Desktop Logic

1995/02/01 Aizpurua Sarasola, Joxerra | Kaltzada, Pili - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Softwarea

Because we were looking for and without knowing who we would meet, so we made the appointment on the Boulevard de San Sebastián, hoping that they would teach us who it was.

So we received the first news from the newly created company SofLan. On the contrary, it will not be the last one, because what they taught us and told us will ask for more visits.

SofLan is formed by Jon Fernández and Garbiñe Igarza. Until finding a product of industrial exploitation, DeskArtes, different tests were carried out and the first steps as a company have been to publicize the product and create demonstrative prototypes.

But we go to the point. SofLan is a company created by young people Jon Fernandez and Garbiñe Igarza. Jon is a chemist by nature and since his time as a student is closely related to the Faculty of Chemistry of San Sebastian. In fact, in this learning environment he began to know and create computer programs that would facilitate his work. He first met in collaboration with the Faculty at DeskArtes. Although the philosopher already knew him before, SofLan was born when he came across the industrial design program that bears this name. Technical work is therefore in the hands of Jon. On the contrary, Garbiñe's role will not be easier, as it will have to have a direct relationship with the market and deal with management and sale.

Descartes is a program made in Finland and prepared to work in SiliconGraphics workstations, although it can work in other workstations. A team of computer scientists and designers were looking for something that would facilitate the production, allow the market and the sale of the product and discovered it in this so-called DeskArtes.

This special design program comes to Euskal Herria through SofLan, and we met him with Jon and Garbiñe. Since that interview in Donostia, the logic of DeskArtes is not so strange to us.

System logic

In short, DeskArtes is an industrial design program. DeskArtes has completed and improved the CAD/CAM system programs currently known on the market, helping to create a new generation of design programs. The most outstanding contribution is the utility and philosophy of the program. The design work, as we know, is to do many tests and throw away many projects. Whoever has acted on some occasion knows that between the project and the object is a long process.

This photo pride is based on drawing lines, but the textures given have made it a reality.

DeskArtes wants to make it easier. The designer will be able to see at any time what was done, as the final product will see it on screen as he designs it. This program has managed to create three-dimensional images and be able to see on screen what will be the final result; it could seem like a chimplería, but any designer knows the importance of this.

In addition, it is not difficult to manufacture the display design, as it can work simultaneously with all currently used machining systems.

To be able to work with this program it is not necessary to make extraordinary investments. Silicon Graphic station has a 1Gb hard drive and RAM memory is 32Mb. It works on Unix, allowing multiple jobs to be done at once.

How does it work?

DeskArtes asks us for orders for the object to be designed to appear on the screen. It starts with the measurements of the object: length, width, coordinates, etc. Once the dimensions are defined, you will be asked to graphically collect the sections, curves and product profiles. A few seconds will see our range of orders.

Taking into account the master lines of the object, DeskArtes will help us take into account the surface, the colors, the reflection that will have the light and the rest of details, since we can use models that are reserved to the files.

The design is already finished. What has been explained to us on the screen is not the project that comes closest to the final product, but the product itself. To move from an image to an object, of course, there is only work on the machining system and fill correctly all the details that DeskArtes has given us.

SofJob and design market

In Indutri design there are more and more products with cabin. Why not design surfboards in this way?

At the moment two people, Jon and Garbiñe, are working on SofLan for all kinds of tasks. They have started to work and, as we have said, they are in charge of production, management and sale. Now that they have achieved the exclusive marketing of DeskArtes throughout Spain and South America, they will have to make many trips to publicize the program and seek customers. That's where more challenges have to be overcome. Jon Fernández confessed that they had to work as missionaries, “because in addition to offering and selling the program, we have to educate people who have a lot of suspicion about this type of products.”

They know that the DeskArtes market is broad; industrial design companies, those who want to advertise their products and, in general, those who have to sell the image of their work are those who can be SofLan customers, but for this the market will have to reject many prejudices.

On the other hand, this year the design, analysis or analysis of a model and the construction of a piece will take place in a single day. This way you can clearly see time savings in design using DeskArtes.

We saw it in DeskArtes. They explained to us step by step what was happening on the screen and inside the station. We saw that the two lines drawn before us acquire shape and become precise designs. We left the place dismissed in silence, without words. A few meters away we ask: “What did you think?”

The answer is launched almost at once. “It will not be an easy task, but we will certainly have more news.”

The image cup has been created automatically by the computer from the lines represented above.