Is Illustrator the New King of ID Software?
Adobe Illustrator is now the most requested software for industrial design positions, dethroning Photoshop. Solidworks is third on the list and clearly the most requested 3D application in ID job postings in IDSA's Design Perspectives monthly newsletter. Nine issues of the newsletter were studied from March 2007 to October 2008 and the number of specific mentions of software were counted. Only industrial design postings were counted, not graphic design, engineering, or educational positions. (See graph at left.)
Adobe Illustrator has proved to be a very versatile rendering tool for design and has especially improved in usefulness since version CS2. Color shape areas remain as editable vectors and filters and effects such as blur, feather, drop shadow, bevel, emboss and others can be used to great effect. (the snowboard boot shown here was done with Illustrator by Western sophomore ID student James Lin)
Adobe Photoshop is still holding a strong second place, since it gives incredible control for rendering quick shading or photorealistic rendering. Mastering techniques such as paths and quickmasks can be difficult however. It remains to be one of the most powerful and versatile software tools for a designer. (The Mustang shown here was done with Photoshop by Western ID senior Tavis Highlander)Solidworks has moved up to be the most requested 3D application for industrial design. This is probably because of it's ease of use, quick learning curve, powerful features, and low price compared to other parametric solid applications.
Alias Studio is the most requested nurbs/surfacing application, battling it out with Rhinoceros. This may because of it's aggressive education initiative, and being owned by AutoDesk which now provides free educational copies to students. It has great history with the ID profession and continues to be a very powerful application.
The biggest loser during the past 4 years has been AutoCAD, which went from being 7th place to near the bottom, tied for 9th along with Corel Painter, 3DS Max, and Corel Draw. Being a former user of AutoCAD, I can think of a hundred reasons why this is. Once you go parametric 3D modeling, you can't go back.
What do you use? Why do you prefer it?
Comments
Illustrator is a great tool!
By the way, when is your art auction scheduled?
ken gamble
ken@quatrocomposites.com
MS Office
Photoshop
Illustrator
Alias Sketchbook Pro
Catia V5
Snag-It (don't know what I'd do without it)
Since 1995 i am in contact with Solid Edge.
www.solidedge.com
I found weird that no mention of the software is found in your survey?
If you would like to start initate yourself with the software espacially the latest version that incorporate non linear modeling inside a solid modeler (To make a picture for those who are not initiate we could refer to SketchUP).
www.soliddna.wordpress.com
For those who see interest after reading the blog, I am not part of the Siemens organisation, but base on release history next release could be announce in the second quarter of 2009
Here a brief lexis to place incontext what is non linear modeleing.
http://soliddna.wordpress.com/synchronous_technology/lexis/
So what I use Solid Edge, why i prefer it... read the blog
Solid DNA
Photoshop
Camtasia
Snag-It
Solid Edge
Rhino
AutoCad
Solidworks
Illustrator
Photoshop
Rhino
Color pencils,
SolidWorks,
Excel,
other office tools,
IrfanView
As a Mech eng who has used SolidWorks for over 11 years and Proe for less than 1 year...I can really see the application of SW in the industrial sector...
I just checked out Snag-it and I think I'm sold on that software too. It beats opening PS, doing a print screen, copying to PS, cropping and saving. Plus the integrated web address capture would make documentation and organization a snap.
Thanks for the tip!
Illustrator has taken over technical illustration and communication. i think we can see that in the design of products today. easy to hand off to engineering and factories.
for manufacturing in China... atleast with softgoods, you can send a pretty crappy illustrator drawing and get something reasonable back as a first proto. hard to beat that.
for design communication though nothing beats moving to 3D. As most comments say, adobe up front and 3d to quickly follow.
Alias is by far the best 3D surface package with both 3D and 2D so you dont always have to bounce around so much. I Can knock out a quick 3D model and finish it off with sketching in no time. turn it in any view and nail the proportions and perspective everytime.
hand that off to Solids as a reference and maintain as much design intent as possible.