Is Dassault Systemes getting their house in order?

To me, Dassault Systemes always seemed to be this massive French company that owns a bunch of technology companies, but always just sat back and let these companies run as separate entities. Always known as having CATIA as the heart of their PLM inititative. They began a campaign of acquiring technologies about 10 years ago. Here is a quick list of the highlights.

SolidWorks (1997)
SRAC (2001)
ABAQUS (2005)
Matrix One (2006)
ICEM Surf (2007)
Engineous (2008)

DS has always done a great job acquiring some of the most successful companies. What they have also done well is just leave these companies to operate as a bunch of small profitable, successful entities. The CATIA/SolidWorks combination is a great example of two extremes that serve different markets and were allowed to continue doing what they do.

Small calculated decisions seemed to be made over the years. Years ago, there was a ton of buzz about the operability of CATIA and SolidWorks. But relatively nothing changed. Then a slight change to the SolidWorks logo that added a little "DS". People acted as "this was it, now things will change." Again, hardly any change.

But things seem to be changing recently. DS has recently re-branded ABAQUS to Simulia. But a bolder move is the buzz that SolidWorks is now, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation. The Cosmos line is now SolidWorks Simulation. May seem like simple name changing, but I think it falls in line with the industry, in general.

Only a few years ago, there were numerous companies in the MCAD and FEA space, these numbers are dwindling due to acquisitions etc. In the not so distant future, there will only be a "few" monster companies that are able to offer us (the consumer) "everything". Sounds relatively familiar.

Circa, 1995, the MCAD world seemed pretty set in stone in the pre "PLM" days. You had PTC, UGS, SDRC and DS battling it out in the 3D space. Autodesk was the master of its own domain in the 2D world. In the FEA market there was MSC, HKS and ANSYS along with some of the other players like SRAC and SDRC. But for the most part, this was the playing field. Then SolidWorks and others blasting into the market and simply changed the way we look at things. This was in the days when a 3D MCAD investment was on the order of ~$40k ($20k for software and $20k for a computer to run it).

Point of my rant here is that I love the fact that these massive companies are becoming powerhouses in their own right. No doubt there will be some serious technology leaps that are made. No doubt a serious challenge for them is to manage all of the technology and not forget their biggest asset, us, the users. Look at our friends Microsoft. More importantly, I am excited to see what disruptive technology will come along to again change the market upside down.

Skype Caller ID now working in North America?!!!

Wow, this is huge. I stumbled upon some great news. This has always been one of the main sticky points with making the complete switch to Skype for an office phone. But, I think this added feature, will really push many more into taking the plunge.

If you just go into your account and select the CALLER ID option, it is self explanatory. You can choose to have it display your SkypeIn number or your mobile. I just tested it with my SkypeIn number and it worked like a charm. It displayed the number with "UNKNOWN CALLER".

I am switching it over to my mobile number to see what happens. Go check it out. I am interested in hearing people's experiences. I am assuming many people already know about this. I heard rumors that it worked, but didn't get time to test until today.

CFdesign v10: Now Available!!!

We just released CFdesign v10 to the world. All active customers can access it via the new Customer Portal. Tons of exciting new features are in v10, I have been using it for the last six months and absolutely love it.

I think user's will find a ton of useful tools in the Customer Portal, including...

• A User's Forum
• Access to the Knowledge Base
• CFD-tv
• Pre-recorded Power User sessions
• License Management tools
• Ability to submit a technical support request
  

Give it a whirl and let us know what you think.

Who has not seen the "The Last Lecture"?

It was announced earlier this week that Randy Pausch lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He is famous for his final lecture delivered at Carnegie Mellon last year. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch it.

It is the most inspirational story I have ever heard. Truly, live each day to the fullest.

CFD-tv: A New Way to View CFdesign

In the early days of CAE software, user's took great pride in reading the User's Manual cover to cover. We were all intimately familiar with the Help system. It was the only way to really be able to do anything beyond flow in a pipe. A common response you would receive when calling technical support was, "RTFM!" Ahh, the good ole days.

