Attention engineers! There’s an easier way to conduct Tolerance Analysis for your CAD designs.

Transforming CAD designs into real and tangible parts is not only rewarding on a personal level but also professionally fulfilling. It combines creativity, problem-solving, and hands-on experience, all culminating in the sense of accomplishment that comes from creating something real from an abstract concept.

However, as you already know, physical parts deviate from the idealized representation (the design model) due to many different challenges and manufacturing constraints. Tolerance analysis involves assessing the impact of variations in dimensions, geometries, and other parameters on the final product’s performance and functionality. By utilizing Tolerance Analysis, designers ensure proper fit and alignment of the product components.

Improve Quality & Design Innovation

If the goal is to improve quality and design innovation, enable your engineers to perform comprehensive tolerance stack-up analysis. Traditionally this process is a massive pain i.e. repetitive trial-and-error tasks and tedious testing. This part of the design process can be frustrating and often slows down design teams. However, it doesn’t have to be this way!

The PTC Creo EZ Tolerance Analysis Extension is a dynamic computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool powered by leading Sigmetrix technology. This extension helps designers by creating a faster, more intuitive workflow to assess the impact of dimensional specifications on your product designs before prototypes or production.

The software provides algorithms to help engineers identify the optimal tolerance values that meet the design objectives while considering various constraints. This aids in making informed decisions and reducing the time spent on manual analysis and evaluations.

By considering these variations even earlier in the design process, engineers can make more informed decisions to ensure that the final product will perform as intended. Cheers to reinforcing Closed Loop Manufacturing!

The Positive Business Outcomes of Using EZ Tolerance Analysis

Below is a high-level overview of the positive business outcomes this PTC solution proves to provide for manufacturing companies:

• Speed time to market
• Mitigate risk
• Improve productivity
• Reduce costs by reducing rework and scrap

Related Technologies To Use With Tolerance Analysis

Combine Tolerance Analysis with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to ensure your designs comply with ASME and ISO standards. Or take your designs even further to contain all the data needed to define the product with model-based definition (MBD). With MBD, your model becomes the source authority across the enterprise. The outcome is shorter product development cycles, reduced costs, and enhanced product quality.

PTC continues its investments in enhancing simulation-driven design and generative design with the new Creo 10. Some new features include Rotational Symmetry, Mass Point Constraints, and Remote Loads. Additionally, Creo Simulation Live now includes Contact Simulation options and improved options for fluid and structural results. Creo Flow Analysis and Creo Simulation now have better animation and multibody support. 

For more Simulation and Analysis, we also recommend PTC’s Creo Simulation Advanced powered by Ansys technology. The brand-new Creo Ansys Simulation Advanced analyzes nonlinear contact and materials, with combined thermal and structural analysis. For more information about the latest release of Creo 10 check out the blog here.

How it works

Benefits of Creo Generative Design Extension

Reduced Design Times: One of the main ways that Creo GDX can reduce design times is by automating the design process. By specifying the known goals and constraints, the software autonomously generates designs that are close to manufacturing-ready. This reduces the need for manual design work, which can be time-consuming and expensive. Additionally, the cloud-based nature of the software means that it can access powerful computing resources, which can significantly reduce the time needed to generate designs

Improved Design Quality: the Creo Generative Design Extension can help to improve design quality by providing a larger set of design alternatives, enabling users to explore more design criteria with multiple materials options. This allows for more optimized designs and more efficient use of materials, leading to higher quality, lower cost solutions

Increased Innovation: By automating the design process, designers can focus their efforts on more innovative, creative, and strategic aspects of product development. This leads to more efficient and effective design processes, which can ultimately lead to more innovative and successful products

One of the key benefits of Creo Generative Design Extension is its ability to spark innovation. By generating design options that may not have been considered otherwise, designers can explore new possibilities and push the boundaries of what is possible. This can lead to breakthroughs in product design and ultimately, greater success in the marketplace.

Another strength of the tool is its ability to seamlessly integrate with other CAD and CAE tools and PLM systems. This allows designers to easily analyze their designs and share them with colleagues and other stakeholders. This integration also enables designers to more effectively collaborate with other teams, such as manufacturing and simulation teams, to ensure that their designs can be efficiently produced and meet all necessary requirements.

Design Workflows Enabled by Creo Generative Design Extension

Creo Generative Design Extension enables users to design complex parts in a single step. It can be used for topology optimization and parametric modeling, including:

• Modeling of high-performance structures using topology optimization techniques
• Creation of parametric models based on the geometry of existing parts or assemblies, without requiring any additional CAD data

Integration of Creo Generative Design Extension with Other Tools

Creo Generative Design Extension is a seamless extension to the Creo Parametric environment. It allows product designers to use the tools and workflows they are familiar with, while providing access to advanced generative design capabilities.

Real-World Applications of Creo Generative Design Extension

Creo Generative Design Extension can be used for a variety of applications, including:

• Automotive
• Aerospace
• Medical
• Consumer electronics

Future of Creo Generative Design Extension

The future of Creo Generative Design Extension is bright. We will continue to work with our partners to integrate the extension with simulation and analysis tools, making it easier for you to model your designs before manufacturing them.

Conclusion

The Creo Generative Design Extension is a powerful tool that allows you to create designs with more flexibility and efficiency than ever before. With this extension, you can easily create parts that meet your specific needs without having to worry about the time involved in creating them manually or using other tools.

As Creo Generative Design Extension continues to evolve, it is poised to revolutionize the way we approach product design and innovation.

