CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
10 October 2007
Product News
Phoenix Integration Announces Availability of CATIA, NX, and Pro/E Integration with PHX ModelCenter® Software
Phoenix Integration announced the formal market release of CAD FusionT, a series of plug-ins for integration of the company's flagship PHX ModelCenter® software with leading CAD/CAE applications, including Dassault CATIA, PTC® Pro/ENGINEER® and UGS® NX.
"CAD Fusion is a significant initiative, because it enables a common, collaborative design environment for both Conceptual and Preliminary design teams," said Scott Woyak, president and CEO of Phoenix Integration. "The bottom line benefit is a shorter design process with fewer opportunities for errors and reworks."
Engineering design is typically divided into Conceptual and Preliminary design phases. Conceptual designers build multi-disciplinary models with low-fidelity calculations that can be rapidly executed to explore a design space and establish high-level design objectives. Preliminary designers then use high-fidelity CAD and CAE tools to create part designs that together meet the design objectives. The hand off from one team to the other is minimal, leading to process inefficiencies, errors and reworks.
CAD Fusion enables Conceptual designers to link with CAD applications as part of their design optimization process using PHX Model Center. High-fidelity CAD tools are introduced earlier into the process. CAD variables and design geometry are integrated with optimization trade studies to improve and expand Analysis of Alternatives studies. Preliminary design requirements can be introduced sooner so that by the end of Conceptual design, the Preliminary design team is handed a CAD model that already meets many of the design criteria-thus shortening the design process.
Phoenix refined its CAD Fusion concepts, working closely with customers through an early adoption program, including: Lockheed Martin, Northup Grumman, Raytheon, Airbus, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney and Advatech Pacific.
Direct Integration with CAD Tools
Each CAD Fusion plug-in automatically imports geometry from the associated CAD application without end-user programming or scripting. Designers can use CAD variables such as volumes, surface areas, weights and geometry files as variables in ModelCenter and view the impact on CAD geometry as variables are changed during ModelCenter trade studies.
CAD Fusion interfaces ModelCenter directly with each CAD tool without intermediate translators that result in a "least common denominator syndrome." The direct integration enables accessing special features of CAD tools from ModelCenter such as invoking CAD macros, running CAD rule checking, and extraction CAD variable units.
Conceptual and Preliminary design teams can view CAD 3-D geometry during ModelCenter trade studies as variables are optimized in ModelCenter. This visualization results in a better understanding of design alternatives and helps to avoid costly rework later in the design process. After each design iteration, geometry files can be exported in a variety of formats to update CAD, CAE and other linked applications. CAD Fusion also increases the robustness of CAD applications by providing workarounds for CAD tool crashes and memory leaks.
For more information about CAD Fusion, visit http://www.phoenix-int.com/products/cad_fusion.php
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