Bolted Connections

A typical bolted joint (as shown) may contain a washer and gasket to improve the bond, a nut and a bolt besides the basic structure that it is connecting. The bolt assembly may be pretensioned or it may only resist shear. There are many options involved with a bolted connection. Each option has advantages and disadvantages, and none of the options will be right for every situation.

To model the joint completely, the model would include the washer and/or gasket which is probably a hyperelastic material, the contact between the nut and the bolt, the nut and the washer, the washer and solid body and may also include friction, this could be done with a solid model, but would require a very detailed model, without including the threads in the bolts.

When modeling a bolted connection, the first action should be to determine what information is needed. Some questions that should be considered are:

Will the holes deform? Will the bolts deform? Do the bolts contribute to the overall deformations and stresses? Will the bolts fail first? Are the gasket/washer interfaces critical to the behavior of the structure? Will the bolt resist axial, shear, and/or bending?

1609 Elements

7341 Nodes

29 Contact Pairs

Most analysts do not have the time or hardware to build this type of model. In addition, a detailed model would probably produce more information than is necessary.

Bolt

Washer

Gasket

Nut

There are many modeling options. None of the options will produce exactly the behavior of the connection. The decision of which option to choose is dependent on required results and time available to produce results.

Some of the modeling options include: Merge Nodes Rigid Connection Spring Element Beam Element Constraint Element Coupled DOF

This paper will discuss some of the modeling options. It is intended as an introduction to the topic and is not the final answer to modeling beam connections. The results presented were calculated using I-DEAS as the post processor and Model Solution as the solver. The paper will present some of the advantages and disadvantages of using different modeling options. It will discuss merging nodes, rigid connections (using rigid elements), spring elements and beam elements. The constraint element and coupled DOF will be left to another paper.

Determining the required information would then determine the type of model that could be used. For instance, if joint forces are needed, the bolt must be modeled with an element that can recover forces.. Different element types will result in different behavior of the bolt.

There are local effects that could be modeled with a break out model or submodel. Some local effects are:

Bolts can prevent the hole from changing shape. The interaction of the hole and the bolt is usually a local effect. A sub model would be needed to find bolt failure, if the failure mode is known. The gasket and washers generally contribute to only localized effects.

Merge Nodes:

Considerations: Connecting two bodies represented by

solid elements. (Shells would not have coincident nodes)

All forces are transferred. No localized behavior is considered.

Concerns: It can be difficult to get the nodes to

match. (Section meshing can help) No joint forces available. The contact between the surfaces would

be very friction dependent.

There are two possible methods of merging nodes: 1. All nodes on the connecting surfaces could be merged

- Behavior would be the same as one body 2. Only the nodes representing the bolts could be merged

- Contact between the surfaces should be considered

Merge Nodes Using I-DEAS 1. Pick Nodes

Select nodes to be considered For all nodes, use MB3 All done

2. Enter distance between nodes to be considered coincident (0.0003937008)

Enter distance between nodes, the default is 1mm

3. Enter method to select coincident node Lower Number is the default

4. Ok to list element labels? (No) 5. Ok to merge coincident nodes? (No)

Default is NO Select Yes to merge the nodes

6. Ok to delete nodes that have been replaced (Yes)

One rigid element connecting all the nodes

to one central node

Two rigid elements connected with one

rigid bar

One rigid element connecting a node at the

center of the hole

Rigid Elements:

Considerations: Selected DOFs can be transferred. No localized behavior calculated. The holes shape can be maintained.

Concerns: Joint Forces can be recovered. May add numeric stiffness around the

hole. If the nodes are not coincident, a

moment will be induced.

There are three possible methods using rigid elements to model the bolts.

Rigid Elements Using I-DEAS Two types of rigid elements:

RBARs - connect only 2 nodes RBEs connect multiple nodes The first node is the

independent node. Rigid elements can be created:

Manually using create element

Geometry-based Elements using reference points or center points

Section meshing will automatically suppress the hole.

Recovering Joint Forces using Rigid Elements:

1. Constraint forces must be stored. They may be listed. It is recommended that element

forces also be stored and listed. 2. Select constraint forces in display

results. 3. Select arrow plots in display

template.

The forces may be listed using the report writer and similar to Arrow plot.

Spring Elements:

Considerations: Nodes should be coincident. Selected DOF can be transferred. Some calculations prior to the FE model would

required to obtain the equivalent bolt stiffness. No localized behavior considered.

Concerns: Joint Forces can be recovered. If nodes are not coincident a moment may be

introduced. - For Ideas, it is suggested that the uniaxial flag be

turned on. - For Nastran, the nodes should be coincident.

To have no stiffness for a given DOF, set the stiffness to zero.

- Ideas defaults to 3 DOF, either translational or rotational.

- Nastran uses 1 DOF, multiple springs may be required to resist different forces.

There are two possible methods for modeling spring elements:

1. Connecting nodes at the center of the hole.

2. Model the hole using a rigid element and connecting the rigid elements with a spring.

3. If midsurface data is used for shell models, the spring element may induce a moment.

Recovering Joint Forces using Spring Elements:

1. Create a group of the spring elements.

2. Store Element Forces. 3. Select Arrow Display.

In Visualizer, arrows can be set to show either 1 direction or 3 directions

The forces may be listed using the report writer and similar to XY graph. An XY graph must first be created.

