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Leslie Langnau

What’s in Solid Edge 2022?

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Siemens Digital Industries Software released the 2022 version of Solid Edge software, which brings embedded rules-based design automation, greater capabilities to work with point-cloud, mesh and imported data without the need for translation alongside new tools to for 2.5 axis machining and ultra-efficient upfront fluid flow simulation.

Highlights for Solid Edge 2022 include:

The new embedded Solid Edge Design Configurator adds rule-based automation and enables quick customization of products based on design parameters and rules, saving time and enabling the capture and reuse of intellectual property in intelligent models.

CAM Pro 2.5 Axis milling is now included in Solid Edge Classic, Foundation and Premium for customers with active maintenance. Fully integrated, it maintains full associativity with design data and provides automated tool path creation combined with machining simulation to help achieve optimized machining operations.

New CAD Direct capabilities allow insertion of third-party data formats without the need for translation while maintaining associativity. Solid Edge 2022 continues to integrate Siemens’ leading Convergent modeling technology, allowing users to mix b-rep and mesh geometries in the same model, again without conversion, making mesh data more useful and reducing product modelling time. Full-color point cloud data can also now be used for visualization purposes directly within Solid Edge, especially useful when retrofitting factories or plants, allowing the positioning of design equipment in the context of the point clouds.

Solid Edge 2022 is available through Xcelerator as a Service, providing access to Siemens’ next-generation, cloud-based collaboration solution including Xcelerator Share, that brings design-focused capabilities (such as 3D/2D CAD view/markup), augmented reality and secure project-based sharing to the Solid Edge community.

Assembly modeling is a constant focus and the 2022 release of Solid Edge delivers the third straight release of improvement. The new Assembly preview mode reduces the amount of data that is loaded, while the multi-body assembly modeling mode is a new environment to model internal components within an assembly file. When it comes to locating those hard-to-find parts, the new component finder puts intuitive search at the fingertips with auto-complete suggestive filters.

Finally, Solid Edge 2022 introduces Simcenter Flomaster for Solid Edge software, which brings easy analysis of fluid and thermal flows in piping systems. System-level models are extracted from 3D models (reducing preparation time by up to 90 percent). Built-in wizards guide new users towards successful results while retaining advanced capabilities, such as simulation of rapid dynamic events and pressure surge, for experienced users.

Siemens Digital Industries Software
www.sw.siemens.com

Model-based definition or the perils of disconnected detours

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By Brian Thompson, DVP and GM, CAD Segment, PTC

When I speak with manufacturers, they often tell me that moving towards becoming more model-based is at the top of their priority list. Initially, they might have started down this path to eliminate the extra work required to build 2D drawings off of their 3D models. Now, manufacturers want to make the 3D model itself the gravitational center. The disconnect between the 2D drawing and 3D model is hobbling both their internal efficiency and external competitiveness.

More formally known as model-based definition, MBD is about creating rich “Technical Data Packages (TDP),” which include the 3D model and associated data elements. At the core of the TDPs is the 3D model, along with its associated dimensioning and tolerancing to clearly communicate design intent and geometric form control. Thanks to the TDP, users who sit downstream from engineering can understand and use that model without needing separate 2D artifacts – the information is in the model itself.

MBD is not another way of spelling ‘paperless engineering,’ as if mere convenience were the reason for such a strategic shift. The manufacturers we work with are talking about a broader and grander idea: a different way of approaching the product development, manufacturing, delivery, operations, and service processes so that the 3D model is the source authority.

By implication, these manufacturers are also talking about innovation, and how they might use breakthrough technologies such as simulation, additive manufacturing, and generative design to design better products faster. MBD is as much an approach to corporate strategy as it is an approach to design, product development and manufacturing.

That’s the exciting part – the vision that gets people to commit their time and resources to the effort. I would offer this advice to those who aspire to a model-based journey. Think of a rock climber scaling a cliff face. As he or she ascends, that climber will need to put an anchor in the rock through which to pass the rope.

Your 3D model is that anchor. Start there.

3D model as Anchor
This is no getting around it: every MBD journey starts by looking at your modeling practices and ensuring that your model truly reflects your design. One customer discovered, as they implemented MBD, that they had to train their engineers to know where and how to apply drafts to their injection molded parts, instead of relying on the manufacturing team to do it. Another found that simulation results would be inaccurate unless certain critical features were modeled in complete detail, instead of leaving some geometry details to notes.

Today, I look at the model itself as a precise database for all PMI rather than as a supporting item to create a 2D drawing quickly.

A geometrical product specification is gold for manufacturers.

