Analyze Scenarios

After you import a CAD file as a component into aP Design, you can then analyze a scenario for that component (part or assembly).

The scenario is a version of your design, with specific production and manufacturing input values, such as the material, manufacturing process, and batch size. To examine the effect of different factors on your design, you can create, analyze, and compare scenarios, by reviewing and editing these input values.

Analyzing Features

When you analyze scenario, aP Design can output:

  • Design Guidance such as the number of features in the pin that may require threading, have problematic tolerance or surface roughness specifications, or will otherwise cause issues for the specified processes and material.

  • Material & Process information such as how much material will be required, how much material will be removed, and how long each process will take.

  • Sustainability information such as how much carbon is emitted by the processes used to produce the material that the component is made from and the processes used to make the component.

  • Cost Results such as how much it should cost the specified factory to purchase any equipment that it will need to make the design using the specified processes and how much each pin will cost given the specified volume and number of years of production.

Benefits of Analyzing

Analyzing a scenario allows you to determine:

  • If the design violates any best practices or physical standards.

  • If the component can be made using the specified materials and the available processes, tools, and equipment.

  • If there are design changes that could make it easier, faster, and cheaper to make the component.

  • How much time it could take to perform each process that is required to make the component.

  • How much material is needed to make the component and what percentage of the required amount is wasted.

  • How much it should cost to make the component using the specified materials, and the available processes, tools, and equipment.

  • The order of processes and the types of tools that are required to make the component.

  • How much additional investment in equipment, tooling, or programming is required before production on the component can begin.

Analyze Process

  1. Set initial input values. See Set Scenario Inputs.

  2. Analyze your scenario. See Analyze a Scenario.

You can then compare scenarios, and review results.

Topics and Examples