Safe to say, that today is a new day and the user's expectations have grown several orders of magnitude since the good ole RTFM days. Computers, mobile phones, ipods etc are apart of our everyday lives. We have grown past having to call technical support on how to use software. Sure, we still may call when we are totally stuck. But, in general, people want to have options when looking for answers to their questions.

Some folks are into the User's Guide, some want to call their favorite support guy, some love online Forums and there are those of us that simply want to watch a quick video. I don't want to watch a 30minute video on the history of pump modeling. I just want you to give me a quick overview. Ideally, I would like to watch the video a few times as I am following along. Reading about it is of little value to me, I want to see it.

This mentality sparked the birth of CFD-tv. It is a library of videos 1-5mins in length that provide our user's with audio and video to help them overcome some of their common support questions, provide insight on a new application or learn tips and tricks from some of our power user's. The library is available on our Customer Portal or right within the Help system inside the interface.

Let us know what you think!!

Taking on Goliath

I feel like I am a fairly progressive adopter of new technology, the latest thing etc. However, I am usually a bit behind the early adopters. Meaning, I love trying out the coolest new thing, but rarely am I the first guy on it. I usually need someone else to be the guinea pig and give me a taste.

Enter Firefox. I have heard from close to everyone how cool Firefox is and felt way behind. So I just downloaded and installed Firefox3. Very cool from a User's Experience. I wont bore you with all of the cool features. What I noticed is how simple the process was to install. I downloaded, installed and it recognized IE, grabbed all of my favorites/bookmarks etc. I was up and running in a few mins. Clean, non-cluttered interface. Awesome!

I have always been a fan of Microsoft for the most part, so I am not a renegade guy always going against the grain. But the Mozilla guys took a huge chance going against the behemoth who essentially "gives away" their browser but they are still gaining ground everyday. There is a great interview in Wired this month with the Mozilla CEO. It is extremely expiring to see a group of people that believe in what they do, ban together and make a difference.

A great friend and mentor recently said...

"Do not think that a few people with a common purpose can not change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has..."

Making Upfront CFD Part of the Critical Path

Often, after a demo, people say that they love what they have seen. Yes, they could "probably" use Upfront CFD to optimize flow paths, increase performance, even prevent failure. BUT!, they are getting by without it. Therefore, "we will have some selling to do to convince their management". We immediately get placed in the "nice to have" category.

Fair enough. However, time and time again we hear stories of how expensive it can be to find out that a product actually failed in the field. Check out this little gem of a story of LED's overheating in Boston. It is super critical to be able to manage the temperatures of the LEDs or you can cut their life-expectancy in half. Do a quick search on this blog for more info on LEDs. Below is a shot of a model, we recently worked on showing the air recirculating in the head of a lamp assembly.

Check out this article, which highlights how Daktronics avoided some of the issues of the folks in Boston. I don't want this to be solely viewed as a sales pitch. As technology evolves and we as engineers are pushing the limits, we should begin designing smarter and more efficient.

There was a time, in the not so distant past, where 2D AutoCAD was considered revolutionary. We have to evolve and make Upfront CAE part of the critical path. Once this is the standard, what's next?

CFD Group on LinkedIn

I came across LinkedIn about a year ago. At first, I thought it was just another social networking site. But the more I use it, the more I understand that it is more of a professional networking site to contact colleagues (old and new), see how others in the industry are connected as well as posting a virutal resume for others to see.

As you would expect, there are "Groups" of like minded individuals that you can join. A recent Group that I joined is the Computational Fluid Dynamics Group. It is a group of professionals interested or connected to the CFD industry. The group was created by an old friend, Kamran Fouladi at InfoMec.

A newsletter is published monthly.

The release of CFdesign v10 is near

It is always an exciting time to see the press releases begin to appear announcing the latest and greatest. We have worked really hard to fine tune v10 to enhance the User Experience as much as possible. In the past, this tended to be a fancy word for an improved UI. Today, it goes beyond that a bit. Sure, the UI has been modernized, streamlined – overall, improved!

