3DEXPERIENCE BROWSER BASED CAD - xDesign

What is 3DEXPERIENCE?

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a collaborative environment which empowers businesses to innovate and collaborate in entirely new ways through cloud.
It provides real-time view of business activity and ecosystem, connecting people, ideas, data and solutions together in an organization using a single environment.
Bring key stakeholders together on a single collaborative platform, allowing you to seamlessly move from ideation through delivery for continuous development via 3DEXPERIENCE cloud-based solutions.

What is 3D Creator - xDesign?

3DEXPERIENCE platform contains roles in which 3D Creator has xDesign app for 3D parametric browser-based modeling. 

Innovate, collaborate, and create great designs on the go using the xDesign Cloud Solution inside a web browser.

The User Interface of 3D Creator – xDesign app is very similar to traditional SOLIDWORKS with the advantage of cloud design which offers the user to design from any device, anywhere and anytime with just a browser like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari etc.

You can capture and realize your ideas with parametric 3D models of parts and assemblies.

It provides a single modeling environment and rapidly iterate your design intent anytime with super features.

Design and optimize materials and design using Design Guidance tool and generative design approach.

Reduce repetitive tasks with the Design Assistant tools using the power of machine learning technology.

3D Creator - xDesign is a cloud-based solution that is always working with the latest version of software on all your devices with no worrying about installing, configuring, or managing software.

With 3DExperience Cloud Design app like xDesign, the IT infrastructure, hardware requirements, server maintenance can be minimized.

Secure communication and collaboration can be ensured with internal or external stakeholders. 

3D Creator ensures successful collaboration through secure and safe communities, complete design and data access control, sharing, easy visualization, and product review within the ecosystem.

Manage tasks and monitor the progress of projects using a dashboard. The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform dashboard offers seamlessly transitions between 3D Creator and other design solutions.

3D Creator - xDesign app offers Design Guidance, an interactive feature based on simulation and optimization algorithms to help inspire innovative solutions to your design challenges, collaboration and data management.

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Different Modes of Combination in Response Spectrum by SolidWorks Simulation

The response spectrum method is used to compute inertial response, estimates of response quantities developed for each mode, each direction of excitation and each input, if multiple inputs are considered. The total response is then formed by summing over all modal component, spatial component and excitation component responses. It estimate the structural response to short, nondeterministic, transient dynamic events. Examples of such events are earthquakes and shocks. Since the exact time history of the load is not known, it is difficult to perform a time-dependent analysis.

It is a widely used procedure for performing elastic dynamic seismic analysis, represents the set of the maximum acceleration, velocity or displacement responses of a family of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) damped oscillators. 

Fig: 1

For a given time period of system, maximum response is picked. This process is continued for all range of possible time periods of SDOF system. Final plot with system time period on x-axis and response quantity on y-axis is the required response spectra pertaining to specified damping ratio and input ground motion as acceleration, velocity or displacement response.

Factor Influencing Response Spectra:

1. Damping in the system

2. Time period of the system

3. Energy release mechanism

Errors in Evaluation of Response Spectrum:

Truncation Error: - In general, a truncation error exists in numerical methods for

integrating differential equations.

Rounding the Time Record: - For earthquake records digitized at irregular time intervals, the integration technique proposed in this report requires rounding of the time record and the attendant error depends on the way the rounding is done. For round-off to 0.005 sec, the average error in spectrum values is expected.

Error Due to Discretization: - In any numerical method of computing the spectra, the

response is obtained at a set of discrete points. Since spectral values represent

maximum values of response parameters which may not occur at these discrete points,

discretization introduces an error which gives spectrum values lower than the true

values.

Multi degree of freedom (MDOF) systems are usually analyzed using Modal Analysis. A

typical MDOF system with ‘n’ degree of freedom. The system when subjected to ground motion undergoes deformations in number of possible ways. These deformed shapes are known as modes of vibration or mode shapes.

In SolidWorks Simulation, we can predict the Displacement, Maximum Stress Induced and frequency with respective mode shapes of the system. with response as acceleration, velocity or displacement input to the system, with irrespective of the system type, the system can be 

Regular or Irregular as shown in Fig:2 & Fig:3.

  Fig:2(irregular Structure)

Fig:3(Regular) 

Regular Structure:

The design shall be approximately symmetrical in plan with respect to two orthogonal axis with flowing assumptions:

1. Location of joints with equal spacing in the design.

2. No horizontal or vertical irregularity of the structure

3. No change in material or shape of the structure cross section.

Irregular Structure:

If the design does not follow any assumptions of the regular system, becomes irregular structure. Most of the mechanical designs are Irregular in nature, as there may be material changes to the main members to improve the strength of the design.

