MCAD Tech News (#215)

Automotive Styling Market Heats Up

Dassault combines aesthetics and engineering with ICEM acquisition.

In late April, Dassault Systemes announced that it was acquiring ICEM, a developer of high-quality surface modeling and rendering applications. Dassault’s intent behind the acquisition was to extend CATIA’s presence in the automotive styling communities.

At the time of the acquisition announcement, Dassault president and CEO Bernard Charles said, "Aesthetics and design quality create emotions and are key contributors to product success and brand recognition. With ICEM's set of technologies and expertise in this domain combined with Dassault's 3D and PLM technologies, customers will benefit from styling concepts to final shape. High-quality design is an opportunity for Dassault's customers to innovate and differentiate themselves.”

Looking for any competitive advantage, the automotive industry has increasingly integrated aesthetics as a component of the engineering process. One of the critical steps is the "Class A Surface" process, which creates mathematically complex surfaces from styling sketches, and ICEM is highly regarded in this tough niche. Before the acquisition, ICEM already had several automotive OEM customers, including Ford, VW, BMW, Porsche, PSA, Renault, and Nissan. Read more>>

By John Hackney

Often companies require a different name for Inventor Content Center fasteners to appear in the assembly browser as well as in the drawing parts list. This article describes the process for modifying a custom library to display a different file name, part number, and a custom property called a bin number. Read more>>

Mark Your Calendar: MCAD Events

AutoCAD PowerDay
July 24, 2007
London, United Kingdom
AutoCAD PowerDay, presented by Evolve, will offer sessions on many aspects of AutoCAD; participants sign up and pay for only the sessions they wish to attend. The sessions are designed for all levels of user.
Read more

VisMasters Design Modeling & Visualization Conference
August 9-11, 2007
San Diego, California
This two-day event focuses on the business, art, and technology of design visualization, bringing together like-minded designers and industry leaders from around the world to share their accomplishments and vision for the future. Session topics are intended to benefit architects, designers, students, and professional visualization artists. Read more

PLM Road Map 2007
September 19-20, 2007
Plymouth, Michigan
At PLM Road Map 2007, sponsored by CPD Associates, Donald H. Brown, industry analysts from CPDA, key industry players, and front-line implementation experts will discuss their experiences in addressing strategic PLM topics. Find out firsthand which issues are currently confronting end users. Read more

For Cadalyst's full calendar of events, click here.