The SolidWorks Blog

My Perfect Electric Bicycle is a Motorcycle!

Why do I find myself underwhelmed with the offerings on the electric bicycle market?  I want to feel like I’m riding a piece of modern engineering and not yesteryear’s moped.  I have come to the conclusion that the factors that make one want to purchase an electric bike are much different than the reasons I would want to purchase a new road bike or a mountain bike.  What the industry needs now is the next new Rubik’s Cube, New Beetle, or iPhone.

Do you remember the last time you saw a new product that made your heart race with excitement?  I remember seeing the 1986 Honda Interceptor and the first Kawasaki Ninja and having this feeling.  Those of you who are part of the e-generation probably felt this way about the first Apple device you remember.

1986 Honda VF500F Interceptor still looking good!

It is at least partially for this reason that the eBikeTec Exhibition & Conference was held in Paris, France April 16^th through 18^th.  The focus of this event was increasing the selection of electric bicycles that are currently in production in that country, which will likely trickle down to the US and American markets. The consumer always appreciates choices. If you arrive at your decision of what product to buy then you’ll also want it in your favorite color and the latest year’s model.So for myself, I’ve narrowly defined the criteria that would make me want to go purchase an electric bike.  For starters, it would look a lot more like a sportbike than a bicycle.  I’m thinking something like the Brammo Empulse put out by those clever Oregonians.

 

Or perhaps the Brammo Enertia :

The Zero DS made by Zero Motorcycles would also be a strong contender and would be a blast to take that end of cul de sac shortcut on.

So, for myself I’ve come away with a narrow list of criteria that might actually put me in the showroom for one of these cutting edge machines:

1. The Tax incentive for an electric vehicle would have to be more than the current 10%.  I think 20% would get my attention.

2. It would have to be a piece of art, something that leads you to appreciate the clean flowing lines.

3. It would have to be well engineered and put together thoughtfully.

4. It would have to be made in the USA.

5. Finally, it would absolutely have to be less cost than my car (which is a 2001 Ford Escape with 196,000 miles on it by the way).

6. Last but not least, it would have to be fun to drive!… Even with the cost of fuel savings, why drive a bike if it’s not fun to be out there in the breeze?

I wondered what a lifelong competitive road and mountain biker would think about today’s electric bikes, so I posed the question to Mark Scheetz, one of our Engineering Managers at GoEngineer.  Mark is a man that I greatly respect and has more miles in the saddle than I can fathom in a lifetime.

Me: “Mark, what would it take to make you rush out today to purchase an electric bike in today’s market?”

Mark:  “Well, I think when done right they are a viable transportation alternative and green transportation. If they cause more people to get out of their cars and into bike commuting and/or general transportation, then that’s a good thing. They can also be helpful to those who are limited physically and can’t peddle well. It’s a nice way for them to enjoy some of the benefits of cycling. I know of some elderly people who use them as well as some with MS and other ailments.”

“The best out there are really electric assist bikes, where you still do much of the peddling work on level ground and descents, and reserve the electric assist for hills and headwinds. That way it’s still a like cycling and utilizing human power, with only a little help when needed.”

“What I don’t like are the ones that are really just electric motorbikes with pedals. Nothing more than an electric moped. Many of these machines use the cheapest materials, inefficient motors, heavy batteries and are not even green. Their real value lies not in exercise, a greener world nor a good alternative for commuting, but rather as a toy. That’s perfectly fine if you’re looking for something to have a little fun and kick around town. Fun is good thing. But let’s not pretend they offer any other more noble benefits.”

“I personally have absolutely no use for them, today. That’s not to say when I get really old and need the assist I wouldn’t consider the option.”

I do think that we are headed towards a revolution for electric bikes in the near future and I think the market will look much different in 2018 than 2013.

***

Tim Roberts currently manages the Technical Support Team at GoEngineer. Tim earned his BSME from the University of Tennessee with an emphasis in machine design in 1993. He as worked as a manufacturing engineer as well as done technical support for several other CAD/CAM and analysis products. Tim lives with his family in Salt Lake City, UT and loves to climb and golf when not spending family time or assisting the best customers in the world. View all posts by Tim Roberts

Are you interested in how you can make your own designs more environmentally friendly and reduce your carbon footprint? Contact us to get an in-person demonstration of SolidWorks Sustainability.

 

For Teknion, It’s Easy Being Green with SolidWorks

As business models and office spaces evolve to meet the expectations of the 21^st century, more companies are embracing green, open spaces and collaborative environments. Many offices are designed with sustainability in mind, such as the Dassault Systemes Boston Office which uses Teknion Furniture, a SolidWorks customer. Teknion Furniture prides itself on a variety of office systems which encourage customers’ employees to collaborate, innovate, and communicate in a continually evolving business landscape.

