Components For Building A High-Performance CAD Workstation

Processor technology

Question:

Discuss about The automotive industry in competitive environment.

The automotive industry in today’s world is stiffened by a very competitive environment that presses companies to utilize the resources available such as workstations and engineers to get the most out of them. The industry needs many diverse experts and a few specialists. Investing in sturdy workstation components can bring the most out of the designers’ broader skills thus enhancing the bottom line (Maloletnikov, 2014). Performance and versatility of workstations are determined by how it is configured, graphics processing units, the central processing unit, input/output components, memory, and storage. Depending on the data and application you use daily will determine the choices of these components. Making the right choices of the components will determine the performance of the workstations. The following are some of the components that should be considered when building the workstation:

Over the years, processor technology has evolved from dual-core to hex-core with multicore CPUs proving to be gaining theoretical speed-ups. However, for CAD workstations you won’t get the best out of multi-core processors because the packages are not yet configured to run on them (Green, 2017). For this case, get the single core processor with the highest processing speed that you can afford. It is important to note that few CAD vendors are now designing their components to operate on 64-bit multicore architecture. CPU is an essential element for enduring that the workstation operates efficiently and utilizes the available resources optimally. For the workstation, you should choose XEON or Intel I7.

Figure 1: XEON and  Intel I7 Processors

(Source: Green, 2017)

When choosing a GPU one must be keen in choosing a GPU that will be used to power the simulations applications, CAD, and the rendering process. The GPU of this era may have bit similarities to the graphics controllers of the older days. With professional graphics, one can display parts and models much more realistically and will also be able to keep the viewpoints fluid even if working with sophisticated objects. These GPU’s will be able to offer a lot of power just not in graphics but also in other fields. Graphics is only but a beginning for these new GPU engines.   

When the correct GPU is put in place, a remarkable performance will be noticed in how the 3D software will respond to animation generation, panning, rotations, and other tasks that may push the limits of a much lower processor. Once this improvement is in place, the software will be able to bring overall user satisfaction and dramatic gain in the productivity. The consideration of a GPU will require both time and budget (Jovica, 2016). Most customers will want an entry caliber card that will be able to match the performance and all capabilities of the GPU with the rest of the system, for instance, an entry caliber workstation. The best way to maximizing the ROI for the workstation purchase is by the right balance in which every component will hit the performance level that it is supposed by the rest of the system.

Choosing the right GPU

Figure 2: NVIDIA Quadro GPU

(Source: Green, 2017)

The GPU Computing. There are two most common components in the iterative workflow which are; FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic). They are able to employ an algorithm that will rely on the heap of floating point arithmetic which also can run in parallel to gain a significant increase in the throughput. Raytraced rendering is a technique that falls naturally more on the GPU rather than graphics. It is different from the conventional raster based rendering. The images that are rendered using the raytracer are more eye-catching thus making the raytracer the most demanded visual tools used for product styling. NVIDIA GPU has enabled Iray which is a rendering engine located mostly in software as Bunk speed shot, the Autodesk 3d max and CATIA version6. The visual times are decreasing from hours to minutes. At that speed, designers can be able to influence raytracing earlier in the development procedure

NVIDIA Maximus is another GPU powered option available in major workshops such as Lenovo, Dell, and Hp. It is used for the use of CAD and other professional related applications, hence allow in ROI cranking visualization, ultimate concurrency, and analysis. NVIDIA Tesla coprocessors and NVIDIA Quadro graphics are integrated, you will carry out simulations, designing, and rendering processes on the same system.

Figure 3: NVIDIA Tesla GPU

(Source: Green, 2017)

Multi-monitor support supports a dual slot for CAD professionals and graphics which in turn opens doors to a whole lot more screen real estate. With NVIDIA Quadro cards one can be able to get unique Mosaic technologies that can be able to support as many and up to eight monitors and also enable transparent scaling of any application as well as seamless taskbar spanning. Also, nView technology is another unique feature. It allows one starts applications as many 32 different desktops seamlessly switching in between them. There is a taskbar that shows each application button on its specific display and lets you eliminate a single screen with an overly crowded taskbar.

