A MODULE FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT A MODULE FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF SPOT WELD FEATUREOF SPOT WELD FEATURE

an Industrial Project Reportan Industrial Project Reportsubmitted to the International Institute of Information Technology in partial fulfilment of the submitted to the International Institute of Information Technology in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree ofrequirements for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGYMASTER OF TECHNOLOGYinin

IT in BUILDING SCIENCEIT in BUILDING SCIENCE

bybyAMIT KUMAR SARANAMIT KUMAR SARAN

(Roll No. - 200110001)(Roll No. - 200110001)

Under the guidance ofUnder the guidance of

Mr. Subhash A. UpadhyayaMr. Subhash A. Upadhyaya Dr. Pradeep Kumar RamancharlaDr. Pradeep Kumar RamancharlaProject Leader(TCS) Project Leader(TCS) Assistant Professor(IIIT) Assistant Professor(IIIT)

Project DetailsProject Details

Duration : October 2002 to February 2003Location : EDS PLM Solutions Center

TCS, SecunderabadGuide : Dr. Pradeep K. Ramancharla Assistant Professor, IIIT Hyderabad.

Mr. Subhash A. Upadhyaya Project Leader, TCS Hyderabad

Domain of Project: CAD/CAEProg. Languages : UniGraphics Open API, UI Styler & ‘C’

Brief Description of The ProjectBrief Description of The ProjectThe project work includes two modules:

Development of a GUI for the existing Plug/Slot Weld

A module for performance enhancement of the Spot Weld Feature

The modules are developed in HP-UX environment using UniGraphics Open API, UI Styler and 'C' programing Language.

The project work also includes extensive work in Solid Modeling, Assembly Modeling and Study of UniGraphics Knowledge Fusion

Due to the strict guidelines of Tata Consultancy Services (EDS PLM Solutions Center), Secunderabad the complete details of the work is not provided.

Design & Development of a GUI for Design & Development of a GUI for the existing PLUG/SLOT Weld in the existing PLUG/SLOT Weld in

Unigraphics using UFUNCUnigraphics using UFUNC

((MODULE – I)MODULE – I)

A Plug/Slot WeldA Plug/Slot Weld

RequirementsRequirements Provision to select faces in two separate face sets Provision for selection of hole/slot edges only Dialog items and Navigation button Sensitivity issues Face Selection and Edges Highlighting Issues

(Simultaneous Selection of Edges belong to slot feature)

Geometry Selection Issues Provision for display of cue and status messages

The GUI for Plug/Slot WeldThe GUI for Plug/Slot Weld

MethodologyMethodology

The Structure used is :-

typedef struct WELD_plug_slot_data_s  {      tag_t        face;        /* Top face of top plate */      tag_t        opp_face;    /* Top face of bottom plate */

      int            num_edges;   /* Number of edges selected */      tag_t        *edges;      /* List of edges selected */

  } WELD_plug_slot_data_t, *WELD_plug_slot_data_p_t;

Methodology continued…Methodology continued…

Selection CallBack

a) Dialog items and Navigation button Sensitivity issues are taken care of

b) Face Selection and Edges Highlighting issues are taken care of.

c) Display of cue and status messages are also taken care of.

d) After selecting relevant faces/edges, they are put to respective list/tag pointer.

Methodology continued….Methodology continued….

Filter Procedure

a) Geometry Selection issues are taken care of

Performance Improvement of the Performance Improvement of the existing SPOT WELDexisting SPOT WELD

( (MODULE – II)MODULE – II)

What is A Spot WeldWhat is A Spot Weld

Problem StatementProblem Statement

In huge assemblies, if number of spot weld points are more and user requires to create new spot points, it slows down the performance

Problem DescriptionProblem Description

It takes a significant amount of time to assign 'ID' on each weld point.

