VIT University

ComputerIntegratedManufacturing
Fall201213 CADdataExchangeformat

cxxxw U
Prof.E.RAJKUMAR
Prof.E.Raj kumar, Design Division, SMBS

Product data exchange

Product data exchange is the ability to express and exchange in a digital computerized format all useful information about a given product. Product data Exchange will enable those involved in a product development (design, engineering analysis, manufacturing and support) to define, access, and exchange all useful information via computer. The deployment of this technology will mean shorter development times, higher quality products, lower costs. It will also insure flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of customers, manufacturers, suppliers and users.

Product data exchange standards

Product data exchange standards include those technologies for the access, sharing, exchange, storage and retrieval of product information. The standards range from the simplest and most basic elements(e.g., xy coordinates) to intelligent formats that define all aspects of a product including orientation, appearance, properties, tolerances, materials, weight, cost and delivery information. The ultimate goal to develop the international standard for the Exchange of product model data (STEP).

ContinuousAcquisitionandLifecyclesupport(CALS):
No discussion of data exchange take place without a discussion of CALS because of its dramatic impact on the product data environment. CALS seeks to integrate systems development production and life cycle support by exchanging digital information within companies, between companies, with customers, and within government. CALS is a strategy to accelerate the transition from conventional product development methods into highly automated, integrated mode of operation. CALS strategy includes: 1. Todevelopstandardsforthedatastorageandexchange. 2. Toautomatesystemstostore,manageanddistributethisinformationto manyandvariedusersacrossanenterprise. Originally CALS was the acronym for Computer Aided Acquisition and Logistics. The original CALS was developed by US Department of Defense (DOD).

IGES

Continues..

In 1979 the US air force ICAM project brought together resources from General Electric, Boing and the National Institute of standards and Technology (NIST) , to develop a neutral data exchange file format. The result of their cooperation was called the Initial Graphics Exchange specification(IGES).IGES version 1.0 was released in early 1980 and became a American National standard in 1981.

EDIF
A second parallel effort for neural data exchange for electronic design was initiated in the early 1980s. Guided by six electronic design companies (Daisy systems, mentor Graphics, Motorola, National semiconductor, Tektronix and Texas instruments. This activity was an attempt to standardize on the format for integrated circuit design. The first release of Electronic Data Interchange Format (EDIF) was published in May 1984. This format becomes an American National standard of the Electronic Industries Association (EIA).

CAD Data Exchange format: The German and French Data Formats:
The VDA (Verbander Der Automobil) format was created by the German Automobile industry and is concerned with the use of high order polynomials to model complex curves and surfaces. The SET ( Standard dEchange et Transfer) format was developed on the initiative of the French aerospace industry from 1983 onwards.

Drawing Interchange File Format(DXF):

The AutoCAD drawing database (dwg file) is written in a compact format that changes significantly as new features are added to AutoCAD. Autodesk, the product developers, does not recommend use of its data format while exchanging information with other CAD programs. The preferred solution is use of the Drawing Interchange file Format (DXF) to be used in interchanging drawings between AutoCAD and other file CAD programs.

General File structure of the DXF File:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A Header section that contains general information related to the model. A TABLES section that contains definition of named items. A BLOCKS section containing description of the entities that make up blocks in each drawing. An ENTITIES section containing drawing entities , including any block reference. AN END of File

Drawing
Subfigure Instance Group

IGES Data Structure

General Note

Composite curve

General Note

Line

Group

Subfigure Instance

General Note

Line

Group

Piecewise Linearcurve

Subfigure Instance

General Note

ProductDataManagement
Product Design Product Design (CAD) Engineering and Analysis (CAE)

CADdataisusedthroughout theorganization
Marketing Customer Requirements

Neutral I/F Product Information Management Neutral I/F Manufacturing Engineering Process Planning Manufacturing Databases

Product Databases

Supply Management Materials Planning Suppliers Customer Installation and Distribution

Procurement

Fabrication, Assembly & Test Operations

TheSupplyChain

Suppliers

Customers

TheVirtualEnterprise
Mostproductsrequirethecoordinatedeffortofa largenumberofcompaniesinthesupplychain Thesupplychaincanbethoughtofasavirtual enterprise Productdataandotherinformationmustbeshared betweentheparticipatingcompanies

VirtualEnterprise
Virtual Enterprise

Customers Suppliers

TypicalSituation
Majorsupplier usesIDEAS Partneruses Unigraphics

Majorcompany usesCATIA

Smallsupplier usesAutoCAD

Smallsupplier usesSolidEdge

TheProblem
EveryCADsystemusesitsownproprietarydata format Designdatamustbeconvertedfromoneformatto theother

DirectTranslationbetweenCAD Systems

IDEAS Unigraphics

NeedatranslatorfromeveryCAD packagetoeveryother For4CADpackages,need6 translators For6CADpackages,need16 translators!

