Release Notes

aP Design Release Notes provide information about new features, enhancements, and resolved issues. If you encounter any issues, please review the Troubleshooting section in the aPriori Support knowledge base.

Dec 11, 2024

New Features

This release (Version 1.18.0) provides the following enhancements.

Copy and Reuse Scenario Inputs

Streamline your iterative design process with the ability to copy and apply inputs from existing scenarios to new ones.

Why This Matters

When working iteratively, CAD models may evolve, but many inputs remain consistent. This new functionality lets you reuse those inputs, saving time and improving workflow efficiency.

How It Works

Locate scenarios: click the three vertical dots in the INPUTS panel and select Reuse inputs from another scenario.
Review inputs: select a scenario in the Reuse Inputs table to view a list of inputs available for reuse in the summary panel on the right. Any input that cannot be applied will not appear in the panel.
Apply eligible inputs: click Apply Inputs. You will receive a warning if eligible inputs fail to apply successfully.

Limitations

Currently, only inputs that are configurable in aP Design on a first analysis are eligible for copying. However aPriori is eager for feedback! Let us know what additional inputs you'd like to copy and we’ll prioritize expanding this feature in future updates.

Take advantage of this enhancement to refine scenarios faster and more effectively!

For more details, see Reuse Inputs from Another Scenario.

Jul 31, 2024

New Features

This release (Version 1.16.0) provides the following enhancements.

Provide Costs Manually

Design Engineers often need to incorporate standard hardware or specific components into their wider assemblies. Parts such as bolts, washers, gaskets, or existing stock, are common examples where the Piece Part Cost is known and is likely to vary from the aPriori estimate, given the manufacturing route or volume of procurement. Consequently, this release of aP Design allows you to enter Piece Part Cost and/or Total Capital Investment directly into a scenario.

Note: aP Design does not amortize Total Capital Investment when you use Manual cost mode, therefore Fully Burdened Cost will equate to Piece Part Cost.

You can easily identify manually costed components within the Explore and Assembly Explorer tables using the ‘Manually Costed’ icon in the State column.

You can also add a custom filter for finding manually costed scenarios using the Cost Mode criteria property – the value can be either Manual or aPriori:

Manual: the scenario has been saved using manually-entered costs.
aPriori: the scenario has been costed using the aPriori cost engine to produce simulated results.

Convert a Previously Simulated Scenario to a Manually Costed Scenario

You can convert a previously simulated scenario to a manual scenario by selecting Manual on the Cost Mode toggle switch.

Access Manually Costed Scenarios from aP Pro

In aP Design, you can access scenarios that were manually costed in aP Pro. Likewise, in aP Pro, you can access scenarios that were manually costed in aP Design.

When opened in aP Design, scenarios originating in aP Pro render in the new layout, however no information is lost. You can still view and edit previous contributing costs, overrides, and so forth, in aP Pro.

Note: If a scenario was costed initially using aPriori mode and then switched to Manual mode, aP Design preserves certain parameters, for example the process group and digital factory.

For more information about manual costing, see the aP Design User Guide.

Jan 24, 2024

New Features

This release (Version 1.14.0) provides the following enhancement.

Improved Performance for the Explore View

In this release, the results shown in the Explore view table are cached, therefore as you navigate to the Evaluate or Compare view and back again, the results do not need to refresh. This greatly improves performance and usability.

Note: In this initial release, the table is cached only if it is on the first page of the results. This capability will be extended in upcoming aPriori Cloud releases.

The Explore view now also includes a time stamp indicating the last time the view was updated. This helps users avoid unnecessary refreshes.

One-Click Connection to aP Workspace from aP Design

In this release you can navigate directly from the Evaluate view in aP Design to the equivalent view in aP Workspace. You no longer have to search for the scenario in aP Workspace and you can navigate quickly in either direction.

Resolved Issues

The following issues are resolved in this release:

Search in both Explore and Evaluate views now shows CAD connected status correctly.
If the user does not have access, the search request will return quickly, avoiding long wait times.
Material selection will keep the user's selection and no longer change back to a Digital Factory default.
The selected main navigation tab stays selected even if the other page is still loading.
The occurrence of duplicate scenario rows in aP Design and aP Workspace is now fixed.