A word of caution
Next, examine your own mental models and beware of outdated beliefs. We sometimes see those who have (unknowingly) gone halfway with MBD – only to stop on the manufacturing floor. In the past, a certain amount of rework was part of the design process, as was the willingness to accept change at the worst possible and most expensive time. Allow me to be candid. With MBD, your experts on the shop floor will need to learn to place the 3D model at the center of everything they do, too. This will surely help them streamline industrialization of the design, minimize mistakes, and produce the highest-quality output. This will definitely be a change for the manufacturing team, but everyone I’ve talked to has said this is worth it.

Disconnected detours
The worst choices in business are ones you don’t know you’re making. With that in mind, consider whether an MBD journey would, in fact, be less costly in time, money, materials and morale than situations such as the scenario described below.

At one manufacturer, final drawings were made into pdfs and put on a server where all could access them. Not surprisingly, CNC machines soon were decorated with marked-up pdfs showing late-breaking changes. As the model evolved, there was no way other than person-to-person to get the changes to the manufacturing floor. One employee jokingly referred to the ‘sneaker net’. The manufacturing engineers encountered the same situation, and the changes they made on the shop floor often didn’t get to the designers, who unknowingly proliferated errors.

In our opinion, becoming model-based is a journey. To prepare, commit to making the 3D model the source of all authority and then take a moment to reexamine your modeling practices. This will take time, but your reward will be more value for the investment you’ve already made, confidence that engineers can now spend their valuable time doing what you paid them to do, and circumstances more favorable to innovation. That’s what our customers are seeking.

PTC
www.ptc.com

Automatically determine fill levels and internal volumes

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The software 3D_Evolution Simplifier, known for data reduction and know-how protection, helps users automatically determine fill levels in tank systems or room volumes in air conditioning systems and vehicle interiors.

The German-French software manufacturer CoreTechnologie has added new functions to its 3D_Evolution Simplifier software. In addition to the generation of 3D envelope geometries for data reduction and know-how protection, the tool performs the otherwise time-consuming calculation of the interior volume for determining fill levels in tank systems or other spatial volumes in complex assemblies such as vehicle interiors.

From a user-defined starting point within the assembly, a virtual balloon is inflated to represent the volume of air or liquid in the interior. If necessary, auxiliary geometries are generated in the software to limit the interior volume or to define specific filling heights. The calculation and representation of the interior volume is done by a voxel model with freely definable edge length, influencing the calculation accuracy. The inner volume is represented by a triangulated solid, which can be converted into formats such as jt, stl or cgr for further processing in other systems. The virtual balloon can also be used in data simplification for automatic selection of interior or exterior components.

The tool processes over 40 different 3D formats, including Catia, Creo, Nx, Solidworks as well as JT and STEP without access to a CAD license and can therefore be used flexibly in any environment.

3D Printing ( and CAD) Save Lives

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Prosthetic limbs have been printed for years. So when a global crisis hit, additive manufacturing was ready to contribute quickly to life-saving equipment.

Jean Thilmany, Senior Editor

In the early days of the pandemic, engineers quickly designed and printed medical protective gear and respirator valves. The response demonstrated the lifesaving potential the technique could have in the medical realm. But many in the field already knew the potential 3D printing has to enhance patients’ quality of life. For years, the method of creating a 3D object by depositing a material in layers has been used for customized prosthetic limbs.

While many printed medical devices are still under investigation, patients who wore early 3D-printed limbs—only about 20 years ago—recognize how far additive manufacturing has come in healthcare in that short time. Scientists have even established a new field—3D bio-printing—that explores everything from the prosthetic iris to an artificial heart to the printing of customized pharmaceuticals.

But bio-printing couldn’t exist without computer-aided design. A medical device CAD model—whether a prosthetic leg or a respiratory mask—exists before the physical prototype does, the same as in other manufacturing processes. Across all types of manufacturing, the engineer redesigns and analyzes a model many times before creating a physical prototype.
Rather than feeding out instructions to, say, a CNC machine, the CAD files used for additive manufacturing instruct the printers on how much material to deposit at particular locations.
That precision along with the range of materials 3D printers can use, even living tissue, drives medical research across all categories.

For instance, doctors at Northwestern University announced in June that they’d used images of volunteers’ irises, Photoshop, and AutoCAD software to create a prosthetic iris. It’s intended for people with aniridia, a rare condition in which a person is born without an iris. The iris controls pupil size in response to light, so a prosthetic iris could help its wearers see better in all types of light conditions.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Yonsei University reported their work on a 3D-printed cosmetic, prosthetic eye through use of mapping, design, and printing technology. The paper appeared in the February 2021 journal Korean Ophthalmology.

