5 Things You Need To Know About IHS & Aras

Aras recently announced their partnership with IHS to connect the IHS cloud-based CAPS Universe Electronic Component Data into their PLM platform for component engineering of new products and systems. What does this mean for you? It means you can quickly find the right parts, compare electronic details, part availability and more right from within your PLM environment. Here’s what you need to know:

1. IHS CAPS Universe is the leading electronic component database containing part-attribute data and documentation on hundreds of millions of parts from more than 2000 manufacturers worldwide.
2. You will be able to seamlessly and securely access IHS CAPS Universe data with powerful analytics from within Aras. 
3. With up-to-date information you will be able to make better decisions from initial design through production and beyond. 
4. Improved innovation, productivity and compliance with component information integrated directly into the PLM workflow. 
5. You will reduce risk and improve component lifecycle planning with automatic product change notices, counterfeit alerts, end-of-life forecasts and more.

Change Management: One Size Will Never Fit All

Change management is the toughest thing inside of PLM. It's also the most important. How important? It's about the patient not dying, the plane not crashing, the missile landing where it is supposed to. You get the idea.

Take safety out of the equation, and enterprise change management is where companies can lose all their profit margin. It's as simple as ordering a truck load of the wrong parts, choosing a "fix" that isn't cost-effective, taking too long to make a change, or making a change that engineering wanted but didn't make sense to manufacturing and/or the customer.

Real change management goes beyond the instruction to make the change and answers the questions: Who ran the cost numbers on the change? Who validated the change? Approved it? Does the customer agree with the change? If you're regulated, how about the FDA?

If all you're managing is MCAD files, you've got things like tooling and fixtures with a slow steady rate of change. You'd be hard pressed to manage all that manually, but you might be able to get by with a PDM system.

Add in electronics and the rate of change quickens. There's no tooling, so you can send a circuit board change to your contract manufacturer today and tomorrow your circuit boards are coming out different.

Now add software, where you have firmware changes happening daily, even hourly, and they're being cut into the units on the shop floor on the fly. You literally have continuous change.

How do you harmonize that into your build process for real products?

There are quite a few PDM / PLM companies that would like there to be one standard out of the box change process. Not because it's good for their customers, but because it makes their lives as software developers easier. It's infinitely harder to create a system that implements the customer's change process correctly and fast.

Many of these providers offer only linear workflows. The problem is I've never seen a company with a linear workflow. They're always branching, looping and doubling back on themselves. That's a real customer process for getting a change validated and then communicated out to the organization. It's not simple. It's probably the hardest thing to get right in PLM.

These vendors will tell you their systems are based on "industry best practices". The fact is there is no such thing as the best change process. The "best" really depends on the company, their customers, their product lines, their compliance mandates, etc.

Aras is the first PLM solution with a whole series of out of the box options for change management. We're also the first PLM company honest enough to tell you that there's no silver bullet and you shouldn't expect to use any of them without optimizing for your specific process requirements.

They're not hard coded system solutions, they're application templates. We've captured change processes from different industry standards - aerospace, automotive, high tech, consumer products, FDA, etc. We have 3 that come in the initial Aras install today. We might have 5 or 10 a year from now. It's a matter of creating accelerators to help companies with specific practices.

What makes Aras unique is that we've taken the business rule behaviors of change workflows and driven them down into the core of our platform so you can implement a secure, validated, very fast change process that is unique for your business then, typical Aras, we ensure that it is upgradeable and we do the upgrades for you.

In the real world, a company may be running 3 different change management processes under a single umbrella. The software guys may be operating at an entirely different pace than the team working on hardware, with their own rules and different workflow. With Aras, there's one system level change process that incorporates everything and keeps the configurations correct.

Get to Know Your Change Management Options

Change. It's inevitable. Products across all industries undergo change for a variety of reasons, everything from product improvement, to compliance and changes in customer requirements.

So what's the big deal about change? Well, if it's not managed properly it can lead to longer development cycles, miscommunication which leads to inaccuracies in production, higher costs and more. And with today's increasingly complex products, change is almost continuous.

That's where Product Change Management comes in.

At Aras, we start you off with three out-of-the-box change management templates: Simple ECO, CMII Change and Express ECO. All are easily configurable to better fit your needs. And if none of them work for you, don't worry, you can create a custom change process.

To figure out which change management option is right for you, watch this video where Rob McAveney, Director of Product Management, goes into the business reasons behind choosing simple and CMII change.

And to learn more about your out of the box change management options.

An intuitive web-based shop floor work instructions solution

The quest is still on to find the most efficient way to provide work instructions to the shop floor. After all, we all know the problems associated with paper based, uncontrolled work instructions. They are not always clear, accessible or accurate. Evidently the answer is to rely on IT systems to create, publish and manage shop floor work instructions. However, there is always a debate about what kind of IT system is most suitable for managing work instructions.

First option is to install a dedicated work instructions software packgage capable of managing 2D/3D product and process data. In most cases, these dedicated systems are quite useful for managing work instruction templates, presenting visual data and making sure that shop floor workers have easy access to the system. However, they lack the ability to ensure that product design and manufacturing information are all interconnected. They cannot give manufacturers the confidence that the work instructions are always current and up to date.

