Selecting a Mechanical CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System for Small and Medium Businesses (SMB)

Good luck always seems to come to those who are properly prepared! Who is this report meant for?
This report is for prospective buyers of mid-range Mechanical CAD (MCAD) systems.
It proposes a logical approach to determine if and how users should proceed with selecting a new product development system.

Introduction
Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM1 (CCCP) system for small businesses is no easy task. Without the resources brought to bear by large companies, in many cases selecting a system tends to be done at too low a level, with poor consideration of company strategic issues, with little understanding of the product development environment and any proposed improvement, and with little idea of expected ROI or metrics. Is this a problem? Yes! If such a system is integral to your company's future product development, then a careful rational decision must be made that does its utmost to insure that such a system meets both your current and future needs.
This paper can provide you with a logical and orderly approach, which, if followed, will allow you to select the proper CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM system for your company. While this paper is sponsored (partially paid for) by PTC, the reason I agreed to write it is that PTC assured me that it would be completely unbiased -- and they have upheld this agreement.
Why would they do so? Because they feel comfortable that small and medium business customers evaluating such systems will often decide upon their offerings, providing that customers have a rational approach to making such a decision. This paper provides such a rational approach. PTC and I know that no single solution is right for all customers.

As a consultant who has observed and been involved with many such decisions, I can assure you that it is a difficult process. The bigger and more complicated the company, the more difficult it seems to be. Why is that the case? Because a mechanical CCCP system is the most important tool of product development. Notice that I said a tool -- this is important. It is one of many tools. The continuing onrush of both new hardware and software technology during the last few years, along with the pervasive reach of the Internet provides us, in 2005, with a unique opportunity to use such a CCCP system as the fundamental basis to greatly improve how your company operates.
The good news is that such CCCP systems today offer enormous power at very reasonable costs. The bad news, and this is where you can make a difference for your company, is that CCCP systems now reach into many more corners of a company, and as such need careful planning. At one time, CAD systems were the sole domain of engineering, for use in developing and documenting new products. The other departments, such as manufacturing, testing, procurement, and suppliers, received this data and used it and modified it independently of the original data. Alas, if you couldn’t read the data, you needed to rebuild it in whatever format pleased you. In fact, this mirrored the way companies worked in the good old days of slow speed, paper based systems.
In the last decade, however, many forces have changed the way we need to work today. Among these are the need for speed in bringing products to market; the need for world class quality2; the requirement to operate in a global economy where customers, vendors, and even engineering can be anywhere in the world; and cost where customers can compare prices anywhere in the world by simply browsing the Internet.

The purpose of this guide
This report is an outgrowth of a report that we formerly published entitled “Selecting a Modern MCAD System.” We have distributed hundreds of these reports to prospective buyers. Many of these buyers have successfully used the prescribed methodology to successfully select systems. We also have used these techniques in many consulting assignments, allowing users to make an objective and informed decision. The last official publication data of this report was in 2001.
This paper is an abbreviated version of that report and brings the contents more in line with some of the most recent software and technologies, offers expanded alternatives, and presents the authors latest thoughts about how to make such a critical decision. It also recognizes that smaller customers need a faster, yet still rigorous method to make such
Please see the end of this document for the related a decision.

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
In the prior report we not did focus much attention on justifying this investment; instead we focused primarily on how to make a proper CCCP decision. We proposed a methodology in that report using a matrix approach. The matrix allowed users to evaluate key characteristics of a CCCP system and apply weighting factors that considered the importance of key departments. What was not included in depth was how to evaluate whether or not a new system is needed and a management approach to making the decision. In our consulting assignments and conversations with users we have begun to rethink our approach to be more strategic (long term) and less tactical (short term).
As a tactical approach, the methodology proposed in the prior report, and used by many companies, has proved to be effective in making a wise technical decision. With this paper, we update many of the technical selection criteria (requirements) and include these in the appendix.

