The maker movement cannot be ignored.  As corporations are realizing they can’t break the First Law of Thermodynamics by doing more with less, (Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.  Therefore, you can’t do more if you don’t have more, or you would be creating energy.) independent thinkers realizing they don’t need as much to compete with large corporations and are looking for inexpensive resources to make their dreams as an entrepreneuring inventor come true.

The Competition

3D Systems prior competition in the additive manufacturing (3d printing) world were Objet Geometries, Stratasys, and Z Corp.  The systems built by these companies were only as low as $10,000.  Even at the lowest end, these prices are still too expensive for an individual.  Instead, the DIYers were buying open-source systems in the price range in the single thousands of dollars or less.  These systems came from places like RepRap, Bits From Bytes, MakerBot, Micro Factory Corp, and Fab@Home.  Granted, these aren’t industrial quality machines, but that’s not what the maker movement is looking for. The maker movement needs affordability.  If 3D Systems wants to target this new market, they need to develop systems within that lower price range and let the maker movement know they exist.

The Alibre Factor

Alibre already has a strong foothold in the maker movement.  Many DIYers and individuals have purchased and use Alibre Design.  Stepping into the area of 3D printing at a low cost from a trusted low-cost provider is a no-brainer.  Alibre can be used to create industrial quality designs.  If Alibre markets a 3D printer, one would expect the printer to be of similar quality as its CAD program.  The bundling of 3D printers with Alibre software seems to have proven that point.

But one must consider the fact that 3D printing for the masses is excellent, but just like I need a wordprocessing software to create documents to print, I must also need a 3D modeling tool to create objects to print.  These tools must be easy to use and intuitive.  They must also be cheap.  Companies like Shapeways, i.materialise, and Ponoko are creating free web-based modeling tools.  Free is good.  It’s hard to compete with free, but Alibre seems to be doing a fairly good job at it by maintaining its foothold in the maker market against software tools like Sketchup and 123D.

The Speculation

Many people are speculating why 3D Systems would venture into the CAD development space.  I think the answer is readily apparent.  3D Systems is positioning itself to be the global master of high-end, low-priced, turn-key solutions for DIYer 3D printing and additive manufacturing.  These tools will in turn drive the additive manufacturing industry forward and you will see them become more and more a part of a corporation’s arsenal of tools to drive time to market.  (If I can get a prototype from mom-and-pop down the street, why can’t I get one from XYZ Corp?) 3D Systems wants to be the household name people think of when it comes to 3D printing.

This task proved harder than I expected.  Considering that Synchronous Technology has been around for about three years, I still didn’t have a clear way of describing it to an audience of existing Solid Edge users and spent a week staring at a blank presentation unable to come up with an outline.  It is very difficult to describe something that a web search on the topic doesn’t even pick up any encompassing images.  So instead of trying to present on the technology of synchronous technology, I presented on the perspective of implementing Synchronous Technology from an experienced user and CAD Manager.

I uploaded my presentation on Slide Share.

Or you can download the PowerPoint file directly from my site –> What is Synch Tech.
If you download it, be sure to continue to give appropriate source references.

I want to thank Dave Ault for the inspiration behind some of my slides and John Devitry for filling in the blanks.  I also would like to thank Dan Staples for giving me rights to re-use presentation data including specifics from his ST4 Launch Event presentation.

If you haven’t seen the press release or got the memos from Alibre or 3D Systems, I have copied them here for reference.

The first is from 3D Systems:

Abe N. Reichental
CEO and President

July 19, 2011

Greetings,

Consistent with our strategy to democratize access and accelerate adoption of affordable 3D content-to-print solutions that empower professionals and consumers to create and make in 3D, today we have taken yet another significant step with the acquisition of Alibre, Inc., a leading provider of affordable 3D design productivity solutions based in Richardson, Texas. Alibre delivers a powerful suite of affordable tools that include full parametric CAD software for professionals and personal users in 50 countries and in 15 languages.

As of today, Alibre will evolve from a company name into a very important brand that, together with our Sycode productivity plugins and other new product developments, will become a leading brand in our portfolio. We plan to expand the breadth and reach of the Alibre design productivity tools and bundles across all of our channels and marketplaces.

We deeply appreciate your continued loyalty and look forward to serving all of your 3D design-to-manufacturing requirements. Please contact me with any questions you may have regarding this exciting development or go to http://www.3Dsystems.com to learn more.

Sincerely,

And this one from Alibre’s CEO:

“Today I am very pleased to share with you that we have been acquired by 3D Systems, a leading global provider of 3D content-to-print solutions including 3D printers, print materials and on-demand custom parts services for professionals and consumers alike.

I believe that this development is completely consistent with our strategy to democratize access and accelerate adoption of affordable 3D design productivity solutions that are designed to empower professionals and consumers to create, test, and make in 3D. As a valuable customer, you are an integral part of our history and our future.

I am deeply grateful to you for your continued support and belief in our products and direction. Your loyalty enabled us to successfully expand our portfolio of affordable design productivity tools and marketplace presence to over 50 countries. A question many of you will have is what this means for you as an Alibre customer. Powered by 3D Systems’ resources, technologies and global reach, we plan to expand the breadth and reach of the Alibre design productivity tools and bundles even further. We are empowered more than ever before to consistently deliver affordable, high quality 3D productivity solutions.

