Our Tech Team Thursdays are a great opportunity totake a closer look at specific aspects of DriveWorks functionality and go beyond what you learn in the DriveWorks Pro Training and Certification.
As part of our commitment to Helping Others to Help Themselves, the DriveWorks Tech Team share their knowledge and expertise in our value-added Tech Team Thursday webinars, exclusively for DriveWorks Pro Customers on Subscription Support and DriveWorks Reseller AEs.
In the coming weeks, the Tech Team Thursday webinars are advanced technical sessions, created for Digital DriveWorks World 2020, with the presenter joining the session for a live Q&A.
If you downloaded the session during DriveWorks World and you had any questions about the topic – this is a great opportunity to get answers. Or, if you’re watching it for the first time, join us to learn and get involved in the conversation.
Learning more about DriveWorks will enable you toget the most out of the softwareand throughout the webinars, you can ask questions toadvance your knowledge.
Check out our upcoming Tech Team Thursday Webinars and sign up here:
The DriveWorks team have now all been working from home for 8 weeks.
Our investments in technology and our commitment to digital transformation means we are well set up for working remotely. Our transition to home working has been smooth and we have remained open and operational throughout.
All our teams have continued to work and support you as usual via email, by phone and web meeting where appropriate.
When we first made the move to home working, we reassured you that were here as normal for anything you need. We promised it would be business as usual.
As we’ve settled into this new way of working, it hasn’t actually been business as usual. If anything, it’s been business with a boost!
Our team have really embraced this time as an opportunity to improve, create and innovate.
The manufacturers, communities and individuals who have pulled together to make us all stronger during this pandemic have proved that being agile and open to change is vital.
Its become clearer than ever that companies who adapt, embrace change and move quickly are more likely to thrive.
There are so many great examples of companies who have adapted what they do like those who previously supplied pubs and bars with beer, and as demand declined, they adapted and made hand sanitiser instead. Not only have they provided the country with much-needed supplies and made a difference, but they are also keeping themselves afloat and keeping their staff employed.
At DriveWorks, we are champions for change.
Weve embraced digital transformation and almost everything we do is now digital. We use our own DriveWorks software to manage our data, create licenses for our customers and manage purchase orders, book annual leave, submit expenses and even to order fish and chips on a Friday – when we’re in the office of course.
Our digital processes and investments in technology have made transitioning to home working much smoother.
During this pandemic, in work and in our personal lives, everyone across the world has been using technology more. Whether its doing an online food shop, a weekly team meeting, or a virtual pub quiz with family and friends, now more than ever, technology connects the world.
Digital transformation is essential businesses need to embrace digital now, to be stronger tomorrow.
When the world moves on from Covid-19, companies will need to get back to business. Many are more likely to want to work smarter to rebuild the financial losses they have sustained. Automation, selling online and streamlining business processes are 3 areas that can and will make a difference.
We’ve been hearing from our customers who are also using this time to improve and work on projects they don’t usually have time for.
They’re making time for developing their DriveWorks projects, adding features and functionality to help them move forward and continue to work smarter.
We went into lockdown at a critical stage of our software release process – testing! Every release of DriveWorks is tested rigorously across Windows Operating Systems and latest versions of SOLIDWORKS to test compatibility.
As a SOLIDWORKS Gold Partner and a Microsoft Technology Partner, it’s vital our software meets the required standards.
But it’s more than that, our customers – and their teams and customers – rely on our software daily. We are committed to producing software that is robust, obvious and innovative. This is more important than ever during already difficult times.
Our testing doesn’t stop when the software is released. We use DriveWorks software to automate the testing. Every time our automated testing runs, it runs over 16,000 tests on SOLIDWORKS models plus over 3.400 non-SOLIDWORKS tests, across all versions of SOLIDWORKS, including alphas, betas and early visibilities, as well as each service pack. Since the release of DriveWorks 18, we have automatically generated 14,374 models, parts and drawings as part of our testing.
We’re proud that we’ve released a major software version, rigorously tested (and used by us!) during a global pandemic whilst our team are working remotely.
We’ve also updated all of our PowerPacks, releasing new versions for DriveWorks 18. These PowerPacks add additional niche functionality to help our customers automate even more and fully embrace digital transformation.
