In an industrial world where multi-CAD collaboration has become essential, companies face a major challenge: how to effectively share 3D models while protecting their know-how? The answer lies in parametric conversion with preservation of the construction history, an approach that revolutionizes CAD interoperability by combining efficiency and intellectual security.
According to recent studies, engineers spend up to 30% of their time rebuilding CAD models, a time-consuming task that slows down innovation. Intelligent parametric conversion not only reduces this time to less than 10% but also offers precise control over sensitive information shared with your partners.
Table of contents
- The challenges of modern CAD interoperability
- Intellectual property in CAD models
- Limitations of traditional conversion approaches
- Intelligent parametric conversion
- Essential features of a secure parametric conversion solution
- Proficiency: advanced parametric conversion solution
- Practical implementation and use cases
- Return on investment and business benefits
The challenges of modern CAD interoperability
Today's industrial ecosystem is characterized by a diversity of CAD systems used across value chains. This technological heterogeneity, while favorable to specialization, creates major obstacles in terms of technical data exchange. Industrial companies today face three fundamental challenges:
- Preserving data integrity during transfers between different CAD systems
- Maintaining model intelligence, particularly the parametric construction history
- Protecting sensitive information that represents a competitive advantage
The construction history constitutes the DNA of a CAD model. It captures the engineer's design intent and allows for quick and consistent subsequent modifications. Without this history, a model becomes a simple "empty shell" - geometrically correct but devoid of parametric intelligence, considerably limiting its value for iterative engineering processes.
In the era of digital transformation and distributed design environments, the ability to exchange complete CAD models between partners, subsidiaries, or during mergers and acquisitions becomes a decisive competitive advantage. However, this increased technical collaboration must be accompanied by mechanisms to protect intellectual property.
Intellectual property in CAD models
A parametric CAD model contains much more than a simple geometric representation. It contains multiple layers of strategic information sometimes representing decades of research and development:
- The feature tree revealing the design method
- Constraints and relationships between geometric elements
- Formulas and business rules encapsulated in parameters
- Company-specific design methodologies
- Tolerances and functional specifications
This information constitutes considerable intellectual capital. Its uncontrolled disclosure can compromise a company's competitive advantage, particularly in high value-added sectors such as aerospace, automotive, or medical.
| Type of sensitive information | Risk in case of disclosure | Required protection level |
|---|---|---|
| Design formulas and rules | Loss of critical competitive advantage | High |
| Proprietary modeling methods | Imitation by competition | High |
| Technical constraints | Facilitated reverse engineering analysis | Medium |
| Modification history | Revelation of the evolution process | Medium |
| Exact geometry | Copy of the final product | Variable depending on context |
Protecting this sensitive information requires a balanced approach: sharing enough data to allow effective collaboration while maintaining control over strategic elements. This issue is exacerbated by the inherent limitations of traditional CAD conversion methods.
Limitations of traditional conversion approaches
Conventional CAD conversion methods present significant limitations that compromise both operational efficiency and the security of technical data:
Simple geometric conversion (STEP, IGES)
Conversion using neutral formats such as STEP or IGES is limited to transferring the resulting geometry without the construction history. This approach has several major disadvantages:
- Complete loss of the feature tree and model intelligence
- Inability to effectively modify converted models
- Frequent degradation of geometric quality (missing faces, continuity problems)
- Lack of control over shared information - all or nothing
These simple geometric conversions generally result in considerable additional costs during subsequent modifications, with each change requiring time-consuming manual reconstruction.
Manual reconstruction
Faced with the limitations of neutral formats, many companies resort to manual reconstruction of models in the target CAD system. This approach is:
- Extremely time-consuming - up to several days for complex models
- Source of errors and inconsistencies between source and target models
- Costly in terms of qualified human resources
- Difficult to scale for large volumes
In the era of digitalization and accelerating development cycles, these limitations become major obstacles to competitiveness. Companies need a solution that can automate conversion while preserving model intelligence and protecting their intellectual property.
Intelligent parametric conversion
Parametric conversion represents a major technological advancement in the field of CAD interoperability. Unlike traditional approaches, it allows the transfer of not only geometry but also model intelligence between different CAD systems.
