Partnership provides a complete MCAD composites solution

Citation

(2001), "Partnership provides a complete MCAD composites solution", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 73 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2001.12773cab.012

Partnership provides a complete MCAD composites solution

Partnership provides a complete MCAD composites solution

Keywords: PTC, Composite Design Technologies, CAD, Software

PTC, a vendor of mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD) and collaborative product commerce (CPC) solutions, recently announced its extended partnership with Composite Design Technologies, Inc. (CDT), a company dedicated to creating CAD-integrated software solutions for designing and manufacturing composite parts. The purpose of the augmented partnership is to accelerate the integration of the composite design tools of CDT's FiberSIM software with PTC's powerful Pro/ENGINEER software in order to deliver a complete composite design and manufacturing solution for Pro/ENGINEER users. Currently, CDT and PTC's products are integrated to enable composite parts to be accurately and efficiently manufactured. The new integration will reportedly allow engineers to design parts quickly and easily in a composite engineering environment to take advantage of the novel characteristics of composite materials and to optimize part performance.

"CDT's expertise in composite engineering software makes it the ideal partner for extending Pro/ENGINEER's composite design capabilities", said Jon Stevenson, executive vice-president and general manager, MCAD at PTC. "The new tools that we are developing in the partnership will provide a complete solution for composite design, analysis, documentation, and manufacturing. In addition, the solution will be implemented in a manner that capitalizes on the key strengths of Pro/ENGINEER. Our development teams have been working closely to provide a composite solution that is truly parametric and associative in nature, allowing automatic updates and a smoother workflow."

"We are excited about the extended partnership between our two companies and look forward to the opportunity to build on our four years of experience with composite manufacturing inside Pro/ENGINEER", said Steven Luby, president of Composite Design Technologies, Inc. "By collaborating with PTC we will be able to provide solutions that streamline the composite engineering process by speeding both the design and manufacture of composite parts as well as by providing the feedback that is necessary to maximize the inherent benefits of these advanced materials.

"Pro/ENGINEER is an industry standard, and our partnership with PTC enhances our ability to deliver world-class composite solutions to many more manufacturing companies", Luby continued. "Our jointly developed solutions will further automate our users' composite design processes, and will allow engineers familiar with Pro/ENGINEER to use the new software intuitively".

Advanced composites are becoming indispensable for improving performance in aerospace, automotive, industrial, sporting goods, marine and medical equipment industries. Composite components and designs are particularly important in the aerospace industry, where the high strength and low weight of the materials allow for increased performance at a reduced cost.

It is believed that FiberSIM and Pro/ENGINEER will provide users with an environment that links composite design, analysis, tooling and manufacturing. Using a novel material simulation technology that is said to predict how composite materials conform to complex surfaces, these tools enable engineers concurrently to balance part geometry, material, and process constraints. By using FiberSIM with Pro/ENGINEER, engineers can reportedly visualize fiber orientations, predict manufacturing problems and take corrective action during design. The results are said to shorten product development cycles and improve part performance.

FiberSIM is described as a suite of software products that transforms CAD systems into high performance environments for designing and manufacturing composite parts. The FiberSIM product suite includes tools that are said to automate the design process, assess the producibility of a part, and generate manufacturing information including documentation, flat patterns, and data to interface with laser projectors, automated cutters and fiber placement machines. Consequently, FiberSIM reportedly enables users to drive all aspects of preliminary composite design, analysis, detailed design, and manufacturing from within a single CAD master model.

Founded in 1991, Composite Design Technologies, Inc. (CDT) is a major company in creating software solutions for composite design and manufacturing. It is thought that CDT was the first company to recognize the need for the unique treatment of composite materials in the CAD environment. Staffed by engineers who have first-hand, in-depth knowledge of the composites industry, CDT provides world-class software, training, and consulting for companies that value the integration of composite design and manufacturing.

The PTC i-Series of flexible engineering solutions, based on PTC's award winning Pro/ENGINEER software and the practices of PTC Global Services, is a group of design and engineering solutions focused on addressing collaborative product commerce engineering initiatives. These solutions are said to be relied on daily by more than 250,000 users to drive their worldwide product development and engineering functions. The solutions use novel approaches with patent-pending and award-winning technologies such as Pro/ENGINEER behavioral modeling that captures engineering knowledge and allows designers to innovate new products more rapidly and effectively. The PTC i-Series of flexible engineering solutions, underpinned by PTC's Windchill software, also features Pro/MECANICA, Division, Pro/DESKTOP, ICEM, CDRS, InPart, CADDS 5i and MEDUSA.

PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation), founded in 1985 and headquartered in Waltham, MA, USA, develops, markets, and supports collaborative product commerce (CPC) solutions that help manufacturing companies shape innovation and achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the Internet age. These B2B e-commerce solutions employ powerful, Web-based collaboration and flexible engineering technologies to streamline product development and delivery processes. PTC's software solutions are complemented by the strength and experience of PTC Global Services, which provides training, consulting, support, and e-commerce services to customers worldwide. With PTC' CPC solutions, manufacturers can reportedly take advantage of the Internet to improve product quality, reduce costs, and shorten time-to-market cycles.

Details available from: CDT. Tel: +1 781 290 0506; PTC, Tel: +1 781 398 5000.