However, we now believe that it is much more crucial to align a modern product development system with company objectives. (By company, we mean the operating environment for decision making. In the case where an organization is part of a larger corporation, the decision making environment may include requirements of the parent organization.) We believe this to be the case, since a product development (CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM) system can be crucial in meeting organizational objectives. Suggestions for establishing this alignment are discussed below.

The steps in this process
The following sections provide detail in how to go about the selection process. The next few paragraphs provide a summary of my six step approach. The balance of this document describes the process in more detail.
Do you need a new system? Is your current system adequate for your current and future goals? Does it allow you to be competitive? Can it be improved or should you replace it? What could a new system provide that your current system cannot? Start to get specific here in terms of overall functionality. What are the savings that might be anticipated. New systems take a lot of time and cost a lot of money. What benefits can be expected? Over what time period? What will a new system cost? The most time consuming item is a careful evaluation of how alternative systems might meet your requirements. You must make this decision of how each proposed product meets your requirements by yourself!
Only you know your business well enough to understand what will make the difference. Once you have decided, then it is time to implement the system and any related organizational and process changes. Many well-intentioned plans have been derailed by getting mired in technical details. Be careful to keep your strategic goals in sight.
Note that we do not discuss how to implement the system or transition from the old to the new. This is beyond the scope of this paper. However, we briefly discuss in Step 4, below, what a new system should include and what it might cost. Read on if you want the techniques explained in more detail as well as suggested management and technical requirements.

The steps in buying a new system
Step 1 - Begin the process of deciding whether or improve your existing mechanical CCCP system or to change to a new system by answering a few simple questions.
Step 2 - Identify the potential benefits of a new system. Look for improvement by understanding what company performance should be improved. Justify a new CCCP system based on improving those aspects of company performance that can be effected by a new CCCP system.
Step 3 - Decide on the requirements of a new system and translate desired improvements to system requirements.
Step 4 - Decide what a new system should include and what it should cost
Step 5 - Select a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM system (making sure the best system is selected)
Step 6 - Implementing the system (plan for success)

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
Step 1 - Do you need to change or improve the existing mechanical CCCP system?
Answer these questions to see if you need to change or improve
• When did you last update your system for product development? Was it within the last 3 - 5 years?
• Are your engineers/designers primarily designing using 3D?
• If you are an ETO or MTO company, are you using automated product configurators or automated design software?
• Are you happy with your product quality?
• Are you happy with your product development times and the time it takes to bring products to market?
• Do you respond to a high percentage of RFP's in a timely fashion?
• Are your development and go-to-market costs in line with your competitors?
• Are you able to interact with global suppliers in the design phase as well as you should be?
• If need be, can you exchange design data with your customers and/or suppliers? In this exchange, can you retain security on your key product data?
• Are your engineering and manufacturing bills of material kept synchronized?
• Can you effectively access and use portions of prior designs in new products or projects?
• Do your overall product related company metrics compare favorably with others in your industry?
If you answered "No" to any of these questions you are operating with a deficient CCCP system. We suggest that you read through the following steps carefully to determine whether to improve what you have or to change systems and what benefits you can expect.

Should I change to a new system or improve what I have?
If, as a result of thinking about the above questions you decide that something needs to be done to improve your operating results, should you improve your current system or change to a new one? Here is how to tell: If you have already put considerable effort into making your current system perform properly and it has not done so, or if you are working with outmoded software, then it is time to change. Outmoded means it might be 2D only, the vendor no longer supports this software for updates and improvements, or the software is from a vendor that is not financially sound.
If you have a modern system, with up-to-date software and are not getting your expected benefits, then you need to understand exactly why. Perhaps it is not a good fit, or your processes and methods need changing. Systems such as these often require many software components working smoothly together with internal methods (processes) to be most efficient. Modern systems often need to cross traditional organizational boundary lines to make best use of their ability to store and manage all product related data. Such product related data often starts in engineering, but soon becomes valuable to downstream departments that add information such as manufacturing, purchasing , product test, service, etc.
The ability of these "downstream" departments to access already created product data, add their own specific data, and allow appropriate access to all parties is what makes these systems at the same time so powerful and so complicated.
If your system does not have the inherent architecture to allow such access, sometimes called create - collaborate - control, then all the effort in the world cannot make it perform as you might want. It is time to change to one that does.
Go on to Step 2.
If your current system has these capabilities and you are not making use of it, then either your technical team is failing in their responsibility, or you need to drastically change how you utilize the system. If this is the case, then buying a new system, as this paper suggests, will not help you.
You should consider bringing in outside assistance as fast as possible to revamp your processes and evaluate why your current implementation is not working properly.

