Simplify Your Electrical System Design

Basics of

Solid Modeling

Contents Basics of Solid Modeling 1 Surface modeling 3 Building blocks for solids 4 Electrical design models 4

Geometric solid models are the preferred way of defining manufactured parts and assemblies. In recent years these techniques have taken a role in characterizing control cabinets and wiring.
Modern engineering designs often combine several different kinds of modeling techniques. Mechanical designs today frequently come to life as mathematical solid models instead of as 2D drawings. These solid models frequently must work with other kinds of engineering software representing entities such as wiring diagrams and component layouts. Dataflow programming techniques are often the means of building such connections and expressing this information. A solid model represents a shape as a three-dimensional object having mass properties. Solid models are useful in several ways. For example, it is easier for nontechnical personnel to understand 3D renderings than to grasp two-dimensional drawings that consist of orthographic projections, auxiliary projections and cross sections. Solid modeling software may use any of several methods to represent model information. Feature-based, parametric, and so-called direct or explicit tools let designers push and pull models as if they were made of clay. Frequently, solid models are useful because their geometry can represent not only the parts being designed but the intent of the designer. An example of design intent might include keeping two part faces parallel no matter how other part features change, or maintaining the same mathematical relationship between a parts length and width. No matter what dimensions the designer types in while building the model, the software ensures the part definition is Sponsored by SolidWorks 1

Feature-based models let designers define features pertaining to geometry as well as to steps in downstream analysis and manufacturing. Parametric modeling is the term used to describe the capturing of design operations as they take place, as well as the editing that takes place on the design. Sponsored by

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Basics of Solid Modeling 1

Simplify Your Electrical System Design

composed of individual features that describe how the geometry is supposed to behave. Early solid modelers were not based on features. To put a hole through a part, for example, the designer might define a simple cylinder having the diameter of the desired hole and which was long enough to go through the part. Designers would then tell the software to perform a Boolean difference operation between the part and the cylinder. The result: a hole in the part having the diameter of the cylinder. The problem with this scheme comes if the part dimensions change. Suppose, for example, the designer later modifies the part and makes it thicker. If the designer didnt happen to make the cylinder long enough to extend Many solid modelers include primitive and boundary representations. through the new, thicker part, the result is the In the primitive approach, the user combines elementary shapes in model of a blind hole. In this case, the model building-block fashion to create a new shape. Boolean logic commands, captured the geometry the designer specified, such as union, difference, and intersection, aid in forming new shapes. but it did not capture the design intent of the With boundary definitions, 2D surfaces get swept through space to trace designer. out volumes. Most packages provide several types of sweeps to help A designer working in feature-based create shapes. software, on the other hand, would approach the through-hole differently. The designer would define a feature called a through-hole such that no matter what the dimension of the part, the is a constraint. It will further assume that it should preserve hole extends all the way through it. In other words, once this relationship throughout any model changes so the part the topology of the design has been called out in terms of maintains its original design intent. features, any changes to the design always keep these features Another advantage of the direct-modeling approach is operational unless the designer specifies otherwise. Typically, that the set of active constraints can change dramatically the software prompts the user for inputs during the definition depending on events during the construction of the model. of the feature. These may include positional constraints, For example, the system may capture constraints to support a algebraic definitions, and other factors. modification that can contradict constraints captured during A related type of solid modeling scheme is parametric an earlier design iteration. This can save time during model modeling. A parametric modeler defines the part model in creation compared to the parametric approach, where it is terms of parameters. A simple parameter might be expressed the user who must change the constraints. The process of as an equation such as, (diameter) = 3 x (depth), or (width) = changing constraints can be tedious and complex. 2 x sqrt(length). Parameters can also establish links between Conversely, the benefit of using a parametric modeler is parts as in an assembly model. An example might be a part that the CAD system neednt guess at the constraints because position with respect to a reference plane on another part. the user spells them out. But the predictability of the CAD Thus parametric CAD systems represent each geometrical model then depends on the CAD user being skillful enough and dimensional constraint in terms of a relationship among to avoid difficulties that can arise because of too many or two or more entities. When the designer changes a parameter poorly defined constraints. There can also be issues when (dimension), the CAD system propagates the change one designer must modify a parametric model that another throughout the entire solid model while maintaining the designer created. Sometimes the complexity of the constraints other constraint relationships. can make design intent difficult to grasp. Another type of solid modeler is a direct modeler. Here High-level model quality problems can arise in all featurethe CAD system creates constraints on the fly; the user based modelers. Typical problems include unintentional creates no constraints. The advantage is that this approach interactions among features. These interactions typically more easily handles high-level changes to the solid model. take the form of small cracks, knife edges, voids, and similar For example, the CAD system might note that two nearby artifacts between features. These effects not only cause planar faces are parallel to each other. It may assume that this problems in analysis software such as FEA, but also get worse Sponsored by SolidWorks 2 June 2013

