Design engineers constantly juggle multiple, competing demands. Add more functionality to a product, but make it smaller. Improve the appearance, but reduce production costs. Enhance safety and meet regulatory requirements without slowing design. These are only some of the challenges that design engineers face as they work on appliances, from large cooling systems to compact consumer electronics devices.

The reality is that design today is more complicated than ever. In addition to the above demands, project teams now regularly span continents as companies increasingly utilize outsourced suppliers and manufacturers. Equally challenging is responding to a multitude of design and manufacturing regulations that can change from one country to the next. As a result, design development review and approval cycles that previously involved only small, regional project teams can now require ongoing input from dozens of engineers, suppliers, customers, partners, government regulators, and others -— all with varying levels of comfort with technology and access to computing applications.

“Clear communication and collaboration are vital to everything we do, whether it is early in a design cycle or reviewing final materials with customers,” says Ari Kahrola, product manager at Porkka, an international manufacturer of commercial refrigeration systems. “Sharing accurate digital models with staff and customers is now standard for us because everyone can instantly see how designs will look and function.” In design, where form, fit and function are intricately linked, this insight can mean the difference between completing products on time and on budget or dealing with delayed rollouts and increased costs.

The good news is that technology advances are improving how project teams engage with each other and collaborate inside and outside their organizations. By using proven applications to overcome traditional collaboration challenges, CAD interoperability issues, and to improve disseminating product information, companies like Porkka are finding new ways to accelerate the design and manufacturing of higher quality products.

Overcoming obstacles

Product data can be shared with anyone using the free Adobe Reader software to view, mark up, cross-section, or measure 3D designs without the need for CAD applications or CAD viewers.

Integral to keeping design costs in check and product development on schedule is ensuring that everyone — no matter how technical they are, where they are, or what computer hardware and applications they use — can work together easily. The goal is to give all stakeholders, including engineers, internal managers, suppliers, customers, and others the tools they need to make informed decisions at every point in the design process. By catching flaws earlier in the design cycle and accelerating development, organizations can gain a competitive edge.

For most companies, this has been easier said than done. As project teams today encompass a wider variety of managers, suppliers, customers, and partners, sharing even the simplest information has become increasingly difficult. Different computing applications, an array of document types, incompatible visualization formats and viewers, and varying technology skills are just some of the things that can block effective collaboration.

Dealing with 3D models has been particularly problematic as more engineering teams use them to better communicate design intent. Typically, extended project teams have had to purchase full licenses of expensive 3D modeling applications or buy proprietary viewing software to open models originating from various sources. This presents several challenges. First, engineers frequently engage with many organizations worldwide, so it is difficult to ensure everyone has the means to buy the necessary software. Second, even if suppliers purchase an application, they might not have the skills to use it. And of course, if they buy a different version of a software program, files still might not view properly.

Adding value

Designers can generate dynamic cross-section views of 3D designs with the free Adobe Reader so everyone fully understands the design intent.

Atrus, a leading contract engineering firm, understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities of improving design collaboration. Atrus serves a range of clients, including the faucet company Moen, and Diebold, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of ATMs, voting systems, and electronic and physical security products. The scope of Atrus services is broad, with the company handling everything from initial product designs to working with parts suppliers and manufacturers. Often, each step in the design process involves collaboration across internal Atrus design teams and externally with clients and partners.

For Atrus, streamlining workflows is a priority. “Every minute we spend on administrative processes is less time that we can devote to hands-on, value-added engineering services,” says Doug Dominick, president of Atrus. To improve design workflows and better engage partners and clients, Atrus is using Adobe Acrobat 3D software.

With Acrobat 3D, Atrus engineers can communicate design intent to all project team members, regardless of their level of technical expertise or the proprietary CAD software applications on their computers. “Collaborating on 3D models in PDF brings new clarity and accuracy to our work,” says Jeff Walker, senior mechanical engineer. “Project teams everywhere now have instant insight into design details. They can rotate images, cut cross sections, and zoom in or out on designs simply using the free Adobe Reader.”

For instance, when collaborating across teams, Atrus engineers easily convert Pro/ENGINEER designs to platform- and application-independent PDF files. The value of the 3D designs is retained, except now sales managers, design partners, and suppliers need only Adobe Reader to view, manipulate, and add digital comments to designs. An added benefit is that Atrus can encrypt and password-protect PDF files as needed to help safeguard intellectual property.

