coretechnologie

CoreTechnologie (CT) presents its latest version of the “3D_Evolution Simplifier” software with new functions. The new selection tool is for digital mock-up and VR applications and helps simplify large assemblies of cars, trucks, planes and trains.

Scope of data as a challenge
For VR and DMU requirements in practice often only the external or internal parts of a very large vehicle assembly are needed. Especially with extremely large assemblies such as trains, aircraft and automobiles, the selection of the desired components or sub-assemblies can be difficult and take a large amount of manual work and time. Even modern 3D systems quickly reach their limits as complete and detailed car assembly needs to be displayed to manually select the desired scope.

Balloon selects the Interior
CoreTechnologie’s team has developed a new voxel-based function for the 3D_Evolution Simplifier software tool. The software tool selects the desired items through a so-called balloon stretching out from a user defined starting point. There is practically no limit to the size of the data. The selection process takes place within the shortest space of time by using multiprocessor calculation. The automatically selected models, which represent either the interior or exterior, can be converted to all common 3D formats.

The software offers direct interfaces for major systems such as Catia V5 and V6, NX, Solidworks, Creo, Inventor as well as standard formats such as STEP, JT, FBX, DWG and DGN. A clever side effect of the balloon calculation is that the contact body consisting of voxels is representing the interior volume minus all bodies contained therein and thus represents the volume of air or liquid inside. Thus, the automatically created model is a closed volume that can also be used for further simulation purposes.

Envelop Geometry improves CAD performance
From detailed engine, gearbox or machine and plant assemblies, the Simplifier generates exact enveloping bodies as solid geometry, with significantly smaller file sizes and thereby guarantees CAD and VR performance with up to 95% reduction in element count. The simplified models represent an exact representation of the outer shell whose inner geometry has been completely removed.

In addition, the simplified shell provides the advantage of sending 3D data, effectively protecting valuable know-how. When collaborating with suppliers, customers or partners, as well as in downstream processes, automatic selection and envelope geometry generation of complex components is an integral part of the PLM process chain, both for the protection of know-how and for the automated creation of lightweight 3D models used for VR and DMU process or for further operations in the CAD system.

CoreTechnologie
www.coretechnologie.com

The “3D_Evolution Simplifier” of the German-French software manufacturer CoreTechnologie is software for the fast and fully automatic simplification of CAD data. The tool converts and handles the reading and writing of all popular formats such as Catia V5 and V6, NX, Solidworks, Creo, Inventor, Step, IGES, JT, XT, FBX, DWG and DGN. In addition to conversion and simplification, the models can be checked and optimized in terms of quality.

Envelope geometry improves CAD performance
With the increasing level of detail and the size of CAD models, the number of entities to be displayed is in most cases beyond the capabilities of today’s CAD workstations. Automated simplification and data reduction is essential for the control of large volumes of data to create layouts or VR models in the field. The fast and fully automated generation of envelope geometries is a viable solution to smoothly work with the large amounts of data, especially in plant construction.

Preparation of customer or supplier data
The Simplifier simplifies and converts supplier data. The removal of internal geometry for the calculation of envelope geometries can be achieved within seconds by pressing a button. For efficient reduction of the file size, solids are produced automatically without any inner workings. The “Healing” technology ensures the automatic analysis and repair of the 3D models. The automatic correction functions improve data quality to optimize data exchange, especially for imported data.

The result of the simplifier process and quality optimization is higher performance in the CAD system and in all downstream processes. Particularly suitable is the method for Digital Mock Ups. In addition, problems in the drawing derivation are eliminated by the significantly reduced amount of data and the high data quality.

Automated product release with know-how protection
The model simplification is automated in batch mode and can be performed for any number of files and directories. Attributes in the CAD data, colors and names of the components allow precise control of the simplification process. Thus, certain components are specifically excluded from the simplification, completely removed or replaced by highly simplified, that is approximate envelope contours.

The envelope contours provide the replacement of the original geometry for an additional reduction in file size. Sheet metal parts can be replaced, for example, by boxes, threads or gears by cylinders or more complex geometries with cooling fins by polyhedra. In addition, Enterprise Datamanager offers various automation options. Web-based client / server solutions, multiprocessor operation, command-line operation and the optional directory scanner provide seamless integration into existing PLM environments as needed. The directory scanner monitors defined folders and processes data stored in them.

Another option for integration into existing PLM systems is the command line. The integration enables automation for the provision of product data, for example for catalog systems such as Docware or Engineer-to-Order systems such as Siemens PLM Rulestream.

Preparation of CAD data for VR / AR
When processing CAD data for visualization in virtual or augmented reality, the 3D_Evolution Simplifier is used to reduce the number of polygons without quality disadvantages, i.e. by 90% or more, in typical models from the mechanical and plant engineering sector. The process is based on removing the internal geometry and drilling based on optimized B-rep solids. After reading the original CAD geometry, the simplification of the exact B-Rep data takes place. Subsequently, the conversion to formats such as obj and fbx with definition of the polygon size as well as the reduction of the tessellation by up to 98% is accomplished. Since Simplifier simplifies simplified B-Rep geometry with topology, no holes or unwanted geometry deformations occur.

CoreTechnologie
www.coretechnologie.de/produkte/3d-evolution