CAEDS For Workstations Version 4 adds Data Manager as an optional extra feature

CAEDS uses solid modelling technology to capture part and product designs in a three-dimensional product definition database. IBM says that CAEDS is suitable for part design, assembly design, drafting and documentation, mechanical analysis and optimisation, plastic injection moulding simulation, numerical control programming and mechanical testing. New capabilities include Optional Rapid Prototyping Interface, Optional Solid Surface Design Feature, Optional Tolerance Analysis Feature, Mould Base Database Option, Wire EDM and a new data manager function. CAEDS Version 4 applications can be operated under the control of Resource Licence Manager. The applications have a primary licence and annual licence charge, and one-time charge options, provided with previous versions, are not available with Version 4. Single licence option/multiple licence option is also available with the annual licence charge. Base is a prerequisite to all other applications and the CAEDS open architecture and specific interfaces are available through CAEDS Base.

Cascading menus

IBM says that increased ease-of-use is provided by a windows-based user interface built upon the X11 standard. This includes features like pop-up and cascading menus, icons, and forms. Users can define the look and feel of their environment by customising graphics and text windows, adding icons and masking menus. CAEDS provides the ability to integrate customer site specific programs into the CAEDS system. The CAEDS capabilities above plus others combine to provide customers with a variety of methods for integrating CAEDS into the mechanical design process. The new optional feature to CAEDS Base is Data Manager. It provides integrated data management and control capabilities for design projects linked to IBM’s Computer Integrated Manufacturing Communication and Data Facility. It manages the data used during the early product definition stages, and also, Data Manager can manage product definition data from external sources. The integration of Data Manager with other CAEDS applications makes Data Manager an ideal solution, IBM boasts. Data Manager functionality is embedded throughout all CAEDS applications and is available via the standard user interface. Data Manager establishes relationships and attributes for CAEDS-generated data, and external data can be added to the project with user-defined relationships and attributes. The attributes are primarily used for project documentation and for query operations to help locate specific data. The CAEDS Object Modeller is a feature-based, dimension-driven design tool for the design of mechanical parts and objects based on NURBS geometry and complete solids topology. The variational design capabilities previously available in CAEDS have been extended into new areas including automatic constraint recognition, complex surface modelling and incorporation of engineering equations as design constraints. Also, the four new optional capabilities, Tolerance Analysis, Solid Surface Design, Rapid Prototyping, and Mould Base Data Base have been added. The CAEDS base products have primary licence charges of $3,166, $3,545 and $1,480, and the various parts of the CAEDS Object Modeller range from $1,480 to $7,825. The System Modeller is $11,200, with the Mechanism Design costing $3,166, and the Graphics Finite Element Modeller ranges from $4,011 to $11,410.

CAEDS Version 4 Applications

CAEDS Version 4 on the Host will operate only in VM/XA, VM/ESA, VM/XA and MVS/ESA environments. Version 4 applications on the Host are offered with the primary licence charge annual licence charge and monthly licences as options. The one-time charge and optional subscriptions provided with previous versions of CAEDS applications, are not available with Version 4. The Data Manager feature is said to provide integrated data management and control capabilities for CAEDS design projects linked to IBM’s Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Communications and Data Facility. It is intended

to manage the data used during the early product definition stages. Also, it manages product definition data from external sources. Data Manager functionality is embedded throughout all applications and is available via the user interface. It establishes relationships for CAEDS-generated data, and external data can be added to the project with user-defined relationships and attributes. The relationships ensure that the impact of a design change is identified throughout the project and prevented when inappropriate. SET is a data exchange standard developed to exchange data between different engineering software products, and the optional SET interface is bidirectional, allowing CAEDS data to be written into a SET form and allowing SET data to be read into CAEDS. The CAEDS VDA-FS interface is a bidirectional interface that allows geometric transfer of information into and out of CAEDS, and it supports the VDA-FS CURVE and SURF entities. The CAEDS Object Modeller is a feature-based, dimension-driven, design tool for conceptual and detailed design of mechanical parts and objects. Based on of NURBS geometry and solids topology, it is claimed to provide the ability to model sculptured and prismatic parts using a single set of geometry algorithms. The solid-based design approach is said to ease creation of complex geometry, automatically removing hidden lines, directly calculate mass properties, and provide an accurate part definition for manufacturing purposes. The Feature Definition option allows any object which can be created by CAEDS to be made into a feature, regardless of complexity, and all geometric parameters of the object are controllable as features. The Drawing Layout option is used in conjunction with CAEDS Modeller to organise views and create annotated drawings of part and assembly solid models. The Drawing Layout option serves as a gateway to CAEDS Drafting for full production drafting, and drawings created in Layout can be transferred to Drafting. The Tolerance Analysis feature is used at the design stage and it allows designers to perform a tolerance evaluation before a product design is released, or to solve tolerance problems after release. Other features include a Solid Surface Design option, a Mould Base Data Base option, a Rapid Prototyping feature, a Sheet Metal Design option, and a CAEDS Mechanism Design. All applications are available December 20 in the US.