CAD and animation integrated into simulation

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 12, 2000

Lanner Group has formed an alliance with Engineering Animation Inc (EAI) of the USA to create an innovative method of using CAD factory layout designs for simulation modelling.

Lanner integrates CAD and animation into simulation Lanner Group has formed an alliance with Engineering Animation Inc (EAI) of the USA to create an innovative method of using CAD factory layout designs for simulation modelling.

The system also offers CAD-based 3D animation for simulation programs.

The CAD-simulation link operates with Lanner's Witness simulation programme.

Widely regarded as one of the most powerful and versatile simulation packages available, Witness has been successfully used to solve business process problems across a wide range of industrial sectors.

The new system developed with EAU comprises two basic components.

The first uses an EAI Factorycad layout to create a model in the Witness simulation program.

The second involves a trace file created from a Witness run which then animates the full CAD view in EAI's Factoryview program.

Under the new arrangement between Lanner and EAI, a fast and direct link has been effected between Witness and Factorycad.

EAI's Factory CAD is a new generation of CAD design tools that uses smart, 'intelligent', objects.

For example, sections of conveyor in the CAD schematic will automatically align correctly and display correct operation when stretched in any direction to fit together.

This smart object capability makes creating a Factorycad layout very easy, and the system has been widely adopted in many major automotive and other manufacturing companies.

To link to discrete simulation programs EAI has created a number of special integrated attributes within Factory CAD.

These include cycle times, breakdown and set-up modes and timings, buffer capacities and dwell times, and machine types.

EAI has also developed a means to output this information, together with routing and positional information, from the CAD layout.

Output is in the form of an SDX (Simulation Data Exchange) file, which on the advanced Factorycad is an open interface which can be used to create models with any simulation program.

However with the new arrangement between Lanner and EAI there are now numerous fields in Factorycad which supply information in a form tailor-made for Lanner's Witness simulation tool.

Thus the link between CAD and simulation is much more direct, enabling models to be built much more quickly.

Lanner has developed a plug-in module, which adds new items to the Witness file menu, enabling the setting of import options from an SDX file.

These options include the setting of icons for part types, machine types and conveyor representation, plus a choice of scaling, colour and position.

The import preferences also allow the user to define a set of automatic report option positions, such as throughput reports for each part or pie charts for the utilisation of each machine.

The operator can thus create a fully working Witness model from the SDX file.

More complex routing and control information can be added to the model if necessary, before exploring all the "what if?" scenarios.

The basic Witness/Factorycad link contains parts, buffers, machines and conveyors.

Lanner offers major users a bespoke service to upgrade and configure the links, individually tailored for specific requirements.

Thus further element types can be created with their own sets of characteristics - for complex control rules and routings, for example, or patterns of labour deployment.

EAI's Factoryview uses unique visualisation software to allow complex 3D virtual reality (VR) layouts to be viewed quickly and easily.

It enables everyone on a factory design team to pan, zoom and fly-through a rendered 3D factory model.

Factoryview handles complex layouts, with large tooling and product models, faster than CAD model viewers.

EAI has now developed a version of its viewing technology to be used with an output trace file from Lanner's Witness program coupled with a converted Factorycad layout diagram.

This enables 3D VR simulation models to be built and run from Factoryview input.

The new trace file that Lanner has developed for Witness includes a record of the placement of parts at different timing points in the model.

These movements are then converted into a format that drives the movement in Factoryview.

Being postponed, all movements can be smoothly spread over time, significantly enhancing the look and feel of the VR presentation.