EAC Product Development Center

The Slimline hits Wall Street Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:41:00 +0000

Here in the PDC we do quite a bit of engineering and supportive engineering work for a local company that distributes globally. One of the products we've done for them is actually being advertised, by their end customer, in the Wall Street Journal. The image above is the ad or you can go see the product at Frongate.com (search for Slimline).

Big Happenings at EAC

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:17:00 +0000

It's been way too long since EAC Product Development has done some posting here. There are great things happening at EAC, specifically in the Design group.

1. We have a new addition to the team, Matthew Kunkel. He brings years of experience in design as well as systems engineering to our team.

2. EAC has hired a individual specific to growing the relationships needed to gain and win design projects. He is based out of the Milwaukee area and has been doing this type of relationship management for 15+ years. Scott Moeller is going to be a huge asset to the EAC team.

3. Next week July 12-17 is the yearly summer corporate training week. The whole company gets together to catch up and do some training/education on various topics. As a side benefit we get some great food (thanks to our resident chef Edie Siemens) and have some down time at the yearly picnic.

Staircase Update

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:49:00 +0000

We are getting some images in from the builder on the stairs. This thing is going to be massive and very impressive.

Staircase is a Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:01:00 +0000

A while back I had posted some pictures of an immaculate steel staircase being built. We were asked to create a 3D model along with the drawings and prints so that the welder could put this thing together properly. Here are a few images of the final piece.

A few of the railings are helical due to the change in pitch and direction. Should be interesting to see the final product!

SunArx’s Solar Trackers On Track Through Simulation and Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Wanted to throw my guys a nice pat on the back. About a year ago we worked on a solar panel tracking system, not the electronics but the mechanism and strength of it. Its on the market now and our marketing department put together a nice article that got published in a couple different e-zines.

Take a look it's pretty interesting.

Staircase Development

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:37:00 +0000

The PDC team has started work on an architectural project, a first for us. An extravagant residential staircase is being developed from structural and plate steel.

The team is utilizing Pro/E to create the stairs so that the individual steel pieces can be documented and data may be provided to the manufacturer. The manufacturer will then use the data to cut the steel parts with his torch.

We are just getting started, more images to come!

In Depth Help Files

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:32:00 +0000

PTC has a help topic collection that is far more in depth and broken down into modules. These documents explain everything from what each button does to the theory behind the Mechanica solver.

You can find the files here.

Create a Fillet Weld in Pro/E

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Earlier this week a customer was having difficulty creating and showing a fillet weld in Pro/E WF 4. I put together a quick how to create a fillet weld and decided to post it here for the benefit of others. The steps are valid for previous versions of Pro/E WF but for WF 5 the Weld interface has been updated to utilize the dashboard like an extrusion or revolve feature so the steps are a little different for that.

Steps to Create a Fillet Weld

1. Select APPLICATIONS, WELDING from the Pro/E drop down menu.

2. Select the WELD FEATURE from the tool bar or from the INSERT drop down menu.

a. Define the Weld parameters/type in the WELD DEFINITION dialogue box.

3. For a fillet weld select a set of surfaces that are in the same plane. This example shows only one surface being selected.

a. Select DONE REFS when you are done selecting the first set of surfaces.

4. For a fillet weld select a second set of surfaces that are in the same plane.

a. Select DONE REFS when you are done selecting the first set of surfaces.

5. Specify if you want the weld to be continuous, intermittent, the entire length, or set the ends.

6. Specify the material side for the weld. The arrow points in the direction the weld will be added.

7. At this point specify any other options for the weld or hit the OK button to complete the weld.

8. For additional information about welds search the Pro/E help functionality or PTC's Knowledge Base.

Free Lunch - Start Parts and Formats

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:08:00 +0000

So it was my turn to perform the Friday Free Lunch here at EAC. The topic was Start Parts and Formats. This is something not new to me at all. We in the PDC do this type of setup and configuration for many of our customers and in fact have a small defined consulting engagement set up already for this.

If you are interested in having EAC do this please contact us or your current Sales Representative.

If you would like to download the standard borders that were discussed, please click here.

There were some remaining questions from the webinar and I'll try to get them all answered here.

Q: Does the analysis feature in the footer cause the model to be marked as modified? This would be a disadvantage for using it in Windchill. For clarification, it would mark model as modified just by retrieving it into session?
A: If the analysis feature is modified (the model must have been modified) the model becomes modified and then the answer is yes. You could also investigate setting that feature as read-only, to stop this behavior. By default by retrieving a model in session it is not marked as modified.

