solidThinkingTag Archives

New! solidThinking Tips & Tricks

Whether you are new to the solidThinking community or a veteran user, every software tip and trick can add up to make a world of difference when working on a design. In an effort to offer our loyal customers useful information and foster collaboration, we are offering a featured tip or trick every month.

This month we offer you a brief series of keyboard shortcuts to help you be more efficient when using solidThinking.  We invite you to watch the video below to see these keyboard shortcuts in action.

                Keyboard Shorcuts               
                Ctrl+Spacebar – re-activate the previous modeling tool
                Alt+Spacebar – toggle between Edit Parameters mode and Edit Points mode
                Alt+Left Click – select objects while in Edit Parameters mode
                Ctrl+T  (Command+T)mac – fit selected object to the current view
                H – Hide/Unhide selected objects
                Ctrl+Alt+D – turntable animation

 

Innovation as a Practice: Dagaa’s Experience

Adolfo Cota, director of development for Dagaa
Ricardo Ponce,
head designer for Dagaa

Dagaa is more than a traditional design studio; it is a company focused on the invention, design and development of new products for clients. For the founders of the company, innovation is not merely an idea, but also a practice. Adolfo Cota and Ricardo Ponce began their business just three years ago, but they have quickly learned many lessons, the most important being that they never stop learning and they can always improve a product through its design.

Dagaa’s client base is diverse, requiring designs for metal-based products, electronics, advertisements and furniture. The company is most recognized for its work in the videogame industry and has adopted solidThinking to aid in the development of its concepts. Using solidThinking, the Dagaa team was the first to create a design for a street-operated videogame machine with an LCD monitor for use in Mexico.

Click here to continue reading this story in our September Newsletter.

Register for solidThinking Inspired Webinar

Register for FREE attendance to solidThinking’s next webinar:

solidThinking Inspired: Morphogenesis for Architects and Designers A live training session describing how solidThinking Inspired and its unique morphogenesis form-generation technology can provide inspiration to architects and product designers.

September 29, 2011 – 1:00 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)

solidThinking Essential Videos Now Available in Ten Languages!

With the release of solidThinking 8.5 six essentials videos, which can help users get up and running quickly and independently, are now available in ten languages. Supported languages include English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired Trial Versions Available

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired 30-day trial versions are now available for download. Click here to request the hands-on experience.

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired Released!

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired have been released today!

We believe that these new releases are truly better, faster and easier as a result of more than 900 new features, enhancements and updates.

Our global team of product specialists, all of whom are experienced industrial designers or architects, paid close attention to the needs of existing and prospective users and have used their feedback to help achieve significant levels of improvement in the solidThinking 8.5 releases

Whether you are an industrial designer, an architect or a concept engineer, visit our website at  www.solidthinking.com to discover what’s new in solidThinking 8.5 and how it can help you design better products, visualize them with great photorealism and in real-time, and explore possible breakthrough design scenarios facilitating innovation.



Register for solidThinking Webinars

Register for FREE attendance to solidThinking’s next webinars: Introduction to solidThinking, a live training session that introduces the concepts and tools offered by solidThinking.
Duration: 1 hour.

February 3, 2011 – 1:00 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)
February 17, 2011 – 1:00 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)

Introduction to solidThinking Webinars: July 2010 schedule

Register for FREE attendance to the next Introduction to solidThinking, a live training session which introduces the concepts and tools of solidThinking.

Duration: 1 hour.

Dates:

July 8, 2010 – 2:00 PM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)

July 13, 2010 – 10:00 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)

July 22, 2010 – 2:00 PM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)

July 27, 2010 – 10:00 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)

Altair’s HyperWorks Technology Conference 2010

Last week, solidThinking team members had the pleasure of joining over 450 attendees at the 2010 HyperWorks Technology Conference (HTC) in Novi, Michigan, April 27-29.

The annual three-day conference is part of the HyperWorks Technology Conference Global Series put on by our parent company, Altair, and offers sessions on advancements in simulation-driven design practices, design optimization, data management, process automation, cloud computing and decision support systems.

Attendees have access to an extensive PLM technology exhibition, including solidThinking. I had the opportunity to speak during day one of the conference among leaders including Altair founder and CEO Jim Scapa; HyperWorks CTO Dr. Uwe Schramm; Ford Motor Company Vice President of Engineering for Global Product Development Paul Mascarenas; and Porsche General Manager – Virtual Vehicle Christoph Guembel. I was joined onstage by solidThinking Industrial Designer and Product Specialist Darren Chilton, who also later provided a product demo to Jeff Rowe of MCADCafe at the solidThinking exhibition booth.

There was positive dialogue and enthusiasm expressed throughout the conference from attendees, Altair representatives, partners and exhibitors, and we were impressed to present to a standing-room only audience as we shared the benefits of conceptual design technology on product development. We discussed “Getting the Right Design, Getting the Design Right,” focusing on ways industrial designers can leverage advancements in modeling and rendering technologies to enhance the entire product development cycle, including:

1. Exploring more design alternatives and identifying winning designs sooner

2. Considering efficient forms early in the concept phase

3. Managing modifications and improving collaboration with engineering

4. Using rendering for interactive design review and validation


Overall, the HTC provided us with a setting where we could contribute our knowledge and user feedback to a wide audience and share it across many industries. Congratulations to Altair on a successful conference. The HTC Global Series moves now to Japan (June), India (August) and Europe (October).

From the Press: I.D. Magazine

In its latest issue I.D. Magazine covered solidThinking Inspired 8.0
and the new morphogenesis™
form-generation technology that allows to grow efficient shapes in response to environmental forces and pressures.

“Designers and engineers can use the software to develop new biomimetics forms or test the strenght of existing shapes.”

I.D. Magazine, Ian Volner
January/February 2010 issue
PDF here