As always we’ve released a full online help file for DriveWorks 18 and provided training resources and hands-on classes as part of DriveWorks World 2020.
Whilst the current global situation stopped us from hosting a face to face event, we still wanted to provide an opportunity for DriveWorks users to learn and connect. So this year we made DriveWorks World a digital event.
We were joined by over 200 DriveWorks customers, resellers and partners for a week of learning, networking and sharing ideas all online.
The technical sessions we run at DriveWorks World are extremely valuable and are part of our commitment to Helping You to Help Yourself. We wanted to make sure we could still deliver the training content that our technical team had worked hard to create.
During the event, we revealed Whats New in DriveWorks 18 and presented digital training, hands-on learning and advanced sessions all through live webinars and downloadable content.
Using technology, we created an event that was completely online. The sessions are now available to download for anyone who missed them, or for anyone who needs a recap.
The local education community in Warrington have been really embracing digital. The Cheshire & Warrington Pledge have been running online workshops and events for students and young people in the area.
We are proud to have been involved in these events – educating young people about how to be productive during this time and using it as an opportunity to add value for their future careers.
Our team have invested our time and resources into helping the future and inspiring students.
Throughout the year, we’re heavily involved in the SOLIDWORKS User Group community. We love being a part of the SOLIDWORKS Community and we were so disappointed when all in-person user group meetings were postponed.
However, as usual the SWUGN community came through. SOLIDWORKS worked with user groups across the world to ensure that we can all stay connected and continue to share exciting and innovative content.
SOLIDWORKS set up a series of SWUGN Virtual Events covering a range of topics.
User Group leaders themselves have also been running their usual groups digitally.
The Northern Ireland SolidWorks User Group (NISWUG) is a brand new group that launched their group during the midst of all this and had great success in their first-ever meeting.
Whilst working from home we have continued to run our weekly show & tells.
Every Friday at 2pm, someone from the DriveWorks shares an interesting topic with the rest of the team. It might be a round-up of a project they have been working on, an introduction to a new project they have coming up or anything else that’s good to share with each other.
We have made more time for learning and sharing knowledge. Our team have been training each other and talking about new topics and new ideas.
We’ve even been watching the DriveWorks World sessions together, discussing them and learning from each other’s presentations.
Just before we entered lockdown, we welcomed Gary as Development Team Manager. Gary had a couple of weeks working in the office with us but we’ve all been working from home since. Gary has still managed to get to know the team through online chats but he is looking forward to getting back to the office and using his DriveWorks mug!
We also have 4 new team members joining us in June. We’re looking forward to welcoming them too, even if it is from afar.
Adding to our team’s knowledge and expertise with new people and new skills means we can be really productive during this time and continue to improve and innovate.
We’re a close-knit team so the strangest part of all of this is not being in the office together. It’s been an adjustment for us all but we’ve been using technology to stay in touch.
We’re looking forward to being back in the office and able to play pool and games together at lunchtime again.
But for now, we’re settling into this new way of working and we’re keeping in touch with each other and with you guys as much as we can.
And of course, our home office pets are keeping us company too!
Coronavirus has had an impact across the world and whilst it’s a hard time for everyone, in the midst of the chaos and disruption, we have seen people coming together and making a real difference.
There has been an incredible response from manufacturers, businesses and individuals everywhere. Communities have come together to utilise their design and manufacturing capabilities to help in the fight against COVID-19.
With such high levels of demand for the right equipment, supply chains have been disrupted and hospitals are running low on important supplies.
Meanwhile, manufacturers of non-essential items have seen a huge decline in demand for their products and have been forced to slow down or even stop production. These manufacturers have been putting their people, equipment, skills and time to good use and turned to producing vital equipment and products.
Using specialist skills, equipment and technology, engineering teams are developing and manufacturing urgently needed machinery, personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential supplies.
From 3D printing protective masks, face shields and nasal swabs, to manufacturing ventilators and producing hand sanitizer, manufacturers are coming together to do all they can.
PPE has now become essential for many workers and individuals, and more important than ever before for medical staff. There has been an estimated 1000% global increase in demand for PPEin the past few weeks. There is also a desperate need for more ventilators across the world.
The World Health Organisation(WHO) has called on industry and governments to increase manufacturing to meet the rising global demand.
