New 3D CAD software provides 2D/3D associativity, workflow-based features.

In the past 3D CAD systems were slow, difficult to master and offered design engineers little flexibility for managing parametric relationships in their designs. Systems now on the market, however, require little training, in most cases a timeline of one to three days, and provide features that enable engineers to design their products more quickly, test their designs’ geometry for defects, as well as collaborate with customers and offsite members of the design crew in real time via the Internet before constructing a prototype.

Fig. 1. Analysis advisor in COSMOSWorks 2006 from SolidWorks helps to boost a designer’s confidence and ability to do analysis by guiding the designer step-by-step through problems.

Current 3D CAD programs allow for ease of data transfer, as well as the capability to work in both 2D and 3D. Maintaining 2D capability not only makes for an easier transition to 3D, but also allows the engineer to preserve the benefits found in 2D programs but not in 3D, like 2D’s own brand of accuracy in visualization. While 3D programs produce photorealistic images that resemble prototypes, a 2D process prompts the designer, who sees everything in 3D all the time, to dissemble that image and work backward to build the design, catching flaws that may not be caught when working in 3D. And 2D programs are still required for other design uses such as schematics.

Because 2D and 3D environments are so closely linked it is also important that both capabilities be associative to one another. Most 3D solutions allow designers to change something on the 2D side of the program, and the change will immediately update on the 3D side of the program, so no matter what step or facet the design team is at, it can make the change, and the change will propagate throughout the system.

Questioning the upgrade

Fig. 2. The analysis library feature in COSMOSWorks 2006 from SolidWorks can be used to create templates of commonly used analysis specifications such as loads, supports, and contact conditions.

Still some OEMs hold onto their 2D systems for three main reasons, says Andrew Anagnost, senior director of product management for Autodesk, San Rafael, Calif.:

The company has the impression that switching to a 3D paradigm will cause a medium term loss in productivity that the organization cannot currently afford.

The OEM is not under competitive pressure. This is becoming a smaller and smaller segment as the manufacturing sector squeezes inefficiency out of operations.

OEMs now have highly tuned 2D processes, which in some cases automate the entire process of getting a quote and generating drawings.

Fig. 3. SolidWorks’ Display States allow users to save assembly components with different display modes for each individual component.

Older generation programs have left OEMs with the impression that upgrading to 3D would prompt a medium term loss of productivity. Not only were the programs difficult and time-consuming to navigate, but also had training requirements of up to six months. With current programs training usually lasts one to three days, and is provided by most of the software manufacturers. The most intensive training program for 3D software lasts only seven days. Because the cost of the training in many cases exceeds the cost of the software, which costs $2,000 to $6,000, many OEMs train one engineer who then trains the remainder of the crew.

"One of the things we do is allow an existing 2D user to continue to work in 2D, and really just add 3D when it makes sense, and gradually transition across from a purely 2D environment to a purely 3D environment, so you don’t have to do all of that in one step," says Adrian Scholes, director of marketing for Solid Edge software from UGS, Plano, Texas. "I think one of the mistakes that was made by 3D companies, or software companies in the early days is that it was kind of an all-or-nothing approach, where they were basically saying 3D is great, but you’ve got to throw out all your 2D and start again."

Fig. 4. SolidWorks’ mounting boss is a new feature that is common in the interior of molded parts. The boss feature automatically creates a drafted mounting boss with stabilizing wings, and can be specified as either a self tapping hole or a mounting post.

Training for CAD design is made even easier for many of today’s engineers, due to the 3D platform, which most of them have been operating in already:

"If you’ve grown up in a 3D world, and a lot of our engineers in the world that exist today grew up in the world of Sony Playstation and PC games, they take the 3D world as a matter of course, and they have a really tough time going back in the world of 2D drawings," says Bob Fischer, vice president of sales and marketing for VX Corp., Palm Bay, Fla.

The main reason the programs are so much easier to learn and use now, nevertheless, is that the software runs on Microsoft Windows software, an internationally understood program with an enabling platform that contains common interface paradigms such as "cut & paste," dialogues and toolbars.

Windows, Internet ready

Fig. 5. The Content Center from Autodesk speeds the creation, reuse and management of all company content allowing for fast and easy access to a unified database of components.

