IS IT HARDER TO DESIGN TODAY’S PRODUCTS?

Today, there is no shortage of challenges facing engineers. Schedules are getting shorter while budgets are drying up. Demand for smart, connected products is driving the addition of software and electronics everywhere. Product must be faster, lighter, and just plain better. Amid all these changes, geometry is getting more complex. Terribly complex.

Calls for more aesthetic products result in more organic shapes. The burgeoning use of topology optimization generates wildly non-prismatic geometry. Reverse engineering threedimensional scans produce unruly forms. None come with handy features controlled with parametric modeling, and none can be tamed with direct modeling.