3D CAD software meets special requests

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 31, 2007

CoCreate Software's OneSpace Designer Modeling software allows Meccanica H7 to import and export non-native data, easing the reworking of designs.

CoCreate Software, a provider of third-generation PLM, has announced that Meccanica H7 has adopted OneSpace Designer Modeling, CoCreate's non-parametric 3D CAD software.

Based in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, Meccanica H7 designs and manufactures complete plants and special machinery for industry lines.

With 75 employees, the company sells belts, electrical appliances, food industry lines and packaging machinery throughout the world.

In the past, Meccanica used parametric 3D CAD software to meet special customer requests.

But when engineers decided to find a standard modelling software for their own use, they looked beyond history-based systems.

"We liked CoCreate's 2D CAD tool, Designer Drafting, so we tested its 3D solution, Designer Modeling for a few months", says Vincenzo Latini, Manager of Product Development.

"We saw quickly that we could design faster, cut design errors, and speed development by over 40% with Designer Modeling".

CoCreate's product uses a technology called Dynamic Modeling, instead of parametric design.

Meccanica noted the following advantages of the CoCreate approach: intuitive and flexible design.

Meccanica engineers prefer to begin projects with preliminary sketches that they can show customers to help visualise concepts.

They make those sketches in 3D CAD for the most realistic presentation.

"But with parametric software, it was nearly impossible to build on those sketches" Latini says.

"We'd encounter errors and couldn't easily change the design".

However, using CoCreate's system, without the constraints of history-based modelling, "we move freely and quickly from sketch to manufacturable model", he says.

Originally, Meccanica tried to use its parametric software to work with whatever format its customers used.

But import proved error-prone.

As a result, designers often reworked designs after importing.

With OneSpace Designer Modeling, neither import nor export of non-native CAD data poses a problem and Meccanica works with imported data as if it came from Designer Modeling in the first place.

Meccanica divides itself into different but interdependent departments for optimal product development and production.

Designer Modeling fits the company's model well, since designers don't need to be intimate with a design's history to modify or extend it.

"With parametric software, it would take too much time to explain how a design has been built to pass it from one designer or department to another", says Latini.

OneSpace Designer Modeling also supports rich master models, important for companies practicing co-design.

With rich master models, Meccanica H7 can now attach any information directly to a model to further assist anyone who uses the design after its initial creation.

Meccanica H7 engineers say they look forward to an ultimately leaner product development environment starting with OneSpace Designer Modeling.

The company next plans to integrate their CAD software into its PLM system.