Upfront CAE should drive innovation, not validation

Anyone that has used, seen or even heard of Upfront CAE will admit that it has come along way in the last 5-10 years. The software developers try to make it as easy as possible. They strive to make the UI slick and modern, guide you through the process and provide you sound answers to your questions. They even provide answers to questions, you probably didn't think about.

But I think many of us get focused on "the number" - pressure drop, max temperature, Cv, whatever. I think we all should take a minute, step back and try interpreting what design decisions to make, based on the information provided.

There is so much information that can be provided, but we as engineers have to think of the various techniques and pick "our favorites". For example, there are a variety of ways to determine the pressure drop in a system (cut planes, summary files, bulk data, probing) - which should I use? Very simple, the one the fits your process. But ask yourself, ok, that is the value. But what is causing that value, where are the recirculation regions, where is the largest gradient -- do all of these occur where I expect them to occur? If not, why? Sometimes there will be large gradients in a gap, for example, not much you can do about that. But often gradients are happening in other regions of the model - those you can fix.

Same applies to all of the CAE problems out there. Keep pushing yourself to ask, why, and what if, and how can I improve my design. The information is there, we just need to know how to use it.

Go Phillies!!

Ok, I won't even pretend to claim to be a huge fan of baseball, nor have I really followed the Phillies this year. However, I am definitely jumping on the bandwagon and will follow them as they are now headed to the World Series. Plus, I scored tickets to one of the home games. Not bad for a bandwagon-er. ;-)

It is really awesome to see some positive news coming out of the good ol' City of Brotherly Love. Horns were blasting all night. Watching the news last night, I thought 'this can't be good'. 1000s of people in the streets going insane. So far so good. We do tend to get a bad rap. Maybe its justified? Oh well, deal with it.

Reconnecting with Music -- check it out LIVE

I'm not sure about you, but my life seems to be surrounded by music. I am by no means a music guy - can't play an instrument, can't sing etc.. There are people that are way more into it. But, I am a huge fan. I usually have an ipod or headphones connected to itunes, online radio, pandora as well as a list of others. When I am in the car or not in my office - I am streaming XM. Even after all of that, I still get bored and want more. Here are some of my favorites..

Live Music

PHISH
Counting Crows
Grateful Dead

Internet Radio

WXPN - Philly - awesome NPR station based out of U of Penn
Y-Rock - old school alternative rock station- internet only
Pandora - customizable Internet radio;really cool

Satellite Radio

XM

I have been on a big kick lately of listening to live music. My wife and I just saw Counting Crows at the Borgata casino in August. Awesome show in a really small setting. Hard to commit to going to shows live, but there are alternatives. There are a host of ways to grab some live music - either via itunes, amazon, band websites, my space - whatever. Go out there and see what's playing, the selection is endless.

What would life be like with a netbook?

I am about to jump on the netbook train. If you are not familiar with the term netbook, check out the previous link to give you the low down. The easiest way to think about it; it's a small laptop that is designed to be mostly used to access the Internet. Lightweight, small hard drive , 9-10" screen, no CD-ROM etc. So, many people are probably thinking that it is a laptop to simply browse the web? Well, not exactly.

It is true that most of the interaction you have with the netbook will be via the Internet. But it goes beyond simple web browsers. It is a new way of thinking about computers. It is leveraging "software as a service" (SaaS). In general, the hard drives are very small, so most of the application and data is hosted "online". So, the need to be connected most of the time is a fundamental requirement. Probably not exactly feasible today, but with the adoption of 3G networks, it will be only a matter of time before we are connected all the time. Plus many applications like Google Docs allow you to mark files "offline".

I think when looking at a netbook, you have to keep it all in perspective. Being a CAD/CFD guy, I know that netbooks are not designed to drive these types of tools.

So here is a quick list of the essentials....