Teknion Furniture at the Dassault Systemes Boston Office.

Teknion aims to design furniture of the future, by expanding product lines and implementing sustainable manufacturing practices. To address these challenges, Teknion upgraded to SolidWorks Professional, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, and SolidWorks Sustainability from its previous AutoCAD 2D design tools. The company was attracted to SolidWorks because of the software’s ease of use, design configuration, and enhanced visualization. With SolidWorks, Teknion spends less time and resources on making physical prototypes, allowing Teknion to focus more on innovating new products to optimize business environments. By implementing SolidWorks, Teknion has quadrupled its number of product lines and reduced development time by 50 percent.

Using SolidWorks Sustainability, Teknion can evaluate the environmental impact of their design decisions. The software enables the furniture company to examine factors including carbon burden, energy consumption, air emission and liquid discharges associated with a particular design. By providing greater insights into the product design, SolidWorks Sustainability allows Teknion to give side-by-side comparisons of material choices to show customers the environmental implications of using glass versus acrylic for elements in their furniture. Generating photorealistic images which display environmental information,  SolidWorks Photoview 360 helps the Teknion sales team win orders.

SolidWorks solutions helps Teknion design products more efficiently, manage global design data more effectively, and examine the environmental ramifications of its products. To learn more about how Teknion paves the way to a greener future using products like SolidWorks Sustainability, read the case study.

SolidWorks’ Users Ignite the 2012 MassChallenge Competition

The world is full of great ideas and MassChallenge is helping novice entrepreneurs make their ideas a reality. MassChallenge’s global accelerator program and startup competition is designed to give entrepreneurs the momentum needed to launch and succeed.

Each year, through a partnership with SolidWorks and FISHER/UNITECH, the MassChallenge is able to provide its teams with access to SolidWorks 3D CAD software to help accelerate their design process; SolidWorks' suite of tools enable MassChallenge teams to virtually test their ideas against real world conditions - eliminating costs traditionally associated with bringing a product to market. This partnership is just one way MassChallenge empowers a cross-collaborative environment to help entrepreneurs solve problems better and faster. 

The HelmetHub helmet dispenser, designed in SolidWorks, stands alongside existing bikeshare stations to ensure that helmets are available for participants.

This year, 1,237 applications from 35 countries and 36 states were submitted, and the MassChallenge judges had the difficult job of narrowing them down to the 125 highest-impact startups. The selected startups were invited to participate in a three-month accelerator program providing intensive mentoring and access to resources including free office space, legal support, and targeted introductions to customers and funding sources.

More than 300 expert judges were involved in 900+ hours of deliberation to refine the list of the highest-impact startups to the top two percent. The 26 finalists will compete to be one of the 10-20 startups to split $1,000,000 in cash rewards.  The winning startups will be announced at the MassChallenge Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

The Leveraged Freedom Chair, designed by Global Research and Innovation & Technology in SolidWorks, features a unique drivetrain to help people with disabilities navigate rough terrain all over the world.

Seven companies from the final 26 are using SolidWorks to help bring their ideas to life in the industries of High Tech, Energy & Clean Tech, Life Sciences/Healthcare and Social Impact:

• Black Island Wind Turbines provides customers with the toughest wind turbines to survive in 200+mph marine environments.

• Bounce Imaging saves lives by letting soldiers and first responders view hazardous environments remotely and at a low cost.

• Dynamo Micropower has developed a novel microturbine that is fuel-flexible, robust and more efficient than small diesel.

• HelmetHub Corporation promotes safe cycling practices among bikeshare users with its helmet vending solution that dispenses and allows for the return of helmets.

• Global Research Innovation & Technology’s (GRIT) Leveraged Freedom Chair uses a novel drivetrain to offer people with disabilities unparalleled mobility on rough terrain. 

• Strong Arm Technologies, Inc. developed a solution to take the force of a load and disperses them to stronger more stable areas of the lifters’ torso. In doing so, Strong Arm helps workers lift safer and with less effort by constraining users into a proper ergonomic lifting posture.

• WindGap Medical Inc. makes a miniature, temperature-insensitive alternative to the EpiPen ® addressing a pressing need in a growing market.

The Day2Night convertible heels provide women with long-lasting comfort, giving them different heel options to accomodate different events and activities throughout the day.

This year’s list of highest-impact startups joins the ranks of other SolidWorks’ users in the MassChallenge Hall of Fame like Roof for Two , Day2Night Convertible Heels and Artaic.  

