Body in White, intended for the automotive industry, provides a desktop set of tools for creating, managing, and tracking an entire body-in-white (unpainted car body) line project from the bid stage to installation and ramp-up. Planners can use resources and human models from the BIW libraries to plan and evaluate different concepts. Engineers then use the best concept to design detailed production lines and work cells.

Tecnomatix's Final Assembly manages the entire final assembly process. Using its 3-D design tools, motion time measurement libraries, kinematic human models, and simulation tools, engineers can define and simulate human tasks while considering worker comfort and productivity. Final Assembly helps to optimize detailed assembly systems in manual, hybrid, and automated lines, and complete plants. This program meets the needs of the automotive and heavy equipment industries, characterized by long flow lines.

Tecnomatix's General Assembly program, which is intended for electronics and component manufacturers, enables engineers to optimize throughput, balance lines, plan logistics, and estimate costs, taking into account different product variants and production volumes. In addition, it delivers reports for management and shop floor workers.

PowerTrain provides a suite of applications that enables manufacturers to create and optimize machine process planning by addressing the total machining line operation, from design evaluation and costing to detailed design, tool path generation, and installation on the shop floor. PowerTrain allows basic information from the design department to be used in identifying manufacturing alternatives early in the procedure, when redesign costs are low.

Body in White, Final Assembly, General Assembly, and PowerTrain run on a Windows NT platform and support NT and Unix database platforms.

PartSpec gives mechanical designers and engineers access to a CD-ROM library of mechanical parts, including bearings, bushings, washers, wheels, clamps, connectors, gears, and valves. PlantSpec provides plant designers and process engineers with information on adapters, circuit breakers, contactors, drives, filters, hoses, lights, nozzles, power accessories, relays, timers, switches, wiring, and more.

The new editions of the titles are now compatible with AutoCAD 2000. A new measuring tool lets users query the part drawings for approximate dimensions before inserting a part into AutoCAD. A "sequence of selections" feature allows users to "go back" and selectively modify parameters they have entered for a part and generate a new drawing of a different part from the same product line. With this feature users can save parts and recall them again without having to respecify parameters.

Using the UG/Wave product, UGS has added the "domain knowledge" of die designers to create an intelligent die assembly that can be changed and updated in minutes. This knowledge-enriched model, referred to as a "die smart model," allows die design to be performed concurrently with body panel design and die engineering.

UG/Wave, which is embedded in the Unigraphics CAD/CAM/CAE software, provides the ability to create knowledge-enriched assemblies by capturing and embedding domain knowledge about a particular process into the model.

Die smart model technology addresses a time-consuming process that lies on the critical path of automotive development. Today's automobiles require hundreds of dies to form flat sheet metal into contoured body panels, such as hoods and doors. Each die is a large and complex assembly requiring weeks or even months to design. Furthermore, the die design process cannot begin until the die engineering is complete, and die engineering does not start until the body panel design has stabilized. Each body panel requires several dies, and even slight variations in geometry can require a new die design to be created from scratch.

By using the knowledge-enriched die smart model, an entirely new die assembly can be created in minutes by simply updating a similar assembly. In addition, because updating the geometry is so easy, the die design process can begin well before die engineering is complete and even before the body panel design has stabilized. This rapid update combined with concurrent engineering is intended to improve productivity.

Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, and the Rover Group Ltd. in the United Kingdom are using PowerFlow on HP-UX 11 for external automotive aerodynamics and several internal flow simulations. With PowerFlow's universal CAD interface, engineers can import their geometry from Pro/Engineer, CATIA, I-DEAS, and other programs. PowerFlow handles setup, simulation, and postprocessing for internal and external fluid flows.

Starting with Algor's Release 12, the complete capabilities ranging from simple linear static FEA to nonlinear heat transfer and fluid flow are accessible from Pro/Engineer when both vendors' programs are installed on the same computer. With InCAD-plus, a simple Pro/Engineer menu selection launches Algor's CAD Solid Model Interface, so that engineers can view their entire model before it undergoes FEA surface meshing and can determine if the design contains model defects, such as surface holes or self-intersecting surfaces.

Users can then create an FEA surface mesh by using a sliding control that lets them adjust the initial surface mesh density if necessary. With Algor's automatic mesh engines they can create a solid mesh, using bricks, tetrahedrons, or a combination of both, and access Algor's analysis options.

When Algor and Pro/Engineer are installed on different computers, the Direct Memory Image Transfer programming in InCAD-plus ensures the transfer of mathematically exact model descriptions to the analysis software.

