Ralph Gillis Latest Blog Articles Page 1

In the world of competitive sports, winning is often measured in milliseconds. Athletes and sports equipment manufacturers are constantly looking for that competitive edge that will put them in the winner’s circle. Because of this, products are constantly being designed and redesigned to find ways to make them lighter, more form-fitting and ergonomic.

Companies have long been using CAD software to create such designs and utilizing additive manufacturing tools to enhance product development. But one tool, in particular, is fast becoming a go-to instrument for companies looking to cut the product development cycle and to give athletes the edge they are looking for…3D scanning.

The need for 3D scanning has been growing in recent years across many different industries, especially when it comes to reverse engineering and 3D printing. As a Project Engineer with the TriMech Project Engineering Group, I have the privilege of working with customers who come to us needing a variety of 3D scanning services in a variety of new and unique applications.

This exposure provides me with the ability to work with several different scanner technologies - from long-range large-object scanners to small high-precision scanners capable of capturing fine detail. In this article, I'm going to look at one of these scanning technologies that our group has found to be a perfect fit for high-precision applications: the Artec Micro.

As engineers, we’re tasked to handle many aspects of the product development process. Feasibility, design concepts, design reviews and documentation to name a few. With a mature product, we often find ourselves fielding requests from customers for custom designs and, when receiving multiple requests, per day it can be difficult to keep up with demand. When a new request comes in, you’re probably copying an existing design and related drawings, then spending hours or even days updating the design to meet the customer need. If this sounds like you, then you probably wish there was a way to help automate some of these mundane tasks. Well, I’m happy to tell you there is, DriveWorks Solo.

Did you know that 3D scanning has been around since Egyptian times? Okay, maybe not so much in the way we think of 3D scanning today, but they developed the early concepts of reverse engineering by creating 3D plaster-cast replicas. Fast forward to today’s scanners, which use laser and structured light technology that can capture highly accurate scans that range from very small, intricate objects to much larger objects in a fraction of the time! It’s easy to appreciate how far this technology has come over the years and the many different industries that 3D scanning is helping revolutionize. In this article, we’re going to cover some of the ways you can get your 3D scanning data into a 3D CAD environment where you can interact, manipulate and make the most of it.

DriveWorks continues to be an essential time-saving tool that provides design automation when you are producing similar, yet different designs repeatedly. It's included in every SOLIDWORKS seat (so if you have SOLIDWORKS you also have this product) and integrates with all your SOLIDWORKS projects so you can work with the data you already have stored. In this article, we’ll review how to set up DriveWorksXpress and showcase the top five features you may not be aware of that will save you even more time.

DriveWorks is a powerful design automation and configurator software that gives companies a competitive advantage when offering customized products. Engineering departments can save significant time on repetitive tasks and sales teams can generate more sales by delivering quotes even faster.