves and surfaces on top of meshes. You can sketch curves on meshes, modify curves or surfaces on top of a mesh, create surfaces on a mesh and so on. We can also select areas of a mesh (curvature based), and trim, split or create a new mesh from this area.
Q: These values are indicative of the level of tangent or curvature different from CATIA values or Alias. In other words, the curvature of the value of 0.1 in the VSR, corresponds to 0.1 in the Alias and CATIA?
A: For Position and Tangency we use the same result values as you know from ICEM or ALIAS. For curvature we use a bit of a different numerical result display. You can have a look into our online manual coming with the plug-in, there you will find a detailed explanation. In general you can say, 0.0 is perfect, other values are showing the relation of the curvature on both sides to each other. But we have also other analysis for this, e.g. you can cut radial sections with a curvature graph on top between both edges.
Q: Is it appropriate to discuss the use of the "Adopt" option in the "Surface Align" tool?
A: The "Adopt" option takes over the parametrization from the reference surface on this edge. It therefore aligns the control point distribution of the surface to match to the control point distribution of the reference, often leading to a better matching result.
Q: And is there some way to change color of section on mesh and surface ? I use very often in icem. And smooth?
A: Smooth command is already developed, and will be in the next Shape Modeling major release (3.0) in Q4 this year. We created an enhancement request for different colors for sections on meshes and other geometry. Meanwhile you could create two section analysis, selecting the meshes for one, and the rest of the geometry for the other analysis, defining two different colors for them.
Q: Is there in VSR something to extrapolate? A: Yes, in the control point modeling there is an option "Extrapolate", allowing dynamic extrapolation of a curve or surface.
Q: Hello there, which is the "best" density of triangles for a scanned mesh from a 3D scanner, in order to work later creating surfaces? I am using a NextEngine scanner. A: Sorry, unfortunately there is no general answer for this question. It depends on the shape of the object, and the needed quality for the reverse engineering.
Q: Can you get a color map of the deviation between the surface and the mesh vs section lines? A: Color mapped deviation will come with Shape Modeling 3.0 in Q4/2013.
Q: Can you make a surface from points only? A: No, we need a triangulated mesh. But for Rhino 5 there are some free plugins available to triangulate a point cloud to a mesh.
Q: Can we become a beta user of the new release? A: Of course, customers and people giving valuable feedback on our plug-ins are always welcome as beta testers.
Q: I need smooth surface from the points but as close to the points as possible. A: This is exactly what our smooth function will do. It is always a compromise, though, and depends heavily on the quality of the points. If the quality of the points is poor the surface may not become smooth, when the deviation is very low.
Q: In Catia you can match a surface projected on top of another without trimming. Basic matching on top of a surface instead of the edges. The question is are you guys planning a tool like that? A: This is already implemented and will be available in Shape Modeling 3.0 in Q4 2013.
Do you love webinars? Check the upcoming webinars in the Novedge Webinar Series here.
To order your copy of VSR Shape Modeling, click here.
Learn more about Virtual Shape, the makers of VSR Shape Modeling on their website.
To connect with other VSR and Rhino users, join our Rhino Jungle community
Today I have the pleasure to talk to Samantha Gratz, a graduate student and member of our Rhino Jungle community. Her jewelry design is quite unique, so I invited her to share with us a little bit more about her interests and inspiration.
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.
Samantha Gratz: I
am drawn to the wild and strange. Anything that has an unexpected
form or startling color combinations excites me. My current work
explores how mutated creatures would interact or inhabit the human
body. This work is the thesis topic for my Master’s Degree in
CAD/CAM at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
Before
moving East, I lived in the 7,200 foot altitude of Flagstaff, Arizona
where I earned a BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Northern Arizona
University (NAU). It was at NAU where I developed my chops
fabricating jewelry by hand.
Novedge: Where do you find inspiration?
Samantha Gratz: I
admire the colors of the gem-encrusted pieces by Dior’s jewelry
designer, Victoria de Castellenne, even though my current work does
not relate to conventional jewelry. I’m also inspired by the
illustrations of Dougal Dixon and Ernst Haeckel.
Technologically,
I love how I can develop forms and mechanisms with ease using CAD and
rapid prototyping processes. The work I’m currently producing would
be a prodigious task using traditional bench techniques. With CAD
software, I can quickly and easily produce tangible objects of
intricate complexity.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Samantha Gratz: The
recent explorations of deep ocean depths and the sea creatures
inhabiting those dark, deep seas set me on a path to create my own
denizens of the deep. For example:
This Snail project was designed to envelope the ear. The challenge was
to first consider size and shape and then determine where the piece
best fits on the body. I printed the shell portion of the snail in
Durus White then dyed it. I chose Durus White for its durability and
translucent nature. The back of the shell has an opening that slides
over the ear. The soft body of the snail is printed in the flexible
material of Tango Plus in order to mimic the actual feeling of a
snail touching the face.