Step 2 - Identify the potential benefits of a new CCCP system.
To think about the potential benefits of a new system, we recommend that you think about how the operations related to product lifecycle can be improved, not in general, but for your company.
By product lifecycle we mean from concept and initial funding until the end of the product life in your company. For some this may be months, for others decades. Be a bit of a dreamer here – think long range and be creative about the possibilities.
Often we have found that customers thinking of a new product development system are unable to think “outside the box” about what a completely new system that tightly integrates all of the operating departments in your company is capable of. The system you are selecting will have a life of seven years or so in your company. Think about the future. How would you like your operation to look?
What efficiencies can be gained? We wholeheartedly encourage you to use outside consulting in this process. While outside consultants might disappoint when implementing an entire systems, they can usually bring out new ideas about improving business efficiencies.

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
For example, a new CCCP system can bring enormous benefits to a make-to-order process. In one of our previous consulting assignments, such a company, using only a few dozen unique parts, prebuilt hundreds of assemblies to save delivery time because they focused on direct labor efficiencies in engineering and manufacturing.
Their inventory was high, their manufacturing costs were excessive, their delivery times were often long because they never seemed to have the right assemblies in stock, and their engineering costs were out of control. They failed to realize that a new CCCP system could automatically generate assemblies from customer input and direct a custom build operation on the assembly line. Instead they decided to simply replace their old 2D CAD system with a 3D CAD system that operated in much the same way their 2D system did. As a result they never got their costs under control and are today no longer in business. Do not make the same mistake!

Look for improvement by understanding what company performance should be improved
Does your company performance (metrics or measurements) related to product development compare favorably to others in your industry? Do you know what the performance is today? If not, you are not alone, because many companies have difficulty measuring their performance against others in their industry, particularly when their primary competitors are private companies. Ask yourself some of these questions to see if anything needs improving:
• Are your operating margins high enough?
• Is your product cost low enough?
• Are your R&D resources and costs about right?
• Are your products competitive enough?
• Is your product quality for initial delivery and for the product lifecyle high enough?
• Is your product development cycle short enough?
• Do you respond rapidly to changing customer needs or RFP's?
In a recent survey of users we found that Quality, Innovation, Cost, and Time-to-Market, in that order, were the leading business factors that would lead users to select a new MCAD system. We suggest that you analyze these areas for those that need to be improved most. Figure out some way to measure the current status and how much you need to improve.

