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As innovation progresses in the CAD industry, many

engineering and IT managers watch with a mix

of excitement and trepidation about a CAD

upgrade.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook Lending Clarity to a Critical Decision

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

2 page engineering-matters.com

Don't&blink.&You&might&miss&something.& After years of slow incremental improvements, wave after wave of innovations are sweeping through the CAD industry. Many software solutions now integrate direct modeling with parametric feature-based approaches. Others focus on supporting model-based enterprise concepts or moving CAD to the cloud. Regardless of what you think about these changes, few would argue that the CAD industry is same old one that shuffled along for so many years. While innovation progresses in the CAD industry, many engineering and IT managers watch with a mix of excitement and trepidation about a CAD upgrade. Make no mistake: the promise of greater productivity, cost savings and better design is fairly self-evident. Along with those hopes come valid questions and fears. At the same time, engineering and IT managers cannot simply sit back and take comfort in inaction. Equally legitimate concerns exist about not upgrading a CAD application. They must interoperate with other software systems and applications in the product development IT ecosystem. What should an engineering or IT manager do? That is where this eBook can help. It surveys the range of issues that should be considered when choosing to upgrade or not to upgrade your CAD application. It includes guidance on how to make the decision as well.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

3 page engineering-matters.com

The&Impact&on&Engineering&Productivity

A major outcome to take into account is the effect an upgrade, or lack thereof, would have on the productivity on the engineering organization. Here are several factors to consider.

• New Functionality: Every release of CAD software includes new functionality and enhancements. These improvements are aimed at exposing entirely new ways to design products as well as addressing frustrations or issues with past releases. This is often a user's prime motivation in requesting a CAD upgrade.

• Re-orientation: New functionality positively affects user productivity over the long haul. However, it can have negative results in the short term. When capabilities are reorganized, moved, removed or added, it takes time for engineers to refamiliarize themselves with the application. This concern is mitigated by guidance that is increasingly embedded in the application itself.

• Model Compatibility: From release to release, small improvements in how a CAD application generates geometry create speed and responsiveness improvements. This also means that some geometric and feature difference may occur between versions. That in turn can cause geometry problems or even model failures in some cases. This issue can be mitigated by backwards compatibility and by the emergence of direct modeling approaches.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

4 page engineering-matters.com

Compatibility&in&Your&IT&Ecosystem!The IT ecosystem that supports new product development is a complex network of applications, systems and machines. As such, another consequence of a CAD upgrade that should be analyzed is the effect it has on compatibility within overall IT ecosystem. The following lists several factors to contemplate.

• Hardware Compatibility: Every year, hardware advances emerge in the form of new graphics cards, memory size and improvements, more numerous and faster chipsets and more. New CAD releases are often architected to utilize this increase in computing power to positively affect user productivity. Past releases often cannot support hardware improvements that didn't exist when it was originally developed.

• Desktop Software Application Compatibility: CAD applications play an important part in product development. However, they are not the only application used. CAE applications simulate and analyze a product's performance. CAM applications create NC code to drive CNC machines to produce parts. Other applications serve similar important purposes. Many use 3D models built in CAD as a starting point for their work. In some cases, upgrading the CAD application can break this compatibility. In other cases, lagging behind in upgrading your CAD application also breaks compatibility. It’s important to understand the impact for each case.

• Enterprise Software System Compatibility: CAD applications integrate with enterprise systems, like PLM, PDM and ERP, as well. Those systems utilize 3D models build by CAD applications for visualization. More importantly, though, they extract important meta-data from the 3D models for broader access by enterprise stakeholders. Moving too quickly or lagging too far behind in upgrading the CAD application can require special projects by IT staff to ensure continued support.

• Customization Compatibility: Engineering often requires specific calculations and analyses. Some organizations develop applications that perform these duties but rely on 3D models from CAD applications to do so. While compatibility should be considered, also take into account that with new functionality, some of these custom applications may no longer be required.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

5 page engineering-matters.com

Compatibility&in&Your&Supply&Chain&Today, no manufacturer operates alone. Instead, they often work in a complex supply chain of customers, partners and suppliers. Collaboration during product development is an important enabler to collaboration in such an environment. Upgrading a CAD application can have a profound impact. Here are a couple of factors to take into account.

• Import and Export: Few CAD standardization mandates are enforced in supplier contracts unless you work in the Automotive or Aerospace and Defense industries. As such, there is less need to match the exact release of others within the supply chain. However, the import and export capabilities of new releases of CAD applications can change and improve dramatically. It is important to understand the implications, good and bad, of the exchange of design data with your customers, suppliers and partners.

• Review and Markup: While exchanging exact 3D models can be an important enabler for design collaboration in the supply chain, it doesn't have to be the only means to do so. Instead, many organizations are content to provide feedback on a design by reviewing and marking up 3D models in CAD or other applications.. In some cases, the inclusion of more review and markup capabilities into CAD applications removes the need for additional applications. Investigate how a CAD upgrade affects design collaboration in your supply chain.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

6 page engineering-matters.com

Training&and&Supporting&the&Organization&&Learning how to use a CAD application is never a one-time effort. This kind of software is expansive in nature. It can take years for a user to fully explore all of its capabilities. Furthermore, new releases provide new functionality for users to learn as they are released. Given that, it's important to understand how upgrading or not upgrading a CAD application affects training and support plans.

