Geometric releases DFMPro version 2.2 for Pro/ENGINEER

By DE Editors

Geometric Limited has announced the release of Version 2.2 of its DFMPro design for manufacturing (DFM) review tool for Pro/ENGINEER from PTC. New features include support for Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 and Windows 7, new rules for injection molding as well as new functionality for sharing and collaboration.

The DFMPro configuration interface.

Geometric describes DFMPro as an automated DFM review tool that facilitates upstream manufacturability validation. It helps engineers identify design areas that are difficult, expensive, or impossible to manufacture through design rules for such manufacturing processes as milling, drilling, turning, sheet metal fabrication, and injection molding. Design rules are leveraged from the earliest stages of the new product development process, enabling costly design decisions to be detected and eliminated before the cost to repair rises exponentially.

According to the company, version 2.2 of DFMPro for Pro/ENGINEER improves the scope and ease of automated manufacturability analysis with the following new features:

• The new Injection Molding rules include checks for adequate hole spacing, appropriate drafts, and fillet radii for ribs, boss height, and OD/ID ratio.
• A new functionality for exporting and importing analysis results lets you save the DFMPro analysis, view it at your convenience, and share your analysis results with other DFMPro users.
• The batch mode of DFMPro includes support to generate the exported results. An automated system directly e-mails the results for further analysis and action. Users can view the results directly without re-executing DFMPro analysis.
• A 3D interactivity report can be shared with other users for further review and additional collaboration.

The new export-import functionality combined with the batch mode operation can help CAD administrators deploy DFMPro as an off-line manufacturability analysis tool, reporting problems such as failed analysis results to users as and when they occur. Users can directly open the analysis results, correct and recheck-in the designs.

DFMPro points out areas that are expensive to manufacture and recommends alternatives.

DFMPro has three modules: DFMPro for Machining, DFMPro for Sheet Metal, and DFMPro for Injection Molding. All three modules provide dedicated sets of guidelines intended to enable you to design higher-quality parts economically and more efficiently. Additionally, DFMPro Customization functionality gives you a framework to capture and re-use your manufacturability expertise in the form of design rules, enabling you to automate your unique DFM practices into your standard operating procedures.

The DFMPro Machining module supports several common DFM machining guidelines for drilling, prismatic milling, and lathe machining or turning. Among the design guidelines it provides are avoid deep holes with small diameters, blind holes should not have a flat bottom, and design milling areas so that longer end mills are not required to machine it.

For sheet metal fabrication, DFMPro points out holes that are close to bends.

The DFMPro Sheet Metal module offers such design guidelines as minimum distance between holes, cutouts, and slots; distance between holes, cutouts, slots to part edge and bends; minimum radius of rolled hem, open hem and tear drop hem; and minimum flange width. DFMPro for Injection Molding lets you check what you are doing from inside the Pro/ENGINEER environment. Among the capabilities provided are validate the design to check for uniform wall thickness, recommended rib parameters, appropriate draft angles on core and cavity surfaces, undercuts, and thin steel conditions on the mold.

A light version of DFMPro known as DFMXpress is available with every seat of SolidWorks beginning with SolidWorks 2008. For more information DFMPro and DFMPro version 2.2 for Pro/ENGINEER, visit Geometric’s DFMPro site.

Go here for more on the DFMPro for Machining module.

Go here for more on the DFMPro for Sheet Metal module.

Go here for more on the DFMPro for Injection Molding module.

Go here for more on customizing DFMPro.

Sign up for a 15-day trial of DFMPro for Pro/ENGINEER.

Sign up for a 15-day trial of DFMPro for SolidWorks.

See why DE's Editors selected Version 2.2 of DFMPro for Pro/ENGINEER as their Pick of the Week.