The 3DEXPERIENCE platform offers engineers a playground where they can quickly pump out designs and collaborate with their colleages. Hidden inside are numerous features and hacks that are sure to help engineers optimize their day to day workflows. Here are five simple tips that are sure to optimize workflows and encourage further research into more of the platform’s benefits.
1. Drag and Drop anything into the 3D Dashboard
One of the most fundamental yet overlooked applications in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is the 3D Dashboard. It’s so foundational that anyone with the 3DSwymer role can access it.
The 3D Dashboard application offers users a workspace where they can drag and drop their favorite applications, enabling them to access all their tools from one tab — but its much more than that. When engineers start using the 3D Dashboard, it will quickly become an indispensable application.
Drag and drop models, material properties and even apps onto the 3D Dashboard. (Video: ChampionXperience.)
One of the most important advantages of using a dashboard is that users can perform many tasks in one place and drag and drop any information they need between any tool.
After creating a Dashboard, you can easily place your favorite applications on the tabs of your dashboard page using drag and drop and position them by resizing them as you wish.
Dragging and dropping between apps. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
You can add multiple apps to the tabs you create in the dashboard and enable seamless drag-and-drop interactions between them. For example, if a user wants to view a 3D model they drag and drop it into the 3D Play app.
Dragging and dropping between tabs. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
The dashboard also enables collaboration between applications within each tab. For example Or, users can drag a material from a Bookmark and drop it onto a 3D model in xDesign, xStudio or xHighlight. This feature helps engineers save time as they move and share information and 3D models between people, tools and applications.
2. Got a picture? Get a sketch in xDesign
The xDesign application is included in both the 3D Creator role for Commercial and Maker tenants as well as the 3D Designer role for Academic tenants. It enables engineers to create parametric 3D designs from scratch.
xDesign now has a picture to sketch mode. (Video: ChampionXperience.)
But not every design starts in the 3D realm. Many are drawn in 2D first, or adapted from 2D drawings. Consider making a 3D model from a company logo. Creating that geometry can be exhausting using manual references and drawing tools.
With the latest update to xDesign, however, users can create sketches from pictures by simply selecting an image and a plane. xDesign then automatically scans the image and generates the appropriate geometry, saving usersthe hassle of manually creating the drawings.
Picture to Sketch – Crop conversion area. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
With this feature users can also instruct xDesign to focus on part of the image. For example, consider a heart shape. xDesign doesn’t need to scan the whole image to use the geometry. Instead, users can specify that xDesign only scan half of the heart and mirror the rest along an axis of symmetry.
3. Use touch screens and simple 3D shapes to make quick geometry
xDesign also features a user-friendly interface that supports Touch Mode. This makes the tool ideal for creating complex 3D shapes on a hand-held, mobile devices. To simplify this workflow, the application offers a variety of pre-built geometric 3D shapes that can be easily positioned and resized to suit the user’s needs. This reduces the use of drawing commands and provides engineers with great convenience.
3D Primitives – Torus (Video: ChampionXperience.)
With prebuilt shapes like cubes, cylinders, spheres and torus, users can streamline many drawing steps and create complex designs with multiple features. For instance, adding a spherical cavity, or hole, to a shape created using the appropriate pre-built shape.
3D Primitives – Multiple features. (Video: ChampionXperience.)
4. Parametric design in xDesign reduces repetitive tasks
If engineers need to frequently create new variations of a standard design, they can do so by adjusting each dimension manually. However, this is tedious work, especially if the dimensions of a design are defined by manual equations.
Change the number of shelves or the shelf spacing using parameters and inputs like equations, values and ranges. (Video: ChampionXperience.)
With the Create Parameter feature in xDesign, users can adjust a design based on simple inputs and prebuilt equations. The best part is that after setting it up once, users can quickly generate multiple variations of their designs.
Value Options. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
Input values can be based on the following:
- Equations, can be linked to any other value within the design so that features update automatically.
- Preselected Values, can be selected from a drop-down list.
- Ranges, ensure values stays within limits.
These options provide greater flexibility and control over your design parameters.
For example, when designing a bookshelf, engineers can set a parameter to define how many shelves it will contain. The engineer can call the parameter “Shelf Quantity,” set its parameter type as an “Integer” and set it to contain a number of preset values by selecting “Multiple Values” and inputing those potential values. They then define how the geometry will adjust as this value changes.
Shelf Quantity – Test. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
To change the parameters, simply choose a new value from the drop-down list and the number of shelves updates accordingly.
Similarly, the engineer can also set parameters to control the spacing between and size of each sheilf. The engineer can define how the length, width and depth dimensions of the bookshelf will react to a changing height parameter. They can then define how far apart each shelf is based on the same height parameter. Now when the height of the bookshelf is adjusted, the shelf spacing and size will automatically update.
In essence, the Create Parameter property binds variables to an address, not the value. This offers the engineer additional ways to control values.
5. Make and group parts into components and assemblies
xDesign offers engineers ways to design parts and link them into assemblies and components within a single user environment. This brings numerous conveniences. For instance, users might have a multi-body component created with inter-referenced bodies. They can therefore set these bodies to become separate components. The user can now create technical drawings for each part individually, for manufacturing, or testing part reactions before production by applying assembly relationship.
Link parts into components with related features and linked bodies. (Video: ChampionXperience.)
Thanks to the Make Component feature in xDesign, users can convert multi-body parts into separate components, extract multiple parts from a single project and create assemblies — all within a single window. Make Component provides users with two options: feature selection and body selection.
Feature selection allows multiple features to be selected to form a component. It also adds all these selected features into the newly created component. If the engineer selects the make component feature after selecting all related features, only the “Component Features” field will be full and the “Related Features” field will be empty.
Otherwise, when the user selects a single body or a feature after first activating the command, it will automatically add the selected feature to the Component Features field and any related features to the Related Features field.
With the body selection feature, users can only select a single body. It creates a new component but does not move the selected element into that component. It just automatically creates a body that can be a reference to it and adds it to the component.
Linked Body. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
If users want to create separate components from existing models, but without breaking an initial multibody project, this option is more suitable.
These tools can be used to define how all the parts of the nightstand model interact. There are three simple steps to do this:
- Make the nightstand frame into a component. After all the features that make up the nightstand frame are selected collectively, users can select “Make Component” from a menu that appears. It should also be defined as a fixed component.
- Making the drawer body into a component. Follow the same steps here as for the nightstand frame. As this is the second component created, it is not a fixed component.
- Adding an assembly relationship. Now when users try to move the Drawer component, it will move in the desired direction. Users can control the opening and closing of the drawer by giving it a coincidence relation to the center planes and a distance assembly relation to make the drawer open and close at a certain distance. With Kinematic Player users can then turn this into an animation.
Nightstand in Kinematic Player. (Source: ChampionXperience.)
This is all for today’s tips and tricks for the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.