Working together, governments, industries and the Pandemic Supply Chain Network areboosting production and securing allocations for critically affected and at-risk countries.
There has been an amazing response to thegovernment call for help to build ventilators, provide PPE and manufacture COVID-19 testsfrom a wide range of industries.
Leading companies in the aerospace, automotive, medical devices and motorsport sectors havecome togetherand formed theVentilatorChallengeUK consortium. The consortium includes many companies, includingAirbus,Rolls-RoyceandMcLaren.
They began working together to produce 10 years worth of ventilator production in just 10 weeks.
Advanced material engineer,Tecman,based in the West Midlands, hasramped up production of face shieldsto over 1 million each week after developing adisposable face shield to provide vital protection for healthcare staff.
Swedish air filtration manufacturer, Camfil are working with Swedish Heath Services to produce respiratory protection masks. They are currently delivering an incredible 100,000 protection masks each week. In total, they plan to provide5 million masks for frontline workers.
Its not just ventilators and PPE thats been in high demand. Warrington wire company, Locker Group is also joining the fight against coronavirus by producing critical components including Nickel Wirecloth filters for ventilatorsandmesh which is used to create faraday cages to protect equipment at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Over the past few months, we have heard many inspiring stories of companies of all shapes and sizes who are using their knowledge, skills and facilities to rise against the challenge of this global pandemic.
In many industries, manufacturers and engineers have moved quickly, switching from their usual production to designing, producing and delivering the urgently needed equipment to meet the growing demand.
Bentley Motors, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Tesla and Nissan are all car manufacturers who have repurposed their production lines to help in the fight against COVID-19. Switching from car manufacturing to using their facilities to build and produce ventilators, visors and medical gowns.
BrewDog and Manchester Gin have both repurposed their distilleries to produce hand sanitiser in response to the national shortage. BrewDog has now packed and donated over 50,000 units to the NHS and local charities.
US-based SOLIDWORKS and DriveWorks reseller DesignPoint have been using their design skill set, vast network and 3D printing technology to deliver 2,300 face shields, 200 masks and 435 3D printed headbands across the country. DesignPoint has even provided STL files and resources so that people can print the equipment from anywhere.
FIRST have a community of volunteers and students all over the world who have been pulling together and doing whatever they can to make a difference. While the annual FIRST Robotics Championship events have been cancelled, FIRST teams and volunteers have been 3D-printing PPE for workers on the front line and even using their robots to deliver groceries to the elderly.
Before medical equipment can be purchased or donated to the government and NHS it must pass health and safety checks and meet essential safety requirements.
The Royal Mint organisation who typically produces coins are just one of many who have begun mass manufacturing medically approved visors for the NHS. They developed a successful prototype and got it approved in just 48 hours!
Composite Integration, based in Cornwall, is utilising its design and manufacturing capabilities to produce prototype face visors which have been reviewed and accepted by NHS Plymouth. They aim to manufacture approximately 2,500 visors a week for key workers.
Developing, testing and passing quality checks are activities that would normally take manufacturers months, but are now being achieved in just a matter of days and weeks.
AE Aerospace who supply high-quality precision machined components, worked around the clock to produce 6,000 complex ventilator parts in less than 2 weeks of receiving a drawing.
Vacuum maker Dyson developed a new ventilator in just 30 days using components from one of their current vacuum designs. Although they are no longer required in the UK, they may yet help the response in other countries.
Italian engineering start-up company, Isinnova began 3D printing essential life-saving valves used in respirators just6 hours after hearing about a shortage in the local hospital. Since then, they have continued to develop other medical equipment including emergencymasks for hospital ventilators.
Technology is playing a huge part in the battle against COVID-19 enabling manufacturers to rapidly switch and upscale production.
Complex parts can now be made anywhere with the power of advanced digital design and 3D printing.
Production times can be cut down, allowing manufactures to respond to sudden demand.
Manufacturers are quickly and cheaply develop and printing vital parts much faster than before.
3D printer manufacturer Formlabsis using 250 printers in its Ohio factory to manufacture 100,000 nasal swabs for COVID-19 testing each day.
HP and Markforged have made validated design files for many of the parts that do not require complex assembly freely available to download. Markforged customers and partners have printed over 3,200 face shields to date.