Spring Elements Using I-DEAS Springs elements can be

created: Manually using

create element Geometry-based

Elements using reference points or center points

Set the solver mask before creating the physical property table entry.

Beam Elements:

Considerations: Nodes should be coincident Stiffness in axial, shear and bending are

included based on beam section Forces can be transferred in selected DOF Localized behavior can considered Preload may be included

Concerns: Joint Forces can be recovered A beam or a rod element can be used...

- Beams model all 6 DOF - Rods model translation only

In short beams the shear deflection will control the overall deflection of the bolt.

The beams are modeled connecting nodes at the center of the hole. The hole is not modeled, because the beam section models the bolt volume.

Beam Elements Using I-DEAS 1. Create a beam section that represents the

bolt. 2. Create beams between the center nodes of

the holes. 3. The holes may be suppressed (using

section meshing) OR

3. Use a rigid element to connect the edges of the hole with the beam.

4. Store Element Forces

NX 3 Supports More Languages!! by Elango Ramanathan Programming tools Technical track chair

Grrrrrrr! Yes! That is exactly how I felt when I heard UGS is adding more languages. Oh my God, GRIP, GRIP NC, C, C++, TCL, Intent! and now C#, VB.net. None of the existing language covers everything I need. We have been asking UGS to added more coverage in CAM area. What is wrong with these UGS people? Why are they wasting their resources in adding more languages? I was so curious when I attended beta testing at Cypress CA, I could not resist asking for a presentation on what was happening. But the more I found out about UGS strategy, the more impressed I became.

Initially I thought UGS is just going to add a few more language to their list. But UGS has a well thought out strategy to help developers in the long run. UGS is providing a new recording tool called Journaling, and, by NX 3, will support VB.NET, C# and C++ for traditional automation. By NX 4 Java will be supported also. Any developer working with the NX Open for .NET API can use all the functionalities of the Microsoft .NET environment. NX 3 will support full object oriented programming concepts. Also, with the .NET API a developer can do remoting and distributed programming, as well as create Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) using WinForms.

Journaling is more like macro recording in Word or Excel. Journals will record VB.NET commands instead of menu clicks. They can also record in C++, but journal replay is limited to VB.NET only. Since journals are capturing functional code, and are not recording GUI or screen picks, they will work across multiple versions of NX. And journaling supported automation code provides the added benefit of recording actual automation commands. In the past, I used to make a lot of calls to GTAC to find out whether a function was available in Open C and how it worked. Now, with journals, it is so easy to find out. I can just record a journal and I get my sample program in no time. I can cut and paste directly into an automation program, then add only a few variables and logics to make the program work.

My next worry was that I would have to learn yet another new language. I never had a need to fill my brain with one more language. But I saw it as opportunity to beat my son. Since he already knows C#, I borrowed his C# book and started to go through it. I was really surprised to know C# is more like C++ than what I had originally thought. A lot of the syntax is very similar to C++ except for arrays and the fact that there are no pointers. There are differences like delegates etc., but I felt comfortable with C# very fast. And, since I could add the NX .NET classes in the Visual Studio development environment, I got all the benefits of 'intellisense'. Wow!

NX Open for .NET supports not only internal/external programs but now it supports remote programming as well. Remoting allows an NX user to execute an automation program from the same or a different machine from where the NX session is running. Via remoting, a user can connect to another system running NX within a network. This

addition is available through the .NET version of the NX Open API only. This mode is not available in the legacy Open C API.

Okay! The future is very bright, but what about the past? I have about 150K lines of code to support. As usual UGS is committed to supporting their customers and has promised to continuing to support legacy Open C (User Function) libraries and GRIP. But no new functions will be added to Open C and GRIP. All the new functions will be added to the NX Open for .NET API and to the new NX Open C++ API. Both the .NET API and the new C++ API are derived from the same Common API kernel, so any new functionality will be provided equally for the new APIs. Customers with existing Open C licenses will automatically receive the new Open C++ API free of charge. As for my existing code, I recompiled and linked my code with the NX 3 Open C library. Everything worked fine except for few minor changes like the unit conversion function in expression is inch(....) instead of in(.).

Not all NX functionality is available for automation through the native.NET API yet. To provide complete programming coverage in .NET, UGS is providing an additional library of .NET-wrapped Open C functions. This added library provides a .NET programmer with nearly the same automation access to NX functionality that the existing Open C and Open C++ libraries provide. Although UGS have plans to provide all existing and new functionality through the .NET API in future releases, the .NET-wrapped Open C library will not be removed.

UGS is continuing to support C-based programming by releasing a new C++ library built from the same object and class structure of the new .NET library. Although this library is different than the existing Open C++ library, I can compile and link my existing C and C++ programs with this library. But if I want to use any of the Microsoft .NET classes I have to follow a book full of protocols and conventions. I tried and failed miserably. So I have decided to stick with C# because I want to program with .NET classes.

NX Open for .NET comes with a new set of documents that are presented in a standard Microsoft help file format. The documents are user friendly and more like Visual Studio docs. And details about the NX Open for .NET classes and methods show up automatically in the Visual Studio Object Browser. It should be noted, though, that a user needs to be running Visual Studio .NET 2003 (Version 7.1) if they want to work with the .NET API. They also need to have the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 loaded on their workstation

I need to buy a new NX Open for .NET authoring license if I want to program in C# or VB.net, but no additional execution license is required. No new licenses are required if I program in C++ and link with the new library.

