Three main goals of integrated PLM

What is most important when looking for a PLM system?

PLM is about information, how it is produced and handled and shared across a whole company. It can be considered as the backbone of everyday operations and a practice that helps define and reinforce the competitive advantage.

When considering PLM and the software you use to implement it you should consider its reliability in achieving the following three main goals:

• Design efficiency and productivity
  Are you able to deliver the correct design data to any user, on any device, across the company? By securely storing and managing engineering design data and related documents, you can quickly find and re-use design and engineering data.

• Cost reduction
  Are you able to free up design engineers to focus on innovation rather than administration? By integrating product information with Procurement and Production you can deliver improved quality at lower costs.

• Speed to market
  Have you automated data sharing across your supply chain? By ensuring data accuracy for each delivered area, you can support field management and turn users into advocates; favourably impacting reputation and facilitating sales growth.

Make it easy, make IT smarter

PLM addresses the day-to-day issues that may arise from inconsistent information sources and methodologies but can only do this if they’re all brought together in one platform. Such a platform can provide an automatic, and automated, connection between the constituent phases and practices involved in the overall PLM process.

Sovelia provides a lean approach to PLM

Our Sovelia digital platform for engineering and PLM enables you to provide your teams with the solutions they need for seamless collaboration, to link your processes and systems, and optimise your data. Sovelia drives cost-efficient practices by giving you the tools to create, innovate, and manage, effortlessly.

For further information about Sovelia or to discuss your PLM requirements please contact Symetri.  

What’s New in Factory Design Suite 2022

Model States has now replaced the Level of Detail functionality of Inventor in previous releases. When publishing a part/assembly that contains multiple Model states, FDU assumes them as different interpretations of the same part/assembly.  It is vital all have the same key parameters and parameter values.

When using model states, the 2D representation used in AutoCAD may not always match with the 3D representation. When publishing, the 2D representation reflects the active model state at publish time. When  being updated to reflect parameter changes, it will always be based on which model state was the active model state, chosen to generate 2D asset at publish time and does not reflect the various model states.

iLogic Form Enhancement

The iLogic Form now can be accessed straight from the asset's context menu.

Select an asset or multiple assets.

1. Right-click to display the context menu.
2. Hover over Factory to display its drop-down menu.
3. Click Open iLogic Form.

Manage Revit AnyCAD references in Vault for Factory Layouts

Revit AnyCAD references included in Factory Layouts can be managed in Vault from the Factory Vault Integration, the same way as regular Inventor assemblies.

You can manage libraries, store, view, and download assets by using Vault Professional integration features.

The Vault Assets folder includes assets stored in Vault and appear in the Factory Asset Browser. The structure of the folder mirrors the library structure in Vault. If any folders are added or deleted in Vault, the change is reflected within the Asset Browser.

The Inventor AnyCAD capability allows you to:

• Reference a .rvt (Revit Project) file as an AnyCAD model. See To Import Revit Files as an AnyCAD Reference Model.
• Import a .rvt (Revit Project) file converting the Revit elements to Inventor components.

Revit interoperability functionality must be installed in order to interact with Revit models to both extract and record building information. If you do not install the Revit interoperability sub component, you are unable to import and export the Revit files.

Inventor BOM settings in FDU asset publishing

Bill of Materials settings is now able to be selected during asset publishing FDS. Inventor Document settings can be used to set the default BOM structure. Changing it during asset publishing will also change the document settings.

                                     

Control the BOM setting from the "Convert to Assets"

Bill of Materials settings can now be adjusted during “Convert to Assets”. The selected option updates the Inventor Document settings.

Imported CAD models can also be converted into factory assets using the Convert to Assets feature.

The Convert to Assets feature allows you to convert imported CAD models into factory assets. If, for example, you receive component data from a supplier that you want to evaluate or run through collision detection, this feature can be used to quickly convert that data to a factory asset for placement in your layout designs.

Create a sub-layout of selected assets using Inventor/AutoCAD.

Multiple objects can be selected to create a sub-layout. The advantage is to make it possible to break the specific items or areas into multiple sub-layouts for individual designers to work on.

