Razorleaf Corporation » Design Automation (DA) Articles

Selecting or Customizing Variants in TactonWorks

Paul Gimbel — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:00:06 +0000

There are two extremes when driving components in design automation systems: on one end of the spectrum, you can allow users to only select pre-defined components (Configure-to-Order) and on the other end of the spectrum, you can let users create their own parts by driving the dimensions and features of the parts with infinite flexibility (Engineer-to-Order). Which of these models is TactonWorks following with variants? Are we just selecting variants, or are we customizing them, or are we doing both?

TactonWorks lets users select variants and customize those variants as well. When setting up the automation, the author can drive certain features/dimensions with pre-defined values in the associated variant table, or s/he can use a value of “unspecified” on feature values to indicate that they are to be provided by the end user or driven by other constraints.

Let’s take a road bicycle as an example. When selecting brakes for a new bicycle configuration, the user is likely choosing among COTS (Commerical Off The Shelf) components, so they will simply be selecting a variant. However, when driving the overall size of the bicycle to get just the right fit, the system might ask the user to customize the length of the structural members. Of course, certain aspects of the aluminum tube used to construct these structural members would be fixed (or at least pre-defined), take for instance the wall thickness of the tube and perhaps the outside diameter. In the case of these structural members, the user is customizing a variant (perhaps also selecting first – if there are multiple choices for tube OD and wall thickness) because the length would have been left “undefined” and would be infinitely adjustable.

So there you have it. In TactonWorks, you can both select and customize variants in your design. This should provide enough flexibility to keep your TactonWorks applications useful (providing enough guided selections to reduce the number of options) but still powerful (able to model any feasible scenario). If you have questions about TactonWorks variants, about Tacton in general, or about what design automation could be doing for your business, contact us – we’d love to help.

Rule Efficiency in Design Automation

Paul Gimbel — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:17:12 +0000

One of the biggest complaints about design automation is performance. Companies are outraged that the tool runs for a whole hour to complete a process that Read More...

Swapping Models in SolidWorks

Paul Gimbel — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:11:49 +0000

Design Automation is very powerful when creating unique “same as, but” models for new jobs. But in many cases, people are doing configure-to-order (CTO) just as much as they are doing engineer-to-order (ETO). Configure-to-order means utilizing standard components and using the automation to determine the logic for which component, or which size of a component, to put in an assembly. Configuring an automated design sounds simpler, and in many ways it is, but there are a few things to note and some design automation best practices to follow when planning to swap models in SolidWorks. And these tips apply whether you're using DriveWorks, TactonWorks, or virtually any other design automation tool for SolidWorks. Mechanical Design Automation tools for SolidWorks utilize the standard Replace Component functionality to allow users to swap out a component in the master model for the component of their choice. But the tricky bit with Replace Component is getting SolidWorks to reconstruct the mates on the newly inserted part. We are frequently posed with the question, "how can we make sure that the mates resolve properly?" The key is consistency. All mates, or assembly constraints, have references within the components that are being mated. Whether those are planes, faces, axes, or some other form of hard or reference geometry, SolidWorks records a pointer to them in the definition of the mate. If SolidWorks sees the same reference in the new part, the mate will resolve every time. So the answer is simple. If a user mates to a plane named “Mate Plane” in the master component, and they have a plane named “Mate Plane” in the replacement, the mates will resolve, right? Not so fast!! This is the most common faulty assumption. The name of the reference is a "pretty" name for users. As far as SolidWorks is concerned, that name only exists in the user interface. SolidWorks has its own internal identifier for the geometry reference. If there are two planes in different models that were created differently, at different times, they are almost certain not to have the same internal identifier, regardless of they are named. And they will not resolve when replaced. So the design automation best practice is to always use the same references in every model. Front/Top/Right are always good bets as they are in every model and they always have the same internal identifier. What if models don’t have the Front/Top/Right planes in the same place for each of the models to be swapped? Well, change them. Yes, it could potentially be a lot of work. But consider it a tax for not being able to anticipate the unique CAD modeling needs of design automation. So if you’re designing models now, take the replacement requirements into account. Design everything around your default planes. If that is not possible, for example if you need to mate to an axis, create the reference geometry first. Create a starter part with the reference geometry that you need, then do a File -> Save As to create all of the derivative models. We have yet to meet a component that we could not model with these methods. And the result is 100% bulletproof component replacements. Think your CAD models can’t be made swappable? Drop us a line. We love a challenge.

SolidWorks Assembly Mates for Design Automation

Paul Gimbel — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:30:20 +0000

When creating your SolidWorks assembly master models and preparing them for automation, a lot of decisions need to be made in developing the best mating schemes. Read More...