Over all I am quite impressed with UGS strategy to support more object oriented programming languages. In the long run, I believe this new direction will help developers a lot.

NX Manager I-DEAS via Team Center Engineering

One of the main areas that I-DEAS users need to focus on is the transition from I-DEAS to NX. This process

involves two distinct phases, migrating TDM to NX Manager I-DEAS (via TC Eng) and then migrating I-DEAS NX CAD data to NX3 (or beyond) CAD. I am very happy to be able to provide news about the process relating to the TDM to NX Manager I-DEAS migration.

We under went our "early adopter" I-DEAS to NX initial audit by UGS in August 2004. UGS came out to our

company and spent two days with us, analyzing our CAD data and showing us the new products. My overall

anxiety has pretty much disappeared now that I have seen the products as they relate to our CAD data. The

products - both CAD NX and TDM to TC Eng NX Manager I-DEAS look solid. I also found great benefit from

attending the recent Denver Colorado Team Center of Tour and NX3 event hosted by UGS.

In order to migrate your TDM to NX Manager I-DEAS, there is a great tool to help. The MiAdmin tool is a

gem! This tool analyzes your TDM. It lists everything you ever wanted to know and more (but were afraid to ask) about the items in your TDM. Also, it provides wonderful automated tools for you to fix your data! The I-DEAS user needs to understand that in order to utilize NX Manager I-DEAS, they must also work within the

Team Center Engineering environment. While this might seem like a daunting task, it is possible to start out

with basic TDM like functionality first and then add on modules of TC Eng if one so desires. The interface for

accessing I-DEAS thru TC Eng has an easy to use windows feel to it and users should quickly adapt to this new

structure.

The added benefits of working within the TeamCenter Engineering environment are fantastic. These include the

potential for Global CAD data sharing, being able to link other types of file (MS and such) to your CAD object, markup and viewing of both 2D and 3D CAD data. The NX Manager I-DEAS product looks like a go now. I

would say that the I-DEAS NX CAD product is still evolving. Each new release will ensure a greater success

rate with migrating part features and drawings. NX3 has some great features and its ease of use is a definite

welcome to this next generation CAD tool.

Follow the user discussions relating to I-DEAS to NX on the I-deas to NX Transition Digest bulletin board.

https://citizen.plmworld.org/login.php?ru=/access/conferencing.php

You must be a registered PLM World Citizen!

Rick Rueger PLM World Article Submit Date: October 15, 2004 Word Count: 856

1

First of Two Simple Applications of Using Part Equations in I-DEAS

Part 1 of 2

Have you ever needed to model a spring specified by the pitch and number of turns? Have you ever needed to balance a number of slots or other features and position them uniformly along a face? Did it cause you to struggle when you tried to do this within I-DEAS and struggle even more when you had to go back and change them? If so, read on because these articles were written to give you a couple of examples of using the Part Equations form to create dimension-driven parts that can be easily and controllably modified.

Part 1 (this article) will look at driving a spring design by specifying the pitch and number of turns.

Part 2 (next issue) will examine how to uniformly space and balance an array of slots (or other features) on a given face.

Driving a Spring by Pitch and Number of Turns

It is relatively easy to create a spring within I-DEAS. This can be done by sketching a profile, picking the Revolve command, selecting the profile, then selecting the axis to revolve about and completing the rest of the form. What might be a little more cryptic is the way that you need to fill out the rest of the form to accomplish the helix. You next need to calculate (or put in an expression for) the Revolve Angle to specify how many revolutions are in the spring. An example of this is shown in Figure 1.

Rick Rueger PLM World Article Submit Date: October 15, 2004 Word Count: 856

2

Figure 1: Initial Input of Revolve Angle

Next click on the options button to enter the Translation along Axis. This is the total translation distance from the beginning of the spring to the end. For an example of this see Figure 2.

Figure 2: Initial Input of Total Translation

A more intuitive way of defining a spring might be to specify the number of turns and the pitch (distance between turns). This can be done by going into the Part Equations command (Icon row 4, column 1) after you have created the initial spring. In the equations section type:

NUMBER_OF_TURNS = 5 PITCH = 50|mm|

Note: There cannot be spaces in your variable names. Use underscores to accomplish readability. Also, when entering constant values in this form make sure to specify units. This is done in the example above by typing the vertical bar or pipe symbol (found as the shift of the backslash on your keyboard) both before and after the actual units. Anything between these two pipes is evaluated as a unit. If no units are specified,

Rick Rueger PLM World Article Submit Date: October 15, 2004 Word Count: 856

3

everything is solved in SI (System International) which means that it will be interpreted as meters, not millimeters.

Next, in the dimension section, highlight and enter values for the following two dimensions:

RevolveAngle = NUMBER_OF_TURNS * 360 AxialTrans = PITCH * NUMBER_OF_TURNS

See Figure 3 for an example of the equations form and the resulting spring. You now have a spring that can easily be modified by changing these two parameters at the top of the Part Equations form.

Figure 3: Finished Spring and Example Equations Form

Also, notice that the name of the other dimensions have been changed to be more meaningful than the default D11 and D12. The names wire_diameter and spring_radius are far more apparent as to what they will control. Highlight on the dimension in this form and then type in the new name in the lower left-hand box instead of the right-hand box where you enter the value. Again, no spaces in dimension names (same rule as for user-defined variables). This dimension name change can be done in the Modify command as well.

