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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BOMBAY

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Course : ME-617 Rapid Product Development
Instructor : K.P. Karunakaran
Date : August 7, 2014 (Thursday) 9:30PM
L-T-P-C : 3-0-0-6
I Semester 2014-15
Duration : 75 min.
Instructions:
Write your roll number only on the question paper. Do not
reveal your identity in any part of the answer books.
Staple the question paper at the top of the answer book while
submitting.
Manage time efficiently as the question paper is too long.
Roll No
Marks
/75

TEST - 1
(Preamble; Product Development; Rapid Product Development)

Part A
(1 mark each)

1. Name at least four functions of CAE.

Structural analysis
Fluid and heat flow analysis
Dynamic analysis
Kinematic analysis
Interference analysis
Tolerance modeling (Analysis and Synthesis)
Virtual and Augmented Reality
DFX

2. What do you understand by "Make or buy decision"?

In modern days, all parts and assemblies are not made within the factory. As far as possible, these
are made by other vendors who do it better and only the essential activities are carried out within
the factory. Decision on which will be made inhouse and which will be outsourced is "Make or
buy decision". Each part and sub-assembly undergoes this decision.

3. Distinguish between PLM and ERP.

ERP is largely alpha-numeric data driven whereas PLM is largely geometric data driven.

4. Name two most system-friendly solid representations.

i. B-Rep,
ii. Spatial decomposition (give weightage also for any one sub-class of spatial
decomposition such as voxel, image-space (z-buffer), hierarchical or adaptive
representation like octree, bintree etc.)

5. Name any one geometric representation in which geometric boolean operation is
implemented as binary boolean operation.

Any spatial decomposition method (give weightage to also any one sub-class of spatial
decomposition such as voxel, image-space (z-buffer), hierarchical or adaptive
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representation like octree, bintree etc.)

6. What are the two important benefits of unique storage the points of a polyhedral solid?
Write the most important first.

i. Perfect stitch of the faces.
ii. Space saving.

7. Two keywords are implicit with features in FBM. What are they? What do they imply?

i. Constraints.
ii. Parametric.

Due to these, it has the following benefits:

No fixed dimensions; they can be edited. However, they cannot be arbitrarily edited as the
constraints ensure that the topology is not disturbed.

8. What are the three ways to reduce the size of the ASCII STL data of a solid?

i. Binary storage.
ii. Dropping keywords. So, only 12 float numbers per triangle are stored.
iii. Store unique points as points and create topologies referring to its tags.
iv. Use zipping techniques.

9. Pick the correct statement. Storage of redundancy in B-Rep causes:

(a) increase in space complexity and decrease in time complexity
(b) increase in space complexity and increase in time complexity
(c) decrease in space complexity and decrease in time complexity
(d) decrease in space complexity and increase in time complexity.

(a)

10. Pick the correct statement. The memory occupied by

(a) B-Rep is proportional to the sum of the areas of all its surface patches.
(b) Exhaustive enumeration is constant.
(c) Octree is proportional to the volume of the object.
(d) CSG is very high.

(b)

11. Pick the correct statement:

(a) Octree is the most accurate solid representation.
(b) Octree cannot handle non-manifold objects.
(c) Feature details are lost in Octree.
(d) Octree can handle self-intersecting objects.

(c)
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12. What is a self-intersecting solid? Is it feasible or infeasible? Give an example for this type
of solid.

Every point of a valid solid has a unique (outward) normal. When this condition is not
met even at one point, this object will be called a self-intersecting solid.

Klein bottle

13. A CNC machine is a
(a) Scalar device (b) Vector device (c) Tensor device
(d) Raster device (e) Voxel device

(b)

14. The most popular display today is:

a. Storage tube with vector graphics b. Storage tube with raster graphics
c. Refresh tube with vector graphics d. Refresh tube with raster graphics.

(d)

15. Pick two correct answers. Double buffering is required for:

a. Storage tube with vector type monochrome displays
b. Refresh tube with raster type monochrome displays
c. Storage tube with vector type color displays
d. Storage tube with raster type color displays
e. LCD displays

(b) & (e)

16. The figure shows how various costs vary
during the product development cycle.
Identify the curves depicting the three
different costs along with brief
explanations of their respective trends. Is
the cost instantaneous or cumulative?


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Marketing cost: The two bulges are for market survey and advertising.

Design cost: Gradual rise and fall in expenses with the peak in the middle. Initially only
manpower and office expenses are required in discussions, visits and virtual/paper works
for design and testing. The middle bump is during prototyping and testing.

Production cost: Gradual rise and fall in expenses with the peak towards the end. This is
due to physical prototyping and productionizing.

17. What are the two distinct phases of manufacturing automation? What do you understand
by total automation in this context?

i. Automation of the process
ii. Automation of the process planning.

When both these exists, it is called total automation.

