29 the introduction of a new software licensing model for its solidThinking suite of simulation-driven design software. The extent of the partnership is that ST files (with the add-in) can be read directly into SW.Altair (Troy, MI, US) announced on Aug.

I suppose the thinking is that the styling is done in ST while the engineering is done in SW. SolidThinking is a partner with SolidWorks. Again, this is just an impression based more on what the article doesn’t say than what it does say. From the article, it sounds like PV360 rendering – fast and easy, but not much depth. Anyway, I’m interested in comparing the experience to surfacing in SW. Brep NURBS modelers require an understanding of brep and nurbs, which isn’t even approximately like working with clay.

It’s a NURBS based modeler that is said to be as intuitive as clay… ’scuse me if I’m a little skeptical at this point. SolidThinking runs for about $5500 now, but used to be $40,000 when it was introduced back in 1993. The article wanders a bit, getting distracted by NextStep, Mac, CoCreate and Rhino, and is light on new information, but I do see a couple of new pieces of info. I need to use this stuff for myself and report on it because the only info about actual usage I’ve seen has come from the company itself. These are the typical shortcomings of getting software news from the professional press.

She uses stock screen shots from the SolidThinking website, and talks about other people’s experience with the software rather than her own. A recent article in the Catia Community newsletter (requires free login), written by Kathleen Maher of Jon Peddie Research discusses the SolidThinking software.

Solidthinking software