Motoring on with 3D design

26 September, 2006

Computer Aided Design – CAD – has changed almost beyond recognition over the years. When it originally started to be used, it was generally only being used by the larger corporations – the automotive designers and the aerospace industry, for example – but in today’s marketplace almost any company designing a product will be using some form of CAD software.

The reasons behind this are simple. For a company to remain competitive its products need to be designed in less time, the development and manufacturing costs must be reduced, and the products need to be better. By using CAD, these goals can easily be met – the product will be designed quickly and easily and, possibly more importantly, will be more accurate, exactly meeting the requirements that are laid out.

Way in the past design was carried out manually, but when 2D software started to make inroads into the market, the design process changed rapidly. And while there is still a place for 2D, the advances in software including the introduction of 3D design and the incredible functionality this can offer has enhanced the design process dramatically.

There is not, however, a niche market in which 3D CAD has to be used. It is currently being used for design across a wide range of industries ranging from consumer, aerospace/ defence and automotive, to electronics, medical, furniture and fixtures, and even into the process, power, civil and agriculture arena. One example of this is at Inteco in Austria, a company which plans, builds and installs steel mills and specialist installations. Here, 2D drafting was unable to cope with the large assemblies which needed to be designed so it turned to 3D.

Commenting on the benefits of the software, Gerhard Reithofer, CAD department head, said: “We have become more accurate and confident because structures exhibit fewer collisions or positioning errors. With the 2D system these were only discovered at assembly.”

In fact, 3D software is now so complex, with features that, for instance, enable design validation (a feature of SolidWorks’ Office Premium software), that the development of prototypes is reduced greatly as it is possible through the software to guarantee the product will actually work when it is manufactured. Building prototypes can be very expensive, so reducing the need for this is a major advantage.

Innovation is necessary when it comes to designing a ‘great product’, explained Simon Booker, marketing manager at SolidWorks, and 3D is the way forward if a company wants to meet the high demands placed upon it as well as creating new markets. Among the benefits provided by 3D, a company can reduce costs, develop products quicker, cut design cycles by 50 per cent and meet increasing quality demands – the customers expectations are constantly rising and these requirements need to be met.

Booker is quick to point out, however, that while quality must be built into the design, it must also work!

This is where SolidWorks Office Premium can be of assistance.

A complete design solution
According to the company, Office Premium is a complete 3D product design solution that provides the product design team with all the mechanical design, verification, data management and communication tools they will need - in one package.

One part of this is COSMOSWorks Designer – tailored, explains the company, for designers and engineers who are not specialists in design validation – a tool that helps improve product quality by indicating how the SolidWorks model will actually behave when it is built.

A further benefit to the design process is Data Management. The ability to produce E-drawings will enable the designs to be communicated easily throughout the design process, explained Booker. This e-mail enabled design communication tool means, for instance, that the design can be sent to the managing director anywhere in the world and comments on the design can be sent back and forth.

Office Premium 2007
To help companies make the transition to 3D software easier, SolidWorks has released Office Premium 2007 which features over 200 customer-driven enhancements. One such enhancement is SWIFT, a tool which enables the user to realise the benefits of 3D CAD without having to learn special techniques, explains the company. The FeatureXpert eliminates the need for a user to worry about feature order in a model while solutions are provided to handle any conflicts in sketch dimensions and relationships.

The MateXpert deals with conflicts in assembly mates by isolating problems and guiding the user to a solution, and the DimXpert extends traditional auto-dimensioning tools by identifying manufacturing features and adding correct dimensioning schemes.

Among the additional features which have been added are: Search which searches for files; Design Checker which checks for accuracy and completeness before release; Sketch Blocks which enable 2D mechanism design and Scan; and ScanTo3D for designers who need to capture physical concept models, existing OEM parts or anatomical objects and use these scanned renditions to build SolidWorks models.

One company that has benefited greatly from SolidWorks Premium is Caged, a company which was founded in Wiltshire in 2002 to manufacture custom roll cages and lightweight chassis for the motor sport industry, explains Phil Squance, engineering director.

Chassis design
Caged was approached during 2005 by Caterham, manufacturer of the most raced car in the world, when it was looking to change its chassis supplier. Caterham had been using the same supplier for 48 years and, in all that time, the frames had been manufactured in the same way – which was not only time consuming but was also inaccurate. Before being awarded the contract, however, Caged was faced with a number of demands: not only did the design of the chassis have to be accurate and stiffer, but these objectives needed to be met at lower cost and within just six months. On top of this, there needed to be one design of chassis for five engine types. Previously, five chassis were used.

Following a £600,000 investment in modern manufacturing equipment and the selection of SolidWorks Office Premium, Caterham awarded the contract to Caged.

The chassis, which can be either left or right hand drive, is now designed using the software, and CosMos has enabled the optimum tube positions to be designed for the levels of stiffness required.

One major benefit, explained Squance, was that once the definitive chassis had been designed an iges model of the engines could be imported and placed within the chassis. After moving tubes to ensure each of the five engines fitted correctly, the design was put back through CosMos to ensure that there weren’t any stiffness problems caused by moving the tubes. By doing this, however, it actually improved it, adds Squance.

The software is also being used to run the machinery which undertakes such processes as laser cutting the holes (which were manually drilled previously) and tubes etc. This greatly reduced the time it takes to actually manufacture the chassis. All the fixtures are also produced in the software.

From the day the contract was signed, Caged had just six months to produce the first chassis. Squance commented: “Without SolidWorks we couldn’t do it.”

Approximately 500 Caterham’s are produced each year. If required, however, 1000 can now be produced.

So, not only does 3D CAD software provide numerous benefits to how a company designs the best products in the most cost effective way, developments are ensuring the software is also becoming easier to use for the designer in the step towards creating ‘the better product.’ It does seem that 3D truly is the way forward.