How many of you feel the pain of having to use engineering tools to do industrial design work? I hear from a lot of designers more and more these days that they are getting persuaded, coerced or bullied into using an engineering modeling tool. Certainly these tools have come a long way from what they were capable of fifteen, ten, even five years ago. Do you find that they just aren't suited to the way you, as a designer, are wired to think? Do you see your design ideas compromised at best, butchered at worst, due to a tools inability to easily create the shapes you want (see my previous post on G3 continuity)? Tools like Alias are the king of nurbs modeling and in the hands a skilled surfacer, is unparalleled in it's ability to create to most complex and mathematically correct models. It's fast and freeform beyond belief, but not everybody uses it. So how do you find yourself doing complex shape modeling in an engineering tool? Do you use an engineering specific tool, like Autodesk Inventor? Do you think there could be easier ways to get the results you want?
G3 Continuity seems to be getting a lot of attention lately. There are super complex mathematical means of describing what G3 continuity is (you can read about here); I’m not even going to attempt to describe, but what I will say is that continuity in surface modeling is referred to as Gn where n indicates your continuity condition.
G0 - Positional (i.e. the edges of a primitive cube)
G1 – Tangent (the default filet in most CAD apps)
G2 – Curvature (for smooth surface blends where you start to evaluate surface highlights)
G3 – Curvature (a higher degree of continuity than G2, generally referred to as acceleration)
Many of us designers know how frustrating it can be working with tools that aren’t easily capable of achieving the level of finish that we crave. Often we compromise our design intent to match what the tool is able to realize. Leaving a level of perceived quality off the table for our designs, our companies and our clients. Designers are no longer satisfied with plain old tangent and curvature continuity; that’s so ten years ago. Whereas G3 continuity has long been the realm of automotive and marine designers, it is a relative newcomer for consumer products. As I look around my desk here at the office I struggle to find examples of products that offer G3 continuity.
That is not to say that there aren’t plenty of products that have that ultra-smooth surface that we covet as designers and users. The back of Apple’s iPhone is a perfect example; a gently crowned back and G3 blended sides offer a palpable quality when held in your hand that so many other products don’t come close to.
Now we could dive into all sorts of philosophical and emotive discussions about how form communicates a visceral connection to the objects we surround our lives with. If you’re interested in reading a compelling dissertation on the vernacular of form and surface continuity check out this article by Gray Holland. What I am really interested in is the reality of when we, as designers, crave that G3 continuity to drive an emotional response. When and where are we ready to compromise due to any number of outside influences such as lack of capability in a tool, cost to manufacture, time to develop said surfaces (as you might have to manually in most cases). Do you strive for G3 continuity or are you content with G2 curvature? Will your next product require it? Will consumers demand it in future products?
So I was recently on an interesting discussion forum talking about Apple’s new iPad and I thought about the bigger impact of innovation and whether or not it is truly a revolutionary product. . .ramblings and thoughts.
Wow where to begin. . . I know we, as designer, often can get very caught up in the dogma of what we think design and innovation is from our id/graphic design personas and perspectives. Isn't it interesting that the companies that value design, and have a strong commitment to it, are executing on innovation with new products and this innovation is often around manufacturing processes and the forms that come out of this process are often much cleaner and straightforward then a lot of what we saw in the previous two decades. Example: Apple’s “unibody” construction on their laptops.
Ok so I'll be the first to admit that I generally really like Apple’s design; it's unobtrusive. I think the best design is that which is really unnoticed, when an object is designed so well you don't have to think too hard on what it is and how to use it (same goes for graphic and ui design). Apples design language is one of simplicity and elegance. However, that simplicity is not to say that it is simple, there is a lot of depth and complexity behind the forms they create that is often overlooked or unnoticed by the casual observer, but not us ID folk.
Innovation? Design certainly is one aspect of innovation that more companies could and need to invest in, especially if they don't have a culture of innovation and design. But let's not forget that there are much bigger parts of "design". For instance designing how an object is manufactured- there is tons of room for innovation how an object may be made and it's quite unique that the Mr. Ive and co. are driving this from the ID department as well as the engineering at Apple (i suppose that's what happens when id gets a seat at the vp table). Certainly engineers can and do innovate (um, err design) on their processes, marketers, graphic designers, but we often get too caught up in our day to day that innovation often takes a back seat to getting the job done.
Revo- or Evo- lution? my $0.02 on the iPad: I’m not crazy about the name, but I see the pattern in the naming convention iPxxxx. So the big question: Is it truly a revolutionary product? Maybe, I think the jury is still out on this one and probably will be for some time. We should come back to it after the third gen. then decide. That being said, if sales of the iPad take off it will certainly change the way people do casual computing at home and on the go. Let's face it most of our casual computing needs these days don't require so much compute power as what we find in today’s offerings. No flash sucks, but remember how the iPhone didn't have copy and paste until very recently? give it time, I’m sure it’s not a limitation of the hardware. I can say that I would have one less laptop in my house for the needs that the iPad serves and if I need more computing power I'll go use my desktop/laptop. Is it revolutionary? I don't know yet, but it certainly is a compelling evolution of how we interact with computers today and in the near future.
So my question to you is: What can we do as designers to drive more innovation at a larger level within the organizations and teams that we work?
Are you doing anything currently to drive innovation at an organizational level?
