Digital Manufacturing Solutions

W H I T E PA P E R

US Headquarters
582 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. 94104
USA
Tel: 415 274 1670
Fax: 415 274 1671

Worldwide headquarters
Hiei-Kudan Bldg. 4F. 3-8-11 Kudan-Minami
Chiyoda-ku Tokyo, 102-0074
JAPAN
Tel: 81.3-5212-5121
Fax: 81.3-5212-5122

White Paper. July 2008

Delivering
Innovation in
Digital Manufacturing
through XVL

copyright, 2008. Lattice Technology Inc. 1

 WHITE PAPER SERIES. July 2008

Delivering Tools to Enable Your Digital Manufacturing Strategy

Authored by: Hiroshi Toriya, CEO, Lattice Technology Ltd

3D CAD data usage across the globe, already estimated to be at more than 1 million design seats, is grow-
ing exponentially every day. Already proven to be highly effective and efficient in the manufacturing
process, 3D CAD data usage is resulting in larger and more complex assemblies, and correspondingly
massive files that hold that data.

While engineers and manufacturers are pushing ahead into leveraging digital manufacturing and digital
prototyping environments for their operations, so the size of the data itself raises barriers in testing, simu-
lating, handling, and using that data for a fully-optimized process using 3D. This is where XVL comes in,
with its ability to handle the largest and most complex assemblies quickly, easily and with a lightweight
footprint, and Lattice Technology’s Digital Manufacturing solutions deliver working solutions for both
interactive and batch testing, simulating, checking, and document production using that 3D data.

Driven by growing use in automotive, aerospace, defense, machine design and manufacturing companies,
the XVL format from Lattice Technology is becoming a global standard for 3D data while Lattice Tech-
nology Digital Manufacturing solutions deliver unheard-of functionality, features and benefits to fully
enable Digital Manufacturing processes.

Image left: XVL delivers the robust, highly compressed and very ac-
curate format to enable 3D data to be readily shared, viewed, verified,
simulated and used throughout the entire digital manufacturing pro-
cess. It works in combination with existing 3D CAD systems, PLM,
and ERP systems already in place.

XVL applications deliver the tools to review designs, verify and simu-
late production processes, and create animated assembly instructions,
user guides and maintenance manuals directly from 3D data.

Copyright, 2008. Lattice Technology Inc. 582 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. 94104, USA Tel: 415 274 1670 2
 WHITE PAPER SERIES. July 2008

Lattice Technology delivers solutions that address 6 critical disciplines within Digital Manufacturing,
which allow far greater efficiencies, productivity, and bottom-line profitability for manufacturing opera-
tions.

These are:
1. Interference check

Interference, clearance and gap checking on assemblies is critical to determine the accuracy of the designed
product. As assemblies become larger and more complex, so interference checking becomes more difficult, and
the slightest problem, if undetected, can cause massive disruption on the production line or even worse, if it
remains undetected, it can cause problems for the eventual end users of the products.

The challenge is to be able to detect problems during the digital man-

ufacturing process – before the costs of production are incurred – and
with larger and larger 3D CAD assemblies, so this detection becomes
more difficult, costly and complex. Until now.

Lattice Technology applications use the XVL file format to accurately

The ! Sign interactively indicates a tolerance check problem
identified by XVL Studio Pro. This identification is matched
interactively to the text listing, provided within the same
interface (as shown in Image 2 below)
Image 2: In the same interface in the XVL Studio Pro ap-
plication, so engineers and designers are interactively able to
click on an identified issue, view it in 3D, and zoom in to any
scale required. “Snapshots” of the issue can be taken and im-
mediately sent out via Excel spreadsheet for reporting back
to Design and engineering groups.
compress large CAD data into usable sizes. Its XVL Studio Pro appli-
cation delivers the tools to interactively detect interferences, clashes,
clearances and more, within selected tolerances, across a 3D model.
XVL Studio then delivers a visual flag on the 3D model itself, plus
a detailed listing of the fault detected. Engineers can switch imme-
diately and easily between the listing and the visual model, rotating,
and zooming into the problem area and viewing interactive cross-sec-
tions of the chosen parts. This enables understanding of the problem
in context to its immediate parts, with a choice of views to better
understand it, and in context to the entire assembly.
The same interactive process allows the immediate capture of im-
ages, which are then automatically exported to a spreadsheet with
all the detailed listings plus visuals of the problem. This reporting
process is fast, interactive, and critical to rapid upstream communica-
tion of problems found with a design, and is provided within XVL
Studio Pro.

Image 3: The spreadsheet reports automatically creates

linked images to each of the problems found. This allows an
engineer to be able to see and reference the problem, and fix
it rapidly in his own CAD system.

Copyright, 2008. Lattice Technology Inc. 582 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. 94104, USA Tel: 415 274 1670 3
 WHITE PAPER SERIES. July 2008

2. Mechatronic and mechanical simulation

Mechatronic systems, where software and electronics control complex me-
chanical machinery, have to work reliably for a long period of time. The more
complex the product, the more critical the need for good verification of the
mechanical parts prior to production and the more critical the need for accuracy
throughout every part of design and engineering.