Translating desired company improvements into justification for a new CCCP system
A new CCCP system can contribute to improving these areas of company performance, but by itself it is not sufficient. Some portion of the desired improvement will be impacted by a modern system.
Other portions of the needed improvement will be garnered by other means, including but not limited to: better processes, better manufacturing equipment, better suppliers, improved testing, better engineered products and perhaps better overall systems engineering.
The best way to justify such a system is to work downward from the desired performance improvements. To do so you must visualize a new operating environment. Visualizing this new environment requires you to shift your thought processes from the desired company benefits to envisioning a complete system that can achieve those benefits. This is the essence of systems design – translating needs and wants into a coherent operating environment that achieve those goals. This environment might include not only a new CCCP system, but also how the business processes will operate. With this planned new environment in mind, the next step will be to determine possible benefits. While this new environment may occur in stages over several years, you should use the end stage (final goal) for justification, not only for a possible new CCCP system, but also for any organizational changes, operating procedures, and other new equipment and methods.The benefits of making such a change should come from a number of sources. Look for savings in lead time, engineering time, better analyses and products.
Examine the benefits of shorter product cycle times and their impact on company revenue and profits. Often this is difficult to do and you may benefit from consulting services in assisting you to define these benefits. Examine the possibility of reducing internal queue times. Consider the benefits from engaging in rapid engineering and a reduction of cycle times (but beware of the endless analysis syndrome that devours faster cycle times). Other benefits might include lower product costs, for example, by making better use of existing components, or better quality resulting from computer based analyses and simulations.
To decide which improvements and in what sequence work best for your company, we suggest that you examine your company’s current designthrough- manufacturing procedures, looking to speed the flow of data and approvals at various stages of development. Similar to saving time in manufacturing, we want to eliminate unnecessary engineering queues. Such an examination might be performed by representatives from your key departments for each of their specific areas of interest and expertise. The departmental representatives should examine the design-through-manufacturing stages and the types of “deliverables”, or output, that must be produced during each process stage.
Companies involved in product design and development typically produce many different types of deliverables throughout the various design-throughmanufacturing stages. One way to examine your internal product development process is to map the

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
Typical path followed by your product as it passes between engineering disciplines. Determine what information (deliverable) is passed at each step of the process, who needs to see this information, and what will be done with this information.
Think about what is necessary for the next step as design iterations pass between the various engineering disciplines, and what areas of the product development process could be improved using a modern CCCP system. This exercise will help you understand what system requirements can most improve your overall product process.
We hope that examining your current system will help “open your eyes” to new possibilities. Look outside for inspiration also. Often it can help to be knowledgeable about what the mechanical design software vendors recommend. Talk with them, attend seminars, visit other customers, and visit industry shows, but do not mistake this information gathering as the decision process! You will no doubt find at later stages in the evaluation that not all systems can perform the desired tasks equally well and that some alternatives may be able to perform only a portion of the desired tasks.
Knowing the possible benefits of the different alternatives is the only way to judge the return on investment and to select the system and procedures best suited for your company!

Step 3 - Decide upon the detailed requirements of the new CCCP system
Now we must get more specific and translate the proposed new operating environment into specific system requirements as they effect a new CCCP system. This is necessary because if, for instance, you decided that an important objective is faster time to market, you cannot buy a system that does just that. If you were able to do so, you would have to alter your business to fit a generic model.
To preserve the uniqueness of your business, instead, your company's techniques and processes will need to be analyzed to understand what aspects of your process need to be and can be improved. This step will help you understand how to translate these desired business improvements into system requirements and then to decide on an implementation plan by selecting the more important requirements so you can develop a staged implementation plan.

Translate desired improvements to system requirements
Of the desired improvements identified earlier, determine those areas which are most critical to the success of your business as the early implementation objectives. To reiterate, you probably considered improvements in areas such as product quality, cost of product development, individual or company productivity, time-to-market, etc. You need to determine what aspect of a CCCP system will help achieve these early implementation objectives. One of our clients determined that they needed to have a concurrent CAD/CAM engineering environment across all divisions to meet their timeto- market criteria and engineering overhead cost structure. Some other possibilities to consider are:
• Maximize engineering productivity
• Fast response to related RFQ's with quality responses
• Higher percentage of bids won
• Become a low cost supplier
• Have the fastest time for delivery
• Develop and deliver the highest quality products in the shortest time
• Be able to easily move manufacturing across divisions
• And so on . . .
Shown below are suggestions that might provoke some ideas abut important system requirements. Geometry creation and management (solid modeling, drawings, assemblies, manufacturing data, etc.). Modern techniques allow the complete integration of 3D and 2D. Transitioning to 3D
Dealing with legacy data Interoperability with other systems Controlling the data Managing the processes Collaborating with others during the development phase - inside the organization and outside the organization Downstream process integration with manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, factory systems Empowering innovation Interfacing to other IT systems Implementation alternatives
These requirements need to be mapped as to their potential benefits, such that you understand their impact on the desired improvements. By estimating the benefit contribution of each major improvement you can decide the importance of each. Those requirements that generate the largest benefit are the most important.Of course, one cannot address savings without consideringrelated costs.

