sww 2007 lets get ready to automate

Let’s Get Ready To Automate

Preparing yourself, your company and your models for

design automation.

Paul Gimbel – Razorleaf Corporation

2Paul Gimbel – Let’s Get Ready To Automate

What you can expect in the next almost hour

Introductions…well, introducing me at least

Preparing yourself for design automation

Preparing your company for change

Planning your automation project

Preparing your models for automation

Questions and maybe, if we’re lucky, some answers

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Paul Gimbel, Business Process Sherpa

Yes, that is my official title

Certified SolidWorks Professional (since program inception)

Certified SolidWorks Trainer/Support Technician (10 years)

Only Certified DriveWorks Enterprise Implementer

RuleStream Implementer (Certification Program Pending)

VB and SolidWorks API developer as needed

Business Development Leader – Design Automation Group

Business Development Leader – Business Process Group

Plays Well With Others…most of the time

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Razorleaf Corporation

Services-Only company

Services include:– Process Analysis– Implementation– Training– Support

Technologies include:– Product Lifecycle Management– Product Data Management– Rules-driven Product Management– Design Automation– Custom Application Development

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Razorleaf Belief

Today’s organizations can be market leaders through the proper application of business process that

takes advantage of tomorrow’s technologies.

Preparing Yourself For Automation

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We hold these truths to be self-evident…

It doesn’t matter what kind of automation you want to do:– DriveWorks– RuleStream– TactonWorks– Other Commercial Product– Custom Visual Basic Application– Custom Web Application– Excel VBA– Design Tables– SolidWorks Equations– Effectively Trained Monkeys

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Think BIG

Automation Has Huge Potential

Revolutionizing How Companies Work

Saving DAYS and WEEKS

Doubling the Amount of Jobs They Take On

Offering Custom Products They Could Never Customize

Entering New Markets

Getting Engineers Back to Doing Engineering Work

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Now Get Real

It takes a good bit of time

Is Saving Yourself 3 Minutes Worth A Month Developing?

Do you have another job to do?

It takes cooperation

100% Automation is generally unachievable

Drawings will most likely require manual rework

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Asking Permission

You have to stop doing your job to work on this

That costs the company money

You have to prove to yourself and them that it’s worth it

How long will it take? Longer than you think

How much time will it actually save? Be realistic now

Will it bring new money into the company? That’s real money

Are you the best person for the job? I know you WANT to be

Who will REALLY have to give their permission?

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If You Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail

Document your plan

Paint your vision of the future with your tool in place

Who will it affect?

Outline the new work instructions

What will need to be purchased?

Who will need to be involved?

What existing systems will you interface with?

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Get Thee To Training

SolidWorks Training

API Training

VB.NET Training

Commercial Product Training

Preparing Your Company For

Change

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Prepare To Fail

An estimated 90% of change initiatives fail

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Effective Change Requirements

Establishing a Sense of Urgency

Creating a Guiding Coalition

Developing a Vision and Strategy

Communicating the Change Vision

Empowering Broad-Based Action

Generating Short-Term Wins

Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change

Anchoring New Approaches In The Culture

From “Leading Change”, John Kotter, Harvard Business School Press

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Creating a Sense of Urgency

“Wow, wouldn’t it be cool” ain’t gonna cut it

EVERYONE has a natural resistance to change

People need a crisis to get them to change

Change requires 110% effort for 100% pay

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Create A Guiding Coalition

You Can’t Do It Alone

If You’re Going To Change How People Work You Need Management On Board

How People Are Measured May Need To Be Changed

Management Needs To Walk The Walk Or Nobody Will Go Along With The Project

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Developing a Vision and Strategy

Automation for Automation’s Sake Doesn’t Work

Must Be a Part of a Larger Vision

Must Be In Line With Company Vision

Clear Vision Means Where You Want To Be

Clear Strategy Means How You Intend To Get There

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Communicating The Change Vision

Brings people on board with your plan

Everyone Else Has To Be On The Same Page

Those Not Cooperating Will Be Sabotaging You

Management has to show that they’re on board

Solicit feedback

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Generating Short-Term Wins

People Need To See Success Or They Will Lose Faith

Small Bits Of Improvement Pay For Future Development

“Sell A Little, Make A Little, Learn A Lot” – Brain Brew

Get feedback and re-evaluate your development

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Anchoring New Approaches In The Culture

If People Won’t Use It, It’s Worthless

People Need To Continue To Use It

It Needs To Become A Way Of Life

Don’t Assume Because You Think It’s Cool, Everyone Else Will Too

Corporate Culture Is Very Hard To Change

Years Of Change Have Been Reversed By Corporate Culture

Understand Your Company’s Culture

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The Importance Of Process

Automating an inherently flawed process just creates more crap faster.