"The most significant contribution of Windows is a highly graphic UI that reduces the number of steps and inputs required to execute a series of commands," Anagnost says. "Another important component is the ability to support high-end graphics capabilities on a desktop PC, thus speeding up the applications significantly."

Internet communication on 3D software enables design engineers to collaborate with offsite engineers, customers and suppliers with photorealistic images for feedback before the design hits the prototype stage. So items such as geometry considerations, ordering the correct parts and finding out whether or not the customer’s marketing department is actually going to like the design; can be hashed out early on, streamlining the design process, reducing work hours and cutting costs.

The packages also offer seamless data transfer with most systems offering the ability to leverage data from all 2D CAD programs with all standard geometry types, and of course, easily upgrade and change designs that were built in other systems.

Software from a variety of 3D CAD providers additionally offer a broad base of features that streamline the design process, provide greater functionality, assist engineers in improving their designs, and provide a more facile transition from the design phase to prototype construction.

Functional features

Fig. 6. Solid Edge enhances 2D/3D hybrid design by extending the use of virtual components with the ability to create 2D representations from existing 3D components, which can then be used in layouts.

COSMOSWorks from SolidWorks, Concord, Mass., allows engineers to actually test a product before it enters the prototype stage with virtual testing before the product is in the store. The feature is useful in testing the many elements of design that can fail after a prototype is created including vibration control, interference between parts, how the design will react in various climates, and if the product would adversely affect the user. The program checks those dynamics and provides an analysis of the product before the prototype stage. An analysis library in COSMOSWorks can be used to create templates of commonly used analysis specifications such as loads, supports and contact conditions. The company’s programs also include sheet metal color and bend notes within sheet metal flat pattern drawings that describe up or down direction as well as angle and radii.

Fig. 7. Direct editing in Solid Edge V17, provides non history-based, fully associative features, offering support for both Part and Sheet Metal models as well as an ability to work in the context of assemblies.

The Autodesk Inventor includes design specific applications for sheet metal, weldments, wire harness, tube and pipe. Autodesk Inventor Studio produces rendering and animations directly within the design environment, which saves customers money by reducing prototyping costs and improves communication by creating compelling images for presentations. The company’s Content Center speeds the creation, reuse and management of all company content allowing for fast and easy access to a unified database of components, and the system has more than 650,000 standard components in its Content Center, providing easier access to the right content when needed for design reuse.

XpresReview from Solid Edge uses packaged collaboration files created by Insight Connect or NX, and e-mails the files to reviewers. The image shows how to send a PCF to another user who may not have Solid Edge software. Users can enable a measure and markup section so the receiver can load XpresReview and perform markups. Solid Edge additionally offers its Apprentice Mode/ Command Finder, which allows a user unfamiliar with the exact name or location of a command to find it. For instance, SolidWorks has a command named "shell," while Solid Edge named their similar command "thin wall."

Fig. 8. XpresReview from Solid Edge uses PCF’s (packaged collaboration files) created by Insight Connect or even NX and e-mailed to reviewers. This image shows how to send a PCF to another user who may not have Solid Edge loaded. Users can enable measure, markup, and sectioning so the receiver can load XpresReview and perform markups.

VX Corp.’s Verification in CAM.bmp allows users to import non-native geometry and parametrically modify the geometry by adding, subtracting or changing existing features, and then complete machining requirements in a manufacturing environment. Its radius checking.bmp integrated analysis applets provide users with tools for analyzing digital models making engineering decisions easier and more reliable, and benefiting CNC machining. Round to square morphing.bmp shape morphing provides tools for changing geometric models as if they were made of digital clay. Users can use shape morphing on imported geometry or VX hybrid models.

So in addition to the shift to a more user friendly Windows-based UI, 3D software now offers a number of workflow focused features that provide a competitive edge over 2D systems and speed the design process.

"There’s an emphasis on workflow now, whereas the system used to be somewhat of a toolbox, and it had a whole bunch of commands, features and functions that were left to the designer to work out which ones were best," Scholes says. "Now there is some very process specific type workflow, so depending on whether you are creating a shape model, for example, or creating some sheet metal, or adding some sheet metal to actually create your design, the system puts you in a workflow environment that really makes a lot of the decisions for you, so it kind of steps you through the process to create."