Studies like these are an extension of one of 3D printing’s first medical uses, the creation of customized, artificial limbs. When the technique was still new, doctors discovered additive manufacturing created better-fitting, lighter, stronger and more flexible prosthetics than traditional methods; and in much less time.

Printed limbs can be closely customized to the wearer through the use of imaging systems like computer-aided tomography, which exactly maps the patient’s body, often the remaining stump of a leg, where the artificial limb will attach. The CAT scans are sent to a CAD system where they’re converted into digital model of the body. Then, engineers can create a prosthetic model that exactly fits the shape of the body.

When the CAD model is complete, the software sends instructions to the 3D printer, which prints the customized prosthetic by building it up, layer upon layer of a material such as plastic or metal.

The result is a much better fit for patients, a lighter prosthetic, and—in many cases—a more affordable device, say researchers like Hugh Herr, the director of the Biomechatronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

An artificial leg printed leg a decade ago—even some printed now—looks more like a traditionally created prosthetic limb, which is die-cast of aluminum or titanium. Patients who wear these standard limbs may move awkwardly due to the device’s limited range of motion. The people who wear them may have difficulty with walking, running, and picking up objects, Herr says.

After the Civil War, prosthetic legs became more common within the United States, especially jointed legs such as this one. The design hadn’t changed much through the years; until additive manufacturing. Hugh Herr, the director of the Biomechatronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is helping create “biohybrid” prosthetics, partly using 3D printing, that work in harmony with the humans who wear them, including himself.

Today’s myoelectric prosthetics are fitted with robotics and sensor technologies so their movements closely mimic that of a human hand or foot. Through more natural movement, wearers will have an easier time walking, running or picking up and carrying objects, movements that today can be somewhat awkward due to the limited motion of the prosthetic, Herr says.

In today’s parlance these are “bionic limbs,” so-called because their capabilities are so much greater than the early 3D-printed limbs.

Herr’s work has been instrumental to bionic limbs. But he wants to extend the field even further. He’s helping create “biohybrid” prosthetics that work in harmony with the humans who wear them.

His mission is personal as well. Herr lost both legs to frostbite while rock climbing in New Hampshire’s White Mountains in 1982. He still climbs. In fact, Herr says he climbs better with the legs he’s recently developed than he did before the accident. He expects future advances in prosthetics to help him climb with even more speed and agility.

Also in the near future, wearers may well control the prosthetic limbs the way most everyone controls their natural arms and legs; without a thought. Or rather, with a subconscious thought. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, for example, are studying brain-machine interfaces to control movement of prosthetic limbs and include touch perception.
Additive manufacturing will keep up with these advancements, Herr says.

Medical printing in a pandemic
Printed prosthetic limbs showed the medical community that 3D printing had a place in healthcare. And thankfully so; as the year 2020 proved that additive manufacturing could save lives.

When the COVID-19 pandemic froze traditional supply chains, open-source CAD systems and 3D printers were able to get devices into the hands of healthcare providers who faced shortages in medical and testing equipment and in protective gear, says Aamir Nazir, a researcher at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s High-Speed 3D Printing Research Center. He and fellow researchers studied the rise of the rise of 3D printing and smart CAD during the shutdown, publishing their findings in the October 2021 Journal of Manufacturing Systems.

Researchers at Duke University and the Pratt School of Engineering modified a surgical helmet to incorporate a 3D-prinited filter to create a a protective device to safeguard surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the lockdown began in earnest, “it became obvious very fast that traditional manufacturing and supply techniques weren’t going to work,” Nazir says.

“This created the need for geo scattered, small, and rapid manufacturing units along with a smart computer aided design facility,” he says.

The medical devices printed during this time helped saved lives. The devices could be designed and printed much cheaper, and in much less time than with traditional manufacturing methods. Not to mention, the devices could be made right on the spot, or nearby and available immediately, no shipping required, Nazir says.

This image shows how a retrofit surgical hood from Duke University and Pratt School Engineering is worn to shield surgeons’ faces while still allowing them to wear headlights and loupes directly on their heads.

Medical manufacturers helped the cause by providing 3D printable models on the cloud, rapidly scaling the movement toward 3D cloud manufacturing, he adds.

In those early days of the pandemic, a team of Italian engineers stepped up to make a 3D printed version of a vital respirator valve, a Reuters news report stated.