Electrical design models 4

Building blocks for solids 4

Surface modeling 3

Basics of Solid Modeling 1

Simplify Your Electrical System Design

if they pass over to another brand of CAD system where feature history is lost. Unfortunately, parametric models imported into a different CAD system may come across without parameters, features and design intent, even if the new CAD system supports parametric modeling. Thus users of CAD systems relying on parametric feature-based approaches generally must remove and recreate different pieces of geometry that they want to change through parameters and features. Some direct modelers can work with previously created parametric models. The resulting models and their changes remain parametric and feature-based. Another advance is the development of modelers that will associatively update imported solid models when the original model changes in a different CAD application. Some modelers have whats called a flexible modeling extension which works directly on geometry. It comes in handy where a designer needs to make change on imported geometry that has come in with no features, or on a model created elsewhere and there is no time to figure out how the model was built up. Flexible modelers include a facility for recognizing patterns and symmetry within the model as a means of adding intelligence. A user can pick the geometry to be modified, for example, and drag it to new place. The system then reattaches it to the model, with the automatic addition of rounds if need be. If the designer imports a file, a flexible modeler can add intelligence to it through such measures as allowing the designer to change a feature and then propagate it to all instances in the model. If the designer changes a bolt pattern, for example, the flexible modeler can put the new pattern in all locations where the original resided.

Prior to the advent of solid modeling, computerized geometry models frequently took the form of wire frames. Wire-frame models represent 3D part shapes with interconnected line elements. Wire frames are the simplest 3D geometric representation, though not necessarily the easiest to create. Some modeling programs still use a wire frame data structure. The benefits are that wire-frame models use little computer time and memory and provide precise information about the location of surface discontinuities on the part. Wire frames, though, contain no information about the surfaces themselves nor do they differentiate between the inside and outside of objects. Thus, wire frames can be ambiguous in representing complex physical structures and often leave much interpretation to users. Wire-frame models are created by specifying points and lines in space. One commonly used approach to creating a wire frame model divides the computer screen into sections showing various model views. Designers draw lines to create top, bottom, side, isometric, and other views of the model. Designers need not manually draw each line in a wire frame. Rather, the CAD package constructs the lines based on userspecified points and commands chosen from an instruction menu. It is important to remember, however, that not all models that look like 3D wire frames are wire-frame models. Some software lets users build isometric models that appear to have Z-axis depth, but in reality do not. This software is usually called 2-D software. Although wire-frame models are the simplest form of geometric model, the term is sometimes associated with both surface and solid modeling. Surface models define the outside part model precisely and help produce NC machining instructions where the definition of the structure boundaries is critical. However, surface models represent only an envelope of part geometry, even though tools such as automated hidden-line removal make the Surfaces available for geometric modeling range from a simple planes model appear as a solid. to complex sculptured surface. These surface usually are represented Surface models, in turn, are created as a set of ruled lines. The computer program recognizes these lines as by connecting various types of surface elecontinuous surfaces. Users select surfaces types from a menu to model ments to user-specified lines. Typical CAD individual details or fully envelope parts. surface elements include planes, tabulated Sponsored by SolidWorks 3 June 2013