Operating System Ubuntu Linux
Office Applications OpenOffice & Google Docs
Voip & IMs Skype
Web Browsing Firefox
Email & Calendar Gmail
Online File Storage box.net
Work CRM System Salesforce.com

What's missing? Well, making the move to Linux always has it's drawbacks (netbooks are available with Windows). Here is a quick rundown of applications I need to replace - itunes, Snagit, Evernote..

Ok, so the big question, why spend $500 on a netbook??? For me, there are a handful of reasons.

1. Portable device to travel with to reduce having to drag out my M6300.
2. Inexpensive way to reacquaint with Ubuntu Linux.
3. An easy way to experiment with an SaaS lifestyle.
4. Expose my kids to computers & Linux at a very early age.
5. A lightweight option to use when I'm in "web mode"

I am looking forward to reporting my findings. I expect some bumps in the road, but really excited to see the market that this product is trying to serve. I love seeing the videos out there showing how easily kids are picking up Linux. The idea of a Linux 'remix' has some huge potential moving forward. Remix is just a fancy word for customized UI of Ubuntu Linux.

When you are the "Big Dog", you must consistently deliver!

Everyone, big and small, strives to be the best at what they do. Right? Only a select few ever reach the status of the "standard", "best of the best" or the "Big Dog" in their market. Look at Microsoft, Apple, Google etc.. I think we can all agree that they dominate in their own right.

But look at what happens when you become so big that you are are constantly criticized for not delivering -- Microsoft. They are still doing well for themselves, but becoming more and more vulnerable. Not to mention, losing market share. Google is new and young enough that they are doing great, but things can quickly change if they slip, even once. Take Chrome, for example, people jumped all over some of the inefficiencies. Personally, I like it, but will stick with Firefox for now.

Now, let's take a look at Apple. I have always been a fan. In fact, I just returned from the Apple Store with my 6th ipod. (I recently dropped my shuffle in the ocean). In general, I have always been happy with my ipods. I use them constantly and some have stopped working over time or I just wanted an upgrade.

But let's take itunes. Where to start.. For an application that updates itself more than any other application I have ever seen, it leaves ALOT to be desired. Sure it is functional, but for the core product of their music business, I expect way more. Some people argue, 'well, it is free'. Totally bogus excuse as it is the front-end of the money making machine for Apple.

I am sure that many of the issues that I have are operator error, but.. I don't care. I have GB's of music that I purchased on itunes as well as the above mentioned box of ipods. I have purchased countless songs on itunes that I already had on CDs simply because it was easier. So, I consider myself a good consumer for Apple and have the right to rant about itunes.

Here is a quick list of the things that irritate me...

1. User interface is becoming old and outdated - medium irritation
   
2. Play list management is clunky - minor irritation
3. Randomly, it creates duplicate songs in my library - huge irritation
   
4. Switching my library from one computer to another is a nightmare - HUGE irritation
   
5. No way to access previously purchased songs - online backup -- medium irritation
6. Loses path to external drive; resets to default -- huge irritation

I am sure that there are simple fixes to the above, but to me, I don't have the time or the patience when it comes to this sort of stuff. I expect it to be as close to perfect as possible and want you to continue to WOW me every time. If you don't, I will then begin to look for the next big thing. Major expectations on my part, I know. But that's what you should expect when you are the "Big Dog".

This relates to all markets. As a member of a fairly small company, we live and breathe thinking we are the standard. We work each day "earning" your business. Are we perfect? Absolutely, not. But we strive everyday to exceed your expectations. My point here is not to brag, but simply state the facts. I think everyone should work each day as if they were the standard and strive for perfection. In the software world, there will be bugs and imperfections. But the harder we push ourselves to deliver the entire package each day will result in happy customers.

The idea here is that someday you might be the next 'Big Dog'. The catch is that it doesn't get any easier. The bigger you get, the higher the expectations.

Sick of FTP's, shared and external drives -- cloud computing is alive and well with box.net

I have 3 and counting external drives that I have countless amount of data stored for the infamous, "just in case" situation. So, we are talking about ~500GB of data. Some of it is necessary for immediate access and some of it, would be awesome to share with others.