Nov 1, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.10.0) provides the following enhancement.

See the History of a Scenario

You can now see the history of a scenario and review how input changes have affected outputs in Cost, DFM, and Carbon. This is an excellent supplement to the concept selection process or the decision justification workflow.

You can plot one output against another to visualize and explain trade-offs made during the refinement process. This is particularly useful for when you are presenting about decisions and direction in design reviews.

Scenario Iterations

Each time you make a change that is persisted in a scenario, aP Design creates an iteration. Actions such as Cost, Publish, or Update CAD File are some of the more obvious changes that provoke an iteration, but so can Assign actions or Status changes.

Open and Review the History Of a Scenario

Once you have opened the History dialog, you can refine the outputs plotted on the graph, including removing the secondary axis to focus on a particularly important output.

Some key combinations you might explore include, but are not limited to, the following:

Fully Burdened Cost versus Total Capital Investment
Total Cycle Time versus Total Capital Investment
Fully Burdened Cost versus Design Warnings
Piece Part Cost versus Total Carbon or Material Carbon

As iterations mount up, you can hover your cursor over the iteration history to remind yourself of the inputs that varied from iteration to iteration.

Limitations

aP Design 'flattens' scenario history once a scenario is published; this means that the change history is no longer visible. However, to preserve the iteration history for future reference, you can publish the scenario between each meaningful change and that will persist, even in the published view. This provides the benefit of being able to refine the public history somewhat, and so it can present a more intended history.

For more information about the History feature, see the aP Design User Guide.

Oct 4, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.9.0) provides the following enhancements.

Generate Basic Log Files

You can now easily generate, view, and copy the most effective information that enables aPriori Support to troubleshoot any issues accurately and efficiently.

You can review this information, copy it to the clipboard, and include it in any onward communications you have with aPriori Support. aP Design automatically displays the information in table format when you paste the clipboard content into an aPriori Support ticket.

For more information, see the aP Design User Guide.

Upgrading

As part of the fully managed aPriori Cloud Solution service, aPriori Customer Support manages cloud upgrades and provides upgrade schedules and testing windows to aPriori Cloud customers.

Minor updates, which do not typically require customer testing and validation, are automatic. For major updates and for minor updates that require upgrade testing and validation, aPriori provides customers with an Upgrade sandbox for a pre-defined time period. For more information about upgrade schedules and automated tooling that facilitates upgrades, please contact your account team.

aPriori Customer Support can help you to migrate scenario data, Digital Factories, and customized configurations for On-Premise deployments of the current or any prior aPriori release to a Cloud deployment of the current aPriori release. For more migration information, or to learn about production projects and use cases that are enabled by aPriori Cloud, please contact your aPriori account team lead, your aPriori Account Manager, or aPriori Customer Support.

Sep 20, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.8.0) provides the following enhancements.

Comparison Workflow

The comparison workflow is an excellent way to evaluate design options or scenario changes against one another so that you can visualize and consider the pros and cons of each one. It is an effective tool to assist design selection or to support concept justification.

The following enhancements are aimed at improving the value and usefulness of the feature as a whole and enable recurring reviews of existing comparisons.

Create and Save Comparisons

In aP Design 1.8.0 you can save, name, rename, modify, and delete comparisons created in aP Design. This allows you to create and store meaningful comparisons of designs or scenarios to assist with informed concept selection and refinement – both in the present and at a later date.

New Comparison Repository

In aP Design 1.8.0, when not displaying a specific comparison, the comparison tab also acts as a repository where, once created and saved, comparisons are stored and presented for future interrogation or reference. You can also rename or delete scenarios from within this view.

Improved Comparison Table

aP Design 1.8.0 includes additional fields in the comparison view that provide increased transparency and detail around the cost composition for a given scenario, including a more detailed investment and cost breakdown overview.

Limitations

Comparisons created in aP Design cannot be accessed from aP Pro. Likewise, comparisons created in aP Pro cannot be accessed from aP Design.

For more information on how to create and work with comparisons, see the aP Design User Guide.

