I-deas 10 NX series: first-class FEA tools complement design capabilities - Software Review - Product/Service Evaluation

CADalyst, Nov, 2003 by Joanne Green, Mark Huxley

I-deas 10 NX, now owned by EDS, is the product's second step in the transition toward a merged Unigraphics/I-deas NX product. Formerly developed by Structural Dynamics Research Corp., I-deas began as an analysis tool in the 1970s. It added modeling, manufacturing, and other applications throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, parametric modeling and precise solid body representations debuted as I-deas Master Series. I-deas holds a significant market presence in the automotive, electronics, consumer product, and medical industries, including companies such as Canon, Sony, Lexmark, Lockheed-Martin, Nissan, and Abbott Laboratories (figures 1 and 2). Many companies also use other CAD systems for their modeling and assembly work and transfer the files using IGES, STEP, and Parasolid to take advantage of I-deas' FEA (finite-element analysis) capabilities.

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I-deas is a capable modeling tool in its own right, especially for manufactured parts typical of the electronics and aerospace industries. The tools available are similar to those in most other 3D CAD systems, so experienced 3D users should be able to model parts and assemblies almost immediately, with the prospect of being proficient in less than a month. The integrated Help library provides a solid foundation for learning the software. The tutorials follow a logical progression of modeling, assemblies, and drafting techniques, and also branch off into surfacing, sheet metal, FEA, and manufacturing options. Workshops provide further hands-on practice with a minimal set of instructions that help reinforce the lessons (figure 3, p. 22).

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PERFORMANCE AND PRICING

I-deas runs on several UNIX platforms and Windows 2000/XP. It works on Windows NT, but EDS no longer supports that platform. I-deas requires at least 256MB of RAM, and 512MB is recommended, especially for complex surfacing and large assembly management. It requires 512MB or more of swap space. The company recommends 1GB for large analysis models.

Many license options are available. A good starter license is the Product Design Package ($11,900), which includes the modeling, drafting, assemblies, and TDM (team data manager) applications that most users need. This pricing is comparable to other high-end CAD packages, especially when you consider the inclusion of the TDM module.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Moving around in I-deas is straightforward. The interface is logically organized with toolbar stacks, prompts, and information windows that surround the graphics window (figure 4). The look of feature dialog boxes is consistent, and you access many filtering and selection tools using mouse right-button options in the graphics window. The toolbar stacks stay in a consistent location, even when you switch between applications like modeling and drafting. When this occurs, the toolbars relevant to modeling disappear and are replaced by the drafting options. This consistency across the interface lets you sit down at any session without having to hunt for commands that another user has hidden.

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Part and assembly creation first requires some knowledge of the TDM, which acts as a PDM (product data management) system directly in the software. The TDM uses a workbench, bin, and library structure, which organizes parts that belong to a single user vs. parts that are shared among a project team of engineers, designers, drafters, NC programmers, and stress analysts. Libraries require a check-in and check-out process that maintains revision control. You can set permission rules for specific types of users, such as modelers, drafters, and checkers, and you can define workflows to route a model, assembly, or drawing through the appropriate authorization path.

I-deas combines solid and open (sheet) body modeling functions, including the ability to transform a solid into an open body by deleting individual faces. This can cause problems if you don't know that faces have been deleted, but fortunately these particular delete operations are logged in the feature history tree and can be removed to restore the faces and the solid body object.

I-deas modeling philosophy is rooted in sketch-based features. You use profiles to build extruded and revolved bodies, as well as detail features such as holes and slots. Most sketches are absorbed into the resulting feature, which helps eliminate clutter in the graphics window. However, this means that unless you create reference curves from the sketches, they can't be used more than once or as references for other sketches.

Because of the heavy reliance on profile geometry, I-deas offers numerous ways to create lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, and conics. The Sketcher also makes accurate constraint relationships for aligning geometry and has many on-screen commands to determine tangency, midpoint, and more. The most refreshing example is the ability to constrain to the midpoint of a face in both the x and y directions without needing to create reference geometry. The downside to the Sketcher appears when you create dimensional constraints. Unless you create the geometry to exact size, you must create dimensions, then exit the dimension tools, enter the update tools, select the dimensions, and finally enter the desired values.