Speeding time to market on the 3D path

There are sill some 200,000 seats of 2D CAD in the world, licensed and paying maintenance, according to John Corris, Solid Edge business unit manger for UGS in the UK, which his company believes could usefully be converted to 3D. The figure could well be higher; it's unlikely to be lower. So why aren't they changing to 3D? The problem is not lack of incentive. It's well know that designing in 3D brings huge time and cost savings when models have to be analysed using FEA (finite element analysis) or CFD (computational fluid dynamics), or converted into CNC machining instructions. Nor is the problem cost. An entry level version of Solid Edge, for example, is only £1,495, while the full version, which includes data management, surfacing, sheet metal facilities and advanced libraries, costs just £5,000. The problem is persuading designers still accustomed to working in 2D to take the plunge into a different way of working and thinking – and that is not a new problem. Corris says that when he worked for what was then GEC Avionics in Rochester back in 1979, the company adopted Applicon, with the goal of making design paperless. Not so radical now, but certainly then – and not arrived at lightly. Meanwhile today, as he says: "2D is still the currency of the drawing office. The market is still not ready for tools that are totally 3D." So much so that he adds: "We are enhancing the hybrid design capability in Solid Edge v17." And that means, for example, adding new workflows that will allow users to convert existing 3D parts into 2D profiles to assist laying out. As application consultant Paul Abbott explains, it will be possible to take a 3D model, do some 2D laying out in an adjacent area of the 3D model space, and then link the 2D layout to the 3D model preparatory to detailing. Meaningful analysis Whatever software you choose, the fact is attaining a 3D model is a prerequisite today for FEA or any other analysis. At Bath University, for example, Dr Fayek Osman has a new system for building impact absorbers that work by pushing a slug of solid material round a corner. For a system like that, you can attempt to do the analysis in 2D using traditional methods, but it will be extremely tedious to obtain a sensible answer because the slug of material is round and passes through a cylindrical channel. Meaningful modelling requires creating a 3D model, and then applying FEA, Ansys in this case. The same can be said for CFD: unless all ducts are square section and of the same size, analysis in 2D is not going to yield a sensible answer. There are other reasons for working in 3D. It is, for example, much easier for others, especially non engineers, to visualise whether a proposed design is suited to its intended purpose, and how likely it is to fit and interact with other parts. Then again, the whole prospect of collaborative, or simultaneous engineering across distributed groups opens up. For example, as well as its own Xpress Review view and markup format, Solid Edge models can also be sent as eDrawings, a facility developed by India-based Geometric Software Solutions (GSSL), and also available for SolidWorks, Catia v5, ProEngineer, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, OneSpace Designer Modelling 2005 and UGS NX. Engineering re-use "3D modelling is becoming more important," agrees Paul Wade, an engineer with design consultancy Bennett Associates. That company's project portfolio includes the Falkirk Wheel, creep forming tools used to fabricate wing skins for the Airbus A380 and machines to compact and put protective wire wraps back onto the cables of the Forth Road Bridge following maintenance. "Clients can see what proposals are going to look like. At present, only a few of our models are used as a basis for preparing CAM instructions, but we expect this to become more common soon." But for now he concedes that 2D AutoCAD is important for detailing. "As an industrial standard you still can't beat it," he says. The company has three seats of Catia and six of SolidWorks – Catia being used with clients like Airbus. Another company that's currently mainly 2D but increasingly 3D is ZMP in Japan, which manufactures small humanoid robots – notably the nuvo, which can walk forwards and backwards on two legs, pick itself up when it falls, and respond when ordered to stop or go. That's a development of the earlier Pino, a Japanese robot project from 1999. ZMP engineers chose 3D Pro/Engineer because of that system's ability to seamlessly integrate with a 2D drawing environment – which made it simpler to manufacture with improved movement, control and mechanical abilities. Director of the Technology Development Division at ZMP Hiroaki Koike says: "In traditional 2D design, it was very time consuming to make adjustments to find the centre of gravity and range of movement by making prototypes. With 3D, we could do simulation on the screen, which enabled us to reduce development time and cost. As 2D drawings are required for tooling to assemble components, the integrated development with 3D and 2D was essential." And then back in the UK there's KeyMed, one of the principal parts of the global Olympus network, which develops and manufactures medical equipment and industrial products, and has standardised on SolidWorks 3D to streamline its product development cycle. Medical R&D manager Ian Hallett says the company needed to move to an integrated 3D CAD package. "Our products are complex in terms of shapes and mouldings and our previous CAD software, CADDS5, was not flexible enough to model all the surfaces… We make a lot of sheet metal components and SolidWorks has a very good sheet metal facility. It also allows us to produce complicated models for plastic moulding. The other advantage is that more companies are using SolidWorks so we are able to send native files to external suppliers. "This reduces the development time because suppliers don't have to re-engineer the model. They simply take our model and use it to layout cutting paths for the CNC machines to create the mould tools. They are using our data, not something they've made up themselves." But KeyMed also illustrates the power of 3D to go beyond the design office, notably with technical publications. "Before SolidWorks, they would have to wait until we had a product available before they could begin work on manuals, thus delaying product introduction," explains Hallett. "Now they are able to use CAD images and start writing the manuals from a very early stage in design. There's no longer any delay and that's a quantifiable time-saving." Similarly, it's used in production for setting up production lines as early as possible, and in sales and marketing, to speed up creation of visuals. Says Hallett: "SolidWorks gives the manufacturing team a head start: they can incorporate the CAD models into their electronic method sheets, which they can now update very quickly." And for sales: "We render the CAD models and import them into Photoworks to create visuals so that customers get an idea of what the final product will look like. We often put rendered CAD images into our brochures which really helps when we're preparing for a product launch." And there's more: KeyMed also saves time by using eDrawings to email designs to its parent company in Japan, and to share designs with its suppliers, allowing them to view 3D CAD files as self-executing programs for review and mark-up. "It's all about time to market: we asked ourselves who else could benefit from this software in order to save time on projects. SolidWorks has been utilised by every area we can think of."