It has been the experience of many CAD experts, to sit and operate a CAD system like NX, while a person with little or no CAD experience sits beside them and tries to navigate the system vicariously through the expert in order to view and interrogate assemblies, parts, and drawings. I liken this approach to someone sitting in the back seat of your car while they tell you how to navigate the streets to get them to where they need to go when they could just as easily operate the car themselves.

Ok, I get it, CAD software can be difficult to learn and operate, and so the mindset is that it’s easier to tag an expert to do the driving… but does it make sense to tie up two resources for the purpose of viewing CAD data? Wouldn’t it be more proficient, and cost effective, to utilize a user friendly viewer to review and interrogate your NX CAD data… one that can be accessed and used by all… even by those with little or no CAD experience? The obvious answer is yes, so for this reason, many companies have employed the use of a lightweight viewer that relies on tessellated data. Obviously, this is not the most proficient or cost-effective solution for viewing NX data since these viewers require data translation which means they use a separate file format, and the viewer is a separate application, both of which need to be managed and maintained by your companies IT department… all of which add time and money to your product development projects.

NX Viewer is a subset of NX with a simplified layout containing a reduced set of menu items and icons, making NX Viewer easy to learn and operate, and since it is so easy to learn, it can help free up resources that would normally be deployed as CAD “drivers.” Everyone in your company can benefit from using NX Viewer, but the ones that can benefit the most are your casual users… your Engineering Managers, Shop Floor personal, Estimators, Engineers, and anyone who needs read access to native NX data but do not need write access to the data. You’ve heard the old adage, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Teaching the casual user to “fish” for what they need to view, and “drive” on their own to where they need to go has never been easier.

NX Viewer is a cost effective, user friendly tool that enables users to open, view (rotate, pan, zoom, fit) and interrogate (accurately measure and cut sections) NX CAD models and drawings in the native NX format, and because it is a view only tool (no write access) this ensures data integrity since the data cannot be overwritten.

Why use NX Viewer… why not just use NX? NX Viewer is far less expensive than a seat of NX and it’s a perfect way to read, browse, and interrogate NX assemblies, parts, and drawings by everyone, but especially by people with little or no CAD experience. Making design information accessible to all departments within your company, and not just engineering, can have a positive effect on productivity by improving communication and understanding between groups.

• Features include:
• Browse the assembly and model history trees
• Rotate, pan, zoom, and fit the geometry
• Hide and Unhide objects

• Dynamic sectioning

• Accurate measurement of model B-Rep geometry
  • NX Viewer is NX, so you are measuring real math data and not tessellated data.

• Edit object display
  • Color
  • Translucency
  • Shaded or Wireframe

• View drawing sheets

• Key benefits:
  • Cost-effective and inexpensive alternative to purchasing a third party viewer or a full seat of NX.
  • Intuitive and easy to learn even by casual/inexperienced CAD users
  • Share information across your enterprise – collaboration is the key to productivity
  • Accurate measurements because NX Viewer is NX, so you are measuring B-Rep data and not tessellated data as with other viewers.

Today’s world of design, engineering, and manufacturing is all about collaboration, and NX Viewer is an effective tool for connecting all of these areas of your product development activities, getting your ideas to market faster than ever before!

For more information contact Tata Technologies at info.americas@tatatechnologies.com or visit our website at www.tatatechnologies.com

Tata Technologies is a Siemens Platinum Smart Expert Partner indicating our validated expertise in NX-CAD.

Many of the PLM solutions available bill themselves as a platform. It is interesting to look at whether the platform strategy is an advantageous approach for a PLM system. The rest of this blog post will examine the question.

In the strict definition, a PLM system need not be a platform; it comprises a collection of processes and technologies that support Product Development through its entire lifecycle. Therefore, PLM and platform do not necessarily go together, it could consist of point solutions.

What is a platform?

In the technology and software world, a platform is defined as a single underlying application that forms a backbone for the overall application. This platform can then be used to install user apps which provide different capabilities. The main characteristics of a platform are as follows:

• Multiple capabilities are included in a single technology suite. In the case of PLM, examples may include CAD data management, project management, BOM etc.
• Ideally, the various apps in the platform would communicate seamlessly with each other
• A platform has an underlying database which is keeping track of all the various objects
• Users are presented with a single interface, regardless of their function and activities

PLM as a platform

Let’s look at PLM as a platform

In this scenario, all the required PLM functionality is incorporated into one system (usually from a single vendor) and users access the system vis a unified interface. The important feature of this approach is that interconnections between apps are the responsibility of the PLM vendor.