Medical equipment and semi-conductor fabrication machines also rely on very

precise, accurate design, engineering and production of complex mechanical as-
semblies. These systems need ongoing, accurate verification through every stage
of design, engineering and production, but the size of the complex 3D data can
be a barrier to obtaining the rapid, accurate verification needed. The ability to rapidly simulate, verify, animate
and interference check the 3d data rapidly and throughout the entire process is available within the mechanism
option of XVL Studio.

3. Digital Assembly

This is the ability to verify a design from the viewpoint of the manu-
facturing process prior to starting production. By being able to check
the planned production process, verify how easy it will be to manufac-
ture the product, simulate how a tool or robotic arm would affect the
production line, or understand the load that would be put on the pro-
duction team, manufacturers can quickly understand issues, resolve
them, and generate greater efficiencies in production through digital
processes. This is delivered as part of XVL Studio.
Production simulation can include clearance checks, process
checks and ergonomic checks, all within the digital data,
prior to implementing production

4. Process Animation
With very complex assemblies, hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of parts need to be matched
with a corresponding amount of processes to enable assembly. Getting these processes wrong can cost millions
of dollars to adjust once they are part of the full manufacturing process. Early analysis and checking of these
processes is key to ensuring high efficiency and productivity in the
operation. XVL Studio, Lattice3D Reporter and XVL Web Master
enable engineers and their teams to rapidly animate, simulate and
analyse each process, down to the finest granularity on on very large
scales of production and easily distribute instructions to the people
actually completing the assembly work, no matter where they are
located .

Copyright, 2008. Lattice Technology Inc. 582 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. 94104, USA Tel: 415 274 1670 4
 WHITE PAPER SERIES. July 2008

5. Parts Tables

Interactive checking of parts tables alongside the 3D assembly deliv-

Interactive Parts lists, integrated with the 3D data, allows
rapid checking and cross-referencing of parts within an as-
sembly, using industry-standard Excel formats. This increase
accuracy of production, assists with communication of the
product across a wider group in the operation.
ers faster comprehension, greater accuracy, and improved efficiencies
in the manufacturing process. By being able to digitally associate each
specific part to the part number, name, and other design information,
each part can be simultaneously checked for design accuracy as well
as part data accuracy. Lattice3D Reporter delivers the easy-to-use
tools for delivering interactive Parts Tables within an Excel Spread-
sheet, and XVL Web Master delivers the same tools for html interac-
tive parts lists viewed by a web browser.

6. Illustration

As each new product is manufactured it creates the need for user

This apparently ‘Hand Drawn’ exploded view of an assem-
bly has actually been created directly from the 3D assembly
data using the varied controls within XVL Studio. This data
can be exported directly into print manuals, PDF and online
instructions, used for customer support, and implemented for
Service, Maintenance and Repair instructions.
manuals, instruction manuals, service manuals and more. Digital
Manufacturing processes have to deliver combined written and visual
instructions, delivered in the formats needed including print, PDF,
interactive online help and support, and more. Until recently, manu-
facturers were unable to use 3D data in these processes and relied on
expert artists to recreate images and instructions – a slow and costly
process. By using XVL Studio, 3D data can be easily and quickly
combined into every kind of Help, Service and Support manual for
print, online and interactive support. With XVL Studio, your 3D data
is quickly converted to a visual form including highly realistic ‘hid-
den line’ drawings that meet technical illustrators’ requirements, 3D
shaded images, and transparent shaded assemblies or parts to help
demonstrate specific actions. By making this a part of the digital
manufacturing process, XVL Studio delivers high efficiencies even in
disciplines that have relied on intensive manual processes and skills.

By building your digital manufacturing strategy on Lattice Technology’s Digital Manuafcturing solutions,
manufacturers can rapidly build efficiencies, productivity, and dramatically reduce production and manufactur-
ing errors across the entire manufacturing operation.

About Lattice Technology Inc.

Founded in 1997 with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco, USA, Lattice Technology provides global companies with proven digital manufacturing solu-
tions for 2D/3D design data across the manufacturing enterprise. With Lattice Technology’s XVL applications, engineers and manufacturers can rapidly perform design
review, simulate assembly processes, automate creation of 3D parts lists / BOMs, and create animations with very large 3D assemblies. Lattice’s standards based XVL®
(eXtensible Virtual world description Language) technology provides secure, highly accurate and compressed 3D files that can be used, shared and easily supported
by partners, suppliers, and internal departments in a lightweight browser-based solution. XVL® is unmatched in performance, compression and accuracy. For more
information on Lattice Technology’s digital manufacturing solutions, visit: http://www.lattice3d.com Trademark statement: XVL, Lattice3D are registered trademarks
of Lattice Technology Inc.

Copyright, 2008. Lattice Technology Inc. 582 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. 94104, USA Tel: 415 274 1670 5