Comment

Here are some of our comments on current CAE issues.

Profit through Better Design

CAE should be used for much more than just draughting or 3D modelling. Click here for some thoughts on how CAE can help produce better designs, which is much more likely to improve the profitability of engineering companies than simply saving a few hours in the design and production engineering departments.

Alternative Approach for 3D Modelling

Click here for some thoughts on an alternative which, for some applications, maybe a better approach than using a general purpose 3D modelling system.

OpenHSF

The OpenHSF Initiative is an industry-wide effort, launched in February 2002, to establish a common, open format for sharing 3D data between disparate CAE systems. The Hoops Streaming File (HSF) is a new format which seems a much better file format than options such as IGES, VRML and STEP because:

1. The key players like PTC, Dassault, SolidWorks and Autodesk have already signed up as supporters on the www.openhsf.org web site.
2. HSF files are highly compressed and this allows 3D models to be used on Internet web sites. Moreover as HSF is a streaming file format, you can pan and zoom around the 3D model even while the file is downloading.
3. HSF files can be structured so that individual components can be moved around within the receiving CAD system and could be associated with such attributes as part numbers, costs, etc.

Click here for further details and some sample HSF files from one of our systems.