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Sheet Metal - Hydroforming

Geometry or Cost Engine Changes that Could Impact Configured Digital Factories

The following changes might impact costing, even for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • Complex Hole property Mec Diameter (in very rare cases, can affect feasibility of 2D cutting operations): In the previous release, aPriori overestimated the value of the Mec Diameter property for certain Complex Hole GCDs. Estimates were accurate for many hole shapes (including rectangle, oval, and key-hole shapes), but were too large for certain other hole shapes (including triangle, star, and crescent shapes).

    Info:

    The Mec Diameter of a hole is the diameter of the largest circle that can be inscribed in it.

    In this release, Mec Diameter is determined more accurately for these other hole shapes. As a result, aPriori now more accurately determines whether a given 2D cutting operation's kerf width can accommodate a given Complex Hole (the kerf cannot be wider than the hole).

    In very rare cases, a 2D cutting operation assigned in the previous release may be infeasible in this release. For such cases, costs may increase significantly if a machining operation is assigned in place of the 2D cutting operation. In a set of hydroformed test parts, significant cost increases did not occur.

  • Other Complex Hole properties: aPriori now computes various Complex Hole properties more accurately, including Perimeter and Area. In a large test set, fewer than 1% of parts were affected. For affected parts, fully burdened cost changed by less than 1%.

  • Straight Bend property Bend Flap Size (can impact tooling cost): This release improves the accuracy of values for the Bend Flap Size property of StraightBend GCDs. For most bends the value of Bend Flap Size changes by less than 10%, but larger changes can occur. Decreases are more common than increases. As a result, tooling costs may change very slightly in some cases, compared to the previous release.

    Note:

    To restore the behavior of the previous release, set the site variable flattenBendFlapSize to false.

  • Form properties Depth Up and Depth Down (can impact machine selection and overhead costs): This release improves the accuracy of the values of the properties Depth Up and Depth Down for curved bend Form GCDs. As a result, in rare cases, machine selection may change compared to the previous release (since a feasible machine's shut height must be sufficiently large to accommodate the part's deepest form). If a different machine is selected, overhead cost and (to a lesser extent) cycle time may change.

    In a set of test parts, decreases in form depth were more common than increases. For the majority of test parts, form depth values changed by less than 20%, but a significant minority had changes of greater than 20%. However, in the test set, there was only minor impact on machine selection. In some cases, a smaller, less-expensive machine was chosen than in the previous release.

Bug Fixes or Small Improvements to Prior Cost Model Versions

The following changes might impact costing for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • NO IMPACT

Cost Model Changes that Do Not Affect Configured Digital Factories

The following changes do not affect costings with Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions. The changes are available only in the latest cost model version.

  • NO IMPACT