Trend

Boosting productivity with 3D and collaboration

3D and collaboration are the buzzwords in the product lifecycle management space. By Malabika Sarkar

Digital product definition as a concept has rapidly evolved over the last 30 years. At the beginning, the focus was on CAD (Computer-aided Drafting). With the evolution of 3D solid modeling techniques in the early 1980s, CAD graduated to Computer-aided Design. The origin of many existing 3D authoring tools or CAD modelers can be traced to this period. The creation of a complete ‘product’ model was considered a key factor in integrating and driving all the activities of the product lifecycle including design, analysis, planning, manufacturing, assembly and support etc. 3D data is an extremely complex but vital portion of such a product model.

The adoption and use of 3D modelers has rapidly grown over the last couple of years. Desktops have become powerful enough to run 3D applications natively that require significant computation and visualization capabilities. 3D, in that sense, is turning into a commodity. 3D authoring tools have matured, and the focus is on using 3D more effectively to support PLM activities.

Vinay Kulkarni, COO, Geometric Limited, said, “Almost all of our products and technologies focus on the use of 3D data. Broadly, our offerings are tools and technologies that are relevant to design interoperability / analysis, machining automation / optimization, and 3D visualization and collaboration.”

Paul Doherty, CTO, Satellier, said, “Satellier offers numerous work share solutions that assist in democratizing built environment information. One work share solution is called Building Information Modeling (BIM) that allows someone to view their physical asset in 3D, but with other data associated with the geometric shape. Nevertheless, work share is more than just IT solutions like BIM that can assist with PLM; it is a fully collaborative process. In the case of work share, one major threshold of pain that anyone in our industry must address is the transfer of large digital files. Therefore within the Satellier work share solution, we have built a global network that provides the fastest file upload and download rates in the world saving enormous amounts of cycle time throughout the digital supply chain of working over the Internet.”

Rafiq Somani, Country Manager, PTC, said, “PTC’s ProENGINEER offers the ability to design 3D parametric models. This is the creation piece of our larger solution called PTC Product Development System (PDS). PDS also has a state of the art collaboration tool called Windchill ProjectLink. PTC’s PDS is used by more than 50,000 customers worldwide and over 2,200 in India.”

Suman Bose, Country Manager, Dassault Systemes, said, “Dassault Systemes has a bouquet of solutions to offer that encompass the entire product life cycle. It is a complete solution provider in 3D PLM market.”

The market for PLM

Initiatives leading to the development and maturing of tools related to digital product definition, analysis, simulation, management and collaboration started independently and existed as islands of automation for a significant period. The trend is towards the consolidation of such tools into unified offerings by most ISVs in this space. The creation of 3D data has been commoditized, and the focus is now on providing an integrated environment for using such data more effectively. There is also a discernible trend towards using 3D data beyond the traditional PLM activities like marketing; technical publications, operating and service manuals, and training/tutorials are a few of the areas where 3D is being used.

Mayank Saxena, Senior Industry Analyst, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia & Middle East, commented, “This market has started booming and there is considerable scope for innovation in different verticals. Organizations are looking for the friendliest way in which they can collaborate and share information. Organizations need a common platform, which may require several applications from authoring and simulation to business applications such as enterprise resource planning tools. 3D software uses advanced techniques to simulate real world environments, predict product behavior and optimize product design. This software is helping to maximize manufacturing production systems and use of 3D annotated content for technical publications, manuals and work instructions. These are some of the common global trends witnessed in the industry.”

Benefits

For any organization to integrate 3D in the PLM space, it is necessary to have a vision of how to go about best enabling the unique advantages of having people meet in a 3D environment. The level of sophistication in their user interface, or hiding certain functions depending on the sophistication of the user is also something, which needs to be decided before implementation. Diligent understanding of 3D cost-benefit trade offs is required at the top management level in order to secure long-term benefits for an organization. Once the fundamentals are placed correctly, implementing 3D in the PLM space is a great cost-out and revenue-up opportunity. It would help in designing virtual products, production, testing and global collaborative lifecycle management which helps in immediate sharing with the target communities.

Bose concurred, “The introduction of 3D has revolutionized the PLM space. In the various stages of Product Life Cycle management, 3D facilitates conceptualization, design, digital manufacturing, testing as well as collaboration.”

Somani added, “By eliminating routine and mundane tasks we give our customers a competitive edge in the area of Product Development. Their engineers get more time for actual engineering thereby bringing innovative and frugal products to market.”

Segments targeted

Kulkarni said, “Traditionally, businesses engaging in various stages of discrete manufacturing activities have been our potential customers. To name a few, this includes businesses directly or indirectly involved in automotive or aerospace, machine tool manufacturing, companies or departments supplying drilling equipment to oil exploration companies, piece part manufacturing as well as tool and die manufacturing. With the launch of 3DPaintBrush, our 3D visualization and repurposing tool, we are also addressing communities such as architects, interior designers, decorators, and other professionals and hobbyists that want to use and transform into 3D data.”

Doherty said, “Satellier’s target segments include architects, engineers, constructors, real estate services, developers and government agencies.”

Dassault Systemes believes that it is its responsibility to increase the adoption of the PLM technology across multiple non-traditional market segments like consumer goods, shipbuilding, architecture and construction, life sciences, telecom, healthcare, defense etc.

Hurdles in spreading awareness

For vendors, it is more important to spread awareness related to the long-term benefits of implementing 3D in the PLM process. There is cultural resistance to change with most organizations having been working with 2D models for a long, long time. The benefits of any change needs to be clearly exhibited and the vendor must ensure that it makes the client’s life and job easier than the status quo. The process of erasing resistance should start with the top management and from there it should trickle down to the engineers who are using 3D CAD/CAM in designing the products.

The next significant challenge is the fact that 3D software is still perceived to be an expensive option. For a small manufacturer, entry-level 3D CAD seats can be expensive in a short-term horizon. However, looking at the up-front cost alone is a mistake. The downstream benefits of 3D far outweigh the up-front cost. Besides these, 3D software is also considered as a complex tool and the training required to get productive on 3D is one of the significant fears of the top management. In the Indian context, there is a limitation of availability of resources to train personnel.

The combination effect of all these factors is that, for the vast majority of potential users, 3D products are far too expensive and complex, cluttered with features they do not need, making the products hard to learn and use. Organizations also feel that once they commit to a 3D CAD system and the policies of the software vendors, it becomes difficult to change in the future. Vendors need to take proactive steps in aligning 3D CAD systems with a client’s current requirements, educate and provide services in training in order to gain wider acceptance in the market.

3D software technology can change the way of communication and 3D software, supported by PLM processes and technologies, provides a foundation upon which manufacturing businesses can be transformed and innovation can be dramatically accelerated. The horizon of 3D also encompasses nuclear medicine to architecture, manufacturing to computer games or animations, petrochemicals to weather prediction to name a few. With the additions of so many applications and allowing space for innovations, one can safely assume that 3D is not a fad but is expected to become an integral part of the PLM process in the near future.

malabika.sarkar@expressindia.com