NVidia Releases New QUADRO FX 4800 Graphics Card

Last Updated on Thursday, 9 December 2010 11:01 Written by DCD Admin Sunday, 21 December 2008 08:58

The new Quadro FX 4800 graphics card has been released by Nvidia The 4800 has added graphics memory, high colour fidelity and next-generation GPU architecture enables ultra-fast application performance for MCAD, DCC and Broadcast Professionals

Recently, mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), digital content creation (DCC) and broadcast applications received a major performance boost with the introduction of the NVIDIA??? Quadro??? FX 4800 ultra-high-end professional graphics card. With advances in GPU architecture, added graphics memory and 30-bit color, the Quadro FX 4800 gives professionals the right toolset to dramatically push the boundaries of realism, performance and quality.

“In this increasingly competitive landscape, it’s imperative that professionals deliver better, faster and more cost-effective results,” said Jeff Brown general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. “NVIDIA is not only addressing this challenge, but is raising the ultra-high-end visualization bar by creating specialized solutions to meet the direct needs of professionals – whether it be a geophysicists or MCAD designer.”

Equipped with 192 CUDAT parallel computing cores, the Quadro FX 4800 delivers a 2X performance increase over previous generations of ultra-high-end graphics cards. Key features in the Quadro FX 4800 include:

-?Real-time Visualization of Large Data Sets – Equipped with 1.5 GB graphics memory, the Quadro FX 4800 has the capacity to process large textures and frames in real time while providing fill rates of 38 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second.

-Increased Image Quality – A 128-bit precision graphic pipeline and 32x FSAA for better image clarity and quality.

-Ultra-high Color Fidelity and Resolutions – Dual 10-bit display ports delivering a color palette of over a billion colors, orders of magnitude greater than previous generations of graphics cards. Also included is a single dual-link digital display connector for ultra-high resolution panels of up to 3840 x 2400 at 24Hz.

-High-performance Visualization – A CUDA parallel computing processor architecture exposed through a C language environment and tool suite. In combination with high-performance visualization, CUDA unleashes new capabilities to solve highly complex challenges such as real-time ray tracing, video encoding and interactive volume rendering.

Pricing and Availability
NVIDIA Quadro solutions are widely available through leading system manufacturers and workstation integrators, and NVIDIA channel partners PNY Technologies (US and EMEA), Leadteck (APAC), and Elsa (Japan). The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 is available today and has a MSRP of $1,999 USD.

Nvidia Quadro Cards are available from CAD Software Direct

Free 3D Plugins Released by Craft Animations

Last Updated on Thursday, 9 December 2010 08:58 Written by DCD Admin Saturday, 20 December 2008 08:57

Craft Animations Announces Free Real-time 3D Tools. Condensed Versions of Select Craft Director Tools Offer Professional Results to the Masses; Time-saving Solutions Work Seamlessly with 3ds Max and Maya

Broadening its already widespread?FreeWare catalog and extending real-time 3D animation to the masses,?Craft Animations??? today announced free light versions of its highly regarded?Craft Director Tools??? . Created to introduce users of Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Maya to the benefits of Craft Director Tools, Craft 4-Wheeler Free, Craft ObserverCam Free and Craft Airplane Free all utilize cutting-edge research in advanced control systems to drastically reduce traditional animation processes without compromising quality.

“The goal of Craft FreeWare is to share the same high-quality, time-saving and cost-effective animation processes previously experienced by professional users with a larger audience,” said Craft Animations’ Co-founder and Head of Research, Luigi Tramontana. “By providing modified versions of Craft Director Tools, beginning animators may now take advantage of our real-time technology and gain a sense of education before graduating to the next level.”

Craft Director Tools eliminate the prolonged tasks of key framing and scripting, allowing users more time for creative processes. Additionally, professional users have gained the opportunity to create natural motion paths on-the-fly through autopilot functions, or a variety of input devices such as gamepads, joysticks, keyboards, Wacom boards and 6DOF controllers (such as Space Pilot?????).

Craft’s newest FreeWare additions to Craft Director Tools include:

• Craft 4-Wheeler Free: Capable of modifying up to six significant factors – acceleration, top speed, steering angle, brake force, suspension and weight, Craft 4-Wheeler Free provides the ability to rig and animate any type of four-wheeled vehicle model.
• Craft ObserverCam Free: With the ability to move in all directions, Craft ObserverCam Free eases the animation process by setting up a standard configuration and allowing users to animate a camera with the help of input devices.
• Craft Airplane Free: Users may rig and animate any type of airplane model, in addition to the ability to alter the four essential parameters of the tool’s configurations – weight, top speed, elevation speed and turn speed.

