News Digest 01.16

Carnegie Mellon Mechanical Engineering Researchers Develop New Software to Improve Design Tools
Carnegie Mellon News (01/13/09) Swaney, Chriss

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) engineers have developed SketchCAD, software that enables engineers to design new products by sketching ideas on a tablet computer.  "The idea is to empower engineers and designers with tools that are already familiar to them and are the most natural for the task," says CMU professor Levent Burak Kara.  SketchCAD is a pen-based computer system that can be used to design three-dimensional products.  Kara says the program gives engineers more freedom to be creative, and has a shorter learning curve for use.  CMU researchers say the software already is being used by Honda to design new cars, and they say it could eventually be used by physicians for planning surgeries, or by professors to teach basic engineering design methods.  The researchers also are developing another software system called SimuSketch that can recognize and simulate engineers' hand-drawn diagrams and mechanical systems.  SimuSketch enables engineers to quickly implement their ideas as diagrammatic sketches and test their feasibility in real-time simulations.  Kara says the software could significantly enhance engineering by allowing users to design and analyze complex engineered system using only sketches.

http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/January/jan13_designtools.shtml