Automated CAD Model Analysis
Blog Post 1.01.01 - Improve Quoting Accuracy with Automated CAD Model Analysis
What is CAD Model Analysis and how can it help your company generate accurate and timely sales quotes? Read More ...
Global Edge Video Blog-1.01
Improve Quoting Accuracy with Automated CAD Model Analysis
A typical challenge faced by sheet metal fabricators, and manufacturers in general, is to produce accurate and timely sales quotes. A theme I have heard from hundreds of people over the years in the manufacturing industry – “we know if we’re making or losing money as a business, but we don’t necessarily know which accepted specific sales quotes are making or losing us money”. A primary reason for this, especially with contract manufacturers, is the time-consuming complexity of accurately analyzing incoming customer drawings and specifications.
With sheet metal parts, a potential customer will likely provide you with CAD drawings / DXF Flat Files for each sheet metal part that requires a quoted part price. To determine how much a sheet metal part will cost to fabricate is to first determine the various CAD part parameters such as: Material, Thickness, Length, Width, Perimeter, Cutout Perimeter, Hole Counts, Bend Counts, Etc. These various part parameters are generally determined with an engineer doing manual measurements, calculations and recording them on paper, in a quoting spreadsheet, or a quoting system. This is generally a labor-intensive, time-consuming process that makes it challenging to produce accurate and timely sales quotes for custom, engineered-to-order (ETO), and configure-to-order (CTO) products.
Added to this process is applying the proper time and material costs based on production size and delivery time. As the complexity of quoted items increase, it normally makes it more challenging to deliver accurate and timely sales quotes. The Global Edge Engineering Assistant includes innovative software technology that can automate the labor-intensive steps associated with the quoting process. This starts with the capability to analyze sheet metal CAD parts which includes the automated extraction and importation of the following CAD part parameters:
With sheet metal parts, a potential customer will likely provide you with CAD drawings / DXF Flat Files for each sheet metal part that requires a quoted part price. To determine how much a sheet metal part will cost to fabricate is to first determine the various CAD part parameters such as: Material, Thickness, Length, Width, Perimeter, Cutout Perimeter, Hole Counts, Bend Counts, Etc. These various part parameters are generally determined with an engineer doing manual measurements, calculations and recording them on paper, in a quoting spreadsheet, or a quoting system. This is generally a labor-intensive, time-consuming process that makes it challenging to produce accurate and timely sales quotes for custom, engineered-to-order (ETO), and configure-to-order (CTO) products.
Added to this process is applying the proper time and material costs based on production size and delivery time. As the complexity of quoted items increase, it normally makes it more challenging to deliver accurate and timely sales quotes. The Global Edge Engineering Assistant includes innovative software technology that can automate the labor-intensive steps associated with the quoting process. This starts with the capability to analyze sheet metal CAD parts which includes the automated extraction and importation of the following CAD part parameters:
- Material / Thickness / Part Weight / Bend Radius
- Blank / Flat (Length & Width)
- Cutouts / Holes (Count & Size)
- Minimum / Maximum Bend Length
- Minimum / Maximum Bend Angle
- Minimum / Maximum Flange Width
- Minimum Pem Hole to Bend Line Gap
- Minimum Embossment to Bend Line Gap
- Minimum Louver to Bend Line Gap
- Maximum Up / Maximum Down Bend
- Fold / Hem / Extrude Counts
- Minimum Taper / Die Cut to Bend Line Gap
These CAD part parameters lay the foundation to generate accurate and timely sales quotes by eliminating the need for an engineer to manually analyze sheet metal CAD parts. Additionally, the CAD part parameters provide the foundation for “Manufacturability Testing” functionality provided by the Global Edge Engineering Assistant that can make sure a sheet metal part can be successfully fabricated based on the Standard Bend Processes provided by your company.
The next step with Global Edge Engineering Assistant to simplify and automate the quoting process is the capability to generate optimal routings based on the CAD part parameters. Built-in to the Global Edge Engineering Assistant is a powerful “Configuration Engine” that generates optimal routing steps based on cost and/or delivery time. This is accomplished with the capabilities of the Configuration Engine that automatically calculates turret press or laser cut times based on material type and thickness based on the CAD part parameters which also includes sheet metal bend times including complete routing steps for each part automatically processed. This includes the following sample results:
The Global Edge Engineering Assistant includes an optional connection to your ERP system that can provide the Configuration Engine with the latest process and material costs that are automatically rolled up into the part cost as illustrated in the above diagram. The Global Edge Engineering Assistant also includes functionality that can supply your existing quoting system with the automatically generated time and material cost rollups. This is accomplished with a configurable ERP Interface that translates and maps this data directly to your ERP system or generates an XML file that can be imported by many quoting systems. Additionally, if your company utilizes a quoting spreadsheet to calculate and generate sales quotes, the Global Edge Engineering Assistant includes spreadsheet integration capabilities that can automatically supply your quoting spreadsheet with the latest cost rollups if that is your preferred method of generating sales quotes.
The Global Edge Engineering Assistant can also provide complete sales quote generation capabilities for companies that want to replace their existing quoting capabilities or stick with a combined approach as explained above. The following is an example of a sales quote generated with the Global Edge Engineering Assistant:
The Global Edge Engineering Assistant can also provide complete sales quote generation capabilities for companies that want to replace their existing quoting capabilities or stick with a combined approach as explained above. The following is an example of a sales quote generated with the Global Edge Engineering Assistant:
