upFront.eZine News Archives

W. F. H. (Work From Home): Here's who's helping you

Issue #1,048   |  March 30, 2020

 

by Ralph Grabowski   With an estimated three billion people asked/ordered to stay at home, many of us in the CAD industry are fortunate to be able to continue working remotely. Someone like myself has been doing this for 29 years, originally launching with CompuServe and faxes for my remote communications. But for most, WHB is a new thing. While initially enthusiastic, white-collar corporations have long backed away from telecommuting. Not only do they prefer their workers in their offices, the licensing terms of software have become more stringent. This has led to a clash between workers unprepared for working at home and the inability to access their software tools.  - - - A reader describes the clashes he experienced:   "When you scan the forums for most CAD systems, you find a big rise in questions about home working. There are people with problems they don't quite understand, and lots of people who understand their problems, but their CAD suppliers don't! "When it comes to working remotely, many may have done it a bit once in a while, but only when you really need to do it for whole days and onward do you really need to iron out the wrinkles.  "My issue was a technical issue with Solidworks' PDM [product data management] software. The licensing server is not IPv6-compatible [Internet protocol version 6] and so they had to issue temporary license keys to users without IPv4 VPN [virtual private network] connections. (I feel like I'm typing random characters on that, really!) [Note from another reader: do not take out licenses over a VPN, as this can create problems returning the license later.] "Logging into my PDM, do I log in normally or create a special ID for my remote personality? Using the same ID can lead to really confusing out-of-sync local-file cache problems. So I used a separate ID for my remote access. "A couple of years ago, the CAD vendor nicely removed our ability to have two installs with one license, really upsetting a lot of users, so that was the first hurdle.  "If your software is using machine-locked licensing, then you need to be at the unused (potentially contaminated?) computer to release the license, before you can activate on the home machine.  "If you have online licensing, then when you activate on the home machine, it grabs the license off the office computer over the Internet. You just have to be in a bit of a sweat about any unsaved data on the one you are kicking off. If the home machine has no Internet, then it's no-go. "Once up and running, the software polls the Internet regularly, so if your connection is down, you can't work at all -- even when your files are local. It is better to check every few minutes that your paying customers aren't cheating you, than to trust them for a day or a week to use the software for which they are paying thousands of dollars a year. [Some CAD vendors check for valid licensing once a month - Editor] "I work on my laptop at home by remotely accessing my desktop machine in the office. The performance of my laptop is not quite as good as with the desktop, so with complex assemblies it is better to work with the variable mouse lag/screen update driving the remote machine, but most stuff is better loaded locally. Switching between the two [local and remote computers] is a pain and confusing, especially as the CAD program cannot be open on both. "My favorite CAD topic is how to access our data in a vendor doomsday scenario. This is something none of them will discuss to any degree, but which should be a requirement by every customer. Here's hoping it doesn't quite get to that this time."     - G. R.   How Employers Can Help Alexey Ershov describes how he set up his employees for working from home:   'LEDAS is, so far, fortunate in experiencing no cases of COVID-19 in our neighborhood. We decided nevertheless to improve our capabilities for working remotely: We increased our Internet channel to 500MB/sec. High-speed fiber optics go directly into our DMZ [firewalled] sub-network to provide an additional level of security to our servers.  Using VPN [virtual private networking] from home on their work laptops, LEDAS employees access the powerful servers in our office.  Our intranet Web and desktop services for everyday work –- consisting of Git, Subversion, Jira, Phabricator, TeamCity, and Jenkins –- are working securely and are now fully accessible to our project teams. 'An efficient infrastructure for remote work implies high-speed Internet connections, as well as local networks free of bottlenecks. These physical-level requirements need to be accompanied by secure protocols with a stable and efficient stack of technologies, and on top of them the appropriate administration of access rights."      - Alexy Ershov - - - Most CAD vendors always have 30-day free trials that might get you over the hump. Some have reduced-function versions that are always free, such as Shape from Bricsys. When CAD software is intertwined with data, it can be difficult to access the data remotely when the software is installed on a computer home that can't necessarily access the data server back in the office.  One solution is to use remote control software, such as Chrome Remote Desktop or TeamViewer, which displays the screen of the office computer on your home computer's screen. You work as if you were in the office. I used this approach successfully when I needed to work on a book project while in Belgium, running InDesign (and accessing all my document files) on my work computer back home in Western Canada.  (Over the last year, TeamViewer has become more stringent in cracking down on what it suspects is commercial use of free home-use licenses.) Accessing CAD software on a remote computer with TeamViewer   Cloud storage services abound and some are integrated with certain CAD packages. They may, however, corrupt CAD databases as you try to synchronize files. Design Masters has some advice at http://www.designmaster.biz/support/blog/2020/03/working-remotely-with-design-master/. Here are two articles I posted on my WorldCAD Access blog last week: How I work from home: Spare not the efficiency What determines the end-game: Is there one? Who's Helping You and How I surveyed a number of CAD vendors' Web sites to see how they were helping customers. I first looked for information on the home page; if nothing was there, I looked for the site's news section, and then did a site search. If I could find no information, I noted it as "No link, no news." Some CAD programs allow you to move licenses between computers, without needing special permission from the vendor. Of the ones with which I am familiar, I note this below. If you have difficulties, contact the CAD vendor or a local dealer directly. Caveats: By no means did I survey all CAD vendors, and so not all are listed below. Some CAD vendors may instead have sent explanatory emails, or had local dealers make contact with customers directly, but have not yet posted the information to their Web site. Some CAD vendors are slow at setting up a WFH policy, and so they might have one in place later. When an expiry date is listed, check back with the vendor to see if it has been extended. Coronavirus information placed directly on a home page   Here is what I found from 20+ vendors. (Updated Friday afternoon.) AgaCAD aga-cad.com/blog/regarding-agacads-services-in-the-context-of-covid-19 Free 3-month licenses for teams of 3/5/10+ users. Online training. Alibre No link, no news. Ansys engage.ansys.com/covid-19 Fill out an online form with your request for assistance. Autodesk knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/simplecontent/content/extended-access-program-for-cloud-collaboration-products.html  Free access to commercial versions of BIM 360 Docs, BIM 360 Design, Fusion 360, Fusion Team, AutoCAD Web and Mobile, and Shotgun; ends 31 May. Users can transfer some desktop licenses to other computers. Bentley Systems bentley.com/en/resources/working-from-home-faq To access Bentley software without incurring unanticipated term licenses, download the latest version of the CONNECTION Client.  Bluebeam bluebeam.com/covid-19 Use the trial version of Revu for an extra 60 days Added training, like Webinars Bricsys No link, no news. Users can transfer licenses to other computers. Dassault Systemes 3dexperiencelab.3ds.com/en/projects/fablab/open-covid-19/ Support for people working against coronavirus, but not for at-home users (but see Solidworks, below). Graebert graebert.com/blog/featured/covid-19-graeberts-cloud-based-cad-software-free-of-charge-for-all-until-end-of-may/ ARES Kudo free of charge until end of May. Users can transfer licenses to other computers. Graphisoft graphisoft.com/covid-19/ Free 30-day emergency license. Free 60-day access to BIMcloud. Comprehensive online assistance from Graphisoft Hexagon hexagonmi.com/en-US/about-us/covid-19-coronavirus/work-at-home-smarter Free offline licensing and remote access options while working from home until June 30. IMSI Design No link, no news. IronCAD No link, no news. Kubotek3D (CadKey) No link, no news. McNeel & Associates No link, no news. MSC Software mscsoftware.com/work-from-home/assistance-programs Use software at home through VPN and if in same country. Access to eLearning (to come). PTC ptc.com/en/product-lifecycle-report/ptc-commitment-customers-covid-19 Work with you to offer temporary, no-cost licensing options.  