One of the most drastic changes over the last eight decades has been in the tools engineers use. The future promises another wave of technological innovation.

Slide rules and mechanical drawing are much rarer today, thanks to computers and computer-aided design (CAD) software, Machine Design noted in its recent Changes in the Engineering Profession Over 80 Years. Most products today are created in CAD as 3-D solid models, and final drawings are created from the CAD model.

At the 10th annual Congress on the Future of Engineering Software (COFES) conference, recently hosted by Cyon Research Corporation, “Slipstreaming Innovation into the Mainstream” was this year’s conference theme. As it turns out, the pace of change for new, more efficient workflows is accelerating.

Earlier this year, Microsoft presented its vision of what the future of computing and collaboration might be in 2019. “[A]nd when you apply it to 3D CAD, PLM [product lifecycle management] and all those amazing things you design, engineer and manufacture each day, the future is looking pretty dang cool,” according to SolidWorks-centric online community SolidSmack.com.

Among the ideas for design/engineering highlighted in Microsoft’s “Future Vision Montage” and, in particular, “Manufacturing Future Vision” videos:

• Real-time language translation;
• Multi-touch surfaces;
• Remote collaboration;
• Cross-device content sharing;
• Cultural translation;
• Animated drawings;
• Natural user interfaces;
• Canvas technologies;
• Ambient displays;
• Dynamic data visualizations;
• Rich graphics platforms;
• Machine learning;
• Sensor networks; and
• Biometric security.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:5bea2f16-b173-41ee-ba2e-5ab3484b4cbb&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Manufacturing Future Vision">Video: Manufacturing Future Vision</a>

Around the same time this year, during SolidWorks World 2009 in February, SolidWorks co-founder Jon Hirschtick (the company’s first CEO) discussed his vision for the future of CAD. His four key points:

• Touch-screen interfaces — The process of using our hands rather than a mouse or keyboard to interact with an application is already here (think the iPhone or Wii). Expect to see design engineers using a touch-motion interface in the future. This technology may drive the CAD industry to become a hardware business as more users look for hardware designed specifically for CAD.
• Online applications — We’re already using e-mail and checking our bank accounts from a browser. Although 3-D CAD probably won’t become an online application any time soon, Hirschtick points out that small CAD applications, such as BluePrint Now, are already starting to come online. Before, if you were travelling and sent a DWG file to review, you would require a computer with some kind of DWG viewer/editor. BluePrint Now relaxes this requirement, giving you the ability to load and proof from anywhere.
• Video game graphics — Video games have “the very best standard-mode graphics,” the quality and speed of which, it can be argued, are superior to what’s found in CAD. The CAD industry has to take advantage of this technology even more in the future. Already, SolidWorks software has a feature borrowed from video game technology called “Ambient Occlusion,” which enables designers to make models appear more realistic. “In the future, I think we’re gonna reach a day where the things … that pace our computing world are Internet bandwidth and gaming hardware,” Hirschtick says.
• 3-D printing — 3-D printing is not a new concept, but Hirschtick’s view is “if you haven’t seen 3-D printing lately, you haven’t seen it.” Recent years have wrought great advancements in color, materials selection, speed, model quality and lower model costs. In many cases, it is possible to produce high-quality 3-D prints that are almost as good as the finished product. These improvements and falling price points for printers will help make 3-D printers even more integral in the future for CAD users’ work. At the conference in Florida, attendees heard how SolidWorks customers New Balance and Sony Ericsson use 3-D printing throughout the design process. Both companies are in industries where time-to-market is essential, so technologies such as CAD and 3-D printing are crucial to their ability to introduce new designs quickly.

Technological advances not only affect the tools engineers use but also their required skills, their projects and the overall outlook of the engineering profession.

“Today, the moment you walk into a work environment, you’re part of a team,” Sujeet Chand, chief technology officer of Rockwell Automation, told Machine Design. “An engineer must be able to collaborate and design virtually with a team distributed all over the world. And that involves communication, which means writing reports, giving presentations, talking to others, and attending meetings.

“The burden on engineers to communicate effectively continues to grow,” Chand continued. “Working with global teams presents language and culture barriers, how you talk to others, and even how you ask them to get something done.”

According to Pro/E Community (registration required):

Right now, the ground is shifting around collaboration and virtual communities, according to COFES keynote presenter Chuck House of Media X at Stanford University. Companies that can take advantage of new channels of communication will be able to learn from each other, House says. This is going to become critical as companies increasingly work with each other across time zones and geographies.

“A critical reality of the CAD community is that the expertise in many fields resides in an increasingly aging population,” Pro/E Community says. Fewer students pursuing the hard sciences in recent generations has resulted in “a lopsided workforce” in the United States. While companies are embracing globalization, many are examining how to keep the expertise they have at home and build on it.

“Going forward, we must view our profession as one that it is not just about the products we make today, but about the skills engineers can access around the world, and how we can best leverage that know-how to solve customer problems,” Tom Stimson, vice president of business process advancement at The Timken Co., told Machine Design.

Resources

Changes in the Engineering Profession Over 80 Years
by editorial staff
Machine Design, April 7, 2009
First appeared in print as “80 Years of Engineering”

COFES 2009: Slipstreaming Innovation into the Mainstream
Congress on the Future of Engineering Software, 2009

CAD in Crisis – COFES
by Kathleen Maher, Jon Peddie Research
Pro/E Community, June 1, 009

Future Vision Montage
Microsoft Office Labs, 2009

Microsoft Office Labs Vision 2019 (montage + video)
by Long Zheng
istartedsomething.com, Feb. 28, 2009

The Fruit Bowl Future of Design and Engineering in 2019
by Josh Mings
SolidSmack, March 4, 2009

Future Vision Montage
Microsoft Office Labs / MSN Video, 2009

Manufacturing Future Vision
Microsoft Office Labs / MSN Video, 2009

SolidWorks World 2009 – Tuesday General Session with Jon Hirschtick
by Matthew West
SolidWorks Blog, Feb. 13, 2009

The Future of CAD
by Jeff Ray
TCT Magazine, June 2009

The Future of 3D CAD Interoperability
by John Alpine
The Spatial Blend, Spring 2009

CAD – The Future of Collaborative Modeling
by Oleg Shilovitsky
Daily PLM Think Tank, June 8, 2009