The piece entitled Tremor
is a companion bracelet for the Shell earpiece. This bracelet is a
conglomeration of deep sea creature forms and coral reef plant life.
The head and body portions are printed in Durus White because I
wanted translucent material to be present in both pieces. It’s also
easy to dye.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Samantha Gratz: I
use Rhinoceros to model objects, then switch over to ZBrush to
texturize them. Rhinoceros and Zbrush provide design aesthetics I
need through modeling commands. Rhinoceros is also the industry
standard.
Novedge: What innovations do you see in your field?
Samantha Gratz: New
design features in CAD and rapid prototyping married to the rising
popularity of generative modeling and multi material printing are
exciting in of themselves. But when these technologies are used with
Objet’s Connex printers, the results are akin to the emulators in
science fiction. I envision the Connex printer becoming more popular
and opening up a range of potential material capabilities that will
jump-start many ingenious projects.
Do you want to see more of Samantha's work? Take a look at her website and at her profile page on Rhino Jungle.
Do you love Rhino? Join Rhino Jungle to connect and share your work.
3D printing is finally entering the consumers market, so I asked Miranda Bastijns, the Business Director of Units at i.materialise and .MGX to talk about her company and 3D printing.
The team at i.materialise
Novedge: Tell us about
yourself and your company.
Miranda Bastijns:Materialise
is one of the pioneers of 3D printing. For over 20 years, our company
has been making 3D prints and developing 3D print related software
for the industrial and medical markets. All over the world hospitals
and research institutes use our 3D printed models as customized drill
and cutting guides, and anatomical models for surgery preparation
and/or educational purposes. They also use our software in order to
conduct research with virtual 3D models as well as in the creation of
3D models using their own printers. Also, a range of industrial
sectors from aviation over automotive to consumer electronics are
using the 3D prints of Materialise. It will be hard to find a type of
car that Materialise has not supplied a prototyped part for. In 2003
Materialise expanded its range of services towards the consumer. For
the first time in history, 3D printed design products became
available on the market. This was the .MGX design collection, a range
of high-end lamps and decorative elements straight from the 3D
printer.
At the end of
2009 we recognized a growing interest from the consumers to make
their own designs. This was the start for i.materialise, the on-line
3D printing service for consumers. This implied that the over 80
printers of Materialise became available to everybody who wanted to
make something. I think the name i.materialise is quite self
explicative: “Materialise” should be seen as a verb, while the i
is in fact I, me, myself, I materialise.
I
have been with Materialise for 15 years. When I started, the company
employed 40 people, now we are close to 1000. For years I have been
responsible for the marketing. Not so easy to be in a commercial role
in a company with mainly engineers. For a while I combined my role as
marketing manager with the set-up of i.materialise, but very soon it
was clear that i.materialise was growing too fast to combine it with
another job. So now I am managing this fantastically interesting
business unit full time.
Miranda Bastijns: If
you really want to know who is inspiring in the 3D printing world, I
am surrounded by so many inspiring figures at work that it is hard to
think of any inspirations externally. Materialise has always been at
the forefront of the 3D printing wave, trying out new things
and going places where no other company had gone before. Many of my
colleagues inspire me, for example, our CEO Fried – and many in the
industry agree with me about what an inspiration he is. He was voted
the most influential person in the industry
in fact. Of course, looking beyond 3D printing there are numerous
management books where we find inspiration. But also, just
looking around and seeing what our customers do inspire us to do
great things together with them, whether it is an inspiring design
they come up with, or improving a clever software tool together with
them…even going as far as developing life saving implants.
Novedge: What is a
recent project that you worked on with i.materialise?
Miranda Bastijns: A
very nice project is the recent launch of Twikit.
Twikit is a start-up company that specializes in creating unique,
customizable trophies. They developed an easy-to-use software tool by
which people can make their own trophy, meaning every trophy is
unique, which of course makes 3D printing the preferred method of
production. Together with the people of Twikit, our engineering and
customer support team looked into the best possible way to prepare
the designs for 3D printing. And now that the product has been
launched we are almost as proud of it as the Twikit boys. On top of
the production, i.materialise also takes care of the logistic
handling, including assembly, white labeling and shipment to
customers. We have several of these kinds of start-ups that we
collaborate with. And, each time one goes live, it’s quite exiting.
Almost as exciting as starting your own business.
But
of course, we are also touched by nice, one-off prints. It’s
difficult to pick one as a favourite. Every day brings new beauties.
I really like my job as I am on the forefront of many new and
beautiful objects and projects that enter the world.
Novedge: What software
do you use at i.materialise?
