Enhancing the Additive Manufacturing Process with Dassault Systemes Solutions

Posted on August 29, 2020December 27, 2024 by Goutham S R

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has the capability to redefine manufacturing in your organization in multiple aspects effectively. Manufacturing companies of various sizes are looking at AM as an alternative and/or complimentary solution.

Additive Manufacturing can significantly reduce material waste and the typical multiple steps of production. It helps in reducing the part weight and manufacturability of components with complex design, which drives any company to be more competitive and adopt quick go-to-market strategies. AM eliminates the traditional process of the prototype, which directly removes the need for complex manufacturing setup, more time on production setups, huge investments, resource allocation, and more.

With the help of Dassault Systemes’ Additive manufacturing solutions, manufacturing companies are able to achieve their production excellence along with a multi-discipline approach that covers Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing. Topology optimization is one of the key areas where all the manufacturers are looking to reduce the part weight while keeping the design intent un-compromised. This is where an innovative & sustainable solution is required. CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE has a rich set of functionalities which can address end to end needs of any Additive Manufacturing process. It has a powerful set of capabilities that not only addresses the design optimization but also the manufacturability of the optimized design.

CATIA, powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, delivers unmatched capabilities of integration with the existing processes and tools of any organization. 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides a single source of truth Dashboard to the entire business line of a company. The solution empowers organizations to manage changes and introduce disruptive approach. Lesser number of iterations for the New Developed Products means faster launches, lesser wastage, and more profitability.

Both CATIA and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform together can take the innovation, adaptability, profitability, and efficiency to a whole new level.

When the target is excellence, the processes and tools must be perfect.

Ways to Avoid “Click Ok to Terminate” Error in CATIA V5

Posted on August 29, 2020December 27, 2024 by Swapnil Deshmukh

This is a default runtime exception message which appears when CATIA terminates abruptly. This message can be changed by changing the text file content of file in installation directory:

installation directory\win_b64\resources\msgcatalog\CATAfrErrorCatcher.CATNls

There can be several reasons that trigger CATIA crash or ‘Click Ok to Terminate’ error. Below are some of the reasons of this error and the tips & ways on how to avoid this error.

Loading too much data (Memory Errors) : Whenever huge data is loaded in the system then CATIA may crash citing this error. It is a good practice to always load the required files only & close the files which are not required. You need to ensure to use the recommended RAM & recommended Graphics Cards. The list of recommended hardware is given in Dassault Systemes website.

DS supported workstation: Dassault Systemes has listed certified workstations which are already tested and published in this link : https://www.3ds.com/support/hardware-and-software/It is recommended to use DS Certified hardware to get good performance.

Recommended driver: Use recommended Drivers for Graphics Cards.
Large files can be loaded in visualization mode by turning Cache Activation mode on.

Corrupted CATSettings: This could be resolved by deleting the CATSettings or using your correct back up CATSettings. The default path for CATSettings is as below.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes\CATSettings

Corrupt Geometry or Data: If you were performing certain tasks on part or assembly and CATIA crashes, there is a possibility that the data was not clean. In that case, you need to use CATDUA utility to clean the files by going to File>Desk. With right mouse click on the part you will see CATDUA V5 window. Once you click on CATDUA, you need to click run to clean the files with required priority. Check the below screen shots for more clarity.

Corrupt Drafting Standards XML file: Drafting Standards need to be changed in this scenario

Missing Drafting Standards XML file while creating a drawing: in this case, proper drafting standards files need to be specified.

CATIA Bugs: There could be certain bugs in the application which may also cause problems. Please ensure to update Service Packs regularly.

Random weird stuff: It can be data specific error.

In case your CATIA application happens to crash, here is a tip on how you can protect and retrieve the data you been working on just before the crash

It is painful that you lose hours of work just because of a CATIA crash or a timed-out session. Voila, don’t worry! Here is what you need to do to avoid losing your data next time. In your CATIA session, go to CATIA tools option in the small windows popup, click General>General Tab Enable (select automatic backup) and adjust the interval XX (time in minutes).

By doing this, CATIA will perform an automatic backup each XX minute for you while you work in your CATIA session. In case CATIA crashes next time, when you restart the application you will be prompted “would you like to retrieve your unsaved data previously”. If you click yes, CATIA will retrieve last unsaved data.

