XII ADM International Conference - Grand Hotel - Rimini Italy - Sept.

5th-7th, 2001

Complex CAD project management by the means of designing criteria control tools. Deployment of a vehicle gearbox archetype with the aid of WAVE by UNIGRAPHICS.
Ing. Francesco Mosca (*), Ing. Carmine Di Martino (*), Dott. Nuria Aleixos() (*)ELASIS S.C.p.A., I.C.T. - CAD/CAE (I) ()Universidad Jaume I de Castellon (E)

Abstract The developing of a complex product by means of advanced CAD is nowadays immersed in the investigation and development of control mechanisms among the components that integrate it. These mechanisms of control, applied to the structure of the product, allow managing the modifications at a superior level, being these transmitted at the inferior levels through this structure of control. Different designers can face the initial organisation of the project in terms of a control structure, which takes care of creating basic and defined criteria, ready to manage the carried concurrent design. This same technique allows in addition the centralisation of the part modifications by a person in charge of the project that perfectly knows the specifications and the bounds of the control structure. The application has been developed with one among the few more powerful modelling software in the market, i.e. the CAD package by Unigraphics (UGS). Its tool WAVE has been analysed studying the functionality and potentiality of UG for the designing management purpose.

1.

INTRODUCTION

The investigation work was made up of two fundamental parts: An analysis of the UG WAVE characteristics, to establish a methodology of use for the creation of the critical data of the project An application for the creation of a control structure with this tool for the design and changing management of a three axes motor gearbox.

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1.1 WAVE tool description Wave is a tool designed for understanding the model in Unigraphics. Unigraphics is, fundamentally, a linked geometry based system, and so WAVE, provides several tools to manage all these linked data. An example of a simple assembly is one composed by two components, one component contains a rectangular base with a circular boss and the other one the hole of the circular boss (Fig.1)
Linked curve assembly component A

component B component A component B assembly

Figura 1: Linked geometry

As we can see in the example above, the component B has a linked curve from the component A, and this linked geometry has been used to create the hole inside. If the circular boss changes its position or its dimensions, the hole will move and change with it in the component B [7] The WAVE tool provides a comfortable way to create and inspect linked geometry into an assembly. These tools appear in the ANT (Assembly Navigator Tool, that is the model tree), pressing the right button of the mouse, and in the option Assemblies, WAVE from the UG main menu. The benefits gained with the use of UG/WAVE are [8]: is quite easy to adapt the project with respect to the ongoing modifications, cause the use of interpart relations and the use of linking tools allow a quick propagation from the TOP level to the underlying ones; reusing of the project, obtained with the help of cloning functionality that guarantees the preservation in the cloned assembly of all the links created. fixing the main constraints and the specific outlines of the main components, so to be used as references for the creation of other parts.

1.2 UG/WAVE Control Structure Like other major CAD in the market, capable of a Top-Down technique use, UG needed a tool allowing managing and handling such external references. The UG/WAVE Control Structure isolates the product layout and subsystem design criteria from the geometry. This Control Structure is an assembly where the master layout geometry is defined and managed [8]. A scheme of this is shown in the Picture 2.

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WAVE_CS.prt

Product layout

1st subsystem

2nd subsystem

3 rd subsystem

criteria

criteria

criteria

Criteria, Constrains, Interfaces

1st subsystem develope

2 nd subsystem develope

3 rd subsystem develope

Subsistem designs

Figura 2 WAVE functional scheme

A typical Control Structure (CS) consists of planes, sketches, curves and surfaces representing geometric interfaces; for example, can be used for the relative positioning among components. The Product Assembly (PA), instead, represents the structure of the final product, complete with all the components and at the final level of detail; in the last assembly then, the real CAD model mathematics are developed. A good and well managed Top Down technique does implies, therefore, the use of such a control structure and it need to be said how it is linked to the final product structure.

Figura 3 Control Structure vs. Product Structure

To create such a link between what is WIP (CS) and what is final development (i.e. the PA), some special parts of the CS are created. They are called start part, and in the CS tree levels are the last results of each branch. The link operation consists of the creation of a certain number of linked parts, belonging this time to the PA tree structure (Fig. 3).

