Assembly Restructuring

Assembly Restructuring

Assembly Restructuring allows you to work with the parts you have and restructure components as necessary to fit your design or manufacturing objectives. Being able to restructure assemblies gives you viewing and functional flexibility, even if you no longer have access to the originating CAD system. Where necessary, parts can be renamed, instance groupings can be broken, new subassemblies can be generated from existing parts, parts can be removed individually from subassemblies, true assemblies can be flattened and multi-body parts can be turned into true assemblies. Creating Assemblies from Multiple Solid-Body Parts Figure 1 shows a single part (with...
CAD Atomization

CAD Atomization

CAD Atomization refers to the process of converting whole assemblies to separate, independent parts. This is a one-button process which can be used for both CAD and polygonal output. 3D printing houses can use Atomize to output all parts in an assembly to STL. If you are planning to do polygonal output, be sure to check Settings and adjust polygon density before outputting STL or other polygonal formats. This article covers various STL output settings. The Atomization process works whether you are using an assembly or a multi-body part (multi-bodied parts are single parts composed of two or more solid bodies); in both cases, parts and bodies are converted to...
PMI Data Extraction

PMI Data Extraction

Part Manufacturing Information (PMI) is critical data that was formerly regulated to drawings, and is now available as a component of 3D CAD models. Dimensions, GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing) and notes provide the detailed criteria that make effective manufacturing possible. Having this information as a part of the 3D model solves a long-standing problem in the design and manufacturing world, where parts and drawings were both necessary and could lose sync when only one was updated; stories abound of out-of-sync parts and drawings, resulting in manufacturing errors when the wrong set of data was referenced. By combining PMI with a 3D CAD...
CAD Data Extraction

CAD Data Extraction

As mentioned in last week’s article, CAD files are rich sources of information which can be used to better understand and optimize the entire design and manufacturing process (see The Digital Thread article). ‘Informating’ is a term coined by researcher Shoshona Zuboff, who used it to describe, among other things, “computer-based, numerically controlled machine tools or microprocessor-based sensing devices (which) not only apply programmed instructions to equipment but also convert the current state of equipment, product, or process into data”. This newly available data can then be analyzed to gather new insights into our, in this case,...
The Digital Thread

The Digital Thread

The term ‘Digital Thread’ refers to a data and communications framework that passes through all relevant aspects of design, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal processes, providing an integrated and holistic view of assets throughout a product lifecycle. The Risk of Mixed Datums and Criteria Without a Digital Thread of product definition, manufactured parts might be designed with one set of datums and intents, manufactured using another set of datums and measurements, validated and checked using perhaps entirely new datums and criteria, and maintained with yet another set of systems and criteria. These criteria mismatches constitute a gap through which...
Detecting and Correcting Non-Manifold Geometry

Detecting and Correcting Non-Manifold Geometry

The MagicHeal Add-On for TransMagic now includes a powerful set of tools that help you with detecting and correcting non-manifold geometry. This is important because failing to detect non-manifold geometry can lead to problems downstream, when you are trying to use that geometry in a CAD system that does not support non-manifold geometry. What does Non-Manifold mean? Manifold is a geometric topology term that means: To allow disjoint lumps to exist in a single logical body. Non-Manifold then means: All disjoint lumps must be their own logical body. See a more detailed description of non-manifold geometry in this article. Two Non-Manifold Tools Show...