18. Name the two aspects that distinguish between Product Design and Industrial Design.

i. Aesthetics
ii. Ergonomics.

19. What is the reason for the success of STL format in spite of being an inefficient
representation?

Sheer simplicity.

20. The market environment today is competitive. As against this, what was the attitude of the
seller in the past?

Complacence.


Part B
(Marks mentioned against each question)

1. Name n most popular packages for each of the following (n is given against each).
Expand the acronyms in each: [17x0.25 + 11x0.25 = 7]

a. Pure FBM (n=2) g. Casting simulation (n=1)
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b. CAS (n=1)
c. Animation (n=1)
d. FEA (n=2)
e. CFD (n=1)
f. Kinematic analysis (n=1)
h. CNC simulation (n=1)
i. Seamlessly integrated CAD/CAM/CAE
system (n=3)
j. ERP (n=2)
k. PLM (n=2)
l. DFX (n=?)

Sl.
No.
Activity Expansion & Package(s)
a. Pure FBM (n=2) Pure Feature Based Modeling
Pro/E, SolidWorks
b. CAS (n=1) Computer-Aided Styling
Alias
c. Animation (n=1) Maya
d. FEA (n=2) Finite Element Analysis
ANSYS, NASTRAN
e. CFD (n=1) Computational Fluid Dynamics
Fluent
f. Kinematic analysis (n=1) Adams
g. Casting simulation (n=1) MoldFlow (for plastics), CMold (for metal),
AutoCAST (for metals)
h. NC simulation (n=1) VeriCut, VirtualNC
i. Seamlessly integrated
CAD/CAM/CAE system (n=3)
Computer-Aided Design/ Computer-Aided
Manufacturing/ Computer-Aided Engineering
NX, Catia, Pro/Engineer
j. ERP (n=2) Enterprise Resource Planning
SAP, BAAN, IFF, DEdwards
k. PLM software (n=2) Windchill (PTC), TeamCentre (formerly
Metaphase (SDRC), I-MAN (EDS)), Ennovia
(Dassaults), Matrix One (Dassaults), SAP
PLM
l. DFX (n=?) Design for X where X=[Manufacture,
Assembly etc.]
None is very popular.

2. What is double buffering and why is it required? Is it required for all types of displays or
only for CRT displays which uses shadow masking? Bring out its analogy with film
projection. [2+1+3]

When the frame buffer is being written, if data is accessed from it to fill the screen pixel,
it will result in a mixture of the information from the previous and current frames.
Therefore, the user will not see anything clearly. Therefore, two buffers are required.
When one is being updated with a new frame, the other is accessed to update the screen
pixels. Then the two buffers are swapped in their role.

Double buffering is required for all types of displays.

If the film reel is moved at contact speed in front of the projections system, only a hazy
picture of the mixture will appear on the screen. Therefore, it is required have an indexed
motion which will keep any frame stationery for a short duration and then move it rapidly
to bring the next. These snaps will be assimilated by the brain as motion. However, it is
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not possible to use an indexed mechanism as the acceleration and deceleration involved
will break the reel. Therefore, a disc with a opening matching the frame rotates in front of
the reel. The rotation of the disc and the speed of the reel are constant but matched so as
to get the frame appear stationary in front of the projection system momentarily. This
way, while both the reel and disc have continuous motion at constant speed, the
intermittent exposure of the frame is achieved. Double buffers are similar to the
consecutive frames in the film role. By switching between both the buffers, their mix up
is prevented.

3. A color display has 8 bit-planes each for Red, Green and Blue. It has 1600 pixels along X
and 900 pixels along Y. Draw a block diagram that shows the flow of the information
stored in these planes onto the screen. What will be the video memory required for such a
display? How many colors will be possible in this excluding black and white? Note:
Double buffering is used. [5+1]

Video memory required = 1600 x 900 x 3 x 8 = 34560000 bits = 4.32 MB.
Since double buffer is used, we need 8.64 MB.

Number of colors = 2
(3x8)
= 16777216 2 = 16777214.


4. Distinguish the mechanisms of obtaining the desired color in a CRT and a laser printer.
Present it crisply in the form of a table. [3]

CRT: Since the background is black (no color), the desired color is obtained by adding of
Red, Green and Blue in the appropriate proportions.

Laser printer: Since the background is white (all colors), the desired color is obtained by
subtracting the unwanted colors of Magenta, Cyan and Yellow in the appropriate
proportions. Magenta, Cyan and Yellow respectively absorb Green, Red and Blue from
the white color of the paper.
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Laser printers in addition use a separate Black cartridge for economy; otherwise black
will have to be produced by the equal consumption of the three toners which is expensive
and slow.

