http://fireuser.com/ en colinfinkle2@artlab.com Copyright 2008 2008-12-31T16:55:00-08:00 2104195http://www.feedburner.com http://fireuser.com/blog/when_it_comes_to_getting_a_job_in_industrial_design_3d_skills_are_highly_pr/ http://fireuser.com/blog/when_it_comes_to_getting_a_job_in_industrial_design_3d_skills_are_highly_pr/#When:16:55:00Z Jason Morris of Western Washington University compiled a survey of how often various software skills and specific software packages came up in industrial design job listings. This is very interesting, because these are skills that the industry is demanding right now. If you’re looking for a design job in this tough market, this list is a great resource on which skills to acquire or grow. It paints an interesting picture of the 3D CAD landscape as well. The 2D design tools may still be at the top of the list, but 3D skills are still preferred. All 3D CAD packages combined are mentioned 116 times, while the 2D counterparts are only mentioned 84 times. The dominant requirements for 2D skills are of course fluency in Illustrator and Photoshop. The 3D marketplace is much more fragmented. Illustrator and Photoshop obviously complement the 3D tools.  But honestly, if I was allowed only one design program, it would probably still be Illustrator. Sorry Solidworks! The competition in the fragmented 3D space in interesting. Solidworks has grown its lead, which Core 77 found interesting seeing as how Solidworks was originally an engineering software. I am not surprised. It is easy to learn, makes highly editable models, and has a rendering engine that gets better and better. Solidworks beats Pro Engineer, its solids modeling rival, by slim but respectable 5 points. The surface modelers are right up there with Alias just under Solidworks. It shows that surface modeling is a great skill to have in addition to solids modeling. Alias nearly doubles Rhino’s score, so it’s clear what you want to start playing around with. AutoCAD and 3DS Max are falling into the background because they are being positioned towards architecture by Autodesk. The competition in the 3D CAD marketplace only benefits us as users; while we may need to learn multiple packages, the innovations will keep coming from the competing companies. Digital Content Creation 2008-12-31T16:55:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/review_of_i7_x58_motherboard_reveals_interesting_comparison_of_firepro_v870/ http://fireuser.com/blog/review_of_i7_x58_motherboard_reveals_interesting_comparison_of_firepro_v870/#When:23:46:00Z 3DProfessor has a great review of the new Supermicro X8SAX workstation motherboards that feature the Intel i7 CPU and X58 chipsets running at 3.2 GHz under WinXP.  These motherboards are clearly aimed at the professional markets such as geophysicists, designers, scientists, engineers, Medical Imagery and other technical professionals. The review itself is interesting, but equally interesting is that performance was tested using two workstation graphics accelerators:  ATI’s FirePro V8700 and NVIDIA Quadro FX4800. The relevant comparison is the SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007 and SPECviewperf 10 for the FirePro 8700 and the Quadro FX4800 . What you will basically see is great performance from both cards with almost identical performance in SolidWorks 2007 (I wonder about 2009 with VOBs!) and varying winners in different SPECViewperf tests (where higher scores are better). Great results from both accelerators is the takeaway in terms of boards.  Great support for EEC memory is the takeaway in terms of the Supermicro motherboard. Benchmarks, Hardware 2008-12-25T23:46:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/look_for_amd_opencl_compliant_sdk_release_in_first_half_of_2009/ http://fireuser.com/blog/look_for_amd_opencl_compliant_sdk_release_in_first_half_of_2009/#When:16:32:01Z Today the OpenCL CPU+GPU compute standard was ratified by the Khronos Group and AMD announced that it is making good progress on its OpenCL-compliant offering and plans to release a developer version of the ATI Stream SDK v1.4 with support for OpenCL 1.0 for content developers in the first half of 2009. Working from early specifications of OpenCL, AMD’s engineering team has already started running code on its initial implementation. OpenCL (Open Computing Language), a way to extract computing performance out of GPUs and multicore CPUs in an architecture-independent way. In other words, programmers can use the GPU as a data-parallel coprocessor without having to go through a specialized graphics API like OpenGL or DirectX. OpenCL is designed to address