Surface modeling

Surface modeling 3

Building blocks for solids 4

Electrical design models 4

Basics of Solid Modeling 1

Simplify Your Electrical System Design

tation. There are many kinds of sculptured surfaces, including curve-mesh, freeform, B-spline, and cubic patch surfaces. Curves need not even be parallel. The two curve families intersect one another in crisscross fashion, creating a network of interconnecting patches. Solid models can be constructed from successive combinations of simple geometric operations with primitives or with boundary definitions. The primitive approach lets elementary shapes such as blocks and cylinders be combined in a building-block fashion. Users position the primitives and then create a new shape with the proper Boolean command. With boundary definitions, two-dimensional surfaces are swept through space to trace out volumes. A linear sweep translates the surfaces in a straight line to produce an extruded volume. A rotational sweep produces a part with axial symmetry, while a compound sweep moves a surface through a specified curve to generate a more complex solid. Each of these construction methods is good at handling a particular class of A typical CAD package might create a wire frame model from points the shapes. Most industrial parts, for example, consist of planar, cylindrical, or other simuser specifies. ple shapes and are readily modeled with primitives. But components with complex contours such as automobile exhaust manifolds and turbine cylinders, ruled surfaces, and surfaces of revolution along blades are more easily modeled with boundary definitions. with sweep, fillet, and sculptured surfaces. Of course, the plane is the most basic surface type. The software merely creates a flat surface between two user-specified straight lines. A Electrical design models tabulated cylinder is the projection of a free-form curve into CAD can be used to characterize entities such as electrithe third dimension. A ruled surface is produced between cal panels and cabinets for controls. A CAD program looks two different edge curves. The effect is a surface generated at a control cabinet as an entity described by connections by moving a straight line through space with the end points between blocks representing physical functions such as resting on the edge curves. relays, terminal blocks, and circuit breakers. One kind of A surface of revolution is created by revolving an arbiCAD for electrical cabinets typically takes the form of standtrary curve in a circle about an axis. This capability is useful alone programs for drawing 2D schematics. Such programs in modeling turned parts and parts with axial symmetry. The generally also handle automation for PLC (programmable sweep surface is an extension of the surface of revolution. logic controller) wiring, terminal blocks, reporting, and so Sweep curves, however, sweep an arbitrary curve through anon. other arbitrary curve instead of a circle. The fillet surface is a There are facilities for bringing 2D schematic electrical cylindrical surface connecting to other surfaces in a smooth design data into the 3D model. Once in the 3D model, the transition. Previously, this was a tedious and manual process. user can place components like motor starters, DIN rails, But over time CAD has solved the problem with the precise wiring ducts, and similar entities in enclosures. There are also mathematical continuity required by many applications. routing routines that handle such tasks as proposing alternate Sculpted surfaces are the most complex surface represenways to route wires in 3D, handling component spacing, and Sponsored by SolidWorks 4 June 2013

Building blocks for solids

Electrical design models 4

Building blocks for solids 4

Surface modeling 3

Basics of Solid Modeling 1

Simplify Your Electrical System Design

Modern CAD programs let the user bring 2D schematic electrical design data into the 3D model. Once in the 3D model, the user can place components like motor starters, DIN rails, wiring ducts, and similar entities in enclosures. There are also routing routines that handle such tasks as proposing alternate ways to route wires in 3D, handling component spacing, and segregating low-voltage wires from those carrying highvoltage.

Surface modeling 3

segregating low-voltage wires from those carrying high-voltage. Other tasks normally conducted in 3D electrical models include checking for clearances, planning wiring paths, creating harnesses, and so forth. Changes typically get linked back to the 2D drawing for documentation. Some programs for modeling such entities use a data-flow programming approach as a representational scheme. The key to data flow is that it is a handy way of defining networks of blackbox processes. These processes exchange data across predefined connections. Data-flow programming gets its name from the fact that application developers need only work with flows of data through the connections rather than having to define a sequence of commands as with conventional sequential procedure code. The first widely used data-flow program was the spreadsheet. Each cell in the spreadsheet can be considered a blackbox process. When any of those cells update, the first cells value automatically recalculates. One change can initiate a lengthy chain of changes when one cell depends on another cell which in turn depends on yet another, and so forth. But data flow is not just for recalculating numeric values as in spreadsheets. The concept eventually expanded to let drawn entities represent blackbox processes. Thus it can be used to re-draw a picture as directed by mouse movements. A graphical data-flow application becomes essentially a list of connections which can be generated by a graphical tool. Among the first such graphical data flow programs to become commercially available was the LabView program. Sponsored by SolidWorks 5

Building blocks for solids 4

Graphical data-flow gives the user access to black-box processes only through their connections. Also, blackbox processes can be viewed as reusable components that dont know the name of other black boxes with which they communicate. Users can reconnect different black boxes endlessly to form different applications without having to change any of the blackboxes internally. In the case of designing the contents of a control cabinet, for example, the CAD program might view each individual component mounted on a DIN rail as a blackbox process. Connections between the control cabinet components dont affect their internal functions, only their states. In IT lingo, the streams of data passing between black boxes are called information packets, and the connections through which they pass are bounded buffer connections. Each process identifies its related connections by port names, rather than directly. Typically, a connection engine or scheduler routine relates port names to the real network and drives the individual processes. June 2013

Electrical design models 4