Simulation Driven Design (SDD)

Back at the beginning of December, I published a post titled The Very Real Skillset Challenges of Simulation Drive Design. It identified four main areas of knowledge or skills needed to really make a simulation driven design initiative successful including. It also looked at some typical engineer roles and their ability to gain and keep these four types of skills or knowledge.

Since PLM was first conceived, it has almost been inseparable from PDM. The majority of PLM deployments included PDM as part of the PLM deployments. However, more recently, the idea that PDM must be deployed with PLM has been eschewed. Some new PLM solutions only offer plug-ins or integrations to 3rd party PDM systems, all of which is optional. Is this a good or bad idea?

It feels like we’ve been talking about simulation driven design for a really really long time. Doesn’t it? The whole idea is to setup and run simulations of a product’s performance early in the design cycle and base design decisions off those results. This approach is in contrast to using simulation towards the end of the design cycle, prior to prototype and testing or even just prior to design release, to validate and verify product performance. It might seem like a nuanced difference to some, but theoretically it can make a huge difference.

Is the design engineer extinct? Perhaps, but I don’t think that’s the point. Are all of the activities that need to be performed in the development cycle getting done? I believe the answer is a resounding yes. I think the subtle theme in Matt’s article that’s never quite expressly said is whether or not those activities are being done by qualified individuals.

This series of posts will cover new product releases, changes in product strategy and acquisitions by engineering software providers affect engineering stakeholders. New posts in this series will be published based on software provider activities. Today’s post goes beyond the news around the launch of PTC’s Creo to analyze and assess the potential advantages, the …

The Potential Advantages and Outstanding Concerns of PTC’s Creo Read More »

A few weeks ago, I published a post that focused on the form, fit and function aspect of the product record. In it, I differentiated between artifacts that defined a product’s form and fit like 3D models, diagrams and schematics and artifacts that defined or predicted a product’s function like simulations, analyses and tests. I think this is a pretty good representation of products composed of mechanical, electrical and software components.

Siemens PLM’s HD strategy provides stakeholders a way to visually access and navigate information in Teamcenter, Siemens’s PLM offering. For stakeholders that are not heavy PLM users and tend to avoid textual navigation of the system, this new framework provides an easier and faster way to get to information yourself. However, to utilize these capabilities, you will need to familiarize yourself with the attributes used in the PLM system and be somewhat technically savvy.