“Never memorize something that you can look up.”- Albert Einstein.
Do you remember your childhood phone number? Most likely you do. But, what if I asked for your best friends current number? Or your brother or sister? Most of us will turn to our smartphones for that. Same thing for calendar events and driving directions. We are moving away from storing information in our head that can be accessed in a better way.
Ordinary vs. Generative Design.
The same is happening in the manufacturing industry. The distinction between ordinary and generative design is going to be crucially important.
Ordinary design is based on conveying known information to achieve a specific outcome. This is how people are designing in CAD today. You know how you want the part to look like in the end before you even start. In short, ordinary design is about creating a part to specifications that someone has decided acceptable.
Generative Design, on the other hand, is about figuring out a design that is better than the known.
With generative design, we only have to know the boundaries and what our design will encounter. Then, the generative technology can create multiple iterations of possible designs. Letting the designer or engineer explore and validate different designs within minutes. This is the tool to make your best design better.
Ordinary design maintains the status quo. You design to the best of your capabilities and experience. While, generative design involves not just what you know but also generate new information, opportunities, and more options for better results.
As our world is moving from a “This is how we have always done it” to a “Figure out better ways” one, it is critical to the manufacturing industry that we look for more efficient ways to design and create products.
Generative design is a way to empty the limited space in your design brain and letting technology work harder and smarter, so the result is a truly better design.
Want to learn more about generative design? Check out this, Rob Cohee, article Here