The document introduces Cheetah Solver, a new parametric solver plugin for AutoCAD developed by Cloud Invent. It summarizes the limitations of traditional CAD solvers and the coordinate-driven approach. Cheetah Solver uses new mathematical methods to resolve complex geometric constraints models thousands of times faster. It also runs in parallel on multi-core CPUs and many-core GPUs. The plugin will initially support 2D modeling in AutoCAD, with 3D support planned. Cloud Invent believes the plugin can gain significant market share and generate over $100 million in revenue annually.
1 of 18
Download to read offline
More Related Content
Cheetah solver breakthrough in geometric constraints modeling
2. Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
No matter what you want to do: to construct a mechanism, to build a
house, or just to rearrange furniture in your room you need a plan
Technical drawing or drafting is the act of composing plans that
visually communicate how some parts are to be constructed
The traditional drafting procedure is to place a piece of paper on a
smooth surface and to draw something by pencil using some set of
manual tools, such as T-square, Ruler, Stencil etc.
Nowadays, the technics of a drafting task have been significantly
automated and accelerated through the use of CAD
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
3. Computer-Aided Design
Computer-aided design is the use of computer systems to assist in the
creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design
Nowadays CAD systems began to provide much more capability than
just an ability to replace manual drafting with electronic drafting.
Namely:
automated generation of the Bill of Materials (BOM);
auto layout in integrated circuits;
interference checking;
performing engineering calculations;
and many other tasks.
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
4. Coordinate-Driven Approach
The original 2D CAD was coordinate-driven. It means that, while
operator is creating points and lines in 2D sketch, the software record
the coordinates of all and points in the drawing
The problem with this approach arise when you need to modify the
design even a small changes usually require to update manually the
coordinates of numerous points influenced by this small change
Parametric approach allows to think in terms of dimensions (linear
dimensions and angles) and geometrical constraints instead of
coordinates
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
5. Parametric Approach
Using parametrics you draw geometric entities (points, lines, curves),
set dimensions between different entities, and set geometric
constraints (like parallel, perpendicular, tangent etc.)
The software itself writes equations from these constraints. In these
equations coordinates of points are the unknowns and dimensions
are the parameters of equations, that define the solution
With parametric approach when you change some dimension you
dont need to modify sketch manually, the system automatically
recalculates coordinates of all points and regenerates the model
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
6. Users Pain in Parametric CAD
The idea of parametric approach is quite simple and very attractive,
but the resulting system of equations can be very large and very
complicated. For complex geometric models it may contain many
thousands of equations with millions of variables
All modern parametric CAD applications are not able to process
complicated geometric constrained models. Very often their behavior
is unstable even for models containing a small number of entities
Even, if such a solver is capable to resolve some intricate model, users
often have to wait long time to obtain a result
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
7. Cheetah Solver of Cloud Invent
Todays solver engines, were developed decades ago. They were not
changing in years. They are using slow archaic mathematical methods
and working in one thread mode even on multi-core CPU
Cheetah solver can work with geometrical models that contain
hundreds times more geometric entities and resolve them thousands
times faster than you can do with any competitor solver
Our solver works in parallel threads so its performance can be scaled
infinitely by increasing number of cores in your system. It can work on
multi-core CPUs, many-core GPUs, and intel Xeon Phi cards
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
8. AutoCAD Plugin
The first implementation of our solver is the plugin for AutoCAD 2015+
We chose to start from AutoCAD because it is one of the most popular
CAD-system, but it has very poor parametric functionality. The other
reason for us was that AutoCAD has very developer-friendly .Net API
Our plugin embeds into AutoCAD and intercepts all handlings to solver.
So, you have the same user experience as with the built-in solver
When you start using Cheetah Solver plugin for AutoCAD, it does not
mean that you cant use built-in solver. You can easily switch back and
forth from one solver to another by pushing a single button
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
9. Our Roadmap
Already available
In work
Cheetah Solver 2D
Parametric Core
Cheetah Solver 3D
Parametric Core
CPU CUDA Xeon Phi
AutoCAD Inventor SolidWorks SolidEdge
Cloud
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
10. Our Roadmap
The first version of Cheetah Solver Plugin covers only 2D parametric
functionality of AutoCAD
The next version (end of 2015) will provide for AutoCAD
full-featured 3D parametric functionality
In parallel we are working on implementation of our solver for other
CAD-systems (Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks of Dassault, Solid Edge
of Siemens etc.) and for different hardware platforms (NVidia CUDA,
Xeon Phi, Amazon Cloud Cluster, Windows Azure etc.)