more than GPGPU (general-purpose computing on graphics processing units). It is really a way to enable a broad range of parallel architectures that includes GPUs, multicore CPUs, Larrabee, and even DSPs, to greatly improve speed and responsiveness for a wide spectrum of applications from entertainment to scientific and 3D visualization. The new ATI Stream SDK 1.4 will add finer grain data type support, graphics API interoperability, multi-GPU support and support for Radeon HD 4870 X2 and several ATI FirePro 3D graphics accelerators General, GPGPU 2008-12-09T16:32:01-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/firepro_v8700_review_on_hothardware_performance_comparisons_in_opengl_direc/ http://fireuser.com/blog/firepro_v8700_review_on_hothardware_performance_comparisons_in_opengl_direc/#When:16:23:00Z HotHardWare has a detailed review of the FirePro V8700 and compares it performance-wise in OpenGL, DirectX, GPGPU and gaming (yes gaming!) to previous top-of-the-line FireGL cards as well as QuadroFX 1700, 3700 and 5600 cards. Quick Summary: "Excellent performance increases, very low noise, flexible outputs at a price point of nearly half that of ATI's prior generation high-end product." ... "FirePro is a massive shot in the arm for the product line and delivers on almost every front. ATI has not only addressed every major concern we had about their last generation FireGL V8600-series, but they have enhanced their workstation-class product offerings in other ways as well, while keeping the price point in check. The result is a highly refined product which feels properly tuned to the workstation market."... "The FirePro V8700 is not perfect, of course. ATI still hasn't nailed down their multi-GPU support as well as Nvidia has, nor do their drivers have as much polish as Nvidia's in our opinion (it close, though)." Benchmarks, Hardware 2008-12-05T16:23:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/genlock_technology_demo_from_ibc/ http://fireuser.com/blog/genlock_technology_demo_from_ibc/#When:23:24:00Z OK - admittedly this video does not really show very much at all because of the jerky handcam and YouTube compression artifacts. What it is supposed to show, is a demo from IBC of a FirePro technology demonstration of genlock - the synchronization of a video output to some external reference. Both of the computers featured in this clip are receiving an external video signal. The computer on the left is actively synchronizing the video output (to its monitor, shown) in the clip, and video refresh is in time with the input signal, resulting in smooth video playback. On right hand side, the computer is not synchronizing to the input signal; this results in the video being updated (in GPU memory) before the previous frame has been displayed. This causes a horizontal disruption/break in the displayed image. As I said, it is hard to see the tearing in the non-genlocked image with this compressed video, but in real life it is all too apparent and strikingly different from the genlocked image - hopefully you get the idea. Hardware 2008-12-04T23:24:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/whats_in_a_name_change_firegl_to_firepro_name_change_is_more_than_cosmetic/ http://fireuser.com/blog/whats_in_a_name_change_firegl_to_firepro_name_change_is_more_than_cosmetic/#When:16:26:00Z The name change from FireGL to FirePro is more than just repackaging existing workstation cards with new names. The shift from "GL" to "Pro" reflects ATI's recognition and focus on high-end workstation cards for use in areas other than OpenGL 3D modeling and CAD. The hardware and drivers are still tuned for top OpenGL performance (check out the VBO demo and VBO performance test videos for CATIA), but they are also exposing capabilities for DirectX performance, GPGPU, Video, HPC, industrial design and game design. 3D, Digital Content Creation, General, GPGPU 2008-12-04T16:26:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/new_article_rendering_intent/ http://fireuser.com/blog/new_article_rendering_intent/#When:05:53:01Z Colin Finkle, our CAD/industrial designer blogger, has written a new article for the site on the differences in types of rendering for MCAD and industrial design.  