PLM as point solutions

Let’s look at PLM as point solutions

In this scenario, all the required PLM functionality is made up of multiple point solutions (usually from different vendors) and users access the various systems individually. The owner of the overall PLM process is responsible for interconnections between the various applications.

Which is the better approach?

Both approaches are used by organizations, some deploying hybrid solutions. Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of each landscape:

PLM as a platform

PLM as point solutions

So, which is better? The true answer is probably situation specific and depends on an organization’s maturity, size, business model and other factors. Keep an open mind!

Visit www.tatatechnologies.com to learn more about our PLM offerings and how we can help customers use the best technology for their needs.

Its end of the year 2019 and just like any other prior year DS is ready with new release, both for standalone products as well as 3DX roles. Accordingly, we are ready with our blog series “what’s new in 2020”. So lets start with Abaqus CAE first. The later blog articles will include solver functionality enhancements as well.

• Partitioning enhancement: The partition method using sweet and extrude has been improved to include multiple disconnected edges at the same time. That means multiple partitions can be done in a single partition operation. Less clicks, less time.

• Global renumbering: It is now possible to define renumbering in assembly context. And that is true for both dependent and independent part instances. For large assemblies, the user now does not need to switch multiple times between part and assembly modules to perform renumbering. In case of dependent part instances, any renumbering performed on an instance is automatically propagated to associated part at part level mesh.

• Enhancement in query tool: The queries for points/nodes/distances can now be made with respect to a local coordinate system as well that can be a cartesian, cylindrical or spherical CS. Earlier only global cartesian CS was available for queries.

• Shrink fit possible in explicit: This is a BIG enhancement for our explicit users. Perhaps those users who have struggled with the convergence of shrink fit in standard would appreciate this feature. Earlier initial overclosures in explicit could only be adjusted strain-free thereby making explicit step ineffective for shrink fit. Now explicit step has option of treating initial overclosures as interference fit. This is applicable for both contact part as well as general contact inexplicit. Big relief.

• Hyperfoam test data evaluation: Computation of material coefficients using uniaxial and multiaxial test data has been a very useful feature of Abaqus CAE. However this functionality was limited to hyperelasticity and viscoelasticity. Now hyperfoam material evaluation can also be done using curve fitting techniques.

Enhancements in copying models: The copy model feature has been enhanced to include constraints as well. However, if constraints refer to named sets and surfaces, those sets and surfaces should exist in the target model.

BC/Load manager with color coded cells: Lastly, the looks and feel of BC, Load and interaction manager has been enriched by making it color coded as shown below. It matters if this manager has to be used in a simulation report.

Tata Technologies is a global engineering company that helps organizations engineer better products. Visit www.tatatechnologies.com or contact info.americas@tatatechnologies.com.

FEMAP! That can be defined as a dedicated standalone, windows based pre and post processor for different types of finite element analysis simulations. It has a long history since its inception in 1985. The product was earlier with Unigraphics Systems which was acquired by Siemens PLM Solutions few years back. Every branded FEA software product gets upgraded every year with new valuable features that look good as well as feel good. FEMAP is no exception. Here we are looking at new functionalities in FEMAP release 12.0.

PAD and WASHER enhancement: Pads and Washers are used to effectively partition the geometry to get high quality isoparametric meshes around stress raisers such as holes. Till now this functionality was available only for circular geometries. Now the feature includes arbitrary geometries that may include tangential discontinuity

COPY/ROTATE/REFLECT: This functionality allows users to copy/rotate/reflect geometries along with associated meshes, loads and boundary conditions. The command can be executed successively to create different types of patterns with respect to translation and rotation.

Mesh Point Editor: Hard points are points defined by fixed coordinates on a curve or a surface that constrain the mesher by creating nodes at these specified locations. Hard points are desired at assembly level meshing to ease connection between different parts through node to node connectivity instead of using contacts. Hard points are further useful in connecting solid or surface mesh with a beam mesh which is a common application in civil structures such as concrete reinforcements. FEMAP 12 has a hard point editor through which hard points data can be imported into Femap via an external file or a clipboard. View/options can be used to control the display of hard points.

