The SolidWorks Blog

Q&A: Keeping up with the U.S. Department of Defense Design Requirements

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has implemented a standard practice called MIL-STD-31000, that requires proper technical documentation to build, repair and maintain critical tools and equipment. I spoke with Rich Eckenrode, president of RECON Services Incorporated, Ed Miller, senior client executive, Federal at SolidWorks, and Yannick Chaigneau, senior territory technical manager at SolidWorks, to discuss the DoD’s initiative to require that technical data packages leverage 3D CAD models to store and provide specifications for individual components and product assemblies for procured products. These specifications will enable buyers to access product manufacturing information, technical manuals and cost estimation details throughout the product’s entire lifecycle.  Below are some excerpts from my interview.

How has model-based engineering evolved?

Eckenrode: Drawing standards have changed dramatically over just the last 20 years; tolerances applied are being looked at differently; quality assurance planning and practice has changed. In the early stages of CAD technology, the 2D drawings were still the master even though they were derivative of the 3D CAD models. Then software allowed designers to create 3D annotations called Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) inside the 3D model. This led to Model Based Definition (MBD) and Model Based Enterprise (MBE) which allows the 3D annotations to be reused in manufacturing plans and documentation such as maintenance manuals.

What is Model Based Definition (MBD)?

Eckenrode: MBD is a 3D annotated model and its associated data elements that fully provide the product definition in a manner that can be used effectively by all downstream customers in place of a traditional 2D drawing. The types of information it conveys includes GD&T, component level materials, assembly level bills of materials, engineering configurations, design intent, etc.

Model Based Enterprise (MBE) is a fully integrated and collaborative environment founded on 3D product definition detail and shared across the enterprise; to enable rapid, seamless, and affordable deployment of products from concept to disposal.

Why is the DoD adopting MBD/MBE?

Miller: The Technical Data Packages (TDP) used by the suppliers to document product specifications traditionally consisted of a 2D model which did not track or include all the data needed throughout a product’s lifecycle. 3D models help visualize all dimensions of a specific project and include assembly instructions, maintenance and repair information.  This saves engineering time and reduces manufacturing errors. MBD is also part of ASME Y14.41 and has already been adopted by industries like aerospace, automotive, defense and medical, and continues to grow.

Eckenrode: Many weapons platforms used by the DoD have lifecycles of 50, 90, and in the case of the Browning machine gun, more than 100 years. When trying to repair older systems, missing or incomplete TDPs can cause users to spend extra time and money re-designing a model. In some cases, potential suppliers decided not to bid on projects if they were not sure whether they could produce all the parts or satisfy modern manufacturing requirements and quality controls due to antiquated or ambiguous 2D information.

Chaigneau: Today we also have the technology that allows us to take advantage of the 3D technical data in new ways. Models can also be used for rapid prototyping and CNC, which can help reduce manufacturing errors. People can now access 3D from mobile devices, and in some cases the data can also be manipulated (zoom, rotate) to get different perspectives.

How does SolidWorks help comply with DoD’s initiative to provide full transparency into design components?

Chaigneau: Using SolidWorks, customers can create models that have MBD in the form of 3D annotations. The 3D model provides the government or any company with engineering, manufacturing, or inspection practices that contain or utilize CAD data, with information that can be reused throughout the product’s lifecycle in applications like manufacturing planning and documentation, and technical manuals.

Designing with SolidWorks solutions makes it easier for users to extract information to comply with the government’s regulations, while increasing opportunities for suppliers. If the government requests quotations with an MBD format, SolidWorks users have the ability to easily share TPD for an accurate cost estimate. Tools like SolidWorks eDrawings, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and SolidWorks Composer help users visualize various aspects of a specific project.  Solidworks also a number of 3^rd party solutions partners to support the MBE philosophy.

More information is available at:

• www.mel.nist.gov/msid/sima/mbe/2010/MIL-STD-310000.pdf
• http://model-based-enterprise.org/default.aspx

View and Annotate SolidWorks Files Anywhere with eDrawings Viewer

Imagine this scenario: you’re working from home and a team member asks to you to review their product designed in SolidWorks. You do not have access to your work computer, which has SolidWorks, but you need to provide feedback quickly to keep the design process moving. How do you view the file?

Thankfully, SolidWorks has a FREE solution to help you out. The eDrawings Viewer allows you to open eDrawings files, get dimensions, and collaborate with others by using the mark-up capability. This means you can annotate the design on the spot and share your thoughts with your team without worrying about working remotely.