PLM Readiness Check for your Organization

Posted on August 29, 2020December 27, 2024 by Arun K. Kashyap

PLM Readiness Check for your Organization

During the current challenging times, identifying the right solutions & technologies and adopting them in the organization is arduous and tricky. Moreover, your organization needs to be ready to adapt the changes that the technologies bring into your process, resources, and the work culture. Therefore, your organization must plan ahead before deciding and investing on any software and implementing it. It applies the same for every specific business functions of an organization as well with R&D, Design & Development, Engineering in particular as these are important & core functions of any discrete manufacturing organization across multiple industry verticals.

It is observed that many organizations find it difficult to have a defined process set within an R&D function due to various factors like customer dynamics, unpredictable demands, market changes, product complexities, etc., which leads organizations to look for technologies & solutions that can address these challenges to a major extent. Although ERP and other enterprise solutions are in use in many organizations, the R&D function is left out of this connected ecosystem for some reason and/or limitation of these systems in addressing their challenges. R&D departments still works in a silo with limited connectivity and using legacy or outdated systems like excel, PDM systems, etc.

This led to the evolution of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) applications specific to R&D businesses (like what ERP is for operations) to address their challenges with a whole lot of configurable solutions within it based on the best practices adopted by successful organizations.

Now, there arise the questions – is your company ready for a PLM solution to help increase efficiency and improve collaboration? What are the steps to be taken before you push the PLM start button?

Organizations have to carry out an assessment or readiness check and understand what is needed out of the PLM system implementation for their business in the near term and in the long term. Below are some of the business drivers which are common and your company may have a few or a combination of them.

Your company is diversifying and increasing the product variants and so is the production, workflow and data. In this situation, PLM is needed. PLM helps to scale your business as it acts as a central repository of data and manages all the information flow from concept, through production, and end of the product life cycle.

PLM supports global collaboration and international manufacturing. So, if you are planning to expand your business in international markets, PLM helps you monitor in real-time from anywhere. PLM smoothens your operations and data validation processes and helps you meet quality assurance standards efficiently, which eventually results in an improved brand name. Increased product complexities & design changes with multiple authoring tools in use.
Improve time to market & contain innovation cycle times thus lowering development cost while delivering more transparent and reliable results.
Deliver new and innovative products to the market in short cycles at a competitive price to meet consumers demand
Optimize product costs early in design
Gain market share by collaborating with customers and suppliers to deliver targeted products quickly

If any or all of the above are your business drivers, it is the right time for an organization to invest on PLM system to remain competitive and profitable and look at a systematic way of approaching it through strategic planning to follow a roadmap that produces tangible results over a period of time in terms of profitability and competitiveness. The following points have to be considered that we recommend to all organizations planning to invest on & implement the right PLM system.

Form a PLM committee
Identify your business drivers
Create AS IS and TO BE business processes
Identify the right PLM solution
Form an implementation team
Introduce Change Management
Choose the right PLM partner
Implement PLM Software
Training Plan
Test the Software and Go Live
Measure Success

Once the PLM readiness check is assessed and you have decided to embark on the PLM journey, the primary & most important factor for any successful PLM implementation is selecting the right PLM software & the partner/vendor which undoubtedly requires a lot of investor’s time and energy, but is worth that time. PLM software system will stay with the company for many years, so too will the PLM partner.

EDS Technologies has helped multiple organizations in sizing the requirement and configuring it for multiple customers in India starting from the initial assessment. EDS Technologies is the platinum partner to Dassault Systemes and which is a market leader in PLM solution. It has the right blend of solutions to address end to end requirements for all R&D processes. Below are the set of Dassault Systemes suite of PLM solutions & offerings – industries-specific & process-specific solutions.

Solutions

Specific Industry Solution Experiences which addresses the below and much beyond:
- CAD-authoring tools integration
- Program & Project management
- Document Management
- Change management
- Bill of Material management
- Variant Configuration
- Collaborative Product Development

My COVID STORY

Posted on August 26, 2020September 13, 2024 by Anthony Jesudas

This is my story on the experience of being tested a COVID 19 positive patient. I thought I should share it with all of you on a positive note during these tough times and request you all not to panic in this situation.

I was recovering from a viral fever which had started sometime around the 17^th of July with mild body pain. I could sense that I was not feeling well and thought it could be flu. I took some paracetamol tablets as there were no other symptoms. My appetite and my food intake kept reducing. I decided to go to a general physician who checked my saturated oxygen level and told me that I had nothing worry about and the fatigue would wear off in a week’s time.

I was feeling a little better around 26^th July, but that’s when I realised, I lost my taste completely. I searched on the internet regarding symptoms for COVID and read lot of articles linking loss of smell and taste are also symptoms. Panic started setting in.

