As industry trends change and camera technology evolves, HD resolution cameras are becoming outdated, superseded by 6k-8k resolution cameras. However, camera stabilisation equipment also needs an upgrade. This is where Daniel’s company, AgileCine Engineering, was born. They design and implement camera stabilisation equipment upgrades that keeps up with the pace of camera and lens developments.
Challenges
Cameras and the stabilisation system, also known as a gimbal, are often attached together, making singular upgrades impossible. Hence, a camera upgrade alone also requires an upgrade in the stabilisation system.
To design upgrades for the gimbals for content with 6k-8k resolution cameras, Zatz and his team initially worked with a low-cost CAD tool. However, this package only took them so far down the road of a complete product development. After having tried a design concept, for example, they found themselves reworking models either to undo said concepts, or work through another. It was common for them to lose days of productivity having to rework CAD files.
Zatz said: “In the early days of our design work, we used a lower-cost software package that provided much of the initial design structure we needed. However, the software crippled us every time we needed to make changes on complex parts— often requiring a start from scratch as the only option. With SpaceClaim, we design, test and modify without end. We think that working with SpaceClaim is a bit like working with clay that never hardens.”
Engineering Solutions
One of AgileCine’s suppliers, Jawi Metaalbewerking in the Netherlands, recommend ANSYS SpaceClaim as a multipurpose geometry tool. They quickly discovered they could design more concepts in a shorter amount of time, all the while doing continuous design modifications without getting stuck in CAD theory. After starting SpaceClaim, Daniel realised their parts were otherwise more refi ned, were generally optimised, and lighter weight. He attributes this to his time now spent on actual design work and less on the rebuilding of CAD models.
Benefits
Using ANSYS SpaceClaim was a major time and psychological gain for Daniel and his team. It took them only three weeks to become design proficient and make progress on their projects. When they need to improve a design, they found SpaceClaim infinitely flexible in making changes as compared to any other 3D tool they had used. Daniel and team expected SpaceClaim to help with their general design requirements, but they quickly realised several other functionality and benefits. In particular, they appreciated the lack of constraints when drawing 2D or 3D elements, and found modelling in a cross section view vital to their rapid design changes.