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 today’s 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. MIT’s 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 software’s 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 software’s which are costlier and very
efficient. The other capabilities of these software’s are manufacturing and
analysis.
 Ansys, Abaqus, Nastran, Fluent, CFX – These packages are mainly used for
analysis of structures and fluids. Different software’s 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 software’s 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 plant’s
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.