On Monday 27^th July 2020, we were supposed to resume our operations from office as our Work from Home duration had completed. I was feeling a lot better compared to the previous week and was planning to report to office. Something at the back of my mind wanted me to get a COVID test done. I Informed my Manager, took a leave for that day and went to a nearby private hospital to get the test done. I was unsure if they would take the COVID Test on me as is. There was nobody available to consult at the hospital. Only security personnel’s, lab technicians and front desk managers were interacting with people walking into the hospital.

I registered my case with my Aadhar card details and paid Rs 5000 for the test. My nasal swab was taken. They mentioned that if I get tested positive, BBMP (which is the administrative body for the Bangalore Metropolitan Area) will give a call else, the hospital will let me know regarding the results within 48 hours. I received a call from BBMP first thing in the morning on July 28^th. I picked up the call to hear the tele-caller on the other side asking for all my personal details and house address telling me that my test result was confirmed as positive.

My family comprising of my father, my wife and my daughter were anxious to know what the result was and they were all shocked when I had conveyed the news to them about testing positive on asymptomatic conditions.

The tele-caller mentioned that I could opt for ‘Home Isolation’ if I have all the facilities of a separate ventilated room with attached toilet as per the prescribed guidelines from Government. However, he mentioned that BBMP officials will come, inspect my house and take a decision on where to get isolated.

The initial minutes of panic kicked in once the call ended with various concerns in my head.

Should I home isolate?
Should I go to a COVID CARE CENTER?
Should I send my family to relative’s place –My daughter being under 10 Years & my father being over 65 Years?
What if they already contracted the infection and spread it to other relatives?
If I should or should not inform neighbours, friends, relatives and office colleagues?
If my house would be sealed down with barricades around my house/street, social Stigma so many other things…

I realised that this is an infection where in one forgets their own health condition and thinks of everything else, only to create more panic amongst ourselves.We settled down after a while, and as a family, decided to face the situation as it is. Nobody was to go out anywhere and I was to isolate myself in a room at home. This is how my Journey with COVID started.

It is strange that being extra cautious in life attracts more risks than just going about your day-to-day routine activity. ?

I fall into the category of being cautious and taking excessive precautious during this time.From being the one to explain to all my family members Do’s and Don’ts and telling them to not step out from home, to declaring Work from Home for all of us here at EDST. I was following all of the lockdown measures announced by The Government. I am yet to figure out from how I contracted the virus.

Who is to be blamed for this chaotic situation when someone gets tested COVID 19 Positive?

Is it The Government because for all the stringent policies and procedures about this pandemic?
Is it The Media because of the hype they create?
Is it The Society because of the way people perceive the situation that we are in?

Nothing happens from blaming anyone though, does it?

I had started to think about the necessity of having to get myself tested in the first place. I could have ignored it and reported to work. If looked at from different perspectives, it is good to have taken this decision as a precaution so that the others don’t contract it. I had informed all my friends, colleagues and relatives, told them that I was doing alright and had to follow the protocol of isolation.

After couple of days once my result came in, The State Government had arranged for a medical check-up at a nearby hospital to check for my vitals and certify that I’m fit to come out of the room and into home isolation. After that, an outsourced agency who is tied up with The Government of Karnataka registered my case and I used to get the telecalls on regular basis to check on my health condition and to ensure that I follow all the guidelines as per the prescription.

Not having any major symptoms like High Fever, Cough, Reduction in saturated oxygen etc, I was not taking any medicines and was taking immunity builder multi vitamin tablets along with traditional Ayurveda Kashaya. Regular steam inhalation and hot water gargling was part of my every day isolation routine. I also realised that this is just like any other regular flu. The same precautions for a fever with similar guidelines have to be followed. Luckily there was no hard barricading around my house and only home isolation notice was placed outside.

Personally speaking, affected individuals should be able to decide depending on how they are feeling physically. If serious, it is better to get themselves admitted into a hospital or do a consultation. If not, it is better to get home isolated. Individuals who have symptoms and not identify or recognise it, ignore it and do not get tested are the carriers of this virus and therefore, might affect the others with low immunity causing complications. If all of us take precautions and isolate ourselves in case we feel any mild symptoms, we can control the spread of the virus.

There are lot of symptoms that can be checked upon. When a call from the Tele Consulting group is received, it is always better to give them the complete details so that they can advise you on the next course of action.

