Innova Systems customer, Owlstone Nanotech are on the brink of developing a disease detecting breathalyser, Business Weekly reports.
It all started when Owlstone’s founders suspended their PhDs to develop their concept of a comprehensive chemical detection chip. Well, that decision seems to be paying off, as their newly developed breathalyser is pushing the boundaries of disease detection.
Take diabetes, for example. Conventionally, glucose monitoring (although self-administered) is an invasive blood test. With the Owlstone breathalyser, acetone levels in exhaled breath can be used to ascertain blood sugar levels.
The presence of other chemicals has the potential to be indicative of the presence of an associated disease. The Owlstone breathalyser could therefore revolutionise the speed and accuracy of detecting afflicted clinical conditions and diseases.
The company is now working with top researchers to develop additional applications of their chemical detection chip.
Virtual Reality could now be just that – reality – with zSpace by InfiniteZ. The brand new holographic display system offers much more than the common 3D display. Take a 3D monitor, set it at a near-horizontal angle and add a tracking rig and you’re nearly there. A pen, hardwired into the device, is your point device. You can select objects, manipulate them and take apart assemblies in full 3D. The device transforms the traditional and somewhat gimmicky 3D experience into one with real value in the presentation environment. Watch the video below…
After two years of close collaboration with Audi, Donkervoort announce the completion of their new open-top muscle car. The car shares the same engine as the TT-RS and, weighing in at just 1,540 pounds, is undoubtedly one of the most powerful cars on the European market.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, you might be interested to know that the car was designed completely with SolidWorks 3D Design and Simulation software. Not only that, but they’ve used it to bring innovative new practices from the aviation and rocket industries to the automotive world.
The GTO incorporates a one-piece door design (including hinges), capable of withstanding a sideways impact of around 1500kg – the hinges themselves can withstand an impact of 1100kg! All this is capable with a door that weighs in at just under 1kg. This is all thanks to a combination of carbon composite materials, aviation design principles, and powerful design and simulation tools from SolidWorks. The innovation doesn’t stop here either – new anti-roll bars and a groundbreaking rear axle construction give the GTO extra stability and impressive handling.
Donkervoort are passionate about reducing the weight of their designs wherever possible and ensuring functional components are effective and easy to use. It’s clear why they rely on SolidWorks as the design software of choice – they use SolidWorks 3D Design to visualise their ideas and in conjunction with SolidWorks Simulation, optimise and validate their ideas into the highly engineered cars that result.
Click through to view a gallery of the stunning Donkervoort D8 GTO.
A few months ago we caught wind of an application being developed for the iPad that turns the tablet into a 3D Mouse. Well now it’s available and has beta support for SolidWorks! 3Dconnexion have led the way in 3D mice for some time but we’re sure Maide Control will bring the functionality to a whole new demographic.
We’re keen to see how our customers might use this – so if you give it a try, get in touch!
Captive Media, brainchild of EG Technology’s Mark Melford and Gordon MacSween, has launched a world-first gaming system. Forget Xbox, Sony Playstation, and Nintendo – we’d argue that Pee TV is the most innovative video game this decade! A bar in Cambridge (TaBouche, Market Passage) is host to a pilot scheme that combines advertising opportunities and competitive online gaming with a human bodily function to transform the 55 seconds average time spent at a urinal into an engaging experience.
“The Captive Media system consists simply of a hi-definition screen, fitted at eye level above the urinal, where it commands the full attention of the user. When not in active use, it plays a mixture of adverts and content from one of our six ‘PTV’ channels.”
“But when a user approaches, it flips into gaming mode, using patented technology to detect not only his presence … but the direction of his stream. Algorithms then allow the user to do something simple, but VERY engaging – controlling the system just by aiming their stream left or right!”
Even SolidWorks Simulation doesn’t remove the necessity to carry out physical testing. Innova Systems customer, Jeyes have taken the testing of their Bloo and Parazone branded toilet cleaners as far as they can with their ‘Toilet City’. A room filled with 250 toilets from across the globe, at a cost of £100,000, runs computer-controlled flush cycles to test the lifetimes of the soap blocks. Quite a sight to see!
We mentioned at our customer day back at the end of October, that we would be receiving the 2012 DVDs in November and subsequently posting them out to you in December. This unfortunately cannot happen due to circumstances outside of our control.
In the early part of November, SolidWorks highlighted a small, but important issue with how 2012 upgrades previous toolboxes. There is a situation that can occur where customised descriptions are not coming across, and if you are running a foreign language version, this can result in unusable toolbox components.