Miranda Bastijns: Every
3D print starts by designing something in a software package or
software tool. No file, no print. People uploading files at
i.materialise use numerous design software packages, but many files
are not immediately suitable for 3D printing. There are a multitude of
software packages that can be used to design or model something for 3D
printing, ranging from very high end CAD packages to relatively
simple ones. Depending on your skills and what you want to make, you
use the one or the other. For beginners there are Autodesk123D, Tinkercad, 3DTin and SketchUp.We use Magics, a
software package developed in-house at Materialise in order to check
and fix files. Then our own Streamics software takes care of
the back end and of course we have Materialise’s hundreds of
software developers doing whatever is needed to ensure that our web
service run smoothly.
Novedge: What
innovations do you see in your field?
Miranda Bastijns: More
materials, more materials, and more materials. Thousands of new design tools to make your own something special. More
user friendly and better home printers. And,
for sure, many more medical applications of 3D printing.
To learn more about Materialise, visit their website.
Remember this incredible 3D printed Siri case for the iPhone? We asked Saad Alayyoubi, the designer behind it, to tell us a bit about his work and his company SaGa Design.
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and your
company.
Saad Alayyoubi: I am a designer trained in
architecture, and I’ve always been interested in creating inspiring
work that crosses disciplinary boundaries. When I was a teenager I
spent most of my days working on drawings and oil paintings, and ever
since I can remember I have always had a passion for aesthetic beauty, both in the natural world and in our human artifacts and
constructions.
After college I worked for several
years as an architect for a large firm called KPF, where I was a
member of project teams tasked with creating massive cultural
centers, hotels and office skyscrapers. I enjoyed the work, but felt
somewhat frustrated at the time that most of the key design decisions
were made, understandably, by the experienced senior partners. Young
designers, including myself, were mainly assigned to the technical
execution of the partners’ vision, and would have to spend decades
working our way up the corporate ladder before we had any real
creative freedom.
At the time, 3D printing was still a
relatively unknown technique used for prototyping architectural
models, but all of us making these prototypes sensed that imminent
change was on the horizon, as the technology continued to rapidly
improve. I loved the creative expression the technology enabled, as I
watched the intricate, digital architecture models I had created come
to life in powder form inside the 3D printer. All the years I had
spent honing my digital skills in college could now be translated
outside the computer screen and into the physical world.
I waited for the day when commercial
3D printing would become viable as a means to create my own physical
products: the technology had to both be capable of producing a
high-quality material finish, and also relatively affordable for mass
market consumption. As soon as I started to see this happening, I
began experimenting with the various material offerings and formed my
own studio, SaGa Design, dedicated to building beautiful 3D printed
products and concepts. I have since expanded the scope of SaGa to
include all artistic endeavors that I embark on, and it is now
essentially a portal for the expression of all my thoughts and ideas. I
would like to also create a blog someday soon associated with the
website, to engage with other designers and thinkers on the problems
and ideas of our time.
Novedge: What inspires you?
Saad Alayyoubi: The sources are almost infinite. In
terms of my worldview, a big part of my thinking was shaped by the
writing and ideas of the late Carl Sagan. He was a brilliant
scientist and philosopher, expert at articulating who we are as a
species, and how we could begin to understand our place in the
universe and the meaning of our existence.
In terms of artistic creativity my
sources of inspiration continue to evolve every day, but in terms of
classical art I have always been deeply inspired by Caspar David
Friedrich, Frederick Church, and William Turner. In terms of more
contemporary artists, there are so many it’s actually impossible to
even condense the list to a reasonable format…The information age
has really enabled us to recognize incredible artistic talent from
all corners of the globe, and from people of all ages. I’ve seen
astounding works of creative photography and digital art from kids as
young as 16.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you
worked on?
Saad Alayyoubi: I’m currently working for a
multi-disciplinary design firm in midtown Manhattan, Experion Design
Group, where I do everything from architectural renderings to
website design and even user-interface design for mobile software
apps. I spend most of my non-office hours continuing to expand my
design portfolio of creative work, and most recently have been
interested in improving my abilities as a digital matte-painter.
I start with a quick 15 minute sketch
in Photoshop, to capture a certain mood using color and light. I then
create a rough 3D model of the scene, to get an understanding of
depth and some reflection layers which I can use to overlay on the
base sketch. In the case of the project below, the 3D model also
incorporated an idea for some floating architectural elements, which
I scrapped in the final painting in favor of a pure landscape scene.
I love working on dreamscapes such as this, creating an evocative
scene from pure imagination; in my next few digital paintings I’ll
be looking to implement more 3D elements that lend a more surreal,
other-worldly atmosphere to the scene.
