Forging Enhancements

Improved Thickness Assessment for the Forging Process Groups

aPriori 2023 R1 uses an improved algorithm for calculating part thickness for Forging that improves accuracy and ensures consistency across process groups.

In recent releases the part thickness algorithm was updated for the Plastic Molding, Assembly Molding, Assembly Plastic Molding, Casting-Die, Casting-Sand, and Casting-Investment process groups. The updated algorithm produces more accurate results for the maximum thickness and average thickness values of parts. In aPriori 2023 R1, the Forging, Powder Metal, and Additive Manufacturing process groups were also enhanced to use the improved thickness algorithm.

In a set of test parts, this change had no observable impact on cost estimates for Forging. This result was expected because the Forging cost model does not rely on thickness.

Due to the improved accuracy and consistency of the new algorithm, aPriori recommends its use. However customers that choose to can continue to use the previous thickness algorithm by setting the site variable castThicknessAlgorithm to Legacy Voxel-Based. This site variable must be set separately for each process group.

Read Draw Direction from CAD File

aPriori 2023 R1 provides a new capability to use a CAD-defined draw direction to reduce analysis times and support highly-automated aPriori workflows.

Historically, aPriori has relied mainly on its powerful, proprietary algorithm for analyzing the geometry of molded parts (including plastic injection moldings, castings, and forgings) and determining the draw direction (mold-opening direction). This algorithm evaluates many candidate directions and selects one based on many criteria including the amount of undercut volume, alignment with various features on the part, flatness of the resulting parting line and required mold-opening height. In some cases the draw direction ultimately selected by aPriori, while reasonable, is different than the intended as-designed draw direction. Therefore, aPriori has also allowed you to specify the desired Draw Direction interactively. To do so, you had to inspect and edit the draw direction as needed, and then recost the component using newly extracted GCDs.

In this release, instead of using the proprietary algorithm, you can configure aPriori to read and use designated datum references in the CAD file as the specified Draw Direction. Doing so eliminates the need to manually review and sometimes update the chosen draw direction, and also results in faster GCD extraction. This capability is available in aPriori Professional (for both on-premise and cloud deployments) and Cost Insight Design, (for cloud deployments), and is particularly useful for supporting high-volume lights-out workflows, which leverage aPriori Generate.

These process groups support reading Draw Direction from NX, CATIA, SolidWorks and Creo CAD models (including both Creo Direct Integration and CAD-I/cloud environments):

• Plastic Molding

• Casting - Die

• Casting - Investment

• Casting - Sand

• Forging

• Powder Metal

To leverage this capability, your organization must:

1. Adopt some company-standard ways of designating draw direction in your CAD models.

2. Configure the CAD Property Mapping File to identify the standard draw direction references.

   An aPriori System Administrator can perform this step.

If a newly costed CAD model contains your company-standard draw direction references, aPriori will use them. Otherwise, it will fall back to using the proprietary algorithm for determining draw direction.

Draw direction references are defined for the entire aPriori deployment. aPriori provides flexibility in how draw direction may be designated, to support different naming conventions, languages, and modeling approaches used within different divisions of a company or standards which have evolved over time.

Here is a summary of the rules for designating draw directions. For complete details, please refer to the section Draw Direction Mappings in version 2023 R1 of the aPriori System Administration Guide.

In general, aPriori supports specifying draw directions using these types of CAD entities:

• An axis of a coordinate system with a custom name (for example, the Z-axis of the coordinate system named "Draw_Direction")

• A datum axis with a given name

• A datum plane with a given name (draw direction is perpendicular to the plane)

aPriori allows you to define multiple possible draw direction references in the CAD Property Mapping File as well as a priority order. When analyzing a part file, aPriori uses the highest-priority reference that exists in that part file as the draw direction. To capture when the draw direction is read from the CAD file, these new properties are available for the Parting Line GCD:

• Mapped Draw Direction Name displays the full name of the CAD datum object that defines Draw Direction. If this field is empty, then draw direction was not read from the CAD model and the historical algorithm was used.

• Mapped Draw Direction Type displays the type of the CAD datum object that defines Draw Direction. Possible values are Coordinate System, Axis, or Plane.

• Mapped Draw Direction Axis is used only if Mapped Draw Direction Type is equal to Coordinate system and if so displays the axis of that coordinate system used to define draw (X, Y, or Z) otherwise no value is displayed in this field.