When I speak with manufacturers, they often tell me that moving towards becoming more model-based is at the top of their priority list. Initially, they might have started down this path to eliminate the extra work required to build 2D drawings off of their 3D models. Now, manufacturers want to make the 3D model itself the gravitational center. The disconnect between the 2D drawing and 3D model is hobbling both their internal efficiency and external competitiveness.
More formally known as model-based definition, MBD is about creating rich “Technical Data Packages (TDP),” which include the 3D model and associated data elements. At the core of the TDPs is the 3D model, along with its associated dimensioning and tolerancing to clearly communicate design intent and geometric form control. Thanks to the TDP, users who sit downstream from engineering can understand and use that model without needing separate 2D artifacts – the information is in the model itself.
MBD is not another way of spelling ‘paperless engineering,’ as if mere convenience were the reason for such a strategic shift. The manufacturers we work with are talking about a broader and grander idea: a different way of approaching the product development, manufacturing, delivery, operations, and service processes so that the 3D model is the source authority.
By implication, these manufacturers are also talking about innovation, and how they might use breakthrough technologies such as simulation, additive manufacturing, and generative design to design better products faster. MBD is as much an approach to corporate strategy as it is an approach to design, product development and manufacturing.
That’s the exciting part – the vision that gets people to commit their time and resources to the effort. I would offer this advice to those who aspire to a model-based journey. Think of a rock climber scaling a cliff face. As he or she ascends, that climber will need to put an anchor in the rock through which to pass the rope.
Your 3D model is that anchor. Start there.
By Brian Thompson, DVP and GM, CAD Segment, PTC