Resolved Issues

The following issues are resolved in this release:

Digital Factories are not displayed in alphabetical order: In aP Design 1.8.0, Digital Factories in drop-down lists are presented in alphabetical order.
Intermittently, changing some PSO values does not enable a cost submission: In aP Design 1.8.0, you can cost or re-cost a part as normal after changing the values of PSOs.
Cost button disabled after clearing all PSO inputs: In aP Design 1.8.0, after changing PSO values and clicking the Clear All button to clear uncosted changes, you can use the Cost button as normal.
Cost button disabled after applying secondary processes when editing PSOs: In aP Design 1.8.0, after applying secondary processes when the PSO section is open, you can use the Cost button as normal.

Upgrading

As part of the fully managed aPriori Cloud Solution service, aPriori Customer Support manages cloud upgrades and provides upgrade schedules and testing windows to aPriori Cloud customers.

Jul 26, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.7.0) provides the following enhancements.

Updated Names and User Interfaces for aPriori Products

aPriori products were rebranded to reflect a broad focus that includes sustainability and manufacturability insights in addition to cost estimates.

This table includes the new and old names for the rebranded products, solutions, and modules. It also indicates the release in which the relevant user interface (UI) will be updated to reflect the name changes.

Old Name	New Name	UI Update Release
Cost Insight Generate	aP Generate	2023 R1 Version 3.1.0
Cost Insight Connect	aP Connect	2023 R1 Version 3.1.0
Cost Insight Design	aP Design	1.7.0
Cost Insight Admin	aP Admin	2023 R1 SP2
Cost Insight Report	aP Analytics	2023 R1 SP2
aPriori Professional	aP Pro	2023 R1 SP2

Limitations

In some cases the UI may still use the old branding but will be updated shortly.

Upgrading

As part of the fully managed aPriori Cloud Solution service, aPriori Customer Support manages cloud upgrades and provides upgrade schedules and testing windows to aPriori Cloud customers.

Jun 28, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.6.0) provides the following enhancements.

Sustainability Insights

Cost Insight Design includes Sustainability Insights – a separately licensed module that calculates carbon emissions at the part manufacturing level. Cost Insight Report users can aggregate the data for part scenarios to determine the carbon emissions for assemblies.

If you are interested in adding the Sustainability Insights module to your deployment, please contact aPriori Support.

The Sustainability Insights module layers sustainability data on top of aPriori's cost models, allowing you to:

Create carbon baseline data
Identify carbon outliers
Perform material, process, and design trade-offs to assess their impact
Take actions to reduce parts or product carbon footprint

The sustainability data helps you determine the carbon footprint of your manufacturing processes by calculating how much carbon is emitted during the manufacture of products and during the production of the materials that go into those products.

You can examine carbon data in the Sustainability tile and panel.

Processes supported in Sustainability

The processes that are supported by aPriori Sustainability Insights depend on your current version of aPriori Professional. For a full list of supported processes, refer to the 'Processes supported in Sustainability' section of the aPriori Professional User Guide.

Note: The Sustainability Insights module does not support custom processes at this time.

aPriori continues to add Sustainability calculations to more processes. Please contact your aPriori representative if there is a specific process that you want Sustainability support for.

Compatibility

aPriori Cloud products are compatible only with other aPriori Cloud products. You cannot, for example, use an aPriori Cloud installation of Cost Insight Admin to export data from an aPriori On-Premise installation of aPriori Professional and then use the exported data with aPriori Cloud version of Cost Insight Report. Likewise, aPriori On-Premise products are compatible only with other aPriori On-Premise products. For example, if you have an aPriori On-Premise installation of aPriori Professional, you cannot use it with aPriori Cloud versions of Cost Insight Admin or Cost Insight Report.

Within these environment constraints, the 1.6.0 release of Cost Insight Design is compatible only with the 2023 R1 SP1 release of other aPriori Cloud applications.

Upgrading

As part of the fully managed aPriori Cloud Solution service, aPriori Customer Support manages cloud upgrades and provides upgrade schedules and testing windows to aPriori Cloud customers. Minor updates, which do not typically require customer testing and validation, are automatic. For major updates and for minor updates that require upgrade testing and validation, aPriori provides customers with an Upgrade sandbox for a pre-defined time period. For more information about upgrade schedules and automated tooling that facilitates upgrades, please contact your account team.