If you go back into the feature parameters form of the revolve you will notice that both the Angle and the Translation along Axis are greyed out and not available to change here. This is because the values for these two dimensions are now controlled at the part level through the Part Equations form and are no longer able to be (accidentally) changed at the feature level.

Rick Rueger PLM World Article Submit Date: October 15, 2004 Word Count: 856

4

Summary

The Part Equations command allows you to build design intent into your model. You can quickly build a series of parts by changing the values of the constants in the desired set of equations. The more intuitively-named dimensions and variables that you put into your part, the greater the likelihood that someone will be able to change your part predictably. The hardest part about using the Part Equations command is usually writing out the mathematical relationships. Entering them in the form is easy. Hopefully, this simple example has given you some exposure to this and will encourage you to try to build more of these relationships into the next part that you create. Check back next issue for a more involved example of equation writing and using some of the available functions such as truncate and round.

Bio: Rick Rueger is the District Training Manager for UGS in Chicago. He has worked for SDRC/EDS/UGS for the last 14 years and still occasionally teaches a few classes there. Rick Rueger UGS Inc. rick.rueger@ugs.com

As another year quickly closes, PLM World keeps the momentum going. 2004 was a fabulous year, at our annual conference in May over 1600 attendees experienced a weeks worth of technical and UGS Executive presentations, Teamcenter, Ideas, and Unigraphics training opportunities, witnessed numerous capabilities to improve your bottom line provided by the PLM World Partners who participated in our Vendor Fair.

In addition to our US meeting, the momentum is Global. Our friend Paul Averte, the Australian PLM Expo Chairperson held their User Meeting in Melbourne in September. Attendance doubled from earlier years. Great Job, Mate! Karla Kluth, organizer for PLM Europe, held a very successful conference in Stuttgart, Germany in mid-October. Nette Aufgabe Karla! Asia (Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, and Singapore) has scheduled several user events in late October and early November, Im sure they will be just as successful. .So, no matter where you in the world, theres opportunity to experience a world class User event. Give one a Try!

Looking into the future, the planning for our 2005 conference in Dallas Texas, May 2 6 is well underway. The Call for Papers has been posted on our website, www.plmworld.org. Were looking forward to many top notch technical presentations our users and UGS folks will be presenting. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, will be our keynote speaker on Tuesday Morning, Im sure everyone can relate a little bit of Dilbert in their daily lives. Thursday night youll be invited to a little piece of Texas hospitality at our Texas Barbeque. And yes, youll still have opportunities to attend UGS Training Sessions headed up by UGS Education Services and experience the many new innovative products the Vendor Fair provides. All in all, PLM World provides the opportunity to learn and network with UGS experts and peers enabling users to apply the technology at their workplace. Its 4 Days of non-stop action, dont worry, as you can see well sprinkle in a little bit of fun too! We cant wait.

See you in Dallas, Jim Wilson PLM World Chairperson

1

PLM World - User News:

News from the Drafting and Dimensional Management Technical Committee

By Kristy Timbimboo, Drafting and Dimensional Management Committee Chairperson

Although there has been strong representation of drafting issues in past years, for

a number of reasons, involvement appears to have diminished somewhat. It is difficult to

believe that 2-D, and the many drafting issues associated with it, has suddenly

disappeared (perhaps abducted by aliens). The decline is more likely attributable to the

fact that users have a multitude of other CAD-related issues vying for their attention.

Those issues are numerous and valid: elevated interest in 3-D and the move to solid

model-controlled paperless systems, focus on Teamcenter activities and related data

management issues, apprehensiveness about future products and migration issues, and

even reorganization of the structure within PLM World combining UG and I-DEAS

Drafting into one committee. The way we do business is changing for many users, myself

included.

2-D Drafting is still a big part of many peoples lives and will be for quite some

time. UGS and PLM World both recognize this and are committed to continued support

of this sector. We are in the early stages of forming the combined Drafting and

Dimensional Management Technical Committee and, in addition to myself, four other

people have volunteered their services to help focus on drafting issues (there is always

room for more!). We have recently been active in defining the purpose and function of the

committee, and outlining future challenges of the drafting user community as a whole.

This will allow us to move forward with purposeful vision and direct the attention to the

2

greatest needs of the user community. The following sentences outline some of the items

compiled by the committee. As always, user input is welcome please let us know the

things that are important to you. Contact information for committee members is listed at

the end of this article.

Committee purpose:

To represent the interests and the needs of the users in this sector. Our goal is to assist in

the development of the user community through communication and cooperation between

the users and UGS. Our primary objectives are to help the user optimize use of the

product and to help UGS provide the most efficient and effective tool.

Committee function:

We collectively:

Represent a cross-section of UG and I-DEAS users

Provide focus on 2-D to 3-D Drafting issues:

a) Dimensional Management (3-D Annotation/ASME Y14.41, GD&T Associativity, Dimensioning Between Views, etc.)

b) Develop and mature correlation between 2-D and 3-D (Promote Master Model concept)

Help determine Best Practices to share with others

Use what we learn and know as a basis for future conference presentations

Be positive role models to encourage other users to get the most out of the product

Future Challenges:

Migration issues as we move toward one common product

Maintaining support of two separate software applications

3

Encouraging strong user presence in newsletter articles and conference presentations

Strengthen the committee as we focus on future products and drafting-related issues

****

The users of 2-D Drafting are instrumental in helping shape the future of the

product and are a large network of support for other users. Individual user participation is

important to other users in the learning process. I especially encourage those who are

migrating into the world of NX from UG and I-DEAS to contribute to the newsletter or

make a presentation at the upcoming conference in May 2005. Migration will be a big

topic over the next few years and for those of you beginning that transition, let the rest of

us know some of the challenges you are facing and the solutions you have found. ASME

Y14.41 is another topic that users would like to know more about. Let us know some of

the things you are doing to incorporate the ASME Y14.41 standard for 3-D annotation in

your work.