The Create Sub-Layout command creates a sub-layout within the current layout.

Select the Factory tab > Layout panel > Create Sub-Layout .

3D factory assets and/or Inventor part, assembly, existing sub-layout when selected will be included in the newly created sub-layout.

Similarly in AutoCAD, Select the Factory tab > Layout panel > Create Sub-Layout 

Select multiple objects to create a sub-layout, making it possible to break the specific items into various sub-layouts for individual designers to work on.

The new Factory Design update 2022.1.1 is now available from your Subscription account.

Visit our website for further information about Factory Design Suite or feel free to contact us at Symetri to arrange a consultation with one of our technical specialists.

FEA Made Easy.

As a designer and Engineer you can spend a significant amount of your time trying to get original CAD data ready for FEA studies. This entails suppressing non-structural parts, supressing features like holes and bolted connections and in extreme cases remodelling.

This is particularly true for welded and bolted fabrications including sheet metal and structural frame type components. This is required to make the mesh process as smooth as possible whilst trying to keep element numbers sufficiently low to enable faster FEA run times.

Taking out geometry simplification and meshing can make the FEA process simple and easy to use allowing designers and engineers to adopt FEA in their workplace to make optimised and innovative products.

Altair SimSolid simulation technology for designers, engineers, and analysts eliminates geometry preparation and meshing: the two most time-consuming, expertise-extensive, and error-prone tasks performed in a conventional structural simulation.

Read how our customer Pentre Engineering has introduced SimSolid to their design process and is achieving super-fast structural analysis in their designs and what took them 3-4 days of effort is now reduced to a matter of hours.

Find out more about SimSolid for yourself and download a free trial.

How to Setup and Update Title Blocks Within Electrical Projects

This blog looks at the setting up and update of the title block information within existing electrical projects using AutoCAD Electrical.  

Title Block Setup

If you already have a company template setup within AutoCAD with an attributed title block this can be used to integrate the title block setup process from AutoCAD Electrical.

The title block setup procedure begins via the Project Tab > Title Block Setup. 

The following title block setup methods are available within AutoCAD Electrical in the sequence order highlighted below:

·  WD_TB (Attribute) – Invisible attribute that is stored within the block definition of the title block.

·  <Project Name>.wdt – Project specific template mapping file stored within the active project folder.

·  default.wdt - Default template mapping file stored within the active project folder.

· default.wdt - Default template mapping file stored within a specified location within the application options (Files tab) under the ‘Support File Search Path’.

The attributes within the title block need to be mapped to either project values (Project Descriptions) or drawing values (Drawing Properties) as shown in the example below:

Project Values

Drawing Values

The attributes can be mapped to the values via ‘Pick’ or from the drop-down menu option, once mapped, the title block setup process has been completed.

Title Block Update

The following procedure must be carried out in order to update the title block with the latest project and drawing values:

1.  Run the Title Block Update within the ‘Project Tab’

2.  

Select the relevant project and drawing values to be updated (Example below).

The values can be updated within the active drawing, specific drawings, project sub-folders or across the complete project.

For further information on the benefits of using AutoCAD Electrical for your electrical design, feel free to contact us at Symetri to arrange a consultation with one of our electrical specialists.

We offer scheduled AutoCAD Electrical essentials training, as well as be-spoke training tailored to your requirements to help you work smarter for a better future. 

On-Demand | What's New in Fusion 360 with PowerMill

During this on-demand webinar, you will be shown the latest features and updates within Fusion 360 with PowerMill.

See the latest features and improvements made to Fusion 360 with PowerMill, displaying how you can utilise this application helping serve a valuable purpose in your manufacturing and or business processes.

What to expect from the webinar:

• What's new in Powermill 2022
• The ability to exclude flat faces when calculating certain types of finishing toolpath
• Improved accuracy and quality when producing flat machining toolpaths
• Constant Z machining of parts with undercuts can now use automatic collision avoidance
• The ability to use automatic collision avoidance on 4-axis and rotary toolpaths
• User controls over projection range for Curve and Surface Projection finishing
• The option to stagger start points on toolpaths containing closed segments
• Several speed enhancements