A hospital in Chiari, an area in northern Italy hit hard by the pandemic, urgently needed valves for the respirators that kept many patients breathing. When the valves’ manufacturer couldn’t get them out in time, Christian Fracassi volunteered his engineers at Isinnova, a 3D printing company he founded.

His staff of 14 engineers immediately began tinkering with the design of the Venturi valve, a small but important valve that kept respirators functioning.

Fracassi took the resulting CAD file and a 3D printer directly to the hospital, discovered it worked, and quickly printed 100 valves. That evening, at least 10 patients were using respirators fitted with the printed valve, Reuters reported.

The Italian hospital wasn’t alone.

The need for the Venturi valves was great. By March 18, more than 100 medical facilities and engineers had asked Percassi to share his CAD file. He couldn’t share the file, he told them, the correct course of action would be to contact the manufacturer first.

In Italy, 3D-printed parts have to be certified. But emergency rules in that country waived the requirement, according to 3D Printing Media Network, which started an Emergency AM Forum to help share designs and ideas during the crisis. Other countries may not have similar waivers, Percassi reasoned.

The next day engineer Filib Kober posted a free model of the Venturi valve he’d made with the GrabCAD open-source system.

Within a week, the model had been downloaded many times and was already being updated. The Kober model couldn’t be printed on the smaller, desktop printers. But individual “makers” only had access to desktop printers, says engineer Useriu Daniel. By the end of March, he’d released his valve-design iteration, created with Catia V5 software. Daniel is an engineer at Romanian researcher organization INCDT-COMOTI.

His updated design can be made with through fused deposition, the method used by desktop printers, he says. The model also had a new feature and the inner surfaces were optimized for fluid flow.

Other engineers quickly designed parts that could be printed or could be integrated with existing designs; and even with existing devices. Engineers at Duke University collaborated with students and researchers at the Pratt School of Engineering to retrofit arthroplasty helmets—a surgical hood. The updated hoods safely shielded surgeons’ faces while still allowing them to wear headlights and loupes directly on their heads.

The engineering team created a manifold that could be 3D printed and incorporated onto existing helmets. CAD allowed for the quick testing and redesign needed for the project, says Melissa Erickson, a spine surgeon at Duke University who helped spearhead the project.
“The engineering team designed and created the final adapter just in 12 days. They were able to come up with different design alterations while testing to make the final manifold, which is only possible because of 3D printing,” Erickson says.

It’s hard to believe, with these quick-thinking creations at a time of crisis, that additive manufacturing is still in its early days in the medical field. Watching a video of Herr scale a mountain on his “bionic legs” does nothing to dispel that.

Though the future of the field is almost unimaginable, Herr thinks he’s got a pretty good handle on the cutting edge of the present. By giving wearers access to these new prosthetics, he’s giving them access to the part of themselves that moves naturally through the world.
By opening up lives like this, by helping to save lives, 3D printing and CAD is on its way to becoming a big part of healthcare.

Latest release of Parasolid offers functions for blending, tapering, offsetting, and hollowing

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Siemens Digital Industries Software released the latest version of Parasolid software, its open geometric modeling technology employed by over 4 million users across the world. The scope of Parasolid Convergent Modeling technology continues to expand with new functions for blending, tapering, offsetting, hollowing and thickening mixed models. Designers can benefit from these new model editing capabilities when they need to integrate their precisely engineered (B-rep) designs with organic (facet-based) shapes. Such organic shapes are proliferating in design workflows through the application of topology optimization and 3D scanning.

To meet a variety of diverse customer needs, the latest release delivers new functions across several different application areas and adds support for emerging hardware platforms. For applications in additive manufacturing, new lattice modeling functions help users to create structures that benefit from a high strength-to-mass ratio. In addition, slicing operations have been improved to aid 3D print preparation.

Istvan Csanady, CEO at Shapr3D spoke of the breadth of functionality that Parasolid is now offering and the ease with which the latest Parasolid release could be deployed in applications for Apple’s new M1 chip (Apple Silicon). According to Csanady, “Parasolid is so feature-rich, I don’t think there is an application in the world that exposes 90% of the functionality and porting our software to Apple Silicon was super-straightforward – we just took the Parasolid binaries and integrated them immediately.”

Recognizing the needs across the diverse ecosystem of Parasolid users on mobile, desktop and the cloud, Parasolid now supports deployment across an expanded range of hardware platforms including Windows 10 and macOS 11 on ARM-based devices.

The Parasolid geometric modeling kernel is used in Siemens’ own Solid Edge software and NX software, and is at the core of the Xcelerator portfolio’s open and flexible ecosystem. Parasolid is also used in over 350 other applications from industry-leading CAD/CAM/CAE/AEC software vendors.