But we are dedicating much more attention to the overall User experience. In our world, that implies…

• Deeper CAD Connectivity
• Geometry tools specific to the Upfront CFD user
• Improved meshing- resulting in quicker, more accurate results
• Added physics such as Thermal Electric Coolers and a Cavitation Model
• An extremely new, fast way to perform Convection analyses
• Improved results visualization
• CFD-tv – on demand video explanation to answer common questions
• A new updated User Forum
  

The list can go on and on.. Check out the following site for a more detailed explanation.

When Everyday Life & CFD Converge

My wife convinced me to put a pool in our backyard. Probably not what you are thinking. You immediately thought in-ground, diving board with a slide and grotto, right? Not even close. We purchased an Easy Set Pool. You know the kind with the blow up ring at the top and you just fill it with water. Well, 3 pool fills later on uneven ground, the pool is up and running. "Easy" is all relative.

It comes with its own pumping filtration system. Enter the CFD part of the story. I turned it on initially and was amazed how quiet it was and the pumping power was amazing. Over the course of a couple weeks, I noticed that the pump was not cleaning the pool. I then noticed that there were large pockets of air at the discharge of the pump. I vented the pump numerous times and it seemed to be ok, but eventually would lose suction. Really cool to see cavitation in action and the effect it has on the performance of the pump.

Not one to read directions, I figured it was time. Sure enough, it recommended changing the filter on the pump every few weeks. I quickly changed out the filter and was having a great time checking out the internals of the pump, impeller, filter etc.. The filter was packed with all kinds of stuff, clearly impeding the performance of the pump. I have seen literally 100s of pump CAD models and run countless CFD analyses on pumps but haven't seen the inside of too many in person. I quickly re-assembled and the pump worked like a charm. It made me appreciate even more the challenges that manufactures have to go through everyday to ensure their products perform as expected. Competition is tough everywhere and you have to get it right the first time.

Above is a model we did for Davey Water Pumps awhile back. Click on the image for more details as well. They were able to improve efficiency by 15% by redesigning the pump in CAD and leveraging the CFD results to drive the design changes. As consumers, we just expect that the pump will work all the time. Pump manufactures surely have a difficult challenge to package the pump in a small area, make it as efficient as possible, quiet as possible and sell for less than $100. There has to be a streamlined way for designers to gain insight to their designs.

Upfront CAE & Linux: Does a Future Exist?

The Linux OS has been around for about 17 years. It has grown in popularity and functionality, but really still has a "cult" following. Check out the above Wikipedia link for the details on its origin etc. Pretty sure most people reading this have a general feel for what it is about.

I am the first to admit that in the early/mid 90s I was really hooked on the entire idea. I had a standard windows machine and also had a "second" machine to tinker with Linux. I was introduced to it by some computer geek friends. It was intriguing to think that we were all very into the "alternative" way of doing things. Once out of school, I was working with some pretty high end CAE software packages and we were running UNIX/Linux etc, so I continued to tinker. I was always partial to SUSE/Linux (before big, bad Novell bought them) I still have it installed on an old laptop and when I really want to geek it out, I fire that bad boy up.

The fact is Linux is becoming mainstream, but not in the conventional way that you may think. It is being used in mobile phones, kiosks, game systems and a whole slew of other industries. The fact is most people are using Linux everyday and probably are not aware of it. But will it become mainstream and be leveraged by the multi-tasking engineer that is running Upfront CAE tools? The same question can be posed to the engineers that are driving MCAD today? The quick and simple answer is-- probably not anytime soon.

You will certainly have the renegades out there, those that just can't bring themselves to using Windows. Bold move, but power to them. My gut is that Windows is here to stay for awhile. It's known, it's legacy is overwhelming and let's face it - we all know it pretty well. As a user that is, not in an IT kind of way. I am sure you can pitch it from a security standpoint. I am suggesting from strictly a user's perspective and whether or not large organizations would take the plunge.

