Are unexpected or late-stage changes undermining your organization's ability to get products to market on schedule? Does deciphering CAD models built by someone else in a non-compatible CAD program draw out your design cycles and add unneeded complexity to engineering projects?
If you answered yes to either or both of these questions, it comes as no real surprise that you are not alone. In case you needed proof, PTC recently conducted a survey of more than 7,000 CAD users and engineers worldwide, trying to identify their most pressing challenges when it comes to CAD and product development. The overwhelming majority zeroed in on two primary problems affecting their design agility: dealing with unanticipated changes and finding a way to easily leverage multi-CAD data.
Engineers who responded to the PTC survey said modifying imported designs is painful, such as this example, of placing the white bolts properly based on the recognition of the pattern. (Source: PTC)
According to the survey, 44 percent of respondents said they experienced excessive, unanticipated changes throughout development, while 37.9 percent said they faced dramatic or multiple last-minute changes on a recent project. Moreover, one-third of respondents said that quickly driving late-stage changes, especially to a model built by someone else, is difficult using most existing CAD packages.
"Late-stage design changes are the biggest problem getting in the way of time-to-market, along with interoperability with other CAD systems," Sherry Fairbank, PTC's vice president of marketing, told us.
The other problem area highlighted by the survey is perhaps the most interesting considering PTC's longstanding heritage around parametric or history-based CAD.
Almost half of the survey respondents (49 percent) said that importing models from other CAD tools is difficult using their current CAD software (and I am assuming that means PTCs, as well), and 59 percent of respondents said that modifying imported models coming in from other CAD tools is difficult with their existing CAD software. Forty percent said modifying models from a peer engineer, even if they use the same CAD tool, is still a challenge using existing CAD tools. The problem is only exacerbated if someone leaves the engineering team -- a scenario that 35.4 percent said they faced during a recent design project.
Excellent selection of subject matter on CAD challenges and incompatibilities that still persist today. This article addresses the 'white elephant' in the room that CAD vendors are typically reluctant to talk about. I'm glad that PTC is willing to openly discuss solutions for this potentially large productivity gain.
It is a fact that many companies work in a heterogeneous CAD environment and have to edit and work with 3D solid models that are not 100% compatible with each other. Yes, 3D models can be imported between CAD systems using IGES, STP, etc. formats. However, in the majority of these cases, the complete model associativity is lost and the imported design can't be completely edited or modified. Then if a design change is needed, delays typically occur because this imported model can't be truly modified.
I look forward to reading more about PTC and other CAD suppliers approach to this issue.
Yes, Siemens PLM seems to be concentrating on making the managment of design easier. A lot of their recent releases seem to be focused specifically on addressing ways to handle design technology efficiently and effectively.
There is definitely progress and PTC's release of this study and its implications that it will continue to work on solving one of its customers' biggest pain points is a sign of that. Most CAD vendors today recognize that it is a heterogeneous world out there and with today's design initiatives involving suppliers, outsource partners, etc., there is no way everyone is going to be working with the same CAD tool, let alone same version of the same CAD tool. Siemens PLM Software has done a lot of work around open standards with JT Open and most CAD vendors consistently talk about their ability to work with other CAD formats whenever they do a new release. It's not perfect yet, but it's definitely moving there. A far cry from years past, no doubt.
Is there any progress being made toward compatability in CAD, Beth? I remember when there were about 12 different word processing programs that weren't compatible. That changed with time as compatibility improved and one program became the standard (except in the law profession). Any chance of this happening with CAD?
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