Offers Vuforia Chalk at no cost until June 30. LiveWorx will be free as a one-day virtual event. Free Onshape for high schools and universities. Free eLearning for duration of epidemic. Siemens community.sw.siemens.com/s/question/0D54O00006O4L9NSAV/solid-edge-customer-support-for-covid19-social-distancing Guide for running Solid Edge and accessing data remotely. new.siemens.com/us/en/company/press/siemens-stories/ceo-perspective/staying-true-to-our-mission-to-fight-covid-19.html Certain software free to students. SketchUp blog.sketchup.com/home/engage-with-sketchup-while-you-re-at-home Tips on working better with SketchUp while at home. Solidworks blogs.solidworks.com/solidworksblog/2020/03/office-closed-due-to-coronavirus-heres-how-to-use-solidworks-at-home.html Transfer your license to another computer or check out a network license through a VPN. If you do not have access to your computer and cannot transfer (deactivate), contact your Solidworks dealer. Neither coronavirus nor corvis found on a CAD vendor's Web site   Trimble No link, no news (but see SketchUp, above). Vectorworks blog.vectorworks.net/how-vectorworks-is-helping-customers-during-covid-19 Free virtual training until June 30. Increased all licenses by 1. ZwSoft event.zwsoft.com/en/zwsoft/2020-home-license/ Free licenses for 2D CAD ZWCAD (IntelliCAD-based), 3D CAD/CAM ZW3D (former VX), and 3D CAD viewer CADbro until May 31. Look for Updated Policies CAD vendors are updating their policies even as I write this. Hexagon, for example, came in just under the wire for inclusion of their usage-at-home policy in this article; until then, they had been offering only reassuring messaging.   CAD publications keeping you up to date   As some CAD vendors make it hard to find their policies, try checking social media, your email, and other publications for updates, such as this one from Design Engineering magazine: design-engineering.com/mechanical-design-in-the-age-of-covid-19-1004034603/   Thank You, Readers! Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: David Moore: "There's no better discussion of this industry anywhere. Keep it up." Rob Snyder To support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $150 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/150 $750 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/750 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.

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When the Result of CAD is Failure (With Some Solutions)

Issue #880

by Ralph Grabowski Provided we use their software, CAD vendors promise us output-perfection. So why then do CAD-based designs screw up, costing manufacturers sometimes billions of dollars? The problem can be due to a flaw in the CAD software; but more likely mistakes stem from the ecosystem surrounding the software: the CAD operators, their managers, the design firm's culture, consultants who advise poorly, politicians in over their heads, and so on. Here are four of my favorite design horror stories, along with guidelines to avoid costly errors.   The Wire that Created Airbus's Billion-dollar Delay Perhaps the most embarrassing foul-up in computer-aided design's short history was the multi-billion dollar, multi-year delay in the debut of Airbus's giant A380 passenger aircraft. The problem itself was due to a change order involving electrical harnesses (those complete sets of wires with connectors at either end); the source of the problem might have been a consultant. (See figure 1.)  Figure 1 Example of wiring harness used in aircraft (Image credit BEA) Airbus manufactures aircraft parts in several countries, with the A380's final assembly taking place in France. To design the planes, the company usesDassault Systeme's Catia software, but during this time it was making the difficult transition from Catia V4 to Catia V5. Airbus hired IBM to write a translator so that divisions using the new V5 could read drawings from the old and very incompatible V4. IBM Consulting, however, faced delays delivering the translator, and so French operators using V5 were forced to re-input by hand drawings created with V4. This was a contributing error.  The #1 concern these days in aircraft design is lowering fuel consumption, and one way is to reduce the weight of aircraft parts. Part way through the design process, a decision was made to switch all wiring to lighter aluminum. This would save 10% in weight over copper, or 500kg (1,100 pounds) per aircraft. A shop in Germany designed and manufactured the harnesses using Catia V4, which meant the routing drawings could not be checked against the master plans in V5. When the harnesses arrived for installation in France, they were too short. The reason: aluminum wires require a greater bend radius than copper, and so have to be cut slightly longer overall. While the change had been made to the specification, the change was not reflected in the routing diagrams. This error cost Airbus billions in re-manufacturing costs, delayed deliveries, and lost sales. Solutions. It is unwise to upgrade CAD systems during projects; always keep using the old system until the deliverables are complete. Behemoths like Airbus and Boeing cannot follow this advice, because drawings used to design an aircraft needs to be readable for maintenance up to fifty years later. For this reason, Boeing is keen on neutral file formats (like STEP) so that they are not dependent on the vagaries of CAD software suppliers and their proprietary formats. When a direct translator is not ready, I recommend using a neutral format, which, being open, can more easily be extended and inspected.  (While Autodesk's new subscription-only policy would force manufacturers to upgrade their CAD systems repeatedly during long projects, I have noticed that Autodesk has frozen the DWG format at R2013; perhaps the same will be true for its other file formats.) The harnesses were made too short because at the manufacturing end someone forgot to recalculate the bend radii, while at the assembly end no one could check the routing information due to file format incompatibility. When a significant change is introduced to a design, I recommend doing a one-of prototype to check that the change will work.   Berlin's 21-year-old Non-operational Airport Following reunification, the city of Berlin found itself with three airports. The historic Templehof airport was shut down, and plans were made to replace the other two aging airfields with a new one. It would be a showcase suitable for the capital of the largest, most-prosperous county in Europe. (See figure 2.)   Figure 2 Brandenburg airport under construction in Berlin (Image credit Peri Slabs) Nearing completion in 2010, all of the airport's systems underwent testing: baggage, staffing, security, even people acting as passengers. The first system to fail significantly was smoke ventilation: passengers and staff were in danger of suffocating should a fire break out. "For aesthetics, designers decided that the terminal would have smoke extraction ducts in its roof, but not on its rooftop. In case of fire, smoke would be pumped from the roof into exhaust ducts running down and below the structure, requiring the natural rising behavior of hot air in the duct to be reversed. Achieving this on the scale necessary for this airport is a unique undertaking and, thus far, this elaborate [18km-long] smoke extraction system has not worked as planned," reported German news magazine Der Spiegel. After the ventilation supplier went bankrupt, the airport attempted to speed things along by proposing to hire 700 human fire spotters; this sadly hilarious solution was quickly rejected by the German agency responsible for building safety. Instead, entire walls are being torn down so that the ventilation can be rebuilt. The results are costs and delays even greater than for Airbus. The design and construction had expected to take 12 years and cost e2.8 billion (US$3 billion). But politics and favoritism, lawsuits and bankruptcies, bribery charges and firings, the ventilation problem, and other construction flaws (like incorrect wiring, uninsulated hot water piping, and rain leakage) increased the project cost to perhaps $11 billion and life to 21 years. At this point, an opening date still has not been announced. Meanwhile, it costs $12 million a month to keep the non-functioning airport humming. Nevertheless, the citizens of Berlin don't mind the delay, because the new airport is 18km further away from town and the old ones continue to operate just fine. Solutions. The person in charge of the new airport project had no construction experience, his other job being mayor of Berlin. A project this prestigious inevitably suffer from cost overruns and delays; it is a law of nature. I recommend that government-initiated projects become public-private partnerships, where a private project management and construction firm takes on the full risk, but then profits from the operation of the completed facility. This minimizes the problems created by political motivation, and protects tax payers from cost overruns. One of the reasons I left engineering was because it discourages innovation, which I wanted to implement. But it was best I did not. There are too many lives at risk should engineers be allowed to experiment with radical new designs -- such as ventilation systems that try to force smoke against its natural will, downwards. (I am guessing that someone wanted clean roof lines for the viewing pleasure of passengers on incoming aircraft.)  I recommend that engineers refuse to create designs that buck the laws of physics -- or common sense.    