In the beginning

This post represents the start of a serious attempt to engage with a project I have been kicking about for some time which is the capture of my work to date in the area of open product visualisation and more broadly the use of open source tools in the field of product design and product visualisation.

Early engagements with open source software

I have been engaged with open source software in the production of research and design outputs since my PhD research wherein I used open source tools running on SUSE Linux to do the vast majority of my work in materials analsysis and the production of the thesis itself. In particular I used Perl to automate the analysis of XRD and image analysis outputs. The code used for that element will be linked here.

Observations from industry

Working in design and engineering across a range of company sizes a couple of observations have emerged. These need to be supported by subsequent research but these initial personal observations. Propritery software dominates the sector and industry standards once established are hard to break away from and industry expectation feeds back into education and training programmes. Proprietary software has tended towards aggressive update cycles (with no backwards compatibility) or software as a service. There is also an increasingly effective implementation of per seat licencing which makes the burden of cost of this software significant. With a strong need for security, support and tracking of industry standards open source alternatives (which can be superior) are often overlooked. This is compounded by many open source software products having very “distinct” UIs and a reportedly steep learning curve.

This learning curve is actually one of the issues I want to engage with in the research. Many of the software operations in product visualisation require a strong knowledge of the product features with many accessed by keyboard shortcuts by a proficient user. Be it open of proprietary many of these packages demand a high level of user proficiency to be effective as the tasks being undertaken are frequently complex and the software products are feature rich. Much of the supposed “ease of use” of the established products mearly comes from familiarity and their market dominance allow them to set the norm.

More than a hobby

My re-engagement with open source software on more than a hobby basis really came from 2 sources.

Python
Blender

Python as I was looking for something to do maths and control external devices. Solve simultaneous equations and control heaters with little or no budget. Raspberry Pi and Python (Sympy stack) fit the bill perfectly.

3D modelling without access to a Solidworks licence lead me first to Fusion 360 (Autodesk) but also to Blender. I learned Blender on version 2.79 but the real interest took off with the release of 2.8 beta with the significant enhancements to UI and functionality.

The move to an academic role allowed me to explore further the possibilities open source software presented particularly in the area of industrial design where some traditional approaches are being displaced by software tools which have market dominance in related fields but may not be offering the best workflow for industrial design.

Studying a masters in teaching and learning also allowed me opportunity to reflect on the role of education in training experts ready for industry vs educating designers to establish an underlying understanding of , for example, form generation such that they are able to rapidly become effective at using any tool to achieve their desired outcome.

Open Source Product Visualisation

Introduction and Premis
- Product Visualisation
  - Product/Design Vis
    - Product Visualisation
    - Design Visualisation
  - What is it?
  - How is used
    - Historically
    - Currently
      - Communication
      - Iteration
      - Promotion
      - Evalavuation
  - Types of visualisation
    - Sketch level
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Blockout
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Rapid ideation
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Concept refinement
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Design proposal
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Design Refinement
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Design Presentation
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
    - Product promotion visualisations
      - 2D
      - 3D
      - Form
      - Propose
      - Examples
  - Value
- Current techniques
  - Growing dependance on software to mediate the design process
  - Broad range of software solutions
  - Rapidly changing landscape
  - Dominance in some areas of design by a small number of large companies
- Open Source Tools
  - Open source movement
  - Development of open source tools
  - Value proposition of open vs closed source software
  - Open vs closed in a commercial context
    - Effiency
    - Quality
    - Support
    - Compatibility
  - Open vs closed source in education
    - Freedom
    - Stability
    - Software maturity
    - Continuity
      - Price changes
      - Withdrawal of packages
    - Support
    - Education vs Training
    - Access
    - Industry acceptance
    - Underlying principles vs application specific training
    - Exposure to multiple packages vs specific training in a small number
      - Cost implications
      - Breadth vs depth
      - Cognitive load
      - Learning curve vs learning to learn
- Broad overall scope
  - Narrows up to focus on 3D visualisation
  - As a case study
Review Literature
- Visualisation in the design process
  - Visualisation as a design method
  - Visualisation as a communication method
- History of product/design visualisation
  - Traditional visualisation techniques
  - The evolution of the role of software in product visualisation
- Current state of product and design visualisation
  - Simulation and complex data visualisation
    - Beyond the scope of the current review
    - Digital twins
    - Component simulation and artificial colours
    - Full system simulation
  - 2D visualisation and simulation
  - 3D visualisation and simulation
- 2D graphical
  - Usage
  - Technology
  - Product Landscape
- 3D Modeling
  - Usage
  - Technology
    - breps
    - nurbs
    - parasolid
    - SubD
  - Product Landscape
    - General solutions
    - Industry specific solutions
- 3D Modeling in product design and product visualisation
  - Traditional
  - Software options
- Value and cost
  - Estimating the value in increased productivity
  - Estimating value in increased creativity
  - Estimating value in increased customer impact
  - Estimating value in increased product sales
- Open Source
  - Origins
  - Development
  - Open source in the main stream
  - Open source projects in the area of design visualisation
    - Impact
    - Usage
    - Critical review
  - Open source in commercial setting
  - Open source in education setting
- Subtopic 9
Establish Methodology and Method
Establish position and prior learning
Identify case study
- Identify scope of outputs
  - a. Visual Presentation
  - b. 3D print
  - c. Technical design detailing
- Identification of design outputs and output types
- Identify scope of timescales and expectations of detail
- Selection of software tools aligned with each output type
Apply design method
- Comparator Design
  - Comparator design using “Standard”
Compile observations and comparator analysis
Open outputs to external critique
Analysis of critique vs observations
Generate Syllabus Proposal Based on Outcomes