FORWARD

Unigraphics is one of the world's most advanced and tightly integrated CAD/CAM/CAE product development solutions. Spanning the entire range of product development, Unigraphics delivers measurable value to enterprises of all sizes. It enables making complex product design simpler, thus delivering products to market faster.

The Unigraphics software integrates knowledge-based principles, industrial design, geometric modeling, advanced analysis, graphic simulation, and current engineering. It is built atop the industry-standard Parasolid modeling kernel. The software has powerful hybrid modeling capabilities by integrating constraint-based feature modeling and explicit geometric modeling. Besides parts of standard geometry, it enables the design of complex free-form shapes like airfoils and manifolds. It also enables the merging of solid and surface modeling techniques into one powerful tool set.

This write-up is intended for beginning users of Unigraphics. However, users of previous versions of Unigraphics may also find this tutorial useful for them to learn the new user interface and functions. The user will be guided from how to start a Unigraphics session to using it for various modeling and design applications.

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
The modern manufacturing environment can be characterized by the paradigm of delivering products of increasing variety, smaller lots and higher quality in the context of increasing global competition. Industries cannot survive worldwide competition unless they introduce new products with better quality, at lower cost and with shorter lead time. There is intensified international competition and decreased availability of skilled labor. With the dramatic changes in computing power and wider availability of software tools for design and production, engineers are now using Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacturing and Computer Aided Engineering systems to automate their design and production processes. These technologies are now used everyday for engineering tasks. Below is a brief description of how computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and computer aided engineering (CAE) technologies are used during the product realization process.

PRODUCT REALIZATION PROCESS

The product realization process can be divided into design and manufacturing. The design process starts with identification of a new design need that is identified after the marketing personnel gets feedback from customers demands. Once the relevant design information is gathered, design specifications are formulated. Next, a feasibility study is done with relevant design information. Detailed design and analyses then follow. Detailed design includes design conceptualization, prospective product drawings, sketches and geometric modeling. Analysis includes, stress analysis, interference checking, kinematic analysis, mass property calculations and tolerance analysis, design optimization, etc. The quality of the results obtained from these activities is directly related to the quality of analysis model chosen. The manufacturing process starts with the shop-floor activities beginning from production planning, which uses the drawings from the design process and ends with the actual product. Process planning includes activities like production plan, material orders, and machine selection. There are varied tasks like procurement of new tools, NC programming and quality checks at various stages during production. Process planning includes planning for all these activities too. Parts that pass the quality control inspections are assembled, functionally tested, packaged labeled and shipped to customers. A diagram representing the Product Realization Process is shown below.

Brief History of CAD / CAM development

The roots of todays CAD/CAM technologies go back to the beginning of civilization when graphics communication was acknowledged by engineers in ancient Egypt. Orthographic projection practiced today was invented around 1800s. The real development of CAD/ CAM systems started in 1950s. CAD/ CAM went through four major phases of development in the last century. 1950s was known as the era of conceiving interactive computer graphics. MITs Servo Mechanisms Laboratory demonstrated the concept of numerical control (NC) on a three axis milling machine. Development in this era was slowed down by the inadequacy of computers of that period for interactive use. During late 1950s the Automatically Programmed Tools (APT) was developed and General Motors began to explore the potential of interactive graphics. 1960s was the most critical research period for interactive computer graphics. A sketchpad system was developed by Ivan Sutherland, which demonstrated the possibility of creating drawings and altercations of objects interactively on a CRT (cathode ray tube). The term CAD started to appear with word design extending

beyond basic drafting concepts. General Motors announced their DAC-1 system and Bell Technologies announced their GRAPHIC 1 remote display system. During the 1970s, the research efforts of 1960s in computer graphics had begun to be fruitful, and important potential of interactive computer graphics in improving productivity was realized by industry, government and academia. 1970s is characterized as the golden era for computer drafting and the beginning of ad hoc instrumental design applications. National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) was formed and Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) was initiated. In 1980s new theories and algorithms evolved and integration of various elements of design and manufacturing was developed. The major research and development focus was to expand CAD/CAM systems beyond three-dimensional geometric designs and provide more engineering applications. In the present day, CAD/CAM development is focused on efficient and fast integration and/or automation of various elements of design and manufacturing along with the development of new algorithms. There are many commercial CAD/CAM packages available for direct usages which are user friendly, very proficient and competent. Some of the commercial packages in the present market are: Autocad, Mechanical Desktop, etc. are some low end CAD softwares which are mainly used for 2D modeling and drawing. Unigraphics, Pro-E, Ideas, Mechanical Desktop, CATIA, Euclid, etc. These are higher order modeling and designing softwares which are costlier and very efficient. The other capabilities of these softwares are manufacturing and analysis. Ansys, Abaqus, Nastran, Fluent, CFX These packages are mainly used for analysis of structures and fluids. Different softwares are used for different proposes, like Fluent is used for fluids and Ansys is used of structures. Alibre, Cyber-Cut, CollabCAD, etc. are the latest CAD/CAM softwares which focus on collaborative design. Collaborative design is computer aided designing of multiple users working at the same time.

