Concurrent Engineering Blog

Does your company still use a standalone 2D CAD tool before working on the design in 3D? Even though 3D solid modeling has become the standard for complex engineering tasks, your company may still have a 2D CAD system in your tool set. It’s fairly common to use 2D for upfront conceptual engineering. The problem that this has traditionally caused is that when you finally want to transition the concept from 2D to 3D, you either need to perform a complicated import of 2D data into a 3D tool or manually recreate the design from scratch in 3D. 

Creo Options Modeler is a dedicated app for creating ad validating modular product assemblies, regardless of the complexity of the assembly. It helps you to deliver personalise products, which meet your customer's needs. Whether these are market based or regional based requirements, Creo Options Modeler can help you to deliver them. 
Companies develop products with modular architects, using Creo Options Modeler, meaning that they can deliver competitive differentiation to market. At the same time, they are able to keep cost and complexity under control. When you combine Creo Options Modeler with Windchill, you can generate and validate precise 3D representations of product designs that are actually connects to the Bill of Material from the Windchill environment. 

What can you do with Creo Options Modeler?

First of all, you can view and interact with all of the relevant information about the options in one integrated environment. You can look at the product architecture. You can look directly at the 3D models. You can even view and interact with the Bill of Materials, turning things on and off to see different representations of the product. You can instantly select various product modules from the module list and immediately see the results in 3D. Then, you can quickly move to a fully regenerated version of the product right then and there in the app. Finally, you can validate the product. You can look at it visually and say, do I get the product that looks like what I want. Then, you can go on to do a more in-depth analysis of the product by looking at interferences to validate the product further.
With Creo Options Modeler, you can add new product modules to your designs very quickly. This includes product modules that were never part of the original design. This can even be done without having to download an entire Bill of Materials or product structure from your Windchill environment. This all leads to a significant enhancement in productivity. 

Benefits of using Creo Options Modeler

Some of the benefits of Creo Options Modeler are, of course, the faster design cycles. Giving the engineers the opportunity to create and validate product modules very early in the 3D design phase, can lead to a much quicker time to market. Typically, you can spend days, if not weeks, actually developing the product architecture, either in an Excel spreadsheet or in some other tool before they actually get into the CAD environment. With Creo Options Modeler, it's possible to streamline the time it takes for you to do this. The other aspect of Creo Options Modeler that has really improved are the errors associated with transferring data from one part of the organisation to the other. Engineers take data from the marketing team to understand how the product should be architected; product architects work with the engineers to make sure the right product modules go together. All these data transfers can create error in the process. By automating the creation of the product in one environment, it can actually reduce errors by keeping everything in one place. It gives the engineers, the marketers and the product architects one opportunity to develop the information they need and to deliver it. 
With Creo Options Modeler, it gives you the opportunity to create and validate 3D product designs earlier in the design process, while also sharing this information across the entire company in a much more straightforward way. It uses the rich 3D content that you see right on the screen and can understand.

To find out more about Creo Options Modeler, take a look at our dedicated page. 
Want to try out Creo Parametric, free for 30-days? Get a trial here:

From humble beginnings to advanced CAD technology, product design tools have come a long way. The tools now used in product design have developed significantly to the sketches and drawings first used by designers. In this blog post, we’ll look at how product design tool have changed and the impact this has had on product development process.

Today we are going to talk about simulation driven design. What we are seeing people try to do now is to bring simulation in at an earlier stage of the design process. So, it is no longer restricted to later stages, such as design validation and verification. By introducing simulation earlier in the design process, it opens up the possibility of making a lot more changes; using it to drive the overall design instead of limiting it to the backend of the process. 

Formula Student is taking place on 4^th July- 7^th July 2013, at the Silverstone circuit. Now in its 15^th year, Formula student is the largest motorsport competition for students in Europe. Teams are challenged to design and build their own single-seater race car, before taking on the other teams at the Silverstone event in both static and dynamic events. And, as a Sponsor of Formula Student 2013, we can’t wait for the Formula Student event and the chance to meet all of the young engineers taking part in the programme.

Until recently the use of direct modeling was limited to animation. But, now, designers of all types are starting to use direct modeling. Improvements in the tools now mean it is easier that ever before for designers to create the products that their customer's want. 

The improvements made in the latest release of Creo Direct now mean it is easier than ever before for designers and engineers to build and design better products. Read below to discover more about the 4 key enhancements made in Creo Direct 2.0, which are making it easier than ever before for engineers and designers to use a direct modelling approach.

Product data management (PDM) is important for companies, as it enables them to control access and share information effectively. There has been research done, which concludes a strong correlation between business performance and a company’s ability to manage their product data [source: www.tech-clarity.com]. By using a PDM system, organisation are better able to support growth and overall performance.

Having the right tools for the job is vital for engineers to be able to get the job done. Engineering calculations are vital for all stages of product development. By having the right tools for this, engineers across different industries are able to streamline product development process by predicting the behaviour and performance of designs. And, as organisations face more challenges than ever before, the need to accurately capture engineering calculations has never been higher. 

Design optimisation is now a typical part of product design and development. For many designers and engineers, they use simulation tools to help them optimise their designs and create better products.