Siemens Digital Industries Software
www.sw.siemens.com

Configuring new uses for already created designs

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Repurposing designs saves design time and money, helping you get to market faster.

By Jean Thilmany, Senior Editor

Sometimes you don’t need to re-invent the wheel. You could, for instance, drop the computer-aided design file for an existing wheel into your lawnmower design. Many companies, particularly those that create custom parts or manufacturing systems, integrate already-created CAD parts into an assembly to shave design time.

That’s the idea behind configuration-based design, which allows users to drop an already-created design file into a part or assembly for quick customization. With configuration-based design, the CAD file automatically sizes and fits itself into the assembly.

While today’s CAD systems continue to add that functionality, IronCAD was the originator of the concept with the company’s launch in 1998, says Cary O’Connor vice president of marketing at IronCAD, Atlanta.

With this method, feature, part, and assembly data for each part are stored in a catalog of frequently used parts and assemblies. The piece from the catalog provides precise reference locations when designers drop their components into a larger design, positioning it automatically into any complex orientation required, O’Connor says.

“In traditional CAD, you start with a sketch, put it into a 3D profile, you insert parts from a file system and you keep drawing like that,” he adds. “We can do that, but with us, you can also drag-and-drop parts and assemblies from a catalog into the design environment, mesh the geometry, and use that for enhanced CAD design.”

Engineers do, of course, need to create the original file for the frequently used parts and assemblies, which are then stored in the catalog, from which they can be pulled from for use again and again.

“But engineers can use these parts confidently without worrying about how the original design was created,” O’Connor says.

The catalog of parts requires only one file, no matter how complex. Assembly part data is integrated into a file’s design rather than linking to external files, O’Connor says.

The CAD maker calls these cataloged parts “intelligent parts” because they contain the geometry and other information to fit the assembly seamlessly. The designer need not worry about that step.

This is what allows the drop-in and automatic fit, he adds.

“Rather than insert constraints to the part, we’re doing it on the fly, positioning and changing information at the same time. If you want to make it larger, the tool knows how to update the part to make that change,” O’Connor says.

The already-designed parts can be dropped within many popular CAD programs as well as into IronCAD designs, he says.

Some companies have integrated IronCAD software with their enterprise systems for even greater hands-off customization. Others have used it as a backbone of their own proprietary software. Still others use IronCAD as their design system.

Automation for quick customization

Take the example of Dutch company Van Keulen Interieubouw, which makes fixtures and equipment for retail and office environments, including shelving units and cashier stations made from materials like wood and laminate.

Van Keulen Interieurbouw, which makes office fixtures and furniture, is able to customize designs and get them into production quickly by integrating its CAD tool with its ERP system. Credit: Van Keulen Interieurbouw

Customer needs vary according to the layout and the look they seek. The company can manufacture and customize almost any interior element to meet customer requirements. Van Keulen maintains manufacturing facilities for processing wood, metal, and plastic.

To stay ahead of competitors, the company delivers its products quickly after they receive an order, “Even going to the point to state if they need to deliver the next day, they will deliver the next day,” says Eddy Huis in’t Veld, the company’s software manager.

“To move from design to the finished products very fast, we have to be very flexible,” he says. “So, we have a high level of automation within our company.”

Using IronCAD, the company creates and stores the intelligent parts within its parts catalog. Some designs are reusable; others need quick modifications—easy to make on an already-created part where the CAD information also exists—and others need to be redesigned from scratch, Huis in’t Veld adds.

The parts can be added where needed to common CAD designs.

Engineers customize designs as they’re ordered, incorporating the pre-existing catalog of parts into their own design. The company has integrated the CAD application into its enterprise resource management system. When the engineer hits done, a parts request is automatically sent to the ERP system, which creates a list of needed parts for the manufacturing floor.

“ERP can extract the size, material technology, and many other aspects from the drawing,” Huis in’t Veld says. “It puts them into the production environment, sending them into the right machines in the right order.

“We can be in production within 15 minutes after the designer puts the drawing into the ERP system,” he adds. “Open your drawing, make the changes, and send it to ERP. With a few mouse clicks, we can start production again.”

In other words, designers can design a custom order and send it to the manufacturing floor within the same system.

“They’ve created a kind-of curated process-manufacturing system,” O’Connor says.

The design tool is also useful in the sales process, where salespeople can show potential customers how a potential shelving unit—for example—would look made from laminate, built to a certain size, and standing on particular types of legs. Suppose the customer seeks another shape for the legs, or would like a different style of shelving unit. In that case, a salesperson can make those changes quickly with IronCAD and present them immediately.