I appreciate your continued loyalty to our company and as part of 3D Systems I look forward to serving all of your 3D design-to-manufacturing needs. Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions about this development or go to http://www.3Dsystems.com to learn more.
Paul Grayson
Chairman and CEO
Alibre Inc.”

Siemens has published a 14 page document (webkey required) describing the how-to’s with pre-registering your hardware to get a composite Host ID, from which the new license will be generated.

This change means that licenses for ST4 (called v104) is not backwards compatible with earlier versions of Solid Edge.  Up to this point, you could run the latest license version (for example ST3) and use it to run earlier version of Solid Edge (for example v20).  Once you activate your license for ST4, you can not run earlier versions of Solid Edge.  That means those of you who dual-install in order to test a new software version before going into production with it will not be able to.  From my understanding, licenses are perpetual, so if you have earlier versions of Solid Edge installed on different machines, you will need to keep the earlier license version (the one that corresponds to the version of software installed) in order to run it.

• Software Driven
• Backing Store
• Graphics Card Driven (Basic)
• Graphics Card Driven (Advanced)
• Graphics Card Driven (Direct3D)

What you may not know, and what may make your 3D view manipulations better is that there is a way to hack the default setting.

Why would have to hack the setting?  Well, one reason that I just recently experienced with one of my users is that his manual setting was not sticking during reboots of his computer.  Now that means there is probably a pre-existing condition that needs to be fixed, but finding it would be near impossible and in the mean time the inconvenience of changing the setting daily becomes too much to bear.  The other reason is because although Siemens does a decent job of certifying graphics cards and drivers, there are always configurations that they can’t test which may be the hardware you run.  You can add the intelligence to Solid Edge where Siemens may not be able to.

The hack is actually pretty easy.  In the …Solid Edge ST3/Program folder resides a text file Autoconfigure.txt.  Open that text file in Wordpad or Notepad and read the instructions in the header.  Following the formatting of the existing graphics card definitions, you can quickly and easily add your specific graphics card so the default setting of your choice is automatically selected.  But, as the header says, if you have any errors you should notify GTAC instead of modifying the file.

I can’t really review the software by watching a video so far in advance of release, but there are a few things shown in the video that may be of interest to Alibre Design users, assuming they make it into final release.

First, Alibre has jumped on the bandwagon and developed a Ribbon Bar GUI.  But unlike some other CAD vendors, they have not abandoned those users more comfortable with toolbars.  As a matter of fact, Alibre enhanced toolbars by offering four different sizes of icons.  Even better, users can have their GUI any way they please: Ribbon, no Ribbon, toolbars, no toolbars, pulldown menu, Ribbon and toolbars — basically whatever combination you like.  Alibre made the GUI so you could be most productive by using whatever interface you are most comfortable with.

Flashy GUI aside, some productivity features are starting to be added.  The one that has been on my enhancement request list for quite some time is the ability to project sketch elements into other sketches.  That’s right, prior to this pre-pre-prerelease sketches could not be used to drive other sketches.  Finally, sketches are getting the usefulness they deserve from a sketch-based solid modeler.

When I see previews for Alibre Design, I get both excited and embarrassed.  Cutting a hole “through all” of a multi-bend sheet metal part isn’t really an enhancement, it is a necessity.  And creating an assembly pattern of more than one part at a time.  That’s a no brainer.  When is Alibre going to allow me to pattern assembly components based on a feature pattern from a component part?  I’m hoping that the pre-pre-preview of revised assembly patterns means that more work is still being done in this area and final release will include more basic tools.

I have to admit that Max does a great job in this quick video by making sure all environments get equal air time.  In the drafting environment, I’m really happy to see Alibre improving its text and callout features.  Did you see those 5-sided balloons?  Those are my favorite types of flag notes because they fit well with parts lists.  They also point directly to the drawing element that the flagnote applies.  It allows for a much clearer interpretation of the drawing when a flagnote is placed in a crowded area.  The current limitation is that the size of the flagnotes can’t be controlled.   They expand to fit the text.  That’s a problem when drafting standards require certain balloon sizes.

All in all I’m pretty happy with what I’m seeing in this early preview.  It tells me that Alibre is focusing its development on some real fundamental design tools that will immediately improve productivity.  Granted, there are still things like being able to chain select edges that are missing, but hopefully those will come.  Read the post for other users’ comments and check out the video for yourself.

The Solid Edge ST4 Global Launch event is more than an unveiling of the latest-to-be release of the powerful MCAD package.  The Launch Event is a new beginning to a long sought after revival of Solid Edge user summits.  There will be no pesky PLM, no big brother CAD; there’s just you, me*, the developers, and two days worth of Solid Edge discussions.

Just to name drop a few people you can rub shoulders with:

• Dan Staples
• Bill McClure
• Jeff Walker
• Your favorite GTAC AE’s
• Members of the regional and global management teams.

The agenda includes the usual keynotes and the feature ST4 Update.  But it also includes breakout technical sessions about modeling, drafting, simulation, programming with the Solid Edge API, hands on, tips and tricks, and round table discussions.  You can have a direct influence on the future course of Solid Edge.  Did I mention that breakfast and lunch are included?  Don’t forget about the incredible networking opportunities to learn from other users who are going through the same changes as you.

What are you waiting for?  The early bird savings are about to expire and you need to reserve the hotel room early.  Click on over to the registration page and sign up for the Solid Edge ST4 Global Launch Event.

*Sadly, I won’t be able to attend.  But, I am sending a representative in my place.