Microsoft Surface: Innovation in Design, Engineering, and Manufacture

By GEOFF HEDGES | Published: JUN 20, 2012

With the unveiling on Monday of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet computer, the company is challenging Apple’s iPad – and its own PC hardware partners.

The 10.6-inch Surface tablet, boasts covers that double as keyboards and trackpads, taking it beyond today’s tablets. Including the soon-to-launched Windows 8 operating systemthere’s some remarkable design and engineering evident in the device, best marrying software and hardware.

The Microsoft Surface even uses a new manufacturing process—VaporMg—that reduces weight while keeping strength. That process results in a built-in kickstand, invisible when using the product in tablet mode. It may seem obvious, but it’s innovative and easy. The same happen for the cover, it becomes a keyboard—with its own design breakthroughs. And again with the combination of multi-touch and pressure sensitive pen technology – there are dozens of breakthroughs not found in any tablet or computer today.

Go to timestamp 28:40 to hear Panos Panay, leader of the team that created the Microsoft Surface, talk about the design, engineering, and manufacturing of this new innovation.

Microsoft is no stranger to the hardware market. Its Xbox and Kinect devices (both designed in Creo) have become hugely popular living-room devices for gaming and much more.

And as you appreciate the styling and design of this tablet, one final point- Creo was used for the mechanical design aspects of this new generation of tablet.

Cadalyst: Creo Direct-Modeling Tool Offered Free

By ADMIN | Published: DEC 1, 2011

A direct approach to 3D CAD design makes creation and modification of 3D designs fast, easy, and flexible.

Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express 4.0 has been described as, ”The standalone app enables users to edit designs using direct cut-andpaste, push-and-pull, and drag-anddrop techniques as well as commands such as Mirror, Stretch, and Scale.”

Read a full description on page 9 of Cadalyst here.

Using Creo: Creo Direct Modeling Express (DME) Tutorial, patterns and gears

By ADMIN | Published: DEC 15, 2011

Watch a video demonstration that makes “a Verge and Foliot clock using Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express” where they “cover circular sketch patterns and circular feature patterns to create a crown gear or wheel.”

See the full article here.

Creo Customers: Military Helicopters Stay Airborne with Creo

By GEOFF HEDGES | Published: JUN 17, 2011

In the action movies, military helicopters are the stars of all the airborne excitement. We see them swerve around tall buildings in chases, swoop in to deliver or rescue troops in inhospitable terrain, and, sometimes, even take a dramatic hit from ground fire. What we never see, however, are the guys who come along later, laptops at their side, to fix the battered machines—guys like Troy Moser.  

In real life, military helicopters ferry troops, project power, drop off supplies, carry out medical evacuations, and serve numerous other purposes. And, in real life, they can take on some damage. When that happens, teams come in to repair and modify the helicopters in the field—since it’s impractical to send aircraft back to the manufacturer.

Troy Moser is a project engineer on one such action field team. For him, fixing military helicopters means working with the original design data, documenting and driving ECOs, and capturing revised design data in field. That’s where the laptop—and Creo—come in.

While you’re not likely to see the field repair team in the final scenes of your favourite summer blockbuster, their work is in many ways far more fascinating—especially if you’re interested in manufacturing and engineering. Find out more about Moser, his role, and how Creo running on his laptop is helping him repair and upgrade aircraft in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 Image courtesy of U.S. Air Force, Lance Cheung

Creo Customer: Norton Reengineers a Classic

By GEOFF HEDGES | Published: AUGUST 16, 2011

Norton Motorcycles has a long, rich history dating back to 1898. A small manufacturer in Birmingham, England, Norton started out building fittings “for the two-wheeled trade.” Within a few years, the company was producing popular motorcycles for both street riding and racing. At its peak, Norton was tapped to manufacture 100,000 bikes for the British military during World War II–about a quarter of that country’s fleet.

Unfortunately, the postwar years weren’t so kind. The company sputtered, sold, merged, and was sold again. By the 2000s, the brand was in the hands of a mechanic in the United States who went from restoring bikes to leading a multi-million dollar effort to bring the Norton back. (To see how that played out, wait for the documentary). Finally, in 2008, British businessman Stuart Garner bought Norton and returned the brand to the UK.

That’s where Creo comes in. Garner kept the classic look of the Norton bikes, but reengineered everything else. For example, he introduced fuel injection engines so the motorcycles would meet emission standards. In fact, Norton designers say “there is not one component of the bike that we didn’t re-engineer.” All in about 12 months. All with Creo Parametric.

So how’s it working out for Garner?

His first model was the 961 SE. If you lived in the UK and had £16,000 to spend, you might have been able to buy one for a brief time. But not anymore; they’re sold out.

The company is expanding its facilities, with investment from the British government, and expects to double staff in 2012 as it begins shipping motorcycles in response to demand from throughout Europe and the US.

And because Nortons are so handsome and cool, Gucci even features the Commando in one of its commercials.