I am also still working on several new
3D-printing concepts, but many of these are still work in progress
and will be revealed in the near future. I’m waiting for
the next technological leap in the manufacturing process, when we can
create 3D-printed objects at much larger scales (e.g., for use as
furniture pieces) with multiple embedded materials and integrated
electronics. These technological capabilities are inevitable, it’s
only a matter of time, and I’m designing concepts now to pre-empt
their arrival and try to envision how they can potentially be used to
create physical objects that were never before possible.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Saad Alayyoubi: I use many of the same digital tools
that other architects and designers of our generation use, including
3ds Max, Rhino, ZBrush, Sculptris and Photoshop. I really enjoyed
experimenting with ZBrush on some of my iPhone case designs, and I
will be looking to use it more extensively for future 3D work that
involves highly organic, detailed and intricate forms. In terms of
3D printing materials, I really like the smooth, polished finish of
glazed ceramics. To be quite honest, I’m eagerly awaiting the day
when it will be viable for us individual designers to create entire,
full-fledged 3D-printed custom body panels for cars and motorcycles.
Many of the designs I’m working on at the moment are custom vehicle
shells, and it will be amazing to one day have the material finish of
such 3D prints rival the creations of the major exotic car
manufacturers.
Novedge: What innovations do you see in
your field, now or in the future?
Saad Alayyoubi: Besides some of
the aforementioned ideas, I have been speaking with a lot of
designers recently about where the technology might evolve in the
near-term future. One of the ideas I am most excited about is the
notion of complete democratization of physical products. It may be
possible that 3d-printing will enable anyone to have almost any
physical object they can imagine, irrespective of any notion of
“price” beyond the pure commodity cost of the physical
material. If 3D-scanning technology improves to enable flawless
3D capture of a physical object, and 3D printing simultaneously
enables an almost exact replication of that object, imagine what the
disruption this would cause the retail sector, and the idea of a "luxury product".
Besides this, I also have some friends
working on 3D printing technology in the context of aerospace
engineering, seeking, for example, to use 3D printing to enable the
on-demand production of materials by a robotic rover on the moon or
mars. This industry is still in its infancy, but the road ahead looks
incredibly exciting for all of us.
Read more about Saad Alayyoubi and SaGa Design on his website and find his 3D printed designs on Shapeways.
And if you are interested in 3D printing, don't forget to read our interview with Chris Anderson.
I discovered James Coleman's work on Twitter and invited him to talk about being a student in England and becoming a certified instructor of Maxwell Render. Little did I know James had needed all his determination to study and work while battling a rare disease.
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and
what you do.
James Coleman: I am a student of
product design, currently in my last year at the University of
Brighton. I also teach fellow students at the University and I have my own YouTube channel with tutorials on Maxwell Render.
I studied physics, electronics and
maths (pure & mechanics) at college when I was 17, and chose to study mechanical engineering in university. Then something
happened that would, for better or worse, shape the rest of my
education forever. In 2007 it was discovered that I had a condition
called chronic hypersensitivity that affects 300,000 in the
UK, and the root cause is still unknown, as is a cure. The recovery
period is approximately half the patient's age, in other words, I
still have 5 years of recovery ahead of me, but at least I now have a
diagnosis and I am receiving treatment.
Once I found out about my condition, I
started to use my spare time to make 3D models of spaceships in
SketchUp and decided to change my course to Product Design Bsc.
Novedge: How did you get into
teaching?
James Coleman: Whilst in my
second year, my renders kept garnering attention, and I started
showing groups of students how I made them. Then I
setup some lectures in the afternoon. The first was hugely successful
and I became the official Maxwell Render Mentor at the University of
Brighton Center for Design Technology. When Next Limit announced their
certification program I signed up immediately!
In the summer of 2012, I set up my
Youtube channel and started recording basic tutorials, things like
resolution and focal length, with the occasional overview of certain
setup techniques. I also upload tutorials based on the questions
my students asked me most frequently.
Then one day I was looking for
inspiration for a new tutorial and I saw that VizPeople had released
a free model of a DeLorean DMC12, which has always been one of my
favourite cars. By coincidence, Maground had also recently released a free HDRI
set with environment and backplates on hdri4u.com. I decided to
strike while the iron was hot, and I made a series of tutorials
involving setting up the model and then rendering it in a variety of
different environments.
The DeLorean Series got the attention
of cadjunkie.com, which I was already a fan of. I ended up producing
10 free and 6 premium tutorials for them, Studio Lighting
Techniques In Maxwell Render. The series went on to great acclaim, and like the DeLorean tutorial, continues
to be one of the most popular videos on my channel.
Currently I am working on the tutorial
series’ Maxwell Render Hot Tips and What Not To Render. There’s currently a new video in each playlist every week and
there will be until April.
Novedge: Your university didn't have instructors to teach you how to render using Maxwell Render. How did you learn?