COHESIVE elements: These elements are used in modeling phenomenon such as delamination and material damage. Common real-life examples are peeling of a tape or evolution of a crack. NASTRAN solution sequences 401 and 402 have cohesive elements capability so it’s worth to include cohesive meshing capability in FEMAP.

Mesh->editing->cohesive meshing command has been added that work similar to mesh->editing->edge split command with a difference that cohesive command adds layers of cohesive element at the split with user defined element thickness and adjusts the size of original elements to achieve mesh compatibility.

BEAM Centerline Finder: This feature was earlier available as an API but now it has been included in the GUI of FEMAP 12.0. For arbitrary shapes, sometimes it is not possible to define all the section properties of beams. This feature extracts the beam properties using cross section of underlying solid geometry. User has two options. First option is to interactively pick curves and cross section of underlying solid. Second option is to pick only solid and FEMAP uses longest edge of the solid as curves for associated beams.

For more information contact Tata Technologies at
info.americas@tatatechnologies.com or visit our website at www.tatatechnologies.com

Tata Technologies is a Siemens Platinum Smart Expert Partner

What are Formboards, and what do they do?

To describe what a formboard is, and what it does, we need to start with what a wiring harness is, and what it does. The dictionary describes a wiring harness as a system of insulated conducting wires bound together with insulating materials, used in the electrical system of a machine, such as a motor vehicle or washing machine. Wiring harnesses can be found in just about every product that requires electrification. Trains, planes, farm equipment, machinery, RV’s, ships and boats, automobiles, motorcycles, computers, and home appliances… if it has electronics, chances are it has one or more wiring harnesses.

Wiring harnesses are usually produced manually on a flat surface, using a full scale drawing as a guide or a roadmap of sorts. These tables are typically referred to as formboards or harness boards. A formboard drawing is a flat representation of the 3D wiring harness. The main requirement on the formboard is that a manufactured wiring harness can physically fit in the product as intended. Not meeting this requirement can result in a wiring harness that doesn’t fit right, or cannot be installed in the product without using force to make it fit… thereby putting undue strain on the wires and connectors.

Creating formboard drawings in CAD can be a repetitive and time consuming task. Flattening out the wiring harness to make a 2D representation of the 3D harness can take hours or days depending on the complexity of the harness. This task can be made much simpler and less time consuming through the use of a Siemens product called, “NX Routing Harness.”

Here is a description from the Siemens playbook… “NX Routing Harness provides all the tools needed to route an electrical wiring harness consisting of bundles of wires in a product assembly. Capabilities also include the ability to specify typical mechanical parts and supporting equipment such as connectors and other devices. The software can also import the wiring characteristics for connections between electrical devices. This “connection list” may be created from a 2-D logical design application such as NX Schematics or other external ECAD systems. NX Routing Harness can automatically traverse paths which have been routed between the devices and assign the wire descriptions to the path segments as specified in the connection list. The wire descriptions are used to compute bundle diameters and to create solid bundle models. Actual wire lengths and diameters may be automatically added to the connection list for feedback to upstream ECAD applications or downstream to manufacturing applications. NX Routing Harness also identifies minimum bend radius violations and produces design and manufacturing documentation such as formboard drawings.”

NX Routing Harness does more than flatten a harness… it generates a full assembly, with all electrical connectivity information intact. The result is identical to the 3D assembly, but is laid out on a single plane while maintaining the relative position of each connector to the bundle as the harness is flattened. NX Routing Harness generates a 2D formboard drawing, while taking the unique approach of creating a Digital Twin of Manufacturing.

Some of the key benefits for using NX Routing Harness:

1. User friendly application that gives quick results for 3D routing and 2D formboard creation.
2. Reduce cost by making use of your digital twin to eliminate physical prototypes and rework… your harnesses will fit the first time.
3. Reduce cost by re-using logical design which eliminates redundant data creation and improves quality by enforcing design standards
4. Predicts accurate wire lengths and accurate bundle diameters for interference checking and space allocation for early analysis.