The eDrawings Viewer is easy to download – you can find it on the SolidWorks homepage under the Products tab. Just click on Free CAD Tools: the second item on the page is the eDrawings Viewer. To download, just click “Download eDrawings Viewer FREE” and, presto, you’re done!

To see if the program installed correctly, check out some cool designs from our customers Donn McKinney and Teversham Engineering.

Replicating History: Teversham Engineering's Project to Rebuild the First Computer using SolidWorks

Today’s computers are lightning fast – they can enable you to do anything from communicating with your team remotely to performing complex calculations to improve your designs. Since its invention, the computer has helped scientists solve complex problems. Teversham Engineering in the United Kingdom is using SolidWorks to recreate digital technology of the past – the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, used by researchers at Cambridge University. As part of the EDSAC project, Teversham is building an authentic replica of one of the most important early British digital computers, originally designed in 1947 and built in 1949.

Using one surviving chassis, Teversham Engineering was able to record the original dimensions and remodel the computer in SolidWorks with ease.  Through the production of the replica in SolidWorks, Teversham has seen how powerful and adaptable computing has become since the 1940’s.

SolidWorks eDrawings has enabled engineers to share designs for sign-off. Through the email-enabled software, project volunteers have instant access to the dynamic 3D models, which they can rotate, zoom and annotate.

“Many volunteers are especially interested in the visual look of the replica – does it look like the original photographs? Seeing their excitement as they passed the iPad around the table was great to see”, said Alan Willis, Managing Director at Teversham Engineering.

Check out Teversham’s eDrawings designs of the EDSAC replica to see how far we’ve come in terms of digital technology.

Don't have eDrawings? You can download it from our website.

Download Teversham Engineering EDSAC eDrawings

Download Teversham Engineering EDSAC Chassis eDrawings

The Final Frontier: How Copenhagen Suborbitals Took Off with SolidWorks

It’s no mistake that a New York Times headline from last September read "Space Tourism is Here". While the human race has already reached the final frontier, the majority of people have probably never ventured into space, let alone traveled beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. With the recent upspring of private companies focused on building crafts for human space flight and new developments in technologies and composite materials, SolidWorks has been able to lend a hand towards helping companies like Copenhagen Suborbitals.

Designing an open-source manned space rocket and capsule for suborbital space flight, Copenhagen Suborbitals believes that the sky is the limit, quite literally. Eager to share his story, Kristian von Bengtson, founder of Copenhagen Suborbitals, blogs regularly for Wired magazine. Some of you SolidWorks fans may even notice that his models and simulations are pulled from our software.

Using SolidWorks Professional, SolidWorks Premium, and SolidWorks Flow Simulation, Copenhagen Suborbitals has built the capsule geometry, exported the drawings for laser cutting, and conducted FEM analysis of structures to see if they meet flight requirements. SolidWorks, combined with sketching capabilities, is one of the most important tools in the early research and development phase and the production phases of von Bengtson’s project.

Copenhagen Suborbitals has used eDrawings to share new designs and get ideas from others. To see the latest capsule design, you can download it here: Download Copenhagen Suborbitals capsule in eDrawings. Feel free to offer your own suggestions, if you would like via the eDrawings file.

Designing a Standing Desk with SolidWorks

Are you spending most of your day sitting in front of the computer? Does your back, neck and rear end get tired? Or maybe you’ve noticed the weigh scale slowly creep higher and higher. Over the years of technological advancement, we’ve become more efficient, more productive and more lazy. From a health perspective, sitting all day is horrible for the human body. There are many different studies that show how our sedentary lifestyles are affecting our wellness. Here is one article with a poignant message about how sitting is killing us (http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/sitting-kills/).

So as I’m at a computer 8 hours a day, I try to keep moving as much as possible. Get up and walk to a garbage can, walk for 1/2hr at lunch, bike to work, etc. But what about the time sitting in front of the monitor? How about working from a standing position! There are many models of stand-up desks out there but I had some criteria. It must work in my existing cubicle space, it must be adjustable so I can sit or stand (depending on my mood) and it must be cheap. I didn’t really find anything out there on the market.

Therefore it was time to turn to the Javelin solution. A custom-made standing desk contraption using SolidWorks 3D CAD to assist with the design, eDrawings app for the iPad for detailed drawings in the production shop (my apartment balcony), and the Stratasys Objet 30 rapid prototype 3D printer to create a monitor mount adapter.

