Fully Associative Assemblies: Top-down and
Bottom-up Design Techniques
• For electronic package design, fully associative assemblies are
critical for effectively using bottom-up and top-down assembly
design techniques. Associativity guarantees that all elements of a
model are electronically associated or connected, including
assembly models, components, drawings, details, and bills of
materials. This means that when a change is made to any
SolidWorks file, that change is automatically made in all associated
files.
• Bottom-up associative design encompasses the creation of new
components and integration of these with existing components into
assemblies. Each of these parts can be edited within the assembly
as needed.
• Top-down associative design involves working with an existing
assembly to develop new components for use with that assembly.
Because new components reference existing parts in the assembly,
any changes made to any of the parts are reflected throughout the
design.
• Top-down associative design techniques allow designers to capture
design intent easily and automatically, including inter-part
relationships. Modifications automatically propagate throughout the
assembly and drawings, maintaining design intent.
• SolidWorks software provides powerful top-down capabilities that
allow designers to build in design intent automatically and
painlessly.
• Examples of top-down design include developing an enclosure for a
PCB assembly that provides a certain clearance around the board,
generating a maximum envelope (length, width, and height) for a
PCB within a required finished product size to guide board designers
in developing necessary controls, and developing a wiring har-ness to link key components that fits between other components.
Configuration Management enables these new parts to be linked
and related to ensure that the new parts will always fit the necessary
requirements of the design which helps prevent design problems.
(also see Configuration Management).
Large Assembly Performance
• The ability to handle assemblies comprising thousands of parts
without compromising performance is a requirement of 3D CAD
solutions for designing large electronic products, such as
computers and network switching panels.
• The capacity to manage large assemblies easily allows product
designers to take on a broader range of projects and gain greater
flexibility in solving design problems.
• The challenges associated with large-assembly electronic product
design are often unpredictable and complex. SolidWorks 3D modeling
software, with its Large Assembly Mode, offers unparalleled
performance for applications involving a large number of parts,
allowing product designers to design and assemble tens of thousands
of components and evaluate complete assemblies.
• SolidWorks provides built-in tools for evaluating assembly designs,
including motion simulation and visualization (Physical Simulation),
interference checking, collision detection, clearance information,
and creation of envelopes for defining the full range of an assembly’s
motion. These tools help product designers identify necessary
changes in assembly development, which can be easily made using
simple drag-and-drop assembly structure reorder operations.
• Many manufacturers accelerate development through concurrent
design approaches where several designers or teams work at the
same time on separate components or subassemblies of a large
assembly. SolidWorks 3D modeling software supports concurrent
design, providing powerful capabilities that support Configuration
Management, top-down design techniques, and design
collaboration.
Production-level Drawings
• Production-level drawings communicate detailed design information,
such as varied design views, dimensions, surface finish
requirements, assembly instructions, and other pertinent design
information required for manufacturing.
• Accurate and efficient creation and modification of drawing information
is paramount for product designers. Many electronic product
design organizations rely solely on drawings to provide processing
information to production groups, such as machining departments,
mold builders, stamping departments, and assembly operations.
Accuracy, completeness, and flexibility are essential for meeting
the requirements of these groups.
• SolidWorks production-level drawing and detailing capabilities
enable faster and more accurate development of drawings,
including automatic generation of drawing and section views with
breakout section views as well as development of bills of materials.
• SolidWorks drawings are fully associative, ensuring that changes
made anywhere in the process automatically update all project
documentation, including parts, assemblies, and drawings.
Integrated links to Microsoft® Visio® 2002 Professional Edition
provide for standard technical symbols and best-in-class wiring/
hydraulic diagram development. SolidWorks continues to innovate
in the area of production drawings with Alternate Position View,
which enables a range of assembly motion to be documented in a
single drawing view.
• eDrawings is another innovative SolidWorks product that provides
the ability to communicate intelligent drawing and model
information created in SolidWorks to non-SolidWorks users via
email (see SolidWorks Collaboration Tools section for more
information).
3D Visualization
• 3D visualization provides a designer with a first check of design
intent, proper operation, and aesthetics as the project develops.
• 3D CAD enables the designer to view a product design from all
angles and examine the internal parts of the product throughout
the design process. This gives designers a clear and accurate
review of parts and assemblies early in the design cycle.
• 3D visualization reduces communication and fabrication errors,
saving development time by more effectively conveying design
information so that designers can find problems early in the design
cycle. Designers can view the product from all sides and look inside
by hiding the outer enclosure or other parts.
• SolidWorks enables checks for interferences or specific clearances
between components using Dynamic Assembly Motion and Collision
Detection. Any interference will stop motion between parts that
contact and the point of interference will be highlighted by
changing color. Exploded assemblies support evaluation of product
assembly considerations prior to building parts.
• SolidWorks Office Professional includes PhotoWorks™, SolidWorks
Animator, and 3D Instant Website software, that enable even
greater visualization capabilities by providing photorealistic
rendering and full-motion animation of the finished product design.
These capabilities help identify potential problems early in the
design cycle, when design changes are relatively easy and
inexpensive to make.
Integrated Solution Partner Products
• Available best-in-class partner solutions are fully integrated into the
core SolidWorks 3D CAD software to offer a complete, singlewindow
approach to electronic product design.
• SolidWorks software development focuses solely on 3D design tools
to ensure continuous innovation. CAD companies that build strong
ties to Solution Partners for best-in-class, extended solutions —
such as finite element analysis (FEA), computer-aided
manufacturing (CAM), product data management (PDM), and
kinematics — make sure that development is done by the companies best suited for the job. The results are more complete
product design and development solutions.
• SolidWorks provides an unmatched selection of Solution Partner
products plus the highest level of add-on product integration in the
industry. Certified Gold Products offer the look-and-feel of
SolidWorks software, simplifying learning and use and extending
best-in-class functionality. All Certified Gold Products offer singlewindow
integration with SolidWorks, are fully associative, and undergo
a rigorous testing and certification process by SolidWorks to
ensure compatibility with every release of SolidWorks.
Electronic-oriented tools: CircuitWorks from Zeal Solutions offers a
SolidWorks Certified Gold Product solution that enables the merging
of 2D IDF format PCB data and component 3D data to build complete
3D models of PCB assemblies. These exact models result in
optimized packaging designs with minimum envelope sizes.
Analysis tools: Optional COSMOS products in the COSMOSWorks™
analysis software product line enable thermal, buckling, non-linear,
and electromagnetic analysis. Partners such as MSC.Software
(MSC.visualNastran FEA for SolidWorks) also provide Certified Gold
Product Solution analysis product products for use with SolidWorks.
COSMOSFloWorks™ from COSMOS provides CFD (computational
flow dynamics) analysis for flow and heat transfer applications.
Wiring harness design tools: EmbassyWorks from Linius Technologies,
Inc. provides the capability to design a wiring harness for a
product automatically from interconnection data. It also enables
manual harness design by routing from point to point.
Kinematics tools: Kinematics analysis is helpful for developing products
requiring complex motion including complex packaging access
panels requiring easy product maintenance. COSMOS
(COSMOSMotion™) and Certified Gold Product Solution Partner
Solid Dynamics (MotionWorks) offer these type of analysis tools.
CAM tools: After the design is complete, CAM (computer-aided
manufacturing) products provide part checking and machine programming
capability for tool path generation with TekSoft CADCAM
Systems offering their Certified Gold Product CAMWorks™.
PDM (product data management) solutions: These products provide
complete document and file control for the entire development
project and are available from a number of Gold and Solution
Partners. |