Definition of CAD / CAM / CAE Computer Aided Design CAD

CAD is the technology concerned with the use of computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, and optimization of a design. Any computer program that embodies computer graphics and an application program facilitating engineering functions in design process can be classified as CAD software. The most basic role of CAD is to define the geometry of design a mechanical part, a product assembly, an architectural structure, an electronic circuit, a building layout, etc.

The greatest benefits of CAD systems are that it can save considerable time and reduce errors caused by otherwise having to redefine the geometry of the design from scratch every time it is needed.

Computer Aided Manufacturing CAM

CAM is the technology concerned with the use of computer systems to plan, manage, and control the manufacturing operations through computer interface with the plants production resources. One of the most important areas of CAM is numerical control (NC). This is the technique of using programmed instructions to control a machine tool that cuts, mills, grinds, punches or turns raw stock into a finished part. Another significant CAM function is in the programming of robots. Process planning is also a target of computer automation.

Computer Aided Engineering CAE

CAE is the technology concerned with the use of a computer system to analyze the functions of a CAD created product, allowing designers to simulate and study how the product will behave so that the design can be refined and optimized. CAE tools are available for a number of different types of analyses. For example, kinematic analysis programs can be used to determine motion paths and linkage velocities in mechanisms. Dynamic analysis programs can be used to determine loads and displacements in complex assemblies such as automobiles. One of the most popular methods of analyses is using a Finite Element Method (FEM). This approach can be used to determine stress, deformation, heat transfer, magnetic field distribution, fluid flow, and other continuous field problems that are often too tough to solve with any other approach.

Scope of This Tutorial

This tutorial is written for students and engineers who are interested in learning how to use Unigraphics for design of mechanical components and assemblies. Learning the use of this software will also enable the user to gain knowledge on CAD/CAM systems in general, which will be valuable to learning how to use other CAD systems such as IDEAS, PRO-E, CATIA, etc. by themselves if they desire so. This tutorial provides a step-by-step approach for the users to learn the Unigraphics package. The topics will include Getting Started with Unigraphics, Form Features,

Operations on Form Features, Introduction to Drafting, Introduction to Sketch, Free Form Modeling and Assemblies. Chapter 1 gives the overview of CAD/CAM/CAE. Here the product realization cycle is discussed along with the history of CAD/CAM/CAE and definitions of each. Chapter 2 includes the fundamental Unigraphics essentials from starting a session with Windows or UNIX, and being familiar with print, save, exit a session, etc. It also gives a brief description of Coordinate System, Layers, various tool boxes and other important commands, which will be used in later chapters. The actual designing and modeling of parts begins with Chapter 3. It describes different features such as reference features, swept features, primitive features, etc. and how these are used in design with Unigraphics. Chapter 4 is a continuation of Chapter 3 where various kinds of operations are performed on features. The different kinds of operations include trim, blend, Boolean operations and many more. The user will learn the method of creating a drawing from a model in Chapter 5. In this chapter, we will demonstrate how to create a drawing by adding views, dimension the part drawings, and modify the various attributes in drawing such as text size, arrow size and tolerance. Chapter 6 presents the concept of sketch. It describes the creation of sketches along with the geometric and dimensional constraints. This chapter is very important since the present day components are very complex in geometry and difficult to model only with features. Chapter 7 introduces free-form modeling. The method of modeling curved and smooth surfaces will be demonstrated. Chapter 8 teaches the concepts of Assembly modeling and its terminologies. It describes the Top-Down modeling and Bottom-Up modeling concepts. We will use Bottom-Up modeling to assemble components into a product. The examples which are used in each chapter are so designed that they will be finally assembled in the last chapter. Due to this distinctive feature, user should save all the models that he/she has generated in each chapter.