The second option is to manage work instruction using the ERP and MES systems. It is true that MES and ERP systems are enterprise platforms, and they are capable of resolving data associativity issues, but traditionally they lack the ability to provide rich process instructions with 2D/3D data and animated steps to the shop floor.

The third option is to manage the work instructions as part of the PLM platform. This allows manufacturers to verify that work instructions are always up to date with the latest product and process data. In addition, because of access to the CAD data, PLM systems are much better equipped to present 2D/3D visual data in the work instructions.

For our manufacturing customers, we have recently launched a new way of accessing work instruction at the shop floor. The Teamcenter Electronic Work Instruction (EWI) solution is a web-based application that helps manufacturers communicate all manufacturing process information, including process steps, 2D/3D visuals, markups, standard texts and PMI information to the shop floor.

EWI is especially developed by keeping in mind the daily tasks and processes of shop floor workers. Shop floor workers can access the work instructions using an easy to navigate and intuitive user interface. You will find that the EWI user interface has a touch based navigation optimized for mobile devices, and it’s lightweight architecture ensures it doesn’t take significant computing resources of the device.

Most importantly, EWI is directly connected to the Teamcenter database. Therefore, any time there is a change in product design or manufacturing process, it can be immediately reflected at the shop floor. Watch the below video and learn how Teamcenter EWI can help you manage work instructions documents and allow your shop floor employees to have easy access to up to date process steps.

Standard Time Management in Teamcenter

You might be surprised to learn that according to estimates 90% of all manufacturing activities are non-value added. Non-value activities for which we know customers are not willing to pay us when we sell our products. Therefore, the idea behind lean manufacturing is to remove, reduce and streamline non-value activities as much as possible so that we can boost profitability. So imagine the scope for improvements if you know 90% of your manufacturing activities do not add value to the final product.

You can start off by identifying and managing every activity that will be involved in manufacturing the product before you start production. This will certainly give you more visibility to the value added and non-value added activities and allow you to optimize your manufacturing processes more efficiently.

The video also demonstrated the integration between Teamcenter and TiCon®. TiCon is developed by the MTM association, and the software provides work measurement tools to help manufacturers improve operational performance. MTM has standards that describe average time a worker should take to complete certain tasks. The MTM standards are currently used by many leading manufacturers. For example, tasks such as walking and loading parts, installing fixtures, performing maintenance and so on have defined standard times. Manufacturers have used these standard times as guidelines to determine labor costs, cycle time and for overall process management.

With this video you will learn how Teamcenter integration with TiCon will allow you to efficiently reuse the time analysis and optimization already done in TiCon.

FEATURED COMMUNITY SOLUTION: Collaboration Folders

Formerly known as the Item Folder solution, Collaboration Folders is an Aras Community Solution that offers a quick and easy way to organize multi-level folder structures for both files AND items. It's simple, intuitive and very powerful. And it was just updated for Aras Innovator 9.4.

With the Collaboration Folders solution, each folder can list attachments (files) or controlled (related) items such as documents and parts (poly item list). It also enables the creation of folder structures from folder templates. The Multi-level Folder Tree Grid allows dropping files onto folder rows. Users can view, lock and unlock items. You can also add controlled items or sub folders to folder rows. Folder Templates enable the creation of pre-defined folder structures with pre-defined files or controlled items linked. These get copied to folders created from a template. Team Access facilitates collaboration on data managed in folders by allowing access permissions to team members with roles: Manager, Member or, Guest for example. In addition, the entire folder structure or sub structures can have their own "private" teams.

Folder Structure combined with Team Access make this solution an effective way to organize, manage, share and collaborate on attached files and controlled documentation in hierarchical folders with other Aras users over the web. This free solution has been downloaded over a 1000 times already and is being used in production by a wide range of Aras users.

TRUaras - Secure File Exchange

Secure File Exchange leverages Aras's connected cloud capabilities to enable managed file transfer from directly inside Aras Innovator, providing a secure way to transfer files and conduct regular data transactions while adding encryption, tracking and traceability.

Secure File Exchange replaces disconnected multi-step procedures, such as FTP, and non-secure methods, such as email and consumer file sharing sites, to enable users to safely and confidently collaborate from within the Aras PLM environment across the extended enterprise with customers, suppliers, outsourcing partners and contract manufacturers.

TRUaras

TRUaras embeds Trubiquity's advanced managed file transfer (MFT) inside the PLM workflow so that users can securely share and exchange large CAD files, technical data packages, manufacturing data, inspection and test results, and other intellectual property with full tracking and traceability.

TRUaras is ideal for companies that need to exchange large sets of files with suppliers, such as CATIA, Creo and NX assemblies, or for companies that frequently transmit product designs such as PDX files to contract manufacturers.

