Thursday, July 31, 2008

Some Typical Problems Faced Using 2D?

What are some typical problems faced using 2D? With 2D drawings, engineers and manufacturing personnel have to interpret or visualise flat 2D drawing as a 3D assembly. At times, interpreting 2D drawings results in misinterpretation of the engineer’s original design intent, leading to delays .

The design and manufacturing process is needlessly extended as all these processes analysis , prototyping, stereolithography, manufacturing , fabrication and assembly - require 3D solid geometry. Additional time is required to manage and recreate design data. (Vice-president , Asia Pacific Operations, SolidWorks Corporation)

Thursday, July 24, 2008

benefits of using 3D solid modeling

What are the biggest benefits for using 3D solid modeling to create new products?
Solid modeling is the unambiguous representation of the solid parts of an object, that is, models of solid objects suitable for computer processing. Primary uses of solid modeling are for CAD, engineering analysis, computer graphics and animation , rapid prototyping, medical testing, product visualisation and visualisation of scientific research. Solid modeling software creates a virtual 3D representation of components for machine design and analysis.

Interface with the human operator is highly optimised and includes programmable macros, keyboard shortcuts and dynamic model manipulation. The ability to dynamically re-orient the model, in real-time shaded 3-D , is emphasised and helps the designer maintain a mental 3-D image.

The productivity gains from 3D CAD software can increase a manufacturer’s competitiveness. Solid modeling shortens design cycles, streamlines manufacturing processes and accelerates product introductions by improving the sharing of product design information and communication throughout an organisation, as well as among its suppliers and customers .

Faster time-to-market and higher quality products translate into increased revenue, while reduced design costs provide larger profit margin. Engineers benefit from improved handling and visualisation of design data, leading to greater design innovation, testing and confidence. (writen by Vice-president , Asia Pacific Operations, SolidWorks Corporation)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The AutoCAD Resource

CADTutor delivers very good free tutorials and articles for AutoCAD, 3ds Max and associated applications along with a friendly AutoCAD forum and an AutoCAD FAQ. If you need to learn AutoCAD, the site is the right choice:http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/index.php

Friday, July 11, 2008

Various types of anonymous blocks in AutoCAD

AutoCAD drawing database (DWG) can contain various types of anonymous (unnamed) blocks. The pseudo-names of anonymous blocks always start with an asterisk "*". You normally cannot use AutoCAD block editing commands with anonymous blocks. Examples of anonymous blocks:

*U### - general anonymous blocks
*E### - anonymous blocks from non-uniformly scaled blocks - when exploded (e.g. solids, regions)
*D### - anonymous dimensions (dim blocks)
*X### - anonymous hatches (hatch blocks)
*A### - anonymous groups
*T### - anonymous blocks in tables AutoCAD add-on applications may create also other types of anonymous blocks.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Making a CAD Standard

The article is is extracted from Dale Batko's article"Understanding CAD Standards": One of the best ways to ensure the productivity of your CAD department is to create and work to a set of CAD standards. Doing so will bring new employees up to speed faster, speed projects to completion with greater accuracy, and facilitate more effective data exchange with clients and collaborating firms.

What Makes a CAD Standard?

As little or as much information as necessary to make CAD work more productive! At the very least, the CAD standard should guide a user through opening existing drawings and plotting them out. This would be enough information to get a new CAD operator up and running on day #1 at the job. A document outlining these steps would be less than one page!

Beyond this, users should know how to effectively edit drawings. This means knowing where the symbol library is located and how to access it, and what "layers" or "levels" drawing information should be placed on. It would also help if the CAD user knew what customizations have been done to the system, because not all companies set up software the same way. Documenting this may take several pages.

A well thought out CAD standard would also include information on how to set up new projects and drawings, and show steps for exchanging CAD data with clients and other companies. There may also be a FAQ section to help users with troubleshooting their CAD systems. Appendices may also be included to impart additional information to the CAD users in a way that does not detract from the overall focus.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

How to Select CAD Software

There are many CAD software, but how to select a right one? The article is from "World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education" :

Three different models for choosing CAD software are presented here. The most desirable is the scientific model based on a systematic assessment using objective measures. However, one lesson from history is that this approach is costly to implement when the technology changes rapidly.

The second approach to select CAD software is to use the reviews of experts in journals and trade magazines. These are usually very subjective but are up-to-date, and reveal important information about the functionality, cost and availability of the latest software and its upgrades. The reviews also reveal information about adoptions, that is, about the assessments of others who commit resources to it.

The third approach to select CAD tools is the stakeholder model and this is the one most used by the College in the past although trade publications are certainly followed.