Working without bodywork drawings, two Delcam resellers created, within six months, computer models of a vehicle Lutsk Ukrainian Automotive Plant quickly needed for mass production.
Thanks to CAD/CAM software, a Ukrainian auto plant quickly got tooling for a vehicle waiting to go into mass production. The Lutsk Ukrainian Automotive Plant, about 292 miles from Kiev, needed a vehicle CAD model to generate the data for producing molds and dies, but the only documentation available was paper drawings of the framework. There were no bodywork drawings.
Because of the project's size, two Delcam software resellers got involved. The CAD/CAM Centre in Lvov, near the Polish border, created mathematical models of the vehicle's metal framework.
Delcam reports the vehicle's framework had over 100 components of varying complexities. Simple parts were modeled by specialists in the plant with solid-modeling software, while complex parts were created in Delcam's PowerShape software. All the parts were then combined within PowerShape by the CAD/CAM Centre staff.
Delcam's Belarus distributor Adequate Systems handled CAD data for the vehicle's bodywork. It used PowerShape's PS-Arm reverse-engineering system and a Romer measuring arm to collect information from 14 positions. Reference points were used so the measurements could unite in a global coordinate system. Each shell section was created separately and then assembled within PowerShape.
The Adequate Systems staff then merged the computer models of the framework and shell.
"The work was completed in six months, even though we had to make changes to the prototype design," notes Vladimir Antonov, assistant to the chief engineer of the Lutsk plant. "Modifications were made to both the framework and body shell, throughout which we had to maintain coordination of the two sets of data. From the final CAD model, we prepared full sets of design documentation, and manufactured molds and assembly jigs for production."
Antonov says the plant now has a CAD model of the vehicle, which lets plant engineers easily make future modifications and design improvements.
