3D-Enabled

Who’s served by 3D? Mainly the product designers: highly-specialized CAD operators using a parametric modeling system like Pro/ENGINEER®, SolidWorks®, CATIA®, NX®, or Inventor®. Parametric modelers use variables to dene model geometry (‘the diameter of this hole is 0.75 inches’) and relationships (‘the hole is centered on this face’). If a variable parameter is changed, the model updates accordingly. In this way, a parametric modeler embodies the original design criteria. A parametric modeler is ‘smart’—recording design intent during the modeling process and facilitating modications—and it has become the de facto standard for mechanical design.You may already have experienced a downside to parametric models: they become cumbersome to change. As the model gets more dened, the relationships become tangled, and the model becomes overly constrained. If you try to change one parameter, all sorts of other unexpected changes may result because of those tangled relationships. Even minor changes can require a detailed understanding of both the native authoring tool and the product model itself, rendering the model ‘view-only’ to everyone but the original designer. Think of a complicated Excel spreadsheet, overwhelmed with cross-references and formulas. It may be perfect for the nancial analyst who created it, but it’s almost impossible for anyone else to predict or validate what will happen when a formula is modied.
PARAMETRIC MODEL WITH DIMENSIONS SHOWN

Underserved by 3D

Who’s not beneting from 3D modeling? Most of the extended development team: those responsible for downstream functions from manufacturing to eld engineering, as well as upstream functions involved in conceptual design and engineering. It should be noted that many individuals in this group do employ 3D automation tools: CNC for manufacturing or Fea software packages for analysis, for example. But those individuals aren’t working with the original 3D design model. The manufacturing engineer who needs to add draft to the model for manufacturability and the analysis engineer who needs to remove all rounds before meshing would get their jobs done more easily if only they could work directly with the original model. But they can’t because the design model and the software used to create it are too complex.The design review process is another area that could benet from a broader use of 3D. When a view-only product model is projected on a screen for review in a graphic display format, such as JT, there’s no ability for review participants to ex the model or directly make changes in real-time. The feedback loop is typically 2D or in text (which are error-prone and inecient), and it’s left to the designer to sort it out and manually update the model. This disconnect results in an over dependency on CAD specialists, who wish that others could communicate with them more eectively by using 3D. 3D Rising: Engineers harnessing the full power of 3D

3