Dassault Syst竪mes 3DEXPERIENCE Lab has launched multiple initiatives so that a wide community of designers, engineers, scientists, makers and others can rapidly source, qualify, design, engineer and manufacture solutions to benefit local hospitals during the pandemic.
By making this information openly available, a community of engineers and designers are able to come together and produce PPE at the same time, in different cities and locations around the world. This community are sharing their CAD models and many are volunteering their time and effort to produce urgently needed protective equipment for health care workers.
3D printing has helped ease the strain on hospitals and offered a solution to relieve the pressure on supply chains. It has shown that having a diverse and adaptable global supply chain is essential and something that in the future could continue to save lives when major disruption happens.
Across all sectors, companies are uniting in a way that has never been seen before.
Companies who already manufacture medical equipment are expanding their production capacity to fulfil the demand in hospitals, while others are using their skills and resources to switch production.
Whilst these manufacturers are working hard to keep the supplies going, businesses, schools, colleges, universities and other groups are all stepping in to help their community.
Whether it’s using access to 3D printers to make face shields, or sewing aprons and face masks to donate to local care workers, there has been an overwhelming amount of support for those on the front line from members of the community and throughout the manufacturing industry.
During this pandemic, there has been lots of change, but change isnt always bad.
The manufacturers, communities and individuals who have pulled together to make us all stronger during this pandemic have proved that being agile and open to change is vital.
Its become clearer than ever that companies who adapt, embrace change and move quickly are more likely to thrive.
There are so many great examples of companies who have adapted what they do. Companies who previously supplied pubs and bars with beer, and as demand declined, they adapted and made hand sanitiser instead. Not only have they provided the country with much-needed supplies and made a difference, but they are also keeping themselves afloat and keeping their staff employed.
At DriveWorks, we are champions for change.
Weve embraced digital transformation and almost everything we do is now digital. We use our own software to manage our data, create licenses for our customers and manage purchase orders, and even book annual leave, submit expenses and order fish and chips on a Friday.
Our digital processes and investments in technology have made transitioning to home working much smoother.
In work and in our personal lives, everyone across the world has been using technology more. Whether its doing an online food shop, a weekly team meeting, or a virtual pub quiz with family and friends, now more than ever, technology connects the world.
Digital transformation is essential – businesses need to embrace digital now, to be stronger tomorrow.
Look out for DriveWorks CEO, Glen Smith in this month’s DEVELOP3D Magazine talking about why we all need to be champions for change. Read it online for free.
Personalised and custom products are becoming the norm. Customers are looking for products that meet their exact needs and are expecting better buying experiences.
Implementing an interactive online sales configurator enables your customers to configure their product, get instant quotes, accurate delivery dates, and even place their orders, in one simple session.
Online sales and digital manufacturing are key aspects of digital transformation.
Manufacturers using DriveWorks rules-based software can embrace digital transformation to improve customer experiences and make selling their custom products quicker, easier and more profitable.
The DriveWorks Live website has many examples showing the latest DriveWorks technology in action. Anyone can use the online configurators, created using DriveWorks software.
In this blog, were using one of the examples and following the quick and easy steps to configure a custom picture frame online.
With DriveWorks 18, our team have added lots more 3D capability to bring the product to life. The picture frame is positioned in a 3D scene to give it context, you might recognise the scene from our Custom Furniture Configurator example.
Im going to step through a series of options to specify my custom picture frame. Ill choose a size – preset or custom – select frame and mount style, change colours, add optional extras and even upload a picture.
With every change I make and every option I select, DriveWorks software is working in the background to update the model on screen, change selections and show an up to date price throughout.
Once Ive completed my selections, DriveWorks will create all the sales documents and manufacturing details automatically. That includes the SOLIDWORKS 3D parts, assemblies and drawings, cut lists, BOM and much more.
The picture frame in this online configurator example is shown in a realistic house interior 3D scene. The scene uses many of the 3D features in DriveWorks to add more visual interest to the configuration experience.
Screen-space reflections create a more realistic visual appearance, reflecting the walls, furniture and decorations on the floor and the cupboard.
Lighting effects such as Ambient Occlusion and Bloom are used to give realistic dark contrast and highlights.