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
11. Our Market
For AutoCAD plugin our potential customers are all AutoCAD users
Autodesk claims to have 12 million registered users. About half of
them (6 million) are AutoCAD users
We can create similar plugins for the other CADs. So, our potential
customers are all engineers and designers who use parametric CAD
Autodesk holds about 1/3 of the CAD market. If we will add Siemens
(SolidEdge and NX), Dassault (SolidWorks and CATIA), and PTC (Creo
Parametric), then we will cover about 80% of all CAD users
The size of the whole CAD-market is about $10 B per year.
Our Cheetah Solver plugins can add to this market the new segment
of the size minimum $100 M per year
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
12. Our Market
Now we are launching beta-testing of Cheetah plugin for AutoCAD and
we are planning to launch commercial version next year (3rd quarter).
Our business model:
Subscription: $9/month or $99/year for access to any available plugin and for
any available hardware-specific solver (CPU, GPU, cloud)
Purchasing: $99 for base plugin and $99 for each hardware-specific solver
Pessimistic estimation is $1 M customers (from more then 30 million
CAD users), so it will be about $100 M per year
But we estimate not less than 10 million customers. Therefore, it will
be about $1 B per year
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
13. Investments
Now our team is small and we can concentrate just on one way we
chose AutoCAD as a CAD platform, and CPUs and NVidia GPUs as
hardware platforms
We are receiving requests for possibility to use our technology with
other CADs, other hardware (such as ATI GPUs, AMD Mantle, Itanium
processors etc.) and on cloud (Amazon cloud, Windows Azure, etc.)
We can satisfy this requests, but to do this we need the growth
In order to grow we need more investments
If we will get $500,000 we will be able to do 3D parametric core and
2D plugins for SolidWorks and Solid Edge simultaneously
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
14. Our Team
As CEO of Cloud Invent, Dr. Nick Sidorenko has 35 years of experience in applied
mathematics and software development. In Russia he held leading research and
development positions in Academy of Science. In Israel he worked as development
leader in different software companies. His last work place was PTC.
Feel free to send e-mail to Nick Sidorenko: nick@cloud-invent.com
Mr. Lev Kantorovich is a software development and management professional with
more than 20 years of experience in the software industry. Prior focusing on Cloud
Invent, he worked as development leader and research engineer for Computer
Associates in Israel and US.
Feel free to send e-mail to Lev Kantorovich: lev@cloud-invent.com
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
15. Our Team
Mr. Evgeny Slavutsky is a financial and management professional with more than 15
years of experience in the advertising and design industry. Evgeny Slavutsky shares
CFO position in Cloud Invent, with the position of Financial Director of Great
Advertising Group, heaving headquarter in St.Petersburg, Russia
Feel free to send e-mail to Evgeny Slavutsky: jack@cloud-invent.com.
Mr. Dmitry Ratner has a solid experience in development of large-scale software
systems based on complex mathematical computations. Before joining our team he
worked as a lead developer and research scientist on a pipeline simulator,
economical information systems, GIS, analytical and prediction software.
Feel free to send e-mail to Dmitry Ratner: dmitry@cloud-invent.com
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
16. More information
On the site www.cloud-invent.com you can find much more
information about our solution
This video http://youtu.be/nK1ANoZHyUc can demonstrate more
clearly how our plugin works (and compare it with AutoCAD solver)
Soon well present more demonstration videos
You can download beta-version of our plugin by this link:
http://cloud-invent.com/download
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
17. Contacts
Cloud Invent(Israel)
Ha-Marva 4, Akko, 24531
Phone: (972) 506 926770
Cloud Invent (USA)
1855 47th Ave, Vero Beach, FL, 32966
Phone: (1) 772 501 3914
E-mail: info@cloud-invent.com
息 Cloud Invent, 2014
Our R&D Office:
Lev Ha-Tzomet Bld., Check Post,
Haifa 31078, Israel