January 9, 2004Companies that make industrial equipment may be small when compared with the automotive, aerospace, and consumer-product giants. However, industrial machine makers constitute one of the larger markets for CAD systems. That's because each machine needs a lot of engineering. Each order is generally customized to a particular customer's specifications.
This series of three articles is intended to help engineers and managers make informed, rational decisions when buying CAD systems for designing industrial equipment. Industrial equipment builders have many needs in common that are not shared with makers of transportation equipment or consumer products. Consequently, CAD system shoppers can limit their selection criteria to a subset of CAD-system capabilities. However, the needs of commercial equipment manufacturers also vary greatly. For example, makers of industrial pumps and turbines for electric utilities have more demanding technical requirements than firms making fat-rendering systems for the food industry. Consequently, no one CAD/CAM system is right for every firm.
Industrial equipment characteristics
Industrial machinery consists largely of stationary equipment to serve other businesses although some products that move such as agricultural, construction, and mining machinery, may be included in the group. Industrial machinery generally excludes most types of vehicles such as cars, trucks, airplanes, missiles, and ships.
Industrial machinery varies widely in its size, cost, and purpose. However, from the engineer’s perspective, industrial systems share common characteristics that bear on CAD-system selection. These usually include:
- high part count
- low unit-volume production
- a combination of purchased and shop-fabricated custom parts
- appearance and styling less important than function
- low weight important for saving cost but not critical to product function
- aerodynamics important only for certain components, such as turbine and pump impellers
Selection criteria
The characteristics to evaluate when choosing a three-D CAD system differ from those that are important to buyers of two-D CAD systems. The main purpose of a three-D system is not to make drawings faster. Instead it is to build a complete and unambiguous model that assures the equipment will fit together properly and function as intended. Consequently, for three-D design, managers should examine the following characteristics:
- the efficiency with which three-D parts and assemblies can be modeled and revised.
- the availability of ancillary applications for structural analysis, dynamic simulation, NC programming, inspection, etc.
- the time and cost required to train users.
- support infrastructure available for training, R&D process redesign, and design-automation programming.
- capabilities for preparing drawings by projecting three-D models onto drawing sheets.
- availability of tools for managing three-D design and analytical data.
- total cost of ownership.
- reliability.
- financial strength and commitment of the software supplier.
A detailed discussion of each of these criteria follows.
Part-modeling efficiency
Most of today's solid-modeling systems employ dimension-driven features resembling those pioneered by Parametric Technology's Pro/Engineer in the late 1980s. Individual machine parts are designed by sketching a two-dimensional profile of a “base feature” and then extruding, sweeping, or revolving the profile to make a solid volume. Additional features, such as holes or protrusions, are added to the part by sketching their profiles and adding or subtracting material from the base feature. Because sketching is such an important part of three-D design, potential customers should compare the sketch tools available with any solid-modeling system.
Read more...
- Sketch tools
- Feature-creation tools
- Configurable parts
- Realistic rendering
- Data Import
- More to come
The full article is available for a fee at