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Technology AND Process Must Change

Rigid Flexible

Rigid Non-Implementation Technical Implementation

Flexible Automation Mutual Adaptation

ProcessTechnology

From “Technology Induced Change And The Line Manager”, Dr. Eliot Levinson

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What is this mysterious thing we call “Process”!?!?

“A complete end-to-end set of activities that together create

value for a customer.”

From “Reengineering the Corporation”, Michael Hammer and James Champy, Collins Publishing

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Localized Optimization

Parent/Child Relations in Processes

Changes Affect Downstream Steps

Need To Understand The Entire Process First

Include Others In The Automation Whenever Possible

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It’s All About The Process

You’re not just changing your job

Processes are Cross-Functional in Nature

Technology Alone Cannot Yield Benefits– You have to change the way that you work to take advantage of the

new technology

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Gratuitous Slide O’Graphs

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As required by Microsoft PowerPoint Code Section 9, Subsection H, Article 8.J.1.22

Planning Your Automation Project

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Set Phasers To…um… Phase

Too much change at once will freak people out

It’s easier to troubleshoot and test in phases

Small successes will keep people on board

Let your work pay for itself

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Understand Your Audience

Who will be using the program

Don’t limit yourself to engineering/SolidWorks users

Should your intended audience need SolidWorks

Will your users be attached to the network?

Will your users understand all of the terminology (ex. prospects)

Understand what they want to get out of it

You want to build it for them, not for you (customer-centric)

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Step 1: Capture the Outputs

What do you want to come out of the back end– Technical Documentation– Quotations, Forms and other documents– 3D Models, eDrawings– 2D Drawings, DXFs, PDFs– Calculation sheets, Code reviews

What values are required to generate them– Information to appear on BOMs– Form Values– Dimensions

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Step 2: Capture Inputs

What will the user need to put into the system

Don’t limit yourself to dimensions

Think of the end user and what they will know

Don’t just think solid models– Customer information– Order information– Address information– Pricing information

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Step 3: Discover How To Get There

Calculations

Lookup Tables

Logic Statements

Conversions

Additional Input

Preparing Your Models For Automation

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Create Clean Models

Name your features and dementia

Create simple features with simple sketches

Establish all of your custom properties

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Decide Where Your Calculations Go

Design Intent– Sketch Plane Choice– Dimensioning Scheme– Geometric Relations– End Conditions– Mating– Equations– Link Values

What Design Intent should go in SolidWorks

What Design Intent should go into the automation program

When in doubt, control it in the automation program

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The Plane Truth About Automation

Use planes and axes for all mating

Faces can disappear unpredictably with model changes

Don’t be afraid to make redundant dimensions to locate planes

Assembly can be built without the geometry

Some design automation tools require named entities to mate

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Swapping Components

Replace Components is not 100% reliable through the UI

It’s even less reliable through the API

The identical part will almost always swap properly

Build a model with the planes needed and then use Save As

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Keep Your Distance

Avoid Distance and Angle Mates

These mates can have multiple valid solutions

Relative position of the components plays a role in the mate

Tendency to flip direction or orientation

“Flip Direction” not very descriptive as to which way is flipped

Create an offset/angle plane and mate to the plane

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Now Go To Your Room!

Pay attention to Parent/Child Relations

Help! Help! I’m being suppressed!

Prepare for features to be deleted

Sketch on planes instead of faces

Suppressing a feature does not suppress the sketch

Use dimensions that can be driven instead of geometric relations in certain cases

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Parent/Child Example

Duplicate Dimensions

Dimension Change

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Testing. Testing. 1-2-3

Make sure that your models are parametrically correct– Respond appropriately to changes– Make extreme changes

Record simple macros to test parts of the model– Test simple, build complex– Cut-and-Paste, No lost work

Wrap Up

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Preparing Yourself

Think of the big vision

Think about the process as a whole

Figure out who will be affected and be ready to deal with them

Get realistic

Figure out who you need to ask permission from

Prepare a written plan of action

Get training

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Preparing Your Company

Make sure that there’s a sense of urgency

Make sure that management is on board

Make sure that you are in line with the corporate vision

Identify the process that you will be changing

Develop the changes to the process and the new technology simultaneously – mutual adaptation

Avoid Localized Optimization

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Planning Your Project

Use phases – Short-Term wins

Understand your audience

Collect your outputs

Collect your inputs

Connect the dots

Iterate

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Preparing Your Models

Create clean models

Decide where your design intent is going

Use planes and axes wherever possible

Prepare components to be swapped

Avoid distance and angle mates

Reduce parent/child relations

Test, test, test

Thank you!(For staying awake)

Want to know more? Feel free to grab me at the conference or email me:

paul.gimbel@razorleaf.com