On the plant floor and in the race car

The drag-and-drop capability to customize parts and assemblies doesn’t stop with CAD itself. Software makers take IronCAD’s core functionality and build their own product around it. One example is Fixture Builder, a 3-D design and modeling product from Renishaw, a supplier of coordinate measuring machines and machine tools.

The software is used to create and document fixturing set-ups.

Fixture Builder’s fixtures have intelligence built-in because they’re made with and stored within the IronCAD’s design and catalog application.

Renishaw Fixture Builder includes configuration management functions to create and document fixturing set-ups in a number of ways. Credit: Renishaw

“A designer would import the catalog model they want to build fixture around, drop the plate and components into their piece, and then the export file to show how someone in the real world would set up that fixture,” O’Connor says.

And of course, IronCAD is useful as a company’s primary modeling tool.

When mechanical engineer Andy Robinson opened his own business, he turned his love of drag-car racing, designing and building racecar chassis. And, while racecar drivers won’t be thinking of the software behind the design of their chassis, they’ll certainly appreciate its ability to hold its own in a roll.

While Robinson had long worked with CAD in previous roles, he knew for Robinson Race Cars, in Hampshire, England, he’d need a tool anyone on his team could use.

More importantly, he wanted an environment where they could manipulate, change, and alter designs in 3D easily and on the fly, Robinson says.

Soon, he knew that with the help of CAD technology his company could resupply car parts and design and build chassis.

For instance, CAD enabled Robinson’s team to take a single repair and develop a standard part, which he could stock and sell to all in the industry.

Today, many of the former touring cars featured in the British Touring Car Championship are now in the hands of private clubman racers and, as Robinson knew, those cars still got bent and broken most weekends. The owners—who couldn’t, of course, buy many vital parts off the shelf—had a hard time keeping their cars running.

The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom. Touring cars are particularly suited to racing long distances.

Recently, one such racer came to Robinson Race Cars with a broken suspension upright from a Spanish SEAT touring racecar that needed repair. A common problem and one that possibly dozens of drivers were dealing with across Europe.

Robinson Race Cars created parts and chassis for a 1955 Chevrolet owned by Matt Woods. Credit: Matt Woods

Using IronCAD, Andy was able to reverse engineer the part and create a 3D model for evaluation. He could then understand the structure of the upright and look for weaknesses in the original design. He then went to several machine shops for proposals.

Having created the part, Andy was then able to show it on his website and approach other SEAT race teams to offer them replacement uprights.

Robinson Race Cars began by designing chassis for touring and other racecars and soon moved on to providing custom parts for many of those cars.

His love of drag racing got him into this business, and Robinson hopes he can turn his attention to supplying those parts as well. That’s certainly feasible. In 2010, many European countries began to wake up to the sport of drag racing, as abandoned airfields across Poland, Croatia, and Russian were converted into quarter-mile drag strips.

From its early days in the 1990s, configuration-based design has become a stalwart of the design process. While more and more CAD systems today include at least parts of the method, IronCAD first introduced the functionality with its release in 1998.

And users like Van Keulen and Renishaw continue to find new ways to put it to work for them.

IronCAD
www.ironcad.com

Industrial CT software version 3.5 detects and corrects design flaws and manufacturability issues

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The latest version of Volume Graphics’ high-end CT data analysis software suite, version 3.5, brings enhanced capabilities to manufacturers looking for better ways to inspect parts and improve designs—however they are made.

Particularly in the automotive, aerospace and defense industries, engineers exploring novel materials and manufacturing methods are increasingly turning to CT scanning to achieve a more accurate, non-destructive evaluation of product robustness and performance. Volume Graphics is a leading developer of software technology that interprets CT data from scans of almost any material to detect, analyze and visualize minute structural deviations that might affect part quality.

Version 3.5 provides automated design-geometry adjustment and repair tools that can be used to correct and/or offset issues that stem from the manufacturing process itself. Moldmakers, casting shops, and additive manufacturing providers can use the software to detect and visualize material and/or design defects or distortions—and then use included functions to correct their CAD designs, compare values against nominal limits and ensure that final part quality meets applicable industry standards.