In my case, I felt like I was in the last/recovery stage when I got tested. I felt a lot fitter physically during the isolation as compared to the previous week when I had the fever. My appetite was back to normal and I used to have a proper diet, strictly avoiding cold beverages. During the isolation period of 17 days, I strictly followed all the steps required for home isolation. I received daily calls from Tele Consulting Group and maintained a daily checklist of my vitals like pulse, body temperature and saturated oxygen level.

Living separately in my own house was tough. It took a lot out of me emotionally. Support and confidence from Family & Friends mattered a lot. There were regular Video Calls from my Wife & Daughter from the adjacent room to check in on me during the isolation period. This is not something to be proud of but, I think I was the first to contract the virus in my close friend circle, relatives and at work ?.

My colleagues jokingly have named the room where I was isolated as ‘the blue room’ when they started interacting with me over a VC.

This gives everyone first-hand information based on my experience on how one could deal with the situation rather than reading and hearing from other sources. I felt that “panic state” which was there in the beginning of pandemic slowly going out when you see a real-life example Infront of you. On a lighter note, my wife had doubts on me acquiring fake COVID positive certificate in order to get all the privileges that I’m enjoying under home isolation.I started resuming work from home immediately within a weeks’ time. On receiving the discharge certificate from the agency on completing the home isolation, I am back to work from Office.

I am still apprehensive about how people perceive this, but that doesn’t matter. The question about me having to take that test being necessary or not doesn’t matter. What one does as an individual to save your near and dear ones by not spreading the virus matters.

Connecting your Ecosystem on Cloud for Business Continuity

Posted on July 30, 2020September 13, 2024 by Arun K. Kashyap

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken everyone by a surprise right from the large-scale to small scale industries, academic institutions, and other businesses, challenging & disrupting the normality. This rapid outbreak has urged the businesses to shift from on-premises to remote work to ensure their business continuity. Social distancing is needed and to be maintained, business discussions has to be continued as always, more important to collaborate but on a virtual mode. A digital platform is the need of the hour to ensure business continuity and help mitigate the impact of such an unprecedented event or situation.

Dassault Systemes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud provides full-fledged solution for every needs of companies of all sizes with a single source of information and applications, everyone on the team can access from home, allowing them to work on their projects collaboratively and efficiently in a safe environment with secured data.

Some of the solutions & services offered by 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides the team with daily work status as if they are at office despite working from home enabling them to address these unprecedented challenges as listed below.

1. Collaborative Business Innovation

This cloud-based collaborative solution delivers the underpinning apps and services that digitally connect all users in the value stream – to establish social communities with consumers and customers to share, experiment, and innovate effectively. Businesses can power their innovation processes with transformative technologies leveraging legacy tools and systems.

Highlights

Users form social communities to engage in conversations. Users can track all the interactions by reviewing the threaded discussions and can target their responses.
Cloud-only drives help to securely store documents, allow users to access them from any device, and share documents with co-workers and collaborators across the value chain. To get reviewed with partners, suppliers, and customers, pre-registration is no longer required. Users can send them a link with a simple self-registration where guests can view designs right in a browser and provide valuable feedback. The document sharing experience is greatly enhanced on mobile devices with the 3DDrive mobile app.
Inbuilt viewers intelligently recognize CAD designs and navigate the hierarchy embedded inside CAD assembly files. Users can share entire assemblies and their peers can not only visualize the design but navigate the entire assembly with ease.
With Messaging apps, users can instantly engage in 3D collaborative experiences. Users can now augment their 3D collaborative experiences with immersive voice and video.

2. Program & Project Management on Cloud

Enables program and project managers to create a competitive advantage by delivering products from concept to market faster. Organizations can concentrate critical resources on the most profitable products while standardizing on best-in-class business processes across the extended enterprise leveraging the below features & functionalities:

i. Project Dashboards

Dashboards help management with a high-level graphical view of project status by phase, assessments, costs, benefits, issues, and risks.

ii. Project Templates

The repetitive project execution in the organization will help you to develop process standards and improve predictability. The project template contains work breakdown structures (WBS) with more manageable portions, document templates, questionnaires, bookmarks, and folder structures.

iii. Work Breakdown Structure

Program managers can breakdown the sophisticated product development activities into various manageable subprojects. The project or technical leaders are allowed to assign schedules considering project roles and non-working days, which enables them to define global project teams into phase-gate activities. Project management plays a key role in every phase of the development process from ideation to project delivery and maintenance. When a project is approved, they can update it in the WBS and schedule baselines to make sure that the work is more manageable.

3. Platform of Virtual Factory

The creation and simulation of a 3D digital twin of your factory are efficient through the Virtual Factory platform. You can quickly create the 3D layout models of machines, plants, lines, and work cells leveraging the fundamental library components from a 2D drawing or the cloud generated point from scanning the actual facility. These 3D models help you to analyze the factory flow simulation, visualize & check the machine behavior, and to connect work cells to a PLC.

4. Managed licensing services – DSLS On Cloud

The managed licensing service provides you with the ability to run certain levels (essentially, 3DEXPERIENCE) of on-premises DSLS-enabled apps. Using this mode, the specific apps which are enabled to support this mode obtain their license keys from a highly available license server managed by Dassault Systèmes, which is not installed on your premises.

Enhance Product Development by implementing APQP methodologies using 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

Posted on July 28, 2020December 27, 2024 by Arun K. Kashyap

In the competitive world of business, quality has been & remains to be a necessity. Quality failures can result in bringing down a business reputation quickly and comprehensively and that leads to the introduction of new products or any significant changes to existing ones, which is a particularly delicate process.

The dynamic business environment, including volume growth and increasing quality expectations, however, has made major players in the Automotive / A&D industry to rethink their strategies. The industry has decided to take the lessons learned from their experiences and adapt methodologies & technologies to address the issues.

Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) was developed in the automotive industry to follow certain procedures and techniques and is also typically required to be audited and registered to IATF 16949. This methodology is now being used in other manufacturing sectors as well and has relevance to the successful planning, production, and release of just about any product.

APQP provides structure to the product development process in a manner that ensures customer satisfaction by planning and scheduling the tasks to be done, monitoring the timely and effective completion of tasks, and communicating, escalating, and resolving issues. In essence, APQP combines project management with the use of proactive product development tools applied at the right time.

Now the challenge is to identify a system that delivers APQP in an effective & systematic way that the industries can utilize for sustainable growth & stay ahead of the competition.

With the demand for technology & system comes the need for automation across all disciplines right from the change in design to the downstream department where these changes should be automatically notified and updated across all associated documents like Process design, PFMEA, DFMEA, and PPAP value chain. The stakeholders want a robust system with no or minimal manual intervention to avoid manual errors, manipulation, and hence automate the process right across.

Customization

With the increased demand for automation, many solution providers are enhancing the OOTB functionalities through customization to bring this automation as per customer needs as ready-made packages/bundles.

Customization capabilities are playing an important role in decision making of the solution to suit the needs of every customer when it comes to APQP process mapping.

Custom program development tools/utility available as part of the system enables these customizations for every customer’s needs/automation, of course, with the help of expert consultants who are available in the market for all such expectations.

Majority of the functionalities are available as OOTB. However certain capabilities need to be customized as per requirements using the custom tools & utilities available within it.

Many solutions are available in the market to address these requirements. However, choosing the right solution that has platform capabilities, scalability and that can address diverse requirements right from design, analysis, manufacturing, quality to downstream departments is a smart & intelligence choice in terms of ROI and on a long-term business benefit.

Dassault Systemes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform offers solutions to map APQP methodologies covering all of its phases for any customer who is compliant & adhering to IATF 16949 or AS 9145 standards.

3DEXPERIENCE’s RFx & Project Management solution addresses the APQP requirement right from the conceptual stage to the delivery of components to its destination as shown below.

The 5 phases of APQP, from Planning, Product design, Process design, Validation to Product launch is captured as phases with associated tasks & activities with work breakdown structure in 3DEXPERIENCE Program & project management solution thus enabling the CFT members with visibility & traceability across the APQP process, including the status, resource utilization & project management.

The solution helps digitize your processes, track them in real-time, and make improvements based on data.

An example of how APQP is mapped in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is as shown below,

3DEXPERIENCE has inbuilt tools & utilities (apps) using which the APQP methodologies can be implemented successfully as per needs.

Business Benefits

By implementing APQP using 3DEXPERIENCE, the company mitigates the risks inherent in introducing or modifying a product.
Digitize your processes, real-time traceability, and make improvements based on data.
Eliminate most of the assumptions and risks inherent in the introduction of a new product or the modification of an existing one.
Improved communication with cross-functional teams/stakeholders including suppliers.
Improved decision making to work-in-progress tasks and related items such as parts across projects.
Enhanced product quality and customer satisfaction by leveraging the power of APQP as required utilizing the 3DEXPERIENCE apps.
Increased knowledge re-use through reviews of previous deliverables such as Failure Modes and Effects Analyses (FMEA), DVP & PQCs, and Control Plans

Category: Blog