Get motoring on 3D CAD systems

In any company facing really serious competition - and there is nowhere more competitive than motor port - 3D modelling is increasingly seen as nothing short of essential. And in situations where it really counts, the trend is to adopt the best and most powerful 3D CAD and PLM (product lifecycle management) software that money can buy - because it's worth it. So it has to be deeply worrying that so many engineering companies are still stuck in 2D. The reason has to be that for traditional engineering designers, it is still quicker and easier to produce designs as 2D drawings rather than 3D models. Or the cost of new software and the training required are seen as too much. Both are short-sighted. Because with 2D drawings done, the design remains far from complete. A 3D model has to be created in order to undertake realistic FEA (finite element analysis) or CFD (computational fluid dynamics), and since the end product is inevitably going to be in 3D, somebody, somewhere always has to translate 2D drawings into NC machining instructions to produce the 3D parts. If, on the other hand, the design is created as a 3D model from the start, it can easily be transferred into a form suitable for FEA and CFD analysis. In too many companies, design and production departments are barely on speaking terms, and this often results from production engineers misunderstanding or misinterpreting the intent of the design engineers. There will always be opportunities to introduce wrong materials or finishes, but if the model arrives for production in 3D, at least it should emerge as the right shape, and fit other parts to which it has to interface. Again, if the initial design is 3D, it can quickly be turned into a rendered image to promote sales, or sell the project within the company, or assist in the generation of images for service manuals, either paper or electronic. While engineers revel in 2D drawings - some to the point of making them an art form - few non-engineers understand them, and in this age of collaborative engineering and fast moving projects, it is essential that people of different disciplines and cultures, possibly living on different continents, fully grasp ideas as near instantly as possible. It is noteworthy that, because of the need for speed, all Formula One and leading motor sport teams are heavily into 3D modelling. Marcus Schwarze, technical manager for IT applications at Toyota Motorsport Group (TMG) in Cologne, says he has seen computer technology go from mostly tuning to CAD throughout because, "We have to be able to react to FIA [FŽdŽration Internationale de l'Automobile] changes very quickly." Apart from new regulations suddenly imposed by the FIA, Formula One works on a two-week cycle for design, technical calculations, wind tunnel tests, production, workshop testing and racing. And Schwarze makes it clear that one of his goals is to increase the amount of design feedback from calculations as opposed to waiting for expensively obtained results from wind tunnel and track testing. Slash design times Before TMG started competing in Formula One in 2002, the team had been very successful in the WRC (World Rally Championship), and had two years at LeMans starting in 1998. Its first CAD package was CADDS5, followed by a roll-out of Catia V4 in 1998, and Catia V5 in 2001. The organisation currently has 130 seats of Catia V5 R16. Schwarze is enthusiastic about the benefits of 3D - and those of moving from V4 to V5. His IT goals have been to reduce design times for 3D models by 20% and drawings by 10% and also to improve simulation capabilities. Aerodynamics was the first department to implement V5 and there it improved productivity by 30%. In the case of front wings, design time was reduced from five days to just one by introducing templates and parametric design. In power train, the number of CAE (computer aided engineering) iterations during the design of the gearbox main case was increased 100%. More simulations also meant fewer prototypes, resulting in an overall productivity improvement of 14%. Introducing V5 into the aerodynamics department in 2003 began with a pilot project followed by three weeks training. Introduction into power train in 2004 began with Dassault Systmes 'Best Practices' without a pilot, followed by two weeks training. The latest introduction into the engine and chassis departments last year began with Best Practices followed by one week training and two weeks support on the job. TMG and Dassault Systmes have a partnership that means Toyota can call on skilled consultants and access best practice methods and processes and the Dassault development team itself, while Dassault gets fast feedback on the effects of software in a fast-pace automotive environment. Formula One cars are much simpler to design than commercial road cars but motor sport provides a better environment for trying out IT. Hence, while there is some doubt as to whether Formula One nowadays contributes much to commercial automotive design developments, it undoubtedly provides a good test bed for proving design software. Asked if IT developments at TMG were assisting in the design of mainstream Toyota cars, Schwarze said: "All our data is transferred back to Japan for them to take a look at and see what they can get out of it." Future IT objectives at TMG are to reduce CAD support costs while maintaining or improving work quality. TMG will introduce Enovia LCA and VPM Navigator for PLM applications, building on its existing 100 seats of Enovia VPM. There will also be even more simulation. I was shown a simulation of the behaviour of fuel in a fuel tank under racing conditions, and told that in future this will be undertaken for every single race track. Virtools, Dassault's newly acquired virtual reality simulation package, is also to be used - to simulate the activities of a workshop manager with a view to improving efficiency. TMG presently uses Star CD for CFD analysis but is also engaged in a CFD project with Fluent. The team has introduced 3D XML to improve design collaboration, and optimises cockpit ergonomics with Catia V5 human modelling tools. Meanwhile, other major motor sport teams are pursing similar goals with other 3D CAD and PLM tools and packages - all at the top end of what's available. The Aston Martin racing team, for example, uses Unigraphics with UGS PLM solutions, while Maserati Corse has just renewed its commitment to PTC's Pro/Engineer and Windchill ProjectLink and PDMLink for three years. Says Claudio Berro, technical director of Maserati Corse: "The PTC Product Development System helped us to reduce our development time dramatically, as well as improve our internal change processes. About 40% of our success can be linked to our digital product development processes powered by PTC." Last year, Maserati won the Manufacturer's cup in the 2005 FIA GT championship and the 24 hour race at Spa. The Trofeo Light model won the Italian GT championship in its category. While Catia, Pro/Engineer and Unigraphics are the unsurprising CAD systems of choice for most major motor sport teams, you don't have to go for top end systems to achieve excellent results. John Bailey, managing director of Diss-based digital tyre monitoring systems maker Beru F1 Systems, says that his company is enthusiastically using SolidWorks. "SolidWorks is low cost, widely used and fairly good on file format. It is a good all-round package," he says. "One of the reasons we use it is for visualising concepts. It works well in communicating with other packages such as Catia and Unigraphics so we don't need to have those ourselves."