Using CAD with Surface Studio and in the Cloud

When Surface Studio was announced, I instantly wondered if using CAD would be significantly improved when compared to Surface Book. Obviously, there are three major physical differences: Surface Studio has a 28” touch screen that tilts, is a desktop device and is the showcase for a new interface device, Surface Dial. While the experience should be quite different, I was especially curious to know if it is in fact beneficial or advantageous in any way for CAD users. After all, Surface Book can be docked and connected to an equally large screen and with the performance base, it has similar computing specifications. Hence my rationale for taking Surface Studio through its paces, and being quite honest, also out of pure curiosity!

Firstly, Surface Studio has some notable features for CAD users compared with the new Surface Book with Performance Base:

• NVIDIA? GeForce? GTX 980M 4GB GDDR5 memory vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M 2GB GDDR5
• 28” PixelSense? Display (4500 x 3000 pixels) vs. 13.5" PixelSense Display (3000 x 2000)
• 4 x USB 3.0 ports vs. 2 x USB 3.0
• 32GB RAM vs. 16GB RAM

If this experiment hinged only specifications, one could argue there is no point. Surface Studio has some clear improvements. However, my objective was to test the overall experience and not just rely on speed and capacity.

I chose to use a Surface Studio sitting proudly in our executive briefing center in Redmond. I had several hours with the device during the quiet and more private moments when the briefing rooms are busy and the common areas are vacant.

My first challenge was to install CAD. Siemens PLM kindly provide me with Solid Edge, which I carry with me on a 32GB USB 3.0 thumb drive for such occasions. After a few short minutes, Solid Edge ST9 and my sample datasets were installed and I could start taking Surface Studio through its paces.

As I expected, and hoped, Solid Edge was fast. Blazingly fast actually. The extremely high resolution screen provides ample working space in the application, and the icon sets, text prompts, etc. are still easy to see, click or tap.

And for comparison, this is Solid Edge ST9 running on Surface Book with the same dataset.

Navigating the 3D space in Solid Edge was effortless even with a relatively large assembly such as the tractor. Compared with my first-generation Surface Book, the graphics performance is significantly improved in my opinion. Noticeably, the touch experience is vastly different. You really do get an appreciation for the size of the screen when you are using touch. Dare I say it reminded me of a physical world equivalent: shaping foam in a model shop. For example, the screen is large enough that using a pinch gesture to zoom is best performed with two hands, rather than one. The experience is much like Surface Hub, which is an even larger screen device.

Next I tried Surface Dial. It was unobtrusively sitting next to the mouse and seemed right at home. It looks a lot like a minimalist take on the space ball, which of course reminded me of the now ancient SGI dial box. It’s the future past.

Surface Dial can be used sitting on a table top or on Surface Studio’s screen.

To engage it on your desk, you simply press it down, which returns a slight haptic response, and the circular menu interface appears on screen revealing common navigation options, akin to using your mouse. You can scroll, zoom, undo and adjust sound volume or screen brightness without the application requiring any updates or changes. It just works.

The same is true if you place the dial on the screen. Of course, this is first time it becomes evident that you need to tilt the screen down to 45 degrees or lower so it’s a canvas, otherwise your new Dial friend will slide and wiggle down the screen under the force of gravity.  I recommend you try Surface Dial with the screen near vertical, just for entertainment purposes :)

When you press the dial down, the circular user interface appears around the circumference of the dial as you would expect, binding physical and digital worlds together, in an instant. It is perfectly compelling and intuitive. I could easily select zoom, press/click and then turn the dial to zoom in and out with ease.

However, if you want to really experience what the dial can do, use your mouse in one hand, and the dial in the other. Then it makes a lot of sense.

I found I could rotate my 3D model view with the mouse and simultaneously zoom with the dial. It was effortless, useful and importantly fast. Furthermore, it actually makes you feel engaged in your work. The same experience is true if you use the pen and the dial, or touch and the dial.

In fact, I found the dial was superior for zooming compared with the equivalent touch based pinch movement, or using a mouse wheel. It’s just easier to use one hand to zoom in with the dial and the other for touch controls, as opposed to one or both hands performing two separate actions: zoom with pinch and then rotate with single finger swipe/drag.