I have easy access to an ftp site and it works, for the most part. It doesn't have a very slick interface and it is a real drag to "share" and "collaborate" with others. People constantly struggle accessing ftp sites.

I started cruising around looking for an alternative. A friend sent me a link to dropbox.com. Looked interesting, but fell short on some of the features I needed. I then found box.net. Here is a breakdown of the comparisons.

Not to mention, it will quickly become a staple for those that are entering the "netbook" way of life. I think what I love most about box.net, is that they have really seem to have thought of quite a few things - such as emailing docs via Google Mail & Outlook, working in conjunction with efax, blogger, zoho, twitter, facebook etc.. So, from a user's experience, I love that it is a multi-dimensional product. They even scored a deal with Autodesk to upload and translate certain CAD data.

Here is their CEO giving some of the details...

But, the biggest announcement is that they are partnering with Dell and are being bundled as a part of the new Dell mini 9. I love where all of this is going. I am going to see if I can score a Dell mini 9 with Ubuntu fully loaded and begin living and computing via the clouds.

How do "You" prefer to receive Technical Support?

For anyone that visited this blog for the last few weeks, noticed the option to vote on "how do you prefer to receive technical support". I should have been a bit more specific on what type of product etc, but I was really interested to see how people would respond. Initially, I was a bit bummed at the number of responses, but a fellow blogger mentioned that if you get a 2% response rate that is about average. I am proud to say, I received a response of ~6%.

Not surprising, the answers are a bit spread out. In my experience, individuals all learn differently and all like to search for help differently. I think it is the responsibility of the various vendors to know their user base and ensure that they provide support in a format that is catered to their users and not simply what is best for the vendor.

Interestingly, you see the two extremes are the most popular. That is some folks prefer to call and talk to their support engineers and the other extreme, some prefer to learn via video. Click the image below to enlarge.


Not to stereotype, but I find that support preference is partially governed by the generation of the engineers you ask. I think we are simply comfortable with what we know or how we were taught. Meaning, in the past, support was only available via phone and user manuals, then email became popular, and now videos and user forums seem to be popular. We have engineers that obviously span all of these options. But I think all will agree with the following, "We want the correct solution to our problem, in the fastest amount of time with the least amount of effort." Each person has their own tolerance and limits of these factors.

An interesting option, that I intentionally left it out, is "chatting" with support folks. Personally, I love it - used it today to talk to Dell and to my wireless provider. What do I like about chat?

1. Allows me to receive support and answer the phone, respond to emails etc while I am trying various suggestions provided by support
2. I don't have to sit on the phone and wait for them to look through the database, pull up my records, place me on hold while he checks on some things.
3. Plus, as with Dell, they email you the chat so I now have a written record of what to try when and if I ever have that problem again.

Personally, I love it. Can you receive "chat" support for CFD or for CAD? For some things, yes. Some things, no. If it is something real quick that you want to go back and forth with support, it can work. If the problem is a bit more sophisticated, you may need another medium. The point is, you should have the option that solves the problem the way you want to solve it.

PHISH is back!!!

Completely non-CFD, non-CAE, non-CAD related post. In fact, no technical content whatsoever.

But sometimes, it is just nice to take a step back and post something on the personal side. One of my favorite bands of all time have been on hiatus (break-up) for the last 4 years. They are scheduled to play three shows in Hampton, VA in March.

I have seen them in the past and hope to see them again when additional shows are announced.I have a few GB of live digital phish shows, that is what is loaded on my ipod and what I am playing in the office.

Something to think about when your flight is delayed...

Totally random post. But, wow, check out this video below. It shows flights across the world in a 24hr period. Amazing! Next time you are pissed that your flight is delayed, think of what is going on in the big picture.

Aviation is amazing! Easy to get frustrated when things get delayed etc. Always good to keep things in perspective. Thanks, Jonah, for the link.

