Product Guide - Computer Design
Wire harness design
Altair Engineering Inc.'s Altair HarnessLink includes an advanced routing tool that streamlines the process of moving from design to manufacturing. Building upon HarnessLink's core technologies—automated conversion of logical design to physical design and automated generation and updating of schematics—the HarnessLink Routing Module provides a complete 3-D workspace for wire routing. With the push of a button, the design is built using the software's 3-D libraries and project space. After route paths or channeling locations are determined, another click places all wires in the appropriate route paths, providing accurate wire lengths. The module also provides the ability to flatten the 3-D harness and create scalable manufacturing drawings.
Graphing software
Dyno-Max 2000 Professional Software from Land & Sea features a 32-bit upgrade to the Windows 16-bit product. The software contains a powerful formula editor, allowing the operators to create and monitor their own data channels. Parameters such as break-mean-effective pressure can be charted and output in any combination of English or metric. The data can then be printed out in the customized format with just a single button press.
3-D CAD software
SolidWorks 2001 from SolidWorks Corp. provides more than 150 major customer-driven enhancements and innovation, ease of use, and a simple, comprehensive migration path from a 2- to 3-D design environment. Enhancements are offered in the areas of user interaction, sheet metal creation, feature and part development, assembly design tools, drawing performance, and Internet collaboration tools. One new feature is the use of context-sensitive callouts, which are graphical displays that automatically appear within the model or drawing display to assist the user in building new designs and interpreting existing designs. Another feature is the ability for users to create dynamic shaded previews of features. Powerful sheetmetal capabilities include base, edge, and mitered flanges, which allow the creation of base flanges for both open and closed sheet metal design profiles.
Engine design tool
Optimum Power's Virtual 4-Stroke V4.0 now includes support for diesels, turbochargers, and superchargers. The software is a nonisentropic, 1-D, unsteady gas flow based, four-stroke engine modeling and design system for the Windows PC. Engine configurations that can be designed include all single and multi-cylinder layouts, spark and compression ignition, and both carbureted and fuel injected. Complex manifold arrangements can be designed and optimized such as intake resonators, multiple entry and exit junctions for intake manifold and exhaust collector design, tuned exhaust systems that maximize the benefits of cylinder interaction, and engine geometry mapping for rapid parametric studies.
Test software features enhanced reporting
eModular Solutions has partnered with National Instruments to create DocFlex for TestStand, a reporting tool that allows document centric reports to be developed for TestStand sequences. It builds on the power of MS Word to allow the user to create document templates that can be filled with real data while a sequence is running, resulting in accurate, up-to-the-minute, and effortless reporting. The software fully automates the test process, allowing for faster test times, quicker test development, and more intelligent data sharing and test sequencing.
