Data Creation: Parametric Data

We chose TraceParts as our standard hardware solution due to the ease of use of the user interface & TraceParts' willingness to customize their solution to our CAD & PDM design environment.
It allows our Engineers to select Military, Industry and Commercial Off the shelf Aerospace approved hardware rapidly & to concentrate on adding value to our company's products.



Kevin O’Brien, Specifications & Standard Parts Manager at Northrop-Grumman
TraceParts offers intelligent and integrated software solutions for implementing the data creation process.

The big plus for your customers is that not only do they get true-to-scale CAD models, but they also receive a great deal of additional design-related information.

Parametric data creation saves time
One model to suit every size
The similarities within a family of parts have been made much more efficient thanks to designing one model to suit every size. The major benefit from this approach is that once data have been created they can be flexibly adapted.

This means that there is just one model designed for each family of components. Using predefined parameters from this template, other components can then be created automatically to any size and configuration you want.

An an upshot of this:
 you get true-to-scale CAD models of your components
 you save a lot of time creating data
 you get true-to-scale CAD models of your components
 you can manage both flexible adaptations and complex configurations within a family of components

Underlying product logic
Intelligent system for greater flexibility
Parameters and how they relate to each other are occasionally highly complex:

 Designations

 Sizes

 Classifications

 Dependencies and relations of parts

 Handling

 Different, size-dependent attachment parts

This variety of parameters needs to be taken into consideration during the data creation process.
You are best equipped with TraceParts to do this, as the options for creating configurations and part-specific features offered by TraceParts technology are unlimited.

It was specifically with this in mind that TraceParts developed the PartsXML structure. This type of description is used to establish the relationship between data and geometry.

In addition, the TraceParts data format is multi-CAD compatible, which means that it can be imported into virtually any CAD system currently available on the market.


Example of parametric data creation as applied to a ball bearing
The components in a ball bearing family have an identical shape. The only differences are in their shaft and external diameters, as well as their width. Using these three parameters, it is possible to create any size of bearing in this family using just one model. The relevant data are listed in a table.

If you want to create one particular size you apply the relevant line in the table.


Furthermore, the product configuration is saved in this structure. This allows you then generally to create complex configurations as well.

You can access master data from various applications (CD, Internet, configurators). When selecting the component, CAD users are guided through the selection process using specified criteria. This ensures that a real, existing part is actually selected. This makes the design and order processes considerably more efficient for CAD users.

TraceParts technology is intensively standardized on the very open XML (Extensible Markup Language) format, making your CAD data really independent from any software application (e-catalog, product configuration, CAD Library, ...).

Your investment with TraceParts data creation technology is safe and secured!



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