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It is important then to state the steps to start performing a new project: control structure creation; defining the start parts, representing the future output of the control structure product assembly assessment; Start Parts e Linked Parts linkage; insertion of the Linked Parts in the Product Assembly; detailed modelling of Product Assembly parts; verifications of the created links. The correct propagation of the modifications can be tested modifying the key parameters of the CS, evaluating the passage of such modifications in the Product Assembly. The CS creation is a very critic step on account of its importance in the project for the designing key parameter identifications. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF A PRACTICAL APPLICATION: THE THREE SHAFTS GEARBOX. 2.1. Defining the application constraint, rules and requirements As a matter of fact, every work does begin with a correct setting up of the customer requirements or if it is a research work, the boundary conditions and the constraints of the problem. In this case it was found, among the various applications could be performed by the means of Unigraphics, the need in the ELASIS Transmission Dept. to realize an archetype of a three axes gearbox, useful to create and regenerate the geometry of all the component the gearbox is made of. The request was to manage the position of the three shafts, a primary shaft and two auxiliary ones for each different test configuration. This was normally achieved testing the different values of inter-axes distances on a two dimension sketches, with no support of 3D solid modelling until the final configuration is decided, with the handicap to redraw all the geometry in case of values different from the initial ones. The trade-off is to be found among this triangle configuration of the shafts Fig 4a, in relationship with the distance of the final transmission shaft (Fig. 4b) and the ratios required for the gear sets, due to the constrained values of the external diameter for each ratio chosen.

Figure 4a Figure 4: The shafts triangolation

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Figure 4b

XII ADM International Conference - Grand Hotel - Rimini Italy - Sept. 5th-7th, 2001

2.2. Gear box control structure with WAVE/UG Specifically, the research work performed has been made up of the detailing and dividing the basic project data up to a minimum level considered. Following the methodology proposed, the steps in the 1.2 were performed. The basic structure works, basically, with two input data from a specific calculation program: the first input controls the values of the triangulation of the primary axis, the two secondary axes and the differential axis of the gearbox. the second input controls the critical dimensions of the gear box and the union to the car engine, based on the maximum housing calculated from the dimensions of the primary and secondary axis The Fig. 5 show some basic parameters used to control the axis positioning and the features of the primary axis wheels, besides of their position inside the created control structure for our model. These basic data used in the control structure are taken from the output of a calculation program, specific to obtain optimal parameters to construct a gearbox. The interpart expressions (i.e. IPE) and the linked geometry, allow the fundamental data to be transferred to the rest of the control structure.

Figure 5.- Primary axis & wheels features

The forward steps for the creation of the control structure using the provided tools by WAVE (Wave Geometry Linker, Associativity Manager, Part Link Browser, Part Navigator and Geometry Navigator), are the following: Addition of the two secondary axis, taking into account the presence or not of the certain wheels in each axis (Fig. 7). Determination of the position, form and size of the gear box, taking into account the housing of the three axis with their respective wheels.

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Determination of the fixing points of the gear box to the chamber that links it to the car engine, and the positioning of the differential axis and the gear transmission (represented by a sphere, whose diameter denotes its housing, Fig. 6).

Figure 6.- Components Relative mounting.

Determinations of the housing shape (magenta one in Fig. 6), taking into account the gearbox form and size, and the housing of the transmission.

Figure 7.- Main secondary axis and auxiliar secondary axis

The determination of the wheels diameters, their position and their presence in a specific axis, has been performed by means of complex expressions similar to a program code. In Fig. 8 it is shown part of the source relation file used to determine the wheel with the maximum diameter over the main secondary axis. Its position is determined in other piece of the file not showned here:
mxds1=if (xs1>xs2) (xs1) else (xs2) //determines the maximum diameter mxds2=if (mxds1<xs3) (xs3) else (mxds1) mxds3=if (mxds2<xs4) (xs4) else (mxds2) mxds4=if (mxds3<xs5) (xs5) else (mxds3) mxds5=if (mxds4<xs6) (xs6) else (mxds4) mx_ings=mxds5/2

Figure 8.- Use of complex expresions into the control structure

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XII ADM International Conference - Grand Hotel - Rimini Italy - Sept. 5th-7th, 2001

2.3. Use of Visual Editor tool Even though the system is capable of advanced functionalities or programmed calculation for the main geometric features, it is important to perform such calculation in a simpler way. Hence, it is useful to perform the necessary regenerations in a way that can be transparent to the final designer, just to have a more easy management of such a huge number of parameters instead of modifying them in a lot of rows of the code records. This can be achieved with the Visual Editor (Fig. 9). This can be described as a live spreadsheet, where you can add the parameters you want to control, together with as many images you need (produced in the 2d drafting environment) to clarify the use of such parameters. In the Figure 9, for instance, is represented a sketch of the primary axis of the gearbox, with the overall dimension (diameters and relative positions) of the gear mounted on it.

Figure 9. Use of the Visual Editor

Inside the Visual Editor, clicking on the image dimension (or in the rows below), you can interactively modify such values, on the active or in any of the n sheets you can add in the Visual Editor. Only when you are ready to check the result you can regenerate the entire Control Structure (and so the Product Assembly) clicking on the update button. 3. MANAGEMENT OF TRANSMISSION HOUSING OVERALL DIMENSIONS. As described by Fig. 10, the different size and positioning of all the gear wheels into the housing, are determined by the values the designers wants to impose to all the ratios of his transmission.

