Technology is advancing at a faster rate than ever before in history, and with that, product development—the way we design and manufacture products—is changing, too. This evolution not only provides you with better tools that make the job easier, but it also gives you the opportunity to innovate.

It’s only natural that products improve over time. Consumers have come to expect this. The latest smartphone, for example, has a higher resolution display, better camera, and faster processor than last year’s model. These are incremental improvements though, and it’s rare that a product is introduced that drastically changes the acceleration of progress.

When it does happen, we all know the buzzword for this phenomenon: Disruption.

Are you driving disruption or is disruption driving you?

If you want to be at the cutting edge of your industry, it’s important to embrace the latest trends and advancements in technology. It’s a lot easier to be innovative when the tools you use aid in the design and manufacturing process rather than slow you down.

Solid Edge offers a significant advantage to help you drive disruption when it comes to the latest digital trends in product development: generative design, reverse engineering, and additive manufacturing. These are powerful mesh-based technologies, meaning the geometry is made up of tiny triangles stitched together to form a mesh, and they’re rapidly growing. While every CAD vendor is talking about them, not all solutions are created equal.

In an ideal world, they would work together harmoniously: Generative design and reverse engineering would flow into your design, which you could then easily additively manufacture. Most CAD systems require you to perform days of surfacing in order to use generative design results in your traditional solid model though. Generative design has to provide more than just visual inspiration. The same problem occurs with reverse engineering. Scanning is now the easy part; the challenge is how to incorporate that scanned data into a solid model.

Finally, how can you reap the full potential of additive manufacturing if you can’t develop parts that use it?

Convergent modeling is the key. Our solution integrates the solid model with the mesh model, enabling you to operate seamlessly between the two. In fact, when you watch Dan’s presentation, you’ll notice he points out that the example of convergent modeling in use looks unremarkable because you just see feature modeling. The truly remarkable part is that what you’re seeing is feature modeling on a mesh model. The result of this technology is a streamlined process in which you can realize the power of generative design, reverse engineering, and additive manufacturing in product development.