Interested to hear your thoughts.
best, J-
we all know how cool Sketchbook Pro and the sketching in Alias are, but did you know that we are extending some of this technology to AutoCAD? Yes it's true, AutoCAD users now have some of the same capabilities that we industrial designers have been using for years. This is especially interesting for designers that rely heavily on a cocktail of AutoCAD along with other application tools for their everyday work; think: architects, interior designers, civil engineers (yeah even they sometimes have to "draw" their ideas), landscape architects. . .sorry if anybody has been left out here. . .but, I digress.
I think it's really exciting to see how an industrial design process and tools can be adopted to other disciplines and workflows to fulfill a lot of different needs for designers of all varieties. Our development teams have been quite busy building out this tool and it is now available as a technology preview on Autodesk Labs http://bit.ly/6pbEaF. Not only is there the sketching tools, but a whole host of image manipulation tools so you can model/design/sketch and composite all within the AutoCAD workspace. So if you use AutoCAD or have other design inclined friends that do please tell them about this new capability available to them to try out. I think they'll like it. Want to see it in action, check out these vidz.
Wow, let me first start off by wishing you all a happy and prosperous new decade. Of course we can discuss if 2010 or 2011 is really the start of the decade; Wikipedia does have some thoughts on this, but I digress.
Well, what a whirlwind end of the year we saw here at Autodesk. We launched our first iPhone app with Sketchbook Mobile and it is truly amazing; in fact if you don’t already have it, go to the app store on iTunes and get it. You won’t be able to put it down. What we’ve seen for the upcoming technology previews is going to be truly amazing, dare I say revolutionary! See the technology preview of the Alias sketching capabilities inside of AutoCAD. Sketching in AutoCAD, are you nuts? Maybe but check it out. And while we’re talking about sketching there is a service pack update available for Sketchbook Pro here.
AU was a big success this year with an unprecedented virtual attendance; I got to spend a great week in Las Vegas sicker than sick. We got to see film producer Jon Landau on main stage previewing some the amazing Autodesk technologies that went into the creation and production of James Cameron’s film Avatar. I haven’t seen it yet, but hear only good things. As well as showed some of the really amazing forward looking stuff on the Manufacturing general session stage. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements, they’re sure to be good.
Here’s a little shout out to my colleague Rob Cohee who just bumped the 100k views on his youtube channel. If you haven’t seen his videos they’re really entertaining, but very informative on some of the great things we are doing around BIM.
Finally I’m looking forward to the plans that the tech evangelist team is putting together for 2010 and getting out and talking with you all on what you’re doing with our tools today and what you want to see in the future. And if any of you are going to be in Portland for the IDSA conference this year, I hope to see you there. Until next time, have a great first of the year and decade.
This is the third installment in a series of videos that shows how to author a Autodesk Inventor Assembly in Autodesk Showcase. This video focuses on adding an environment to your scene.
Environments let you view models in various contexts, such as white rooms, photo studios, or photographic scenes. Each environment will contribute to the lighting, shadows, reflections and visible background in the scene.
Wow, I can't believe we are already talking about the end of the year, yikes! We've been really busy here at Autodesk with new product review summits, analyst days and preparing for Autodesk University. Oh, there it is AU 2009 (December 1-3) in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay resort. I have many fond memories of the Mandalay Bay, the shark exhibit, the wine tower at Aureole, Rum Jungle. . .alright I'm getting on a tangent here. AU is looking to be a great event this year and there will be some fantastic classes.
Come check out my classes on December 2nd
ID208-1Confluence: The Merging of Industrial Design and Engineering
MA222-3The New Kid in Town: Autodesk® Inventor® in Consumer Products
I will have two rock stars: Kevin Richards and Jay Tedeschi co-piloting each class respectively.
Also check out the manufacturing lounge and the A-Bar, where the A-team (no not with Mr. T) will be there to answer you questions
The MFG lounge will host a Digital Prototyping Answer Bar throughout the week. If you have questions, or need hands-on technical support for Inventor, AutoCad, or any of your Digital Prototyping products, or would like to know product direction and general information you can get friendly, expert advice at the Digital Prototyping Answer Bar in the Manufacturing Lounge at AU 2009.
Product managers and experts have extensive knowledge of Digital Prototyping products and can answer all of your technical questions. In fact, our experts can take care of all of your troubleshooting needs. Come to AU 2009 with all of your questions ready for our team.
Throughout the week in the MFG lounge, you will have an opportunity to sit with one of our product evangelists and share your best tips and tricks for using our products. Sit down and record a video that will be uploaded onto our YouTube channel, and make sure to tell all of your friends and co-workers to check it out. If your video is in the top 10 at the end of AU, you will receive an amazing prize that will WOW them all. All you need to bring is a flash memory or external hard drive with your best tip and/or trick and a smile, and you could find yourself at the top of the leader board at AU.
working on the go...
Great example of using Sketchbook Mobile to develop some concepts on top of Inventor screen shots while on the road. perfect to use as an underlay inside Inventor when you return to your desk.
This is the second installment in a series of videos that shows how to author a Autodesk Inventor Assembly in Autodesk Showcase. This video covers how you will manage the imported geometry that came in from the Autodesk Inventor assembly. This workflow will apply to any CAD system you might be importing data from.
Have you ever wondered how the automotive companies create the aesthetic surfaces that are on the interior and exterior of a car. Our Autodesk subject matter expert on surfacing , Nils Kremser, walks us through the creation of a interior console of a car. This is the second video in a series of seven videos. Nils takes the section data that was cut in the first video and demonstrates, using Autodesk Alias, how to create a accurate curve that will be the foundation for our surfaces for the interior console.
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