D-Cubed Announces the Latest Release of its Assembly Engineering Manager Component

July 22, 2002 - D-Cubed announces the latest release of the AEM, its revolutionary new component for the interactive and realistic simulation of the behaviour of assemblies and mechanisms in the core of any CAD system.

Assembly Engineering Manager, version 1.2.0

The latest release of the AEM provides a range of new features to further enable CAD application developers to enhance the productivity of their end-users.

Disassembly simulation: 3D CAD data is now a valuable resource to engineering organisations throughout the product lifecycle. The form and function of assemblies can be verified at an early stage in the product design process, reducing design errors and thus enhancing productivity. For example, the ability to simulate disassembly operations enables an engineer to pick up potential problems with maintenance or part replacement long before physical prototypes are built. Disassembly operations involve the systematic removal of parts and sub-assemblies whilst taking account of their interaction with the overall assembly during the removal process. Developments in version 1.2.0 of the AEM optimise the handling of such disassembly operations.

When simulating the removal of a part from an assembly, such as a bolt, the process begins with the automatic deletion of the permanent mating constraints that were originally used to position the bolt in the assembly. The AEM is then used to drag the bolt out of the assembly. Whilst the bolt is still in its hole, it will slide out of the hole realistically, not via assembly constraints, but by the contact between the solid shaft of the bolt and the solid wall of the hole. Once the shaft of the bolt is out of its hole it can be dragged by the end-user in any direction necessary in order to remove it from the assembly, subject to contact with other parts in the assembly.

This functionality provides a fast and reliable way of answering such questions as "can these parts be removed from my assembly?" or "can they be removed in this order?". For example, an end-user could use the AEM to investigate whether a maintenance engineer could remove the brake pads from a brake assembly without first having to undertake the time consuming process of removing the brake disk.

Conveyor simulation: Previous versions of the AEM have introduced a range of engineering forces and devices that have never before been available at the core of a CAD system, such as gravity, torques, linear springs, torsional springs and ropes. Applications can also define their own force types, illustrated in AEM version 1.2.0 through the implementation of a conveyor simulation. Parts on a conveyor will follow any desired path until they no longer lie on that conveyor. AEM conveyors allow end-users to simulate industrial processes such as assembly-lines and sorting mechanisms.

A video of an AEM conveyor can be seen on our website.

Linear motors: In the AEM, a motor differs from other forces in that it is compelled to move a part a certain distance in a given time interval. By contrast, a part to which a standard force is applied would move a smaller distance if a greater resisting load were acting on the moving part. Rotary motors were introduced in AEM version 1.1.0 and have been extended to include linear motors in version 1.2.0. Reciprocal linear motors, which oscillate between two end points, can also be implemented. These new motor types allow end-users to simulate devices such as constant velocity pneumatic or hydraulic actuators.

About the AEM

The AEM, first released in 2001, realistically models the behaviour of assemblies and mechanisms. It takes account of the mass properties of parts, the motion caused by a variety of engineering related forces and devices, and the interaction of parts as they collide and push each other around. The AEM is integrated at the core of a CAD system rather than as an external module. Its usage requires no specialist expertise or model preparation, making AEM based design productivity enhancements immediately accessible to any CAD end-user.

About D-Cubed Ltd.

Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, England, D-Cubed provides software components and technical consulting services to the CAD/CAM/CAE application development industry in all areas of geometric, solid and variational/parametric modelling. Most of the world�s leading CAD vendors have adopted one or more of D-Cubed�s widely respected component technologies for integration into their end-user applications. We have never developed, and do not intend to develop, our own end-user applications. This focus avoids any competitive conflicts of interest with our customers. 

Contact:
Email: [email protected] 

www.d-cubed.co.uk 

 

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