Q: Are parameters case-sensitive? (thinking of attributes in Windchill)
A: I would say no they are not. Even if you type them in lowercase or a combination of upper and lower, once you save the newly added parameters, they become upper case. The attributes in Windchill are mapped to the parameters in the Pro/E Data.

Q: Is there a difference between renaming a datum plane in the model tree as opposed to renaming in properties?
A: No, there is no difference in renaming the model in the model tree versus using the feature property dialog box to rename the datum plane or any other feature.

Q: Is everything we learn today relative to Wildfire 3?
A: Yes, the items covered today are the same as in Wildfire 3.0.

Q: Can you use bitmaps for symbols?
A: No, but you can use other imported data such as AutoCAD files.

Q: I missed it, how do you start creating a start part?
A: I would recommend starting from the default parts provided by PTC. But if you want to create a new file simply create a new file, uncheck the "USE DEFAULT TEMPLATE", choose empty for your template and then begin inserting the coordinate system, datum planes, parameters, relations, layers and views.

Q: How do you save these files to reuse them?
A: Start parts and format files are saved just like any other file in Pro/Engineer. You can either place them in the default install location or in your config file located central location.

Q: How about the config.sup file? How do you create this file?
A: The config.sup file is simply a config.pro file that is renamed to the .sup extension. An option that is set in the config.pro file cannot override the config.sup file.

Q: If the parameters are locked how can they be unlocked? Pasword?
A: Locked parameters are typically created by a data management system or a relation. They cannot be unlocked unless you remove the relation that is driving/creating the parameter. Data Management parameters cannot be unlocked.

Q: What does the Designate Box do?
A: It really does two things, first it allows you to populate the parameter as you are creating the model. And second it allows you to tie it to attributes in Intralink or Windchill based PDM systems.

Q: Should parameters for drawing templates be put into the model or the drawing? Or does it even matter where they reside?
A: It really depends on how you want the data controlled. We prefer to have all the necessary parameters in the model as this is your source. If you want to have drawing parameters created they will only be able to be used on that particular drawing.

Q: For logos, can you import from an AutoCAD or Jpeg file?
A: You can import autoCAD data as sketch entities and use them. You can insert a BMP as an Object but not a JPEG. To do this go to INSERT>OBJECT.

Q: Where do you open this format from?
A: Tthe format file is opened from the default location \formats or your central location defined by the configuration option for pro_format_dir.

Q: We use mainly "STRING" when setting up parameters, is there some way to change the order of prompts? Can "STRING" be ahead of INTEGER and REAL NUMBER?

A: Sorry, no. There are sorted alphabetically.

Thanks to everyone for your attendance, hopefully the content shown was of use.

New Layout

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:43:00 +0000

Well it's time. I've searched over and over and can't find just the right layout to use or template to start with. So we will start with a simple white background and see where we go from here.

We (the PDC Team) hope to update this blog at least weekly. Hopefully it will contain useful information for you.

Check back often.

Prepping an Analysis Model with Pro/Engineer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:06:00 +0000

We had a few questions from the Friday webcast this past week. Replays can be found here. Thank you to all of you who attended. Questions from the webcast are below!

1. is it necessary to project the sketch? when you create the surface region, doesn't mechanica project the sketch automatically?

You do not have to project the sketch before you enter into Mechanica. The surface region tool inside Mechanica will perform this function for you. Thank you to Bart for bringing this to my attention! Saves one preparation step.

We create our sketch on a new datum plane.

Start the surface region tool and select the surface(s).

Your sketch is automatically projected onto the desired surface.

Keep in mind that when using this method, the sketch will be projected to the negative side (black side) of the datum plane. You may need to do a "flip" when creating the datum plane.

2. Does suppressing a component have the same effect as excluding it? I am not familiar with the exclude feature.

We were working with Simplified Represenations in order to prepare our assembly for an analysis. Simplified Reps are normally used for visual and memory purposes. Excluding a component in a Simplified Rep removes the model from your view and takes it out of memory. It does so without affecting any parent/child relationships. If we were to suppress the component(s) we would have to deal with any parent/child relationships to that component which may take us into resolve mode.

Using a Simplified Rep makes the process much easier when a simplified model is needed. There is no need to create a new assembly or deal with parent/child relationships. Mechanica sees the Simplified Rep as if the components we excluded were suppressed.