Finally, if you are interested in being involved as part of this committee, please let

me or someone else on the committee know there is always room for more. As much as

we all like to be involved in this, we all have other jobs to do and the time we can

contribute is limited, many hands make the work light. It is much more beneficial for

the users to have a broad range of representation.

Kristy Timbimboo Chairperson, Drafting and Dimensional Management Technical Committee Design Drafter ATK Thiokol Inc. P.O. Box 707, M/S 251

4

Brigham City, Utah 84302 (435) 863-5882 kristy.timbimboo@atk.com

Committee Members:

First Name Last Name

Background Company E-mail

Paul Howard I-DEAS Goodrich Aircraft Wheels & Brakes Paul.Howard@goodrich.com

Paula Lambertz I-DEAS Accelerator Cryogenic Systems,

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

lambertz@fnal.gov

Jim Melton I-DEAS/UG USA james.m.melton-1@usa-spaceops.com Jim Rawlinson UG Goodrich Hoist and Winch Power Systems james.rawlinson@goodrich.com

Teamcenter

Repeatable Digital Validation:Teamcenter's integrated solution fordigital product validation

Teamcenter repeatable digital validation (RDV) provides an integrated solution that enables

your enterprise to rapidly validate product configurations as they continuously change across

your product lifecycle.

w h i t e p a p e r :

Te a m c e n t e r R e p e a t a b l e

D i g i t a l Va l i d a t i o n

www.ugs.com

Table of contents

Executive Summary 1

Business challenges 2

Business challenge complications 3

Teamcenters RDV solution 4

Benefits 5-7

Why RDV excels 8-9

Teamcenter Community

1Todays mainstream product development processes are inherently

inefficient when it comes to handling product change. Design teams,

suppliers and manufacturing stakeholders often encounter inaccuracies

as they exchange and share change-related data. Errors are introduced

as data is modified or when data is re-entered but not validated across

multiple disciplines and systems.Additionally, quality decision-making is

hampered by the failure to integrate data and core business rules

between multiple systems. Significant reduction in new product

introduction time and total cost and increased product quality is

possible with a new paradigm for engineering review and validation.

Product development requires that support systems focus on the entire

range of products and processes of the enterprise. As the complexity of

the products and processes grow, the product development community

needs tools that are integrated into efficient, process-oriented

applications. Critical product decisions require the continuous availability

of the latest digital product and process information. Finally, the

tremendous amount of data contributing to the definition of a product

and its manufacturing processes must be navigated efficiently and

reduced to the minimum set of data that will accurately represent the

full decision context.

A solution that enables a continuous and accurate decision context based

on the latest product and process information must be able to:

Integrate information from a variety of tools, including multiple CAD

authoring tools, validation and analysis tools and business systems

Configure and apply business rules to product and process

configurations for rapid what-if analysis and knowledge reuse

Quickly navigate large amounts of product and process information

and work with only relevant data while retaining the context of

total product

Interrogate and validate the configurations for form, fit and function,

and comply with requirements such as cost, weight and investment

Integrate into your product development process with minimal training

and support while sustaining your organizations ability to develop

innovative new products

Today, there are software tools available that attempt to solve each

problem separately. For example, digital mockup (DMU) software

addresses digital prototyping but is time consuming, static and invariably

prone to errors. Similarly, PDM solutions address problems related to

configuration and business rules but lack tight integration with CAD tools

or DMU solutions.

Teamcenters Repeatable Digital Validation (RDV) solution facilitates a

true paradigm shift for companies that perform complex product

development and want to integrate a suite of core systems, such as

design tools, visualization, product configuration, and change

management into a single integrated web environment. Never before has

such a ground breaking technology been able to dramatically reduce

time to market in product development while delivering decision making

knowledge directly to stakeholders responsible for getting the right

product to the right market.

RDV removes product development latency while providing an always

on digital mockup of the complete product and all of its variations. RDV

enables companies to make optimal product decisions quicker resulting

in faster and better products to market. Product changes and alternative

ideas can be done real time in a controlled process while assessing the

impact of change across the finished product and the impact on its

performance characteristics. No other product development suite in the

market can support this level of integration. In addition, RDV reduces a

companys ownership costs by supporting multiple product development

processes on a single integrated solution.

Executive Summary

2Exhibit 1: Embedded costs per phase of product lifecycle

Business challenges

Lifecycle cost determination

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%Concept Validation Deployment Production Operation

Cost reduction opportunities Source: US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.

66%

34%35%

22%

12%

70%

85%

95%99%

3%

The discrete manufacturing industry is rapidly shifting from mass

production to mass customization which demands that companies

build a larger number of products according to geographic and cultural

style preferences and bring them to market on average 5 to 10

percent faster every year. Product innovation and time compression are

primary drivers across marketplaces.The sooner a product can be

brought to a customer, the greater its lifecycle profitability potential.