What exactly is Upfront CFD & CFdesign?

I am constantly asked, "What do you do?". It then spirals into...

"I work for a really cool software company."

"Wow, who?" (said w. enthusiasm)

"Well, a relatively small company that develops design software for engineers" (said w. enthusiasm)

"Oh, sounds interesting." (said politely)

"Yea, it's awesome, we help engineers create really innovative designs, by reducing the number of physical prototypes, we turn their computers into a virtual prototyping environments. It allows engineers to turn their computers into a virtual flow bench, wind tunnel or thermal test rig!! Allows them to really understand how to improve their product performance by seeing how they work in 3D."

"yea, wow, hmmm...I am going to grab another beer, you want anything!"

I am fortunate enough to work with a bunch of guys that are super excited about what we do. We all spin it a bit different, but in the end, we are all saying the same thing. Here's a classic...

Check out the video above, really solid explanation of what Upfront CFD truly is.

Choosing a CFD Services Provider

Pretty much every engineer will have to seek outside help from a consultant at one point in their career. There are a variety of fantastic service providers out there. But the question always comes out, how to pick someone that is reputable, reliable and affordable? Word of mouth and recommendations tend to be a reliable way to choose the correct vendor. But suppose the help you need is a niche problem or something you have never encountered before - can be quite stressful as you feel as though you are taking a gamble.

I was out this morning early walking my dogs on the trails near my home. Two ladies were jogging by and I overheard the conversation.

"My presentation went over very well. I am really glad I put the time into preparing.... I was able to score four consulting projects out of the deal. I'm not exactly sure who will do them, but that isn't my problem."

Sound familiar? Happens all the time. You often hear the old IBM approach the "Blue is there for you". Implying that due to shear size, they are able to address your needs. But suppose you are new the problem and need that extra bit of attention to help you understand the results of the service provided. The more important question, I feel, is does the vendor have the bandwidth, do they have the expertise, but most importantly - "can they explain to me the solution to the problem in a way that I understand?"

Not completely a shameless plug here, just highlighting what I have found to be valuable to our customers. In the world of CFD, you tend to have two extremes when looking at services. You have those that rely heavily on high end, very complicated problems (requiring a complicated software solution) and those that tend to be focused on design (MCAD VAR) but dabble a bit in engineering services. So perhaps your problem is so complicated that you need a specialist with an extremely complex solution or your problems are super simple that a CAD guy can help. I am sure there are problems out there that fit these categories.

However, I have found that majority of problems out there fall into the middle of the two extremes. Often, the problems require a decent understanding of the physics, but are heavily weighted on the impact of the design. In other words, many of the engineers that I speak to need someone that truly understands fluid flow and heat transfer, but also is savvy enough to know from a design perspective, what design changes to make and why.

Regardless of where your problems fall, make sure that you dig in and trust your gut feel. When talking to a services provider, do you get a good feeling from this guy? Can he provide references for similar problems? Does he speak "my language" or just using fancy terms to impress? Remember, it's your companies money and your reputation at stake.

Where to go for "Help"?!

I am pretty confident that when people are evaluating new software solutions, both big and small, we would all agree that good technical support is very important. Depending on the size or complexity of the application, it is much more important than others. But it also has to do with the individual person. Each person has a different competency and has a certain level of tolerance to figure things out on their own. But probably most importantly, each person prefers to find their help in different ways.

Experience has shown that todays senior engineers are used to the either RTFM (read the fing manual) routine or dialing up their favorite support person and having a chat. Today's new engineers rely a bit more on the instant gratification modell and will surf forums, community sites etc. Neither is right or wrong, just a matter of preference. But I believe that a software community model is a win-win for all.

My definition of a community is a place where I can search the Knowledge Base, access the Help system, read and participate in Forums, view Blogs written on the topic, submit a support question, track my support question and access the support phone number if necessary. Notice that I place the phone option as a last resource. Partially, its a matter of preference and historically bad experiences. But, most importantly, if we as "users" are given the information at our fingertips, it will free up the time of the support team to address those that indeed need a quick chat on the phone.

