Siemens PLM Software Blog

In our last post about the SEMA show and Local Motors, Mark Burhop alluded that Local Motors will be providing tools to the community to help the members working in areas of design, engineering and fabrication. It’s here and it’s called Solid Edge Design1. (Read the Press Release)

What is Solid Edge Design1?

According to the new website for Local Motors called the Forge, Solid Edge Design1 is “a professional-grade mechanical CAD program that has been created specifically for the Local Motors’ open design community. This ground breaking software makes use of Siemens PLM Software’s industry-leading synchronous technology for easy modeling of high-precision 3D models and is built upon the same technologies used heavily in the automotive industry. Before Design1, community members would have had to invest thousands of dollars for this type of functionality. Now it’s going to be available in a special version of Solid Edge at an incredible $19.95/month starting 1/1/2012.”

For all the folks that know Solid Edge well, Design 1 was created to address the core needs of the Local Motors design and engineering enthusiast. It works only in synchronous as it is easier to pick up and use.  Synchronous is also very good at working with CAD files from other vendors and we’ve also included key translators for this.  Functionality that Local Motors felt was less needed and would only increase the cost was removed from Design1. For example, there is no drafting, FEA, or advanced Assembly modeling.

For a limited time, members of the community can request one of the limited invites to try Solid Edge Design1 here. Beginning in Jan 2012, all members can obtain a monthly subscription.

We caught up with Isaac Oson, a former community member and now full time employee of Local Motors as their community liason. Isaac had been using ordered CAD for six years and now believes in the power of synchronous technology. Here’s what he had to say about Solid Edge Design1.

Earlier this week at the Local Motors open house, Siemens was on hand to demo Solid Edge Design1. Kurt Pennington, Application Engineer for Siemens PLM arrived about 3 pm, was handed a SolidWorks model of the well-known Rally Fighter. Within minutes he coverted the model to Solid Edge and used Design1 to manipulate the data. This is exactly what members of the community will be able to in the future for their designs. Most major CAD formats will be converted into the standard formats,   the Solid Edge format, and JT. Since all CAD formats will be accepted and downloadable from the Local Motors website in their native format, having this unique ability to convert files will become beneficial for the enthusiast.

The Rally Fighter shown here was a SolidWorks assembly imported in to Solid Edge Design1 for editing parts using synchronous technology

Browser-based, 3D viewing experience

Having said all that, this is not about Design1.  Its about the collaborative design and engineering experience at Local Motors.  Siemens PLM also worked very hard to create a new web based JT viewer.  For those of you that don’t know, JT is one of those ISO standards for lightweight 3D used heavily in the automative industry.  What this means is that community members can now view 3D designs with PMI and dimensions, take measurements, section, or even control what is displayed in an assembly right from there browser.

Why is this important?  Because Local Motors knows that for each creator, there are 10 more contributors willing to provide comments and help with the design. And for each contributor, there are 10 more people just wanting to see what is going on.  The web based JT viewer may be the coolest thing and it is free to use inside the Local Motors community!

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Tags: Co-creation, Design1, Local Motors, Solid Edge, Synchronous Technology