Here are some of the highlights in version 3.5 of the data analysis software suite (which includes VGSTUDIO MAX, VGSTUDIO, VGMETROLOGY, VGinLINE, and myVGL):

· A reworked manufacturing geometry correction module. This software module benefits all those who work with some kind of mold, i.e., injection molders or casters. Enhancements in usability, with continuous updating and feedback on quality, give the CAD designer information that can be used to improve manufacturability. Filtering out points that can cause erroneous compensation results, the software fine-tunes surface fitting and provides compensations that are within tolerances, enabling the user to immediately see if their design changes are compatible with mold-making.

CAP: Manufacturing Geometry Correction Module. When compensating a geometry, a new filter option in Volume Graphics’ industrial CT software version 3.5 allows users to find fit points that cause inaccurate compensation results.

· Enhanced mesh compensation. For those working in simulation and AM/3D printing, this module provides easier navigation and understanding of the relationships between elements for better interpretation of part warpage, deformation and displacement—and automatically compensates designs to correct for deviations from manufacturing intent. Mesh updating is 10X faster, with improved results when scan and reference objects differ greatly in size or show other significant deviations. There are a greater number of control points for more granular and accurate results. In the case of lattice structures and other complex geometries, a uniform control-point placement function ensures full analysis of a design. The software can also shorten the 3D-print-and-test process by automatically running two sequential design-compensation results to move a design for AM closer to nominal before the first print.

Enhanced Mesh Compensation. A new compensation mesh color overlay in Volume Graphics’ industrial CT software version 3.5 helps users to clearly visualize, analyze and annotate any displacements in the compensation mesh.

· Porosity and inclusion analysis of castings. CT scans of cast parts can be inspected for porosity and compliance with Reference Sheet P 203 of the Federation of German Foundry Industry (BDG). With the help of the BDG P 203 porosity key, users can perform a 3D evaluation of detected volume deficits both in the complete casting and in freely defined sub-areas, such as functional areas with special attributes. The software enables inspection of multiple, different regions of interest in a part to see if porosity is within tolerances and whether there are any post-machining issues in the finished part. The data from this analysis is then ready for Q-DAS process control.

New Porosity and Inclusion Analysis of Castings. Usability improvements in the P 203 analysis, in Volume Graphics’ industrial CT software version 3.5, include combining the generation and editing of global and freeform porosity keys in one dialog. A new BDG P 203 name field allows users to add a comment for each porosity key.

Capability enhancements support engineering across many industries
Other enhancements in version 3.5 strengthen existing functions that support science, R&D, medical device development and other industries in addition to automotive and aerospace & defense. Among these is advanced reporting, which is now more user-friendly and fully integrated with viewing. The nominal/actual comparison module has also been made more user-friendly with easy-to-understand visualization of deviations of scanned objects from their reference data sets.

Volume Graphics and Hexagon
www.volumegraphics.com

CFD simulation software puts flow analysis into the design process early

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Siemens Digital Industries Software announced the latest version of Simcenter FLOEFD software, a CAD-embedded computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool. Simcenter FLOEFD software helps users frontload CFD simulation early into the design process to understand the behavior of their concepts. It can reduce the overall simulation time by as much as 75% and it runs seamlessly inside NX software, Solid Edge software, CATIA V5 and Creo. The latest version includes new functions that let designers take advantage of a seamless working environment, as well as enhancements that extend thermal simulation capabilities and lighting applications.

Simcenter FLOEFD includes improvements within process integration, allowing design engineers to implement CFD solutions within their workflow without requiring process changes. Simcenter FLOEFD for NX projects and results can be managed in Teamcenter software. Integrations with HyperLynx software, a suite of analysis and verification software for PCB engineers, allow for enhanced thermal analysis and more accurate simulation of printed circuit boards (PCBs) by taking into account joule heating phenomena.

The latest version of Simcenter FLOEFD also includes expanded capabilities based on Simcenter MAGNET software technology to increase accuracy of thermal simulation by considering electromagnetic phenomena. Direct integration of structural analysis allows CAD-centric users to apply CFD results to perform linear structural stress analysis of complex PCBs accurately. A new interface to Simcenter Nastran software allows easy transfer of CFD results for structural analysis in Simcenter 3D software. In addition, new enhancements for lighting applications include pulse-width modulation of a light source and the simulation of scattering and photoluminescence of phosphor particles, which are used during the manufacture of LEDs.

Siemens Digital Industries Software
www.sw.siemens.com

nTopology 3.0 lets designers preview changes in real time

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nTopology introduces its third update to its software program. One of the new features is an opt-in GPU acceleration, which will deliver a 10x to 100x performance boost that makes it easier to preview design changes in real-time and regenerate parts with complex geometry in seconds.

nTopology 3.0 also consolidates the recent technology improvements introduced to the software. These include functional latticing workflows, topology optimization tools, engineering simulation utilities, and advanced design automation capabilities.