I think Linux is being adopted by the analysis community and will continue on that trend. But I think the Upfront community is more mainstream, tends to go with the flow (no pun intended) and these guys are typically windows users.

I think it is a toss up which direction the Upfront community will go; Linux or Mac?

Flomerics/Autodesk - No Deal!!

There has been a bunch of speculation on the future of Flomerics. More news has been released this morning that it looks like the deal with Autodesk is not going to happen. Not surprised really as I said in previous posts, just doesn't seem to make any sense for both Autodesk and Flomerics.

It does look, however, like Mentor Graphics is still in the running. This makes a bit more sense to me considering Flomerics has had such a history in the electronics industry. But Mentor is also in discussions with Cadence for a merger/acquisition. Big decisions to be made, for sure. Definitely fun to watch, especially as a spectator and not one of the guys that has to sign the deal.

Seems like everyone is scarmbling to find a new home recently. Acquisitions seem to be happening weekly in the CAE industry. Certainly seems to be the trend to have a few big boys swallowing up everyone and have a monopoloy on the market.

Sounds familiar. Pretty sure we have seen this before.

The “Ribbon Bar” is hitting the CAE Industry by Storm

I have enjoyed a week away with the family and had a chance to do some surfing around to see catch up on the latest and greatest. I was talking to a buddy the other day and the topic of whether we liked the new ribbon bars that were rolled out with the new Office 2007 products. Whether fortunate or unfortunate, I was late in having access to the Office 2007 suite of products. My first introduction to the ribbon bars was with Spaceclaim 2007. It was only after a few months of driving Spaceclaim that I really appreciated that they simply adopted the latest thing coming out of Microsoft. Like them or hate them (Microsoft that is), I think they hit a homerun with the ribbons interface.

Like everyone, I was a bit frustrated when I tried to create my first spreadsheet and power point presentation. I still find myself "looking" for things, but in general, I am getting it. But more importantly, as products (SolidWorks 2008, SnagIt9, Spaceclaim, now Inventor and Solid Edge ST) are all rolling out their flavor of the ribbons interface, I am really enjoying it. I know there are the elitists out there that hate when all programs look and act alike. However, I have to admit, I find it refreshing that the framework is relatively the same and allow each individual vendor to maximize the potential.

Surfing around, I stumbled across Inventor's "preview" of the Ribbon UI on their Labs site. Above is a quick demo. I am becoming a huge fan of the ribbons interface. I think it is the next big thing for the CAE industry. Pretty exciting to see what the vendors will do with the basic infrastructure.

SnagIt! 9: Nice!!!

Techsmith continues to amaze. Each time a new release of Snag It comes out, they include a bucket of new features that really increase productivity of the tool. The new interface takes on the look and feel of ribbons, a spin-off of the Office 2007 interface.

When the "ribbons" UI was released, I really struggled to get my first few spreadsheets and presentations together. But the more I use it, I love it. Especially the more companies that adopt and tweak the platform, the easier everything will become. In my world, SolidWorks, Spaceclaim and now SnagIt have all jumped on the train. I just saw a sneak peak at the new Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology and they have jumped on as well. I am a big fan of creative new fresh interfaces, but I am also a huge fan of completely intuitive interfaces that respond exactly the way we as users, expect them to respond.

There is a cool video that highlights all of the new features in detail.

But if you are not already a SnagIt user, just download it for 30days - I am convinced you'll be hooked.

Flomerics/Autodesk Merger???

Always interesting to see when news of a merger is "leaked" to the press.

Not sure how much merit to give this news or if it is similar hype to Yahoo/Microsoft debacle? Obviously, not on the same scale.

But in my world, it is actually much bigger news. Always trying to look at things from every angle, I am trying to figure this one out.

So, Autodesk's claim is to be the father of Digital Prototyping. With their acquisition of Alias on the design side and then Plassotech on the analysis side, I can see a common theme. They seem to be building momentum. So far so good.