The Safest Saw No One Can Afford On to some smaller design missteps. A Solidworks World event several years ago featured the inventors of a table saw that stops instantly should a finger touches the blade. When it is demo'ed, a wiener is used instead of the demo jock's finger. (See figure 3.) Nevertheless, it's a pretty amazing invention and one you'd think would be a standard feature by now. But it's not. Figure 3 Checking the saw's brake with a finger-like weiner (Image credit Woodworking Adventures) I asked a friend, who runs a chain of tool stores, about it. It's just too expensive, he told me. The brake works by sensing the finger's natural electrical current, then slamming a chunk of metal into the saw, ruining it. So no other vendor has adopted the technology. Solutions. We see here a radical new idea (instant stop) costing too much, but then sparking the development of a cheaper solution after decades of design inertia. Some saws now employ an electric brake that briefly reverses the direction of the motor for a stop that takes a second or two. Not instant and not when a finger touches the blade, but it saves the saw and works when fingers are most likely to touch the blade: after the cut is finished, rather than during the cut. I recommend rethinking expensive solutions, because good-enough solutions become far more widely adopted, being more affordable than perfect solutions.     The Imperfectly Designed Perfect Toaster At another Solidworks World keynote, a pair of industrial designers from England showed us how they did their work. Instead of assuming how a consumer product should work, they spend a week watching how people use existing models -- to learn the good aspects and bad. They watch instead of ask, because people often give answers they think researchers want to hear. Only after spending a week observing do they begin developing the new design. One of their solutions was a new toaster: it has a slanted top. From watching people, they found that consumers wanted to be able to look inside to see how the toast was doing. Cool, I thought. The next time I needed a new toaster I bought their design; after all, I actually had met its designers! (See figure 4.) Figure 4: Tfal Avante slope-front toaster (Image credit Tfal) I quickly found that the slanted top is a pain. When the toaster is done, it shoots the toast out with force, often landing on the kitchen floor. As engineers, we know that 45 degrees is the ideal angle for maximizing projectile distance. Nor can I toast a third slice at the same time, because it slides off the sloping top. Plus, it's not particularly good at toasting: one side is always less done than the other, like every other toaster. In any case, I found I never needed to look inside to see how the toast is doing -- maybe that's just a British thing. Solutions. I like innovative improvements to otherwise mature products, like table saws and toasters. (My current favorite is the addition of a laser beam to mitre saws.) CAD, unfortunately, allows us to be innovative for the sake of marketing. That toaster with the slanted top certainly stands out on the retailers' shelves, but otherwise is a fail. I recommend designers employ a feedback loop, where radical new designs are tested in situ: does it solve the problems originally uncovered? Had the design duo done this, they would have found that it didn't work for consumers, and perhaps they could have turned their attention to the real problem: evenly toasting bread.    Conclusion CAD vendors are fond of trumpeting uses of the software that cleanly solve design problems. They are loathe to admit otherwise. So it becomes our job, as customers, to be ready to overcome their hubris. Just because we use CAD for design doesn't mean the design will work out for the customer. Nor can CAD software overcome post-design delays and human-induced problems. The solution is to be hyper aware of these limitations, to factor in incremental checking of radical changes, to even be ready to kill your pet project when it appears that the outcome won't match the initial expectation. No project is too big too fail.  [This article first appeared in Design Engineering magazine, and is reprinted with permission.] Sponsor: Okino Graphics == Professional 3D File Conversion/Viewing/Rendering Software == For over 2 decades Okino (Toronto) has provided mission-critical 3D conversion software used extensively by tens of thousands of professionals. We develop, support and convert between all major CAD, DCC & VisSim formats. Robert Lansdale (CTO, [email protected]) tailors each package to the specific conversion requirements of each customer. Popular formats include 3ds Max, Maya, C4D, LW, ProE, SolidWorks, Inventor, SketchUp, DWF/DWG, DGN, CATIA, IGES/STEP/Parasolid, 3D PDF/U3D, JT, FBX, Collada & more. We know data translation, and provide immaculate developer-to-customer relations. http://www.okino.com And One More Thing... I like it when a CAD vendor sends a cleverly-worded press release and so I am happy to share this one from CCE. Here is the text, edited by me for brevity: At a time when a lot is being written in the press about new cloud solutions for engineering data management, CCE found that a lot of SMBs [small and medium businesses] are too small to justify investing in an expensive PDM solution, however, they have enough product data in their organization to make version control and back-up a nightmare.  