An interoperability process between CAD system and CAE applications based on CAD data

Abstract

Over the last years, computer-aided design (CAD) has developed rapidly thanks to integrated applications. These applications, namely CAD-integrated applications, have the ability to resolve many industrial challenges related to the design process such as assembly/disassembly sequence planning or computer-aided process planning. The implementation of these applications depends essentially on data extracted from the CAD model. However, the accessibility to these data remains a complex task for CAD-integrated application developers. The aim of this work is modelling and implementing a CAD-integrated system named CADLAB $$^{\copyright }$$ which automatically identifies and generates a diversity of data from a CAD assembly model under exploitable forms. The modelling of this system is performed using MBSE tool which is systems modelling language. The computer implementation of CADLAB is carried out with several software packages such as Solidworks $$^{\copyright }$$ , Excel $$^{\copyright }$$ and MATLAB $$^{\copyright }$$ . With CADLAB system, the identifiable CAD data are the assembly components and constraints’ data. Whereas, the generated CAD data represent the assembly interference matrices as well as several assembly related matrices. The developed system was tested on several CAD examples and the obtained results were verified. The correctness of these results proves the efficiency of CADLAB to carry out CAD data extraction and then enhance the interoperability process between CAD system and CAE applications. The proposed method can help designers find the CAD assembly data in complex mechanical assembly model, facilitate the structuring of the useful designing data, and thereby improve the efficiency of product knowledge reuse.