Initiated two years ago, the ERJ-170/ERJ-190 was developed to satisfy a demand for commercial aircraft of 70 to 110 seats. The passenger cabin allows for two-by-two seating with more head, shoulder, and leg room than competing airplanes. Its overhead bins accommodate the increasingly popular wheeled carry-on bags. The fuselage has two fore and two aft doors, for easier boarding and deboarding operations and ground servicing.

Embraer hopes that the use of CATIA's digital mockups, as opposed to physical models, will save significant time and money. ENOVIAvpm is expected to increase collaboration and innovation among both manufacturing and design engineers within Embraer, while simultaneously reducing cycle time and engineering changes.

Embraer has an order backlog for the ERJ-170/ERJ-190 of $18 billion, and letters of intention worth $80 billion. Initial deliveries of the ERJ-170 will take place in 2002 and of the ERJ-190 in early 2004.

The initiative, called Partners for the Advancement of CAD/CAM/CAE Education, or PACE, will benefit more than 40 academic institutions over the next three years through the donation of hardware, software, training, and technical support.

Engineering students at Michigan State University in East Lansing are the first to reap the benefits of a gift in kind valued at more than $30 million from PACE. According to MSU president Peter McPherson, this is the largest gift in kind ever made to the university.

Approximately 250 undergraduate engineering students at MSU are enrolled this fall in a course entitled "Engineering Graphic Communications," in which they are using the CAD/ CAM/CAE technology. The class will cover three-dimensional solid modeling, basic assembly of components, and collaborative team design.

Colleges and universities are invited to participate in PACE based on their ability to meet specific criteria, including a long-term relationship with General Motors as a primary educational partner; strong product development and manufacturing curricula; adequate facilities, maintenance systems, and personnel to support the donated hardware and software; willingness to integrate Unigraphics software into the engineering curriculum; and a commitment to dedication to providing distance learning to students at GM facilities around the world.

When Lamb Technicon of Warren, Mich., set out to design a new tabletop hemmer, the company decided to use the 3-D CATIA V5 software from IBM and Dassault Systemes in an attempt to eliminate the inaccuracy and rework associated with previous 2-D CAD work. Completing the hemming station in 3-D allowed Lamb Technicon to run a 3-D simulation prior to generating 2-D production release drawings for customers and suppliers and before building prototypes.

Lamb Technicon is using 45 seats of CATIA V5 for 3-D solids and tooling design.

Kim Davie, a lab engineering technologist responsible for providing engineering, sales, and service support for Husky's Medium Tonnage Machine Lab, said, "If I'm not acquiring data in the course of the day, I'm writing reports on it." Husky manufactures injection molding machines—from 60 to 8,000 tons, robots, hot runners for a variety of applications, molds for PET preforms, and complete preform molding systems.

"Our measurement needs range from chemical and resin testing to all aspects of machine testing," said Davie. "What adds to the challenge is that test needs change all the time. For example, we have only recently brought strain gauge testing in-house.

"With Fluke TrendLink software, we can perform real-time graphing on a PC as data comes in. We can then download that information to files in an Excel format. As PC processing power continues to expand, we expect to take more advantage of it in pursuing our product performance initiatives."

Husky recently opened a technical center in Novi, Mich., devoted to the automotive industry. The 100,000-square-foot facility is equipped with a 250-ton-capacity crane and an 8,000-ton machine that is said to be the largest two-platen injection molding machine in the world.

VirtualHand Suite 2000 integrates seamlessly with VTi's family of hardware products. The suite provides a general framework for constructing hand-enabled simulations from scratch, or for adding hand interaction to existing applications. Its Java-based Device Configuration Utility lets users calibrate and configure VTi CyberGlove products along with third-party spatial trackers in an intuitive and graphical manner. Collisions between 3-D digital objects can be detected in real time. CyberGrasp users experience high-level force feedback, including jolts, pulses, and vibrations.

With the new software, "Users of hand-enabled applications can use the CyberGlove and CyberGrasp to literally reach in and grab three-dimensional digital objects and experience realistic force feedback through the most natural interface possible—the human hand," said James Kramer, founder and CEO of VTi.

VirtualHand Suite 2000 runs on Windows NT 4.0 and SGI IRIX (6.4 and 6.5). The Java Development Kit (JDK) or Java Run-time Environment (JRE), versions 1.1.6 or up, must be installed on the host computer.

Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. of Herzliya, Israel, has announced that Information Service International-Dentsu Ltd. will sell Tecnomatix's Valisys/Assembly throughout Japan. Valisys/Assembly is software for tolerance management and stack-up analysis. ISID, which is a distributor for Structural Dynamics Research Corp.'s products in Japan, will sell and support the Valisys/Assembly version that is embedded in SDRC's I-DEAS system.

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