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Functionality has become increasingly sophisticated, enabling users to more quickly and accurately model their designs, with the resulting 3D data used to prototype or manufacture the finished parts.
CAD software has offered fully integrated features, such as visualisation and simulation, for many years, but recent advances have enabled designers to access these tools in real time. Realtime simulation can now be used in the front-end of the design process to analyse and verify product behaviour rather than only towards the end of the process where simulation and testing has traditionally been used.
“There just isn’t the time allowed in the product development process now to get field testing and feedback. It needs to be 100% right first time. The basic building of parts and assemblies in 3D is now a given; to be competitive you need to see how they behave and operate under working conditions,” said Owen Kirby, managing director of Concurrent Engineering, a solutions partner of PTC.
Indeed, PTC is one of the vendors that has integrated realtime simulation into its CAD tool. This capability is a key focus in the latest release of the software, Creo 7, in the form of Creo Simulation Live.
Challenge solved
Another development is generative design. The user inputs design goals and parameters into the generative design technology, including boundary conditions, material options, load cases, manufacturing methods and cost constraints. The software will then provide a set of variations that solve that engineering challenge and the user can then select their chosen optimised solution. Enhanced generative design features have been included in the most recent releases from all the main CAD vendors.
But perhaps the biggest trend in CAD is not within the software but in how the user accesses it. In the past CAD software was installed on a single workstation using a perpetual licensing model. This is now shifting to subscription-based and pay-as-you-go models where users pay a fee to access the software for a period.
Kirby said: “Systems were offered on a capital investment basis, resulting in high cost of entry and ownership. These were deployed on in-house hardware and were typically standalone isolated systems. That model challenges the speed and agility required to meet with the demands of modern product development. The newer Software As A Service (SAAS) model of deployment, accessed via an internet browser on any device, enables lower cost of entry, faster deployment and reduced admin overheads, meaning users that might not have otherwise been able to afford these tools can now get access to higher-end technology on an on-demand basis.”
For small companies this accessibility has been a welcome development. Kevin Quigley, founder of Quigley Design, a Shrewsbury-based product design consultancy, said: “We use a variety of CAD tools in-house depending on what the client uses in their process. Recently we wanted to add PTC Creo to our toolset for advanced surfacing design but we could never have been able to afford it if PTC hadn’t moved to a subscription model.
“With subscription models you can have the flexibility of individual log-ins on different devices, which helps with the remote working side of things particularly now in the situation with Covid-19.”
Up in the cloud
These SAAS subscription models will also in the near future be predominantly cloud-based. Vendors already offer hybrid cloud-based/on-premises CAD solutions, for instance Autodesk with Fusion 360 and Siemens with Solid Edge. Dassault Systèmes also recently announced major updates to its cloud-based 3D Experience platform.
PTC commissioned a market research study from McKinsey that projected the SAAS-based CAD market would grow more than 35% per year and represent nearly 20% of the total CAD market in five years.
“The benefit to the CAD user is that the nature of SAAS allows for greater collaboration among design teams and also facilitates data to easily flow from one business system to another, as the product development process evolves,” said Kirby.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.