The improved workflows have boosted productivity and minimized design errors because project team members are regularly engaged in processes, providing more timely and comprehensive feedback. “It’s easier to collect input from everyone with a stake in the design process,” explains Dominick. “By distributing 3D designs in PDF, review cycles have accelerated by as much 200 percent, so we can complete projects faster and begin new ones sooner.”

Simplified compliance
Of course, accelerated time-to-market and lower development costs are not the only reasons design engineers want to improve design collaboration. Increasingly complex government regulations also play a role. Design information such as user safety, product makeup, conformance to country design codes, and a host of other details often have to be communicated and reviewed by government regulators before products can be manufactured and marketed.

For international manufacturer Porkka, the design and manufacturing of commercial refrigeration systems demands addressing complex customer requirements and stringent industry regulations. The company offers more than 80 variations of its cooling systems, so a product can be tailored to a customer’s exact requirements. At the same time, product design is highly dependent upon installation, with design modifications frequently being made after installation begins.

“Our commercial systems can go into a brand new hotel in London or into a restaurant in a 400-year-old building in Berlin,” says Kahrola. “Our design team has to be agile in creating and communicating product details.” Further challenges come in ensuring that government regulators and customers understand how designs address safety and building concerns.

“Trying to show how a refrigeration system will fit into a historical structure is extremely difficult to do with 2D drawings and virtually impossible to describe verbally,” adds Kahrola. “By delivering 3D models in PDF, customers and contractors have visual guides to help them understand how systems integrate safely into existing environments.”

For Porkka, an added advantage to converting 3D models to PDF is that all critical project information — such as product specifications, spreadsheets, bills of materials, and large, complex assemblies — can be delivered in a single, highly compressed document package. Final information can be incorporated into product documentation that customers and support engineers use for ongoing reference or archived to meet regulatory requirements for long-term access to information.

Versatile models
After finalizing drawings, engineers continue to face obstacles as they attempt to communicate designs to suppliers and manufacturing partners. In fact, the estimated costs associated with problems sharing product information are staggering: the U.S. automotive supply chain loses approximately $1 billion annually due to imperfect data interoperability, according to a study done by RTI International. Even taking a more conservative approach to estimating losses in other industries, the need to better manage and share product information is undeniable.

Engineers today are all too familiar with the challenges of distributing product information to companies and specialists using a range of CAD, CAE, and CAM systems. Delays are common, even for routine processes. For example, outputting and sharing high quality, neutral file formats such as STEP or IGES is difficult, as is including product manufacturing information such as dimensions, tolerances, and annotations with CAD details.

These issues often force engineering partners and suppliers to purchase several CAD systems or invest in costly translation software for each CAD format they deal with. “This is unrealistic for many partners,” says John Clauson, CAD and drafting manager at the INDAK Group, a provider of design and manufacturing services to many of the world’s largest automotive, electronics, and appliance companies. “Unfortunately, there have been few effective alternatives to address the problems.”

To overcome the challenge, INDAK started using the latest version of Acrobat 3D to convert various CAD files received from customers to neutral formats like STEP or IGES without needing expensive CAD translators. Within Acrobat 3D Version 8, all translators for major CAD formats are included and a highly compressible, precise B-rep solid model is maintained. “People involved in downstream manufacturing processes like tool and mold design or CNC machining can now access versatile, reliable 3D CAD data,” says Clauson.

Engaging partners
Design approaches built on collaborating early and often result in quicker detection of problems — when they are cheaper and faster to fix — accelerated design cycles, reduced development costs, and happier customers. The key is finding tools that overcome traditional obstacles to sharing information and working on files, so that project teams can access details anytime and anyplace. In today’s dispersed environments, where dozens of people in downstream engineering and manufacturing processes rely on every project document produced, better collaboration strategies are necessities.

“We’ve seen major advantages by improving how we manage and exchange 3D models across our design team, partners, and customers,” says Dominick from Atrus. “Whether we’re early in the design process, working with manufacturers, or communicating final product information to customers, the power of engaging, easily accessible project documents cannot be underestimated.”