Jun 7, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.5.0) provides the following enhancements.

Toolbar Usability Improvements

The primary toolbars on the Explore, Evaluate, and Comparison tabs have all been redesigned for usability. Several of the buttons on the toolbars have been simplified and reordered or replaced. For example this figure shows the previous (top) and new (bottom) versions of the Explore toolbar.

The Import button is now the first button and its dropdown menu has been eliminated. Therefore, you can now open the Import CAD File dialog with a single click.

The Copy button, which is the second button on the toolbar, is a new button that replaces the Scenario option on the dropdown menu of the New button. Previously, to open the New Scenario dialog, which allowed you to create an identical private copy of private scenario, you had to select the scenario, click the New button, and then select Scenario Now, after you select the private scenario that you want to copy, you can instead just click the Copy button to open the new Copy Scenario dialog. The enhancement provides more efficient and intuitively named elements for an essential workflow.

The new Compare button, which replaces the Comparison option on the dropdown menu of the New button, makes the workflow for comparing scenarios easier and more intuitive. Also, to disambiguate the Compare button and action from the Compare tab , the Compare tab has been replaced with the Comparisons tab .

As these figures show, all enhancements to the Explore toolbar (top) have been extended to the Evaluate toolbar (middle) and the streamlining of the Import button has been extended to the Comparisons toolbar (bottom).

Quick Scenario Comparisons

You can typically determine the optimal reviewing inputs and different in a side-by-side comparison For example, in this comparison of three different scenarios, each with a different input for the Digital Factory, you can quickly see that the basis (reference) scenario has the best combination of manufacturability and cost.

Until this release, Cost Insight Design provided only one type of comparison, which is now called a Manual Comparison because it includes only scenarios that you have manually identified by selecting them in the Explore tab. In other words, to create a Manual Comparison you must first manually identify all the scenarios that you want to include.

In this release, you can also create a Quick Comparison, which is a side-by-side comparison for which you need only identify the basis scenario. Once you do, Cost Insight Design identifies up to nine other scenarios for the comparison that meet both of these criteria:

They are all associated with the same component as the basis scenario.
They are the nine most recently updated scenarios for the component.

In other words, to create a Quick Comparison you must first identify only one scenario and then Cost Insight Design identifies up to nine other relevant scenarios and includes them in the comparison.

To create a Quick Comparison, from the Evaluate tab:

Click the Compare button.

The New Comparison dialog opens.
Select Quick Comparison and then click Create.

To create a Quick Comparison, from the Explore tab:

Select the basis scenario.
Click the Compare button.
Select Quick Comparison and then click Create.

May 31, 2023

New Features

This release (Version 1.4.0) provides the following enhancements.

Manual Tolerancing

In previous releases, the application of tolerances was determined solely by tolerance policy that was selected in the Preferences > Default Tolerance settings.

The options for the tolerance policy (which is automatically applied to Geometric Cost Drivers (GCDs) during CAD file import and update processes) are:

Assume tolerance and roughness achieved by the selected manufacturing operation is sufficient — (Default option) Cost Insight Design assumes that selected processes have sufficient tolerance capabilities to manufacture each GCD in the part. That is, it does not determine whether a process or operation is infeasible or impractical with respect to any tolerance or roughness requirements. Furthermore, if this option is selected, Cost Insight Design does not include any tolerance or roughness PMI from uploaded models in the new component scenario.
Use specific default values — Cost Insight Design applies the fault tolerance and surface roughness values, which are also specified in the Tolerance Defaults settings, when a CAD file is imported or updated.
Use values from CAD model — Cost Insight Design uses semantic attributes for tolerance and roughness requirements that it extracts during the import or upload of the CAD model.

Once a CAD file had been imported or updated, you could not manually add or edit GCD tolerances. To add or edit tolerances, you had to update or re-import the CAD file after changing either the tolerances in the CAD model or your tolerance policy.

Now, in addition to providing automatically applied tolerance policies, Cost Insight Design allows you to add and edit tolerances manually after a CAD file has been imported or updated. In other words, you can now manually change GCD tolerances in an existing scenario.

