The Jordan Ford Formula 1 auto racing team uses ATI Technologies’ FireGL workstation graphics accelerator in the Ford team’s 60-workstation 3-D auto design system.
Even small design visualization errors, such as incorrect dimensions, can affect the team’s performance and success dramatically.
"Our designers can come under huge amounts of pressure to complete actions by certain deadlines," says Jordan's CAD Manager, Mike McGee. "We are dealing with 3-D assembly models of between five and 500 complex parts. Dynamic manipulation of such large assemblies was slow and imprecise, but With ATI's FireG, graphics performance is better than we ever had before."
The FireGL graphics board also helps design analysts who use digital car mockups to assess vehicle structure and optimize each car's mass, strength and stiffness. The analysts need, as nearly as possible, real-time rotation of large 3-D models in order to see where, and how much load to add.