Step 4 - What a new system should include and what it should cost
What a new system should include
The following items are a short list of the major.

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
items that you should plan on for your new system:
• New CCCP software for design, manufacturing, analysis, data management, and advanced specialty applications as needed.
• Training.
• Customization of the new software or special programming.
• Conversion of existing data - only if absolutely necessary or beneficial. Don't convert it all. Just what you need.
• New computer hardware. We recommend that you update to the latest Microsoft Windows system, with the fastest hardware you can afford. Don't try to skimp here - for less than $3000 you can get an excellent workstation.
• Rethinking of your processes and a probable reorganization. You will definitely need to rethink your information and product flows to take advantage of the system benefits.
• Better communications (high speed network and Internet access).
• A server to store common product data.
• A rethinking of your paper approval and engineering change procedures.
• As wide as possible access to the product data. Generally access should be planned for three types of personnel: data authors, approvers, and viewers. While authors of CAD type data will require specialized software, approvers and viewers should be able to use web based software at much lower cost.
• Data management should include straightforward vaulting3, and might also require advanced functions to automate and track the workflow for such processes as ECO’s.

What it should cost
Unless there are unusual circumstances, most SMB’s can have their requirements met by mid range CCCP software, which generally costs between $4000 USD and $6000 USD per seat plus about 25% of the acquisition cost for ongoing software maintenance. Plan on equipping all persons who create or change design data4 with a seat.
Lower cost alternatives are available but usually have limited functionality. In our opinion, these costs are so far below engineering personnel costs5 that it becomes unimportant compared to the expected benefits.
Limited analysis software may be available free for the most basic analysis (linear - stress). To simulate products more in-depth, you may want to consider advanced analysis software, able dig deeper, which starts at about $5000 per seat. A few seats are generally enough.
Manufacturing software generally concerns itself with programming NC toolpaths for milling machines or lathes. Such software starts at $5,000 for milling, somewhat less for turning. Don’t forget to ask the software provider whether special postprocessors6 are required and what they might cost. Data management software will allow all approved persons access to the product data. These costs vary widely and unless you have only one or two users and want to rely on standard file management software, you should plan on using data management software. Some MCAD systems include some level of this software at no additional cost.
In our experience, most companies should plan on data management software that has a database system at its core. The ability to manage engineering data effectively, particularly as it changes, will be a critical underpinning of a modern architected system! Costs should range from $500 to $2500 per active user for the initial software cost plus annual maintenance.
Consulting and training from the vendor or reseller should be built into the anticipated costs. This will obviously vary depending on the number of people and their skill levels in your organization. Make sure you have allowed enough time and education to make the transition. Also, consider having a “leader” or highly skilled person for each functional area, to advise and assist others. You will have to also allow for lost time until your personnel are up to speed on the new system.
Don’t forget that after the goals are known and eventually the engineering tools (CAD/CAM among others) selected, the metrics must be continually monitored to assure that management objectives are being met, and to take corrective action if not.

