The most experienced provider of
Knowledge Based Engineering and Web Based Design-To-Order™
Systems
Terry
Davis
Director of
Sales |
2005 marks DAA’s 10th year in the KBE/DTO business.
Through the leaner years DAA has made many supportive friends
who already know much about us; we want you to assure you that
we are growing stronger every day! We also have many new
acquaintances, and we want to update you today. DAA’s first 9
years were marked by an intensive educational effort regarding
our unique offering. In contrast to those years, 2005 has
brought with it a new phenomenon for Engineer to Order
companies; Market pull!
Regarding DAA’s ability to
service this new market attitude, let me start with a candid
and extraordinary statement on how DAA is doing: DAA as a
small independent DTO™ (Design-To- Order) and KBE (Knowledge
Based Engineering) consulting company, doing exclusive work in
customs and specials market, has not only survived many of our
competitors but have grown more robust in this loosely defined
market. There are many configurator companies and CAD
companies with claims or their own definition of DTO and KBE
but provide little substance in delivering a production worthy
application.
We have seen our business expand
substantially in a high technology market that is weathering
troubled financial times. I can proudly say the first KBE
system that DAA custom built over 7 years ago is still in full
time production today. The KBE and DTO market has been
expanding and many of our prospects and clients clearly have
our custom developed systems in their crosshairs for future
expansion and new development.
In the past few years
some of our clients who received production worthy systems
are: one of the top 3 automotive manufacturers and a major
automotive supplier, Fortune 50 train signaling manufacturer
and a large turbo compressor manufacturer. In 2005 we are
currently developing systems for an airplane control
manufacturer, a furniture manufacturer in the top 5, and an
engineered conveyer belt company.
We consider
ourselves fiercely loyal to our customers, and hope that you
remember us when considering automation of your engineering
processes, or outsourcing of engineering projects. We hope you
enjoy the newsletter, and it serves to keep you updated on the
issues surrounding the KBE/DTO world.
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| Where does off-shore programming fit in the KBE
field? |
Savvy financial managers cannot ignore the hourly
programming rates available by offshore development
organizations. At the same time, financial and project
managers have also realized that lower hourly rates are one
component of achieving lower overall project implementation
costs.
When considering the development of a DTO/KBE
system, the following questions must be carefully considered
before establishing the development approach:
- When a customer says “KBE” or “Rules Based”, what does
the offshore supplier hear?
- How does one verify that what is produced fulfills the
customer’s business needs?
- How does one control the development, Q/A, delivery and
rollout process?
1. Almost all offshore companies
offer Knowledge Based Engineering systems. In order to asses
the exact meaning of the term, “Knowledge Based” the following
questions should be discussed:
- Exactly which “KBE” tools are required to meet the
automation task? Knowledge Fusion, Engineering Intent,
RuleStream and ICAD are the only true “KBE” tools on the
market.
- Does the offshore firm possess the programming
experience in the specific KBE language(s)?
- How many resources are experienced in using those KBE
tools and will those experienced resources be assigned to
your task?
It is DAA’s experience that some
development houses will consider Visual Basic, or parametric
CAD systems, to be KBE tools, which is not true. If they will
support the specific KBE tool(s), have they programmed in it
before? Do they have any contactable references? Will they
allow you to evaluate some of their work? Finally, in many
organizations, it is common practice to use your production
application as a training project for new and inexperienced
programmers. Will the primary application developers have
experience with the language, or will they draw primarily from
the junior resources?
2. Even more important than
verifying tool specific programming knowledge, is the question
of the task definition. KBE languages are by definition
“engineering” tools. As a result, DAA’s experience is
that task definitions are best done by experienced
engineers. A significant part of DAA’s business has
been redefining and reprogramming tasks originally specified
by non-engineers after being rejected by the would-be,
engineering customer. The lesson here is to ensure that the
program architect has walked in the shoes of the customer!
3. Finally, monitor the development process with a
fine toothed comb to ensure the technical details are being
applied precisely as specified. KBE projects in particular
require a high level of detailed technical monitoring to
ensure that developed code represents and embodies the
requirements. This will avoid the need for post deployment
re-work and unnecessary end-user validation.
Cost and
schedule issues can be avoided by those companies who follow
these guidelines and employ an experienced service provider.
In the final analysis, there are offshore developers that have
the technical expertise to put together effective KBE
applications. With the proper balance of on-shore engineering
skills and off-shore programming, lower overall project costs
and higher quality can be achieved for KBE and DTO™
applications.