Fundamental principles
Parametric conversion is based on several key principles:
- Analysis of the source model's feature tree to identify functions and their interdependencies
- Translation of these functions into equivalents compatible with the target CAD system
- Preservation of constraints, relationships, and parameters that define the design intent
- Maintenance of correspondence between source and target elements to ensure traceability
This approach allows obtaining a "living" model in the target system, modifiable according to the same principles as the original model, while respecting the initial design intent.
Strategic advantages
Parametric conversion offers considerable advantages compared to traditional methods:
| Advantage | Business impact |
|---|---|
| Preservation of design intent | Facilitates subsequent modifications and preserves business logic |
| Process automation | Significantly reduces conversion time and required resources |
| Granular information control | Allows filtering sensitive elements and protecting intellectual property |
| Automatic validation | Ensures geometric and functional compliance between source and target models |
The balance between information sharing and intellectual protection constitutes one of the major assets of parametric conversion. Companies can now precisely define what information to share with their partners, subcontractors, or subsidiaries, while maintaining control over their strategic know-how.
Essential features of a secure parametric conversion solution
To effectively address the challenges of technical collaboration and intellectual protection, a parametric conversion solution must integrate several key features:
Conversion with preservation of the feature tree
The core of an effective solution lies in its ability to transfer the feature tree between different CAD systems. This implies:
- Precise recognition of features in the source model
- Intelligent mapping to equivalent features in the target system
- Preservation of dependencies and constraints between features
- Maintenance of parameters and formulas governing the model's behavior
Mechanisms for filtering sensitive elements
Intellectual property protection requires granular control over shared information:
- Ability to define different sharing levels according to context (partner, usage)
- Selective filtering of sensitive features (proprietary methods, strategic formulas)
- Automatic masking of sketches and constraints revealing know-how
- Configurable sharing rules according to specific needs
Automatic validation of converted model quality
The reliability of the conversion process is essential to guarantee the quality of transferred models:
- Precise geometric comparison between source and target models
- Verification of physical properties (volume, surface, center of gravity)
- Validation of assembly constraints and kinematic relationships
- Production of detailed reports to identify and resolve anomalies
A complete solution must also offer backup mechanisms to guarantee geometric accuracy even when certain parametric features cannot be converted identically. This is precisely what the Proficiency solution offers.
Proficiency: advanced parametric conversion solution
Proficiency represents a major advancement in the field of parametric CAD conversion. This comprehensive solution enables the transfer of design intent between major CAD systems while ensuring intellectual property protection.
Architecture and solution components
The architecture of Proficiency revolves around four main components forming a coherent ecosystem:
- Collaboration Gateway: Central server for task creation, queue monitoring, and centralization of conversion reports
- Proficiency Agent: Application that integrates with CAD system APIs to execute parametric conversions between different platforms
- DrawtoPMI: Specialized module to convert 3D CAD models and their associated 2D drawings into a single 3D MBD file with annotations
- Completion Wizard: Plugin integrated into CAD systems facilitating manual remastering after automated conversion
This modular architecture allows flexible integration into existing industrial environments, whether local deployments or distributed across multiple sites.
Advanced intellectual property protection capabilities
Proficiency is distinguished by its sophisticated mechanisms for protecting technical data during conversions:
| Feature | IP protection benefit |
|---|---|
| Granular control of sharing level | Precise definition of information accessible to partners |
| Predefined configurations for different contexts | Adaptation of protection level according to recipient or usage |
| Selective feature filtering | Preservation of critical know-how while sharing necessary elements |
| Automatic masking of sensitive information | Protection of proprietary design methods |
These capabilities allow companies to share precisely what is necessary for collaboration while protecting their strategic innovations and methodologies.
Validation process and quality assurance
To ensure the reliability of conversions, Proficiency integrates a rigorous validation process:
- Feature-by-feature validation using advanced point cloud comparison technology
- Guarantee of 100% exact geometry, even when certain parametric features cannot be directly converted
- Use of NPF (Non Parametric Feature) geometries to locally replace non-convertible features while preserving geometric precision
- Generation of detailed reports documenting every aspect of the conversion
This hybrid approach (parametric + backup geometry) ensures that converted models are always geometrically exact, while maximizing the preservation of parametric intelligence.