James Coleman: I learned by doing: I spent my time using the program, looking for answers in online forums and watching online tutorials.
Novedge:
What software do you use?
James Coleman: I started out with SketchUp all those
years ago for one very simple reason: it was free. I can’t remember
exactly where I first heard about it, but I do remember using it with
friends and learning from each other. It was also really helpful that
SketchUp didn’t have high system requirements, the
interface and the “sketchy” style made it approachable, and
although it was designed for architecture, we used it for whatever we
liked.
After I became frustrated with the
limited modeling tools in SketchUp, I started searching for a more
advanced alternatives. 3ds Max has a huge
reputation on the web, but is only available on Windows, and I use a
Mac. I heard about Cinema 4D and downloaded the demo. I loved it’s
interface and I understood the basics almost immediately. The
tutorials available online were extensive and it wasn’t difficult
to find an answer to a problem. I decided to keep it and I’ve never
regretted it. I still use it today when making quick drafts, but I
wouldn’t recommend it to anyone starting out in product design, but
plenty of other students on my course use it for animations, and for
times when they need to make a model quickly and easily. 3ds Max is
also popular with Windows users as an alternative to CAD centric
software.
The CAD
software we use at the
university is less a matter of choice and more a matter of logic.
SolidWorks is practically a requirement on CVs at the moment. Rhino is
also available. When I started the course, I found Rhino to be more
similar to Cinema 4D and
hence I preferred it at the time. But now that I’ve used both for
years, I always open SolidWorks before Rhino when I need to make
a prototype, even for models with complex curves.
When I first became interested in
photorealistic rendering, V-Ray was very
appealing to me, but once I actually had V-Ray for Cinema 4D, I realized that I didn’t want to
spend a lot of time adjusting settings, I wanted to spend more time
designing and modeling. A few internet searches later and I found
Maxwell Render. When I
first tried it, it was still version 1, and it won
me over in terms of ease of use and quality. One of the first images
I ever made showed the model casting a shadow on the floor, when the
only lighting in the scene was an HDRI. I’d never seen that before and it was enough to make a lasting
impression. I dabbled between Cinema 4D’s own render engine, V-Ray
and Maxwell Render for a while, but when Maxwell Render 2 was released I didn’t
look back. For me it still delivers fantastic results, whether the
image is complicated or simple, very easily.
And something I wish someone had told
me when I started: whenever you see a render that really impresses you,
10-25% of all the work that went into making that image came from
Photoshop, which is why it is also another vital tool in my arsenal
of software. Alien Skin Exposure is a plug-in for Photoshop that I couldn’t work without, it
mimics the effect of certain types of photographic film, but with a
lot more control and subtlety than Instagram.
Novedge:
What is a recent project that you worked on?
James Coleman: The most surprising thing about my
product design course is that we focus on teaching communication,
technology, professionalism, history, etc. It’s a doctrine that
actually I agree with. Not just because it follows Dieter Rams’
principles, but also because we have the rest of our lives to design,
so we might as well use the time now to make sure we know how to do
it right, and then later on we can be eccentric if we like. Very
often in product design, designers can get too caught up in the
aesthetics of a product and forget about ergonomics, engineering, or
any other topic. That’s not what’s taught in Brighton, and that's
what makes it stand out from other, more “arts” based courses.
One project I enjoyed was making a
“Revolutionary” product, with the tag-line of “It doesn’t
look like a “X”, but it does what a “X” does”. I was
inspired by one of my favorite ideas in product design, “the new
application of an existing technology”, and because we were so
pressured to design something that would be completely revolutionary,
I decided to include some technologies that were theoretically
possible but not available yet. I based the project on audio
loudspeakers, because the technology in them hasn’t really changed
for nearly 150 years, they’re still as electrodynamic as they were
when they were first invented. The end result is the Levitating Superconducting Speakers concept.
After starting to use Maxwell Render 2, one of
my projects was to identify a product which exhibited evolutionary
design, and to continue that design onto its next generation. For my
project I chose the Kodak Brownie, despite being out of production
since the 1970’s, its design when it was discontinued was very
similar to when it was originally conceived at the beginning of the
century. Kodak would often make special edition cameras for
major events and I immediately themed the project around the upcoming
London 2012 Olympic Games. The project was small and it only took a
few weeks to complete, but it went on to be featured on Yanko Design,
and after that it was very popular on the web, I still see the
occasional tweet about it! I put the amount of public
interest in the project down to the quality of the renders. I
approached Kodak to see if they would be interested in taking the
project further, and although they weren’t interested at the time,
they invited me to contact them about employment upon my graduation.
Novedge:
What innovations do you see in your field (now or in the future)?
James Coleman: I think predicting the future has never
really involved specific technologies, but instead looking at habits,
lifestyles and routines, and then the technology is left to catch up.