Then there was the recent announcement that they were purchasing Moldflow??! A bit of a stretch as Moldflow is a pretty sophisticated analyst type tool. But, I have always felt that if done properly, Moldflow could be put in the hands of the design community. Always a difficult task when you have a "big boy" product that is priced fairly high, the tendency is to develop an "Express" tool to tease the user base. Exactly what has happened there.

So at least it appears as though Autodesk is not only jumping into the analysis business, but they are trying to make a big leap. Pretty tall task. They are trying to convert some of their AutoCAD customers to Inventor, but they are now exposing them to some specialist type of analysis tool. AND, they sell majority of their products through a reseller network. What SolidWorks did with COSMOS seemed unheard of at the time, but they seemed to do a great job. But, what COSMOS does and what Moldflow/Flomerics do are drastically different. Not sure it would be possible to push these products through a channel?

Continuing with that theme, we now see that Autodesk is entertaining the idea of acquiring Flomerics. Trying to be open minded here, but I am searching for the logic. Ok, so historically, Flomerics has had tools (Flotherm, Flovent etc) that were geared almost strictly for the analyst-only community. They acquired NIKA to give themselves some exposure to the design community. NIKA has modules that are geared toward Pro/e, SolidWorks and Catia V5 users. They also have a general module for everyone else. The general module uses SolidWorks on the front-end...! Hmmm.. So, where does the Flomerics "solution" fit in with Autodesk's grand scheme. I am obviously not privy to the logic, but seems like a cluster to me.

Anyway, all this merger stuff is great fun to watch.

Autodesk France does it in style

I was fortunate enough to participate in an event hosted by the largest Autodesk reseller in France. They conducted the event at Chateau Rajat. That is Rajat Castle to us Yanks. Simply amazing. Typical event, there were break out sessions in various rooms showing all the cool latest goods rolling out of Autodesk - Revit, Inventor, Autocad etc.

We were given the opportunity to present CFdesign for Inventor to a small group. Below is a quick link to a lightening quick demo of an exhaust manifold flow analysis in Inventor 2009.

After the event, a colleague and I sat in one of the grand ballrooms working on a few projects. It was really cool to be sitting in a castle that was a few 100 years old (new in French terms) connected wirelessly to the outside world. Clearly one of the small perks of being a road warrior.

A New Found Respect for GPS Systems

I have spent the last few days navigating my way through France. Normally, I am fortunate enough to be riding shotgun while one of the local guys does the driving. Not this time. I have driven from Switzerland through quite a few towns in France all with no map whatsoever. I got the tip from a colleague to rent a GPS with the rental car. Enter the TomTom.

I used to think that GPS devices were just another gadget that the hi-tech geeks were carrying around. But I have to admit, I would have been literally lost all week without it. It is super simple to use and has worked so far seemlessly.

I have travled by car from the middle of nowhere in France to the other side of nowhere in France and many cool places in between. The TomTom is super easy to use and has a 1000 extra features that I almost crashed a few times trying to check out a few times on the fly.

It is amazing how simple it is to use and how accurate it was even in little towns/villages in France. It helped me out quite a bit on round-abouts. Those things kill me everytime. I feel like Chevy Chase in European Vacation just doing loops until I just pick an exit.

Couln't help notice how hot these things get. I had it plugged in majority of the time in the car, but when I would stop for a bite I would take it with me. Quite a bit of heat being generated in these things. Above is a model I did quite a while ago for a "fish finder" company. Same general idea, about 5x bigger in size than today's GPS gadgets, but relatively same deal.

Goal is to make these things rugged as hell, air/water tight, cool looking and extremely dependable. No small feat for a designer. Apparently, I need to get on it as everyone in Europe seems to have one of these guys. Might need to jump on the bandwagon as I am sold.

Google Docs: My Future Office Tool?

I have been using Google Docs quite a bit lately. Everything from Documents, Spreadsheets to Presentations. They are Google's answer to web-based Office tools. Another check mark for On-Demand software tools for me to check out. As expected, Google Docs are pretty simple and straight forward. They have a good-majority of the tools that are in MS Office, but are definitely missing some of the bells and whistles.

