You have to make a change to your model. It happens. Yet, this can sometimes be a real challenge. Perhaps your design intent is redundant or there isn’t even design intent in the first place. Maybe, your model has been imported from another CAD system and it doesn’t contain any features or the model was created by someone else and now you have to work on it. This doesn’t matter. You still need to make the amendment. You need a flexible design tool.
The latest release of Creo Parametric has brought impressive productivity enhancements for 3D CAD users. It’s over 20% faster than Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 and significant improvements have been made to the user experience.
First of all, what is it we mean by design flexibility? Well, it’s having the capabilities to take you design, as it stands, and react to changes you need to make without impacting on the design integrity. Having tools that facilitate design flexibility mean you’re prepared for the challenges that come as part of product design. So, what are the 5 key challenges that mean you need flexibility in your design work?
We recently came back from the brilliant Formula Student competition, held at Silverstone from 11th-15th July. It was an excellent event, showcasing the promising potential of engineering students. We have to congratulate the team from Swedish Chalmers University for their winning car, as well as everyone else who made up the 132 teams in the competition.
It seems that 51% of concept design work is now done using electronic based systems, including 31% already using 3D data. But, this also means 49% of concept designs still begin as hand-drawn sketches and in engineering notebooks. Although paper based design work is a justifiable method for working on concept designs, the limitations are becoming more pronounced. As technology advances and more companies than ever before work on a global scale, it could be time to make the switch.
Did you know 34% of organisations are still using paper-based methods to explore initial concept design? While this is a valid way to begin concept work, it does have limitations. Taking the paper concept designs to the next stage of development can involve more work. Plus, it can be harder to fully investigate a range of design options. But, what is the case for making the transition to digital 2D concept designs?
CAD tools need to be flexible, particularly in the later stages of product development cycles. Yet, traditional parametric models can make it difficult to accommodate late-stage design changes and restrict design agility. Recent CAD developments are now addressing these limitations, enabling designers to explore more design possibilities with increase agility.
