Jennifer Herron, CEO of Action Engineering, interviewed Raphael Nascimento, CADIQ Product Manager at International TechneGroup (ITI), for this featured blog about 3D CAD collaboration and interoperability. Action Engineering appreciates ITI’s generous support as a Signature Sponsor of the 2017 3D Collaboration & Interoperability Congress + Quality Information Framework Summit, being held in Golden, Colorado on October 2-6, 2017.
International TechneGroup
To remain competitive, manufacturers are implementing MBE, advanced simulation, and PLM initiatives supported by best-in-class engineering systems. When product data interoperability issues threaten to impede the progress of these initiatives, you need a partner with proven experience. ITI has product data interoperability experts specializing in conversion, integration, validation and migration solutions. Their customers recognize the value in having a trusted solution partner that provides more than just software. ITI solves complex product data interoperability problems so that the world’s leading manufacturers can focus on making great products. You need to keep your initiatives moving forward. Let ITI help create momentum.
Raphael Nascimento, CADIQ Product Manager at International TechneGroup
Raphael Nascimento is currently a Product Manager at ITI where he is responsible for product strategy, planning, and execution for ITI’s CAD validation product, CADIQ.
Prior to joining ITI, Raphael spent over 20 years at PTC where he held several roles, most recently as Product Manager for several functional areas of Creo Parametric, including: MBD, 2D Detailing, GD&T Advisor, and Tolerance Analysis. He also worked as a Consultant and Trainer in PTC’s Global Services where led clients in the implementation of new technology and new business processes, including MBD/MBE. Raphael is an active participant at ASME Y14 Committee meetings and is a member of the Y14.41 and Y14.41.1 subcommittees.
Raphael attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
JENNIFER HERRON: As you know, the ability for enterprises to use and re-use their CAD is at the very heart of 3D CIC. How does ITI fit into 3D CAD collaboration and interoperability?
RAPHAEL NASCIMENTO: ITI pioneered data interoperability in the 80’s with the development of CAD translation toolkits for standards such as IGES, STEP, and DXF for the leading CAD vendors. From this starting point, ITI launched its own interoperability software tools and services to help manufacturers clear collaboration and interoperability obstacles. We specialize in product data conversion, integration, validation, and migration solutions.
There is a passion at ITI for interoperability that goes beyond software. ITI’s customers appreciate our team of consultants who are true problem-solvers. They love to roll up their sleeves and help customers clear obstacles and achieve their engineering initiatives.
ITI has also been a proactive force working with industry consortia and standards development organizations for decades. Our participation in PDES, Inc., JT Open, and the 3D PDF Consortium groups has enabled us to develop implementation best practices and to identify the importance of derivative model validation processes for MBE applications.
JH: Is there a particular size of company that your products are geared towards or work best for? small (1-200 people), medium (200-1,000), large (>1,000)
RN: ITI has engaged with over 1,900 global engineering and manufacturing clients that are predominantly medium to large businesses. However, we do have small businesses that use our translation tools and services.
JH: How long has ITI been involved with 3D CIC?
RN: ITI began sponsoring 3D CIC when it was a one-day show added to the Rapid Engineering event, sometime around 2006.
JH: Do all of ITI’s products enable CAD interoperability?
RN: ITI’s solutions enable CAD interoperability throughout the product lifecycle. In addition to CAD interoperability, ITI’s products enable PLM integration, and CAD data reuse in CAE and advanced manufacturing applications.
JH: As you know, for Action Engineering, robust Model-Based Definition (MBD) is essential to begin the digital thread that supports smart manufacturing. Could you tell me how ITI supports MBD?
RN: ITI solutions give customers the ability to generate production-quality 3D PDF, STEP, and JT model-based technical data packages that provide suppliers and downstream consumers with the detailed engineering and manufacturing information required for effective model-based communication and collaboration.
CADIQ performs three important functions (quality checking, derivative validation, and revision comparison) within the MBD process which ensure that MBD data can be relied upon for downstream manufacturing. CADIQ quality checking can identify defects in the model geometry and product and manufacturing information (PMI) that, if not addressed, could impact the producibility of parts or assemblies. CADIQ validation will identify differences between native CAD data and derivative formats to ensure that the derivative can be trusted for downstream re-use or long term archiving and retrieval (LOTAR). CADIQ comparison will identify changes between revisions of the CAD data so that the intended changes can be properly documented and any unintended changes can be resolved.
Legacy data migration is also a big part of MBD. ITI strives to help our customers reuse their existing CAD data. The Proficiency solution enables the transfer of complete design intelligence between major CAD systems. Elements that are important to MBD are preserved in the Proficiency data conversion process, such as geometry, features, history, sketch relations, PMI, metadata, and assembly information; this also includes 2D drawings.
DrawtoPMI supports the migration of legacy CAD data for use in the MBD environment. DrawtoPMI takes as input a 3D CAD model with its associated 2D drawing file and automatically combines them into a single 3D part file containing all of the 3D PMI, including views, cross-sections, functional tolerances and annotations, ready for immediate use in the MBD environment.
On a grander scale, ITI’s DEXcenter is a process automation engine that validates and exchanges MBD data securely. DEXcenter creates and validates technical data packages (TDPs), which are popular solutions for exchanging MBD data across the enterprise and beyond with suppliers. When exchanged through DEXcenter, proprietary data is encrypted to prevent interception. Records of every exchange are maintained to validate what was sent, when it was sent and when it was received, including ITAR/EAR compliance reports.
JH: How do your products help companies communicate information from engineering to the shop floor?
RN: CADIQ’s 3D PDF reports save time and improve communication between the engineering and manufacturing teams. These reports ensure that as-designed components serve as the digital twin to the as-built components. People from different disciplines can more readily understand 3D PDFs versus previous change communication tools or documentation. They can easily mark-up the 3D PDFs, speeding the feedback process.
JH: Do you have software tools that support the digital twin concept, and if so, how?
RN: CADIQ’s comparison and validation tools support the digital twin by identifying the variations that are inevitably found between 3D design and manufacturing models and allowing the user to determine whether the variations are significant, meaning that some corrective action must be taken, or negligible, meaning that they can safely be ignored. We call this “Zero Article Inspection™” with CADIQ. If manufacturing and design models are equivalent, they contain only negligible variations and will pass zero article inspection. But, like human identical twins, a digital twin may have slight yet significant differences that are not apparent on visual inspection. CADIQ helps engineers identify these variations upstream, so they can disposition the changes early with zero tooling, zero material, zero waste.
Thanks again to ITI for your Signature Sponsorship of 3D CIC + QIF Summit, October 2-6, 2017 in Golden, Colorado. Click here to find out more about the event and register.