PTC Creo is an industry-leading CAD software that allows you to model, design and simulate your products. Formlabs 3D printers are the best way to bring these digital designs into physical form. When you combine PTC Creo with Formlabs 3D printing, you can:

• Reduce time-to-market by enabling designers and engineers to iterate more quickly on their designs before committing them to tooling or manufacturing processes.

• Improve product quality by being able to prototype complex geometries that would otherwise be difficult or impossible using traditional manufacturing methods.

• Increase design accuracy by allowing for greater flexibility in prototyping new concepts without the constraints imposed by traditional manufacturing processes.

The capabilities and functionalities of computer-aided design software determine the achievements of design teams and, ultimately, the profitability of manufacturing companies. From concept design and large assemblies to emerging technologies – PTC Creo will always beat SolidWorks.

1. Concept Design

Within Concept Design, tools that help designers achieve quicker design iterations, reduce design rework, and testing on design concepts early on are vital. SolidWorks struggles with basic foundations to quickly create multiple and complex concept ID and proposal models. While easy revisions of concept models and conceptual design tools (aside from traditional and basic surfacing functions) seem like they should be a standard in CAD design programs, SolidWorks comes up short. The missing capabilities make design iterations like freeform surfacing an impossible task.

Contrary to SolidWorks, PTC’s Creo provides numerous, flexible tools so users can quickly turn ideas into concepts and models into detailed designs. With capabilities like freestyle, designers can quickly and easily create freestyle and parametric combination surfaces. Creo’s concept design tools empower engineers to quickly create 2D conceptual geometry, easily generate proposed concept variations and are seamlessly compatible with other sub-divisional initial surfacing. To minimize prototyping costs and decrease waste, Creo also provides early simulation for shaping initial surfacing.

2. Large Assemblies

Large assemblies are typically fighting three persistent problems: lengthy opening times and lack of memory, large drawings for slow loading, and lagging graphics with sudden crashes. SolidWorks does not provide solutions to those issues, but rather it has performance and stability constraints when loading large assemblies. SolidWorks is slow to respond to full assembly changes and lacks the capabilities for top-down design and concurrent engineering. All of these vulnerabilities lead to slow design processes and an increase in time-to-market – ultimately hindering the bottom line.

PTC Creo is the recognized leader in large assembly management and top-down design. PTC’s CAD solution is the strongest-performing software in loading and working with large assemblies. Multiple people can work on large assemblies and they don’t have to suffer usability and performance scales as the assembly size grows. As engineers make major changes to the assemblies there are predictable outcomes that are easy to fix with flexible tools such as simplified reps, data sharing, and more. The tools in Creo allow large assemblies to be created with ease and confidence in a smooth process as assemblies continue to grow.

3. Robust Modeling Functions

A robust model is defined as a model structure that can easily adapt with minimal negative feedback when changes are made to the design and model. SolidWorks is lacking in adaption for sheet metal, direct editing, multi-body designs, top-down designs, and complex surfacing. SolidWorks struggles with fluidity in progressing from conceptual models to creating robust, detailed models. Robust models need to be able to adjust with scaling. SolidWorks fails to attain that scalability as models change and evolve to create more innovative and complex products. In other words, with SolidWorks there is no assurance that your designs will reach the same efficiency as the model becomes more complex.

Contrary to SolidWorks, Creo is a single, scalable suite of integrated solutions with powerful direct and parametric modeling. As a single source of truth, Creo allows you to design without compromise, regardless of complexity, and achieve full associativity and automatic change propagation. These capabilities open up the opportunity to work on complex models without any interruptions.

4. Late-Stage Design Changes

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of your design iteration and realizing that you missed something along the way to finish the model. SolidWorks software makes it difficult to make late-stage design changes to complex geometry which often results in having to rework and fix the model geometry. Performance and productivity are impacted by late-design changes that require a recognition of the entire model geometry and all its features. When designers try to move parts and surfaces, these changes could require rebuilding or an import/export of CAD data. This makes it difficult to make changes to dimensions and pattern features, copy geometry, and move complex surfaces. When you can’t easily make late-stage design changes there is a disruption in the workflow – time and money are lost.

PTC Creo helps companies save money by delivering powerful capabilities for late-stage design changes. Functionalities like direct copy/paste geometry, flexible pattern tools, round editing, and the ability to follow geometry upon move are all ways that designers can keep production moving. When designers can move complex geometry and Flexible Modeling intelligently adapts geometry to the given use case, they can be confident in making late-stage design changes without disrupting their workflow. Creo saves teams from headaches, time lost, and missed opportunities.

5. Emerging Technologies

As far as new emerging technologies and the development of existing technologies go, SolidWorks lacks a strong initiative to keep up with the changes. While there have been proposed solutions for emerging technologies, SolidWorks focuses on extending the functionality of traditional capabilities rather than architecting a complete, and well-implemented new solution. Furthermore, their solutions are entry-level or non-existent without smooth workflows and are not fully integrated into the CAD environment. The world of technology is constantly changing and keeping up with the times is vital to bringing success to companies around the world.

PTC has unmatched capabilities in the emerging technologies that are shaping the next evolution of product development. New CAD technologies introduced by PTC are deeply integrated with Creo including generative design, simulation-driven design, augmented reality, smart connected products, and additive manufacturing. By creating compatible integrations for new, emerging technologies, PTC can stay ahead of the game with its CAD software.

From the design concept to late-stage changes, offering the best and newest capabilities is vital to the growth and success of every company. Between SolidWorks and Creo, the functionalities speak for themselves. Offering a wide expanse of tools, PTC Creo will help your designers save themselves from frustrations, shorten the design process, and increase profits year over year.

Want to learn more about how Creo could transform your business? Get in contact with our EAC experts or learn more about Creo’s capabilities here.