CATIA

Pro/Engineer

DataExchangeStandards
Toaddresstheproblem,manystandardsforCAD dataexchangehavebeendeveloped CADsystemscanimportandexporttomanyofthese standardformats

EvolutionofDataStandards
Interfaces CAD/CAD CAD/CAM IGES PDES PDDI SET VDA/FS CAD*I CIM-OSA EDIF AFNOR (France) DIN (Germany) ESPRIT (EEC) ESPRIT (EEC) USA Electronics Industry ??? STEP ( A full data model) ANSI (USA) Product Data Structure Standardization Organization National & European International ISO

CurrentSituation
TranslationusingIGESisunreliable geometryiscorrupted muchcleanuprequiredaftertranslation TranslationusingSTEPisnotwidespread STEPtranslatorsonlyrecentlyavailable Existingtranslatorsloseinformation parametricandconstraints featuresandhistorytrees

ShorttermSolutions
Toavoiddatatranslationproblems,manycompanieshave standardizedonasingleCADsystem Ford allsuppliersmustuseIDEAS Chrysler allsuppliersmustuseCATIA GeneralMotors allsuppliersmustuseUnigraphics

NewProblemforSuppliers
Todealwithallthreeautomakers,youmust supportIDEAS,UnigraphicsandCATIA! Forsmallcompanies,thisisverydifficult

ABetterSolution
Abettersolutionisdevelopmentofreliable dataexchangestandards,usinganeutral interface

NeutralInterface

CAD 1

CAD 2

CAE 1

CAE 2

Neutral Interface

CAPP

PP&C

CAM

CAQ

RequirementsofanInterface
Theinterfacemustbecapableofhandlingallmanufacturing data Thereshouldbenoinformationloss(maintainthesemantics duringconversion) Thesystemmustbeefficienttobecapableofhandlingthe realtimerequirementsofmanufacturing Thesystemshouldbeopenendedtopermitextensionsor contractions

Continued
Thesystemshouldbeadaptabletootherstandards Thesystemmustbeindependentofthecomputerand architectureused Itmustbepossibletoformapplicationorientedsubsetsof thestandardtoreducecosts Theinterfacemustbeupwardanddownwardcompatibleina hierarchicalcontrolstructure. Testproceduresmustbeprovidedtoverifyeffectively.

InitialGraphicsExchangeSpecification(IGES)

FormattedASCIIfileformat Supportsmany2Dand3DCADentities Hasgonethroughseveralversionssince1980 Widelysupported

ProblemswithIGES
Manyincompatibleflavours Unreliabletranslation,particularlyforcomplex geometry Noformalinformationmodellingbasis Insufficientsupportforconformancetesting

STEP
(Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) Uses a formal model for data exchange Information is modelled using the EXPRESS language EXPRESS has elements of Pascal, C, and other languages It contains constructs for defining data types and structures, but not for processing data EXPRESS describes geometry and other information in a standard, unambiguous way

STEPArchitecture
Conformancetesting &testsuites Layer3:Applicationprotocols

Layer2:Resourceinformationmodels

Layer1:Implementationmethods (EXPRESS)

Physicalfiles

ClassesofSTEPParts
Introductory Descriptionmethods Implementationmethods Conformancetestingmethodologyandframework Integratedresources Applicationprotocols Abstracttestsuites Applicationinterpretedconstructs

StatusofSTEP
STEPhasbeenunderdevelopmentformany years,andwillcontinueformanymore OveradozenSTEPpartshavebeenapproved asinternationalstandards Manyothersareunderdevelopment

OtherStandards
Standardsfortechnicaldocuments Standardsforimages InternetandWebstandards

ContinuousAcquisitionandLife cycleSupport(CALS)
DevelopedbyUSDepartmentofDefense Prescribesformatsforstorageandexchangeoftechnicaldata Technicalpublicationsanimportantfocus

ImportantCALSStandards
StandardGeneralizedMarkupLanguage(SGML) documentdescriptionlanguage separatescontentfromstructure(formatting) usestagstodefineheadings,sections,chapters,etc. HTMLisbasedonSGML ComputerGraphicsMetafile(CGM) vectorfileformatforillustrationsanddrawings IGES alsousedforillustrations

CommonFormatsforBitmap Images
Standards
JointPhotographicExpertGroup(JPEG)

Proprietary
GraphicsInterchangeFormat(GIF) Windowsbitmapformat(BMP) Zsoftfileformat(PCX) TaggedImageFileFormat(TIFF/TIF) Targafileformat(TGA)

WebandInternetStandards
HypertextMarkupLanguage(HTML)
usedtodescribewebpages basedonSGML

VirtualRealityModellingLanguage(VRML)
standardfordescriptionof3Dinteractive environmentsandworlds downloadedanddisplayedinawebbrowser wellsuitedtosharingofCADdata

OtherCADFileFormats
DXF
defactostandardpublishedbyAutoDesk (AutoCAD)

STL
3DfileformatusedasinputforStereolithography

SAT
solidmodelfileformatusedbyACISbasedCAD systems

Electronic data management

To illustrate the importance of EDM, consider the following example: A CAD generated 3D model is used as a master reference to generate a number of 2D drawings that may be optically stored in an automatic archiving and retrieval system. This same master reference may be used by the CAM system to generate G- codes used to drive computer controlled machines(CNCs) , meanwhile it may be used by the analysis engineer to analyze its FEM behavior, the procurement department is using a BOM generated from the same master reference to procure all materials, and finances is currently involved in costing this product . Now if the designer revises his design and modifies it, then the EDM will automatically trigger an email to inform all users of different data sets related of this product data set s related of this product of the appearance of such modification.

Electronic design Interchange format (EDIF)

Electronic data Interchange format (EDIF) is a neutral format for the transfer for the transfer of integrated circuit design data from a central organization to manufacturing organization in a multi vendor environment.

Very high speed Integrated circuit Hardware description language(VHDL)

VHDL(Hardware description language) is a standard ,it has a neutral format describing electronic circuits and system independent from any proprietary platform, it can be stored as sub modules in a data base, and these standard sub modules can be reused as building blocks in various different designs. But the major difference between VNDL and STEP is that VHDL is also a functional description language , it does not only describe the structure and properties of design, but also their behavior, and response to stimuli.