Are you responsible for designing wiring harnesses and creating formboard drawings? Can you and your company benefit from a powerful design tool that simplifies wire routing, harnessing and formboard drawing creation? Are you interested in streamlining your wire routing process to save time and money? Then you and your company could benefit from an NX Routing Harness demo today!

For more information contact Tata Technologies at
info.americas@tatatechnologies.com or visit our website at www.tatatechnologies.com

Tata Technologies is a Siemens Platinum Smart Expert Partner indicating our validated expertise in NX-CAD.

Many years ago, or so it seems, one of the methods for checking clearance and interference’s was performed through the use of drawings. By cutting sections through the parts in an assembly drawing, the detail of that assembly could be shown in a section view, and then distances could be measured between parts to determine whether clearance objectives where being met. This task involved tools such as a compass, a drafting pencil, and a scale along with the ability to draft accurately. Another method was to build a full size scale mockup, or buck, of the part or assembly to visually check for interference’s and you could also use a wide variety of tools to take measurements.

While there may be nostalgia for these methods, modern CAD tools and technology can accomplish the same tasks in far less time. By assembling parts and cutting sections through the CAD data, we can then electronically measure for clearance between parts and assemblies. This process is much faster than with drawings, and can greatly improve productivity. However, what if you had to find clearance issues within a very large data set like an engine, or transmission, or an instrument panel? This amount of data loaded into a CAD session can be difficult to work with due to the model size and complexity of the parts within these assemblies. Also, the tasks of cutting sections and taking measurements required for the clearance analysis is a skill only possessed by the proficient few.

Because of this and other problems, solutions were created that transform CAD data into lightweight tessellated data files. By translating the data into a JT (Jupiter Tessellation), or similar file, the viewer can read very large assemblies quickly and perform a multitude of tasks on that data.

One such viewer is Siemens Teamcenter Visualization Mockup, better known as VisMock. This tool is more than just a viewer, it’s a real-time digital mockup tool that you can use to detect and solve design issues early in your product lifecycle, getting you from art to part faster and cheaper than ever before! And, VisMock is a very intuitive and easy software to learn and use. With VisMock, the learning curve is minimal in comparison to learning a CAD system, so this lends itself well to those non-expert users who are looking for quick answers to design issues. For example, a non-CAD user can go into VisMock and perform a Clearance Analysis, and in a matter of minutes have the answer to a nagging question on whether there is a clash or clearance in their assembly, or to adjacent parts and assemblies.

VisMock is used in Automotive, Aeronautic and Aerospace, Ship Building, and Consumer Product industries as a design verification tool that can reduce or eliminate the use of rapid or traditional prototypes. This can further reduce the cost of bringing a product to market.

Teamcenter Visualization is available in four different levels: Base, Standard, Professional, and Mockup. Each level builds upon the one before it. Siemens offers Teamcenter Visualization this way so that it is scalable, so as your company grows, so can your visualization software.

Some of the key benefits for using Teamcenter Visualization Mockup:

1. User friendly application that gives quick results for aiding in critical decisions across all disciplines within your company as well as your entire enterprise.
2. Reduce cost by reducing the need for traditional and rapid prototypes.
3. Making use of your digital twin moves critical decisions earlier in the product lifecycle where making changes to CAD data is easier and cheaper than correcting mistakes to a physical product.
4. Four different levels to fit your current needs and for scalability.

So, can your business benefit from faster decision making by a wider range of participants? Teamcenter Visualization can facilitate this requirement and bring substantial benefits.

For more information contact Tata Technologies at
info.americas@tatatechnologies.com or visit our website at www.tatatechnologies.com

Tata Technologies is a Siemens Platinum Smart Expert Partner indicating our validated expertise in NX-CAD.

There have been quite a few market whispers about MSC Software and its products since the company’s acquisition by Symphony Technologies few years back. It’s flagship pre-processing tool called MSC Patran has been under spotlight since the introduction of new equivalent tool by MSC Software (now Symphony) called MSC Apex.  MSC Software adopted a similar strategy during 2008-09 by introducing a bunch of multi-disciplinary pre-processing tools such as MD Patran and later SimExpert. All these products had a very long gestation period with little luck in making a long term market presence.