Rather than putting customers at risk, Solidworks have decided to slightly delay shipment of the upgrade kits so that you will receive 2012 SP1.0 instead of SP0.0. The release of SP1.0 was accelerated, and is available to download now – but because of the re-printing of the media, we will not be able to post your DVDs to you until the New Year.
As stated, 2012 SP1.0 is available to download from the customer portal now, and this version has none of the toolbox issues that SP0.0 suffers from. If you have any questions regarding this, please get in contact.
There are two way to deal with upgrading to 2012 with respect to the toolbox:
Install a new “Solidworks Data” folder on your machine. If you are keeping a previous release installed, we would normally recommend you suffix this folder with the version number i.e. Solidworks Data 2012.
Upgrade the previous versions toolbox to the latest version. This is all done through the installation manager, and will run a utility to upgrade the database and toolbox parts to the version you are installing.
Please Note:
If you have any customisation on your toolbox at all (i.e. have added additional descriptions, part numbers) then we would recommend that you upgrade via the second method. However, please review the information below:
There have been two problems reported with the upgrading of the toolbox if you have customised your descriptions, and part numbers – these problems have been resolved with the introduction of 2012 SP1.0. If you do have customisation, and are looking to upgrade, or have upgraded, there is a hotfix available that we can supply. Alternatively, if you haven’t upgraded yet, our advice would be to wait until the release of 2012 SP1.0, and then follow either of the two methods above.
It is worth noting at this point that the release of hard copies of 2012 has been delayed until the SP1.0 media is printed. This will delay their onward delivery to you, so we will expect to post these out after the Christmas holiday. The downloaded version has been available for some time.
I stumbled upon some great handy little tips from Lars Christensen today that might just make your life a little easier.
Click through to find tips on adding comments to equations; options; configuration-specific custom properties; controlling file sizes; and rotating planar faces, linear edges and vertices.
The Let’s Go Design series is really picking up now as Jeremy Luchini and the Let’s Go Design team make lots of progress on the Hot Rod Baby Buggy. Let’s Go Design is an interactive web series that brings CAD fanatics from around the world together to collaborate on innovative design projects. In the latest episode, Jeremy consults a mom about the cockpit area for the baby, shows how the suspension for the tank treads is coming together, and gives everyone an idea of what the final product will look like.
Click through to catch up on the series on the Let’s Go Design website, or watch the latest episode below.
We’ve been very busy this week preparing for tomorrow’s customer day. This year we have several partner companies joining us to show off their companions for SolidWorks. One product in particular has been causing quite a stir since its delivery on Tuesday – this of course is the HP Design Jet Colour 3D printer. Our Technical Support team have been getting to grips with the machine for the last few days, printing models, testing its capabilities, and preparing to show it off on Friday. The results that this 3D printer is able to produce are stunning. Just a few years ago, 3D printers caused a mess, produced brittle prototypes and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. HP’s effort is office friendly, produces solid and reliable objects and costs less than £15,000.
Make sure to come along tomorrow to see the printer in action and check out our photostream below to see the objects we’ve produced this week…
Cambridge is globally recognised as a hub for ideas, innovation and creativity when it comes to design and technology. It’s no surprise then that when the Design Council’s Design Fund for Growth initiative was conceived, Cambridge was quickly selected as a location for one of many design events held to highlight innovation.
Funded by this initiative, Creative Front are holding ‘Design Icons: Cambridge Innovation Festival’ to celebrate the product design community in Cambridgeshire.
The first in a series of Design Icons events is an exhibition to showcase the 20 most important products designed in Cambridge over the last 40 years. Here’s where you, the design community come in. We know that our customers make up a large proportion of the best designers in the county, so submit your entry quickly – you only have until November 11th!
Read on for the entry criteria and more information…
Design Icons: Submissions
The designer should be based in Cambridgeshire but the client does not need to be
Open to consultants and in-house teams
You can nominate your own or others work
There is no limit on you suggesting others work
Products must be designed in Cambridge over the last 40 years
We require a jpeg or photograph and a brief description of the product highlighting why you think it deserves to be included.
Please provide us with as much information as possible; product success, benefits design brought to the product in terms of market, sales, cost savings
Ideally you would also have a physical example of the product available to display at the exhibition
We would like to showcase the design process as much as possible and may require sketches and models to illustrate the product if successfully chosen
You must have permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the photograph in the exhibition catalogue
Designs must be submitted by 11 November 2011
Please email your submissions to Jodie Pinkowski, Events & Marketing Assistant to info@creativefront.org
Dropbox Invite: Creative Front can accept up to 2MB via email, although if you wish to send something larger, please email Jodie and she will invite you to share to their Dropbox.