Dell, for example, has a 800 number to call and you are routed all over the world. I dont care if I am routed to Mars as long as I get an answer to my question. But, they also have the "chat" option. I love this. I can do other things as I am waiting in the queue as well as have a quick live chat in short blasts that almost always gets an answer to my question. Dell, provides a Knowledge Base etc, but it is on the extreme side - way too much info. It would take me forever going through their KB, to realize that my battery is fried and needs to be replaced.

My beloved, Skype, has a great Forum section. They have power users around the world that usually chime in with some tips. But (sorry Skype), their actual support system is really bad. The response time is horrendously slow -- they claim 72 hour response (yikes), but takes more like 4-5 days +. HOWEVER, what skype has that I love is when I submit a question, I pick a category and I am presented with 3 possible solutions prior to submitting. They are obviously trying to enforce the self sufficient model. Again, fine with me as long as it answers my question.

I have posted before, that I am a huge fan of videos. I'd rather do a quick search and be presented with Solutions and a Video that explains the solution. Show me and let me figure it out.

Check out my scientific :) poll here at the top of the page. Interesting that email received the least amount of votes. Why is that? My exhaustive analysis of the statistics reveals that email is not instantaneous enough. If I email support, it goes into a queue just like everyone else. I then receive the typical first email that may or may not answer my question. If if does, great, if it doesn't I am back in the queue. The support person will then have a difficult time tracking our conversation and it goes into an oblivion of misunderstandings.

Point of the rant here is, people are different. They should be given options. It is ok to guide them along the process of being self-sufficent, just make sure you are answering their questions.

Subway Fires & Upfront CFD

It never ceases to amaze me how people use Upfront CFD to solve their problems. Recently, one of the guys on our team, Ryan Abel, has been working on a fair amount of HVAC problems. Check out the image of a subway fire. The image shows the smoke as it is exiting the subway car while at a station stop.

It is really fun to engage with folks that completely appreciate looking at images similar to the one above. Often, this particular audience, are architectural firms. They don't have any formal CFD training and really don't have much experience in modeling the complex physics. But, they have a need to understand from a design perspective what is going on during various situations. What happens when the doors are open? What happens when the exhaust fans are turned on? How long does it take to evacuate the smoke from the space? What is the "visisibility" in the space during a fire?

Sounds familiar..."what if?" Good old "what if". It is one of the fundamental principles of Upfront CFD. It is a blast to work with these guys. Tons of excitement, lots of curiosity, lots and lots of questions. Makes our job really fun to engage with people super excited about the technology!

Game Changer: Evernote!!

I am always looking for tools to make my life more efficient. Efficiency, I have found, is in the eyes of the beholder. But, for me, I have been looking for a digital way to capture ideas, organize thoughts, create lists and to-do lists. I have a mixed match system of word documents, notepad files, physical post-its, emails to self, electronic post-its, tasks in Outlook, a physical notebook (small and large), a GTD folder. The list is endless. I have looked at tools like One Note and Mind Manager - each I am sure are fantastic, but I just couldn't grasp how to use them. I found that I was spending more time dinking with my new system than gaining any efficiency.

In my mind, my life was too complicated to find a single tool or system that can satisfy my needs. So, I gave in to a physical notebook. One of the guy's on our team refers to it as "my little green book". Not sure why I find that funny, I just do. I carry this beast everywhere, jotting notes in different colors, filled with a variety of note taking systems so I can come back and refer to them later. The thought is that in the evenings, I can then quickly extract this info and then enter it into yet another system. Confused yet? Me too.

I stumbled upon Evernote. Stealing from their website.....

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Always one to love a video explanation, check out the above from the Evernote folks. You are probably getting the idea that it is a "web site grabbing" tool? I use it as so much more than that. Primarily, I use it as a list creation and to-do list tool.

