CAD Translation Remains a Problem for Engineers

Interoperability remains an issue for design engineers who use a number of design tools on a project despite vendor claims they offer unified systems that reduce the incidence of interoperability issues, according to a survey by Kubotek USA.

The survey of nearly 3,000 users quantifies an issue that continues to plague many CAD users. "There's a lot of pain here, customers are struggling because standards aren't really there. No matter how good the translators are, there are still issues," says Cheryl Salatino, marketing vice president at Kubotek USA.

Nearly half the respondents, 44 percent, cite translator issues as a key problem when they move 3D CAD models into their preferred CAD systems. Missing or corrupt data is a major headache, along with geometry errors, respondents say. Those issues remain largely the same for users in various industries.

Parametric feature-based CAD systems are used by nearly half the participants. For them, the problem is serious enough that nearly half the respondents rebuild 3D models from scratch at least a quarter of the time. Only 17 percent say they never need to rebuild models completely.

For those who use direct modeling, the problems aren't as great. Only 39 percent completely redesign models a quarter of the time or more, leaving 61 percent who rebuild them less than a quarter of the time. However, that is still a fairly high incompatibility level, Salatino notes.

Kubotek, itself a provider of CAD software, notes there are few signs the problem will fade soon. "The problem gets bigger as more and more functionality is added, it becomes harder and harder to translate everything," Salatino says.

Although the industry has seen some consolidation while large vendors are broadening their product portfolios in an attempt to increase compatibility, a growing number of users are working with multiple development programs. "Last year, 16 percent used five or more CAD systems. This year it's up to 32 percent," Salatino says. The survey affirms that those who send and receive more files in multiple CAD formats have more issues with missing or corrupt data, leading to lost productivity while repairs are made.

Respondents came largely from small and medium-sized companies, with 1,000 or fewer employees, and from various fields including manufacturing (35 percent) transportation (10 percent) and engineering services (9 percent).