For Rolls-Royce CAD you need Macs

Robert Bou, president of CAD/CAM software specialist Ashlar-Vellum, describes the difference between Mac- and PC-based CAD as, “Similar to the difference between driving a Mercedes and a Vauxhall.” Encountered at the MacExpo event in the Islington Business Design Centre, Bou declared, “The era of earth shattering differences between the platforms has gone. It’s now all in the subtleties.” But although he says he sees the big growth area for creative CAD as on PCs in China, he speaks like a true Mac enthusiast, and still sees a great future for the platform. “Macs are for the ‘think different’ people – most of the people who are successful in creativity use Macs… Sales of Macs are growing, at least in the USA… An awful lot of CAD users are Mac people forced to used PCs by their IT departments, which is a great pity.” Why? Because the return on investment (ROI) measured on that most elusive of metrics, creative output, can be very high. And because Macs in CAD/CAM can provide a very practical solution. For example, IT departments suffering from problems with integrating Microsoft XP ought to find Macs refreshingly simple not least because their latest operating system, OS XV 10.2, runs on good old Unix. Not all Microsoft It’s also possible to find office applications that run on both platforms. ThinkFree Office provides Java word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics applications. The software can create, edit and save MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, and runs on Mac OS X, ‘Classic’ Mac OS, Windows and Linux. Ashlar-Vellum’s CAD – Graphite, Neon, Argon, Xenon and Cobalt – are all aimed at the creative industrial design market. Bob Tonks, managing director of UK VAR Vellum Software, says most of his customers use it to design jewellery, homeware and consumer products. Indeed, Bou says products sold by Cartier, Tiffany, Estee Lauder, Williams Sonoma and Bodywork were all designed using Vellum. No fewer than four of the eight finalists of the 2002 ‘Marksman’ design awards used Vellum software – there were 825 entries. Bou says that his company will continue to focus on industrial and product design at the same time as making further inroads into the research community. “We aim to make our products better and faster. 3D design is not finished yet. There are still a lot of mathematical issues to settle.” Pressed to elaborate, he explains that he means operations such as the control of morphing, where a solid form is designed and then pulled and squeezed into some completely different shape – which still needs improvement. Says Tonks, “We have a customer who designs knives and forks. The handles have to look nice and feel nice and be easy to manufacture. Using solid modelling, you have to know what the final shape is going to be, more or less before you start.” A classic candidate for morphing. Incidentally, back on design speed, a recently discovered market for the system gives another clue to the software’s popularity and likely ROI. Apparently, in designing inorganic objects within virtual worlds, Vellum products allow development in about one 15th to one 10th of the time required using bespoke organic modellers used to design figures and creatures. And there’s ease of use. “We have classes scheduled regularly, but people often cancel on the grounds that since they installed the software, they already learned it,” laughs Bou. Indeed, he says one of the drawbacks for him is that knowing Vellum is not a passport to success, since anybody can use it. Ashlar-Vellum’s latest CAD/CAM suites are based on three kernels, Parasolid, ACIS and PTC’s Granite One. Neon (£395) is the 3D publishing package; while Argon (£695) includes 3D modelling and surfacing, but without the history tree. Bou describes it as being a “bit like a Swiss Army knife,” since it includes all the company’s file translation tools; it is proving popular as a companion for popular CAM tools from other vendors. Serious industrial designers, however, normally go for Xenon (£2,195) or Cobalt (£2,895). Access to the history tree for these is essential for making customer-inspired modifications.