I also tried the dial with JT2Go and it of course worked precisely the same way. I could see however, that both applications could take better advantage of the dial and provide contextual menu options that are specific to the application rather than general - which I am sure Siemens must be working on already.

One point to note about using JT2Go on Surface Studio, the experience is wonderfully immersive.  The sheer scale of the 3D viewable alone makes a big impact.

My second test was to stress the system with a very large assembly, once again using Solid Edge. It’s a great way to see how far the graphics can be pushed, but also how the system responds to the usual rhythm of work: select, action, edit, and update. Surface Studio is no slouch.

Practically, Surface Studio feels about 30% faster than Surface Book with the same dataset. I know this isn’t a technical measurement by any stretch of the imagination but it’s still important, as the ergonomics of working in 3D is critical to productivity.

Furthermore, the ergonomic benefits of using the pen as a mouse pointer becomes a lot clearer with Surface Studio. Its fluid and natural. I attribute this to the difference between mouse pointer travel time and moving your hand/pen. I felt as if moving the pen was more immediate.

When considering capacity however, Surface Studio has two clear advantages: 32GB system RAM, and 4GB graphics RAM, which equates to larger 3D assembly handling.  In other words, Surface Studio is significantly more capable than Surface Book.

After spending some time with Solid Edge and JT2Go running natively on Surface Studio and Surface Book, I thought it would be useful to compare the experience when running each application from the cloud.

The concept of CAD running in the cloud isn’t new.

My first experience was with Alibre Design in 2000. While it required a download, the application ran entirely in a browser and used internet based or local servers to coordinate co-authoring and data sharing. It also featured a handy offline mode. Later in 2009 I used RemoteFX on Windows Server 2008 R2, which allowed CAD applications utilizing DirectX to run on a server (local or hosted) and be accessed from the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) app. As RDC is pre-installed with Windows, there’s no download which is convenient.

Today, in 2016, I am running CAD in Azure using the NV Series virtual machines and accessing them via the RDC app. Importantly, accelerated OpenGL is now supported, via high performance NVIDIA Tesla M60 GPUs. The experience has come a long way and its virtually seamless.

Using Azure is how I transformed Surface Studio from a very respectable desktop into a powerhouse workstation. Comparatively:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-6820HQ 2.70Ghz vs. 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 2.60Ghz
• 1 x NVIDIA? GeForce? GTX 980M 4GB GDDR5 memory vs. 2 x NVIDIA Test M60 16GB GDDR5
• 32GB RAM vs. 224GB RAM

Even though I’ve used virtualization extensively in the past, these new Azure NV series virtual machines are in a class of their own and provide a thoroughly impressive experience.

What I like so much about this approach is that CAD becomes truly portable, as do all the applications that are part of your workflow. To illustrate the point, I created a session with Solid Edge, JT2Go, and LS-DYNA all running at the same time and accessed it from Surface Studio and Surface Book, and even my Lumia 950XL with a Display Dock. In my mind, this is what makes virtualization so powerful. You can be anywhere on any almost device and access your work, all of it, including the applications.

Using RDC provides a no-compromise experience. The keyboard, mouse and touch controls work as expected. The 3D acceleration provided is fluid, seamless and impressive. It provides quite amazing performance that is not possible using the local hardware.  Of course, because the RDC app can run windowed, or minimized, its possible to also run local apps that make sense such as Office or even CAD for more manageable assembly sizes.  Running CAD in the cloud and on the local client has additional benefits when they are both connected to the same product management system (PDM): online and offline productivity.

After several hours with Surface Studio, running CAD natively and in the cloud, I have no hesitation recommending it for CAD users. I personally believe that Surface Studio makes CAD fun again. It’s quite difficult to not smile when you first see CAD running and more so once you dive in with the first few actions. The screen is beautiful and the device performs effortlessly. Furthermore, once you’ve tried the dial, you’ll be hooked.

I certainly hope that you found this article helpful and your feedback about Surface Studio is certainly appreciated.

For quick reference:

• Surface Studio Overview
• Surface Dial
• Azure NV Series

• Surface Book with Performance Base