Check out the MassChallenge website for the full list of the final 26 startups. Although we all wish the best of luck to all the competitors, which SolidWorks’ customers do you think have what it takes to win?

New in SolidWorks 2013: Optimize Designs for Sustainability and Materials Costs

SolidWorks 2013's new Raw Material Financial Impact Tool quickly evaluates the financial and environmental impacts of a raw material change in real time to enable more informed design decisions.

• Optimize designs for environmental impact and material cost
• Find the best design based on green initiatives, material requirements, and carbon footprint impact

You can learn more in the video below, and visit our new SolidWorks 2013 website to learn about the other new features, as well as find a reseller seminar near you.

SolidWorks 2013 has arrived

Every fall, a new version of SolidWorks is unveiled. We’re always really excited about all of the new functionality that goes into every release, and you’ve probably heard that over 90% of enhancements are driven by customer requests. That’s true for 2013 as well, but this year might be a little more exciting than usual.

SolidWorks 2013 includes some really cool new capabilities that customers have been requesting for a while. For example, there are some new geometry tools that will help you create models faster and easier. These include:

• Conic Sketch – This gives you full control over shapes for smooth transitions between existing geometries.
• Intersect Feature – You can quickly add or remove geometry without sketching.
• Varying Dimension Patterns – Helps you save time creating patterns, increases design flexibility, and reduces the number of features needed for models. 
• Section View Assist – Speeds the creation of production drawings for faster and more consistent section views.

There are also some new tools to help you optimize the performance of a SolidWorks installation and maximize design team productivity. These include:

• CAD Administrator Dashboard – This helps simplify management and troubleshooting of multiple SolidWorks users within a company from a single aggregated view.
• Simulation Sub-Modeling and Incremental Meshing – You can more accurately perform precise simulation analysis for specific areas of large and complex models, and do it faster and more efficiently.
• Network Rendering for PhotoView 360 – This helps you save time with faster rendering of photorealistic images by networking multiple computers to share the computational load.

There are also some new tools that help you work and collaborate with other people on your design team, vendors, and other supply chain partners. These include updates for improved connectivity, enhanced viewing capabilities, and expanded sharing of designs and data, such as:

• Previous Release Interoperability – Starting with SolidWorks 2013, you can collaborate with customers, suppliers, and internal teams with the ability to open SolidWorks files directly with SolidWorks 2012 (SP5). Users can work more efficiently and improve collaboration and file exchange, reducing delays and easing the transition to the latest release.
• SolidWorks Enterprise Product Data Management Workflow – Route documents and contact users more efficiently to reduce delays and accelerate time-to-market.
• DraftSight/SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Integration – Access DWG files within SolidWorks EPM from the DraftSight user interface, and leverage 2D into the design process.
• eDrawings — You can measure, select and markup  designs from anywhere using a mobile device

You can learn more about SolidWorks 2013 on our website (no registration required), so go check it out. And if you’re interested in attending a live seminar on SolidWorks 2013, visit: http://www.solidworks.com/launch/find-a-seminar.htm

Learn something new in our 22-minute webinars

Have you ever wanted to learn about new features in SolidWorks, but just didn't have the time? We're all busy these days, and devoting an hour ot more to a screencast or webinar isn't always possible. So the brain trust here at SolidWorks put their heads together and came up with a new series of webinars that clock in at 22 minutes or less. That's a full minute shorter than most of the cartoons my kids watch.

You can new one coming up by visiting the webinar page on SolidWorks.com. New ones will be added regularly. Right now, there are two you can take advantage of:

The Essentials of SolidWorks 3D CAD in 22 Minutes
SolidWorks 3D CAD is a comprehensive 3D design solution that enables you to create, validate, communicate, and manage your product designs. In this short webinar you will learn about SolidWorks 3D CAD tools and how these tools can be used to help you develop better products faster and more cost effectively.

ROI of CFD with SolidWorks Flow Simulation in 22 Minutes
Business pressures force companies to revisit their current Product Development process and optimize it so they can decrease time to market while delivering the highest quality product. A ‘get it right the first time’ product development strategy is key to achieving this.

Aberdeen Group, a leading consulting and research organization, recently conducted an in-depth study of how companies impacted by Fluid Flow are assessing product behavior with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and get high ROI.

During this webcast, you will learn how concurrent CFD helps best in class companies to design better products and answer business pressures.

Be sure to check back regularly for new webinars, and if you join one, let us know what you think.

Students get a career advantage with the new SolidWorks Education Edition for 2012-2013

It's that time of year. The weather is getting warmer, the trees are green again, and we're announcing the newest version of our SolidWorks Education Edition for the 2012-2013 calendar year.

