CADQUEST Tips & Tricks Series

Using Pro/ENGINEER to Automate the Design Process

Why automate the design process? Using Pro/ENGINEER to automate the design process enhances productivity and improves quality. Time is saved on redundant tasks and workloads. The user interface can be simplified, making the design project easier to complete. Designers from other organizations can make modifications to models without having precise knowledge of the design intent. Downstream deliverables like engineering drawings and tool paths are automatically updated as the design is changed.

When should you automate a design? Automate the design when the product will have many common parts and assemblies. Automate when design intent and input parameters are easily defined. Automate when the user base is inexperienced with Pro/ENGINEER and the product itself. Automate when you wish to leverage the full capabilities of Pro/ENGINEER. A general formula for determining if the automation investment will pay for itself is as follows: (automation setup time) x 2.5 <= (time savings per design variation) x (number of variations) (Zila, 1999)

How do you automate a design? Design automation with Pro/ENGINEER can be applied at minimum and maximum levels. The first step is to capture the design intent and input parameters. The next is to decide how much automation to apply. Next, investigate and learn about all possible methods of design automation and choice those that apply effectively. They include Pro/NOTEBOOK (Layout Mode), Pro/PROGRAM, Relations, Parameters, Family Tables, and Interchange Mode. Pro/NOTEBOOK uses global parameters that can drive any model it is declared to. This is the entry point for all input parameters based on design intent. Pro/PROGRAM programs can be written so that models update based on the input from Pro/NOTEBOOK. Pro/PROGRAM programs can also use input parameters, relations and parameters within each model to make decisions and modifications. Family Table allows similar part instance models to exist within one generic model. These instance models can easily be exchanged for other instance models of the same family on a drawing or within an assembly model. Assembly models can have family instances as well. Interchange Mode allows dissimilar part and subassembly models to be exchanged for one another within an assembly model.

What should be automated? Product part and assembly models with many variations and their deliverables should be automated. Deliverables includes part drawings, assembly drawings, mold tooling, die tooling, assembly equipment, and manufacturing assemblies and tool paths.

Bibliography:

Bartels, H. (1999, Fall). Techniques for Automating Pro/ENGINEER Models. Profiles, 4, 4.

Henault, M., Walraven, M., Sevrence, S. (1996, September/October). Automating Pro/ENGINEER. ProE The Magazine, 4, 40.

Zila, V. (1999, May). Pro/ENGINEER Design Automation using Pro/PROGRAM. ProE The Magazine, 7, 34.

Michael A. McCaffrey, CADQUEST, Harrisburg, PA