Secure File Exchange: 

• Powerful - Allows global supply chain partners with thousands of users to securely manage transfers of large, complex sets of files
• Seamless - Embedded in the Aras PLM platform for an integrated user experience and maximum productivity
• Performance - Industry leading transfer speeds with high availability and uptime
• Encryption - Endpoint-to-endpoint security capabilities via authentication and multi-layer encryption including 128-bit SSL, 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and 1024-bit private key
• Traceability - Complete audit trail of all file transfers including the date & time, companies and individuals that conducted file uploads/downloads
• Visibility - Track and monitor file movement in real-time from pending transfer status to post transfer receipt
• Compliance - Support for Odette OFTP2 compliance and export compliance such as ITAR and EAR (Export Administration Regulations)

Configuration Based PLM Implementation

Presently configuration based Software development is highly desirable and demanded by client. PLM products are coming with high level configuration with the aim of reducing the solution cost to client. But in most of cases in PLM domain client have some way or other unique feature which can’t be satisfied with configuration and some customization required to be done. Client prefers to have custom solution developed so that future changes can be incorporated through configuration rather than new implementation and the solution can be reused in similar requirement situation. This can reduce the future cost to them. In this blog I will discuss different way of configuration in Teamcenter and balancing between configurations driven development. As overloaded configuration based implemented may kill the real benefits and increase cost of development and maintenance.

Configuration Driven Implementation:
Configuration driven implementation can be define as development which can incorporate future change of requirement through change in some property or attribute define in a system. Basically it can be said that change can be done without changing the code. So configuration driven implantation laid its foundation at requirement itself, as the constraint of requirement define how much configuration approach can be taken. If the requirement is too specific and unique than configuration approach may be not a good idea. But if requirement is generic enough that configuration driven approach can be taken. For example if requirement presently is to process some logic for specific part type only but it future other part type can also have same business process. Also while doing design of configuration approach it should also be taken in to account whether there is any possibility of change in requirement. For example rarely any Organization changes there Change Management process once develop. Making this solution, too much configuration based may not be sound approach. Also other factor is reusability, usually for example Workflow Handler can be written in such a way that it driven by argument and can be reusable for similar case but with different business object type and status. To summarize this are the three factor which define for going for Configuration approach.

1) Requirement is generic or too specific.
2) Expected change in future.
3) Reusability of implementation.

Configuration based approach in Teamcenter:
In teamcenter you can drive configuration based approach through various means. The main tool which is also use in Product provided Configuration is Preferences. Preferences are internal Teamcenter environment variables store in database. Teamcenter provide various API both at server and client side to access those preferences. One of the advantages of preference based approach is that Teamcenter provide different level of preference control based on Site, Group, role and use. Also access control for edit for preferences is also defined. Hence different configuration can be wisely used . Second approach usually is through Configuration file. We define set of property in specific format which is read by code during runtime. The config file usually help in specific location usually in tcdata directory. This approach has its limitation as specific code to be developed to read and understand the config file. Also it not store in Teamcenter environment. Third approach is used for Workflow Handler development which can be configured by providing argument and its value while designing the Workflow. This approach widely used for making Handler behavior generic enough to be driven by argument. For example Handler can check state of target object type. The object type can be defined in argument.
To summarize different approach Configuration driven implementation in Teamcenter usually can be categorize in three types.

1) Preference based approach.
2) Configuration File based approach.
3) Argument based approach.

Usually implementation is driven by mixed of the above, but most prefer way should be preference based approach.

 Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in

eBOM and mBOM configuration management in Teamcenter

Manufacturing bill-of-materials or mBOM is a configuration of the product to show how it will be assembled. On the other hand, engineering bill-of-materials or eBOM is a configuration of the product to show how it is designed. The ability to connect and manage these two structures together so that whenever there are changes made to the product design it triggers a corresponding change in the manufacturing processes is an essential part of any successful PLM implementation. I guess it doesn’t require lots of explanation how a seamless eBOM and mBOM management process can save you a great deal of time and money. Now we need proof that it is indeed possible to manage eBOM and mBOM in a single software system and check impacts of design change on manufacturing processes. 

Watch the below video and check how Teamcenter can help in bridging the gap between eBOM and mBOM

RASCO Automotive Systems leverages Solid Edge and NX to deliver customized products

A pattern of sustained growth RASCO Automotive Systems Private Limited was originally formed in 1953 as Radiator Supply Company. At that time, it functioned as a retailer of after market copper brass automotive application radiators. “RASCO has evolved into a full-scale supplier and exporter of copper-brass radiators, as well as one of India’s leading automotive engineering design companies,” says

Aman Bir Singh, director, RASCO Automotive Systems. He explains, “The engineering services arm of the company was established in 2005. Over the next five years of business, we became one of the most trusted names in engineering design in the Delhi NCR region.”

The company also was able to realize its growth by providing computer-enabled services for the automotive segment. To facilitate this expansion, RASCO diversified into the computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computer-aided styling (CAS) services business by collaborating with Siemens PLM Software. RASCO uses Siemens’ Solid Edge® software and NX™ software including I-deas™ software) for product development. In addition, RASCO serves as Siemens PLM Software’s channel partner for the aforementioned design and manufacturing systems as well as for its Femap™ software an advanced engineering simulation program that creates finite element analysis models of complex engineering products and systems, and displays solution results.

