Multi-CAD: MBD/MBE as the On-Ramp to the Digital Thread
00:01 Hi, i'm Steve Shaw, Product Management Senior Director in the Windchill PLM business. I've been with PTC for over 20 years, focused on our CAD integration strategy. Today, I'm going to talk to you about the importance of CAD model based design and how it is leveraged to extend the digital thread beyond engineering. Windchill's PLM product data management or PDM capabilities for managing CAD data, are core to supporting companies' digital thread needs today and their future digital transformation goals.
00:33 With Windchill PLM, we provide a deep and rich set of capabilities to support and manage our flagship Creo products, with the ability to scale up from supporting base level needs of Creo data management to the more complex needs of model based definition support, design and context, and end to end support for companies product platform architecture strategies, just to name a few. At PTC, we recognize that Creo isn't the only CAD game in town. Customers often rely on a host of design
01:03 tools to support their product development. Windchill's common data model and user experience supports the most popular mechanical CAD tools on the market, including the extended PTC family of products such as Creo Elements Direct Modeling and Drafting, Catia V5 and 3D Experience, SolidWorks, Siemens NX, Autodesk Inventor, and AutoCAD. Creo is our flagship integration, but we have made great strides
01:33 to integrate some of its advanced capabilities into our MCAD integrations. For example, support of the Speed Pack feature for lightweight retrieval of SolidWorks assemblies, as well as extending the support of enterprise top down design functionality into the SolidWorks Work Group Manager. With enterprise top down design support, changes can be made to the engineering BOM structure directly in Windchill. Through the build process, these changes can be propagated down to the associated SolidWorks assembly,
02:03 where components and sub assemblies can easily be added and removed. In addition, we have recently made advances in the area of model based definition support in both Catia V5 and Siemens NX. First, with Catia V5, we have improved how model annotations can be tagged as key characteristics, improving its overall usability. Most recently, in Windchill 12.1.1.0, we are adding model based definition capabilities into the Siemens NX integration.
02:34 This will allow the NX user to identify key or control characteristics within their 3D annotated models. These control characteristics can then be leveraged downstream in PLM, like how it is supported and leveraged by Creo models. We'll revisit the topic of model based definition and model based enterprise in more detail a bit later. Traditional MCAD PDM isn't the only game in town. Today's products are more and more complex.
03:04 It is no longer sufficient to exclusively provide PDM support for mechanical CAD, as this will only partially describe the product. Just about every product you encounter today includes electrical and electronic elements, not to mention software. Heck, even my toothbrush is a complex product with a PCB board, Bluetooth connectivity and its own companion app. It is therefore equally important that this multidisciplinary engineering information is managed and accurately portrayed in PLM to capture the product's complete definition.
03:37 Over the past several years, we have been working with the various ECAD vendors and trusted partners to provide a tightly integrated experience for the ECAD end users, allowing these users to remain engaged in their ECAD environment while interacting with PLM on an as needed light touch fashion. All while delivering key capabilities to keep customers, product development, and collaboration humming along. This includes part library synchronization between Windchill libraries and component libraries managed by the EDM tools, access to third party component libraries
04:10 like those provided by IHS or Silicone Experts, and generation of design BOMs and sharing of their corresponding schematic and board design files, fully integrated and visualized in PLM, allowing visibility to downstream stakeholders and PLM driven processes. The broad and robust support for both MCAD and ECAD data management within Windchill enables companies to manage and share their complete product definition throughout engineering and the enterprise, which is fundamental to a product development digital thread.
04:43 We take our customers PDM needs seriously. Not only do we support a broad set of MCAD authoring tool titles, we also support two, three, and sometimes four specific versions of these CAD applications. We do this because we understand that our customers and their programs require flexibility and version support to meet their needs. Recently, with the 12.1 release of the Windchill Workgroup Manager, we introduced a new delivery approach of the Workgroup Manager client, what we call the independent release stream.
05:17 Going forward, the Workgroup Manager will release on a quarterly basis and provide backward compatibility to earlier Windchill server releases, providing support all the way back to the 12.0.2.0 release. This new approach will provide customers a consistent release cadence, giving them access to new capabilities and new CAD version support as soon as possible. Most importantly, this will help address bottlenecks with Windchill upgrades. Now, with the new independent release stream, customers can streamline their
05:49 overall Windchill upgrades by deploying the latest Workgroup Manager to all their clients in advance of the server upgrade, relieving the time pressures of performing a system upgrade over the weekend, which is a typical goal. Windchill provides comprehensive multiCAD data management support, including both MCAD and ECAD under a unified environment. With It, companies can manage a complete bill of information, gaining broad and early visibility into design activities and enabling gains
06:20 in efficiency through concurrent engineering and collaboration. As a result, they improve data reuse, eliminate duplication of data and effort, and improve overall product quality. They also ensure compliance and protect their critical IP. I'd like to shift gears here and wrap things up by talking about Windchill and the model based enterprise and how this is a key element to the digital thread. To level set, let's first take a look at a couple of definitions. First, model based definition, or MBD.