When MS released Office 2007, my emotions have gone from excitement about the new interface, to frustration when looking for certain everyday features, back to excitement. I really like the interface. I use Power Point quite a bit and really like the insert image, text boxes etc features. It definitely has a "next generation" look and feel about it. Makes total sense that SpaceClaim modeled their interface almost exactly the same. The same can be said for SolidWorks, definitely has an Office 2007 vibe to it. So, if I like Office 2007 so much, why jump over to the dark side and check out Google? Well, simply put, I was curious. But the biggest niche that Google docs fills for me is the online collaboration.

Each document can have one or more "collaborators". So, a team can access and update a living breathing document all at the same time. I can even see when a member of my team is currently working on the document. This is huge for me. I travel quite a bit and work remotely when I am in the office. So, having this collaboration ability is huge. Their are many other positives to list about Google Docs as well. For example, they have the ability to work offline and sync as needed once connected. They seem to work well with MS files both ways (they open and save out). Plus check out below you can link You Tube Videos to them.

Pretty amusing that the biggest limitation of Google Docs is exactly what I do not like about MS Office. That is that Google still lacks some of the advanced features that I use in Office. I am clearly not a power user of the Office Products, but like everyone, there are certain features that I have found that I rely on and use all the time. Google will get there with time as they seem to be constantly updating.

Plus, did I mention Google Docs is free? Anyway, check them out.

Wow, Dassault Systemes Announces V6 & PLM 2.0

I look forward to the daily CAD industry emails that I receive everyday. MCAD Cafe and Tenlinks are my favorites. I usually look at them for about 10 seconds scanning for something to pop out at me. Not exactly sure what I am looking for but mostly related to the new releases of CAD, CFD related things and the next big thing. Check out the link on V6 coming out of Dassault.

Being a bit obsessed with web based on-demand software lately. This idea of PLM 2.0 is really interesting to me. I have seen alot of companies advertise these "web tools" or their "collaboration environment" but from what I have seen, they are not being used as mush as they could and should be. Almost every company in the world, small and large, has another "foreign" site that they deal with. Whether it is another site within the same company, a supplier, potential client - we all are dealing and struggling with the idea of communicating our ideas, designs, models with other locations.

I have only seen the video coming out of DS so far, but I am anxious to see what this PLM 2.0 movement is all about.

A Tool I Couldn't Live Without: SnagIt!

Pretty strong statement. Probably a bit extreme, but I think you get where I am coming from. There are those software tools out there that we use everyday, whether we like to or not. Some we use because they just get the job done. Others we use because they make a certain aspect of our jobs easier. Then there are others that we simply like to use.

Quite frankly, I think SnagIt falls into all of those categories for me. Simply put, SnagIt is a screen capture software product by Techsmith. SnagIt has been around for along time and many of the people reading this have either used it or heard of it. It is super handy to create static images, avi's, add text or other features to images etc. Plus it comes with its own little editor, which is shown above.

But I think what I like the most about it is the whole package.

1. Tool that everyone can use
2. Super easy to use - does what I expect
3. Has non-intrusive plug-ins to almost everything
4. Has simple hot keys like "Print Screen"
5. It's cheap - $39.95
6. It allows for a classic no hassle 30-day eval

So anyone out there can simply go to their website, try it for 30days and if yo like it, you pay the ~$40.. Pretty simple. Plus I just got a notice the other day to upgrade to the latest version for free. Techsmith is a cool little company. It has alot of really great products. They certainly fill a niche out there and as far as I know, they are the only ones in the game?

What other products do you use everyday??

Need a Link; Give a Link: Call for Engineering Links

Ever go into a store and see a cup with a note, "Need a Penny; Give a Penny"? Same applies here. Over 100+ unique readers check in each week, so if we can each leave one or two of our favorite links, we can grow quite a list.