This is complicated by the need to increasingly deliver variations of

each product according to sub markets and respond to ever-changing

customer hot buttons.

Globalization has helped manufacturers find suppliers in far away places

at very competitive prices, but has added complexity to the product

development process. For example, the new global reach concept

requires communications and collaboration across a distributed supply

chain in order to avoid long delays and costly errors as information

propagates across all tiers of suppliers.

Since approximately 70 percent of a products costs are committed

during the product development phase, the biggest cost savings

opportunity is during the upfront product design phase.These large

savings opportunities are not going to come from ERP, SCM and CRM.

The biggest challenges to increasing productivity and eliminating errors

and cost overruns are:

Efficiency of the change process as demonstrated by a companys

ability to immediately evaluate and analyze changes in the context of

other changes and their impact on the complete product.

Ability to configure and visualize each part in all its usages in all

products to fully understand change impact

Ability to provide the right individuals the right data, rapidly and

easily, and in the right context at the right time.To meet this

challenge and facilitate a totally effective product decision, companies

need to deliver tightly focused product information to their

designers. In essence, all of the participants in your value chain need

to access virtual product content on a consistent and repeatable

basis.To illustrate the value of delivering the most relevant

information to your product team, your value chain needs to be able

to answer the following kinds of questions:find all parts within 5

mm of the engine so I can do packaging study, or get me the solid

models for all parts released this week so I can assess the impact on

product weight.

Ability to design and validate products with complex variability.This

functionality allows companies to correct error in early design

phases rather than during the manufacturing phase. For example,

designers need to be able to ask their digital solution to evaluate

behind dashboard clearance for wire harness with both left and right

side drive, with and without air conditioning, with and without a GPS

system. I need to know that I can assemble the product for all

variants, not just the one in the current configuration.

Reducing risk by institutionalizing the reuse of existing designs, which

already embed corporate best practices and lessons learned from

previous products.

Ability to configure and visualize a part in all its current usages in all

products to determine if it can be reused in a new product

3Take the example of a new car design.A typical car has over 10,000

parts. On average, 2500 parts change during any given week.Trying to

pull all these changes can take 2-3 weeks. Once a change is initiated, it

must be validated and its impact on overall weight, cost and supplier

schedule must be analyzed.This is a time consuming, resource intensive

task.While knowledge workers are pulling the changes together, more

design changes will invariably need to be initiated.This cycle is repeated

every 2-3 weeks during the product development process, which lasts

12 to 18 months.The second problem faced by the design team is that

even when it brings up the whole product containing 10,000 parts, it

can take hours to zero-in on the part and surrounding area that needs

to be analyzed. Because of this complexity, many engineers try to only

work with a few parts at a time.This creates a risk of not envisioning the

change in the context of the entire product, or the entire surrounding

environment impacted by the change.

Technologys promised added value versus the reality of adding

more complexity. Todays software tools attempt to solve each of the

previously enumerated problems. For example, digital mockup software

address one set of problems while PDM solutions address another set.

However, productivity gain will only be significant when a solution is able

to address all of these problems simultaneously.

Consider the following excerpt on configured digital mockup from the

recent paper titled Fundamentals of Shared Product Structure by

Wayne Collier, DH Brown.

A design component may represent, for example, right and left tires

as two instances of the same CAD model. But digital mockups

create a visualization of a total product in three dimensions and

require separate entities to visualize the right and left sides.

Similarly, representations based on part records may use a single

part number for an entire end-item assembly actually consisting of

dozen parts, while digital mockups require unique identification of

each entity included in a configuration to resolve interference,

packaging and other design integration issues. Digital mockups

come into use during design reviews at early phases of product

development, before part records have been released, as conceptual

designers explore alternatives across multiple configurations. All of

these characteristics of digital mockup make it difficult and time

consuming to generate them automatically for multiple

configurations if those configurations are based on traditional, parts-

based bills of materials or traditional CAD assembly model.

In response to these limitations most companies today resort to

brute force manual reconciliation to assemble as-ordered product

configurations generated by order configuration representations

from families of design components managed in CAD data

managers.This reconciliation is tedious and error proneTraditional

approaches and automated versions of them simply do not serve

the need to rapidly validate designs across hundreds of product

configurations generated on the fly.

4Teamcenter Repeatable Digital Validation (RDV) combines industry leading CAD integration, product modeling

technology, high performance visualization, spatial search engine technology and a design in context application that provides

a powerful innovative, and integrated digital product validation solution.

Teamcenters RDV solution

Rapidly configure

Re-use alternativesDesign evaluation

Validation

Design changes

DesignerSupplier 1

Supplier 2

RDV reflects a wide variety of robust capabilities:

RDV is continuously repeatable with a new configuration or with an

alternative design configuration. It allows the same validation process

to be repeated at different sites or by different individuals including

suppliers.This insures consistency of result and eliminates human

errors during configuration.

RDV provides a powerful tool for abstraction and relevance in a

extremely complex product development process so that the entire

value chain can use a consistent way of accessing virtual product content

RDV enables engineers to design and validate products with complex

variability. Change is validated against one product, as well as against

all possible variations.

RDV always keeps product configurations up to date with the

latest changes.

RDV allows a user to visualize the whole product as well the specific

area of interest.The search engine database is specifically optimized

for quick search.

RDV synchronizes CAD, visual and product structure data based on

business rules and best practice processes captured in a company-

specific workflow.

