Tech Soft 3D, a leading provider of software development kits (SDKs), will be using its HOOPS Platform to help Proplanner integrate 3D model data into its Assembly Planner software. This will allow Proplanner’s customers to better plan out their engineering workflows, consolidating 3D model data, the Bill of Materials (BOM), and the Bill of Process (BOP) all into one wrapper.
David Sly, President of Proplanner, explains: “Linking the process model to the 3D model was the goal. We get a 3D model from one source, we get an eBOM from another source, which is the basis of our BOM and we generate a BOP routing which consumes parts from that BOM while visually manipulating the 3D model.”
The data triangle
The three data elements of a complex engineering workflow (BOM, BOP routing, and 3D model) have to match up. The issue is: getting them to relate is extremely difficult when all three may have been authored at the same time by different teams.
Sly adds, “Some customers have tried to get this information to match up for decades and failed. The problem was that there was no way to easily reconcile the variances between a CAD model that might have thousands of parts with the other documents and data sources.”
Until now, the product lifecycle data management tool provided by Proplanner has been near-comprehensive. Assembly Planner is aimed at companies producing complex assemblies with components in the thousands. Its core is made up of a database allowing users to collaboratively author and manage their BOM and BOP routings in a secure environment. With this functionality, users are able to perform time studies, balance their assembly lines, auto-generate work instructions, and manage logistics data.
The right HOOP for the job
Using the HOOPS platform, Proplanner has a specific set of goals in mind. The company is looking to allow customers to easily import and visualize CAD models in all their 3D glory, while also extracting to underlying numerical data. The new functionality ultimately aims to create linkages between process models and CAD models, ensuring the holy trinity relates properly.
To do this, HOOPS Exchange will be used to build robust CAD data translation capabilities directly into the application. Furthermore, HOOPS Visualize and HOOPS Communicator will be used to develop the 3D model visualization functionality on desktop, mobile, and the web.
Sly concludes: “3D is critical. 3D is what allows us to visually validate the process and generate shop floor instructions, but the knowledge that HOOPS Exchange is helping us extract from the CAD model is just as crucial.”
When it comes to 3D printing software, workflow-centric packages can be just as important to a company as the flashier technical engineering packages. Earlier this month, Renishaw announced a partnership with TRACEam to develop an end-to-end quality management tool for industrial additive manufacturing systems. The newly developed software will be integrated directly into Renishaw’s InfiniAM API ecosystem and is designed to give customers a simple and scalable method of managing AM parts.
Elsewhere, Raise3D, with the launch of its ideaMaker Library, completed its all-in-one software portfolio designed to integrate all stages of the 3D printing workflow. The portfolio also contains ideaMaker, Raise’s own slicer, and RaiseCloud, the company’s print management software.
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Featured image shows HOOPS Visualize. Image via Tech Soft 3D.
