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Industry is constantly looking for ways to bring new or derivative products to market in the shortest amount of time for the least amount of money. To accomplish this, Industry has adopted Computer Aided Engineering (CAX) tools that perform structural, flow, manufacturing, and cost analysis. The way in which a company utilizes these CAX tools can determine the success of these new products. One of these tools that Industry often struggles with in the preliminary design of a product is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Some of the challenges presented by CFD are the time it takes to create a CAD model, generate a valid grid for analysis, obtain a solution, post-process results, and review the result. The objective of this thesis is to develop an approach that will reduce the time it takes to go from a concept to a solution ready for review. This approach, addresses how to first, build CAD model for use in downstream applications, second, automate the grid generation process, and third, automate the post process and documentation of the results. Using this approach a conceptual study of a two stream mixing problem was performed. The approach showed that the creation of the first model took about twenty percent longer than the standard practice used in industry today. However, once the first model was completed, different concepts could be added to the CAD model and be ready for analysis in less than half the time when compared to standard practices. This time savings can then be used to explore more concepts. After each model was analyzed, it was post-processed using an automated script. With the post-processed results the Design Review Tool (DRT) was developed to automate the documentation of the results. Using the DRT each post-processed case was organized into a web page and saved for review in less than five seconds. This approach will enable the aerospace, automotive, and other industries to use CFD to more effectively explore the design space in the development of new and derivative products. This research demonstrates the process to reduce the time required to go from CAD-to-Grid, postprocess the results, and create the documentation needed to develop new products.

Die Digitalisierung industrieller Fertigungs- und Qualitätssicherungsprozesse hat mittlerweile in einer Vielzahl von Unternehmen Einzug gefunden und ist dort nicht mehr wegzudenken. Ausgehend von einem funktionalen 3D-CAD-Modell soll es möglich sein, nahezu alle produktbegleitenden Prozesse – von der Konstruktion bis zur Endabnahme beim Kunden – teil- oder vollautomatisiert zu steuern. Das Ziel ist die eindeutige Vergleichbarkeit konstruktiver, fertigungstechnischer und qualitätsrelevanter Daten im Produktentstehungsprozess. Gerade im Bereich der Qualitätssicherung und der abgeleiteten Messprotokollierung besteht diesbezüglich bisher nicht ausgeschöpftes Optimierungspotenzial. Die bestehende Entwicklungslücke stört die Durchgängigkeit der digitalen 3D-CAD-basierten Prozesskette und beeinträchtigt die Prozess- und Informationstransparenz innerhalb der Produktentstehung. Mit der Verwendung der Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI) im 3D-CAD-Modell wird dieser Problematik zwar entgegengewirkt, jedoch ist es bislang nur begrenzt möglich, die Produkt- und Fertigungsinformationen eindeutig und unverändert in der heterogenen CAx-Systemlandschaft innerhalb der Produktentstehung zu transferieren. Neben der fehlenden Eindeutigkeit der PMI liegt die Ursache häufig bereits bei Fehldefinitionen der Informationen im Bereich der Bauteilkonstruktion. Eine eindeutige Zuordnung der Prüfmerkmale zu den jeweiligen Geometrieelementen wird nicht gewährleistet, sodass prüftechnisch ermittelte Soll-Wert-Abweichungen aus der Qualitätssicherung nicht direkt (ohne manuelle Nach- bzw. Mehrarbeit) dem entsprechenden geometrischen Element im 3D-CAD-Modell zugeordnet werden können. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist daher, eine Methode zu entwickeln, mit der die 3D-CAD-Modellinformationen semantisch korrekt definiert und auf Basis einer einheitlichen Kennzeichnung eindeutig im Produktentstehungsprozess identifiziert und maschinenlesbar weiterverarbeitet werden können. Zusätzlich werden aufbauend auf der eindeutigen Identifikation der Bauteilinformationen neue Methoden im Bereich der 3D CAD-basierten Arbeitsweise entwickelt, die den Mitarbeiter im Bereich der Prüf- und Arbeitsplanung sowie bei arbeitsvorgangsspezifischen Aufgaben in der Fertigung entlasten.:1. Einleitung 2. Stand der Forschung und Technik 3. Anforderungsprofil zur Methodenentwicklung 4. Entwicklung von Methoden zur 3D-modellbasierten Arbeitsweise in der Fertigung 5. Validierung der Methode zur Erreichung eines 3D modellbasierten Fertigungsansatzes 6. Diskussion und Fazit zu den Ergebnissen im Bereich der 3D-modellbasierten Arbeitsweise 7. Zusammenfassung und Ausblick

Undo is a command that users rely on in most software applications. Its importance in multi-user CAD is no different. However, due to its unique nature, users may have different expectations regarding how undo should behave. This research seeks to better understand users' expectations regarding undo in multi-user CAD by having users participate in collaborative design exercises and then asking them how they would expect undo to behave. In addition, users participated in a survey in which they watched 8 videos showing users interacting within multi-user CAD and were then asked about how they would want undo to behave. Based on these findings, various recommendations are made for how undo ought to be implemented in multi-user CAD. These include recommendations regarding the user experience/user interface as well as proposing an equation that seeks to quantify whether a user expects to share an undo stack with another user or if they should only be able to undo their own actions.