Touch screen technology, for example, was mostly a gimmick that had
little real world value, until you could touch simultaneously in more
than one place at once, and it was applied to a mobile phone. In
hindsight it seems obvious that that’s how it should be used. So
predicting specific technologies that will be developed, find a
niche, and become cheap enough to be in common use, is much more
difficult than imagining overall work flows and customs. My
Levitating Speakers involved several different technologies that are
not commonplace yet, or do not exist at all, including
superdiamagnetic levitation, wireless power transfer, and flexible
screens. It is certain that these technologies will develop over
time, in fact when the project was completed, wireless speakers were
still revolutionary, but now AirPlay is commonplace. The question is,
will there be a benefit to having Levitating Speakers?
3D printing has got a lot of press
lately regarding its potential. I agree that one day we may have 3D
printers in every home, and in one end you would put waste, and then
products, food and other luxuries will come tumbling out of the
other. I think that one day, we will have “Star Trek” style
replicators, powered by electricity which will probably come from
fusion reactors. But not within my lifetime. At the moment, 3D
printing and rapid prototyping often seem limited to making spare
components when objects break. Even then they have to come from 3D
files made by a professional. Consumers will want to be able to print
complete objects, like kettles, laptops or phones. Even though 3D
printers which are capable of making multi-coloured objects, and
printing multiple components connected together have existed for some
time, as someone who has worked with 3D printers for many years, I
think we still have some way to go. But when we are there, they will
change the world in ways which no one has yet imagined, and copyright
and piracy laws will once again be brought into question.
In my particular area of interest
(medical design), there are plenty of issues which are commonplace
and well known. Drug resistant infections, obesity related
complications, and aging population are the three problems
which I expect to encounter in my design career. In much less than a
century, certain bacteria have evolved to become almost immune to
many typical antibiotics. If this trend continues, product design
will have to play a major role in increasing the hygiene of hospital
environments. Anti-microbial materials such as copper are already
seeing a comeback, and although cloth bedsheets interwoven with
silver (again for its anti-microbial properties) is a hugely
expensive concept at present, if it becomes cheaper than treating
patients, it will become a reality.
Despite being prepared for these
trends, I don’t think there is anything that can or will prepare me
for the problem of ageing population. There are practical, medical,
and ethical issues where product design will be called upon to help.
These issues are nothing new, but will be exaggerated in the future.
With higher demand, and larger markets, products specifically for the
elderly will become more commonplace, and inclusive design will have
more influence over everyone. This effect is visible now, for example
with non-step access to buildings being a legal requirement, and this
trend shows no sign of stopping.
Novedge:
What are your plans after graduation?
James Coleman: My ideal job would be a product
designer at a company specializing in the medical industry. My
overall impression of the purpose of product design is to make our
lives more efficient, where is that more important than when well
being, potentially lives, are at stake? Medical staff are often
overworked and underpaid, and then they have to use equipment made by
the lowest bidder. Then this equipment will not be updated unless it
breaks or is recalled (the standard that dictates the design of an IV
drip stand is nearly 50 years old, and has never been updated). And
with humans living longer and getting fatter, the market is just
going to get bigger (some pun intended).
My family is a big reason I feel this
way. Three generations have in some way or another worked in the
medical industry. I’m not brave enough to be on the front line like
they are, but I wouldn’t mind sitting back at a comfortable
distance and making the equipment that they use everyday a little bit
more efficient.
Most of
all, though, I’m going to recover from the condition that has practically
dictated my life for the past 5 years. It’ll take another 5 years
to be completely rid of it, but I’m looking forward to being able
to walk to places without running the risk of being housebound the
next day. I’m looking forward to working to improve the services
that have served me for so long.
Did you miss yesterday's webinar with Brian Hillner on Bunkspeed Pro? Don't worry, you can still watch it on our YouTube Channel. All our webinars are always available online and free of charge.
The questions from the audience were so many that David Randle from the Bunkspeed team took some time to answer those we couldn't fit in our live broadcast. Here they are.
Q: What hardware
is the demo being run on?
A: Brian [Hillner, the webinar presenter] is using a
machine with 2 Fermi based GPU's (1x Quadro 6000 and 1x Tesla C2070)
and is running at a resolution of 2560x1600px. It is a single CPU,
12GB RAM configuration.
Q: How
significant is the performance between Fermi and Kepler architecture?
A: As of right now,
performance on Kepler is only fractionally better than Fermi. iRay
(the renderer we use) is still undergoing improvements to leverage
the massive hardware performance gain of the Kepler architecture.
Also, keep in mind that although Kepler is only fractionally faster
than Fermi, the Kepler cards consume 30 - 40% less power so they are
much more efficient.