5a. Compare the basic characteristics of integer and real data types, in the form of a table. [2]

Characteristic Integer Float
Memory 4 bytes (depending on compiler
implementation)
4 bytes (depending on compiler
implementation)
Implementation Overflow happens at the highest
significant digit.
Overflow happens at the lowest
significant digit.
Size This can store numbers only in
the range of 2
31

Far beyond this range.
Precision Exact. So, comparison of two
integers is possible using '=='.
Inexact. So, comparison of two
integers is NOT possible using
'=='. This has to be done within
the user-specified precision.

5b. a and b are two numbers. When they are equal, set the boolean variable check to true,
otherwise false. Write the C program segment for this when [2]
i. a and b are integers
ii. a and b are real numbers

i. int a, b;
bool check;
if (a==b) check = true;
else check = false;

ii. float a, b, eps=0.0001;
bool check;
if (fabs(a-b)<eps) check = true;
else check = false;

5c. Present the advantages and limitations of declaring the coordinates of the points as integer
or real numbers in the form of a table. [2]

Declaring the coordinates of the points as
Integer Float
Advantages Exact Wide range
Limitations Inadequate range Inexact

5d. Will you declare the coordinates as integer or real numbers? Which is the most
influencing factor for your decision? [1]

The coordinates will be declared as real numbers. This is because the range of integer will
be inadequate to represent most objects.

6. Edge is an important topology in a typical B-Rep, so much that it is called winged edge
data structure. But edge is not that significant in a triangular B-Rep. Why? Why is
triangular face more robust than polygons of more number of vertices? [2+1]

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Triangular face is the simplest and most robust of all faces. So, most computations can be
performed using the topologies of vertex and face. The basic property of a solid that "any
edge having two and only two sharing faces" is here replaced by "any face having three
and only three sharing faces".

Three points define a planar patch. When an equation of a plane is obtained from any
three points of a n-sided polygon, the remaining point will not satisfy this equation due to
the floating point error of today's finite precision computation. Therefore, triangular faces
are the most robust.

7. The universe of a quadree representation is 120mm x 120mm and its resolution is 5mm.
A circle of 70mm diameter lying inside the universe is tangent to the bottom and right
edges of the universe. The partial nodes of size equal to the resolution shall be converted
into full leaf nodes rather than empty nodes.

(a) Render this circle as a quadree on a graph sheet neatly. Hatch the space occupied by
the quadtree of the circle. [4]
(b) Draw the quadtree neatly. The four sons of a node shall be numbered as follows: [4]
Left bottom node: 0, right bottom node: 1, left top node: 2 and right top node: 3.
(c) By how many squares is the quadtree circle represented? [1]
(d) What is the ratio of memories of the quadtree and the corresponding 2D voxel
representation? [1]

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8. Compare the traditional solid representations like CSG, FBM and B-Rep with spatial
decomposition methods. [2]

Traditional solid representations like
CSG, FBM and B-Rep
Spatial Decomposition Method
Exact Inexact
No need to specify universe and
resolution.
Universe and resolution are to be
specified.
Geometric features are retained. Geometric features are lost.
Only the external surface of the object is
defined and the interior is assumed to be
homogeneous.
The entire object, i.e., its interior as well
as surface are defined. Therefore, suitable
for defining gradient objects. This is more
closer to reality.

9. What are the limitations of STL format in addition to its storage inefficiencies? [2]

This is an inexact representation.
For acceptable accuracies, the file size is much larger than its exact form even in binary
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format.
This is an unordered set of faces. Topology is not explicitly available. It has to be extracted.
Initial STL format cannot store color.

10. Compare the aggression of competition with a python killing a larger animal. [2]

When a python captures an animal, it tightens it a little every time the animal exhales
leaving less and less room for subsequent breathing till the prey finally dies of
suffocation. The cycles similar to breathing occur in organizations also; [i] the inventory
of raw materials, work in progress and finished products fluctuate, [ii] cash flow
fluctuates, [iii] machines fail, [iv] manpower attrition and so on. Whenever each of these
reaches a low level, the competitors loose no time to take away the market share just as
the python does. Therefore, organizations can never remain complacent with their current
performance.

11. Name each of the four project types with an example for each in the respective cells: [2]
Product
Market/
Applications
Existing New
Existing 1 2
New 3 4

Product
Market/
Applications
Existing New
Existing
Updating Replacement:

Annual release after taking care
of customer feedback and
minor improvements.
Supplementing:

Cell phone with camera, radio
etc.
New
Adaptation:

European car for India and vice
versa
Diversification:

An automotive company
starting an IT division

12. What is the minimum number of triangles required to define a sphere of 30 unit diameter
with a maximum permissible deviation of 1 unit? Your answer can have an error of
5%. [5]

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Note: There are deviations in 3D (spherical bulge) and 2D (circular bulge). One has to decide
which is dominating. The 2D deviation in the circle is 1.561 which is much more than the
allowed deviation of 0.5. So, this circle shall be approximated by a hexagon rather than a
triangle. Even then, the deviation becomes 0.781 which is higher than the permissible value.