Quality Applications

Delcam's PS-Exchange Benefits Faster translation process Operates on a pay-per-translation basis, saving money Sensitive information is secure www.delcam.com

Mold Manufacturer Reduces Lead Time with PS-Exchange
Delcam's PS-Exchange

Nova Tool & Mold designs and manufactures plastic injection molds, compression molds, prototypes and fixtures. The molds are mainly produced for the automotive industry. Like most other mold makers, Nova receives most of its component data as CAD models. Because the main automakers use a range of different software, the company translates the various types of data before it can be used within its own software. To speed up the translation process, Nova turned to Delcam's PS-Exchange.

 "PS-Exchange is very quick," says Jim Colomba, CAD/CAM manager at Nova. "The file is not being sent outside so there is less waiting. We can be viewing a file in the CAD package of our choice within 15 to 30 minutes of the customer sending it to us. That's important in getting the job done faster."

 An online data exchange service, PS-Exchange operates on a pay-per-translation basis, providing a cost-effective alternative to buying a permanent license for customers with only occasional translation needs. Other services require the CAD model to be sent to the service provider for translation and then returned. With PS-Exchange, the translation software is stored on the user's own computer. For each translation, the user obtains an authorization file from Delcam's Web site. This approach offers faster results because transferring a short authorization file is quicker than sending large data files back and forth over the Internet. The translation process with PS-Exchange takes minutes. In contrast, other systems can take hours to upload and download, even with a fast Internet connection.

 Nova also saves money with PS-Exchange. "Before we got PS-Exchange from Delcam, we were spending $100 to $200 per file translation two or three times a week," Colomba says. The company's customers insist that it accept files in their CAD systems' native formats and send the finished work back the same way for verification. "If we didn't have this translation capability, we'd have to buy one seat of each of our customers' CAD/CAM systems," Colomba says. "At about $40,000 per seat, and just for translation, they would be prohibitively expensive for a 40+ employee shop." Yet, even spending this amount of money on CAD would not eliminate the need for translations. Nova would still have to translate the customers' geometry into the systems it uses internally: PowerSHAPE, PowerMILL from Delcam, I-Deas and Camax (both from SDRC), and CadKey.

 PS-Exchange translates data for Unigraphics, Pro/E, SolidWorks or CATIA files to IGES, Parasolid XT and Delcam native formats. Users don't need a license of Pro/Engineer 2000i, SolidWorks, Unigraphics or Catia. PS-Exchange is available for Windows 98, 2000 and NT. It ensures that all 3-D entities are converted to their IGES equivalent.

 With PS-Exchange, tolerance differences between models are automatically resolved. In addition, PS-Exchange automatically generates error reports on problems such as missing surfaces or bad trim boundaries.

 Furthermore, as a result of using PS-Exchange, Nova can start designing sooner. "PS-Exchange is a big help in knowing what to tell the customer we will have to fix when that is necessary," explains Colomba.

 Files also always come in clean with PS-Exchange. Nova has not encountered any errors in the files created. Taken together, these advantages provide quick turnaround times in responding to new quotes from customers.

 Nova has also eliminated surface orientation and vector ambiguities often encountered when translating newer entity types. The PS-Exchange file point vectors tell Nova whether to offset surfaces to the inside or the outside. Previously, the company's surfaces offset the wrong way, and there was no way of knowing which were correct. The values are set in the translator by the customer, but PS-Exchange maintains the original values through the translation to ensure accuracy.

 Additionally, PS-Exchange offers total security. Because the model file stays within the user's own computer, sensitive information can't be intercepted or mailed to an incorrect address.