A model of the importance of product design
Engineering design is a kind of thinking activity, is "the product of the technology of creative and rigorous pre-conceived ideas".
The design process is designed with the object of the designer's thinking activities from uncertainty to certainty in the process of transformation.
This process implies, on the one hand, the opportunity for technological innovation. A product's technical content, technical performance, manufacturing costs, and marketing revenue, to a large extent, depends on the design.
This process, on the other hand, implies a risk: the risk of detour, the risk of going the wrong way, and even the risk of failure. The greater the complexity of the product, the greater this risk. Designers can't ignore this risk in the design process, and often for the sake of avoiding risk and give up innovation. How can we make full use of the opportunities for innovation, improve design quality, reduce design costs, while minimizing the risk, improve the success rate of product development, in addition, the fierce competition in the market requires the shortest possible cycle to complete the design and development work, improve the response speed to market demand. This requires the engineering design of this thinking activity itself has the characteristics and laws of research, so the birth of the design methodology.
According to the viewpoint of design methodology, engineering design as a thinking activity has the characteristics of both intrinsic and extrinsic, the so-called "intrinsic", meaning that the thinking is carried out in the designer's brain, each person's thinking, thinking methods are different, and is not visible to outsiders; the so-called "extrinsic", meaning that thinking is carried out in the designer's brain, each person's thinking, thinking methods are different, and is not visible to outsiders; the so-called "extrinsic". The so-called "externality" refers to the designer's thinking process, the results of thinking and have to be recorded in a certain form, expressed, and other people (other designers, manufacturers, and users) to communicate, this thinking process, thinking results can certainly be expressed in the form of language, but more in engineering design through the model to be expressed. To be expressed. Schematic diagrams, sketches are models, drawings, calculations are models, cardboard models, wood models, clay models are models, computational models in the computer, CAD models, finite element models are models, manufactured prototypes are also models, therefore, the "model" here is a broad sense, which includes the English word sketch, Therefore, "model" here is a broad definition, which includes all the contents expressed in the English words sketch, drawing, model and prototyping. These models play different, but not negligible, roles in the different stages of the transformation of the designed object from uncertainty to certainty in the engineering design process. In particular, as the complexity of the designed object increases, and with the implementation of parallel engineering aimed at improving the design efficiency, shortening the design cycle, and increasing the success rate of the first time, the requirement for models at the early stage of the design process becomes more and more urgent.
Three-dimensional CAD models can effectively accommodate this need. With three-dimensional CAD models, you can carry out structural and performance analysis, simulated assembly, rendering of the appearance of the modeling, and even in the virtual reality environment for operation and use. Virtual design, virtual manufacturing for the design methodology injected a new research content.
However, the emergence of virtual models in the computer does not, and cannot, completely replace other forms of models, especially other models with three-dimensional solid form, for example:
In the styling design of the product, not only to examine the shape of the product, the effect of the color, and even to examine the feel of the product;
In the design of aviation and spacecraft, there is no because of three-dimensional CAD and give up the use of aerodynamic "wind tunnel" test, similarly, the automotive industry in the development process of any new model can not be carried out without structural safety "collision" test;
Despite very detailed military maps, in the command of large-scale battles, the "collision" test. In the command of large-scale battles, the "sandbox" is still indispensable.
This is all because:
1. Computer models, after all, can not provide all the information of the product (such as the feel of the hand);
2. Computer models can only simulate the conditions of the environment that we know;
3. Solid models in three-dimensional space than the two-dimensional screen model has a "sense of reality" and "can be used". "realism" and "touchability"
4. Computer models themselves need to be validated.
Therefore, in the research and application of three-dimensional CAD based on virtual design, virtual manufacturing at the same time, but also to actively study and use the same in the three-dimensional CAD based on the emergence and development of rapid prototyping