Successful use in design & CAD product development

"In design and development, it should be possible to identify at an early stage whether existing developments and components can be reused. The SolidWorks CAD format must be supported for this. The change management from the PDM system Keytech is also to be displayed congruently for the geometric search." This is roughly how a requirement for SIMILIA may sound. And this is what the answer sounds like ... 

Successful use in design & CAD product development.

With well over 60,000 CAD models in a wide variety of products, it is not easy to maintain an overview of the time pressure of daily business, find suitable or alternative blanks, or read off availability or costs. A wide range of different product variants and version statuses further complicates the situation. The introduction of a subject characteristics bar (SML) or a classification system would involve a great deal of effort.

The requirement for SIMILIA in design & CAD product development

In design and development in the CAD environment, it should be possible to identify in the early phase whether existing developments and components can be reused. The SolidWorks CAD format must be supported for this. The change management from the PDM system Keytech is to be mapped congruently also for the geometric search. This means that the change of the revision level in the PDM is also taken into account for the geometric similarity search. It must be ensured that only current parts are suggested for reuse. Furthermore, technical meta information from the Keytech PDM system must be used for the search. In addition, commercial data and information for work preparation are required via the connection to the ERP system Infor. It is important here that a nested 1:N link between the CAD models with article numbers from the ERP system is supported. This is intended to capture article variants. This expands the field of application for purchasing.

The solution? Simplify the daily business in design & CAD development

After eight days of installation, integration, and commissioning and one additional training day, the integration is complete. About 55,000 CAD data were transferred to the SIMUFORM® KnowledgeBase in a batch process. Part groups are also taken into account in the process. The processes are as simple as they are robust. The associated meta information from Keytech is synchronized on a daily basis. The synchronization with the material master data from the ERP system Infor is also performed analogously. It is ensured that only current data is used. This means that in day-to-day business, matching components can be identified in a targeted manner using geometric similarity as well as technical characteristics or material master data. Browsing and searching the entire database becomes very easy. The entire functions including visualization are independent of the workstation.

The benefits of design & CAD product development?

Browsing and searching the entire data set is of great benefit to users. They can identify similar parts or use alternative blanks for manufacturing. For current design projects, they can fall back on alternative parts whose stock availability is given. This avoids delays in project execution. Searching via sketches from the CAD system is also easy to implement. Even the search for supplier numbers or other purchasing specifications can be implemented without any problems. System hopping is avoided; expert knowledge is not required. Increasing the reuse of components not only avoids the follow-up costs of creating master data. Through reuse, operating and manufacturing costs, procurement costs, and also quality costs are sustainably reduced.

Your success story could look like this or similar. Find out more and download the information brochure about the SIMILIA software solution here now.