But, above all, what I love the most about Evernote is that I can access it from multiple locations --> local application on my laptop, via the web from any machine or my phone. They are all synched at all times. It gives me the best of all worlds.

A couple of things to note of Evernote as a company. They are gaining a ton of points with me as a customer. They have -- a blog, post to Twitter, have a Facebook fan page and have one of the better forums I have ever used. One of the moderators, Engberg, consistently responds quickly to posts.

I am looking forward to future releases. There are certainly things that could be added, but for now, I'm sold.

Poking Fun @ the PTC "For Sale" Saga....

Huge Disclaimer: This is posted in good fun, not looking to cause a national incident. Officially, I am a huge fan of PTC!! :)

A good friend sent me this photo, I thought it summed it all up pretty nicely.


This photo was taken recently north of Tel Aviv, Isreal. Reminds me of a priceless commercial.

PTC is for sale???

I just stumbled across this little gem. With all of the mergers going on, probably not that much of a surprise. If we look at the activity of late - some of it makes sense, some of it not so much.

To me, it makes sense that Autodesk is expanding it's horizons. Expanding its simulation game by acquiring Plassotech and Moldflow. Trying to become the dominant player.

Dassault Systems seems to be aligning itself by renaming/re-branding all of their product lines. ANSYS is just buying everyone and becoming this massive behemoth of a company.

So where does this leave, good ol' PTC? Arguably they are the leaders of PLM. They recently acquired CoCreate to either expand on some of their technology or more likely, gain traction in some of the CoCreate install base to sell MathCAD, PDMLink etc??? Now, they are putting the "For Sale" sign on the window? For $2B?

I have to admit, I am not sure I fully understood why Siemens purchased UGS, so I guess this falls in the same category. Who can afford a $2B purchase? I am not sure anyone in the MCAD/FEA/CFD world, so perhaps another monster company coming in like Siemens?? Maybe Google, Microsoft? How about Apple? One can only wish!!!

Weekend Project: Ubuntu Linux

I have written in the past about my interest in Linux. I have recently downloaded and installed Ubuntu. Certain surveys show that Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distributions, approximately 30%. Dell even offers it on certain machines.

The main reason I like this distribution is that it focuses on ease of use and installation. Other Linux distributions are probably just as powerful but can be difficult to use or difficult to install. I downloaded ubuntu and installed on an old machine with no issues at all. I am still working on getting the wireless card to work but I think I have an old machine with an outdated driver.

I also recently took the plunge into the world of Vista. Check out the video above that highlights some of the differences between the two. I still don't believe that Linux will be accepted by mainstream users. But, then again, not sure if that is the targeted market?

Follow CFdesign on Twitter

I wrote about Twitter a few weeks ago. I kind of thought it was this neat little tool that allowed me to stay in touch with similar minded people. I am beginning to appreciate how much twitter or tweets can be used to keep customers up to date on the latest and greatest.

It is interesting to me how many medias that we can use to stay connected and informed. Each person is different. Some people think Twitter, for example, takes time and effort. Others of us think that it saves a tremendous amount of time capturing information.

Trying to install Catia v5 R18 on Vista 32-bit!!!!?

Reaching out to anyone that can help. You can save the "I told you so comments" :) I realize that v5 isn't supported on 32-bit Vista, however, I know that people have gotten R17 and R16 to run, so one would assume that R18 can run.

The installer for v5 doesn't even run on 32 bit, so I copied the installation files over manually. I set the env variables as well, so v5 opens. I just can't get the license service to start. I use the i4cfg.exe to set my laptop as the license server. Seems to go ok, until I try and start the service.

I run i4cfg -start from the Command Prompt and receive. I get..

Followed by a...

GRL-2050: *** Fatal error from I4LLMD:
License database on an invalid node.
CFG-20040: Error(s) reported by 1 or more services: 'Start Services' failed
Press any key to continue . . .

in the command prompt window. I noticed that my targetid is completely different than the one I used for XP, but I doubt that has anything to do with it.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get it running??? Other than this roadblock, I have been pretty happy with Vista in general. Much more to come on that front...