There are different methods that are used for combining the response of each direction of system the methods for MDOF system are as follows:

1. Square root of sum of squares (SRSS) Method

2. Absolute Sum (ABSSUM) Method

3. Complete quadratic combination (CQC) Method

4. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

Square root of sum of squares (SRSS) Method:

The maximum response is obtained by square root of sum of square of response in each mode of vibration, the effect is calculated for each individual Frequency of the system with the defined response at different directions, these responses are summed up and an averaged.

Limitation of SRSS:

· There is a poor estimator of peak responses when applied to systems with closely spaced natural periods.

· Significant errors are caused when working with Irregular system.

Absolute Sum Method:

The peak responses of all the modes are added algebraically, assuming that all modal peaks occur at same time. The maximum response is given by:

Complete quadratic combination (CQC) Method:

The previously illustrated errors which are inherent in absolute sum or the SRSS method are rectified with CQC, The maximum response from all the modes is calculated as:

r_max is the maximum response

r_i, r_j are maximum responses in the i^th and j^th modes

α_ij is Cross Modal Coefficient

ξ is Modal  Damping Ratio, β is Frequency Ratio [ ]

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Method:

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) method to combine the peak responses from all mode shapes into overall displacements and stresses. It is modification of the SRSS Method, takes the absolute value of the response for the mode that exhibits the largest response and adds it to the SRSS response of the remaining modes the maximum response from all the modes is calculated as:

Where {u_j}_max represents the mode with the largest response among all modal responses.

All the above methods discussed are available in SolidWorks Simulation, according to the structure type and the user requirement, we can define the mode combination method as shown in the Fig: 4.

Fig: 4

We had discussed the different mode combination techniques in Response Spectrum, and the purpose of the different techniques and also the model equations of the techniques with their limitations.

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What's New in SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2022

 What is SOLIDWORKS Electrical?

SOLIDWORKS® Electrical software helps simplify electrical schematic creation with an intuitive interface for faster design of embedded electrical systems, including power systems, user controls, complex wiring, and harnesses.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical Solutions

The suite of SOLIDWORKS solutions for electrical/mechanical design and integration help design engineers reduce the risks inherent in innovation and get their products to market faster with less physical prototyping to reduce costs. With a consistent, powerful, intuitive set of design capabilities, all fully integrated with SOLIDWORKS, designers can establish an integrated design early in the process and avoid costly rework. Take your first look at SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2022 Highlights below:

 

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2022 Highlights

· Faster 3D electrical routing: Accelerate electrical design creation and design changes.

o Significantly accelerate the routing of 3D wires, cables, and harnesses in your machine or product.

o Try more design ideas during the design cycle with faster route creation.

· Improved performance with large electrical projects: Save time when working with large electrical projects.

o Speed up commonly used operations such as copy, paste, delete, and undo.

o Make design changes from schematic to 3D faster.

Create large electrical projects more quickly

o Speed up commonly used operations such as copy, paste, delete, and undo.

o Make design changes from schematic to 3D faster.

o Create large electrical projects more quickly.

· Increased performance in multiuser electrical design environments: Increase productivity with better collaboration among concurrent users.

o Enable faster operations for multiuser groups doing concurrent electrical design.

o Make data sharing and collaboration between multiple users easier.

· Enhancement to the Electrical Content Portal (ECP): Create electrical designs faster with streamlined sourcing of electrical content.

o ECP is now included in the Task Pane of SOLIDWORKS Electrical, making it easier to access.

o Search for electrical content directly from inside SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

· Improved navigation in electrical reports: Improve design quality with easy navigation of your electrical project documentation.

o Enable multiple hyperlinks per report cell.

o Link electrical reports to component datasheets.

· Enhanced harness flattening documentation: Improve product quality through more complete documentation and quicker access to component reference documents.

o Select the main segments of a harness route in 3D to guide the flattening process.

o Simplify the organization of harness documentation by targeting the trunk line.

· Improved documentation of harness and cable designs with shared electrical connectors: Enjoy greater flexibility in documenting electrical harness and cable designs.

o Include external connectors that are shared but outside of the electrical route.

o Include external connector information in documentation tables such as circuit summary tables and connector tables.

o Add block views of external connectors on harness board drawings.

· Support for back shells: Improve design quality through a more complete 3D      representation of the overall design.

o Use both straight and angled back shells in your electrical route design.

o Create the route and then add, rotate, or change back shells as needed.

