Parametric is Restrictive

Autodesk is making announcements this week about their new Fusion technology. So far it sounds like what Siemens is doing. I'm interested to see more details. Overall its fun to watch all of these large CAD companies waking up to the benefits of history-free modeling. It will be a while before any of them actually drop the bloated history/parametric code out of a product all-together. I predict they will eventually figure that out.

Once they really open their minds to this approach they will see that besides being a poor format for storing designs, parametric 3D modeling is a poor tool for most design challenges. It frequently has the effect of turning the designer’s early thoughts and understanding about a part or system into a rigid machine formula. This approach can be useful in situations which involve standardized parts or process limitations with well-established relationships and naturally rigid variables. However, most new design does not fit this description. In most new design parametric modeling requires the discipline to throw away possibly several rounds of draft models which were built on assumptions which have been violated by knowledge gained naturally as the design matures. That equals a lot of wasted time.