While RASCO’s product offerings vary, most of its product development business comes from custom product orders. Its CAS services typically cover automotive accessories such as body kits, spoilers and such. Moreover, its product development process has to be extremely flexible since each customer order is often unique and requires a different design deliverable. RASCO also faces increasing time-to-market pressures as new competitors are continuously emerging and offering low rates for delivering similar products.

With these considerations in mind, RASCO decided to transform its product development process. The company focused on achieving more accurate designs in significantly shorter time frames.

Moving to 3D design

The company had been using 2D design software to develop its products. However, with the need to deliver more complex parts and products faster and more efficiently, RASCO management knew it needed to implement 3D technology. To achieve this objective, the company adopted a two-pronged approach, leveraging Solid Edge and NX (and NX I-deas). Solid Edge is primarily used to remodel parametrically over solids generated from NX via white light scanning, and to model sheet metal components, assemblies and fasteners. NX is largely used to convert stereolithography (STL) scan data into nonuniform rational basis splines (NURBS) models and for mold and tooling applications.

“We chose Siemens’ CAD solutions for a variety of reasons, including their ease of use, competitive pricing and excellent support,” says Singh. “Each solution provides distinct price/performance values, so we use the one that we feel gives us the highest return on investment for particular applications. It’s important to note that you can utilize data between Siemens’ CAD systems and maintain associativity. This interoperability is invaluable as changes are automatically maintained between the various CAD models generated by our different design groups.”

Singh explains, “Most of our work starts with reverse engineering – for example, an automotive water pump assembly, which has a housing, shaft, bearing, fasteners, etc. We first scan the housing and convert the data into an STL file, then generate cross sections at various positions of the STL file to get reference data as points or curves. We import this data via IGES (initial graphics exchange specification) into the NX technology and build 3D models using the reference data. Once we have the 3D models, we send them to Solid Edge using Siemens’ Parasolid or as .prt files, as applicable.”

The company uses Solid Edge to remodel the 3D data as parametric models. Singh continues, “Then we make smaller components like shafts and bearings in Solid Edge from drawings, measurements, etc. With all of the components prepared, we assemble them in Solid Edge using Solid Edge libraries to add fasteners. After completing the assembly in 3D using Solid Edge, we generate drafts for individual components and assemblies. In addition, we use Solid Edge extensively for sheet metal applications, such as generating blanks for bent sheet metal components.

For tooling, we employ NX surfacing and Boolean operations, which are excellent. Once extracted, we export the molds to Solid Edge for mold assembly and final checks, and then deliver them to our

clients as IGES files. We use IGES because most of our clients have their own tool rooms and IGES is the format they typically prefer.”

RASCO’s investment in Siemens’ technology has generated impressive results. The design process has significantly improved as the company’s development teams are now able to produce far more accurate designs. Designers are able to more quickly identify and resolve problems, as well as to make better design decisions. This translates into higher quality products. In terms of speed, Singh notes the difference is dramatic, “Our design cycle is up to 50 percent faster.”

Singh adds, “With Siemens’ tools, our designers are now communicating far more effectively with each other, especially relative to design intent. And we are now communicating with our customers completely digitally. The whole product development process means not just faster and better, but ultimately, it means enhanced customer relationships and more business.”

Business challenges: Delivering customized products for each client order Facing new competitors who deliver products at highly aggressive prices Need for faster product design/development processes

Keys to success: Ability to design complex 3D parts easily and in less time Accurate designs needed for delivering high quality products

Results: Reduced design time by leveraging 3D to easily find and fix design problems Eliminated design errors by delivering more accurate drawings Improved decision making, which resulted in improved product quality Improved customer satisfaction by delivering final 3D design output faster

About Company: RASCO Automotive Systems is an engineering service provider that offers automotive styling, machine design, reverse engineering and CAD/CAM services to the automotive and machinery industries. www.rascoauto.com

New Teamcenter Rapid Start Speeds Product Data Management Deployment; Streamlines Product Development

Teamcenter Rapid Start Helps Businesses Quickly Realize the Benefits of PDM - Siemens introduces the next generation of easy to deploy product data management (PDM) based on Teamcenter® software and designed to streamline the product development process by enabling businesses to quickly find, share and re-use product data. The Teamcenter Rapid Start configuration delivers Teamcenter, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management system, with a preconfigured PDM deployment. Teamcenter Rapid Start is the next step in the evolution of Siemens’ Teamcenter Express software. It provides companies a quick, low risk method to realize the benefits of PDM today, while protecting their technology investment. Teamcenter Rapid Start uses the same software code as Teamcenter, so it provides a simple growth path to full PLM implementation.

Teamcenter Rapid Start provides multi-CAD data management capabilities that enable manufacturers to effectively and efficiently manage, control and share mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) data across the entire design and supply chain. Supporting most popular CAD solutions, Teamcenter Rapid Start provides a single view of product data. This combined with its visualization capabilities help enhance collaboration, enabling businesses to make smarter decisions that result in better products.

