So, for all of those that missed SWW I will try and put into words and pictures what the technical team were demonstrating on the DriveWorks booth at SolidWorks World.
The screen shot below shows just 4 variations of a pressure vessel that were all automatically generated (along with all part and assembly drawings) by DriveWorksXpress. All in line with rules and equations that were put in place with DriveWorksXpress
Before I continue let me explain the difference between an equation and a rule: -
An equation is a mathematical calculation stating that 2 elements are the same, 1+1=2.
Elements can be constants or variables but the items either side of the = symbol must always equal true, x(x -1) = x 2- x
Engineers use equations in the following form: -
Body Length=L - 2*C ...or... Max. Pressure = (2 Ѳ t)/(r+0.2t)
The variables in the equation (the L, C, Ѳ, t and r) can be substituted with other equations or information coming from the input form. The item we want calculating (i.e. Body Length or Max Pressure) is set to a captured parameter in DriveWorksXpress. However, with an equation the same calculation will always apply.
A rule, however, is much more flexible. A rule allows one equation to be applied under certain conditions or a totally different equation to be applied under other conditions. More than that rules do not need to only control equations, a rule can select text to apply, materials to select, components to replace or maybe which configuration to choose. Rules are the great thing about DriveWorksXpress; they are used to automate the design of your products.
So we have established that rules and equations are attached to a captured parameter, but we also mentioned that our rules and equations contain information coming from an input form. Below is the input form created to ask the questions required to specify the pressure vessel. This allows the rules and equations to calculate, which drives the parts, assemblies and drawings: -
The red fields indicate information is missing.
So what rules and equations were used to allow us to automate the design of the pressure vessel?
Lengths, diameters, thicknesses, inlet / outlet positions and sizes, along with quantity and pitch of baffle plate perforations. Cage section size, secondary support quantity (if required), inclined foot height and angle all need to be calculated.
- Pressure Vessel Assembly Configuration = IF( Cage Required , "Cage" , "Feet" )
- Tank Cage Length = (Cylinder Length Mtr + Outside Diameter Mtr ) * 1000
- Tank Cage Secondary Supports = IF( Cylinder Length Mtr > 6 , "Unsuppress" , "Delete" )
- Perforated Plate Linear Pattern = ROUNDDOWN(Inlet Height -200+(Outside Diameter Mtr /2)*1000))-Wall Thickness -3)-80)/50,0)
- Baffle Plate OD = (Outside Diameter Mtr -(2*(Wall Thickness /1000)))*1000
- ASME Inlet OD = Inlet Diameter +180
- Support Foot differential height = ((Cylinder Length Mtr *1000 - 1100) * sin(radians(1.5))) + 300
- Vent OD = IF(Head Type ="Elliptical" ,Vent and Drain Diameter ,70)+180
Look carefully at the input form; the captions next to each input appear in the rules above (shown in bold). This allows each equation and rule to calculate to drive the parameter it is set to.
Now we only had a limited time to get a point across so more often than not we just ran a few specifications through DriveWorksXpress and watched it build all the parts, assemblies and drawings, while explaining what was happening underneath the hood. But if anybody did want to learn exactly how the demo was put together the above is the first part of what we demonstrated, in about 5 minutes, live.
One last point to make is that DriveWorksXpress is not only for automating the design of pressure vessels. It automates the design of any product where rules and equations can express the changes that happen to its components.