All you have to do is leave a quick comment with the link and a quick statement (if applicable) of what you use it for. I'll start the list. Obviously, the standard is Matweb - clearly the most popular among the bunch. All of you flow guys out there, really looking for good fluid flow property sites.

Unit Conversion Calculator

Another Unit Converter

General Material Properties - Matweb

Plastic Material Properties

Pipe Pressure Loss Calculator

Compressible Flow Refresher

Atmospheric Pressure Calculator

Old School Mesh Size Calculator

eFluids - random fluid links

CFD Lecture Notes

Electronics Cooling Magazine

CFD-online - great CFD discussion forums

I will begin to organize these a bit more as comments are posted. Disclaimer- these are all links that I have used over the years. Take them for what they are - random links.

LED's are more than just another type of lightbulb..!

I have been talking to a fair number of engineers in lighting companies that are currently working on implementing "LEDs" into their product designs. Definitely the new thing right now. Let's look at why...

1. They are more energy efficient (more lumens/Watt).
2. The lighting is directional, so there is no wasted light.
3. Very long lifetime- 50-100k hours.
4. Environmentally sound - no Hg, Pb etc.
5. Infinitely dimmable
6. Work great in cold environments

Above is a video of a model we did for a customer recently. The user wanted to optimize the performance by ensuring that the junction temperature stayed below a critical value. We tried a variety of options, such as, different heat sink designs, different LED arrangements and different housing configurations. Classic application for Upfront CFD. Allows us to provide an answer to the classic question, "what if?".

There are a variety of challenges for engineers that are new to the LED world. Here is a list of the challenges engineers are facing.

1. The desire to get the maximum output, so engineers are constantly pushing the limit of the LED devices.
2. There is not enough data available so the "rules of thumb" are currently being developed.
3. The data provided to engineers is not accurate from the manufacturers.
4. The testing that is being done does not replicate the actual environments in which the LEDs are being used.
5. A wide variance in the lifespan of the LEDs based on the junction temperatures.
6. Finding creative ways to manage the heat.
   
   

The overwhelming concern for engineers is to maintain the junction temperature. Check out the graph above. It shows how increasing the junction temperautre drastically reduces the lifescycle of the LED.

There is a ton of info out there on the web that goes into more specifics. Go check it out. Always fun to be able to help engineers solve some of their fundamental issues. To me, LEDs are not much different than any other product out there from a simulation perspective. But it has been interesting learning more and more about how they are being used in the world.

iskoot: skype for mobile phones

I received an email from a good friend, telling me to check out iskoot. It is a 3rd party application that allows you to access skype on your mobile.

It allows for texting, calling etc all through Skype. You are able to see if your contacts are online (check out the view below). If you call a Skype user, it is free. If you call a landline or mobile number, it charges your Skype Credit. Obviously, if you have a monthly plan, than the fees will be covered. I have recently switched to the Unlimited World Plan. It allowed me save over a $110/mo. on my office phone. I actually cancelled my office landline. I can use call forwarding, voice mail when on the road.

I just recently tested this out for a week in Europe. Works great. The only requirement is to have a data plan. It's not clear whether or not my mobile carrier will charge an additional SMS fee? So I only used it sparingly.

But, if I do not incur any additional fees, this will change the way I can communicate when traveling abroad. Currently text messages can cost up to $0.50/text. So if this works out, I will be able to save a fortune staying in contact with members of our team.

So, where's the catch? Not exactly sure?! I suspect there are more hidden costs than advertised. We'll see at the end of the month. Also, where does iskoot make their $$$? I recently read an interview with their CEO, who implied that there will be a small monthly fee once a network of users has been established.

Skype recently announced a Skype for Mobile package. I tried downloading it, but failed every time. Currently it is in BETA, so I will let you know how things progress. Even if there is a fee, Skype has certainly changed the way that I stay connected. The best thing is that it is at a fraction of the cost of the traditional methods.

On-demand "remote" Upfront Simulation?!?

