EGS India | Official Blog

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SolidWorks has been an enviable product for many CAD Software developers and companies for many reasons - Ease of Use, Rich Feature / Functionality and above all empowering users with a voice that the developers listen to all the time. When Parametric Solid Modelling was in its birth pangs, kernels, architecture, operating systems were discussed threadbare to focus on the inherent power of visualization in enabling design of better products. It is well known that SolidWorks has been leveraging on the Solid Modelling strengths of Parasolid, Surfacing capabilities of ACIS ( Spatial ) and Advanced Math Libraries of CATIA to put SolidWorks on steroids as we know it today. Just looking at the Installation directory and DLL's installed would throw light on the above statement. For many years, SolidWorks has not really been relying on any particular kernel for its existence and growth. A cursory view of features such as Multi-body parts, deformable solids, n-sided patch fill would hel...

It has been over two decades since a new technology emerged in 3D CAD Design. Parametric representation and B-Rep modelling created a tectonic shift in the CAD industry spawning several codes with the latest generation exploiting the Windows architecture for ease-of-use and reach. While history based representation has provided innumerable benefits, history free editing, a mere corollary, has been confined to limited areas of geometric manipulations in comparison to creat-modify-update-release nature of drawings for manufacture, that the industry requires. Common challenges still remain in 3D CAD technology that needs to be addressed. Some of them include: Handling of large data sets Faster regeneration time during edit and update processes Quicker and easier ways of generating/ modifying 2D Drawings Intuitive approach to design using constraint-free environment Operating System Independent environment Freedom to collaborate without data translation While the debate on choice of para...

Dassault Systemes recently announced FREE Download of DraftSight - an alternative to popular 2D CAD Software to create, edit, manage and share DWG Files. It sure is exciting that the 2D CAD users got an alternative that helps them get their drawings done with no investment but for internet download time ! This event is significant in more ways than one. Firstly, it emphasizes the fact that 2D CAD technology is no longer a serious choice for Design Engineers when 3D CAD, such as SolidWorks, is available at affordable costs. Secondly, the price of any product drops when demand is not there! Rightly so. I happened to download the Beta version of DraftSight and am impressed on many counts: 1. Opening very large DWG Files is done in a fraction of the time taken by other 2D CAD software. 2. Installer is just 42 MB in Size ! 3. Interface is akin to popular 2D CAD that professionals are used to. 4. Support upto Version 2010 of DWG format 5. Virtually no training is required to get sta...

White Paper on Importance of G D and T with Tolerance Stack Up Analysis for developing 0 PPM Designs and Solving Quality issues is presented with case study involving an Electric Motor Designed and analyzed using SolidWorks and SigmundWorks Software. Quality in Assembly Build and Performance affects profitability. Acceptable quality depends on drawings that define design specifications. G D & T Drawings developed according to ASME Y14.5/ ISO Standards and ensured for correctness and completeness is the first step. Assigning least cost tolerances, predicting assembly build and performance is the next step towards developing a fool-proof quality regime. This is done by performing Tolerance Stack Up Analysis. Implementing technological tools to achieve this has following inherent benefits: 1. Correctness and Completeness of Drawings eliminates ambiguities, re-work and errors in production/ inspection processes 2. Identification of dimensional parameters affecting assembly build...

A new White Paper has been published by EGS India on the Benefits of Design Validation for Automotive Systems. Automotive Industry is constantly looking at ways and means of reducing costs and staying profitable while delivering on time. Common denominator in all these challenges is Design. Companies investing in developing indigenuous Design Technologies, emerge successful in the world market and are able to sustain and innovate at a higher pace than the rest of the competition. This is possible on account of the following capabilities: Delivering products faster with Up-front Engineering Design Validation as a part of the Product Development Process while compressing the cycle time Lean Design by incorporating Value Engineering as a part of the Design Process ensuring evaluation of least cost alternatives before even the first prototype is developed Increasing Reliability by Design – an Initiative that will eliminate hidden costs associated with product recall, re-design and/ or r...

EGS India is participating in Access 2010 and can be visited on Booth 108. Focussing on emerging Technologies and Benefits for the Machine Tool Industry, EGS India will be highlighting the benefits of SolidWorks 2010, SigmundWorks Tolerance Analysis Software and SolidWorks Simulation as a Design Validation Tool for Product Design and Development. Additionally the ability to save, re-use and update Engineering Data using Enterprise PDM (Product Data Management) as well Publishing Manuals and Documentation using 3DVia Composer are the highlights of the program. The Expo is being conducted at Chennai Trade Centre between February 7 -to- February 9, 2010. All are welcome and invited to Booth 108.

