SpreadsheetWorld Inc.


Advanced Integrated System Design, A Hands-On Workshop Featuring Excel, CO & SolidWorks - 729


Focus This course is available to be taught on-site at your facility. Call PEI today to schedule this course. Course Description This hands-on workshop features the integration of broadly used desktop engineering tools to enhance the conceptual and preliminary engineering design process. It relies heavily on the use of Excel and Visual Basic for building system functional models and engineering information. Top level parameter passing between the various supporting desktop engineering software programs is accomplished using the CO integration package. Participants emerge ready to lead the development of integrated and multi-disciplinary design teams. The methods taught in this course will improve your design process and dramatically shorten the overall design time. It also provides the foundation for ongoing design evolution. Software used in this workshop will include: CO - Systems Parameter Data Communication Excel/VBA - Standard Computational Platform SolidWorks - Solid Model CAD & Computational Interface Typical Design Scenario Design team members are using data from several sources, applications and operating systems to build a richer evaluation scenario. One data set comes from the FEA Specialist using a mathematical modeling application on a Linux platform. Another data point is referenced from the Mechanical Engineer, coming from his CAD package in a Windows 2000 platform. A third set of data represents Marketing and points to a sales forecast range in Excel on a Mac platform. Taken together, this team can rapidly evaluate the impact of changing variables on the outcome of the greater system created in CO and iterate in real time to identify the optimal solution using the Excel Solver Add-in. The Role of COTM Software CO provides the team communication and parameter integration role needed to integrate a design team. Using a secure peer-to-peer (P2P) environment CO provides the �glue� to tie disparate applications, platforms and organizations together to enhance the engineering design process. And CO provides the �grease� to smooth the product development process, speeding up engineering information flow, enabling real-time iterations and improving decision making. The Role of Excel/VBA Platform Excel is the most commonly used software platform used by engineers today. It provides an ideal environment for development of a broad range of computational models on all aspects of the design process. The distributed development of these models throughout your organization, by the various multidisciplinary design team members can be collected into a VBA function library available for use by all team members. It is a popular platform, easy to learn and use, and very powerful. It also provides the ideal platform for capturing and maintaining the design requirements, leading to a set of �rules� which must be maintained. These rules will in general include systems of algebraic equations, differential equations, and integral equations. They might be linear or nonlinear. Ultimately, they could include a large number of both equality and inequality rules. Excel and various supporting Excel Add-ins are readily available to be used to maintain and solve these rule sets, including optimization. In addition, many engineering software packages are available which can be controlled from the Excel Platform. Those which fit into this category are more easily tied into computational processes which required extensive iteration. The Role of SolidWorks For the purpose of this workshop, SolidWorks was selected to demonstrate the ability to integrate a CAD package into the design process. The process works equally well with other CAD packages such as PRO/E and Catia. Participants at the workshop will be provided with a sufficient introduction to SolidWorks to demonstrate the interactive capability. Workshop Computer Network This workshop will be held in the computer training center at Oculus Technologies in Boston, MA. The computer center has a network of computers which is set up to support this workshop. All software needed for the workshop is pre-loaded on the machines. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops if they are network ready, so that they can experience working on the network from their own laptops. Workshop Design Project The participants at this workshop will be working as a design team, each performing different roles on the team. Every effort will be made to cast each participant into a role which is most closely aligned with your area of expertise. For example, someone who is a thermal-fluids background could provide the thermal-fluids modeling and analysis. A design project will be pre-defined, and some of the Excel/VBA and SolidWorks models will be pre-developed function models in the interest of making maximum use of time at the workshop. Instructor Tom R. Mincer, Ph.D., Director, PEI and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, CSUN. Dr. Mincer initiated the use of EXCEL spreadsheets in the under-graduate and graduate curriculum at CSUN by integrating it into the courses on systems design, computational methods and computer-aided-engineering. For the past 10 years he has worked extensively in the areas of systems design, simulation and optimization using Excel Structured Spreadsheet environment. He has taught spreadsheet workshops over 100 times to over 1,500 engineers including on-sites at Goodyear Tire, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Lab, TRW, General Motors, Delco, Delphi, Naval Weapons Center, Naval Warfare Center, L3 Ocean Systems, Edwards Air Force Base Rocket Research Lab, Hamilton Sundstrand, L.A. Water District, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney and Honda R&D. Benjamin Linder, Ph.D., Vice President of Product Development, Oculus Technologies Corporation. Dr. Linder co-founded Oculus and is responsible for the company�s product development strategy. Linder has been researching and developing systems integration technology for over 5 years. He has extensive background in engineering estimation and modeling techniques and has given lectures, invited seminars and workshops on these topics at leading companies and universities around the country. Ben Koo, SDM Fellow at MIT Key Topics Work with other design team members on a network of computers Use CO and Excel to dynamically link multiple CAE software Develop VBA Engineering Function Libraries for team use Develop and Use Existing Excel Add-ins Link design parameters between multiple CAE packages Integrate and Control CAD Software such as SolidWorks Integrate and Control Information from a Database such as Access Manage System Requirements and Rule Sets using Excel Solve System Requirements and Rule Sets using Excel Integrated Design Teams using CO and Excel Use Legacy FORTRAN Code from the Excel Platform Command and Control Design Parameters using CO and Excel Outline Using Excel for Systems Engineering Setting up structured Excel Worksheets Defining the System Architecture Userforms for Configuration Management Capturing the system requirements Managing the system rules Systems Engineering Workbook Using Excel/VBA to create engineering function libraries Putting engineering rules into electronic form VBA function libraries Using functions in Excel and VBA Using FORTRAN/C DLL�s in VBA The Role of Goal Seeker and Solver Iterating inputs to get desired outputs Multi-dimensional iterative methods using Solver Using Solver to solve rule sets System optimization Using Excel/VBA Userforms Management of lists Management of system configuration Design Project Management and flow Use of ActiveX Controls for decision management Engineering Information Management Using Excel flat tables Using database flat tables Using database relational tables Linking information between Excel and Access Data link updating Introduction to CO� Exchanging parameters between software Exchanging information in real time Rapid parameter iterations CO Modules and granular data Using URL�s to reference data at its source Database fields Excel worksheet range SolidWorks Dimensioned variable Working with CO Modules Viewing a Module Copy and Pasting a Module Changing values Relationships to other modules Relation Modules Using logic in data sharing Algebraic Relations C Relations Evaluation and Organizational Modules Dynamically access system performance Preference: measure of satisfaction Acceptability: meeting specs� Aggregator: multiple variables displays CO Wrappers & API Interfaces with 3rd party software Supported Platforms Supported Applications The platform neutral API Integrating your specialized software Using the CO building Blocks Using Modules for Building Blocks Complex systems What if simulations Input Iteration CO Browser and CO Engine Window to modules Accessing and manipulating: - data - relations - variables - constraints Peer-to-Peer Architecture What is a CO Engine? Publishing and scribing to modules Working Across Applications Working Across Operating Systems Overview of SolidWorks Creating a dimensioned solid model Changing dimensions in SolidWorks Subscribing to SolidWorks from CO Using the CO Browser Creating the Module relations Linking to Excel Range Dynamic interaction between Excel and SolidWorks The Systems Integration Workstation Linking range values between workbooks Structured System workbook Documentation Team building from the Systems Workbook Enroll in this course at Professional Education International