FEATURE CAD/SOFTWARE


Tim McDonough, GM of Industrial at Unity


Technologies, examines how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality


(AR) are revolutionising the design process


C


AD and 3D modelling have gone hand in hand for many years in the


automotive and AEC industries. In recent years, however, the rise of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have turbocharged the possibilities for design engineers. Who wouldn’t want to explore


DESIGN


MAKING DESIGN A virtual reality


visualising a model in 3D, especially an


an incredibly powerful way of boosting the creative process”


interactive model, is


“For product and component design,


a 3D model of their design in real-time, get inside and truly experience it? Providing new insight into their model prior to manufacture, this allows for adjustment and product evolution before a penny is spent on physical materials.


BOOSTING THE CREATIVE PROCESS In theory, this new way of working sounds spectacular. However, as many design


OPTIMISE


Reducing the weight of parts goes a long way to enhancing the performance of a final solution. Take a car as an example, where building-in lightweight components will help to reduce the overall weight of the car, resulting in such benefits as improved performance and better fuel efficiency. But when designing these parts, using software that can also help to ensure their manufacturability will offer huge benefits to designers. According to Siemens, additive manufacturing


is changing the way products are both designed and manufactured, and its NX software is benefitting this process. Enabling users to ‘deliver better products faster and more efficiently’, this provides design, simulation and manufacturing solutions, while supporting every aspect of product development – from concept design through engineering and manufacturing. NX is a toolset that will help to streamline the process – from initial design to final product. Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM): The


additive manufacturing suite of software helps to take care of the whole design to manufacturing process. The company goes on to explain that additive manufacturing is changing the way products are designed as well as how they are manufactured. Using NX enables the user to design lightweight metal or plastic components, while validation checkers then ensure these can be manufactured successfully using additive manufacturing methods by helping to identify if, for example, specific areas need more support, or if there may be assembly issues, etc. A number of additive manufacturing methods


can be used: Hybrid additive - directed energy deposition; Multi-axis - fused deposition modelling; Power bed fusion - Laser material fusion; and Multi-jet fusion – agent jetting/inkjet technology. Ensuring part manufacturability helps to validate the product before it is manufactured. This helps to


BUILD


A suite of software tools from Siemens that enable the user to design, optimise and then build using additive manufacturing methods is offering benefits when it comes to producing lightweight parts


avoid the costs of having to re-design a product that, once manufactured, is found to be inadequate. Another beneficial feature of NX is Algorithmic


Patterning – or the ability to create Lattice Structures which help to ensure the parts meet performance requirements while also reducing their weight. According to the company, NX enables lightweight components to be produced without compromising on their structural integrity. It states: ‘The integrated lattice tool makes it easy to embed lattice structures inside of a solid part or incorporate them as part of an overall design. The lattices are complex geometry represented as facets, which can then be modified and changed directly using Convergent Modelling technology’. Put, simply, removing any material this is unnecessary for the part will reduce its weight. One company that has seen


the benefits is EDAG Group, a tier one supplier to the automotive industry. One of the company’s


projects was the development of a lightweight aluminium space frame for OEMs. Using the NX tools, the company was able to not only design the product but also analyse it, enabling it to optimise and then adapt the design, before planning and eventually manufacturing it. Of further benefit, NX for Additive Manufacturing


tools such as ‘Realise Shape’ enable the user to improve the appearance of a design; and it is also possible to check, for example, whether the design will fit in the printers build tray, and how much support material is needed. ‘Supporting every aspect of product development,


from concept design through engineering and manufacturing, NX gives you an integrated toolset that coordinates disciplines, preserves data integrity and design intent, and streamlines the entire process’, the company concludes.


Siemens PLM www.plm.automation.siemens.com


engineers know, the process of importing CAD data and optimising it for VR/AR in a real-time 3D environment is far from easy. In fact, many shy away from even attempting it due to time constraints. I’ve had designers tell me CAD import and optimisation can take over 70% of the time they have available for a project. That’s 2x more time on a tedious task before they can get to what’s fun and powerful - bringing their model to life and experiencing it in VR/AR. Part of this time issue comes from the


fact that comprehensive data preparation tools for importing a CAD model into a real-time 3D environment aren’t readily available. Instead, design engineers have to rely on a fragmented set of plug-ins and applications that often don’t play well with one another. Then, once a model has finally been imported and optimised into a 3D environment, a simple alteration such as a colour or sizing change requires the whole process to begin again. For product and component design,


visualising a model in 3D, especially an interactive model, is an incredibly powerful way of boosting the creative process. For example, a design engineer can model a car, then import controls, lights and interactive systems to easily visualise how these will interact with the rest of the model, and address any potential issues ahead of prototyping. Prospective customers, dealers or salespeople will also be able to give feedback. You can therefore experience what it’s


like to be in the car without needing to fully build it. That means you can test everything from the light switches to the ergonomics of the centre stack, and make changes, all in real-time.


REAL-TIME REALITIES Fortunately for the design community, real-time 3D CAD manipulation is arriving now. Newly released solutions on the market today can optimise models with tens of millions of polygons into 3D environments where they can be easily and quickly interacted with. What would have taken hours or even days can take just minutes or even seconds. This frees up engineers from the tedious


tasks of CAD import and optimisation, allowing them to experiment and iterate, with no penalty on time or resource. This is already fundamentally changing the way products are designed, making


22 SEPTEMBER 2018 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS / DESIGNSOLUTIONS


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