April 1997, Volume 14, No. 4
|
|
April 1997, Volume 14, No. 4
|
Linking multiple users at multiple locations
Collaborative computing is an emerging networking strategy that links every department -- even every employee -- throughout a company. The idea itself has floated around since at least the early 1990s, but has finally come into its own thanks to expanded networking capabilities presented by the ubiquitous nature of the World Wide Web and corporate intranets.
Concurrent engineering has become one of the latest technology buzzwords for industrial users. It allows different groups to create individual parts of a mechanical design at different locations, and at different stages of the design process.
For instance, one user might be designing an electrical component while another person is testing it for installation or maintainability, while a third person is performing training on that same component (see ISR, May 1996). Virtual reality developers are adding another dimension to the collaborative effort, and making VR technology accessible throughout an enterprise during a product's entire lifecycle.
Division Inc. (San Mateo, Calif.; http://www.division.com), for instance, has developed the universal virtual product (UVP), a fully functional product simulation that can be used to rapidly study all aspects of a product's form, fit and function. The UVP is a common medium through which all members of the enterprise -- regardless of where they are physically located -- can access, visualize, interact with, and understand the product. It can be used throughout the product lifecycle for conceptual design, marketing, detailed design, manufacturing simulation, training, sales, and other applications that will evolve as companies implement the new concept.
Similarly, Deneb Robotics Inc. (Auburn Hills, Mich.; http://www.deneb.com) has developed a virtual collaborative engineering (VCE) environment that links multiple users at multiple locations, allowing them to analyze and review simulations over a wide area network. According to Deneb, users can interactively evaluate trade-off decisions involving design concepts, manufacturing processes, tooling, and factory layouts in the VCE environment. Any VCE user can assume control of a simulation, make changes, or view changes made by others on the VCE network.
And a third VR developer -- Engineering Animation Inc. (Ames, Iowa; http://www.eai.com) -- has its own collaborative engineering environment, which facilitates real-time peer-to-peer visualization communication throughout a company's product development process. This new communications technology is available as a software module for EAI's 3D visualization and digital prototyping software VisMockUp and VisFly, providing a platform-independent environment in which to view and analyze large product assemblies.
EAI's collaborative engineering environment allows for real-time collaboration on product design, analysis, motion and assembly information across an entire corporation. Multiple users in various departments can look at the same data at the same time and interact with real-time collaboration capabilities.
By using a collaborative virtual prototyping environment, conceivably everybody in a manufacturing enterprise, including those at remote locations, can have access to live models, which incorporate real-time visualization, animation and functional simulation features. The idea is to improve communication by helping users better understand the numerous aspects of the design, such as clearances, how parts will move in relation to one another, collision avoidance, how people will interact with the product, and how assemblies will come together and be taken apart.
Using a standard Web browser, technical and non-technical users throughout a corporation can participate in product reviews and have a more immediate influence on the product development process. With online design reviews, users can bring together their individual expertise in one collective interactive session to quickly identify and resolve product issues before costly redevelopment efforts are required.
Division sees its UVP as being closer in characteristics to a physical prototype than a digital prototype. Some of the UVP's specific functions include:
When properly integrated with a product data management (PDM) system, Division's dVISE development tool can be automatically updated to ensure that users always have a current view of the UVP. Since dVISE is available as a Net-scape Navigator plug-in, the UVP can be accessed by remote users via a Web browser.
Deneb, meanwhile, has embedded its VCE environment in its new Virtual NC machine tool simulation software, which is designed for detecting and resolving CNC (computer numerical control) machine program inefficiencies or errors. CNC programmers, design engineers and machine operators can review setups, monitor process para-meters, validate CNC programs and select tooling without using the actual machine tool.
Deneb claims that early users of its Virtual NC have reported a reduction in machining cycle times of 25%, a reduction in "dry runs" of up to 90%, and perhaps most importantly, the avoidance of hundreds of potential collisions involving the components of the machine tool, cutting tools and the workpiece.
EAI's VisMockUp is a new digital prototyping software product that combines 3D visualization technology with total design packaging analysis functions. It enables users to identify and eliminate design flaws early in the development cycle, and offers a set of analysis tools designed to analyze an entire assembly, including interference and collision detection, proximity and attribute filtering and measurement tools. In addition, VisMockUp provides users with a wide range of collaboration tools that take full advantage of the corporate intranet.
EAI's VisFly enables engineers to interact with complex CAD designs in real time and lets them literally "fly though" large models to view assemblies and components in detail. VisFly models are automatically updated from the CAD system.
All of these VR-based products facilitate the concurrent engineering process and help reduce the amount of time necessary to introduce new products by identifying problems early in the design cycle. Engineering and design teams can use them to more easily visualize their projects, see the effects of changes and then communicate in real time.
This increased interaction, it is believed, can help reduce the total time it takes for products to move from initial concept to final manufacturing. Since reduced time-to-market means lower costs and higher profits, the interest in VR-based concurrent engineering will certainly escalate in the coming months, particularly as companies become more Web-savvy.