I did end up buying an adjustable monitor mount with a quick release lever for raising and lowering my monitor. This makes it easy to switch from sitting to standing to sitting.

But there was a problem.  The mounting bracket featured the standard Vesa hole pattern of 75mm x 75mm or 100mm x 100mm. But my monitor only had mounting holes at 200mm x 100mm. Sure there were adapters available but what’s the fun in that!

Time to design a bracket and make sure it all fits properly.

And why not create a prototype on the Objet printer. I wonder if the prototype would be strong enough to work? Let’s run a Simulation study using the yield properties of the Objet materials.

This may actually work!  Displacement was only about 0.13mm and we have a factor of safety at 2.71. Time to print!

Well would you look at that… fits like a glove.

So that finishes the monitor mount. But how do we raise and lower the keyboard and mouse.  Can’t really have a permanent fixture because I like the current height of the desk when I’m sitting. Plus there really isn’t much room. How about a collapsible “tv tray” stand?

Fully collapsible for easy storage…

Alright, time to build this thing. If only I had a workshop in my small apartment. The balcony will do. I’m a big fan of producing less waste so I sent my models and detailed drawings to my iPad and opened them up in eDrawings. This is a great little app that works on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. And there’s two versions to choose from, eDrawings and eDrawings Pro.  Be sure to grab them from the App Store!

Everything looks good in my SolidWorks model. Perfect height and minimum space required.

And the finished project works great! You’ll see my head popping up above the walls several hours a day…

 

Donn McKinney’s U.S.S. Missouri Propelling Forward with eDrawings

Since 2011, when we first featured Donn McKinney’s U.S.S Missouri project, our friend Donn has further progressed in his work. To give some background to those of you who are unfamiliar with Donn’s project, Donn, a fan of World War II-era US battleships, is currently building a fully operational virtual replica of the U.S.S. Missouri in collaboration with the U.S. Navy. Using the replica, he plans to examine the boat’s functionality.

To show us some of his work, Donn converted his models into eDrawings files. And here’s the best part: you can view them too! Click here for a full download: Download Donn McKinneys Models in eDrawings. If you don’t have eDrawings already, you will need to download it to view his spectacular model from all 360 degrees.

Donn was very eager to convert his models into eDrawings files because they’re much easier to share and are generally smaller than SolidWorks files. In fact, using eDrawings for iOS, you can share models with customers, friends, or family using your iPhone or iPad. With eDrawings' new augmented reality feature, Donn can even see how the replica would look in his house!

Donn has realized numerous possibilities with the eDrawings software propelling his efforts forward. Do you have any stories about how you have used eDrawings?

Now available: eDrawings for iOS with Augmented Reality

We've all been there. Your manager or customer has been looking at 3D images of your latest product design for months on your computer.  But when the first prototype is put on the table in front of them, they say something like "Are you sure that's the right size, because it looked smaller on the computer screen."  And since you're on the verge of releasing the design to tooling, you mentally scramble to figure out a way to avoid redoing several weeks worth of work.

How does this happen?  You've been sharing the design with them the entire time.  So how could they perceive it so differently?

When you think about it, whether you're designing a watch or a motorcycle, everything ends up being the same size on your computer screen.  We zoom-to-fit to maximize our work space, and there is usually no visual reference on the screen to help us correctly perceive size.  So we're not certain of a product's actual size until we have a physical model that we can compare to other objects in the real world.

Wouldn't it be great if you could take your design and put a virtual model of it on the table right next to you in the room?  That way you could then look at it next to real products, slide and spin it around on the table, and get a complete sense of the product's true size, scale, and proportions.  And what if you could do this at any time in the design process, and as often as you like?

Well, now you can do just that!  We have enhanced eDrawings for iOS to now include Augmented Reality (AR).  I will let the two videos below do most of the talking, but here are a few noteworthy points:

• AR is available in both the Standard and Professional versions of eDrawings for iPad and iPhone
• It lets everyone on the design team see your product at full scale so its true size is obvious to everyone. Customers who have previewed this have told us that this will be a great sales tool when promoting their own products to their customers
• You can use Configurations to load an entire product line in eDrawings, and then use AR to place any specific product variation on the table in front of your customer

I came across a real Holmatro spreader in the Partner Pavilion at SolidWorks World 2013 in Orlando. It turns out we are using that product as one of our eDrawings sample files.

eDrawings for iOS with Augmented Reality is now available in the Apple App Store.  If you previously purchased eDrawings for your iOS device, just update it in iTunes to get this new capability.

eDrawings Standard

eDrawings Professional

 

eDrawings is now available for the iPhone

Earlier this year we released eDrawings for iPad, followed soonafter by eDrawings Pro for iPad. But here's another update. Both apps are now universal iOS apps, which means they will both work on the iPhone and/or iPad. Even better, if you already bought one of the iPad apps, you can now use it on your iPhone as well.

eDrawings® for iOS allows you to view and review native eDrawings® files, DraftSight® files, SolidWorks® parts, assemblies and drawings files, making it easy for engineers and non-engineers to interpret and understand 2D and 3D design using multi-touch gestures.

