3DEXPERIENCE offers pre-built packages to allow organizations to expand inside the 3DEXPERIENCE platform gradually over time. The platform is a very expansive ecosystem of tools and attempting to implement too much, too quickly can offer more problems than benefits. The 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional Offer is a common next step to take on your cloud data management journey.
The 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional Offer
3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional offers deep functionality for furthering cloud-connected design and release control. 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional extends the functionality benefits of 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Standard, including Project Planner and Product Release Engineer, but adds the Change Manager and 3D Product Architect roles.
Leveraging 3D Product Architect
3D Product Architect allows users to work directly with the CAD design data in a web browser and “architect” products. Teams can easily create, move, and delete geometry in the browser-based environment without requiring a desktop seat of CAD. Duplicating projects and structures have never been easier and teams are enabled to always interface with the most up-to-date design data. This app runs directly on the web, greatly minimizing barriers for people unfamiliar with CAD who are tasked with modifying existing product structures.
Below, I’ve opened the Jigsaw CAD physical product inside of two different web apps so we can focus on making some changes. An engineering manager can execute this change on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to easily deliver it to the rest of the team. Users can see the bills of materials and product structure on the left alongside the actual 3D geometry on the right.
3DEXPERIENCE Product Structure Editor
We can duplicate the structure in the web environment and choose to create new CAD files with a new history or reuse existing design data stored in a collaborative space. I’ve hidden several components to illustrate the changes I want the CAD user to execute. Additionally, I’ll move the motor using simple translation tools as below.
New product structure created with components hidden
As shown below, the motor is clearly in a different position to indicate that changes may be required. Additionally, users can attach other objects like specification documents or drawings to the product structure. Those items can be made visible in different applications on the platform as well.
Repositioned motor in the jigsaw product
I need to remove the existing battery components to make way for the new, larger battery. We can easily detach components to remove references to quickly make way for the new battery components. Depending on how you want the design tree structured, you can reorder components to have them sequenced in accordance with your design requirements. Opening this SOLIDWORKS xDesign product in SOLIDWORKS running locally, we can see the changes started by the engineering manager. At this point, the normal engineering change process can begin. 3D Product Architect is a powerful role that allows design teams to execute change tasks in the same platform where the CAD data lives and greatly reduces the barriers to communication on how these changes should be executed.
The new product structure shown in SOLIDWORKS
Introducing a Change Manager
Change Governance structures a clearly defined series of processes to allow your team to manage engineering change on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The change item could be CAD-native or any other object on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Users can request changes, manage change approvals, and track changes from introduction to completion in a structured, controlled way. Each person is assigned a responsibility that dictates how he or she interfaces with governing the change.
There may be a few areas of the change management spectrum that your organization would choose to implement. These include the creation of formal change requests as an initial change exploration. The requests can mature into change orders that are executed with specific functionality embedded inside SOLIDWORKS or other 3DEXPERIENCE-connected tools. Users can additionally execute impact analysis to understand what components are impacted by orchestrating these changes.
For the Jigsaw, we can begin with a change request that is connected to the specific design data that we want to investigate for the change (the battery pack change). We can then kick off an impact analysis to understand what items are connected to the requested change. At this point, different magnitudes to the severity of the impact are created as well.
Impact analysis for Jigsaw changes
After the impact analysis is completed and the change request moves along its approval process, we can elevate it into a more formal change order. As we execute the change order, we can connect it to a change action where the team can govern exactly how the change is going to be executed. Are there specific users or groups with a dynamic selection that can act as the approver? Does your team need specific people to be informed of the change, but not formally connected? All these scenarios can be handled as we define the members and permissions within the change action. Introducing change management allows teams to have well-documented change processes that govern all aspects of their design work.
Adding members to a change order
The 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional Offer adds easy-to-use, powerful roles to augment existing top-down governance processes to ensure everyone is aligned with evolving product design. It allows teams to add two essential pillars of product release: product architecture and enhanced change governance. By adding this package, you can extend 3DEXPERIENCE to more than just your core design team and start to include other functional groups that need access to design data. The 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional Offer is a great way to grow within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to ensure your team is ready for whatever is next to come.
To see how adding 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud PLM Professional to your existing 3DEXPERIENCE can improve your engineering efficiency, contact our team here.