PLM Used by Students to Build F1 Car

Last Updated on Thursday, 9 December 2010 08:56 Written by DCD Admin Saturday, 20 December 2008 08:55

Engineering students use Siemens’ PLM software to collaborate with their counterparts around the world to design and build a Formula One racing car

Brigham Young University (BYU) gives engineering students an opportunity that only a few other schools can match ? the ability to experience, in the classroom, the kind of global product development collaboration they will encounter after they graduate. This opportunity is made possible by the university??s participation in the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) program, a first-of-its-kind partnership between the corporate and academic sectors that uses commercial product lifecycle management (PLM) software to conceptualize and develop a product, in this case an automobile.

Specifically, students in the PACE program collaborated with their counterparts around the world to design, manufacture and assemble a racecar to Formula One specifications ? all in one academic year. The scope of the project is huge: 20 universities, 200 students, 24 faculty, four continents, 16 time zones and seven languages. And the time frame of one year is highly ambitious. ??Some would say it??s impossible,?? says Dr. C. Greg Jensen, professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering at BYU and coordinator of the project.

And yet it happens, and in addition to the satisfaction of seeing something as concrete as a racecar at the end of the year-long project, students experience the challenges and rewards of the global nature of today??s product development. ??The intent is that this is a collaborative project that emulates how a major automotive OEM like General Motors works with its operations all over the world,?? explains Jensen. ??This way, students learn how to deal with situations they will encounter when they graduate, such as the exchange of engineering and manufacturing information that must bridge cultural and time zone differences.??

Co-sponsors of the PACE program include Siemens PLM Software, General Motors (GM), EDS and Sun Microsystems. Siemens PLM Software??s role has been to enable the global communication and information management required by the PACE program, which it has done by providing Teamcenter??? digital lifecycle management software to participating universities. Siemens also supplies the digital product design solutions, NX??? and Solid Edge??? software, to PACE participants.

The design effort

The PACE universities in this project are located in Germany, Korea, Canada, Mexico, India, United States, China, Sweden and Brazil. At the beginning of the academic year, each university receives its assignment from Jensen, which is typically to design and build one of the racecar??s subsystems (such as front or rear suspension, outer shell, exhaust system, brake system, fuel system and so on). All the parts are eventually shipped to BYU where the car is assembled during the summer.

??This works because we build the car virtually in NX,?? says Jensen. ??That allows us to find interference problems before cutting metal or laying up composites.?? The students use the advanced simulation functionality within NX to perform stress and kinematics analyses of their designs. They also use the NX data in other analysis programs such as Fluent (to evaluate the aerodynamics of the outer shell) and ADAMS (to predict how tires ride or how a suspension handles, for example).

The collaboration platform

While NX enables a virtual mockup of the car, the other critical aspect of the PACE project is the collaboration platform, Teamcenter. Because each team??s work must be integrated with that of many others to build the car, students must share and manage their NX models. They must also communicate with each other directly from time to time. This is where Teamcenter comes in. The PACE program relies on Teamcenter??s engineering process management functionality to manage all of the design and analysis data for the project, and uses Teamcenter??s community collaboration capabilities to facilitate communication.

??Teamcenter provides a central repository for information as well as a collaborative work environment where we can share component designs and discuss work in process in real-time via the internet,?? Jensen says. ??This way, schools don??t incur the costly expense of international telephone and travel.Without the Teamcenter PLM technology, a project of this scope would be cost-prohibitive in the academic sector.??

Using a centralized Teamcenter collaboration system to store ideas and information eliminates some of the challenges posed by the time differences between the various schools?? locations. Students access information when and where they need it. Teamcenter??s ease of use has been a welcome feature in that regard. ??Teamcenter simplified the learning curve of a PLM system by offering a familiar Windows desktop environment,?? Jensen notes.

In addition, Teamcenter facilitates information re-use, helping make the ambitious one-year timeframe possible. Jensen points out, ??The project is set up so that students design and build a new Formula One car three years in a row. Teamcenter lets us capture lessons learned so that students can benefit from it. There??s less likelihood that a team will follow a dead-end, and they can move more quickly into a final design.??

Over the past two academic years (2006-2007 and 2007-2008), PACE students have designed, analyzed and built two racecars. ??GM was amazed at the quantity and quality of virtual design and analyses work done during the first two years of this three-year collaboration project, and they were impressed with how well the finished cars came together,?? Jensen says. This year??s racecar is being shipped to Korea for testing at the GM Daewoo facility. During the 2008-2009 academic year, PACE students will use the Teamcenter PLM suite of tools to refine and correct any problems identified by GM Daewoo that would prevent this racecar from qualifying for a November 2009 time trial. Teamcenter will be used to release the new or modified designs to particular PACE schools so their students can make the physical parts or modifications to existing parts for a scheduled reassembly of the final car in the spring/summer of 2009. ??This project and its success is a tribute to Siemens?? PLM technologies,?? Jensen says.