So what's the deal with Synchronous Technology?

[acciardi]

With apologies to Jerry Seinfeld... I've been playng around with ST in NX6 and find it quite intriguing. I haven't had any training yet, so I'm not nearly up to speed on all it can do, but I will say that Siemens has done some very amazing things.

I guess I'm wondering if this is intended to be a real game changer vs parametric techniques. I can see the obvious benefit of ST for users who consume STEP or other 'dumb' files, but is the intention to reinvent how native models are created?

So I was wondering if anyone has done native modeling with ST in history-free mode... and how it compares to conventional parametric techniques re creation time. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences.

No flames, please. I understand that this is very new to many people and most users dislike change, but I see real potential here for a major paradigm shift (sorry for the cliche, but it's the only way I can describe it).

If you have access to NX6, I encourage you to give this a try. I think you will be surprised.

 

[acciardi]

One of the more impressive editing tricks to to create a cross-section through an existing solid of any complexity. You can then use the Sketcher tools to edit that cross section in any way you like. When you exit the sketcher, any surfaces that the section intersected will obey the new sketch entities' positions.

When you think about it, this is pretty remarkable. You could have a group of features stacked 20 deep and edit the bottom one effortlessly without regard to redefining the 19 features that followed it.

It's hard to explain without pictures, so I'll upload some later...

 

[JohnRBaker]

In many ways, you could look at Synchronous Technology as the next evolutionary step in 'hybrid modeling', where you can either augment or override the parametric model, but at a point you choose in a designs lifecycle that these new tools, whether maintaining the history or switching to history-free mode, will be brought to bear on a problem.

Also don't overlook the power of these tools when working with 'foreign data' imported as 'dumb' models. You can either continue to work with them in a history-free mode or even use the parametric tools to sort of 'featurize' a model so that it can be easily edited and modified, often as if it had been created from scratch as a parametric model, and since you only have to actually apply these 'new features' to only that part of the model where it's needed, the result might actually prove to be superior to a fully parametric model (BTW, there's nothing stopping a user from working to a certain point using traditional feature-based techniques and then when the model is basically stable, blowing away the parametric and then using Synchronous Technology to add back ONLY that we need when maintaining the model in the future.

And last, but not least, there are some who see many of the tools in Synchronous Technology, particularly as we enhance them to work with more complex topology, that it might for the foundation for a very power conceptual modeling product where very quick designs can be fleshed-out and validated, sort of like digital 'clay' or at least easily modified shapes and models.

I suspect that this will be the sort of tool that in the right hands will astound even our own people at perhaps some future users meeting. I know we experienced something like this with such additions to the product as Solid Modeling, the Expression system and Parametric features, the Sketcher, the Spreadsheet, UG Photo, etc. Often our ideas as to how something is to be used is not always what some users might see and we have been surprised on more than one occasion by how much further they took the capabilities of software than what we had expect them to. Well, time will tell.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

I'm looking forward to finding out a bit more about this. I'm going to the seminar at Williams F1 in March, anyone else planning on attending?

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[joycejo]

I have been very impressed with the Synchronous Modeling so far. On of the coolest things is when working in the History Mode you can re-order the Synchronous Modeling "features" and somewhat parameterize a Dumb model. Very Cool!!


Mark,
Can you share more about the seminar at Williams please?




John Joyce
Tata Technologies iKS
1675 Larimer St.
Denver, CO

http://www.myigetit.com

 

[Azrael]

I don't know if I missed something about ST. I have worked with UG direct modeler before and see ST like what IPhone is on the mobile market, existing technology made easy and user-friendly.

I'm still trying to figure out the benefits and the dangers with have to different ways of driving a model, and of course how to handle hand-overs.

 

[hudson888]

Azrael,

I tend to agree, except that the new Synchronous Technology presents itself in a way that adds some new functionality and importantly alters the perceptions about how these tools are permitted to be used. For some reason in the past it was always considered somehow impure to cheat by using direct modelling instead of maintaining the parameters at all costs. I'm a big believer in "bang for your buck" so I've always been a big fan of direct modelling anyway.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum