Software Developers Add to CAD

Joined with design programs, new products offer a variety of useful functions.

William Leventon

The latest CAD software offers OEMs an array of impressive design capabilities. But the job of an OEM isn’t done
when a CAD program turns out a design. Product designs must be analyzed to make sure they’re sound. Then the
designs must be turned into products on the plant floor. And during the whole process, data must be collected and
managed so that it’s secure but available to everyone who needs it.

So software developers also produce a variety of additional programs that are packaged with CAD. Some perform
design analysis. Others aim to optimize manufacturing operations. Still others handle design and manufacturing
data. In some cases, all these programs are combined into multifunctional suites that try to meet the many needs of
companies as their products move from concept to customer.

One such suite is the recently introduced Version 5 Release 17 (V5R17) of the product lifecycle management (PLM)
portfolio offered by Dassault Systemes (Suresnes, France). In addition to CATIA for product development, V5R17
includes the latest version of Dassault’s DELMIA software, which is used to design manufacturing systems. DELMIA
also works with other CAD systems besides CATIA. But the advantage of the CATIA/DELMIA combination is that the
interfaces are very similar, making it easier for users to move between design and manufacturing environments,
says Marc Rakowski, Dassault’s North American marketing manager.

Manufacturing Product Family

DELMIA V5R17 is actually a family of products that address different parts of the manufacturing operation. For
example, process-planning tools focus on the development of factory plans. Users can start by incorporating some
of their best practices, resource knowledge, and company knowledge into a block layout of their manufacturing
facilities. As the process moves along, users can flesh out the block diagram with actual product and manufacturing
data. This gives them a better idea of how their facility will operate and how the products they’re designing will
interact with the manufacturing process. Data can flow back and forth between DELMIA and CATIA to facilitate
design for manufacturability, Rakowski notes.

Besides process-planning software, DELMIA includes tools that allow simulation of a work cell. Users can bring in
part geometry and program robots to get an idea of how a cell will operate. Rakowski points out that this will help
them identify manufacturing problems such as collisions, as well as streamline the manufacturing process to reduce
costs.

The new version of DELMIA also features a significant change in focus. In the past, the product concentrated
primarily on the manufacturing process. But Dassault found that automotive body-in-white engineers prefer a view
that gives them a better understanding of manufacturing resources such as humans, robots, and facilities. So
Dassault revamped DELMIA to concentrate more on these resources. “It’s a breakthrough technology for us,
because it gives the automotive community what they’ve been wanting,” Rakowski says.

In addition, the new release includes software that lets engineers use CAD data to create paperless instructions for
manufacturing workers. When viewing instructional information on a computer, workers can run simulations that
actually show parts being assembled. This is a better way to learn than reading a 50-page manual on how to
complete an operation, Rakowski maintains.

Analysis Aids

Before manufacturing begins, completed CAD designs are checked by experts in finite-element analysis (FEA). But
analysis tools should be used to check designs much earlier in the process, says Rainer Gawlick, vice president of
marketing for SolidWorks Corp. (Concord, MA). The reason: most of a product’s performance characteristics are
determined in the early part of the design cycle, Gawlick says, “and it’s very difficult to change those things later on.”

So SolidWorks Office Premium includes COSMOSWorks Designer, an FEA tool that lets engineers check the
performance of their designs without leaving the SolidWorks window. “We’ve dramatically simplified the technology
so that people who aren’t experts in analysis can use it,” Gawlick says. By making it easier to set up an analysis
problem and interpret the results, he adds, Designer can help engineers optimize their designs early in the process,
when changes are easiest to make.

Though it simplifies FEA, Designer still provides accurate answers to analysis problems, according to Gawlick.
Nevertheless, he recommends that users continue the practice of eventually turning over designs to FEA experts,
who can check to see whether analysis problems were set up correctly. An expert check is also advisable for liability
reasons, he adds.

COSMOSWorks Designer isn’t the only analysis program used to optimize parts early in the design cycle.  The job
can also be handled by SimDesigner, which is embedded in CATIA V5. Developed by MSC Software Corp. (Santa
Ana, CA), SimDesigner is a simulation program based on MSC’s MD Nastran and Adams CAE products. Using the
CATIA V5 interface, engineers can use SimDesigner to check the effects of loads, vibration, and thermal conditions
on their designs. “When you do a simulation of landing gear, you can visualize the stresses and dynamic forces on
the assembly,” says Antoine Reymond, senior product marketing manager for SimDesigner.

Today, many CAD systems offer some kind of simulation tool. But according to Reymond, these programs are
usually relatively simple compared to SimDesigner, which includes FEA, motion simulation, and thermal analysis
capabilities that can account for factors such as time, gravity, contact, and dynamic part behavior.

SimDesigner is used in a variety of industries, but it’s particularly popular among aerospace and automotive
designers. Though it’s now limited to CATIA users, MSC hopes the analysis program will eventually be integrated
into many CAD systems.

Another motion-simulation add-on was recently released by Alibre Inc. (Richardson, TX). Called Alibre Motion, the
program lets users of Alibre Design Expert CAD software analyze the dynamics and kinematics of moving
assemblies, according to Gregory Milliken, Alibre’s president and CEO.

Milliken admits that there’s nothing novel about the capabilities of Alibre Motion. What sets the product apart, he
maintains, is its ease of use and the fact that it comes with a CAD product that costs only $1995. “We don’t worry
about [applications] that require the most complex functionality,” he says. “Let someone buy a high-end product for
those. We give you the basic stuff that most people need, and we try to make it affordable and accessible to
everyone.”

Data-Managing Software

In all, Alibre offers four versions of its design software, including a low-end product that can be downloaded for free.
The company’s top-tier products include additional features, including a data-management tool called the
Repository. The Repository includes three fundamental data-management elements:
•        Check-in and check-out. Someone who wants to use a file checks it out of the system and checks it back in
when finished with it. While a file is checked out, no one else can access it, which prevents two or more people from
working on it at the same time.
•        Version tracking. This feature tracks revisions to a file and lets users access the various versions.
•        Rights and privileges control. A person who creates a file can grant others “write” access (which lets them
modify it) or “read” access (which lets them read what’s in the file but not change it).

The Repository can be used by an individual or by two or more people working on the same project. In the latter
case, data in the Repository is shared via the Internet. Unlike many data-management systems, the Repository is a
so-called “peer-to-peer” system in which users share data among themselves rather than access data stored in a
single database.

Creating the latter type of system is “a challenging configuration exercise” that requires users to set up a database
on a server, Milliken says. “But with our peer-to-peer system, you don’t have to do any configuration or special
server setup.”

On the downside, the lack of a single data repository means users can’t access all project data at all times. For
example, Milliken notes, “if I turn off my computer, you don’t have access to the data on my machine.” Customers
who want databases that are always accessible can pay Alibre to set up a Repository on one of its own servers.

Like analysis tools, data-management systems are added to many CAD programs. For example, all of the CAD
products offered by Autodesk Inc. (San Rafael, CA) include a data-management feature called the Vault. “If you look
at our installed base, much of their [data management] is done using file folders on people’s desks,” says Bob
Merlo, the company’s vice president of PLM solutions. “There’s no sharing of content unless they just happen to
email a file to somebody. And they basically have no way to find content that other people have used. Vault gives
them the ability to either manage their own desktop better or build out a centralized vaulting environment that they
can use to share content throughout a design community.”

Besides data organization and security tools, Vault includes a feature called Copy Design, which lets engineers
retrieve an old design to help create a new one. Vault also includes a new multi-site capability that lets
geographically dispersed workgroups share product data.

Vault users who want more data-management features can step up to Autodesk Productstream, a full-fledged
product data management (PDM) system. Productstream comes in both regular and Professional versions. The
regular version incorporates many of what Merlo describes as “best practices” in data management, limiting the
need to configure the product and thereby making it easier to use. On the other hand, firms with data-management
processes already in place can opt for Productstream Professional, which can be customized to suit the established
systems of individual users.

No matter what data-management software a firm chooses, Merlo advises them to “cleanse” their data before
entering it into the system. Cleansing includes standardizing data to eliminate inconsistencies such as multiple
names for the same component. Autodesk provides customers with utilities that help them spot inconsistencies and
standardize information destined for data-management systems.

More PDM Offerings

Other PDM offerings that work with CAD programs include:
• PDMWorks. Two forms of this software are integrated with SolidWorks Office Professional and Office Premium
products. Buyers of these two products get PDMWorks Workgroup at no extra charge. Meant for small engineering
teams located at a single site, Workgroup includes basic data-management features such as version control, which
ensures that team members are always working on the latest version of a part. One of the program’s main selling
points is its accessibility to people not well versed in information technology, according to Gawlick. “Even if you don’t
know how to spell IT, you’ll find our system easy to set up and administer,” he says. “If you know how to use
Microsoft Explorer, you know how to use our PDM system.”

For an additional charge, SolidWorks will upgrade the CAD-integrated data-management system to PDMWorks
Enterprise, which is designed to handle larger data sets and more complicated workflows than Workgroup. And
unlike Workgroup, Enterprise manages data being shared by engineers working at multiple sites.

• Pro/INTRALINK. Developed by Parametric Technology Corp. (Needham, MA), this PDM product is part of PTC’s
Pro/ENGINEER system. Thanks to its tight integration with Pro/ENGINEER, users can accomplish many data-
management tasks with roughly 40 percent fewer mouse clicks than were necessary when using its predecessor,
notes Thomas Shoemaker, vice president of marketing for PTC’s data-management products.

To use Pro/INTRALINK, designers simply open a browser in their Pro/ENGINEER window. “The line between
[Pro/INTRALINK and Pro/ENGINEER] is blurred so that you don’t know when you’re doing design as opposed to
PDM,” Shoemaker says.

A Web-based application, Pro/INTRALINK requires no special client software to be installed in users’ computers. All
they need is a browser, which they point at the appropriate “vault” to get access to project information. “With a Web-
based system, we’re making information accessible to anyone who needs it—not just engineers, but also people
from procurement, sales, and marketing,” Shoemaker notes.

Other Add-Ons

Another Pro/ENGINEER add-on is a recently released upgrade of the program’s Expert Framework extension. With
this module, Pro/ENGINEER can be used to design beams, trusses, and joints for industrial equipment that includes
some type of framework. The new release includes an expanded library of parts for framework designs. By selecting
parts from the library, designers can speed up the process of producing drawings, notes Sandy Joung, director of
product marketing for Pro/ENGINEER.

When doing their work, engineers use many different tools to perform calculations, including old-fashioned
notebooks and calculators, as well as programs such as Fortran and Microsoft Excel. But none of these tools offers
the capabilities of special calculation programs such as PTC’s recently acquired Mathcad product family. PTC
integrates Mathcad into Pro/ENGINEER and also sells it as a standalone product that can be added to other
engineering software systems.

Mathcad includes over 400 built-in functions for different types of calculations. To supplement these capabilities,
users can enter their own calculations or purchase add-ons that provide advanced functions and libraries tailored
for different engineering disciplines.

Mathcad features an automated unit system designed to prevent common calculation errors such as using the
wrong units and not correctly converting them. In addition to performing calculations, Mathcad fully documents them,
allowing users to incorporate all relevant math, text, and graphics into calculation documents to comply with
standards and facilitate reuse, sharing, and verification.

PLM for the Mid-Market

At the top of the heap in functionality are full-featured PLM packages that supplement CAD with a variety of other
software programs, including CAM, CAE, and PDM. Like their larger counterparts, mid-size manufacturers have a
need for such software packages, reasoned UGS Corp. (Plano, TX). But compared to large companies, mid-size
firms generally have fewer IT personnel, less process documentation, and smaller budgets. So UGS set out to
develop a PLM product tailored specifically for the circumstances of most mid-size manufacturers.

The result in the UGS Velocity Series, which includes the company’s Solid Edge CAD software, NX CAM Express for
manufacturing, Femap for FEA, and a PDM product called Teamcenter Express. These products are integrated but
modular, allowing companies to configure their PLM package to meet their specific needs and easily add to it when
necessary.

Less costly and complicated to implement than high-end PLM systems, Velocity includes components that are
preconfigured with “industry best practices,” notes Bruce Boes, vice president of marketing for the Velocity Series. In
addition, Boes says, Velocity modules feature user interfaces based on the familiar “Microsoft paradigm,” making
them easy to fit into existing corporate environments and speeding up the learning process.

Though companies may be eager to take full advantage of the complete PLM package, Boes advises firms to
implement Velocity in stages in order to realize benefits quickly and avoid problems. For example, he says, “You
might put CAD in first and keep farming out CAE for a while. Then add CAE the next year. Don’t try to implement
CAD, CAM, CAE, and PDM in one fell swoop if you don’t have the staff and capabilities to do it. I’d say that’s the
biggest mistake we see people make.”

This article was published in Advanced Design & Manufacturing.