Automatic Generation of Product Family Member CAD Models Supported by a Platform Using a Template Approach

Abstract

Current global markets are volatile, where companies are striving to deliver greater quality, more customization, faster response, more innovative designs and lower prices. New models need to be introduced in the market more frequently, which has given momentum for designing family of products. Development of family of Products using a platform approach requires making decisions regarding platform selection and trade-off studies, which require analysis and evaluation of performance for the entire family instead of an individual products. One of the first steps in performing these activities require development of solid models for the entire family quickly and automatically as platform and family member configurations and size are changed. This paper presents an approach to automatically generate CAD models for a family of products. In the approach, a product family template that integrates configuration and parametric design information is presented. The template is implemented in the developed Product Family CAD (PF-CAD) module for Pro/E. A coffeemaker product family is used as a case study to automatically generate solid models of product family members from customer input.