CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
5 October 2004
Product News
New COSMOS Feature Makes Product Design Smarter Through Interoperable 3D Analysis and Testing
COSMOS® has made product design testing smarter and faster with a new feature that helps engineers compare 3D testing and analysis results side-by-side to pinpoint trouble spots and correct them before production.
Developed in collaboration with National Instruments, the COSMOS "compare test data" feature enables engineers to export analysis data from COSMOSWorks® software to test applications based on National Instruments LabVIEW graphical development environment. Test applications focus on the functional performance and durability of 3D solid model designs during prototyping and production. Combining analysis and testing enables engineers to choose which specific areas of a design to test so they do not have to test all the data in a solid model, which is time-consuming and expensive.
Before SolidWorks and National Instruments collaborated to automate data exchange, engineers who wanted to use COSMOSWorks analyses to guide their testing in LabVIEW had to recreate the data manually. Now, one mouse click exports COSMOSWorks data to LabVIEW.
"Our customers have been asking for this kind of integration," said Dr. Sugato Deb, National Instruments director of emerging markets and partnerships. "In today's complex product design process, test and analysis functions need to complement each other and work together seamlessly. By collaborating with SolidWorks , we have empowered the design engineer to take advantage of both analysis and testing to get higher quality products to market faster than they could have through conventional analysis or testing alone. This is a significant step in our initiative to reduce design time by integrating LabVIEW into the design flow."
COSMOSWorks also interoperates with National Instruments DIAdem mathematical and visual data analysis environment, which helps users compare analysis and test results side-by-side in a 3D solid model environment. LabVIEW and COSMOSWorks are also interoperable with 3D design software of COSMOS' parent company, SolidWorks. Combining the three applications creates a streamlined environment for developing, analyzing, and testing designs without re-entering data.
"COSMOSWorks and LabVIEW offer tremendous value on their own, but combined, their value to customers increases exponentially," said Suchit Jain, SolidWorks' vice president of analysis products. "Our cooperation gives customers a broad new range of tools for improving product quality and reducing time to market. We're looking forward to pursuing future opportunities to make analysis and testing an even more seamless part of the product development cycle."
National Instruments ( http://www.ni.com/ ) is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation. Leveraging the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control, and machine vision. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,100 employees and direct operations in 41 countries. In 2003, the company sold products to more than 25,000 companies in 90 countries.
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