Many veteran FEA analysts, particularly in aerospace domain are well familiar with the pains of using MSC Patran in geometry cleaning, meshing and composite modeling environments. The objective of this blog is to take a deep dive into these issues and demonstrate how an alternative product called Femap from Siemens can alleviate many of these unaddressed issues.

Femap has been a part of FEA community since more than 30 years and it was developed with the mission of having a dedicated PC based pre and post processor for engineering FEA. It is solver neutral as well as CAD independent solution that offers high performance modeling and analysis capabilities to solve toughest engineering problems.

• Mid surface extraction

Almost all FEA pre-processors have this embedded tool but as the geometry becomes more and more complex, many of them fail to extract mid surfaces correctly. The automatic feature of Femap makes this job not only easy with minimum number of clicks but offers higher fidelity as well. User does not need to select opposite faces multiple times in case thickness changes in space. Just enter the maximum thickness value a part has and Femap does the rest for you. Its further possible to combine the mid surfaces so they appear as a single entity in the history tree.

 

• Tools in the meshing toolbox

Before creating a mesh, the meshing toolbox offers multiple value added features to clean and modify the underlying geometry for a better mesh.

• Project curve:

This features splits the extracted surface at the boundary of thickness transition so that the underlying elements are able to update the shell thickness property as the thickness changes on either side of the split.

• Feature removal options

There are many features in CAD that may not be needed in FEA analysis and holes are the prominent ones. It is possible to close holes and similar geometries with just a click, if needed. By default, a point entity is created at the geometric center of the closed holes to make sure a kinematic constraint can be applied at those points, if needed.

• Pad and washers

These features allow for mesh refinement in the vicinity of holes and depending on the geometry of holes, either a washer (circular) or a pad (square) option may be chosen. The feature creates iso-parametric meshes around the holes based on the distance of influence defined by the user. This is an “on the fly” feature that updates an existing mesh every time this feature is executed instead of creating a new mesh.

• Dynamic node repositioning

This is a very handy feature to improve mesh quality on the fly. With the mesh quality contour option active, user can dynamically move any node of the mesh either on surface or on a curve until its quality improves which is instantly perceived by the user as element color changes from red to green. The effect of this tool is very local and only a few elements in the vicinity of selected node are considered at a time.

• API’s for automating repetitive tasks

Most of Nastran based BDF’s include multiple RBE’s. Femap understands the pain of creating these RBE’s manually and applying boundary conditions to them. The custom tools provide an option to create RBE’s by selecting peripheral curves or nodes. The independent nodes are created automatically. Using API’s it is further possible to completely automate the RBE generation process.

The grouping options in custom tools provide an option to automatically define a group for independent nodes of all the RBE2’s in the model. This group can later be used to create constraints on RBE’s without picking each independent node individually.

 

In this series of ‘what’s new in 2019” release we will highlight new features in standalone fe-safe as well as in durability apps of 3D Experience platform. General enhancements as well as specific enhancements in fe-safe/rubber are included.

Durability roles in 3D EXPERIENCE Platform

• Fatigue specialist role in 3D EXPERIENCE Platform is now available in 2019 GA though it was introduced in 2017x FD05. Perhaps one of the most interesting feature of any role on the platform is its “look and feel” apart from robust functionality behind the scene. Here is how latest fatigue specialist role looks like. The durability app is integrated into structural and mechanical scenario apps. Moreover, unlike standalone Fe-Safe, it is possible to visualize 3D model while creating scenario for durability in 3DX. Structural analysis case job and durability case job can be launched simultaneously from user interface.

• Fatigue Loading: Number of complex loading scenarios are supported on the platform since 2018x release. These include superposition, sequence of stress or stress-strain frames, mean stress correction etc.
• Dynamic case supported: There was enough requirement to support durability simulation for dynamic events.  Durability cases of FEA can now be used to define loading on the platform.
• Surface finish: The Kt factor can be defined directly as a surface finish.
• Cloud: The role is now available both on premise as well as on cloud.
• Material properties/algorithms: Now include cast iron, SN curve definition, eN curve definition as well as constant amplitude endurance limit. The algorithms now include finite life, infinite life as well as stress based and strain-based algorithms.