There are two methods for manually changing tolerances. Both methods require that that scenario that you edit the tolerances for is private and has been successfully cost.

Method 1

The first method allows you to add or edit tolerances for any one GCD by using a dialog that provides information about any tolerances that already exist for that GCD.

Open a successfully cost private scenario to the Evaluate tab.
In the 3D viewer, on the component, select the feature that is associated with the GCD for which you want to add or edit a tolerance.

If the feature is associated with only one GCD, the feature becomes highlighted when selected. For example, because the edge of the bracket in this figure is associated with only one GCD, it becomes highlighted when selected.

Once the feature is highlighted, right-click it and then, in the context menu that appears, select Edit Tolerances.

Alternatively, if the feature is associated with more than one GCD, a context menu that contains all the associated GCDs appears when you select the feature. For example, when a hole in the bracket is selected, a menu that contains two GCDs appears.

Once the menu appears, to close the menu and highlight the feature, select the relevant GCD. Then, right-click the highlighted feature and select Edit Tolerances.

In either case, when you select Edit Tolerances, the Tolerance Overrides dialog for the selected GCD opens.
Add or edit one or more tolerances for the GCD and then click Submit.

You cannot specify 0 or a negative number for a tolerance.

To see the impact of the tolerance change, recost the scenario.

Method 2

The second method can be used only to add or edit tolerances for GCDs that already have at least one tolerance applied. In other words, you cannot use the second method to add tolerances to a totally untoleranced GCD, as you can by using the first method. The second method allows you to add or edit tolerances for multiple similar GCDs simultaneously and to select the GCDs by using the Tolerance tab on the Design Guidance explorer. However, when you use the second method to add or edit tolerances for multiple GCDs simultaneously, the dialog does not display the existing tolerance values as it does when you add or edit tolerances for only one GCD by using either the first or second method.

Open a successfully cost private scenario that contains at least one toleranced GCD to the Evaluate tab.
In the Design Guidance tile, click the Design Guidance explorer button, as shown in this figure.

Tip: In the Design Guidance tile, the GCDs with Tolerances value is the number of GCDs that already have at least one tolerance.
In the Design Guidance explorer, open the Tolerances tab.
In the Tolerances tab, select a type of tolerance.

The toleranced GCDs are listed in the explorer and the associated features are highlighted in the 3D viewer.

In the explorer, select one or more similar GCDs, click on the model in the 3D viewer, and then click Edit Tolerances.

The Tolerance Overrides dialog for the selected GCDs opens.
Add or edit tolerances for the GCDs and then click Submit.

You cannot specify 0 or a negative number for a tolerance.

To see the impact of the tolerance change, recost the scenario.

By creating and comparing multiple scenarios for the same component, each with different tolerances, you can examine the impact of tolerances on cycle time, cost, manufacturability, and sustainability. For example, this scenario comparison shows the impact of applying half and double the initial tolerance values.

Limitations

You cannot manually delete a tolerance that was extracted from the Production and Manufacturing Information (PMI) in a CAD file. To nullify a tolerance that aPriori applied based on PMI, you can either:
- Delete that PMI from the CAD model and then update the CAD file.
- Relax the tolerance by manually replacing the existing value with a significantly larger or significantly smaller value, as applicable, that nullifies the effect of the tolerance.
If you manually specify a tolerance that is inappropriate (such as a runnout on a flat planar face) or that is permissible in Cost Insight Design but not in aPriori Professional, or vice versa, a conflict may occur during a regularly scheduled automatic synchronization between Cost Insight Design and aPriori Professional. If a conflict occurs, the scenario will become unstable and will fail to cost.

To avoid such a conflict, do not specify tolerances in Cost Insight Design that violate your organization's tolerances policies in aPriori Professional and vice versa.

To stabilize a scenario that is in an unstable state due to a tolerance issue, you can either:
- Specify an appropriate value for the problematic tolerance within aPriori Professional or Cost Insight Design
- Change your tolerance policy so that it does not apply the problematic tolerance and then update or re-import the CAD file
- Change or delete the tolerance in the CAD Model and then update or re-import the CAD file

Group Set Capability for Tolerancing Similar GCDs

In this release, Cost Insight Design allows you to multi-select similar GCDs and then simultaneously add or edit the tolerances for them in the Tolerance Overrides dialog.