RDV provides a powerful classification application enabling

both product and process reuse, while reducing risk and direct

material costs.

Collision detection and interference analysis is the first of many

potential product validation applications based on the RDV platform.

These common digital validation applications require easy and efficient

access to all CAD files of a specific product variation or product family.

The CAD data is converted to the standards-based JT format, an

optimal and accurate CAD geometry format for visualization and

collision detection. For collision detection and spatial searches, UGS

harvester approach replaces time-consuming queries on the entire

database with an efficient filter that carefully selects only the parts that

are changed, and for the selected or appropriate configurations.

Configure Validate against all

Validate variant/ options for reuse

Productstructure Central designrepository

Repeatable Team reviews the

same configuration to

analyze issues

Visualize

Analyse

Track andpublish Issues Progress

Figure 2.Typical RDV process flow Figure 3. Key RDV capabilities

Physical and static

Months

Weeks

Days

Hours

Physical Digital Repeatablemockup mockup digital validation

Complete digital and dynamic

Huge productivity breakthrough forthe product validation process

From weeks to minutes

From static to dynamic From concurrent to collaborative

Pro

du

ct

valid

ati

on

cycle

Technology and process

5

Figure 4. RDV productivity improvement

1. Substantial enterprise productivity gains are realized by

enabling continuous product validation. Digital validation in the

traditional form (DMU) is unable to address all the challenges and

offers disappointing payback.This is due to the lack of a repeatable and

continuous process available to everyone stakeholder in your

organization.With traditional DMU, you get some exciting discrete

events but you cannot count on them reflecting the latest product

intent. Benefits accelerate and allow you to achieve your vision only

when the process becomes repeatable and continuous.

In the past to stage a digital vehicle took 6 weekspulling 14,000 parts,

right version, right locationand now with this new technology (RDV) we are

able to do the same in 2 hours

CIMdata Conference 2001, Keynote Speech, Kirk Gutmann, Global

Product Development Information Officer, GM

2. RDV enables designers and suppliers to spend more time on

innovation and creativity. RDV removes non-value added tasks from

your product development process, such as searching for components

and creating the right context or environment for validation. RDV also

eliminates human error and ensures the right version and right

configurations are always selected. RDV presents only the relevant

information for decision-making and validation, instead of requiring

users to navigate through plethora of data to find what they need to

complete their job.

Benefits

120 min.

60 min.

0 min.

100 1,000 10,000

Task:Visual navigation(Spatial search)

Tim

e

Assembly size/number of components process

Traditional digitalmock-up or DMU

RDV enabled design process

Figure 6. Second example of potential time savings

Examples of potential time savings

6

120 min.

60 min.

0 min.

100 1,000 10,000

Task:Product variation validation

Tim

e

Assembly size/number of components process

Traditionaldesign process

RDV enabled design process

Figure 5. First example of potential time savings

Figure 7. Comparing RDV and non-RDV digital validation solutions

If designers spent 75 minutes a day searching and navigating to find

the right components and its context for validating their design then:

Time savings per day = 75 minutes

Time saving per year = 200 * 75 = 15000 minutes = 31 days

RDVs ability to present only relevant data also benefits your

infrastructure. If you have 200 users searching a 5000-part assembly

once per day, your network will be burdened with

200 * 5000 * 1 MB/part = 1 Terabyte/day just for visualization

Using more intelligent searches, you could decrease your amount of

actual loaded relevant data by ~80 percent or more depending on

your users working habits.

200 users * 100 parts * 1MB/part = 20 Gigabytes/day.

This saves you money on network hardware and enables you to

maintain good performance and happy productive users on your

existing infrastructure.

3. RDV reduces errors during your production and/or assembly

phases by enabling early problem detection. RDV allows designers,

suppliers and manufacturing planners to evaluate product changes

continuously against specifications and business constraints, enabling

them to reduce errors and make optimal total product decisions.

4. RDV accelerates your time to market cycle. Companies are able

to quickly evaluate more alternatives early in the design phase, allowing

them to deliver right product faster to market.

5. RDV enables design reuse. RDV enables designers to easily and

quickly evaluate many alternatives early in the design phases.

7

Without RDV

Perform w

ork order

Perfor

m

wor

k or

der

T i m e

With RDV

If desired, include

WIPrevisions

If de

sire

d, in

clud

e

W

IP rev

isions

Remove unw

anted

parts by attribute

Add parts in

proximity

of the work

parts

Select options

Select cached

revisionrule

Enter work order

Spend less time searching, waiting, clicking, with less errors

Look

up

wor

k or

der

Sear

ch for

wor

kpart

s

Find

where

wor

k

part

s ar

e us

ed

Load

con

text

ass

embl

ies

Set th

e

revisionru

le

Set th

e op

tions

Turn

off part

s

not inpr

oxim

ity

Turn

off

other

unw

ante

dpart

s

A variety of factors cause conventional digital validation products to

fail. The following comparison explains why Teamcenters RDV solution

succeeds while other approaches falter.

Problem: Single product focus.Typically, conventional solutions revolve

around a single CAD visualization or PDM product.This cannot work.

CAD and visualization products do not provide change controls,

configuration management or advanced searching techniques. CAD and

PDM do not have sufficiently rich and fast visualization capabilities.

PDM and visualization do not have sufficient validation capabilities that

complete solid models and high end CAD and CAE applications

provide.

