Millard engineers used Unigraphics' solid modeling to define the frame geometry on the aXcess australia concept car.

Unigraphics software was used for the design of new components and assemblies, packaging studies, production of clay models, and CNC programming.

An X-frame crossover design was chosen as the best able to meet the project objectives, which included minimizing weight, providing four doors, and seating four adults comfortably. Millard engineers used Unigraphics solid modeling to define the frame's geometry and to design the clamshell power door system. The four single-hinged doors open and close sequentially through electrical and optical controls without any manual force. They are operated by electric linear motors that also engage the locking mechanisms. Activation is by fingertip controls or voice commands from the inside and touch pads on the outside.

The entire door system was defined as a Unigraphics solid model, and UG/Mechanisms was employed as a virtual prototyping tool to develop the complete door mechanism. This module was first used to validate the kinematic operation of the hinge system. The software traced envelope options and detected potential interferences. It also was used to calculate reaction forces so the motors and other components could be specified.

At the same time that Millard was developing the body design, the other suppliers were working on their own vehicle components, which they developed using solid modeling systems, 3-D wireframe and 2-D CAD systems, and conventional drafting methods. All the suppliers that used electronic methods other than Unigraphics were asked to convert their data to the IGES neutral file format. Each of these files was then converted into a Unigraphics solid model by Millard designers. The parts that were submitted as paper blueprints were modeled from scratch.

The aXcess concept car's power plant is a new supercharged two-liter, two-stroke, inline six-cylinder engine developed by Orbital Engine Corp. The dry weight of the engine is 120 kilograms (265.2 lbs.), about 25 percent less than a conventional six-cylinder, four-stroke engine.

As the models for the individual components were completed, Millard engineers used the UG/Assembly module to determine how the components fit together, eliminating the need for a physical mockup. In this module, assemblies reference their component part definitions directly, ensuring associative up-to-date product descriptions. Using a virtual prototype instead of a physical mockup cut about three months from the overall design cycle.

Manufacturing engineers used CNC machines wherever possible and developed toolpaths directly from the solid models. They selected surfaces from the master model, entered machining conditions, and selected the type of machine for which they wanted to generate CNC code. The UG/Sheet Metal Design module was used to create flat patterns for the underbody, floor pan, and dash panel, which were fabricated in Millard's shop. The external frame was built from composites using vacuum bagging, hand layup, and inflatable mandrels. The mold was divided into three definitive sections that went together during final assembly without modification.

The first generation of the CargoLifter, the CL-160, is expected to carry a payload of up to 160 tons nonstop over distances of more than 6,000 miles at a cruising speed of up to 60 miles per hour. The maiden flight of the CargoLifter is expected in 2001. The company claims that the airship's ability to transport and place equipment or other materials at a precise location will help minimize ecological damage in remote areas. These benefits will come from reducing the need to build extensive roads or temporary airfields for construction and other projects.

Almost all the components and assemblies in the CargoLifter will be new designs. Unlike the historical zeppelins, the new airship will be filled with nonflammable helium gas and have a rigid framework only at its keel. The carbon-fiber composite flight deck, loading bay, propulsion and maneuvering drives, and tail units will be suspended from this framework.

The CargoLifter AG company, with headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, was founded in 1996.

The Virgin Rail Group of the United Kingdom awarded a $2.6 billion order to Bombardier Transportation for the supply and maintenance of new rolling stock for CrossCountry services. Bombardier Transportation will design, supply, and maintain 78 train sets, comprising 352 diesel electric cars. Deliveries will begin in December 2000 and run through July 2002. This is said to be the most important order Bombardier Transportation has been awarded in its history.

CATIA will be used to implement a digital mockup and will support concurrent engineering and product development across the four sites responsible for the design work: Wakefield (England), Bruges and Manage (Belgium), and Crespin (France).

Heading the development will be Shah Yunus, an ANSYS corporate fellow, and Steve Rifai, the former president of Centric Engineering, which is in Sunnyvale, Calif. Centric's main product is Spectrum, a tightly coupled multiphysics code.

"ANSYS/Multiphysics was one of the company's fastest growing products in the past year, and the addition of Centric Engineering further enhances our ability to meet our customers' high-performance analysis needs," said Peter J. Smith, CEO of ANSYS in Southpointe, Pa.

The acquisition also will bring to ANSYS the expertise that Centric has in parallel processing, which is becoming increasingly important as ANSYS and other analysis software vendors try to reduce the time that it takes to solve very large problems by orders of magnitude.

Thomas J.R. Hughes, the founder of Centric Engineering who is also professor and chairman of the Division of Mechanics and Computation at Stanford University, will serve as a consultant to ANSYS.

