Generative Design Will "Underpin Autodesk Future Growth": VP of Simulation Foresees a New Manufacturing Paradigm, Starting with 3D Printing http://ift.tt/2ttLzvr A few short years ago, I would likely have laughed had someone posed the question, “What would happen if a car participated in its own redesign?” At RAPID + TCT last month, though, that question was greeted instead with a room full of thoughtful pondering when Mickey McManus, Chairman and Principal at MAYA Designand Research Fellow at Autodesk, posed it in his keynote, “The Nature of Things: What happens when products and places wake up?” McManus touched on the idea of bringing together machine learning algorithms and generative design, such as has been in the process with Autodesk’s ambitious — and, until recently, often secretive -- Project Dreamcatcher.
He noted then that Dreamcatcher was still a research project, but that there would be “some of this generative technology coming out in the next months in Netfabb.” Later during the show, I talked with Duann Scott, Manager, Strategy and Business Development for Autodesk’s Digital Manufacturing Group, and asked if he might have more he could touch on regarding Project Dreamcatcher. While in the days between McManus’ keynote and my conversation with Scott I had heard of other journalists being rebuffed in efforts to learn more about Dreamcatcher, to my happy surprise Scott was able to share more information as Autodesk began to ease toward announcing more.
That Autodesk was beginning to open up about the platform was promising, following a few years of experimental projectsand trend toward generative design. Several high-profile projects have incorporated generative design as Autodesk has, for example, worked with Airbus on developing an aircraft dividing wall in 2015, as well as recently creating a proof-of-concept research design for a lighter weight airplane seat frame. it came as little surprise, then, when last week Autodesk announced a big addition to the upcoming release of Netfabb2018. Last year’s release of Netfabb 2017 included an increase in design optimization, and the 2018 version is set to bound beyond that. I had the opportunity to gain more information about the new offerings through a chat with Greg Fallon, Vice President of Simulation at Autodesk, who has expressed his enthusiasm for the power of generative design as the announcement has gotten out there. Fallon, for his part, is just finishing his second year working with Autodesk, as the work with advanced capabilities had drawn him to the company in the first place. He runs the Simulation group, which makes all the products Autodesk delivers that have to do with simulation, as well as overseeing the commercialization of Project Dreamcatcher — which is now Autodesk Generative Design.
He was quick to key in on not only what generative design is, but what it isn’t. He made this point as well in the announcement he wrote covering the new features, focusing on how all-encompassing a solution this technique is.
We discussed some of these capabilities, and manufacturability became a throughline in the conversation. Generative design is set to “encompass the entire process, from ideation to inspection,” he explained, and its capabilities heighten the smarts with which a system can operate, offering benefits to not only its operator but to an entire process, or company.
The travel analogy clearly illustrates the differences between the two design approaches; while the best way to travel from New York to San Francisco via ship would include passage through the Panama Canal as indicated by a topology optimization-like method, rather than going around an entire continent, that precludes the notion that perhaps going via ship at all itself is not the best way to go about the method. Through looking to generative design, the trip would also be considered via other means of transportation, as going by foot, bicycle, car, bus, train, and airplane could all be considered as well. While not all the considered routes would be winners — probably not the best plan to hike it, or go by horseback — by considering all manner of different available options, it could just turn out that flying across the country would be the most expedient way of getting there. This does, of course, oversimplify, as in this example it may be a bit obvious what the best means would be, but taking this example and running with it, expanding it to a whole world of design options for myriad applications, can prove a better way of wrapping one’s mind around what’s going on here. Autodesk has chosen to start their roll-out of generative design commercialization with a focus on additive manufacturing — itself a new way of thinking about production.
He continued, noting that working with generative design effectively offers engineers “an assistant to help with the project” that will help them to become more creative, working with the requirements and constraints of design, and to connect that engineer with other parts of the company. Working through the complete process, from machine code to scheduling and tracking of a job, allows generative design to become completely immersed in the end-to-end process — through which it will intelligently learn about the design needs of a particular enterprise. As we drew back to the idea of machine learning and algorithms, I asked just how smart this process might be.
He pointed to work that Stanley Black & Decker has done with generative design as an example, as the company recently redesigned a hydraulic crimper. VIDEO The crimper is a handheld tool that requires a lot of force to join wires, Fallon explained. The tool at the end of the overall device was redesigned using alternatives created via generative design that the human designers hadn’t thought of previously. This is allowing for “totally new ideas” emerging.
As availability of generative design expands through a few major companies like Stanley Black & Decker, Airbus, and Under Armour, Autodesk foresees some major market possibilities. One area recently touched on is in construction, as sites can be digitized, as we see “an extension in terms of the convergence of construction site with manufacturing in general,” he noted.
Speaking of the future growth of Autodesk, I asked as well whether there would be any changes in store for the company’s upcoming releases or strategies in process following the recent announcement of a new CEO. The conversation turned a bit more party-line at that point, as Fallon said, fairly, that he “didn’t want to put words in Andrew’s mouth.” He could say, though, that the “goal is to live up to commitments as-is and move forward.” It would have been more surprising had big changes been on the horizon with the new executive leadership, as new CEO Andrew Anagnost has been with Autodesk for some time; we’re assured that it’s business as usual. Turning back to generative design as we closed out our chat, I asked Fallon one of my favorite questions for those behind big moves in technology: What’s exciting to you?
The more artificial intelligence learns about operations, and the more experience generative design ha with a given endeavor, the smarter it gets. By putting more on the automation, the humans ultimately behind the work can get busy without the busy work. We’ll be following up with Autodesk as Netfabb 2018 rolls out later in the year, and as generative design begins to take some of the mystery out of machine learning.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com June 29, 2017 at 11:23AM
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