This article demonstrates the use of model-based definition (MBD), which can lead to improve productivity and reduce time-to-market. MBD is a method of annotating 3D computer-aided design models with geometric and tolerancing information. With Boeing moving to model-based definition, members of industry have approached the team in Montreal about investigating MBD’s usefulness. Experts believe that the MBD format, if widely adopted, would have implications for inspection. The part would be inspected against the tolerances contained within the CAD model rather than against the 2D engineering drawings, and that would speed the process and potentially make it even more accurate. The cultural change that will have to take place at most engineering companies will be difficult to tackle, and engineering and manufacturing managers know this. A model-based inspection software is being developed to read geometric, dimension, and tolerance information attached to a solid model. This will minimize operator input during development of coordinate measuring machine programs and improve the accuracy and integrity of the inspection process.

This article reviews how reverse engineering is used in detecting and preserving. Engineers across many disciplines find reverse engineering an invaluable tool to discover and learn about a product’s structure and design. A good forensic engineer will glean relevant information through meticulous investigation and by taking a reverse-engineering approach. Texas Tech University, the National Park Service, and the Historic American Buildings Survey are now creating digital architectural drawings to detail the 120-year-old statue’s every curve, cranny, and dimension. They are doing this through reverse engineering. The university is capturing the statue's unique architecture with three-dimensional laser scanning technology tied to geometry processing software, which automatically generates an accurate digital model from the scan data. To help align the scans and to fix the holes, the team turned to technology that creates surface models from scanned data. The software is Geomagic Studio, from Raindrop Geomagic of Research Triangle Park, NC.

This article focuses on the advantages of technology over manual intervention. Products are made to order in a process that spawns a stream of changes to CAD drawings, technical specifications, bills of materials, assembly instructions, and other documents. The secret of Swagelok’s success is workflow software, which helps automate and manage repetitive business processes, such as engineering change orders, document revision, review, and design release. It lets a computer automatically route drawings and documents to every person who needs them. Workflow software creates a single system for gathering all of the necessary history, measurements, and models. Swagelok and Evernham use workflow software to control and track the movement of information. Many larger companies, on the other hand, have used workflow software to move data automatically among applications. Such complex workflows are usually part of a larger product lifecycle management solution.

Russell Porter, artist, explorer, engineer, turned his hobby into an observatory of unprecedented scale in California. Although he was a trained architect, Russell Porter is known as a scientist, photographer, surveyor, and inventor and played a pivotal role in the development of the Palomar Observatory. Though he never foresaw telescope design in his career plans, Porter was intimately involved in the design and other aspects of the Glass Giant, the 200-inch-diameter telescope on Palomar Mountain. In 1915, Porter returned to MIT as a professor of architecture. When the United States entered World War I, Hartness advised the National Bureau of Standards to retain Porter to develop manufacturing techniques for optical instruments, including prisms and reflecting surfaces. Russell Porter’s work remains visible on the Cal Tech campus in Pasadena. A visit to the corridors of the astrophysics building reveals spectacular cosmic images of distant galaxies and nebula along with 30 of Porter’s more than 1000 cutaway design drawings of telescopes.

Brooks has implemented a collaborative product data management system in which information is accessed through Web interfaces. The system lets engineers at Brooks’ worldwide facilities collaborate on design projects and exchange information in seconds, providing product information to manufacturing and customer service departments and other areas of the company. Brooks expects eventually to give limited access to customers and suppliers. Using UGS software in product development, Brooks’ global development team can collaborate effectively and expects to increase business by reducing time to market for its flow meters. Role-based access gives several types of users different interfaces-different views of the data-depending on the sorts of information they need to see. With its new system, Brooks can issue engineering changes in seconds. This helps the firm meet customer needs for the technology built into its Quantim flow measurement and control device.

This article focuses on the collapse of an excavating machine’s seat pedestal at the TU Electric Oak Hill strip mine near Tatum, Texas. It became serious when the excavator operator reported that the accident had injured his lower back. The strip mine’s insurance company brought a faulty product lawsuit against the manufacturer of the excavator. The seat assembly was modeled in an upright position using three-dimensional beam, plate/shell, and solid brick elements. The beam and plate/shell elements were used to represent the steel base of the seat and were defined using the material properties of steel from the software’s Material Library Manager. Giesen followed the event step-by-step on his computer screen and watched the force operating at points on the body in real time. It was remarkable to see the reverberation in very high mechanical frequency rippling up and down the backbone. The report of Giesen’s destructive examination and Mechanical Event Simulation results was one of many considerations in the subsequent settlement of the lawsuit.

This article explains the concept and various aspects of mechanical design automation (MDA). The use of computers for mechanical design is often referred to as MDA. Serious commercialization of computer graphics for design and drafting began in 1969 with the founding of Computervision and Application. The commercial market picked up significantly in 1975, when new 19-inch storage tube display terminals became readily available from Tektronix. These units could be used with minicomputers without custom interfaces, and they could display substantially larger drawings than the older, 11-inch units. The 1980s saw tremendous growth and change in mechanical design automation. While the predominant computer continued to be the 16-bit Digital PDP-11, there was growing interest in Digital’s 32-bit VAX 11 /780. Display products were starting their transition from Tektronix’s storage tube units to raster displays, with color raster just around the corner. The 1990s was a decade of constant movement for the MDA industry.