      Enhancements in standalone Fe-Safe

• Weld fatigue enhancement: No need to have perfectly structured meshes in region below the weld line nodes through the thickness for the calculation of nodal forces and structural stress. However, element faces should be present on the crack surface.

• Integration of Tosca, Abaqus and Fe-Safe verity for the optimization of chassis sheet thickness with multiple seam welds.
• Groups and sets created within Fe-Safe are now written out in the Fe-Safe ODB file.
• A new algorithm called Prismatic Hull infinite life method was introduced in 2018xFD01 that is now available in 2019xGA.
• Interpolation engine in Fe-safe Rubber: Abaqus Rubber models are computationally extensive and take long time to solve. In many situations full duty cycle takes long time to solve in abaqus. Now user can break up duty cycle in standard series of load combination levels. When imported in Fe-Safe rubber, solver can make interpolations to approximate full duty cycle stresses from standard series of stresses.

Tata Technologies is a global engineering company that helps organizations engineer better products. Visit www.tatatechnologies.com or contact info.americas@tatatechnologies.com.

As a follow up to the BOM in Excel article, what would constitute a perfect system for managing Bills of Material (BOM) in a PLM system?

Let’s divide the capabilities of this ideal system into three categories; mandatory, essential and nice-to-have.

For the sake of definition, a Part is an end item in a BOM structure, and an assembly is a collection of Parts arranged in a BOM structure. Also, this discussion is restricted to eBOM; other types of BOM’s is a much larger topic.

Mandatory

• Manage Parts making up the BOM
• Manage Part Attributes such as Date Created, Owner, Make/Buy etc.
• Manage Documents or Files associated with the Part (CAD, Drawings, Specs etc.)
• Manage BOM structures of Parts, with indent capability
• Handle version and revision levels for all Parts
• Handle version and revision levels for all Assemblies
• Allow for search capability on Parts and Assemblies
• Enable reuse of existing Parts in new Assemblies
• Facilitate comparison of current BOM structures
• Allow for “where used” enquiries or reports
• BOM structure export to facilitate external system integration
• Collapse / expand indented levels
• One BOM for all – accessible by all users

Essential

• Manage lifecycle of BOM (In design, Released, In Production, etc.)
• Distinguish between various types of Parts in Assemblies (Designed, Bought, Complete, In Work, Customer etc.)
• Allow for comparison between various versions and revisions of BOM
• Enable BOM view based on release date and different release configuration
• Duplicate BOM (Save As) allowing for alterations and edits during the process
• BOM templates for generic products
• Allow for BOM variants and configurations
• Based on configuration rules, resolve to exact BOM
• BOM costing (roll up)
• Launch BOM selections into Digital Mockup session
• Enable clash and interference analysis

Nice to Have

• Pictorial BOM
• Search in BOMs
• Part Classification to facilitate reuse
• BOM weight roll up
• Link BOM to Requirements
• Allow for BOM visualization
• Specific views dependent on user or context

Obviously, each of these requirements is a complete topic in of itself. Also, additional requirements may exist.

Tata Technologies is a global engineering company that helps organizations engineer better products. Visit www.tatatechnologies.com or contact info.americas@tatatechnologies.com.

It’s all about Risk Mitigation. The quote you most often hear is “better as-built data leads to better designs”. It’s clear now that laser scanning
is a better workflow vs field measuring. Frequent trips to get it right can’t replace one trip to get it right the first time. We always hear the
devil is in the details and laser scanning, done right, records the details.

Field measurements, outdated documentation, delays, and travel time, all lead to inaccurate and late proposals. Once the proposal is accepted it’s up
to you to keep the project profitable. In some documented studies working from a laser scan has reduced rework to less than 2%.

Some benefits include:
• Provide access to the point clouds for all stakeholders, everyone is working from the same information
• Reduce the number of incidents from manual measurement errors.
• Reducing time onsite
• Fewer mismatches and design errors
• Advanced interference and clash detection for installations without onsite visits
• Consistent as-built documentation for design specifications

There is no doubt that working in 3D space is better than 2D alone. The issue has been getting to a 3D environment. Laser scanning provides this
in an economical and timely manner.

Tata Technologies is an engineering services company dedicated to engineering a better world. Visit our website at www.tatatechnologies.com