If we observe carefully, the weld points are created first and then spot ID's are assigned. It takes more time to assign the Weld ID's

RequirementsRequirements

Weld ID's should be unique

(No duplicate ID's are allowed)

Weld ID's should be within the preference minimum/maximum range

If some of the weld points are deleted, there will be a 'gap' in ID's and these gaps need to be filled when we assign ID's for newly created spot welds

Scope of ImprovementScope of Improvement

Reduce the 'feature cycling' timeReduce the number of time the whole

assembly is cycled

Possible SolutionPossible Solution

Using a static List pointer

Creating a Weld ID Manager

Final SolutionFinal Solution

We have created a Weld ID Manager

typedef struct id_manager_s{

tag_t object_tag; /* tag of weld feature */

         char *ind_id; /* assigned ID for the weld feature */ struct id_manager_s *next; /* next pointer */ } id_manager_t, *id_manager_p_t;

Solution continued…Solution continued…

Once the user creates some new spot features

ID Manager is initialized by cycling thewhole part only once

While assigning the individual ID’s we’ll search the Weld ID Manager

Lowest possible ID is assigned and pushed into the ID Manager along with its tag

TestingTestingWe have tested it with an existing part file having 693 spot features. Then we tried to create 15 new spot features.

The old program takes 56 minutes to assign ID‘s to it

new program takes less than 30 seconds to assign the ID's

satisfy all the required conditions mentioned in the previous slide

Part File Used for Testing The Part File Used for Testing The Performance of Spot WeldPerformance of Spot Weld

Assembly ModelingAssembly Modeling

What is Assembly Modeling?What is Assembly Modeling?

Assembly is an integrated Unigraphics application that facilitates:

The construction of assemblies of parts The modeling of individual parts within the

context of the assembly The production of parts lists for assembly

drawings.

Assembly Modeling PhilosophyAssembly Modeling Philosophy

Object-oriented data management architecture is used to support the team- oriented assembly modeling environment

The goal is to produce a product modeling system for real-life products, typically designed by teams working concurrently on assemblies of thousands of parts

Types of Assembly Model DesignTypes of Assembly Model Design

Bottom-Up Design

Top-Down Design

Reducing Complex Assembly Reducing Complex Assembly DisplaysDisplays

Using Reference Sets

Erasing an Entire Component or Sub-assembly

Suppressing Features and Components

UniGraphics Knowledge FusionUniGraphics Knowledge FusionUG/KFUG/KF

What is UG/KFWhat is UG/KF

Unigraphics Knowledge Fusion(UG/KF) is the integration of Unigraphics CAD/CAM/CAE software and Knowledge Based.

UG/KF fully complements Unigraphics' traditional strengths in interactive design of complex geometric models and assemblies, and the tools for user customization that have been available with UG/Open.

What is UG/KFWhat is UG/KF continued …continued …

UG/KF enables the user to develop applications and control Unigraphics objects via engineering rules thatextend beyond a purely geometric nature.

These engineering rules may involve engineering calculations such as non-geometric physical properties, analysis results, sensitivity, optimization plan, goal seeking iterations, aesthetics, product, process and work breakdown structures, etc.

For example, requirements based on physical properties such as force, torque, heat, etc. may be captured as part of a UG model.

How UG/KF can help Engineers and How UG/KF can help Engineers and DesignersDesigners

With UG/KF, engineers and designers will be able to construct a reusable knowledge base. They will be able to:

1. Utilize user knowledge bases that already exist in external databases, spreadsheets, handbooks, custom software etc, during the engineering process.

2. Use rules to enable model definition, checking, advising, optimization, enforcement of design rules , etc.

How UG/KF can help Engineers and Designers How UG/KF can help Engineers and Designers Continued……..Continued……..

3. Make external (non-UG) software tools available to the engineering process, i.e., optimization and analysis.

4. Capture and enforce company best practices.

5. Virtual Model Development i.e. Extend the Unigraphics data model by easily creating custom modeling features that are controlled by rules

ConclusionConclusion

Performance enhancement for the existing spot weld feature of UG Weld finds great relevance in engineering as it reduces the consumption of computing resources as well as the time involved for computations significantly. The module developed for performance enhancement as part of this project reduces the time for creating the spot weld feature by almost 56 times and the CPU usage significantly. Tests for the same were conducted and the results were validated under technical supervision.

FURTHER WORKFURTHER WORK

Presently the IDs are stored as Strings in the Weld ID manager. This increases the complexity in retrieving the lowest possible ID from the ID manager. As further work ID’s can be stored as integers in ascending order and while assigning the attributes to the spots the same can be converted to Strings.

The current module creates the ID Manager and deletes it once ‘Apply’ or ‘OK’ is pressed. As future development the ID Manager can be created by invoking the Spot Weld Dialog and deleted as soon as the Dialog is exited.

Thank YouThank You