Teamcenter Rapid Start also manages everyday tasks and processes with preconfigured best practice workflows for engineering change and product release. These processes enhance efficiency to meet design and schedule targets.

“Teamcenter Rapid Start simplifies entry into PDM, allowing companies to start managing their multi-CAD data, change, and release processes, and then advance their PLM maturity over time as their needs grow,” said Eric Sterling, Senior Vice President, Lifecycle Collaboration Software, Siemens PLM Software. “Once you have Teamcenter Rapid Start up and running, you can add on Teamcenter capabilities as you need them, targeting the transformational business processes for which Teamcenter is built. Teamcenter Rapid Start allows customers to start experiencing the benefits of Teamcenter with a simple, easy to deploy, easy to use PDM solution.”

Teamcenter Express customers can exchange their current licenses for equivalent Teamcenter Rapid Start licenses and after a straightforward upgrade will benefit from both the preconfigured PDM capabilities of Teamcenter Rapid Start and easy access to the full PLM capabilities of Teamcenter.

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with seven million licensed seats and more than 71,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens PLM Software works collaboratively with companies to deliver open solutions to help them make smarter decisions that result in better products.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany) supports the entire value chain of its industrial customers – from product design to production and services – with an unmatched combination of automation technology, industrial control technology, and industrial software. With its software solutions, the Division can shorten the time-to-market of new products by up to 50 percent. Industry Automation comprises five Business Units: Industrial Automation Systems, Control Components and Systems Engineering, Sensors and Communications, Siemens PLM Software, and Water Technologies.

Siemens Simplifies PLM Software Implementation; Provides Faster ROI

New Approach Delivers Solutions up to Three Times Faster – Siemens PLM Software has implemented a new application based approach to product release, simplifying how manufacturers adopt Teamcenter® software, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management system. The new approach separates Teamcenter applications from being dependent on a specific version of the larger Teamcenter platform. As a result, new customer and market driven solutions will now be available up to three times faster, and customers will be able to implement new applications without being required to upgrade the platform, helping them achieve a faster return on their PLM investment. Siemens also announced the latest release of the Teamcenter platform, Teamcenter 10.

Over the past year, Siemens has introduced a number of transformational applications that can now be used with multiple versions of the Teamcenter platform, including Briefcase Browser for supplier integration, Substance Compliance for sustainability initiatives, Product Cost Management, providing visibility into cost throughout the product lifecycle, and a Quality Management with CAPA solution.

“Our separation of application releases from major platform updates significantly simplifies PLM implementation for our customers and is a game change in our market,” said Eric Sterling, Senior Vice President, Lifecycle Collaboration Software, Siemens PLM Software. “PLM customers need to be able to react quickly to changing demands. Our new approach to deliver targeted PLM applications that work across multiple versions of the Teamcenter platform will enable us to focus on developing applications that help transform our customers’ businesses, and allows them to more easily take advantage of the latest and best in PLM. This approach provides customers a faster return on their PLM investment and gives them the agility required to stay ahead of their competition.”

Teamcenter 10 will be available later this month. The new Teamcenter solutions for supplier integration (Briefcase Browser), Substance Compliance, Product Cost Management, and Quality Management with CAPA are all available immediately. For more information please visit www.siemens.com/plm/teamcenter.

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with seven million licensed seats and more than 71,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens PLM Software works collaboratively with companies to deliver open solutions to help them make smarter decisions that result in better products. For more information on Siemens PLM Software products and services, visit www.siemens.com/plm.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany) supports the entire value chain of its industrial customers – from product design to production and services – with an unmatched combination of automation technology, industrial control technology, and industrial software. With its software solutions, the Division can shorten the time-to-market of new products by up to 50 percent. Industry Automation comprises five Business Units: Industrial Automation Systems, Control Components and Systems Engineering, Sensors and Communications, Siemens PLM Software, and Water Technologies
 

Latest Release of Siemens' Solid Edge Software Helps Get Quality Products to Market Faster

New Software Capabilities Enable up to a Six-fold Increase in Productivity on Certain Tasks - The latest release of Siemens PLM Software’ Solid Edge® software (Solid Edge ST6) includes several new enhancements in the areas of design, simulation and collaboration that enable certain tasks to be performed up to six times faster than the previous version. New functionality also helps Solid Edge ST6 users to learn, share and collaborate with other Solid Edge users. The combined enhancements included in Solid Edge ST6 are designed to help businesses improve overall product development productivity. Along with Solid Edge ST6, Siemens is announcing the latest release of Solid Edge™ SP design management solution (Solid Edge for SharePoint) to enhance collaboration. The company also added Android tablets and the iPad® mini support for its Solid Edge Mobile Viewer.

The announcement was made at Siemens PLM Software’s Solid Edge University 2013, being held this week in Cincinnati.

