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RT:SSPECIALREPTECHNOLOGY FOR THE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE

WHAT MAKES

SOLID EDGE
STAND OUT?

EXPLORING SYNCHRONOUS
TECHNOLOGY, AND ALL THATSOLID EDGE HAS TO OFFER

EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF RAPID DESIGNSOLID EDGE: DECLASSIFIEDPOWERFUL DESIGNRICH TOOLSET

The tenets of Synchronous Technology

With lightning fast modelling & editing

What else does Solid Edge offer users?

Special Report: Solid Edge
Sponsored by Siemens PLM SoftwareSOLIDEDGE
With the introduction of Synchronous Technology, Siemens
gave Solid Edge a differentiator that no-one else has been able tomatch. We explore what it does and how you can benefit from it.
he process of creating a new productis one that faces all manner ofchallenges and bottlenecks. The useof 3D CAD allows you to take ideas,
concepts, and requirements and turn them intohigh fidelity models that can then be tested
without having to build physical prototypes.
But not all systems do all of this as efficiently asothers.
Having the freedom to make rapid changes
early in the design and add design intent as
the 3D model evolves are crucial in a modernsystem. While the feature tree and dimension
driven approach make history-based modellers
good at capturing design intent and highly
automated, to make use of this, users have toplan their design approach rigorously, slowing
down early design stages.

T

Subsequent edits are hard to predict andmodels with many features can be slow toregenerate.
On the other hand, direct modellers provide
fluid editing early in product development anddon’t generally suffer performance slowing
on complex models, but they’re not so goodat capturing design intent when changes are
required later down the line. Additionally, weakdimension driven editing makes them poor at
automating designs to quickly re-purpose yourwork. Wouldn’t it be ideal if both approaches
could be combined?
Solid Edge is a system that combines thebest of both. The key to this is SynchronousTechnology, delivering direct manipulation of
3D geometry, the ability to add design intent
when it’s needed and make precise changes.

Procedural features like holes, rounds andpatterns are easily changed by altering theirproperties such as diameter or radius, aidingautomated design.
This offers an alternative to traditional historybased modelling that’s more flexible to operate,doesn’t require a PHD to pick apart endless listsof features to effect a design change and allows
you to manipulate geometry in a very free-form
manner. And because it does not rely on ahistory tree, it works just as well with imported
geometry from other 3D design systems.
Synchronous Technology is a uniquecapability that controls how solid models
behave - let’s unlock some of the secrets ofSynchronous Technology in Solid Edge, thekey benefits it brings and some practicalapplications.

SYNCHRONOUS UNLOCKED: The three key tools driving modelling speed

STEERING WHEEL: Like in your car, this is themain control of Synchronous Technology. This
gives you control over translation, rotation,and scaling of the faces you have selected.
It can be dragged, dropped and snapped toaxial positions to allow precise manipulation.
Combined with Design Intent (see the panel tothe right) it gives you control over your model.
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DESIGN INTENT: Design Intent in SynchronousTechnology is stored right on the model,
rather than indirectly in the sketches. A set offilters and face selection criteria allow you to
enforce relationships such as parallelism anddimensional constraints, or easily remove themto change the design intent and make edits toyour model.

3D DIMENSIONS: History-based systems
require dimensions to build geometric featuresindividually. With Synchronous Technology,
dimensions can be placed in 3D space to define
real world relationships, rather than having
to define them just to derive features. And it
works as well on third party data as it does withnative.

Special Report: Solid EdgeSponsored by Siemens PLM Software

FAST AND FLEXIBLE DESIGN CREATIONCHALLENGE: Clean sheet design is a complex,
frenetic and increasingly pressurised process.
Many organisations find a bottleneck at
this earliest of stages (39% of companies,
according to a recent Aberdeen report).

SOLUTION: Synchronous Technology in Solid
Edge removes the need for pre-planning of partand assembly construction processes - it lets
you dive straight into the task, without having
to worry about operating the software.

BENEFITS: Beat deadlines and deliver products
to market faster than your competition byworking smarter and leaner. That’ll also give
you more resources for developing the next
generation or new areas for innovation.