RDV solution: RDV contains tightly integrated CAD visualization and

PDM modules. RDV combines PDMs control and searching capabilities

with high-speed lighweight visualization and high-end CAD validation/

modeling.These integrated capabiliteis work in concert to enable you

to achieve multiple validation goals in a single solution.

Problem: Too many tools, not enough application. Perhaps through

super human effort or a talented project champion, you can get enough

custom programming and procedures together to get through a

conventional validation pilot. However, many solutions are too shaky

and dependent on key individuals to keep running them on a long term

basis. Frequently, companies discover that nobody can remember the

right buttons to push to maintain and use their pilot system or

they learn that their customized code no longer complies with new

product versions. In addition, companies often find it difficult to justify

the budgeting requests needed to sustain a customized solution (e.g.,

when management no longer sees a financial payback).

RDV solution: UGS delivers a complete RDV solution. It is integrated

and tested for exactly your purpose before shipping. Out-of-the-box

processes and documentation are provided for exactly your purposes,

instead of a collection of independent, unrelated tools that you use to

build your own solution.

Problem: Unavailable digital environment when you need it. Many

design engineers face pressing deadlines on a regular basis deadlines

that result in the following mindset. My deadline is today. I need to give a

go/no-go answer on an engineering change today. I cannot wait a week for

other people to assemble a digital mockup for me. I cannot trust such a

decision to digital data that is 2 weeks old. I need all of the latest data now.

RDV solution: RDV is a process not an event.All necessary indexing

and caching is built continuously as data is released so that you can

perform searches whenever you want.Visualization and CAD can be

launched directly with the search results; there is no need to export

data into special environments or perform special translations.You get

what you need when you need it.

Problem: Too much data and manual filtering:Additional approaches

based on visualization packages require the user to load huge products

then filter down to what he or she really needs.This is often preceded

by a lengthy export and translation activity.The amount of data can be

so large that performance is unacceptable.Typically, the graphics scene

is too big and cluttered to be of immediate use until after considerable

manual filtering is complete.

RDV solution: With RDV, the filter is specified up front, indicating: what

project, what configuration and what spatial area you need.Then, the

system finds and loads only the data you require. Subsequent searches

quickly expand your data set if you need more. Good performance is

maintained on this smaller set and you always have a manageable

graphics environment.

RDV is a powerful platform for the digital product validation process,

providing a foundation for an all encompassing rapid decision system.

This rapid decision system for product development aggregates

results from multiple validation processes and presents them to

decision makers in easy-to-understand web based portal. RDV enables

optimal product and process decisions and allows more time for

creativity and innovation by eliminating mundane non-value added tasks.

Collision detection and interference checking (initial appications

released with the RDV platform) instantly obsolete traditional digital

mockup while eliminating many of the issues and drawbacks associated

with this current best practice technology. Although DMU applications

visually represent the product concept and facilitate complete product

validation, they encounter many problems when implemented on highly

engineered products. Examples of such issues are validating multiple

configurations, keeping configurations up to date with changes and

allowing anyone in the organization access to the latest information.

RDV provides immediate value by solving the issues associated with

these traditional techniques, while providing a solid foundation for the

addition of many future digital product validation applications that will

support a rapid decision system. UGS envisions a suite of digital

product validation applications, including:

Simulation analysis

CAE validation

Manufacturing validation

Cost validation

Function specification validation

Test analysis

8

Why RDV excels

RDV allows designers to make design changes, validate the complete

product for packaging, CAE, process simulation, manufacturability, test,

serviceability, cost and function, and compare the validation result to

other alternative designs. It enables designers to rapidly configure,

visualize, analyze and compare the new part design in all its usages in all

products to fully understand change impact. Design engineers can

configure and visualize a part in all its current usages in all products to

determine if it can be reused in a new product.

RDV enables designers to make optimal product decisions taking into

account all variability and constraints.

By delivering ROI long expected from digital product definition,

Teamcenters RDV solution provides the foundation for facilitating the

digital transformation of todays product-driven companies.

Repeatable Digital Validation platform

Rapid decision system

Applications: CAD, CAE, costing, requirements...

Knowledgelibrary

Designchanges

Decision

Accept

Reject

Man

ufa

cturing

valid

ati

on

Figure 8. RDV-enabled rapid decision system

Corporate Headquarters

United StatesGranite Park One

5800 Granite Parkway

Suite 600

Plano,TX 75024

972 987 3000

Asia-PacificSuites 3601-2, Citibank Tower

Citibank Plaza, 3 Garden Road

Hong Kong

852 2230 3333

Fax 852 2230 3200

EuropeNorwich House Knoll Road

Camberley, Surrey

GU15 3SY

United Kingdom

44 1276 705170

Fax 44 1276 705150

Americas13690 Riverport Drive

Maryland Heights, MO 63043

United States

800 498 5351

Fax 314 264 8900

Regions

Teamcenter, Parasolid, Solid Edge, Femap and I-deas are registered trademarks; and Imageware is a trademark of UGS Corp.

All other logos, trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 2004 UGS Corp. All rights reserved.

9/04

About UGS

UGS is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services

with more than 3.1 million licensed seats and 42,000 clients worldwide.The company promotes

openness and standardization and works collaboratively with its clients in creating enterprise

solutions enabling them to transform their process of innovation and thus begin to capture the

value of PLM. For more information on UGS products and services, visit www.ugs.com.