Olivier Pellerin, IT Innovation Manager for Groupe SEB, the maker of Krups coffee machines, T-Fal and Wearever cookware performed some early “beta” testing of Solid Edge ST6. “Surfacing command enhancements in Solid Edge ST6 have enabled us to create some models 40 percent faster compared to other CAD systems,” said Pellerin. “Faster is better, but the quality of models is essential for the manufacturing process and the new inspection tools available in Solid Edge ST6 help us guarantee the inherent quality of the surfaces modeled. These along with other enhancements in Solid Edge ST6 will help us bring better products to market faster.”

Solid Edge ST6 features new surfacing functions that help create stylized designs up to four times faster, and new sheet metal capabilities that help create stamped parts up to five times faster, based on internal testing. New Solid Edge simulation tools automatically optimize designs up to six times faster which helps lower product costs without sacrificing product quality. Synchronous technology enhancements help designers import and re-use files up to six times faster which enables improved collaboration with partners. In addition, support has been added to make importing SolidWorks® software files even easier.

“The new features in Solid Edge ST6, driven by our strong focus on our customers’ need to get innovative products to market faster, help designers create modern new designs in a fraction of the time while maintaining the same high quality standards,” said Karsten Newbury, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mainstream Engineering Software, Siemens PLM Software. “The Solid Edge system addresses all aspects of the design process – 3D design, simulation, manufacturing, design management, collaboration – and enables companies to make smarter product related decisions that result in developing better products more efficiently.”

In addition to the new design and simulation capabilities, Solid Edge ST6 also provides new functionality to learn, share, and collaborate with other Solid Edge users. The new Solid Edge YouTube docking pane gives users the ability to record, upload and directly share a modeling session on YouTube, and search YouTube for other Solid Edge videos. Users can also access discussions, tutorials and expert advice via a new online Solid Edge Community.
 

Solid Edge ST6 - Synchronous Delete

Let's say that you imported a part from SolidWorks. Maybe that part looks like this to the right. The part has lots of rounds on it. If you are used to working with history-based modelers, getting a model with all the edges rounded usually means that you're going to waste a lot of time trying to get rid of those rounds. If the faces are drafted, that's even worse, because your extrudes aren't going to line up right. If you're really good, (and super patient) you can break the model down into surfaces and extend and trim the faces to get your corners back.

Well, Solid Edge Synchronous Technology gives you better tools than that. In the first place, you can edit a lot of imported models, even with draft and rounds in place. But in the cases where you can't, getting rid of rounds in Edge is so much easier than in your outdated straight history-based modeler. Have a look at this.

You want to make some changes to this model, but you want to make the changes without the rounds. Maybe you read one of my earlier blog articles, and you decided you wanted to make edits to the overall model using Synchronous, but apply the rounds as Ordered features at the end (which, in my opinion, is totally the way to go). In any case, we need some scenario here where you want to remove the rounds from this model. We're going to use a function called Synchronous Delete.

Synchronous Delete just means that you select geometry, and press Delete on the keyboard. In this case we will be deleting rounds. Let's start down near the bottom. You might want to refresh your memory on the "CAD Geek Terminology" section of the blog post link mentioned above. As we delete the faces of the rounds, the adjacent faces are going to extend until they intersect - just the reverse of when you create rounds in the first place, where the adjacent faces are trimmed back to fit the round. Anyway, let's just try it and see what happens.

See what happened? It got rid of only part of the round. This is the part of Synchronous Delete that is new in ST6. If Solid Edge had not capped off the end of the round, then the delete may have failed. In a competing history-based modeler, this would have failed or sent you into a surface model, depending on your settings.

Granted, this may not be what you are really looking for, but dealing with functions failing for reasons you don't understand is not cool. With this intermediate step, you can go ahead and select some more faces to get rid of the rounds that you need to be rid of.

Now that whole round feature has been removed cleanly, without fussing with failed features or surface models. Let's do a little more. In the image to the right, I've just selected three faces of a round I want to get rid of. Again, the left side of the selection would cause a similar function in your old-fashioned history-based modeler to fail, while the right side of the selection would cause it to throw you into a surface model. Solid Edge can find an intermediate solution that allows you to keep working in a solid model.

The geometry that it leaves isn't anything that you would want to keep, but it does allow you to keep on working.

In the next step, I'll select the faces of the remaining parts of the round and use the Synchronous Delete to get rid of them. This is a really clean method for getting rid of rounds on imported models. But you can also use the same method for native Solid Edge files. If you have built a model with Ordered rounds, you can use history-based methods (deleting or editing round features from the tree), but for any Synchronous rounds on a part, the Synchronous Delete in ST6 is doing a little topological magic in the background to keep you productive.

But wait! It gets even better!

Your round-reducing rampage might be needed because you are creating a Simplified model for FEA, or a large assembly. The Simplified mode is found on the Tools tab, in the Model group. When you switch to the Simplified mode, you get some additional tools to help you select and delete rounds, making it even faster. On the Home tab, the Modify group contains the features shown below.

 With the Delete Rounds function in Simplified mode, I can box select rounds, and Solid Edge will delete them for me. This, as you can imagine, is extremely helpful. The selection in the image to the right was made by dragging a box. Clicking Accept (or just right mouse button clicking) adds a Delete Round feature under the Simplify collector, and allows you to move on to another box selection for deleting more rounds. This kind of functionality is pretty exciting, if you've ever had to deal with imported models, you know this is golden. Next time you have to wrangle an imported part, just remember Synchronous Delete and Delete Rounds in Simplified mode. It's even better than working in the native modeler.