Q: What are the
options for sending Pro/E geometry to Bunkspeed?
A: We have a free
plugin available here
that allows you to push your geometry directly from Pro/E or Creo
into our products. We have a version going live soon that also
supports Creo2.
Q: Please explain
the functionality of Powerboost...
A: PowerBoost is a
separate product which gets installed on a dedicated “rendering”
machine. When installed, it allows users within a workgroup to send
their renders (via queue) to the dedicated PowerBoost machine to
render. This allows users to keep working on their desktops and never
have to wait for a render on their own machine. As a note, PowerBoost
connectivity is only available in our Pro and Drive products
Q: Is there a
limit on how many GPUs Bunkspeed can use?
A: Pro is licensed
for up to 2 GPUs but it can be configured to use up to 8 in a single
machine. More info about how to do this can be obtained from your
Novedge sales contact who can work with us to get you what you need.
Q: How come queue
doesn't work?
A: Queue should
function just fine. If it isn't, I would suggest approaching
support@bunkspeed.com so we can make sure it is working for you.
Common issues are the result of port conflicts with Anti-Virus
software or licensing when using a floating version of Pro/Drive, as
Queue Service checks out a license and if that license isn't checked
back in (by stopping the Queue Service), then other users can't check
out Pro/Drive or Queue on another machine.
Q: Is it possible
to export the object and camera?
A: It is possible to
export your object as an OBJ or FBX right now via File > Export.
We are currently working on also exporting the camera data via FBX. This should make it into our next release. In addition, we also
support importing of animated FBX files...
Q: Did Bunkspeed intend to
use a live plugin for HDR Light Studio?
A: We currently have
a way to "live update" modification you make to an HDR in
HDR Light Studio using our auto-update feature. HDR Light Studio has
been busy working on their API to support our dev environment and
we are looking to have a tighter integration with their product as soon as
their work is ready.
Interested in Bunkspeed? Find out the details here.
Do you love webinars? Check the upcoming webinars in the Novedge Webinar Series here.
Here at Novedge, we are big fans of Engineer Vs. Designer, Josh Mings and Adam O'Hern's joint podcast on product design. While they are taking a break from their series (and working on new projects), I asked Adam and Josh to share a bit about themselves, the software they use and the innovations of the future.
True to their style, they sent me this awesome recording. So here it is, enjoy!
Aaron Pratt: I’m Afinia’s Vice President of Marketing. In my personal life, I’m a husband and a
father of seven, and I love playing the piano and reading.
Afinia
is the new business division of Microboards Technology, which has been
developing robotics and printers in the CD/DVD industry for twenty
years. In the new business division, we are experimenting with all
kinds of printing-related robotic technology. 3D printing is the most
prominent of them. But we're also playing with very high speed label
printing, and with some devices for the medical industry as well. It's a
fun place to be. And we know 3d printers especially well because we use
them in our own design and prototyping every day.
Novedge: What inspires you?
Aaron Pratt: I’m inspired by ideas. I spend a lot of time
reading about ideas. I like reading
about foreign policy and economics, about communications and language, and
about art and science. To me it is
important not only to test ideas and see if they work, but to choose to see the
world through models and ideas that bring about good – good art, good
relationships, good feelings. I see 3D
Printing as a tangible manifestation of that - enabling creation, transferring
ideas to the physical world – making us all designers and artists.
One of the best books I read last year was
Seth Godin’s Linchpin. It talked about making good art and giving it
away. As an artist, I was inspired by the idea of seeing my work as art and a
gift to the world, and seeing income and career as a residual effect instead of
the purpose.
Not long after I read Godin’s book, I had a
visit at my office from a 3d Printing Enthusiast named Peter Leppik. He’s an endearing person, very smart and
enjoyable to talk to. He showed me a set
of toy gears that clip together he’d designed for his nephew for his birthday. You can see them (and download the files)
here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30981. What a great way to give something of
yourself. Maybe Sam will grow out of the
gears someday, but what a great expression of love to design and print
something like that.
We also have another user who volunteers his time designing devices for helping
disabled children. Because of how children grow and change, assistance
devices require much more customization. This guy is a talented
mechanical engineer and designer. Before he bought a printer I invited
him to send me a design he was trying to wrap up and printed it for him.
Even though I had put many hours in at one of our printers I was awed
at how beautiful this part was when it came off the printer. I remember
we did it in yellow at his request, and it was the first time I'd used
our yellow filament, and it worked absolutely perfectly, the first time,
and was something that I was really proud to send him.
Novedge: What are you most proud of at Afinia? What is the biggest challenge you
overcame?
Aaron Pratt: I’m
proudest of our out-of-box experience. If
that sounds like a product pitch, well, it is, but it really is our
highest
accomplishment. We were what you would
call a “late market entrant”. We came in
to the market because we know how to commercialize a product, and we saw
a lot
of companies that don’t know how to do that.