DriveWorks Service Packs Released

Paul Gimbel — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:16:15 +0000

DriveWorks recently published service packs for its DriveWorks 6 and DriveWorks 7 platforms, one for each major version (DW6 SP8 and DW7 SP4). With the release of these service packs, the transition from DriveWorks 6 to DriveWorks 7 as the platform-of-focus becomes increasingly clear. There are no major enhancements in DriveWorks 6 Service Pack 8 as DriveWorks spends “the vast majority of [their] development effort” on DriveWorks 7. Service Pack 8 for DriveWorks 6 does have a few new minor enhancements including:

Updated table editor
All copied files writeable to allow Enterprise PDM (EPDM) Check In
Unneeded annotations in drawings deleted, not just hidden
Support for Microsoft Excel 2007 (.xlsx) table import

Service Pack 4 for DriveWorks 7 includes some new goodies as well, including:

“Pervasive Filtering” now even more pervasive
Support for SolidWorks helix features
Updated DriveWorks Data Manager UI
Support to install and uninstall plug-ins

For those of you who have not made the leap to DriveWorks 7, and are curious about what would be involved to make that move, please contact us. We would be happy to give you insight into the migration process, and what specific challenges you might need to address.

Organizing CAD Models for Design Automation

Paul Gimbel — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:00:45 +0000

The purpose of a design automation system is to control different aspects, or parameters, of your CAD models. These could be dimensions, features, component instances, and Read More...

DriveWorks UI Tips and Tricks

Paul Gimbel — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:08:49 +0000

Your typical DriveWorks user interface (UI) is, unfortunately, pretty boring. Administrators will occasionally throw in a logo, but other than that, the UI remains a jumble of controls or a collection of columns. With some advance planning and experience, more can be done with UIs to increase the effectiveness of the tool. For instance, using VISIBLE rules to control the appearance of controls or parts of forms can allow for simplified and advanced versions of DriveWorks UIs. Here are a number of other tips and tricks related to the DriveWorks user interface.

Dynamic Pictures

You’ll probably recall from basic DriveWorks training that you can dynamically control the content of a picture box in DriveWorks. By using rules to set the File Name property of the control, you can change the picture that appears. This seems simple and intuitive, but it is nonetheless powerful. Making visual changes as users provide input is great reinforcement for human-machine interaction; users know that their input is being received.

Non-Standard Images

Keep in mind that the DriveWorks picture box control is an ActiveX control. This means that Windows will open the appropriate viewer based on the type of file that the control is pointing to. eDrawings can be used rather effectively with this control (although they can be a bit slow). Other non-standard graphic file formats can be used as well. As a note, in our testing, PDF files have not worked well.

Transparency

Stacking visual controls doesn’t work well since transparency isn’t supported by the underlying controls. You can add transparent images to a picture box all day, but since the control doesn’t have a transparent background, it won’t matter. You just can’t overlay controls to get a composite image – you need to do the overlay yourself in a separate image editing program and display the resulting composite image in the picture box.

Floating Images

DriveWorks UIs have a white background by default. By setting the background of your images to white and changing the border style to "None," you can make images blend directly into the background, or seem to “float.” This gives a really nice look and feel to the overall UI.

Scaling and Stretching

Scaling of images is not terribly reliable or effective. Due to resolution issues, when an image is scaled down to fit a picture box control, text is often unreadable and lines are often jagged or obscured. Create your images with their final size in mind and try to scale them in a graphics program like Photoshop. The goal is to make the image file the same size (in pixels) as the control. This also provides more control when building composite images (multiple dynamic picture boxes used to display a single image). If you must scale, try "Zoom" instead of "StretchImage." “Zoom” maintains the original aspect ratio of the image.

Basic Images

Using simple blocks of color in picture box controls can provide a nice effect, too. By stretching a 5 pixel by 5 pixel single color image, you can create a 5x450 separator line. As the image is stretched to the right, the color will taper off into grey. We're not quite sure why it does this, but it actually provides a very nice aesthetic. This also provides visual delineation to your form, making it simpler to comprehend and visually guiding the user through distinct rows or columns.

Filling the Gaps

Avoid the voids. With dynamic interfaces, large blank patches can appear when certain conditions exist (for example, the shipping address is hidden when the shipping address matches the billing address). Utilize graphics to avoid these distractions by placing relevant clip art or images in the areas where controls are hidden. In the example above, perhaps an image of an invoice, an equal sign, and a shipping label would be an appropriate graphic to show in place of the hidden “Shipping Address” fields. This can serve to plug holes and provided a visual grouping of controls. Images like these help the user distinguish what information goes where, prevent the user from wondering what fields/data they are not seeing, make the form more interesting, and make the form easier to work with in the form designer. Never underestimate the power of graphics in user-facing components of design automation. Contact us for ideas on your next DriveWorks UI-driven project or to ask about some of these tips and tricks.

Design Automation Myth

Paul Gimbel — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:14:04 +0000

“Design automation tools are just configurators for finished 3D models and 2D drawings.” Wow, if only we could get the Mythbusters to take a look at Read More...

DriveWorks Live: Now Appearing on the Internet

Paul Gimbel — Sat, 01 May 2010 01:36:24 +0000

When users start out with DriveWorks, the focus is frequently to save some mouse clicks and File -> Save As commands in SolidWorks. But it doesn’t take long for Read More...

Tacton’s TCsite for Quoting

Paul Gimbel — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:07:54 +0000

Sales Configurators configure products. They understand product structure. They understand the interrelations between and within components in your product. And they guide your users through the Read More...