• Bug Fixes: After the initial launch of CAD software, a series of service releases are made available to fix various bugs and problems with the initial release. However, software developers do not have infinite resources and, as a result, do not continue this practice indefinitely. When considering a CAD upgrade, it is important to avoid being on a software release that is no longer proactively updated.

• Technical Support: Another similar factor to take into account is the continued technical support of the release of software you currently use. Like development resources, software providers cannot provide technical support for every past release indefinitely. It is important to understand which releases will have technical support and on what timeframe.

• Training: As users come and go, training will be required to get them up to speed on the CAD application. Organizations using older releases of software will find it increasingly difficult to find suitable sources of training over time. In some cases, they may even be forced to retain

specialized training, which can, in turn, become a significant investment.

• eLearning: The landscape of support has changed over the past few years. Instead of just relying on classroom training, more organizations utilize eLearning resources where users learn at their own desk and at their own pace. Some providers of CAD applications have integrated such eLearning resources directly into the software, so it can be accessed in context. This should be taken into account when considering an upgrade to the CAD application.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

7 page engineering-matters.com

Next&Steps&to&a&Decision&In this eBook, we've talked about a range of factors that need to be taken into account when considering a CAD upgrade. But how do you balance them all? Here is some guidance on how to go about making the decision.

• Educate Yourself on the Implications: All of the factors covered in this eBook will be affected to greater or lesser degrees depending on the release of the CAD application you are considering upgrading. To understand these implications, you must educate yourself. You can leverage information included in webinars, release events and written materials that include performance comparisons, latest supported hardware, comparisons of releases and version compatibility charts. Furthermore, network with your peers at other companies to discuss their experiences.

• Map Out the Pros and Cons: The choice to upgrade or not won't be black or white. There will be some positives and some negatives. To make sure you have the whole picture, map out the implications of each of the factors in this eBook. Next, identify which factors are most important to your organization and weigh them more heavily. Furthermore, make sure to capture the implications of the costs as well as the advantages in moving. You don't necessarily have to quantify everything with numbers, but if the decision is particularly difficult, then that may be the best approach.

• Test it Yourself: So far, all of the steps on the page lead to a theoretical picture of the positives and negatives of upgrading your CAD application. The good news is that you can verify and validate much of that information, just like how you can prototype a product before design release. There are often software trials and evaluation licenses for new releases of CAD applications. You can use this to check out each of the most important factors on your list and make sure things work out as you expected.

• Align the Upgrade with a Business Initiative: Some of the new capabilities offered by new CAD releases enable specific business initiatives or strategies. This fact can be used to justify any expenses, such as new hardware or software licenses, related to the CAD upgrade.

The CAD Upgrade Handbook

8 page engineering-matters.com

Chad Jackson is the founding Industry Analyst for Lifecycle Insights and publisher of the blog engineering-matters.com. He

investigates and writes about the issues that matter the most to engineering. He can be

reached at (512) 284-8080 or chad.jackson@lifecycleinsights.com.

Summary&and&Conclusion

The new innovations emerging in the CAD industry are exciting, but they can also cause trepidation amongst engineering and IT managers. As a result, making a decision about upgrading your CAD application isn’t easy or obvious. To more clearly understand the implications of upgrading or not upgrading, there are four sets of factors to consider:

• The Impact on Engineering Productivity: Upgrading your CAD application has both positive and negative implications for the productivity of the engineering organization, both in the short and long terms. Factors to take into account are the impact of new functionality, re-orientation and model compatibility on how the engineering organization operates.

• Compatibility in Your IT Ecosystem: Product development depends on a number of different software applications, systems and hardware. Factors to consider here include hardware compatibility, desktop software application compatibility, enterprise software system compatibility and customization compatibility with and without the upgrade of the CAD application.

• Compatibility in Your Supply Chain: Every manufacturer relies on a network of suppliers, customers and partners that make up their supply chain. The effect of import and export and review and markup capabilities, with and without a CAD upgrade, on design collaboration within that supply chain should be clearly understood.

• Training and Supporting the Organization: Training an organization to use a CAD application is repeated as new users start to leverage the CAD application and longstanding users explore new capabilities. It is important to understand how upgrading or not upgrading the CAD application affects the ability to get bug fixes, technical support, training and ongoing eLearning.

To get a full picture of the positives and negatives of upgrading your CAD application, there are some concrete next steps to take, including.

• Educate yourself on the implications

• Map out the pros and cons

• Test it yourself

• Align the upgrade with a business initiative

Making a CAD upgrade decision carries some serious implications. But by understanding all of the factors involved, engineering and IT managers can make the best-informed decision possible.

For more information on working with complex geometry, please visit the PTC Creo product pages.

Underwritten in part by PTC, all concepts and ideas developed independently, © 2012 LC-Insights LLC.