06:52 MBD is where the 3D model is enriched with semantic PMI annotation and other specification documentation used to convey the design intent. This rich 3D model replaces the traditional 2D drawing and provides both a human as well as machine readable format to support the physical production and inspection of the part. MBE, or model based enterprise, takes MBD to the next level by making the model based definition a critical component to the digital thread.
07:25 This ensures that these models are fully leveraged in an associative way by downstream disciplines for all activities related to a product lifecycle, such as manufacturing or service. In simpler terms, and as I once heard described by a customer, MBD/MBE is not simply about doing away with the traditional 2D drawing and replacing it with a 3D annotated CAD model because it's cool. The reason for embracing a model based world is to leverage the richly defined 3D
07:56 design intent of these models to drive value and efficiency during design, production, operation, and service of the product. This model based approach delivers measurable customer benefits. By leveraging tools like GDNT Advisor, embedded in Creo, designers are creating better quality models. They are gaining efficiencies by alleviating the need for creating and maintaining the traditional 2D drawing and all of its artifacts. Extending access to these models and their
08:27 semantic annotation information to PLM shortens the design review cycles and provides greater visibility to change. Rigorously managing these critical to quality characteristics reduces the likelihood of a nonconformance and improves first past yield metrics. Windchill's part-centric approach to PLM is fundamentally aligned with these model based concepts. Leveraging the rich 3D model content authored in CAD applications to generate visual, part-centric engineering BOMs is
09:00 a critical step in creating the digital thread. By leveraging the models and decoupling the traditional dependency on the 2D drawing to fully describe all aspects of a product design, its requirements and manufacturing details, the designer is freed up to focus their time on innovation. With more granular and decoupled access to product information, the enterprise becomes more efficient, improving in activities including reuse, planning downstream deliverables,
09:30 and understanding the effects of design changes. It ultimately results in improved decision making, reduced rework, improved quality, and faster time to market. Let's review some specific areas where the model based enterprise delivers value and efficiencies for downstream activities. Reusing models and visual BOMs to support virtual simulation to validate designs and product configurations. Creating rich maintenance and service documentation, leveraging the model
10:03 information for technical illustrations and authoring procedures. Developing AR assisted digital inspection procedures using the digital model to recognize and assist in navigating the real world product and effectively execute the required steps. Using the machine readable digital model asset to feed into digital measurement machines and delivering manufacturing instructions. And feeding smart tools with prescribed inputs such as torque requirements that have been defined as part of the digital model.
10:35 These are just a few examples of how companies can leverage a model based approach. I'd like to wrap things up by sharing an example of an end to end, fully associative MBD/MBE process in Windchill. In this case, we will be working with a fully annotated Creo model to create downstream quality inspection plans. Then that plan will be delivered to the shop floor workstation, illustrating a true end to end connected PLM scenario.
11:06 The digital thread starts in CAD, in this case Creo, with the model based definition. As you can see here, the designer has annotated the model with the required semantic product manufacturing information. In this combination state the design is calling out the critical dimensioning and tolerance guidelines associated with the whole. To elevate this information to the enterprise, the designer explicitly tags these annotations by designating them as control characteristics and then
11:37 proceeds to check in the model changes to Windchill. This designation step exposes or externalizes the annotation within PLM, making them available for consumption by downstream processes. In this example, the manufacturing engineer is tasked with creating an inspection plan that includes specific steps that the quality inspector will need to perform to ensure that the tolerances and dimensioning specified in the design are met by manufacturing.
12:07 Once the inspection plan is completed, it is then released to the shop floor for use. In this example, the 2D digital process plan is delivered to the shop floor inspector via operator advisor. Here, the inspector steps through the required inspection steps necessary to determine the pass/fail of the manufactured part. All of this information is fully associative, ensuring that the digital thread remains unbroken. If a change occurs to the PMI
12:37 and the model, the full traceability ensures that the stakeholders are notified and any necessary updates or changes to the inspection plan are made to ensure continued quality of the manufactured part. As you can see, the model based enterprise personifies the digital thread for many engineering companies. To get there at scale, companies must have their design information under control with a strong foundation for multiCAD data management. PTC's Windchill PLM, with its core PDM capabilities and long
13:10 history of multiCAD data management is the onramp for this digital journey.