I’d say it’s working out.

Watch for more about Norton’s new/old bikes in this ‘motobike design’ episode of the Product Design Show.

Creo Customers: NASCAR Nose Redesign Puts the “Stock” Back in Stock Car Racing

By GEOFF HEDGES | Published: JUNE 28, 2011

Here’s a design challenge: Take a tricked out race car, make it look more like a production sedan, but don’t take away any of its performance. That’s what designer Bill Ferguson was asked to do with the 2011 nose redesign of the Ford Fusion andChevy Impala for NASCAR.

Unfortunately, some of those race car extras were functional. Ferguson had to hide certain performance features to give the cars a street look.

Ferguson’s design process involved running ideas past a panel of stakeholders, wind tunnel testing, sending models out for manufacturing, and finally road, or rather, track testing. His process also involved some sophisticated design tools–in this case, Creo Parametric. And, yeah, the new more ordinary-looking noses are every bit as fast as last-year’s models.

Watch Ferguson talk more about his work at NASCAR and Creo Parametric in this interview from Planet PTC Live in Las Vegas recorded just a few weeks ago.

Creo Customer: Arc Touch Mouse a Concept Design Winner

By GEOFF HEDGES | Published: OCTOBER 18, 2011

When designers at Microsoft dreamed up the Arc Touch Mouse, they were thinking about form, ergonomics, and portability. The device lies flat for easy storage in your laptop bag, and then pops into a graceful arch when you’re ready to use it.

Physically, it fits comfortably into your hand and provides haptic (that is, a sense of touch) feedback as you scroll and click.

Modeled with Creo Parametric, this new generation of mouse bears virtually no resemblance to its rodent-like predecessors, which, it turns out, is a good thing. Sure, designers at Microsoft started with something like a familiar mouse body in early concept design, but they also explored profiles that looked like speed boats and beach mats. Everything seemed to be up for discussion.

And that’s been our point; it’s the reason we’re placing so much emphasis on concept design with the release of Creo 1.0. When everything is on the table, developers can explore, and product innovation can thrive.  At least it did for Microsoft. The Arc Touch Mouse has won two major design awards so far:

• The jury at RedDot online awarded it 2011 Best of the Best; they praised its symmetric design and well-balanced proportions.
• IDSA presented it the 2011 IDEA Gold award, saying the mouse was “executed superbly,” with “excellent tactile feedback.”

The Arc Touch has been a hit with consumers, too. In the online reviews they’re calling it “sharp” and “stylish.”  And more importantly, they’re saying its aesthetics and form are key in their decision to purchase the device. Or in the words of one online reviewer:

“I bought it because it looked cool.”

Catwalk CAD: The Next Fashion Craze

By BIMAL DHARSI | Published: DECEMBER 5, 2011

CAD is to engineering as fabric is to fashion.

But as CAD becomes more lightweight and easier to use it’s expanding its reach to new environments. Applying traditional CAD software to produce non-traditional designs for non-traditional materials is the new vogue.

If you ever get a chance to go to an international  fashion show in London, Paris, Amsterdam or Melbourne, you’ll likely hear adulation from a well-informed crowd. Critics commenting on the elegance and grace of the clothes. But at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week you might have been more likely to hear cries of “look at that complex geometry!”

Designer Amelia Agosta made a new kind of fashion statement at this year’s show when she donned a three dimensional sculptural outfit. Rather than using the traditional tape measure and sketch book, Agosta chose to scan her body in 3-D and then create an outfit using 3-D modeling software. The design was then fabricated overnight using Selective Laser Sintering.

• See more CAD creations on the catwalk

Creo Customer: Leenstra Takes Creative Engineering to the Manufacturing Floor

By GEOFF HEDGES | Published: NOVEMBER 7, 2011

We developed Creo for companies like Leenstra Machinebouw.  Based in The Netherlands, this machinery manufacturer specializes in, well, manufacturing. That is, Leenstra engineers equipment manufacturers use to move inventory across the shop floor, to weld items on the assembly line, to work with concrete, and much more.

What makes Leenstra so well suited to Creo’s direct modeling approach? When the company first went from 2D to 3D design, it chose a popular parametric modeling tool. Unfortunately, it didn’t fit completely with Leenstra’s “innovative engineering” approach to design. 

With a broad portfolio of products and several patents to its credit, Leenstra engineers expected flexibility and freedom from its design software. The popular parametric modeling tool didn’t deliver. “We couldn’t easily modify the 2D drawings we already had,” says Leenstra Designer, Ron Terpstra. “It led to many unexpected hours of work.”

Then there was trouble working with large assemblies. Terpstra says they were time-consuming and frustrating as models crashed during design and even caused data loss.

Today, Leenstra doesn’t have to choose between 2D, parametric, or direct modeling. With Creo, the company can bring its 2D data into a direct modeling environment, make changes directly on the geometry, and then port all the information into a parametric environment for more detailed design or analysis.