Things that are painful to users are not obvious to companies that are
experts in the technology. We worked with
a manufacturer and said “Let’s fix this.
Mount the LED here. Make sure it comes out of the box in one piece. Fix
the little tiny bugs. Rewrite the manual.” We went around the country
meeting with
users. We toured supplier facilities in China. We’ve tested dozens of
filament
suppliers. We changed everything, right
down to the packaging itself, to make sure that users would want to tell
their
friends how easy we were to use, especially compared to whatever tinker
toy
they had pulled their hair out trying to assemble last. You can see a
very detailed description of
the out-of-box experience as my counterpart, John Westrum, steps you
through it
here:
In it, he describes every step and every
accessory in the box – in less than 30 minutes.
When I’m setting one up at a show, it takes me under five minutes to have
it set up and recognized by the PC.
Getting the product just right is what will allow
us to recreate Peter’s experience tens of thousands of times. One of our users designs customized parts for
assistance devices for disabled children.
I just talked to another guy who builds airships who wants one for his
shop and to introduce his son to design and prototyping. That’s just a small handful of the many
stories we’ve been involved in.
Design by @dizingof
Novedge:What is special about Afinia's 3D printers? What software is best used when
designing an object to be 3D printed with them?
Aaron Pratt: What's special about our printers is the
experience. The speeds and feeds of the
various devices on the market is all about the same. It’s what happens around the machine that
makes us awesome. Try calling our tech
support – if they don’t answer immediately, they will within a business day.
(Seriously – try it – 952.279.2643). Or
e-mail us. Or Twitter us. Or Facebook us.
We’re very responsive.
The software is strong too – again, all part
of having a flawless user experience.
Our software is one step: open the STL and hit print. You can do some manipulation, of course –
scaling it, placing it where you want it to print, rotating it, adjusting
support material and so on. But there’s
no pre-processing, exporting G-Code, and so on.
That’s all done in the background. And once the file has been sent to
the printer, you can unplug the USB cable and walk away.
So far we’ve had great experience with all the
design software that can output STLs. In-house, we’re a Solidworks-centric
company. But lots of our designers use the other major packages. (And some of the obscure ones, too.)
Design by @dizingof
Novedge: What innovations do you see in your field now or in the
future?
Aaron Pratt: The big ones that everyone is talking about
are print envelope (larger part sizes), speed, and materials. I see all three as part of the near
future. I think the first one you can
expect to see from us is a larger print envelope. We also recently announced an enhancement in
resolution (from .20 mm to .15mm), and I anticipate there will be more of that
in the future. The one I am most excited
about is materials. I can’t promise
anything yet, but I am really looking forward to being able to make some
announcements about different plastics and beyond.
We asked Cristiano Sacchi, our co founder and CEO, to share some thoughts for the end of the year. Cristiano loves to look ahead and decided to write about a wish he has had for many many years...
"Another year has gone by and for the
design community it was a very interesting one indeed. The fast
spreading of desktop 3D printing alone makes 2012 a year to remember.
As we look forward to an even more
interesting 2013 I have my usual, still unfulfilled, wish for the
software development wizards out there: Will we finally see a good
initial stage design concept tool? As a matter of fact, the back of
any envelope, or a napkin, still beats any software for very early
stage concept design. Can we finally do better than pen and paper to
help creativity at every stage?
Over the years we have seen great
progress in the conceptual design software space. Products like
bonzai3d, Moment of Inspiration (MoI), and SketchUp offer good early
stage creativity tools to industrial designers, architects and
engineers, but they have not replaced the napkin yet.
The ultimate
early-stage design tool would be something that you grab for an
impromptu brainstorming session instead of pen and paper when pen and
paper is readily available on your desk. If such a tool were
available, the benefits would be incredible: the resulting draft model
could be used downstream to create many things, such as accurate designs and 3D printouts. Early analysis tools (like like rendering and stress) and remote communication would
also be very easy (e.g., you could Skype in a colleague from a remote
location to have a quick opinion). And that would be just the start.
I have had this same wish for the past quarter of a century and one thing that gives me hope is that tablet computers have now gone mainstream. Will this new
device finally inspire somebody to find a way to replace pen and
paper for conceptual design? Maybe the lack of a proper device was
the problem – as long as computers only sit on your desk and can
only be operated with a keyboard and a mouse they might be
intrinsically less appealing than pen and paper – and certainly you
cannot bring them with you at breakfast or lunch when suddenly you
start brainstorming about a new design idea. Will the tablet be the
game changer?
So, will this be the year when I get my wish? Can I get my wish at
all? Are napkins inherently better than today’s computers and
software? What do you think?"
Recent Comments