QUICK RESPONSE TO LATE-STAGE DESIGN CHANGESCHALLENGE: Late-stage design changes area fact of life for the majority. The issue withhistory-based systems is that unpicking that
construction history can not only take time, but
can often break the 3D model entirely.

SOLUTION: Solid Edge with SynchronousTechnology allows you to dive in and directly
manipulate the geometry to accommodate
your design changes, without having to unpick
the history tree or wait for it to recompute.

BENEFITS: Late-stage design changes are, by
their very definition, factors that are holding
up the process. By allowing you to make thechanges you need, without having to rebuild
geometry, Solid Edge gets them done faster.

EDITING IMPORTED 3D CAD DATACHALLENGE: We’re all used to receiving third
party data that has all the intelligence strippedout of it. Traditionally, modifying that data is atime consuming and error prone process that
can add days to a project.

SOLUTION: Solid Edge, using SynchronousTechnology, allows you to work with imported
geometry just as you would with native data. It
allows you to make the edits you require, using
the same set of tools you use for native models.

BENEFITS: Time is a precious commodity andhaving engineers hacking imported geometryor remodelling from scratch eats it up. The
ability to work with both native and imported
data saves it for more pressing matters.

PRACTICAL DOWNSTREAM USESASSEMBLIES: Synchronous Technology allows
you to work across multiple parts within an
assembly - making edits faster and moreaccurate. Many other systems with direct
editing capability focus on single parts.

SIMULATION PREPARATION: Repurposing ofgeometry is a ubiquitous part of the simulation
workflow. Synchronous Technology allows you
to quickly edit and defeature geometry to makeyour simulation more efficient.

MACHINING PREPARATION: Whether it’screating casting patterns, adding machinestock or generating parting lines, SynchronousTechnology gets the job done faster, on all
manner of geometry types.
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Special Report: Solid Edge
Sponsored by Siemens PLM Software

SOLID
EDGE
A COMPLETE SOLUTION
While Synchronous Technology is key a differentiator for Solid
Edge, the system has 20 years worth of development and its
toolset is broad and deep. Here are some of the highlights

2D documentation
Documentation is critical to production of newproducts. Solid Edge includes all of the tools
you’ll need to take your 3D models, generate
the views and add the key annotations
required to push into the production
environment. Geometric views, as well as parts
lists, bills of materials and many others areautomatically created from the 3D model.

Large assembly design
The ability to handle large assemblies is not
purely about how many parts your design
system can handle, but how it supports theprocess. Solid Edge has a wealth of tools inthis regard, from adaptive display controls andpre-modelling assembly structure planning to
all the bells and whistles you’d expect to tackle
the big projects.

KeyShot visualisation
Rendering is no longer the sole preserve of
the industrial design crowd. Today, manyare looking to create high quality images
to impress colleagues and clients, to create
pre-manufacture marketing imagery and togain a better understanding of how a productwill appear once made. Solid Edge comes withindustry leading KeyShot as standard.

Sheet metal design
From raw design and engineering design
tools, Solid Edge supports sheet metal design
and fabrication with forms automaticallyflattened using industry standard
calculations for bend radii. It also supports
downstream processes, with the ability tocreate a CAM-ready flat pattern DXF without
the need to create a drawing first.

Solid Edge: Much more than just a CAD system
We’ve looked at what makes Solid Edge unique.
It brings together world class 3D modelling
tools that allow you to work quickly, efficiently
and intelligently with both native and imported
data.

We’ve also looked at how it also includes tools
for drawings and documentation, simulation(based on industry leading FEMAP and Nastrantechnology), NC programming and partmanufacturing. Design and engineering data

TRY
SOLID EDGE
FOR FREE
www.siemens.com/plm/try-solid-edge

4 www.siemens.com/plm/solidedge

can be managed but can then be scaled up
to cover full lifecycle management (based on
Siemens’ leading PLM system, Teamcenter).
To learn more about Solid Edge and downloada 45 day free trial, visit the links below:

LEARN
MORE

www.siemens.com/plm/solidedge