Suppressing an object will make you deal with Parent/Child relationships.

Using a simplified rep and excluding is much easier and does not create Parent/Child conflicts.

Create a new simplified rep and you can easily pick what to exclude.

Excluded components are easily identified in the model tree.

Great Search Engine

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:34:00 +0000

At EAC we tend to do quite a bit of research and different types of math calculations. Typically we use MathCAD whenever possible, but there is a really great search engine that has recently showed up.

Check it out

You type in almost any math formula, dates, cities and even family geneology trees.

EAC Patent Contributors

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Below are links to various patents EAC has contributed to or done design work on. These will all open in Google Patents.

There are many more to come....

Steinel Carriage Welder

Trigger Pourer Solutions

Wagner - Texture Sprayer

Xtend and Climb #1

Xtend and Climb #2

Wagner - Collapsible Cart

Wagner - Paint Pump Stand

Wagner - Paint spray pump with handle

Wagner - Paint spray pump with rear louvers

Wagner - Paint spray pump with side louvers

Wagner - Collapsible cart for paint spray pump

EAC PDC - Customized Mentoring

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Need specific mentoring around a topic in Pro/Engineer? EAC PDC has power users ready to deliver a specific topic to your team. The following list are topics we have presentations ready to go. We can deliver on site or using remote methods. Don't let the economy or travel costs stop you from developing a great engineering and design team

Drafts - Simple and Advanced
Inheritance Features and Use
Mechanism and Design Animation
Rounds - Simple and Advanced
Simplified Representations
Surface and Curve Tricks
Sweeps
Top Down Design Methodology
Import Data Doctor
Failure Resolution
PTC Tech Support - How to Utilize and effectively navigate.

Pro/Engineer Useful Links

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:11:00 +0000

PTC/User

Olaf Corten's Proesite.com

EAC PDC Contact

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:00:00 +0000

EAC Product Development Center
14501 Judicial Rd
Suite 10
Burnsville, MN 55306

T: 888-225-7579
F: 952-435-2440

Email: pdc@eacpds.com

Services

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Our Engineering Team leverages years of experience and an extensive knowledge of the engineering disciplines to provide our customers fast, innovative design services. EAC has worked with hundreds of customers on more than 1000 project.

How can we help you?

CAE Competencies:

General Solid Modeling
Sheetmetal Modeling
Detailing and Drafting
Complex Assembly Management
Digital Simulation
Digital Analysis
Tooling Design
Manufacturing Process (NC)
Wire and Pipe Routings
Digital Renderings

Manufacturing Competencies:

Machining
Sheetmetal
Injection Molding
Blow Molding
Rotation Molding
Thermoforming
Die Cast
Extrusion

Industries:

Durable Goods
Consumer Goods
Industrial Products
Mold Design
Medical Devices
Defense
Automotive

Core Software:

Pro/Engineer
Windchill Projectlink
Windchill PDMLink
Routed Systems Designer
Mechanica
CFDesign
MathCAD

Secondary Software:

SolidWorks
Ansys
Autodesk Inventor

EAC Completes Medical Device Project

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:31:00 +0000

The PDC recently successfully completed a project for a forward thinking medical device developer. If you are a medical device developer contact us today to find out how the Product Development Center can help you meet deadlines and create a rock-solid design.

Cyberoptics Boosts Productivity with EAC

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:26:00 +0000

EAC supported CyberOptics' design initiative by placing an engineer onsite to assist with design and publishing tasks. Placing EAC's resource onsite increased CyberOptics' design team's productivity level while minimizing the impact on existing resources.

Interesting Links

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:14:00 +0000

The PDC site

Pro/Engineer WIKI

Subdout.com - A new website for freelance and design groups.

What and Who is the PDC - Extensioneering

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:31:00 +0000

The EAC Product Development Center is a full range product development services provider. We're staffed with degreed engineers who are "Power Users" of the PTC product line and proficient in many other industry standard softwares.

Our designers and engineers leverage their knowledge, experience and a wide spectrum of tools to consistently deliver real-world designs of new and exciting products ranging from medical devices to consumer goods to industrial equipment.

Our team offers the following Extensioneering;

Art to Part Design
Industrial / Mechanical / Electrical Design
Design for Manufacturability
Plastic Part Design
Thermal / Fluid / Structural Analysis
Design Validation
Rapid Prototyping services

Project Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Caldwell) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:46:00 +0000

Check back soon as we'll be posting examples of projects soon.