CADnection - Using Design Data in a Data-Centric Future

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After a series of blogs discussing the nuts and bolts of CADnection, we wanted to take a step back and see how all this comes together.

CADnection unlocks the value of CAD models by providing access to nearly 95% of all CAD data formats available today. This includes metadata, “where used” and “composed of” information, thumbnail images, and 2D/3D viewables. All of this is achieved without the need of the original CAD authoring application.

Given CADnection’s ability to expose vital design data, what are some of the applications that can benefit from its capabilities? Although not exhaustive, the list below highlights common applications and/or use cases.

“… CAD models represent design and engineering intent, the medium used for purchasing, and the insights needed to operate and/or maintain equipment. Data that was once only accessible to a select few is now open and visible – enabling a wide range of users to make informative business decisions.”

  • search and insights engines

  • data migrations and import operations

  • smart CAD models (P&IDs)

  • data warehousing/lakes

Each of these are further explored below.

Search Engines

According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report of 2019, Coveo, Lucidworks, Mindbreeze, Micro Focus, and Sinequa are rated as the top performers for a class of search-based functionality referred to as Insights Engines. Additionally, the two leading open source players, Elasticsearch and Solr, continue to dominate use across a wide spectrum of applications such as website search, ecommerce apps, and many other custom apps.

All of these operate by indexing content found in a wide array of file formats, web pages, and applications such as CRM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other enterprise solutions. This latter group is typically comprised of metadata and ingested files.

However, accounting for CAD model data is historically problematic. The primary processes include the export of data using the native CAD application or writing custom extraction routines. The challenges are further compounded when processing multiple versions of a CAD model or when the original authoring application is not available or is outdated. The latter is especially true for “build to print” organizations that receive CAD models created by such applications as CATIA, Creo, NX, and Solidworks.

CADnection eliminates these challenges. In the context of search engines, CADnection acts like any other “file format” connector, but with the added benefits of taxonomy normalization, enrichment, and the publishing of visual representations (thumbnails and 2D or 3D viewables).

Setting up CADnection to support this type of solution is comprised of two steps. The first is to configure the search engine crawler to activate CADnection when certain file extensions are encountered. The second step is the configuration of the CADnection Data Extraction (CDE) index file that will be ingested and processed by the search engine indexing operations.

As a result, organizations can now have unfettered access to all their CAD model data. This expands the value of their search and insights engine initiatives, including the ability to view 2D and/or 3D representations of the CAD models in any browser.

Data Migrations and Import Operations

Content management solutions for engineering and manufacturing operations take on a wide range of functional rolls such as:

  • product data/lifecycle management (PDM/PLM)

  • enterprise content management (ECM)

  • enterprise resource planning (ERP)

  • manufacturing execution systems (MES)

  • maintenance, repair and operations (MRO)

These platforms treat product data that will invariably include CAD models and/or their renditions.

Each of these applications are inherently database driven and characterize all data in tag/value pairs. For example, a part will have a name. An invoice will have a number. A vendor will have a contact.

Implementing and deploying these enterprise platforms will likely require a pre-population effort to bring in existing parts data and their related documents including CAD models. CADnection is ideally suited to support the extraction of metadata values from the CAD models that can then be mapped to the corresponding metadata in the content management platform. Additionally, a 2D and/or 3D rendering is provided to help users visualize the CAD model.

Smart P&IDs

Embedding data about a part, piece of equipment or an instrument would be of value for many types of CAD models. However, this is particularly true for piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs). Effectively P&IDs represents flows, operations, and processes similar to what might be found on digital maps comprised of roads, structures, and parks for example. Just like a user that can quickly navigate a digital map, explore, inspect, and even visualize the elements of interest, likewise, CADnection can significantly enhance the value of user experience for P&IDs.

“Smart” P&IDs can be automatically achieved through CADnection’s enrichment process. Take for example, an instrument shown in a P&ID. So called “tags” are used to provide an annotation scheme. Using the tag value as a “key”, associated data can be retrieved from other repositories such as a spreadsheet, ACCESS database, and enterprise solutions such as MRO. As a result, a user navigating through a P&ID could select a tag that presents data from these other sources. The user is therefore provided with a data rich experience without having to search for and retrieve related fragments of data that exists in multiple different repositories.

Data Lakes/Warehouses

We continuously sought techniques to better “aggregate” data from multiple silos. Data warehousing techniques started decades ago and established mechanisms to capture, transform, and connect data from multiple sources. This “mash-up” ultimately supported improved ways to display and/or report on the data. Data virtualization, big data and analytics, and more recently, the concept of data lakes capabilities have emerged. Data lakes take a less structured approach by capturing and storing raw and unprocessed data, which is then massaged by tailored applications and/or analytic engines.

Regardless of the aggregating approach, CADnection can be leveraged to serve as a contributor to these pools of data. The concept is similar to the previous examples, but in this use case, the so-called enrichment process would be the domain of the data lake (or other pool) processing operations.

Concluding Remarks

In today’s digital world, data is the basis for the decisions we make. CAD models represent design and engineering intent, the medium used for purchasing and manufacturing, and the insights needed to operate and/or maintain equipment. Data that was once locked-down and accessible to a select few is now open and visible – enabling a wide range of users to make more informed business decisions.