The core of nTopology is the implicit modeling engine. This engine describes every solid body by a single mathematical equation, which enables designers to generate complex part geometry reliably and error-free.

Any CPU can evaluate this implicit equation in milliseconds. Visualization can take a bit longer and can be viewed as a nuisance to design efforts. Through patent-pending technology, nTopology can use both the CPU and GPU of a designer’s system for faster performance. The reduction in the time it takes to develop designs enables latticing, texturing, filleting, shelling, and other field-driven operations to be previewed in real-time. Complex designs are rebuilt in a few seconds.

According to nTopology managers, you can save 10 to 60 seconds every time you change a design parameter. Thus, making 100 such changes a day can save an average of 60 minutes of time per day.

In addition, there are other enhancements to the software.

Lattice generation
Lattices let designers change a structure’s behavior by controlling its geometry at the mesoscale level. Thus, designers can alter material response for specific applications. nTopology’s 3rd generation latticing pipeline offers tools to navigate the mesoscale world.


This generation includes a complete set of ordered, stochastic, and TPMS unit cells to control lattice properties at every point in space using simulation results, test data, engineering formulas, and a field-driven design approach.

New utilities help designers create custom unit cells and build the basic process blocks that feed generative design workflows.

Topology optimization
Topology optimization is a core tool of many generative design workflows due to its effect on lightweighting and structural optimization. nTopology 3.0 uses state-of-the-art algorithms and unique constraints for Additive Manufacturing.

Other features
–nTopology 3.0 expands the capabilities of nTopCL and strengthens the integrations with its Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) software.

–nTopCL enables users to call generative nTop workflows in Python or Matlab scripts. It can run on a desktop, a private server, or the cloud.

–nTopology offers three ways to simulate while using the software. Simulation results can be an input to drive part geometry, or used to perform design analysis, or users can export meshes for verification in external solvers.

–Built-in simulation tools let users run static, modal, and buckling structural analyses, steady-state, transient, and non-linear thermal simulations, and lattice unit cell homogenization.

nTopology is also expanding its simulation pre-processing capabilities. These include new meshing utilities, import and export capabilities for FEA and CFD data in the native format of any solver including ANSYS, Abaqus, or Nastran to streamline the design verification process.

nTopology
nTopology.com

IronCAD unveils product update for IRONCAD 2021

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IronCAD announced the release of the first update for IronCAD’s newest 2021 edition. The IRONCAD 2021 Product Update #1 (PU1) features enhancements and capabilities that enable IronCAD users to accelerate productivity in the design process in both 3D and 2D.

Created with a focus on design productivity and usability, IronCAD 2021 PU1 has improvements in many key functional items. CAD software users will benefit in areas including Sheet Metal, Point Cloud Modelling, IronCAD Detail Drawing, and General 3D Modeling with IronCAD’s drag & drop push-pull capabilities and patented TriBall positioning and creation tool.

Among the many new enhancements, key functional items addressed for IronCAD 2021 Product Update #1 are:

Sheet Metal Enhancements: These enhancements support more capabilities in sheet metal design and even design in Corrugate Packaging by supporting single line Cut and Cross-Break Design with the Sketch Bend tool. Users can create complex combinations of bends, line cuts and cross-breaks in a single tool simplifying the process and steps required to create their products.

Point Cloud Enhancements: Improvements in the Point Cloud capabilities have been added to allow users to work more effectively with scanned data. Import multiple scanned data sets into a single working environment. Position imported data sets to the correct locations. Reduce data sets on import to control the amount of data required. Use new tools to deleted points and to hide/show point clouds to enhance the workflow when working and creating geometry from the point cloud data.

IronCAD Drawing Enhancements: Many usability improvements have been added in the detail drawing environment including the Double-Click to Quickly Edit Properties for More Annotations which speeds up the annotation process. Another key improvement is the Bill of Material improvement for Top-Level Assemblies to Expand on View Based Selections allowing for more control to create specific tables and callouts for products.

Further improvements within Product Update #1 also address enhancements to general items including, Pin Favorite Stocks in the Pop-up Stock Table on Drop from the Catalog, Project Edges from Import 2D Reference Curves in 3D Into Other Sketches, Improve/Support Larger Preview Images in Windows Explorer for IronCAD Files, Add New Option in the Right-Click Menu of the TriBall to Turn off the TriBall for quick access, as well as improvements to IronCAD’s KeyShot Integration and support for Rhino 5.0.

IronCAD
www.ironcad.com