CP Manufacturing: Efficient Engineering and Recycling Manufacturing

As recycled materials become the new norm in many paper and plastic products, an efficient recycling facility is key for managing the influx of recycled items. CP Manufacturing designs plants that divide paper, plastic, rubber and all sorts of recyclables through a series of automated processes that separate material by type. To streamline and accelerate the development of waste management centers and equipment, CP Manufacturing enlisted the SolidWorks Professional, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and 3DVIA Composer.

Using SolidWorks design, analysis,product data management, and technical communications solutions, CP Manufacturing has accelerated the development and improved the quality of its recycling plants.

CP Manufacturing, the leading innovator in the waste management and recycling equipment industry, has built more than 400 Material Recovery Facilities since its foundation in 1977. To accelerate development and shorten the design-to-operation cycle, CP moved to SolidWorks 3D solutions. Since its switch to SolidWorks Professional, CP has cut its design time in half and reduced design errors. Using SolidWorks, the manufacturer has more accurate designs that accelerate release to manufacturing and cut the release cycle from up to two weeks to a day.

To further streamline development, CP also uses SolidWorks Enterprise PDM solutions thereby automating workflow and eliminating paper from the document management process. eDrawings has also helped CP replace paper drawings with electronic sketches for review, redlining and approval, thus allowing the company’s Engineering department to go 100 percent paperless. To complete CP’s usage of SolidWorks product suite, the manufacturer also uses 3DVIA Composer to automate the production of its user manuals and creat high-quality images for sales presentation collateral.

By automating the design process and increasing manufacturing efficiency, CP Manufacturing not only creates recycling plants but also does its part to keep this planet green. To learn more about how CP Manufacturing implements SolidWorks solutions for a greener Earth, read the case study.

eDrawings Pro for iPad is available now!

You may recall that we released eDrawings for iPad earlier this year, which lets you view and review native eDrawings® files, DraftSight® files, SolidWorks® parts, assemblies and drawings files. But some of you have been asking us to expand the feature set, and include some of the capabilities found in the desktop version of eDrawings Professional.

So today, we're happy to announce the availability of eDrawings Pro for iPad. Some of the new capabilities include dynamic cross section views, measurements, markups and annotations, and the unique ability to share it all by email.

With a brand new intuitive user interface and improved performance, eDrawings® Pro for iPad enables you to dynamically view cross sections of your models in XY, YZ, or ZX directions from both sides and easily drag the cross section plane on screen or with a convenient slider. You can also measure distances in your designs, with easy-to-use selection filters for faces, edges, vertices, and holes.

With eDrawings® Pro for iPad you can create markups on your drawings, including text notes, freehand notations, dimensions, cross-section views, photos, and camera snapshots. You can share your marked up eDrawings files with others for review and further comments. All markups with history are saved within the eDrawings file.

Features:

• New intuitive and easy-to-use user interface
• Significant performance improvements for opening, viewing, and interacting with all types of models
• Open 3D (EASM, EPRT, SLDASM, SLDPRT), 2D (EDRW, SLDDRW, DWG, DXF), and associated files from any source: email attachments, cloud storage services (Dropbox™, Google Drive™, SkyDrive®, YouSendIt®, and others), email, web and FTP sites, networks, and iTunes® File Sharing
• Zoom, pan, and rotate your 3D and 2D CAD data using multi-touch
• Browse your assembly components tree, model configurations and drawing sheets
• Hide, show, or make components transparent
• Select View mode: standard orthogonal views, shaded with edges, perspective view
• Play animated 3D standard views as well as 2D drawing views
• View your designs in full screen and double tap to fit it on screen
• Double tap zooms to drawing views
• Markup your designs and send to others, and read others’ markups
• Measure your design data
• View cross sections of your 3D designs
• Sample files included

eDrawings Pro is available now for download on the Apple App Store. Regular price is $9.99, but it will only be $4.99 for the next 30 days. Download it today.