A handy little feature has made it into SolidWorks 2012 to make your models look more realistic when using RealView Graphics.
Ambient occlusion is a global lighting method that when enabled, makes models look more realistic by controlling ambient light attenuation by adding occluded areas. In essence, objects look as they would in natural light settings, or on an overcast day.
With it enabled, ambient occlusion allows shadows to appear in and around objects, as they would in the real world. It also adds texture and with metallic objects especially, makes them instantly look realistic without the need to create a render. Check out the results below…
As a short break in the middle of our series of Feature Reviews (catch up on them here), I thought it might be worth recapping our past week at TCT Live. It was great to see some of you pop along to the show, but for those who didn’t – here’s what you missed out on…
TCT Live moved this year from its home in Coventry to the NEC Birmingham and in that move joined a whole conglomerate of trade shows including interplas, MM Live, PPMA, Sensing Technology, Nano Live, and MEMS Live. The massive expansion in and around TCT Live certainly raised its profile, bringing the leading innovators in rapid prototyping, 3D printing, 3D scanning, additive manufacturing and, of course, the best in 3D design – SolidWorks.
Besides the innovative technologies on display at exhibiting trade stands, there were also seminars and live technical experience to take in. Some fantastic keynotes were presented – Richard Noble of the Bloodhound Project for one – and visitors could check out the Aston Martin Le Mans and the Torpedalo.
Back at the Innova Systems stand, we had guys from our Technical Support team demoing SolidWorks, Alex (Application Engineer) modelling his surroundings and some of our Sales team offering advice to educational institutions and prospective adopters. All in all, we had a fantastic week and met some great people. Roll on next year!
Now, we all know that SolidWorks is easy to learn as well as extremely powerful – that’s why so many education authorities use it ahead of our competition – but in an effort to speed up and streamline workflows, it’s now even easier to get started with SolidWorks 2012.
Command Search is a new feature in SolidWorks 2012 that helps you to get a hold of that command that you know the name of, but just can’t remember its location. The search bar already does a good job of giving you access to SolidWorks Help, the Community Forum, the Knowledge Base and Files and Models search. In SolidWorks 2012 you can now search for Commands here too – so for any command that’s just out of reach, select the search bar and start typing.
A bonus for power users Command Search is also set to prove a fantastic productivity boost for power users too. Type ’s’, then carry on typing the name of your command tool and press enter to select a command. You can make this even quicker with a bit of customisation – add aliases for some of your most frequently used commands and before long you’ll have a selection of hotkeys to call upon.
We mentioned at our customer day back at the end of October, that we would be receiving the 2012 DVDs in November and subsequently posting them out to you in December. This unfortunately cannot happen due to circumstances outside of our control.
I stumbled upon some great handy little tips from Lars Christensen today that might just make your life a little easier.
The Let’s Go Design series is really picking up now as Jeremy Luchini and the Let’s Go Design team make lots of progress on the Hot Rod Baby Buggy. Let’s Go Design is an interactive web series that brings CAD fanatics from around the world together to collaborate on innovative design projects. In the latest episode, Jeremy consults a mom about the cockpit area for the baby, shows how the suspension for the tank treads is coming together, and gives everyone an idea of what the final product will look like.
We’ve been very busy this week preparing for tomorrow’s customer day. This year we have several partner companies joining us to show off their companions for SolidWorks. One product in particular has been causing quite a stir since its delivery on Tuesday – this of course is the HP Design Jet Colour 3D printer. Our Technical Support team have been getting to grips with the machine for the last few days, printing models, testing its capabilities, and preparing to show it off on Friday. The results that this 3D printer is able to produce are stunning. Just a few years ago, 3D printers caused a mess, produced brittle prototypes and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. HP’s effort is office friendly, produces solid and reliable objects and costs less than £15,000.
Cambridge is globally recognised as a hub for ideas, innovation and creativity when it comes to design and technology. It’s no surprise then that when the Design Council’s Design Fund for Growth initiative was conceived, Cambridge was quickly selected as a location for one of many design events held to highlight innovation.
As a short break in the middle of our series of Feature Reviews (catch up on them 
workflows, it’s now even easier to get started with SolidWorks 2012.