Not every rendering is created equal. Some renderings have different purposes than others, and to take a broad brush, one size fits all approach to renderings is doing a disservice to your designs. You need to decide whether your intent for this rendering is to sell or illustrate the design before you start. A rendering to sell is meant to convince someone that a design is the right way to move forward. On the other hand, a rendering intended to illustrate a design shows off design features, construction and added value. Read article → 3D, Digital Content Creation 2008-11-27T05:53:01-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/what_are_the_new_functions_in_opengl_30/ http://fireuser.com/blog/what_are_the_new_functions_in_opengl_30/#When:07:03:00Z OpenGL 3.0 increase the overall required set of functionality for any product advertising support for this latest spec revision. For instance: There is an improved mechanism to manage vertex buffer memory which enables applications to avoid costly back and forth through the PCIe bus, or to serialize CPU and GPU processing. Offscreen rendering capability is now a first class citizen, with an efficient mechanism to copy surfaces and use multi-sampled buffers, which should make rendering to shadow maps much more efficient. One of the key new feature is the support for the shader model available on all the recently released GPU, with full integer support. This lets application developpers write more natively their code instead of working around previous generation limited support for integer/float operations.   You can find the full list of new features and the latest OpenGL 3.0 specification at www.opengl.org. Full driver support will be available in the next few months from most hardware vendors and lot of large software companies have stated support for it in their next releases. Large subsets of the functionality is already exposed in currently shipping drivers, although the 3.0 logo will only by advertised once that becomes 100%. As with most things in life, you will not know all the benefits until its been used in action in a bunch of applications. What I find quite interesting is that the standard has been set by companies in competition with each other. It takes relevant hardware, a modern API, but the most importantly it needs to be implemented in the application software to move forward the technology. 3D, General 2008-11-22T07:03:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/3d_professor_writes_on_intels_i7_965ee_with_atis_firepro_v8700/ http://fireuser.com/blog/3d_professor_writes_on_intels_i7_965ee_with_atis_firepro_v8700/#When:01:22:00Z 3D Professor has run a series of performance tests on the next-generation Intel Core-i7 architecture with the FirePro V8700. Here’s the gist: i7 CPU and X58 Mainboard from Intel - The overall performance of the mainboard has been superb, and has many options for upgrades at a later date.  But for now its more than adequate for most.  The new triple channel memory controller most certainly has the required bang needed.  The unequivocal evidence shown within proves just how much raw performance is hidden under the hood.  Therefore for those of you wishing a merry Christmas with a new build - then look no further as Intel has done the job. ATI FirePro V8700 - The performance shown today has been well worth its wait.  The results shown within have been extra-ordinary to say the least.  SPECviewperf 10 scores have never been so high from a single socket CPU.  This card most certainly has overtaken its predecessor in many ways, faster memory, the aid of 800 unified shaders - this will help many in complex drawings.  Life in the professional graphics card market has just shifted up an a incredible gear.  Today’s outing has been the tip of the iceberg.  Cost and availability of the ATI FirePro V8700, currently the card fires in at an MSRP of approximately $1499 this is a very respectable price bracket for something which performs so well in all areas.  Benchmarks, Hardware 2008-11-08T01:22:00-08:00 http://fireuser.com/blog/opencl_10_on_fast_track_to_release_in_december_2008/ http://fireuser.com/blog/opencl_10_on_fast_track_to_release_in_december_2008/#When:18:44:00Z HPC has a blog post on the fast track release of OpenCL (Open Computing Language), a way to extract computing performance out of GPUs and multicore CPUs in an architecture-independent way. OpenCL is designed to address more than GPGPU (general-purpose computing on graphics processing units). It is really a way to enable a broad range of parallel architectures that includes GPUs, multicore CPUs, Larrabee, and even DSPs.  Both AMD (with Stream Computing) and Nvidia (with CUDA) strongly support the OpenCL move. Version 1.0 of OpenCL is on a fast track release schedule for early December at SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 in Singapore. OpenCL is a low level API that should be applicable to high-end workstations, desktop computers, handhelds and embedded devices. GPGPU 2008-11-06T18:44:00-08:00