The Zen of Implementing Upfront CFD

The traditional use of the word "Zen", typically refers to a from of Buddhism that concentrates on learning through meditation and intuition. It is said that enlightenment can come through meditation and not pure faith. So, how does this apply to Upfront CFD or Upfront Simulation for that matter? Hang tight...

Engineers love a process. Whatever it is in the world, we like to follow a certain path. We tend to implement new tools to our process by following a traditional path. Look at how we implement simulation tools. We usually do an internal huddle to make a commitment to seeing what's out there. We invite all of the vendor's to come in and show their stuff. Often we prepare a model for them to "prove" themselves or even better, we prepare a benchmark. How much thought is given to the model we give the vendor? How about the benchmark? What are we benchmarking?

Typically, we are benchmarking something we already know. A model where we "could" have used an upfront tool, but instead we tested it. Ok, fair enough. So, from the vendor's perspective, they just proved that you "could" have provided some value last year. Is that good enough? Often not!

So, let's say it was. We would probably then sign up for a regional training course. Nominate our 2-3 hotshot guys to all attend for 2-5 days of training. We go through the training, we all head back to the office and are ready to go. We may even crack open a tutorial to ensure we are really ready and proficient. THEN, we take a look at our real problem, our current problem. The problem that we should haven been thinking about from Day 1. If you are a valve company, wouldn't it make more sense to learn how to solve valve type problems? What is the benefit of learning the history of meshing if you are unable to plot a pressure drop or obtain a Cv value?

It's amazing how beneficial it can be to take a step back (follow the zen path) and ask ourselves, if I had this upfront tool tomorrow, what is the first problem I would like to solve? What problem is really holding us back as a company from making more money, reducing failure, increasing life cycle, allowing for creativity. Simply put, what problem can I solve to put me ahead of the guy down the street? That is the problem you should benchmark. Push the vendor to solve your pain and show you the path to solving pains on your own. This to me, is the path to enlightenment. Let's be fair, depending on the size of the problem, we should be willing to pay for the time.

Ask yourself, is the vendor I am dealing with able to address this problem?

The # of Upfront CFD Blogs is Growing...

I love to hear slightly different perspectives from various people on the same topic. Two other guys on our team are writing blogs about Upfront CFD/Upfront CAE and their various subtopics.

Jeff Waters is along time Upfront CAE guy with an eye towards the impact it has on engineering businesses. He writes his blog, lifeupfront, from Rhode Island in the US. His target audience tends to be engineering management, from the engineering manager all the way through to the C-level folks.

James Neville heads up our services team in Europe. He is way into cars in general and many of his posts are geared toward well, gearheads. He writes his blog, Turbocharged Engineering, from Giessen, Germany.

Check out the awesome video on James' latest post. Pretty sophisticated analysis where we see the cooling of the liquid in the cup, conduction into the mug itself and then the transient effects of a fan pulling air up from the top. Awesome!!

My New Fascination: Twitter

As we speak, I am sitting in London, heading home after a week of traveling in Europe on business. Spent my time split between England and Germany. I had a chance to dig a bit deeper into microblogging a bit. I'll leave it up to the wikipedia link to give you a background and history on microblogging. In a nutshell, it is a fast way to keep those in your "circle" up to date on what you are up to. The concept exists on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. But probably the most popular is twitter.

A few people responded to my blog posts and asked when I was going to get into tweeting, twitter etc.. I'll be honest, I didn't get it at first. I then saw this post on demogirl.com and it began to make a bit more sense. But then saw the awesome video below and it sealed the deal for me.

I am now a huge fan and somewhat obsessed with twitter. For a guy that travels a ton and really likes to stay connected, it is a perfect outlet to stay in touch with friends and family. I am definitely relatively new to the whole thing and we'll see how long it lasts, but if you are interested, you can find me here.

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.