Enabling High performance CAD for remote workers

The shift to a remote workforce has presented a number of challenges for all companies, including manufacturers. Secure access to sensitive data, potentially in large files, and requirements for high performance on-premises compute equipment for complex engineering workloads is making running engineering and business operations remotely difficult.

Creo is a market-leading suite of desktop CAD/CAM/CAE tools for 3D product design and development. Since working remotely is the new normal, companies are looking to make it easy for their design engineers to access Creo from remote locations to perform their design activities efficiently and securely. Cloud streaming allows a fast and fluid experience at a fraction of a cost of running individual graphics workstations for individual users, without upfront investments or long-term commitments, making it ideal for in-office, and remote workers alike.

Working remotely can be challenging when it comes to running graphic-intensive applications for product design, manufacturing, or engineering workflows. But it doesn’t have to be this way — engineers and designers can get the performance, speed and security they require from a high-performance virtualized environment in the cloud using Amazon AppStream 2.0.

AppStream 2.0 is a fully managed application streaming service. You centrally manage your desktop applications on AppStream 2.0 and securely deliver them to any computer. You can easily scale to any number of users across the globe without acquiring, provisioning, and operating hardware or infrastructure. With AWS, you also benefit from a infrastructure and network architecture designed for the most security-sensitive organizations. Each user has a fluid and responsive experience with their applications, including GPU-intensive 3D design and engineering workloads because your applications run on virtual machines (VMs) optimized for specific use cases and each streaming session automatically adjusts to network conditions.

This can deliver a high-performance workstation class experience for your users, while also reducing your operating costs. With AWS, you can provide a Computer-aided Design (CAD) desktop application to your design engineers via a web browser, securely, with marginal latency. Your CAD workload becomes accessible from anywhere in the world without the need to maintain individual desktop applications or any other on premises infrastructure. This solution also provides the agility to scale up to a virtually unlimited number of additional global users, eliminating the guesswork for calculating on premises hardware requirements in advance.

AWS offers high performance NVIDIA Quadro RTX-capable GPUs, like the NVIDIA T4 Tensor Core GPU on our G4 family of instances on AWS. This delivers the power to import complex models and support realistic, physically based materials, lighting and environments. Designers and engineers can create real-time renderings and visuals with instant feedback directly from the cloud while working remotely. With NVIDIA GPUs, they can enhance 3D graphics workloads with the latest features such as real-time ray tracing, AI, advanced shading and simulation. Engineers using Creo can access advanced rendering capabilities in any product design workflow, and achieve smooth model manipulation even with larger assemblies. NVIDIA RTX also allows engineers to experience real-time engineering simulation with Creo Simulation Live, and accelerate generative design with Creo Generative Topology Optimization Extension to create better products faster than before, and speed time to market.

How to get started with Creo on Amazon AppStream 2.0 powered by NVIDIA GPUs: Customers can configure and deploy Creo on Amazon AppStream 2.0 in just five steps:

1. Install and configure Creo for streaming using an image builder.
2. Provision a fleet of instances to stream your applications. This fleet uses the g4dn instance type and adhere to scaling policies to match the number of users that you want to be able to stream concurrently.
3. Provision a stack to create a web portal from which users can stream your applications.
4. Configure persistent storage that users can access across application streaming sessions.
5. Create a user pool to manage users who access your streaming applications.

After following these steps, your environment may look like the figure below:

For detailed instructions on how to build an Amazon AppStream 2.0 environment for PTC Creo please refer to this deployment guide.

Engineers in manufacturing organizations are working remotely and may not have the same powerful workstations at home as they have in their offices. To maintain business continuity, organizations need to provide CAE tool access to their employees, like the CREO graphics intensive 3D CAD workflows with the same performance and user experience as if they were in the office so that they can be productive. Creo on AWS powered by NVIDIA RTX-capable GPUs allows design engineers to work remotely and securely with the same powerful workstation experience in developing graphics intensive CAD designs. Organizations can scale this out to a production environment with users signing in using Active Directory Credentials. Leverage the AWS Cloud and our partners to accelerate time-to-results, and time-to-market, while innovating faster and lowering costs. Focus on the best possible product design, not on the infrastructure needed to make it happen.

Learn more about NVIDIA Quadro virtual workstations and NVIDIA for Manufacturing.