Like a lot of people right now, I’ve been working from home and wearing home-made face masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19 whenever I go out on essential errands. I thought it would be interesting to use a tool like SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation to see the difference these kinds of masks can make. Contrary to what you may think, it is surprisingly easy to set up these types of simulations. I hope this article will help remove some of that intimidation and encourage you to experiment as well.

Anticipated since 2017, the Artec Leo is a revolutionary new 3D scanner. There are many improvements over Artec’s previous offerings, but the most obvious is the Leo’s ability to collect data cordlessly. Other 3D scanners need wires to connect to a power supply and a computer. The Leo can operate independently.

3D scanning is a powerful tool for designers and engineers. The advantages are clear for many applications when a tool, like the Artec Space Spider, is used to take full color, 3-dimensional scan data of existing objects. Scans like the drill below could be used to reverse engineer the drill’s geometry to create bracketry, packaging material or even can be used to create a new and better version of the same part. Yet many engineers do not consider the power of a 3D scanner as a tool for a Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC) application.

Trimech is proud to announce our partnership with solidThinking. Alongside products from SOLIDWORKS and Stratasys, solidThinking’s portfolio of engineering software will help us assist our clients in becoming stronger, more profitable businesses. 

Today, I will focus on a product that can help mechanical designers create faster, stronger and lighter mechanical components: solidThinking Inspire.