You can multi-select the similar GCDs in either the 3D viewer by using Shift+Click or in the Tolerances tab in Details Explorer by selecting multiple checkboxes. For more information how to manually add or edit tolerances, see Release Notes.

Tip: To arrange the GCDs in the explorer alphabetically, and therefore by type, click the sort by button in the GCD column header.

If you select dissimilar GCDs, Cost Insight Design displays a message that indicates that you cannot add or edit tolerances for them.

Usability Improvements for the Tolerance Overrides Dialog

The Tolerance Overrides dialog, which you can use to specify values for a tolerance policy that can be applied to newly imported CAD models and to specify tolerance values for selected GCDs now contains a graphic and a description that explain how the aPriori manages and applies tolerances.

Each tolerance field in the dialog includes a standard engineering symbol and a tool tip that appears when you hoover over the information icon next to the tolerance name.

If a tolerance is not applicable to the selected GCDs, it is disabled to prevent you from applying a tolerance that is impossible to achieve.

If all the tolerances in a tolerance category are inapplicable, the entire category is disabled.

Known Issues and Workarounds

This release contains unresolved issues from prior versions of Cost Insight Design (as described in the release notes for the version in which they were identified) and this newly identified issue:

3D viewer measurement tool unit system disagreement issue – When you measure from point-to-point by using the measurement tool in the 3D viewer on the Explore tab, the displayed numerical value is equal to the numerical value that would display for the same point-to-point distance in the CAD model. The displayed unit in the measurement is determined by the specified default length unit in Cost Insight Design, even if it does not match the specified default unit for the CAD model. Therefore, if the length unit that was specified for the CAD file matches the default length unit that is specified in Cost Insight Design, both the displayed value and the displayed unit in point-to-point measurement a are correct. However, if the specified default length unit for the CAD file does not match the default length unit for Cost Insight Design, only the displayed value is correct in point-to-point measurements. The displayed unit is incorrect.

For example, if the CAD file was authored in Inches but Cost Insight Design is configured to display distance in mm, a 20 inch point-to-point distance will display as 20 mm.

To avoid this issue, configure the default units and unit systems in your CAD models to match the specified default units and unit systems in Cost Insight Design.

Release Notes

Apr 30, 2025

Assemblies Enhancements

Additional User Experience Enhancements

Dec 11, 2024

New Features

Copy and Reuse Scenario Inputs

Limitations

Oct 23, 2024

New Features

Manual Costing for Assemblies

aP Design Docs Enhancements

Jul 31, 2024

New Features

Provide Costs Manually

Convert a Previously Simulated Scenario to a Manually Costed Scenario

Access Manually Costed Scenarios from aP Pro

Mar 27, 2024

New Features

Temporarily Hide Iterations from the History Plot

Download History Data

Jan 24, 2024

New Features

Improved Performance for the Explore View

One-Click Connection to aP Workspace from aP Design

Resolved Issues

Dec 6, 2023

New Features

Pin a Routing Prior to Costing

Nov 9, 2023

New Features

Advanced Scenario Switch

Nov 1, 2023

New Features

See the History of a Scenario

Scenario Iterations

Open and Review the History Of a Scenario

Limitations

Oct 4, 2023

New Features

Generate Basic Log Files

Upgrading

Sep 20, 2023

New Features

Comparison Workflow

Create and Save Comparisons

New Comparison Repository

Improved Comparison Table

Limitations

Resolved Issues

Upgrading

Jul 26, 2023

New Features

Updated Names and User Interfaces for aPriori Products

Upgrading

Jun 28, 2023

New Features

Sustainability Insights

Processes supported in Sustainability

Compatibility

Upgrading

Jun 7, 2023

New Features

Toolbar Usability Improvements

Quick Scenario Comparisons

May 31, 2023

New Features

Manual Tolerancing

Group Set Capability for Tolerancing Similar GCDs

Usability Improvements for the Tolerance Overrides Dialog

Known Issues and Workarounds