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New member brings 3D software development expertise

Golden, CO –ADAPT, the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies, a research consortium focused on developing technologies to accelerate the certification and qualification of 3D printed metal parts, welcomes new member Spatial Corp., the leading provider of 3D software development toolkits for design, manufacturing, and engineering solutions, including leading additive manufacturing hardware producers.

“Spatial will use its membership in ADAPT to bolster our technical expertise in additive manufacturing and strengthen our relationships in the industry. We also believe that our existing partnerships with many AM hardware and software providers can expand ADAPT’s capabilities,” said Ray Bagley, Director of Product Management for 3D Modeling and Additive Manufacturing.

Bagley added that Spatial views membership in ADAPT as a valuable extension to the company’s additive manufacturing market strategy. Supporting research that advances the broader adoption of additive manufacturing is directly in line with Spatial’s goal to help grow the market for its customers.

“Spatial’s membership in ADAPT adds a member focused on the software workflows for 3D printing, which is also at the heart of many of our data-driven research activities. Through both 3D printing equipment manufacturers and developers of specialty software applications, Spatial accelerates the efficient industrial application of 3D additive manufacturing. This area of expertise represents another strong partnership for our organization and its members,” said ADAPT Technical Director Aaron Stebner.

About Spatial

Spatial Corp, a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary, is the leading provider of 3D software development toolkits (SDKs) for technical applications across multiple industries. Spatial’s 3D modeling, 3D visualization, and 3D interoperability SDKs help accelerate 3D innovation and expand what is possible. Customers are able to maintain focus on core competencies, while reducing cost and time-to-market. For over 30 years, Spatial’s 3D SDKs have been adopted by many of the world's most recognized software developers, manufacturers, research institutes, and universities. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Spatial has offices in the USA, Germany, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom. For more information on Spatial, visit web, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

About ADAPT

The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) is a research and development organization dedicated to the creation of next-generation data informatics and advanced characterization technologies for additive manufacturing technologies. ADAPT uses these tools to help industry and government qualify, standardize, assess, and optimize advanced manufacturing processes and parts. Several levels of membership to the ADAPT consortium are available. Founding industry members include Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Faustson Tool, Lockheed Martin, Citrine Informatics. Grant funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) was provided to Manufacturer’s Edge and The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership. For more information, find ADAPT on the web, LinkedIn,Facebook, or Twitter.

Rich Preece, TurboTax Consumer Tax Advocate, recently released a new video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r1jfMax-wU) offering tax-filing tips for tax procrastinators easily and accurately file their tax return before the deadline but also to ensure they get the biggest possible refund on their taxes. 

With April 18^th just a few weeks away, it’s time for all those tax procrastinators who haven’t filed to start gathering together their tax documents.  Just because you have waited until the last minute to file doesn’t mean that you have to leave money on the table. Up till the 11^th hour, taxpayers can take steps to be sure to maximize their refund.

Go online where you can prepare your tax return:

• File your tax return electronically.
• Have your tax return deposited directly.
• If you can’t make the April 18th deadline, file for an extension. 

This year’s ranking Top 10 Tax Procrastinating Cities, compiled for 10 years by Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the maker of TurboTaxâ tax software products, shows no changes in the top four cities that are among the last to file federal tax returns. Chicago, New York and Austin, Texas trail Houston in the rankings. San Antonio nudged its way into the top tier for the first time since 2008, giving the Lone Star State three of the first five spots. The TurboTax Blog contains an interactive map of this year’s top procrastinators.

People in these cities aren’t alone in their tendency to wait till the last minute.  TurboTax estimates 27 percent of taxpayers wait until the last two weeks of tax season to file their taxes. This year, there’s even more good news for tax procrastinators, an extra three days to file, with the federal tax deadline moving from April 15 to April 18.

The full list of this year’s late-filing cities, with last year’s ranking in parenthesis, is as follows:

1.     Houston – (No. 1): Houston, we have a problem!  Locals landed in the top spot in five of the last 10 years.   

2.     Chicago – (No. 2): Windy City residents are unable to move from No. 2 for the second year running, possibly due to food comas induced by all the deep dish pizza-eating.

3.     New York – (No. 3): For the third year running in the No. 3 spot, New Yorkers in the City that Never Sleeps take a nap until tax time.

4.     Austin, Texas – (No. 4): Busy Austinites, so burned out from festival-hopping, put off their tax duties – landing in the top five again.

5.     San Antonio – (No. NA): It seems one of the biggest military centers in the U.S. needs more soldierly discipline this time around, popping into the top 10 for the first time since 2008!

6.     San Francisco – (No. 5): Known as innovators for all things tech, San Franciscans are doing their taxes only a bit quicker, moving down one spot from No. 5 despite their connected reputations. 

7.     Seattle – (No. 6): It looks like all that rain is washing out more than mail routes for 7th place Washingtonians. Despite their commitment to java hot spots, filing taxes online before the tax deadline clearly isn’t a top priority.

8.     San Diego – (No. 7): When you’re wearing sunglasses 24/7, it’s hard to even see your taxes, let alone file them. San Diegans file just a bit faster due to peer pressure this year with TurboTax headquarters right down the street.

9.     Los Angeles – (No. 8): Starving actors hanging out in this town are too busy looking for some nosh. It’s no wonder they dread filing their taxes!

10.  Dallas – (No. 9): They say cowboys ride alone, but Texans managed to lasso in four cities on this list -- including No. 10, Dallas.

Dropping off the top 10 list this year: Las Vegas

The list is determined by the number of tax returns electronically filed via the TurboTax Online service between April 14 - 17, 2010.

To view the video interview with Rich Preece from TurboTax please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r1jfMax-wU. 

Rich Preece is Consumer Tax Advocate at TurboTax, the nation’s leading tax software.  Rich Preece provides consumer tips and advice to help Americans prepare and file their own taxes easily and accurately. Preece has contributed to local and national print and online publications, including PC Magazine and USA Today as well as local and national radio and TV broadcast segments such as Fox Business.

Computer Help to Fit Prosthetic Limbs

THE best fit for a prosthetic leg depends in part on the small adjustments in alignment that help amputees walk comfortably.Traditionally, these refinements have been done by a skilled clinician who talks with patients for laptop batteries, observes their gait and makes incremental changes to the prosthesis over several visits, looking for the sweet spot where the alignment is optimal, says Andrew L. Steele, who fits amputees for prostheses in Waterloo, Iowa.

“I use a little bit of eye and a little bit of gut” to get the alignment right, he said with Dell KD476. “It’s a highly subjective process.”But Mr. Steele, who is himself an amputee — he lost his left leg below the knee in a farm accident when he was 12 — now has a new alignment tool.

He is trying a computer-based device that provides quantitative information to support his subjective assessment for Presario 2500 Battery. The device attaches to the prosthetic limb and wirelessly beams information on the twisting of the limb as the patient walks, along with other data, to his computer for analysis.

Mr. Steele has been trying the system, called Compas — short for Computerized Prosthesis Alignment System — not only on his patients, but also on himself for PA3399U-1BRS battery ,. A software program that is part of the system interprets data collected as a patient walks; it then suggests adjustments. Mr. Steele then uses a wrench to change the angle of the prosthesis.

“It’s good to have the background readings from the computer,” he said. “It gives me another tool to narrow down what is causing a problem.”The new technology may be especially timely, given the large number of returning military veterans who need prostheses for VGP-BPS8.Compas, a product of Orthocare Innovations of Oklahoma City, was developed in part with financing from the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

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