An environment map has also been added to this scene, enabling glossy reflectiveness to appear on various surfaces.
Notice how the 3D textures change as selections are updated. Diffuse textures, specular textures and normal maps are crucial to creating a visually appealing scene.
The combination of all the 3D effects together adds high-quality realism to the configuration experience.
We can move around the 3D space to see the picture frame from all angles – this is great when choosing the profile for the frame style.
This configurator example also has the option to turn the 3D scene on and off so users can focus on the picture frame if preferred.
The Form Designer in DriveWorks has several form control options. You design your own forms to suit your product, choose the form controls that make configuring your product easy.
In this example, we added standard sizes for users to select from a drop-down menu. We’ve also added the option to input completely custom dimensions so users can order the specific size they need.
You can set up your forms to suit your own products. You can set limits for dimensions, input your own set of standard sizes and control what users can configure.
As we make changes to the dimensions, the model changes immediately. DriveWorks works in the background to automate the changes made to the SOLIDWORKS model.
The price also updates to reflect changes in size.
The standard and custom sizes are driven by rules in the DriveWorks project.
When setting up a DriveWorks project, your engineers input their design rules and product knowledge. The rules and logic ensure users can only configure products that can be manufactured. This guided selling makes it easy for anyone to design a product that meets their specification, specific to your products and design constraints.
The colours in this picture frame example can be completely customised. We can change the colour of the frame, the mount and the inner mount. We can also choose a glossy finish.
Simple dropdown menus are used for colour selection. As we make a colour choice, the colour box on the form updates so we can see the selected colour. The model also updates so we can visualise the changes immediately.
Dropdown menus are just one of the ways you can display colour choices on your forms. DriveWorks has many different form control options so you can choose a format that suits you. For example, you could use colour wheels – like in our Cupboard Configurator example – or colour palettes – like in our Watch Configurator example.
There are different frame and mount options to choose from.
We can explore the options and make changes in the configurator forms. As we make selections, the model updates to show how they look in the 3D model. The design and textures change whilst the price updates to reflect the options selected.
There are four glazing options in this example Acrylic, Glass, Mirror and None.
The 3D model changes as we select different glazing options. The glass appearance feature in DriveWorks is used and changes depending on the glazing option selected. The light reflects off the glass in different ways for each glazing option.
Using DriveWorks technology, you can add a picture upload option to your forms. In this example, picture upload is used as a way of adding a photo to the picture frame – the ideal way to see exactly how the finished picture frame will look.
We click on the Upload Pic button located in the DriveWorks Form Controls and choose the photo to load into the picture frame.
This is just one example of how the picture upload option can be used. It’s useful in a variety of ways, in a variety of product configurators. For example, you could use this as a way of letting your customers add their logo to your product. See how you can upload graphics in our Kiosk Configurator example.
Once we have finished configuring our picture frame, we can review our choices before submitting the order.
This is a great opportunity to review all of the selections made and at this point, its really easy to go back and make any changes to the custom design.
Once the order is submitted, the custom documents are automatically created. We receive a personalised cover letter, quote, bill of materials and a cut list.
Each document is unique and provides different information specific to this order.
In addition to receiving the cover letter and quote, DriveWorks also creates all of the manufacturing information.
A fully dimensioned drawing is generated automatically, saving valuable engineering time. The Drawing, Bill of Materials, Cut Lists and other files are sent to the manufacturing department so manufacturing can begin.
As the rules, logic and engineering knowledge have already been entered into DriveWorks, manufacturing can begin without engineers checking every detail and making changes to the design.
Rules mean customers, sales teams and distributorscan only configure products that can be manufacturedand the calculated outputs are correct.
The process is fully automated toreduce errors, improve quality and allow product designers and engineers to focus on innovating and improving.
DriveWorks is versatile, fully customisable and easy to use so you can build a product configurator that suits your needs.
This picture frame configurator is just one example of how DriveWorks can be used and shows just some of the functionality available.
Have a go with this example, and see the many other product and industry examples at www.driveworkslive.com
Once youve explored how DriveWorks looks from the front end, head to the Technology section to take a look under the hood at the underlying technology inside DriveWorks and the functionality used to build a Design Automation and Sales Configurator solution.