When the performance requires an additional graphics cards, for example, high-end graphics or mid-range graphics, one card will be enough to get all the screen real estate you want.

There must be sufficient Ram in order CAD to run. The system RAM will depend on the GPU that you will choose because the GPU have their internal memory which can be used to free up the RAM in order to do other tasks. The speed of the RAM and its size will remarkably influence the workstation performance much more than the CPU and GPU. The most advisable and reasonable budget of a CAD application may range from 8 to 32 GB, but one can leave some space in the DIMM slots located into the motherboard’s system for expansion later. For the ECC (Error Correcting Code), it is not essential in CAD but is certainly valuable for allowing single bit memory errors to be detected and corrected.

In order to make the right choice, one must give full consideration to the choice of the CPU and GPU. The productivity will depend on the tools; hence, the performance of the workstation will only be as good as the elements you selected (Covington, 2016). The memory choice should be beefy enough so as to hold on all the computational horsepower.

The abundance of fast and reliable RAM is crucial for the fast and smooth operations of a CAD design for it requires a whole lot of memory. The 26 GB is the minimum, and the 32 GB is more so for the professional use. The DDR4 is a must.

Figure 4: ECC and Non-ECC RAM

(Source: Green, 2017)

Storage (Solid-State –Drives)

This is highly recommended to build every PC with one and double for the CAD workstations. The speed “05-6x over 7200 RPM platter drivers” are more impactful and real hence increase the reliability. NVme SSD drivers like the Samsung 950 pro are mostly use for the CAD workstations and are crazily fast for shut down, quick boot, and program launching as well as an overall snappier feel. The SSD and the Hybrid SSD will be able to load up large assembly files. The faster the Hard Drive, the faster the files will be loaded on the desk or RAM, for the Hard Drive acts as a filing cabinet. If the Ram runs out, the Hard Drive Virtual Memory is used for file swapping.

Figure 5: SSD Storage

(Source: Green, 2017)

There are others which may include, ten screens, one screen, 3D mouse, and ergo keyboard

Figure 6:Monitor

(Source: Green, 2017)

Vendors such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo have a CAD level category of mobile and desktop workstations which will have most if not all of the recommendations required, but one can look at clone to save in money. For this case, I recommend acquisition of Inventor workstation from Autodesk. The vendor has been in the industry for the more 30 years and understood the industry requirements. Autodesk inventor will bring several benefits to the company by facilitating 3D modeling rapidly, digital prototyping, and design of products.

It can reduce the time required to design and model a product, assessment of global impact to the product, and potential design visualization. Autodesk inventor should be implemented in well specified and suitable components to avoid time wastage and nullification of it benefits. Due to the vast amount of data, the company will be supplying to the Autodesk inventor; I recommend the following components to work with Autodesk Inventor:

References

Autodesk, A. (2017). Inventor | Mechanical Design & 3D CAD Software | Autodesk. Autodesk.eu. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from https://www.autodesk.eu/products/inventor/overview

Covington, J. (2016). What you need for the best CAD Workstation PC. Custom Gaming & Enthusiast PC Blog | Velocity Micro. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from https://www.velocitymicro.com/blog/need-best-cad-workstation-pc/

Green, R. (2017). How to Choose Workstation Components That Can Handle CAD | Cadalyst. cadalyst.com. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from https://www.cadalyst.com/hardware/workstations/how-choose-workstation-components-can-handle-cad-32447

Jovica, D. (2016). Recommended Hardware for CAD. Redstack.com.au. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from https://redstack.com.au/support/blog_posts/hardware

Maloletnikov, O. (2014). COMPONENTS OF A CAD WORKSTATION | ?????????? ?????? ????. Proizvodim.com. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from https://proizvodim.com/components-of-a-cad-workstation.html