Technologies

This page outlines some of the technologies that are important to our work and some recent developments that present new and interesting opportunities for solving engineering problems.

3D

Since the late 1970's major CAD vendors have been promising that 3D would revolutionise mechanical engineering design and production engineering. Since the late 1990's PC graphics capabilities have shot ahead and hardware prices have plummeted. More affordable hardware now means 3D is economically viable for more people and more applications. Also recent software advances mean 3D has become a little easier to use. It seems the time for 3D might at last be arriving. Click here for details on one alternative to general purpose 3D modelling systems.

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 relatively new format which seems a potentially better file format than options such as IGES, VRML and STEP because:

• The key players like PTC, Dassault, SolidWorks and Autodesk have signed up as supporters on the www.openhsf.org web site.
• HSF files allow 3D models to be published on Internet web sites. Because HSF is a streaming file format you can pan and zoom around the 3D model even while the file is downloading.
• 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.

Computer Languages

In recent years we have used Microsoft Visual Basic or FORTRAN for most of our work. Over the 35+ years we have each been working with computers, we have tried to choose languages that had an assured future and sound support. Thus we have avoided many of the language fads that have come and gone during that period.

Three key reasons we currently prefer Visual Basic for our sort of work are:

1. It's generally much quicker to develop a program in Visual Basic than it is in languages such as C++. Therefore, we can quote lower costs to our customers and we can deliver working programs much sooner.
2. Visual Basic, in all it's various forms, is the most popular language for developing Microsoft Windows applications and, therefore, it is the language in which our customers are more likely to have some expertise. This provides our customers with the opportunity to make enhancements after they take ownership of the software source code we develop for them.
3. It's easy to create attractive user interfaces which conform to the common standards employed by most commercial software which runs on Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft Visio

We have developed software for use with Visio since 1995 for work we have done with BICC and Raychem (now a part of Tyco Electronics). We believe Visio is an easy-to-use affordable 2D drawing system that is suited to many schematic draughting applications. Click here for the resources to Roger's "Developing Visio Solutions with VB" talk he presented to the Visual Basic Users Group on 24th April.

AutoCAD

We have used AutoCAD for a wide range of projects including:

• An automotive wiring harness design system for Lucas Rists. We did the initial AutoCAD software in 1986 when the AutoLISP language was first introduced and allowed customised extensions to be easily added to AutoCAD.
• Design, draughting, parts listing and document management systems for BOC Process Plants sites in the UK and USA.
• Maintenance, extensions and support of a landscape gardening design, costing and quantity take-off system for James Blake and Associates.

We believe AutoCAD is a good system for to-scale drawing work in such industries as mechanical engineering and architecture. Unfortunately the cost limits the number of people in an organisation that can be reached by solutions built upon AutoCAD. Also it is more difficult to learn than systems such as Visio.

Medusa

Since the early 1980's we have helped a number of companies implement and customise their Medusa CAD systems. These include: Babcock Woodall-Duckham, GEC Alsthom, Link51 Storage Products, Prime Computer (UK), Raychem, Root Solutions, Satake, Urenco and Williams Fairey Engineering.

Unfortunately Medusa has had four or five different owners and it has not received the investment in development and support which it deserved. Also the owners failed to recognise the need for a low-cost PC version at the time when AutoCAD was being developed into a credible alternative during the late 1980's and early 1990's. As a result the number of companies using Medusa has declined significantly from the peak in the mid 1990's.

Database Systems

Many of our projects require some form of database. Where possible we use systems such as Microsoft Access, dBASE or Oracle to avoid reinventing the wheel and to provide more flexible solutions. However we have also developed database systems specifically tailored to particular applications where necessary for reasons of performance or cost. Quadstar is an example of a special purpose textual and graphical database system we developed to help with welding quality assurance and project management in the offshore oil platform fabrication and nuclear construction industries.

OpenGL

OpenGL is a software interface to graphics hardware which is used to specify objects and operations needed for interactive 3D applications. OpenGL was developed by Silicon Graphics Inc but is hardware independent and is a part of the native Microsoft Windows operating system and many versions of Unix. General information, mainly intended for programmers is available on the Official OpenGL Web Site: www.opengl.org.

We have used OpenGL to produce 3D modelling systems for electrical wiring harnesses and warehouse racking systems.

Screen Capture and Recording Systems

During the Windows PC era we've tried quite a few different screen capture and recording systems with varying degrees of success. One from a very well known software publisher, who will remain nameless, was so bad we even asked for, and received, a full refund!

Against this mixed background it's good to report that Camtasia and SnagIt are very much better, although Camtasia is a little more expensive than some alternatives. These two systems produce high quality videos and screen captures and, for the particular purpose for which they are intended, they are easy to use. For further details refer to www.techsmith.com or www.greymatter.com. Grey Matter are the UK distributor and they're one of the best software retailers we know.