Manufacturers of all types regularly try to leverage existing CAD models as a basis for new parts to try to avoid starting each part design from scratch. By retrieving and using models with shapes similar to existing models and which incorporate already proven design know-how, companies can enjoy the benefits of reuse -- shortened design cycles, less rework, and as a result, less costly development cycles.
Despite the clear benefits of reusing part models, companies are still struggling to do so effectively, particularly on a global basis, when parts models are stored in different systems, with different naming conventions, maybe even using different languages.
Fujjitsu Labs Limited, in partnership with Fujitsu Research and Development Center Co., decided to address the problem of "global shape retrieval" and are collaborating on new technology to help engineers retrieve partially similar models from stored 3D CAD models. Existing 3D CAD model retrieval technology is limited, according to Fujitsu researchers, because it performs either text-based retrieval, requiring people to invoke part names and other keywords, or global shape retrieval, a capability for retrieving CAD models based on their global shape.
The designer-specified search key and 3D CAD models with partially similar shapes can be viewed together in a virtual 3D space. In addition, the Fujitsu technology allows for efficient retrieval through color-coded highlighting of similar parts. (Source: Fujitsu Labs)
Both technologies hamper manufacturers' ability to reuse 3D CAD models of parts because they can't detect 3D CAD models with partially similar shapes, according to Fujitsu researchers. That's where the new technology comes in. Fujitsu's technique, still a work in progress, analyzes the elements composing a 3D CAD model, including the positional relationship between different surfaces, and uses it to automatically segment the model into distinctive parts -- for example, protruding shapes -- which make it easier to find a match and facilitate retrieval. In addition, the new technology will automatically extract shape features such as concave and convex surfaces from the segmented parts and use those to compare to the shape features of the search key, further aiding in part retrieval.
Fujitsu researchers say as long as the shapes are similar, the search criteria will determine the similarity and locate the part, even if the orientation, size, or position of the models vary. A designer or engineer simply specifies a shape to be used as a search key, and via the automatic segmentation process, similar parts are retrieved from the database using the global shape retrieval capabilities. Finally, the technology also allows the designer-specified search key and similar-shaped 3D CAD models to be viewed in a virtual 3D space for comparison, using color-coded highlighting to bring visibility to similar parts.
In initial testing and research, officials say the new technology successfully segmented 10,000 3D CAD models into approximately 100,000 parts, and a search key retrieved 3D CAD models containing similar shapes in seconds -- a metric researchers say makes the technology a prime candidate for real-world use. As a result, Fujitsu plans to pursue commercialization of the technology and it will incorporate it into its PLEMIA design information management system by the year's end.
FPGAs and software IP blocks in EDA were what I had in mind regarding design reuse in electronics. I agree with gsmith120, though: it takes a lot of time and investment in the future, which some companies are not willing to do. And the issues also sound similar: interoperability and vendor lock-in.
@TJ: You have so aptly keyed in on one of the on-going pain points around CAD deployment and an obvious impediment to reuse, especially for older CAD files. I do think that some of the interoperability issuess are being mitigated because the CAD vendors are finally getting the message that vendor lock-in doesn't fly in today's heterogeneous world. Also, new paradigms like cloud computing are also changing the game, especially on how licensing works. And let's not forget about the work being done with open standards like JT Open, among others.
Design reuse is an ongoing theme and really takes time to mature. This was a really big deal several years ago when I designed FPGAs. It took some time but the company I worked for was really learning to make good use of the concept, which saved them time and money.
3D searching will be very useful, but the 3D modeler software companies themselves are hampering the goal of wider 3D part reuse.
ALL of those companies want their customers on a subscription plan to maintain their own revenue stream, so each year, the 3D companies roll out a new version. Files created in the newer version are not backwards compatible with older software, nor can you "save down" with most of them.
While they do permit saving parts in a transfer file format (STEP, or IGS, or any number of others), doing so loses the strength of the native 3D format (the parts become dumb).
So how will a company (or many of them) keep the library fresh? Will this mean good things for employment of low-wage drafters that will freshen the library each year?
The EDA industry has been making efficient use of design rules check (DRC) that is pattern-recognition based (as opposed to the earlier generations of text based comparisons) when checking chip layouts. The same approach can be used to re-use parts based on a higher percentage of pattern matching (greater than 70% for example?) to re-use previous designs.
I think this makes a lot of sense. Design reuse is an ongoing theme in electronics and other design industries, whether it's way under the hood inside a chip, or in subsystems or in code blocks. Now it's in 3D shapes. Kudos to Fujitsu.
@Naperlou: I agree there is a balance between the productivity gains and utility of reuse vs. needing to design toward the specific requirement in mind. I think having technology that facilitates searching out past work and like work products only gives engineers a better starting point and helps perserve intellectual capital that definitely shouldn't be wasted.
This is great. I do have long experience with CAD systems, but we never did any formal reuse. The software engineering world has been struggling with exactly the same issues since the 1980s. Reuse is now extensive in software, but it generally comes in the form of APIs and templates. When you hear that a system has 10M lines of code, that is NOT 10M lines written by the development team. That includes all the standard classes provided by the environment.
One issue, with software and with 3D parts, is that you develop an item in response to a requirement. While it is helpful to have a starting point, you need to be sure that you do not leave structure in that is part of the legacy and not useful in the new part.
Now here's a software jolt that makes a lot of sense, Beth -- 3D search. With increased time-to-market pressure, I'm sure this tool will come in handy.
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