PS: I've attached the original part in *.SLDPRT format (in a zipped folder), so you can import it for yourself and have fun with the rounds.

Say Goodbye to Old School CAD File Management

Say the word PLM and CAD users are bound to pop out of the woodwork, ensuring that their complex data is protected, their designs are not accessible before they’re released and all their other needs are met along with the rest of the organization’s. And it’s be expected. After all, PLM was born from PDM – the original CAD file management.

Back in the day, you bought your CAD file management solution from your CAD vendor. It made sense to get your file management solution from the folks who designed your CAD technology. But things have changed. Today, you don’t just have one CAD application. You’ve got at least 2 for MCAD, at least 1 more for ECAD and then there’s CAE, etc. So who do you buy your CAD file management system from? How do you ensure that one system will manage all your CAD files – when they often come from competing vendors – and how do you avoid getting boxed in to one vendor?

The answer is you work with a CAD-neutral vendor that lets you buy only what you need, maintain control of your data and move on whenever you’d like. The answer is you work with Aras. Take a look at the video below to learn about our approach to CAD integration, including the best Multi-CAD solution available today.

Import BOM (Bill of Materials)

Bill of Material is at the core of PLM for most manufacturing companies. Aras Innovator provides user friendly UI for structure browser of an Item up to nth level. However all the information in the BoM structure is visible to all types of users. Many times the Design Engineers want to view only the Engineering Bill of Material (EBoM), Manufacturing Engineers may want to view only the Manufacturing BoM(MBoM), Shipping department may want to see only the Shipping BOM(SBoM) and all of them may want a custom view of the BOM based on the effectivity dates and Revision (CBoM).

Bill of Materials Aggregator

Product Data Files in a BOM Structure is tedious to handle and requires continues monitoring across revisions until released Users download the files and check manually accordingly and sometimes there are 1000's of Components where the files have to be downloaded. What is the solution? Panso's BOM Aggregator!

Teamcenter SOA : Introduction

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework is offered by many enterprise product vendor due to its advantage of interoperability as well reusability.  Also due to service based framework based on buisness use case maje SOA API are easy to use as it hide all complexity to Application Developer. Teamcenter also offer SOA framework for customization as well for integration with other Application. In series of Blog's I will provide detail concept of Teamcenter SOA framework and creating your own SOA based on Tc SOA Framework.

Teamcenter UA SOA :
Teamcenter provide SOA framework as well set of out of box SOA service for direct consumption. Teamcenter SOA can be basically used in two ways.

1. Using OOTB SOA service as SOA client.
2. Creating your own SOA which can consume by others.

Teamcenter SOA support following language presently C#, C++ and Java. Development can be done in any of above language either using OOTB SOA service for Application Development or developing your own SOA for other developer usage. The list of SOA service can be seen in BMIDE under extension -> Code Generation->Services. It provides all the list of Service available for given Teamcenter environment. Also you can get all detail of Data Type and Operation corresponding to SOA services in the BMIDE as shown in below image.

Teamcenter SOA Framework:

Teamcenter SOA service Framework provide set of connection protocol like HTTP, Corba and auto generated stub in the  server  as well Data Model to support client application. SOA server architecture resides above Business Object layer (AOM layer). SOA server code can call ITK API to perform business logic as shown in below diagram.

Teamcenter SOA is set of API or programming interface used for application developer. The API libraries are present  in soa_client.zip file on the Teamcenter software distribution image. The libraries are present inside soa_client for respective supported programming language Java, C++ and C#. This ZIP required to be extracted preferably in TC_ROOT folder for linking Application code which usage SOA service. soa_client.zip also contain some sample SAO code in all supported language.We will see in my next blog how to use SOA API , establish connection through SOA and use OOTB SOA services.

Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in

Teamcenter Dispatcher Framework

Presently I am working Translation Service of Teamcenter. Though to share my learning experience with you people. Translation service comes as a Dispatcher Service under teamcenter installation. Translation service is nothing but to translate one file format to other. For example Doc to PDF. The broader task any translation are as follows.

a) Extract Data from Teamcenter.
b) Execute Translation.
c) Load translated result to teamcenter.

Hence the Dispatcher Service of teamcenter has three main components.
1) Scheduler
2) Module
3) Dispatcher Client

There is one more component called Dispatcher Admin which is basically used for Admin activity and it is optional component. Each of the above three component run independently and can be run as service or in console. Each component can be run in different server. As name suggests scheduler manage the whole framework by interacting between Module and Dispatcher client. Dispatcher Client component basically manage extract and loading of data. Module does actual translation. The below diagram depict the Translation Frame work.