There has always been buzz in the CAE industry for users to take advantage of remote cluster computing. Essentially, you would set up your models locally on a machine and run it on a server hosted by a vendor. Some of the old timers, like Fluent, have been in this business for a number of years. I tried their version about 5 years ago. Cool in concept, but the interface and process took some getting used to. I found it difficult to track the model's progress.

The main problem or limitation on this capability will be the bandwidth. As internet access becomes more readily available and connections speeds improve, I think there is a future in "cloud computing" for Upfront CAE.

I currently do a mocked up version of cloud computing myself. I have a laptop and 64-bit desktop. In CFdesign, I am able to choose which machine I want to solve on directly from within the interface. So, this allows me to very efficiently setup and review models on my laptop and solve and store them on my desktop. I can even do this similar process remote. Takes a bit more copying and pasting and uploading/downloading but it works for now. Still trying to get Remote Desktop to work reliably. In the meantime, I will stick with GOTOMYPC. I used this all week while in Amserdam. Even on a fairly slow connection, I was able to access my dekstop and review a model's progress.

Ideally, I would love to improve this process. Here's my wish list. For starters, I would like to build models on my laptop, set them up etc and hit "GO" and have the option of what computer to solve on, even when I am traveling. I would like to have a "favorites" list of computers to choose. Some of us have one or two machines to use, others have a bit more. The file exchange would have to be super fast and lightweight. I then want a "link" to be created that I can access from any browser where I can monitor performance - convergence, mesh quality, mass balance, max temps, max pressures... I want the interface to have the look and feel of a modern web page that I can access from any computer or my phone!. To make life easier, I would like to have the option to have a text message or email sent with the link so I can have immediate access to it. I also want the option to text/email me when the model is finished, encountered an error or simply update me on the progress.

Version 2.0 should have a lightweight preview of the model (similar to JT or Adobe 3d) that allows me to pan, zoom, rotate and view my results. If I could have acces to all of the results, that would be great. But a lightweight model seems to make the most sense for web browsing.

This whole process would be great if I could do this on my "other" machine. But what if I had the option to do this to a remote farm of computers hosted by the software vendor? This way, I could have access to unlimited computing power, unlimited storage capacity (with a fee of course) and unlimited access to technical support in the event that something went wrong. A premium support model would exist so that I can "collaborate" with a support engineer using a variety of medias (texting, iming, email, forum type posts).

Think of the info that could be provided to the vendor on performance, mesh times and sizes, solver times, solver performance, application statistics etc.. The pluses are endless for all.

If I could add version 3.0 to my wish list - it would include driving optimization via this web interface. Cloud computing will only be appropriate for a select group of engineers. But I think the concept can give us endless possibilities. I am looking forward to seeing where the on-demand market takes the CAE industry.

On-Demand Applications in the CAE Industry - Part I

I think "on-demand" software has its place in the future in the CAE industry. Not sure if "on-demand" is the correct way to categorize it all, but I think it explains it fairly well. I am referring to applications that reside on a remote server and are accessed via the web, rather than run locally from the desktop.

It already exists in certain aspects. It was about 10 years ago that I came across "bom.com". It was a company that positioned handling all of the data management, bill of materials etc via the web. At the time, I thought it was a very cool idea, but they were the days when we were paying for AOL by the minute. As cool as I thought the concept was, I thought the name of their company was even cooler. I never imagined that the web would evolve into what it is today. Obviously the guys at bom.com did, as they have evolved into Arena Solutions. I snagged the above image off their site. They can explain what they do way better than I, go check them out.

Today, all of the CAD companies each have their own flavor of on-demand PDM and project management tools. I recently used Autodesk Streamline while working with a client in California. We used it to share files for a project. Sure beats the security nightmares of ftp sites.

I have recently become completely obsessed with on-demand solutions. I am using Google docs daily. I find its a great way to keep my files in order, available wherever I am, plus it allows me to share the files with members of our team. There are numerous other on-demand applications that I am looking into. Stay tuned, a bunch more to come on this topic.