These customers are CAD-enabling Dropbox to manage product data across the organization. The part that is missing from Dropbox is its ability to handle engineering/CAD data. CCE's customers use the free CAD viewers available on CCE Labs to address that problem: EnSuite View and LAVA-Cat5. (See figure 5.) Figure 5: Home page for CCE Labs (Image credit CCE) "No knock on other new, cloud-based engineering data management products with multi-CAD support that supposedly do the exact same thing, since they likely use Dropbox infrastructure under the covers, but we have been able to successfully address this a long time ago without having to reinvent the wheel. So, Dropbox plus the free CAD viewers from CCE Labs is your engineering data management solution," said CCE vp of sales and marketing, Vinay Wagle. http://www.cadcam-e.com/CCELabs.aspx Note that these free products require an Internet connection so that CCE can send ads to the software. Even More News Read the blog at WorldCAD Access as I write more about the CAD industry, and give tips on using hardware and software. You can also keep up with the blog through RSS feeds and email alerts. Some of the posts from the last week: Autodesk settles with ZwSoft: the details  foto of the sunday: frozen leaves I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine  throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Nov 9: Remember when CAD execs excitedly told us our phones are more powerful than early NASA computers? Not seeing phones planning moon missions. Thank You, Subscribers! Thank you to you subscribers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine.  Ian Mackenzie: "Thanks for your thoughtful and balanced CAD commentary -- keep it up!" Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $125 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/125 $500 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/500 Or you can mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada Letters to the Editor Re: State of European CAD I read in some of your recent articles that Graebert has a “secret” agreement with DS restricting our R&D in 3D. I apologize if I ever gave you this impression. SiteMaster BIM is already a counter-example but the main reason why we don’t concentrate our R&D on 3D is different: Graebert is simply customer-driven and we see currently that we can bring more value by investing in Mobile and Cloud. A student once asked me how Graebert could compete and survive against such large companies after so many years. My method is always the same:  Study the market  Invest soon enough in technologies before they become a must-have  In doing so we have something unique to offer, an opportunity to lead the market and have collaboration opportunities with industry leaders. It’s a head start.  I watch some of our competitors instead trying to catch up with mature technologies, such as 3D MCAD. The way I see it is that these segments of the market are already dominated by giants with infinite resources and years of R&D in advance.     - Wilfried Graebert, ceo     Graebert Gmbh, Germany   Re: Where SolidEdge is Heading "...are 61% happier... ​" I've heard it claimed that 83.7% of people are fascinated by statistics. and that 92.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot.     - Bill Fane Following is the source/background information on the Net Promoter Score referenced in John Miller's presentation at SEU15: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most widely accepted ways to measure customer satisfaction. It asks the question "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you recommend product/service to a friend or colleague. The overall Net Promoter Score for Solid Edge is very good. And the score among users who frequently use Synchronous Technology is even better -- in fact, it is 61% higher than the NPS of those who do not.     - Kate Eby, public relations PLM     Siemens Another well-written issue! Your review of SEU 15 was very thorough and informative. Without your articles I don't think I'd even want to try to keep up with what's going on in the engineering and design technology space.     - David Stein I wanted to thank you for the mention in your latest issue and ask if you'd be willing to add a link to our site -- www.fra.me. We've had a lot of folks mention they can't easily find our site given the unique URL we're using. We'll be addressing that shortly, but it would be great if you can provide a direct link for now.     - Justin Boitano, vp of marketing     Fra.me   Notable Quotable "The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”     - Frank Lloyd Wright     https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frank-Lloyd-Wright/article-supplemental-information  *7512