Dispatcher Client is the front end of Dispatcher Framework which basically interacts with Teamcenter through SOA for translation request. Teamcenter required to be configuring through ETS preferences for new translation services and object type on which this service is valid. Once the request is received to Dispatcher Client, it processes the request and put all extracted files required to be translated in to directory called staging directory. Staging directory is required to be configured during Dispatcher Service Installation. In staging directory a unique subfolder is created for each request by Dispatcher client based on Task ID generated during user request in Teamcenter. Once Dispatcher client completes the extract, it inform scheduler for translation processing. Scheduler in turn informs Module to start processing the task. Module translate the file and put the output in staging directory. Once completed schedule ping the Dispacher client which load translated file back to Teamcenter. Siemens PLM provide lot of out of box translation service which required to be make active.

Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in/

Introduction to Teamcenter Customization

 Teamcenter provides variety of mechanism for customization of teamcenter based on business requirement. The customization is based on base framework of API provide by teamcenter. In this blog I will discuss all customization options and its architecture.
Customization Architecture
Teamcenter customization architecture can be broadly distinguished based on Teamcenter technical architecture. It can be categorized in to three layers.

• Server or Enterprise Layer
• Web Layer
• Client Layer

Client Layer is basically portal or thin client customization which usually deals with UI and data handling of the result of server request.  SOA client is SOA API for calling SOA services. You can see in detail of Teamcenter SOA service in my SOA blogs. Web Layer is nothing Teamcenter based J2EE deployment layer which basically communicate between Server and client.  Server customization is core of all customization as most of the Business logic is written in this layer. It mainly deals with all business transaction as it interacts with data base through Persistence Object Layer (POM) API.  FMS is resource layer which support actual file transfer between client and server through FMS framework. For more detail in FMS you can visit my blog on Teamcenter FMS. Server customization is done through C based API provided by Teamcenter. This API is also called Integration Toolkit (ITK). Apart from above discussed customization there is SOA customization and BMIDE extension which are basically either server and client\web customization or both.  Below diagram depict Customization Architecture diagram for Teamcenter. As shown in diagram, all BMIDE extension is in server side. This is because most of BMIDE extension overrides or changes object behavior based on business requirement. This can be only accomplished in server layer; hence all extension is implemented by using core ITK API provide in server layer. Below diagram shows the Customization Architect of Teamcenter.

Based on above Customization Architect, Teamcenter customization can be categorized in to following area.

1.     Server Customization
2.      Portal Customization
3.     Web or Thin client customization
4.     SOA based customization
5.     BMIDE extension customization

Server Customization: Server side customization is a most frequently used customization, as all business logic are written in this layer. Basically all requests pass through through server layer for all teamcenter transaction. Hence it is core of teamcenter customization. As discuss in Customization Architecture, Teamcenter provide C based API called Integration Toolkit (ITK) for server side customization. This toolkit provides hundred of API for processing various business process based on Teamcenter functionality. The ITK is categorized by various modules and functionality of Teamcenter. Also various extension mechanisms are provided by ITK toolkit to plug in custom code based on various Teamcenter events and object status. The detail discussion of ITK customization is out of scope of this blog and I will cover it another blog.

Portal Customization: Teamcenter Client is layer is written on Java JFC and eclipse SWT. The core client API are written in Java JFC framework and slowly it will ported to eclipse SWT framework. Presently Teamceter support both JFC and SWT customization, but it is recommended to do customization in SWT looking at Teamcenter future vision. The Portal Customization can be done extending OOTB Plug-in or developing your own plug-in. Apart from JFC/SWT UI api, the Teamcenter client API also provides object interface component which is an encapsulation of Teamceter Data model through Client object model. This Object Interface component also form interface layer between client and server.

Web or Thin Client Customization: This customization is for Teamcenter Web client. Teamcenter provides standard web interface for viewing and editing Teamcenter object in web browser. Web client is builds on asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) to allow dynamic loading of data in the browser. The HTML pages are renders by java script on XML data. Most of the thin client customization is carried through JavaScript which allow the rendering as well managing request\response from web server. Both client-to-server requests and server-to-client responses in Teamcenter thin client are standard HTTP responses.

SOA Customization: It is also called Teamcenter services. It is a standard SOA based services provided by Teamcenter for integrating with third party as well custom client. Also Teamcenter provides framework to create your own custom SOA services. I covered Teamcenter SOA services in detail in my SOA blogs.

BMIDE Extension Customization: This is mainly a server customization using Teamcenter BMIDE. BMIDE provide various extension customization mechanisms for implementing desired behavior in Teamcenter. Some of example of BMIDE extension is pre-action or post-action operation for Business object, Runtime property etc. This extensions are implemented in BMIDE environment by writing C\C++ server code mainly using ITK API. BMIDE framework create stub code and other require classes for extension implementation. Developer only required implementing base logic of the extension.  I will try to cover extension implementation in one of my future blog.

Apart from the above customization; Teamcenter Dispatcher module can also be customized for required translation behavior. Most of time Dispatcher client required to be implemented for extracting and loading translated file from Teamcenter. The Dispatcher Client Framework is based on Teamcenter SOA service and most OOTB SOA API is used apart from Dispatcher API which encapsulates most of complex Teamcenter SOA API calls.

Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in/