The new Education Edition is based on SolidWorks Premium 2012, and includes all of the tools and applications students need to get ahead in the world of engineering and design. There are also a few new capabilities you won't find in the professional version. This release integrates Facebook access directly within the SolidWorks interface. Students can now post projects on their personal pages to share with friends, or even post to the SolidWorks Facebook page to share with the larger SolidWorks community.

With this announcement, we're arming educators with a tool that offers students an interactive approach to learning. Designing and building bridges, cars and trebuchets helps makes science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fun. This year’s enhancements also focus on sustainability. With this addition, educators can now help students analyze the future environmental impact of their designs.

You can learn more about the 2012-2013 SolidWorks Education Edition on our website.

Learn something new about SolidWorks in our Demo LIbrary

I know that there are lots of SolidWorks experts out there, but how many of you really know everything there is to know about the applications? Have you ever really dug into Flow Simulation? Or really mastered SolidWorks Sustainability?

If you've ever wanted to learn more about certain tools or applications, an easy way is to check out our new Demo LIbrary. Our technical team has put together 23 videos covering SolidWorks CAD, Simulation, Data Management, Sustainability and 3DVIA Composer tools. Go check it out and watch a video or two. Who knows, you might even learn something. Just click on the picture below.

Domespace is creating the next generation of eco-friendly homes with SolidWorks

Many years ago, I had ambitions of being an architect. I worked at a firm, and even went to architecture school briefly, until I realized I didn't have the artistry needed for the job. If I had my way, every structure built today would be an angular Bauhaus affair. So I have something of a soft spot for anything related to building design, which is why I found it interesting that a French company called Domespace is now a SolidWorks customer.

Domespace International designs and builds dome-shaped, eco-friendly homes. According to the company, the dome shape is designed to be more in harmony with nature, takes advantage of solar radiation, and is less susceptible to seismic and cyclonic forces than traditional, angular designs. On some models, the exterior of the home actually rotates, following the sun in winter to take advantage of its warming rays, and the shade in summer for cooling.

Domespace uses SolidWorks Professional for concept development, SolidWorks Premium for structural design, and SolidWorks Flow Simulation for studying air flow and environmental conditions. They say they have cut time-to-market and development costs in half. In a case study on our website, Computational and R&D Head Benjamin Thoby discusses how 3D design and simulation technology is helping Domespace ramp up production of its world-class, ecologically sensitive homes. Even if you're not in the AEC space, it's worth checking out.

You can find it here.

 

 

Designing for sustainability in the Asia / Pacific region

I recently returned from a long trip to the Asia/Pacific region, and was struck by some of the ways that businesses in the region are truly embracing the idea of sustainability.

I first started noticing the trend when I arrived at the airport in Aukland, New Zealand. I would normally never think of an airport as a place that could embrace sustainability on a large scale, mostly due to the amount of fuel consumed by planes taking off and landing. So I was very impressed to see that the airport has dedicated a wall to talking about their efforts. In addition to a video about their sustainability practices, there is also a screen showing the amount of solar energy being generated at the airport over the course of the day, month and year. Watch the video below to see what I’m talking about.

On September 22, I attended a Sustainable Innovation Summit in Melbourne, Australia. This event was hosted by Dassault Systèmes, and I was asked to speak about the role of sustainable design.  If you don’t know, the Australian government is currently in the process of voting on a “carbon tax,” designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit global warming.

The argument I made was that manufacturers should worry less about the effects of the proposed legislation, and instead focus on making products and processes more inherently sustainable. Companies have a real opportunity to reevaluate their design and manufacturing processes now, and products like SolidWorks Sustainability can play a big role in helping them make better decisions. By designing more environmentally friendly products from the start, companies can be proactive when it comes to the changing environmental laws. I was very impressed by the reception from the customers in the audience.

I later found my way to Mumbai, India. When I checked in to my hotel, I was surprised to see a large display noting that every hotel in the ITC Hotels chain is certified LEED Platinum. Energy consumption is a real issue in India due to the population density, and I was very impressed to see that businesses there are really working toward lowering the amount of energy they use. The best way to save energy and prevent waste is to design it out of the building in the first place. If you’re not familiar with the levels of LEED certification, you can go here to learn more.

On a related note, our new Dassault Systèmes campus in Waltham MA is already LEED Gold Certified, and we’re working on an additional LEED certification for the interior space. 

Many people think that sustainability is just a North American or European idea, but that’s not the case. Sustainability is becoming a way of life around the world, especially in developing nations. At SolidWorks, we’re working to help every designer make better choices about the products they design. If we all work together, we can help ensure that the world we leave to our children is a better one than we inherited. If you or your company have started working on ways to make your products or processes more sustainable, I would love to hear about them.