Centric was founded in 1990 and has produced advances in modeling techniques, numerical algorithms, and parallel performance.

The step-by-step approach to software functionality, command procedures, and combinations is designed to help readers progress toward creation of real-world parts, using a variety of manufacturing techniques. Examples and exercises are drawn from typical design work, such as casting, turned parts, injection molding, sheet metal, surface treatments, and assemblies.

The companion CD-ROM provides design files for use in completing exercises and five additional chapters covering advanced features and functions.

Inside SolidWorks and its CD-ROM sells for $56.95. OnWord, which is based in Santa Fe, N.M., also publishes Inside tutorial books for CATIA, MicroStation, and Pro/Engineer.

Located in Menlo Park, Calif., the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is a national basic research laboratory, probing the structure of matter at the atomic scale with x-rays and at much smaller scales with electron and positron beams. The laboratory is operated by Stanford University under a contract from the United States Department of Energy.

The staff currently numbers about 1,300, 150 of whom are Ph.D. physicists. Typically, 800 physicists from international universities and laboratories participate in the high-energy physics program and 800 scientists from universities and industrial laboratories are active in the synchrotron radiation program. Three scientists have won Nobel Physics prizes for groundbreaking experiments done at the accelerator laboratory.

The center has agreed to purchase a site license for 200 seats of Solid Edge for work on the Next Linear Collider. Solid Edge, which is written for Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and NT, incorporates proprietary Stream technology, which captures engineers' solid modeling design intentions through inference logic and decision management concepts.

The CATIA AP203 STEP Interface product certified was Release 4.2.0 running on an IBM RS/6000 workstation under AIX Version 4.3 using an IBM-developed STEP Product Data Management Information Processor (PIP) tool set. The PIP 1.0 tool set will be provided to CATIA customers as part of refresh 2 to CATIA 4.2.0 and in 4.2.1 and subsequent releases. CATIA is a product of IBM and Dassault Systemes S.A.

The certification was overseen by the U.S. Product Data Association, a nonprofit membership organization established by industry and accredited by ANSI.

The Clorox plants in Springfield, Ore., and Burnside, Ky., will use RSView32 human-machine interface software to replace existing DOS-based installations. The system will monitor process and packaging lines that produce Kingsford brand charcoal.

In Pleasanton, Clorox is using RSView32 in power plant monitoring and R&D operations. At the Aberdeen, Md., plant RSView32 is employed on process and packaging lines that produce various Clorox brand household products.

Rockwell Automation is headquartered in Milwaukee.

"The combination of Windows NT-based workstations, Unigraphics and IMAN will contribute to meeting our time-to-market goals for the vehicle product definition environment," said Kirk Gutmann, GM global development product information officer.

The full suite of Unigraphics design and manufacturing applications has been available on Windows NT for several years. ProductVision, the newest product from Unigraphics, provides users with access to product designs managed in the IMAN product data management system, making the designs available to users in such areas as purchasing and factory management.

Last year Tornos-Bechler chose Benninger Guss to supply parts for a new automatic lathe that it planned to develop. It then chose OneSpace to communicate the design models and handle data exchange between the two companies, which are 200 kilometers apart. OneSpace allows users in a collaborative session to make changes to a model in real time. Tornos-Bechler expects to use OneSpace with some of its other suppliers, including a sheet-metal manufacturer.

CoCreate Inc. is a software subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Co.

Striker Systems, a vendor of sheet metal fabrication software from White House, Tenn., has placed several of its products on the Internet so that potential users can download and evaluate them. The available programs are SS-Design for sheet metal design; SS-Unfold for sheet metal unfolding; SS-Nest, a true shape, multipart nesting solution; and two new solid modeling programs, SS-Solid/Design and SS-Solid/Unfold. All of these programs are complete working versions with no limitations on functionality. Users can try them without obligation for 30 days. The Striker Systems website is at www.striker-systems.com, or call (800) 950-7862.

Parametric Technology Corp. of Waltham, Mass., has received a $1.6 million order for software and services from VA Tech Elin Transformatoren GmbH, of Weiz, Austria. The company builds power transformers for utilities and industrial customers, and will use Pro/Engineer to further automate its product development process.

DaimlerChrysler has chosen the Cam-Post numerical control postprocessor development tool from ICAM Technologies of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, for use in the automaker's assembly plants in the United States and Brazil. Cam-Post will work behind CATIA in both facilities to transform CAD/CAM cutter location files into the machine code required by NC machines. DaimlerChrysler's U.S. assembly plant, in Alabama, produces the M-Class sport-utility vehicles. The Brazilian plant, in S‹o Paulo, makes trucks and chassis parts for the South American market.

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