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| Series: Technology Positioning - Why do I need a KBE
system if I have a Parametric CAD system? |
|
Parametric CAD systems have been the mainstay for geometric
model development in engineering and drafting environments.
They provide the ability to create solid models that can be
driven by numerical parameters to produce multiple output
variations. These outputs are generally of the same topology,
but can be procedurally driven to produce limited topology
variation via procedural language add-ons. These variations
must be preconceived (pre-defined), stored in a library and
are usually limited to geometric content (not the underlying
logical or engineering definition). In general, if a new
geometric construction is desired, a new parametric model is
created by the CAD operator and stored as another template.
Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) systems have
the capability to dynamically create geometric parts,
assemblies and geometric topology. KBE languages have no need
to use pre-constructed or pre-conceived geometric models. KBE
models dynamically generate all required geometry and
drawings, and as a result, geometric topologies can change
(significantly) between KBE model executions. KBE languages
also have the full capability to process complex geometric and
non-geometric logic, decision making predicate logic,
optimization (geometric and no-geometric based), data
manipulation, database integration, as well as the execution
and coordination of external programs. KBE systems can
accomplish these tasks in a much more flexible and
efficient manner than even the most advanced languages such as
C++, VB, Expert Systems or Spreadsheets. As a result, KBE
systems can be applied to the automation of sales,
engineering, manufacturing, enterprise data management or any
other process that involves the above items.
KBE’s
capabilities far exceed parametric CAD systems in the
following areas: power (overall range of capabilities),
geometric output flexibility, multidisciplinary rules
(automating from sales through manufacturing), expandability
and maintainability (flexibility of rules)
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| Technical Track: Unigraphics Knowledge Fusion Models
and Finite Element Analysis Integration |
|
Design Automation Associates, Inc. has been integrating KBE
systems with external FEA (Finite Element Analysis) programs
(ANSYS, NASTRAN, etc…) since our beginnings in 1995. With the
inception of Knowledge Fusion within NX (Unigraphics) we have
expanded our activities in this area. FEA automation systems
provide the ability to conduct rapid structural and thermal
analysis of Unigraphics generated CAD models and Unigraphics
parametric CAD models. These systems shortened the cycle
design cycles and increased product quality.
With
knowledge driven FEA, Engineers and Designers have the
capability to run numerous finite element analyses of CAD
model in an automated fashion. Additionally, the complex rules
of developing finite element models can be readily imbedded
into the Knowledge Fusion source code. This approach affords
less skilled personnel to develop technically sound and
advanced structural and thermal CAD models.
The
following basic steps govern the integration of Knowledge
Fusion generative geometry with Finite Element Analysis:
- Knowledge Fusion generates geometry based on user inputs
and design rules
- Knowledge Fusion custom generates instructions for FE
model generation, mesh, boundary conditions, load cases,
etc…
- Knowledge Fusion launches external FEA platform
- Imports Geometry
- Meshes Geometry
- Applies Boundary Conditions
- Solves
- Exports results (structural or thermal)
- Interprets results
Knowledge Fusion and
Finite Element Analysis integration can be either a single
pass application, multiple pass application or and iterative
optimization process. The figure below provides a simple logic
flow diagram of a multi-pass finite element optimization
analysis.
High-Level Process Steps: Knowledge Driven External
Analysis Automation
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|
| Configurable Web User Interface for DTO Systems (Part 2
of 2 in the Series) |
RuleBuilder™ UI Solution
In our last newsletter we discussed
DAA’s new UI (User Interface) technology for rapid development
of custom web UIs. DAA employs these web UI tools primarily in
situations that require extreme variation in UI
capabilities. There are, however, situations where such
extreme UI variations are not required; specifically
situations where more traditional product, pat number or
bill-of-material configuration options suffice. In these
situations, DAA utilizes a web UI technology provided by the
Pele-Sol Solutions software division of Dresser-Rand. This UI
technology is called the RuleBuilder™. The
RuleBuilder™ system provides the following benefits for UI
development:
- Highly compressed UI development time over
traditional UI development methods.
- Fully automated and dynamic UI generation by the
RuleBuilder™ with no screen design required (although
possible).
- UI screens and associated validation/configuration rules
can be authored & validated by engineers with no
programming experience required.
- Seamless integration with KBE (Knowledge based
engineering) engineering applications and geometry/drawing
automation.
- Fully integrateable to 3rd party applications
and enterprise systems via COM (client & server).
Sample screen shots of the rule builder front end
and development environment are shown below: 
If you would like more information on the
RuleBuilder™, please contact DAA for a demo. Learn more...
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