Figure 10. Transmission Housing development

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XII ADM International Conference - Grand Hotel - Rimini Italy - Sept. 5th-7th, 2001

This obviously cannot be known before, thats why the entire Control Structure can be regenerated to assume the final overall dimensions; thats why, as well, the shafts housing should be modelled with a well chosen feature. As showed in Fig. 11, the shaft housing has been modelled with a ruled feature. It take into account either the needing to model the part with the right draft, or to manage the initial and final section according to the outer diameters of the wheels at the differential side and at the opposite side.

Figure 11. Transmission Housing modelling

The relations imposed in the global file will in such a way govern the dimensions of the model, representing the start-part of the housing. You can check these relations both with a specific panel (Fig. 12) , than with the global relation text file.

Figura 12:Interpart relation table

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XII ADM International Conference - Grand Hotel - Rimini Italy - Sept. 5th-7th, 2001

4. AUTOMATIC PROCEDURES DEVELOPEMENT. Furthermore, a practical integration has been tested, to link such a control structure to the results of a software system for gearbox design optimisation. Such a commercial code, given some input such as inter- axes and ratios, takes care of dimension all the wheels and shaft, verifying shaft deflection, housing stress due to the input torque, an so on. This code has a GUI showing the gearbox model, with all the component: shafts, gears, bearings, etc. etc. Such result output can be used in a CAD only as dead entity i.e. IGES or STEP geometry. So it was deployed quite an easy procedure, reading a text file output from the gearbox optimizer. Fig 13 describes the output in form of a picture but, obviously, any dimension of the components showed may be written in a ASCII file that we can import in the relations using import command in UG.

P (0,0)

308,130 mm

Figura 13:Shaft sections & lenghts calculations

The table below (Fig. 14) describes what has been said. With an automatic procedure (reading the file with a UG Macro, or programming an API interface) all these values were read in the Control Structure. This macro can pilot the behaviour of the system, instead of using the visual editor, in a more automatic manner, integrating UG-WAVE with legacy calculation codes.
Shaft Section Node 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Offset(mm) 1 2 3 5 13 15 16 17 19

Length 0,000 2,000 5,000 17,040 101,200 113,000 116,000 118,500 154,500 . 2,000 3,000 12,040 84,160 11,800 3,000 2,500 36,000 46,970 .

Left OD 30,000 30,000 30,000 35,000 44,500 44,500 28,000 28,000 26,000 .

Right OD 30,000 30,000 30,000 35,000 44,500 44,500 28,000 28,000 26,000 ..

Bore 28,000 : 24,000 24,000 : 18,000 18,000 : 18,000 18,000 : 18,000 18,000 : 18,000 18,000 : 7,000 7,000 : 0,000 .

Material Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel ..

Mass (kg) 0,003 0,008 0,042 0,465 0,12 0,033 0,012 0,173 0,195

Figura 14:Shaft sections & lenghts calculations

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5. CONCLUSIONS Such a way to manage a project (critical data organised in a control structure), leads to a simple modifying of the product or to a redesign without remodelling the geometry but regenerating it. Moreover, several solutions can be considered for the same problem in real time, that is, giving different values to the parameters of the control structure. Even with an external linkage to a calculation program, as in our particular case, the geometry updates, checking collisions and showing the geometry for each case (one case for each combination of parameters). This can help enormously to see physically the more suitable solution to adopt for a problem that has not one solution, but a lot of them. On a concurrent engineering point of view a control structure governed by a project leader, and containing the critical data such as criteria, constraints, rules and calculations from an external application can be used to centralize the leadership and the management of the project (Fig. 15). The CAD control structure guides the designer team to complete their product design subsystems, so to guarantee the deployment of the calculation solution made from external application, and checking the further work made by the designers.

Figura 15: Concurrent Project Management

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AKNOWLEDGMENTS This work has been partially financed by the Secretara de Educacin, Universidades, Investigacin y Desarrollo (Consejera de Cultura, Educacin y Ciencia de la Generalitat Valenciana Spain).

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[13] Shalon, D., Gossard, D., Ulrich, K. e Fitzpatrick, D. (1992). Representing geometric variations in complex structural assemblies on CAD systems, ASME Advances in Design Automation, Vol. 44, No.2, pp. 121-132. [14] Mntyla, M. (1990). A modeling system for top-down design of assembled products, IBM J Res Develop, Vol. 34, No. 5, pp.636-659. [15] Wilson, RH (1991). Maintaining geometric dependencies in assembly planning, In Homem de Mello, L. S., Lee, K. (eds): Computer-aided Mechanical Assembly Planning. Kluwer, pp. 244- 262.

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