This shattered
the 222.623-mph record he
set last year. Wicks credits software
from Autodesk Inc., including
online collaboration and design-
review packages, for getting
the car in shape for its run.
“Our company focuses on
breaking land and water worldspeed
records,” says Wicks.
“Engineers, team members, and
business partners reside in Seattle,
southern California, North
Carolina, West Virginia, and Auburn
Hills, Mich. In the past, it
was tough keeping track of documents
associated with all the
vehicles. Autodesk Streamline,
along with Design Review software,
lets us centralize documents
and control design reviews.”
Design Review, which is
free, lets users view, print, measure,
and mark up 2D and 3D designs
without the original CAD.
“For example, an engineer
posted Excel sheets to the site
for the Dodge 2007 project with
data from last year’s run, as well
as Word documents with analysis
information including amounts
of tire spin and how salt spray
hitting and bouncing off cars affected
drag,” says Wicks. “Other
documents might list things we
learned last year and details
such as the date the team got to
the Salt Flats, the day it unloaded
the car, and time needed between
runs. Jpegs and Inventor
3D models in DWF provide race
car and component images.”
Everyone on the design team
then could review the information
online. “All documents were
considered works in progress,”
says Wicks. “A technician could,
say, download a DWF of last
year’s car into Design Review,
then use the markup tools to
circle a particular component
and add a note saying, ‘this area
collected 2 pounds of salt last
year.’”
Once a member makes a note,
the software saves it as a version
of that specific document. The
technician uploads the document
to Streamline and sends
everyone in the group an e-mail.
Each e-mail includes a link users can click to read the note and
view the note history. Wicks says
collaborating this way helped
the company shorten the concept
phase, essential because
the team was under a big time
crunch. The team had only one
month to complete the project
because after that the Bonneville
Speedway would be under water
for the rest of the winter.
As the project progressed,
the design team grew to include
component manufacturer s
and an outside marketing firm.
Streamline let them have different
access capabilities. Thus,
technicians, engineers, and chassis
and simulation experts from
American Challenge, Dodge Motorsport, and an individual from
the facility that built the Dodge
engine could access all project
folders. “We usually restrict
marketing to public areas of our
site, only because non-technical
personnel often find it easier to
see only information they need,”
says Wicks.