Automotive Industry is constantly looking at ways and means of reducing costs and staying profitable while delivering on time. Common denominator in all these challenges is Design. Companies investing in developing indigenuous Design Technologies, emerge successful in the world market and are able to sustain and innovate at a higher pace than the rest of the competition. This is possible on account of the following capabilities: Delivering products faster with Up-front Engineering Design Validation as a part of the Product Development Process while compressing the cycle time Lean Design by incorporating Value Engineering as a part of the Design Process ensuring evaluation of least cost alternatives before even the first prototype is developed Increasing Reliability by Design – an Initiative that will eliminate hidden costs associated with product recall, re-design and/ or replacement of parts ' Valuefacture ' of a product ensures product acceptance by Customer while assuring...

Sustainability Xpress could not have been released, by SolidWorks Corporation, at a better time, with the world looking at Initiatives to address Global Warming, Reducing Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Footprint. A simple add-in inside SolidWorks, it helps Designers understand the impact of their designs on environment early in the design stage. In terms of recent economic downturn how do sustainable designs result in higher profit, larger market share and improved sales for engineered products? Sustainable designs need to have Conservation as the central theme. Conservation of: Material Energy Resources Conservation of Material helps lower cost of raw material used, select material that can be recycled and evaluate alternate materials that are eco-friendly. These objectives align perfectly with the cost reduction objectives of any organization that intends to remain competitive. Conservation of Energy focuses on Energy used to produce a product as well as energy consumed by the pro...

In these days of economic challenges, companies are forced to look at ways and means of reducing costs to survive and stay profitable. Some of the immediate priorities that need urgent management focus include: 1. How to reduce product cost to sustain healthy margins? 2. How to innovate and deliver products of high value without compromising on safety? 3. How to increase an already shrinking market share? 4. How to eliminate warranty costs, product recall and re-work? The questions are unending. This is just a partial list. The answers just do not seem to be there. A careful analysis of all the questions, posed above, provides a common denominator - Design Product cost is dictated by the Bill of Materials and Drawings. Innovation and USP of a product is driven by product function and efficiencies. Increasing market share is directly related to selling better products of higher value at affordable (read not lower) cost. Warranty issues, recall and re-work relate to product not...

Feature Control Frame forms the heart of the Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing ( GD & T ) practice for engineers involved in creating, manufacturing and inspecting designs. In fact it is the greatest invention of engineering expressions in symbolic language that it is finding unilateral acceptance by the engineering community as a whole. For the un-initiated, let us considere a hole dimensioned as follows: Read from left to right, the Feature Control Frame states that "Position of the Axis of a pattern of 8 holes when produced within stated size limits, can be off-centre within a diametral tolerance zone of 0.50 when produced at Maximum Material Condition, when the part is located on Datum A as Primary, Datum Feature of Size B when produced at Maximum Material Condition as Secondary and Datum C as Tertiary references." Feature Control Frames have a characteristic symbol in the first cell, a tolerance value with a zone descriptor and material modifier (if any) as the...

Recessionary trends in markets always force customers to re-think before spending and postpone high-value investment decisions. In these days of wild economic oscillations, every company involved in manufacturing and marketing of products is faced with the following scenarios: Reduced Orders for Products Shrinking profit margin Competitive pricing from predatory products Add to these challenges, the burdening effects of increased input raw material costs, extended product development time and costly re-work due to failures, we have a problem of monstrous proportions that affects the company bottom-line and survivability. In order to stay competitive, increase market-share and provide more value for less money, product development companies need to do three things: 1. Innovate 2. Improvise 3. Implement It is well known that 80%-85% of a product cost is driven/ decided by Design. Input raw-material, number and sequence manufacturing operations, product testing, product/ design re-wo...

Part I highlighted the Fit and Form aspects of Design Validation using SolidWorks. Additional Form Validation tools are highlighted in this part. Form validation starts from the first step, namely, concept design. Form is validated all the time. Every dimension involves form validation. Shape optimization directly interacts with form and validates for optimal weight, cost or any variable that the designer uses to arrive at a design solution. Draft Analysis , inside SolidWorks, helps designer to analyze designs for form requirements that are mandatory from manufacturing considerations. DraftXpert provides a range of tools for form validation inside SolidWorks. Draft Analysis Settings and Results for Plastic Part Curvature continuity and tangency on surfaces can be checked by using Zebra Stripes Visual Display availabel inside SolidWorks. Zebra Stripes on Plastic Part Undercut Detection on parts, be they plastic or die-cast, is required tofind trapped areas in a model that cannot ...