Multi-CAD compatibility and performance
Proficiency supports major CAD systems in the market, offering maximum flexibility in multi-platform environments:
- CATIA V5 (source and destination)
- NX (source and destination)
- SolidWorks (source)
- Solid Edge (source)
- Inventor (source and destination)
- Creo (destination)
Conversion performance is impressive, with an average of more than 90% automatic parametric conversion, reaching up to 99% on simple to moderately complex models. This efficiency significantly reduces processing times and necessary resources.
Practical implementation and use cases
Parametric conversion with intellectual property protection addresses numerous concrete scenarios encountered by industrial companies:
Collaboration with subcontractors and partners
Relationships with suppliers and partners often require sharing CAD models while protecting strategic know-how:
- Transfer of modifiable models but limited to features relevant to the partner
- Masking of proprietary design methods while preserving the ability to modify functional characteristics
- Definition of specific sharing profiles according to the level of trust and partner needs
Merger-acquisition and CAD data migration
During merger-acquisition operations or internal reorganization, massive CAD data migration becomes necessary:
- Automated parametric conversion of entire component libraries
- Preservation of design history to maintain the value of digital assets
- Systematic validation ensuring data integrity after migration
- Resource optimization via detection of already converted models (ReUse)
Secure exchanges between subsidiaries of an industrial group
Large groups with multiple subsidiaries using different CAD systems particularly benefit from this approach:
- Smooth sharing of designs between teams using different CAD systems
- Maintaining technical data consistency across the organization
- Optimized distribution of design tasks according to specific skills
- Differentiated protection according to internal security classifications
The customer experience of Magneti Marelli perfectly illustrates these benefits. This company has successfully implemented multi-CAD collaboration between its different sites and with its external partners, achieving parametric conversion rates of 85% to 99% depending on model complexity.
Return on investment and business benefits
Adopting a parametric conversion solution with intellectual property protection generates quantifiable benefits across multiple dimensions:
Productivity gains and development cycle reduction
The impact on operational efficiency is significant:
- Reduction in conversion time by 70% to 90% compared to manual reconstruction
- Acceleration of modification cycles thanks to preservation of design intent
- Elimination of low value-added tasks for engineers (reconstruction)
- Automation of repetitive processes via centralized server architecture
Reduction of intellectual property risks
The security of technical data significantly reduces exposure risks:
- Precise control of shared information, limiting risks of unintentional disclosure
- Complete traceability of data exchanges via centralized history
- Protection of critical know-how constituting competitive advantage
- Facilitated compliance with confidentiality agreements (NDAs) and regulations
Improvement in the quality of shared models
The intrinsic quality of converted models guarantees their optimal use:
- Guarantee of 100% geometric accuracy validated by rigorous processes
- Reduction of interpretation errors thanks to preservation of design intent
- Consistency maintained between source and target models in distributed environments
- Automatic documentation facilitating long-term support and maintenance
Optimization of technical resources
The solution also provides advantages in terms of infrastructure and resources:
- Optimal workload distribution via load balancing between conversion agents
- Efficient use of CAD licenses (only during conversion)
- Reduction of data transfers thanks to distributed agent architecture
- Elimination of redundant conversions via the reuse functionality (ReUse)
These benefits translate into a return on investment generally achieved in less than a year, particularly for organizations managing a significant volume of CAD conversions or with a substantial digital heritage.
Conclusion
Parametric conversion with intellectual property protection represents a decisive advancement for industrial companies facing CAD interoperability challenges. By enabling the transfer of model intelligence while precisely controlling shared information, this approach simultaneously addresses productivity and technical heritage security issues.
The Proficiency solution stands out for its ability to combine advanced automation, granular control of shared data, and guaranteed geometric accuracy. Its flexible architecture allows deployment adapted to the specific constraints of each organization, whether large industrial groups or specialized companies.
In a context where the digitalization of engineering processes is accelerating and multi-company collaborations are multiplying, having a secure parametric conversion solution becomes a decisive competitive advantage. It is a strategic investment that not only optimizes current processes but also prepares the company for future collaborative engineering challenges.
