Elysium’s CADfeature Boosts Automation of Data Translation Tasks

“Translating feature-based parts from I-DEAS to CATIA with CADfeature was much easier than we expected,” says Leif Söderros, Director Mechanical Development at SAAB Bofors Dynamics. “The diagnostic tools guided us through verification and some manual re-mastering, and the metadata feature helped us track each version of our files during the process. But most importantly, Elysium technical support was excellent, answering every one of our questions quickly and clearly. That’s crucial when you’re translating data in-house.”

“An important aspect of transferring full-model intelligence is automating and controlling as much of the process as possible,” says Ken Tashiro, vice president and COO of Elysium. “For instance, this latest update gives our customers a way to eliminate time-consuming regeneration and re-linking of 2D drawings that already exist and are already associatively linked to the CAD model.”

CADfeature includes diagnostic capabilities that check source and target files to ensure that translation has been accurate. Where there is a discrepancy, the software alerts the user and guides manual re-mastering of the file. A metadata function can extract data from I-DEAS/TDM (Team Data Manager) and pass it along with the appropriate files, making it possible to update CAD files while still keeping track of each version.

The 2D drawing translation tool recognizes and converts a wide range of typical views, including base/standard, projected, section, detailed, draft, and general (custom) views. This capability is currently for transfer from I-DEAS NX to CATIA V5. Options for other CAD programs are in development.

New capabilities in CADfeature include:

• A remastering tool that updates data to reflect the latest revisions to feature-based parts and assemblies, including sketches, dimensions, relations between features, and assembly histories and constraints.
• A standard part mapping tool that recognizes the source CAD parts and automatically replaces them, without translation, with identical ones from libraries in the target CAD, transforming the coordinate system to ensure that design intent matches.
• An incremental translation capability that checks for previously translated parts and substitutes the existing file for the new source part on subsequent translations
• A metadata attribute mapping tool that provides tracking information in an XML file for all newly translated and standardized data. The mapped attributes can be made available to PDM systems in a customized form that matches existing labels (e.g., file names or numbers), and is scalable to track data from a desktop application to a large-scale enterprise system.
• An automated geometry verification process that compares 3D mass properties and point cloud data between the source and destination CAD systems. Properties checked include center of gravity, moments of inertia, surface area, volume, and maximum deviation within a surface. The results can be reviewed textually or within a built-in viewer that displays various model comparison views.

Tashiro notes, “CADfeature is an elegant solution for OEMs and supply chains that are working to create end-to-end digital product development and want to focus on creating and manufacturing innovative products—not on manual data regeneration and verification.”

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