Design Exploration: A New Paradigm in Solid Modeling.

That’s right I said it: “a new paradigm”.  With the glut of this phrase’s use during the late 90’s early 2k dotcom boom-to-bust you might be saying, “yawn”.  But the world of solid and surface modeling has not, until the last few years, seen much of a shift in the way these tools and us users work.  The recent attention that direct modelers, like Inventor Fusion, have been getting a lot of attention in the blog rolls, press and with users, but it would be a difficult nut to crack to find anybody that has made a significant shift from their solid modelers to the exclusive use of  direct modeling as their primary tool.  I’m not saying that it won’t happen at some point, but. . . 

Enter Alias Design for Inventor.  This is a fundamentally different way to create complex form.  It moves away from the traditional curve and surface method of modeling and essentially loosens the noose on the solid model.  You simply grab an edge of a solid and start manipulating it by pulling and adding vertices to get to the shape you want.  What does this give you?  Flexibility.  Flexibility to explore different ideas without time consuming modeling changes.  Flexibility to implement your industrial designer’s intent.  Flexibility to go get yourself a nice double espresso. . .
pic creds:  j. tedeschi 

. . . while your counterparts are scrambling with planes, curves and surfaces to “quickly” implement their designs.

Don’t believe me?  Check out this video.

Like Rob said in the above video. ". . .explore form uninhibited from the traditional rigors of history based, parametric modelers."

nuff said?

Enjoy, 

-j.- 

Comments

[Ron]

That's just plain mean!

[Varinder]

I recently Installed Inventor Professional 2011, but I do not see the Alias AddIn in the inventor. Is it a seperate Installation.

[Brian Sather]

Yes, it is packaged with Alias Design and is an add-in for Inventor.