Standardized information modeling is important for interoperability of CAx systems. Existing information standards such as ISO 10303 STEP have been proposed and developed for decades for this purpose. Comprehensive data structure and various implementation methodologies make such standards strong in support of different industry domains, information types, and technical requirements. However, this fact also leads to increased implementation complexity and workloads for CAx system developers. This licentiate proposes the development architecture, STEP Toolbox, to help users implement standards with a simplified development process and minimal knowledge requirements on standards. Implementation difficulties for individuals are identified with analysis on implementation of the information standards in three aspects: tasks, users, and technology. Then the toolbox is introduced with an illustration of design of behavior and structure. Case studies are performed to validate the toolbox with prototypes. Internal and external observation has shown the around two-month learning process skipped and a great amount of workload reduction in implementation with the utilization of this architecture. / <p>QC 20131025</p>

Changes in geometric model parameters are constant throughout the design process. Each group in an organization needs different model information at varying times during the design process. As a result many different models of the same part or assembly arise for the needs and use of each group in each design phase (from conceptual design to full product definition). When one group makes changes to a model, those changes need to be reflected in all of the models which describe the product in all groups and design phases in order for those changes to be verified against all design criteria that were set, and for those changes to be seen by downstream users in the design process. This thesis describes a method for linking these models together which will provide revision control, assuming all models can be updated from any of the other models which define the product and allow for these models to be parameterized using different schemes.

This thesis focuses on the design and development of a flexible context architecture for a multi-user GUI that serves several users engaged in collaborative computer-aided applications (CAx). The objective of this thesis is to extend previous research into multi-user GUI's by providing multiple users with a flexible context interface for interaction with other users working on the same part at distributed locations. The investigation will consider how distributed users, through user interfaces, interact to simultaneously build models and how interaction context might be presented to regulate the way they wish to interact. The implementation integrates a Multi-User GUI (MUG) with NX Connect, a multi-user CAD prototype for Siemens NX. NX MUG uses agent software to render the user prototype outside of NX and NX Connect. This generalizes the interface so that it could be used with other engineering applications where several users wish to collaborate. The Multi-user GUI enables users to view a collaborating user's workspace, send/receive messages between multi-users, and is capable of translating text interactions in different languages, while skyping with other users. This research will have a profound impact on collaborative teams in reducing barriers to effective communication. This research will also enhance the existing NX Connect multi-user prototype by providing collaborative interaction support among the multi-users.

This thesis presents a new design process in which design specifications and task distribution are determined from a parallel multi user prospective. Using this method, projects are more easily decomposed into tasks that can be performed concurrently, thus decreasing the design time. Also, a framework is provided to determine the correct distribution of available talent and stakeholders that can be utilized on a given project. The research suggests that by involving the necessary stakeholders in a multi user setting, changes can be made quickly and without additional approval wait time. By including individuals from the various areas of required talent, persons of expertise will be able to work together in a mode of shared design rather than an iterative design process. Decreasing iterations as well as reducing wait time for approval will reduce the overall design time significantly. This method has been tested and validated utilizing controlled tests simulating real life situations of much larger scale. The validation results show that the new method does in fact improve design time and overall achievement of initial design goals

Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications have historically been based on a single user per application architecture. Although this architecture is still popular to date, it does have several drawbacks. First of all the single user CAD architecture inhibits a concurrent engineering design process where several designers can work on the same model simultaneously. This limitation introduces time inefficiency especially when a project involves geographically dispersed designers. A solution to these drawbacks could be a transition from the traditional single user CAD architecture to a multiuser collaborative architecture. Advances in computer networking technologies, especially relating to the Internet, have provided the needed tools to make this transition a reality, thus making it possible for designers to simultaneously work on geometric models from one or more networked computers regardless of the location of the user. This new paradigm is expected to improve collaboration and greatly reduce product design times and consequently reduce cost and improve productivity. The multi-user architecture will, however, also require reliable security mechanisms to ensure its successful deployment in an enterprise environment where protection of intellectual property is of critical importance. This thesis proposes a framework to implement authentication, authorization and secure data communications in a multiuser collaborative CAD software system. This framework has been tested on an emerging multiuser collaborative CAD system called v-CAx being developed at Brigham Young University.

Digitale Menschmodelle sind wichtige Werkzeuge der Produkt- und Prozessentwicklung. In diesem Beitrag wird der Stand der Technik der Modelle, die in CAx- oder PLM-Systemen eingesetzt werden, dargelegt. Wichtige Eigenschaften der einzelnen Modelle sowie eine zusammenfassende Einschätzung der Vor- und Nachteile werden vorgestellt. / Digital human models are important tools for product and process design. This paper describes state of the art models used within CAx- or PLM-Systems.