· Enhanced 2D documentation of backshells in electrical designs: Enjoy more complete and more flexible documentation of electrical designs.

o Include straight or angled backshells in harness board drawings.

o Include views of angled backshells in flattened harness views.

· Refinements to bend radius control: Improve design quality through a more realistic 3D representation of electrical routes.

o Avoid bend radius errors with automated routing of wire, cable, and harnesses in 3D.

o Create more robust 3D routing when using limited electrical guide path sketches.

· Links in BOMs: In BOMs, you can manage links in a merged cell, for example, when several components use the same manufacturer part.

· Add Data Files in the Export PDF: If you attach PDF files to the project as data files, you can export them in the exported PDF file.

· Testing the Query in the Expert Mode: When you edit report configurations in Expert mode, Test fully query includes the sort conditions and filters.

· Displaying ERP Data in the Manufacturer Parts Manager: If you connect the ERP data, you can display it in the Manufacturer Parts Manager.

· Including Data Sheets in Exported PDFs: You can include the datasheets associated with the manufacturer parts in exported PDF files.

· Displaying Break Condition in Report Manager: In the Report Manager, you can display a Break condition column that shows the field in which you have created the break condition.

· User Interface Redesign: The user interface is enhanced to be more ergonomic and user-friendly.

· Attribute in Origin – Destination Arrows: In the Origin – Destination arrows feature, the attribute #P_CONNECTED_0 lets you display the mark of the components connected through the arrows.

Displaying All the Wire Numbers on the Middle of the Line: When you number the wires, you can select a specific mode allowing you to display the wire number on the middle of the line segment.

· Connection Point Creation Enhancements: Connection points (C-Points) let you connect wires or cables with connectors. Now available inside the Routing Options, no need to open Routing Library Manager to Create C-Points. 

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Top Enhancements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2022

In the field of design and production, which are the major fields for the new product development in industry, as technology is advancing the process we do should be changing according to the new enhancements, so that we can works faster & smarter.

The major important task in NPD is the product reliability & Performance in the real time conditions, to predict these at the design stage we can do an virtual validation with SOLIDWORKS Simulation, as mentioned previously with advanced technology development in the field of FEA, and implementing them in SOLIDWORKS Simulation. There are few enhancements in the SolidWorks 2022 in Simulation(FEA) they are listed below with detail:

1. Linkage Rod Connector

2. Blended Curvature Based Mesh

3. Parallel Processing

Linkage Rod Connector

   

In an 4 bar linkage mechanism we use an Intermediate link that connects both the links as shown in the Fig: 1, the main purpose of the Intermediate link is to transfer the force exerted on the one link to the other link. This Intermediate link can be defined as an boundary condition so that the mesh size can be reduced  and speed-up the simulation. In SolidWorks Simulation 2022 an new feature called Linkage Rod Connector can be used in the place of the Intermediate link. We can define different types of joint connection between the joints i.e.

a. Rigid Joint:

A rigid joint prevents any rotations or deformations. A linkage rod connector with rigid joints can transfer all moments from one part to another.

b. Pivot Joint:

A pivot joint allows only one rotation about the axis normal to the connector's axis.

c. Spherical Joint:

A spherical joint acts like a ball and socket joint where the ball can rotate inside the socket, but it cannot dislocate from the socket.We can list a linkage rod connector's forces such as shear force, axial force, bending moments, and torque after you run a simulation.

 

Blended Curvature Based Mesh

Meshing is the important task when we are working in the field of FEM or CFD. It is always good to have an automated mesh algorithm to mesh the complex models, so that we can eliminate the errors that are created when meshing. As we know SolidWorks simulation uses automated mesh algorithm, for refinement there is an new enhancement in the SolidWorks 2022 i.e. Blended Curvature Based Mesh, as shown in Fig:2, in this the course mesh can be defined to bodies that are not critical for analysis & can applying the Mesh control to the selected components that are critical, so that the analysis time can be reduced. After creating the mesh, with Mesh summery we can know the element size that is assigned to the individual components.

 Fig:2

 

Blended Curvature-based mesh in 2022

Parallel Processing:

 The major task in the field of FEA is, solving the meshed elements with their respective boundary condition PDE’s, with the technology enhancement we are able to make this process by function-based stiffness data communication replacing file-based processing, which take advantage of extending parallel processing speed-up with the iterative solver to all connectors and most features, the comparison of 2020 & 2021 is shown in the Fig:3

 

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