Step 5 - Select a CAD/CAM/CAE/ PDM system (making sure the best system is selected)
When you reach this stage, you should have decided upon the major issue or issues preventing a more efficient operation. You should also have defined the primary goals and the critical business aspects that will be improved. You should also know how to sequence the implementation. The system selected must be scalable for all stages of the implementation. It can be expanded, but its overall architecture should suffice for all stages.
You now also know the requirements the system must meet, both management and technical (suggestions are in Appendices A and B). Now it is time to select a CCCP system to solve those issues.
Here are the steps:
• Appoint a team and plan on having anexecutive monitor their progress.
• Develop or refine the management and technical requirements.
• For each requirement, provide its related benefit. If you cannot determine a benefit then the requirement is not important
Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System enough. Delete it. This avoids being buried by an huge list of technical requirements with only minor importance. We suggest limiting the requirements to less than 20.
• Prioritize the requirements, management and technical, using benefits to prioritize the requirements. Lacking detailed benefits for each requirement, you might also consider prioritizing the requirements, by grouping them into 4 groups categorized as: must have, important, like to have, could live without.
• Allocate the budget.
• Solicit proposals from a few vendors (maximum of 3).
• Test that the proposed systems meet both the management and technical requirements.
Management requirements cannot be satisfied by operational tests - only the technical requirements. Suggested management requirements will more or less be comparable across industries and the position in the industry. Our suggestions are listed in
Appendix A.
• Test that the proposed system passing the management requirements meets the technical requirements. Consider using either one or more of the following techniques: a benchmark, a paper analysis, or installing trial systems in-house with a properly trained internal person aided by a vendor support person. You might instead consider “loaning” a system and using vendor supplied online training augmented by local support. The latter is a good way to evaluate what post installation support might be like. Keep in mind, however, that users trained on a particular system tend to become zealots for that system.
• Evaluate the ability to perform the 20 requirements.
• Select the winner.
Suggested technical requirements are highly dependent on your industry and where your company fits in the value chain. A guideline is listed in Appendix
B. How your company weights the technical requirements will prove to be critical in the selection. Don't forget the need to provide a benefit for each requirement. Certain departments will have different priorities for the same item. You will need to allow for this. Should you decide to conduct a rigorous benchmark, we refer you to the previously referenced TechniCom report on how to do so.7

Step 6 - Implementing the system
Unfortunately even the best selection process in the world will prove to be useless if the system is not properly implemented. Critical to a successful implementation is allocating the proper people, time, and budget. While implementation is beyond the scope of this paper, we will offer a few pieces of wisdom, assuming that you are a small, medium business.
• Divide the implementation into a few (3 or 4) manageable steps, each with a defined, measurable benefit.
• Allocate the proper resources and budget to accomplish each phase.
• Appoint a specific executive with responsibility for each phase.
• Prepare a reasonable workplan
• Provide the proper training for the users
• Monitor and measure the results
• Keep your long term objectives in mind and continually evaluate the progress
• Be mindful of slippages and address the reasons rapidly
• Always be ready to re-assess your progress
Remember this adage: Good luck always seems to come to those who are properly prepared!

Appendix A - Management
requirements
The final stage in the selection process of a CCCP system identifies key requirements that the system must meet. Such requirements are an outcome of deciding upon the primary goals and the critical business aspects that will be improved, and what time frame according to the implementation plan. You can expect to have the system for a minimum of five years; picking the right system can have an enormously positive
impact on your competitiveness.
The requirements for the new CCCP system can be divided into management requirements and technical requirements. Companies have a tendency to make such a decision based solely on technical merits. We strongly urge management to be involved in assuring that the business aspects not be ignored. We suggest the following as management requirements to be considered. You should add your own, depending upon your business situation.

Suggested management requirements
The benefits of the proposed overall system solution will meet my business objectives and be a cost effective solution at all stages of implementation.
Management should feel confident that their personnel can implement the solution in a timely fashion and that it will deliver the desired results.
Management should feel comfortable that they have or can develop a long term relationship with the software vendor and have good local support.
There is an availability of local skilled users and consultants to augment company skills.
The system can be run successfully in the event of personnel changes. Consideration should be given to exchanging data or inter-operating with evolving vendor/supplier/OEM/purchasing and outsourcing relationships. The system should allow future flexibility if the company operations change
Take into consideration that the data and designs generated by the system may need to be survive and be useful for many years.
Because of the long duration of the vendor relationship, the software vendor viability and product leadership are critical.
Management should have an excellent comfort level that any selected vendor will continue to be an industry leader.
Similar system are being used effectively by your competitors.
There should be excellent references of the specific software vendor in similar businesses to yours. The vendor/sales agent provides good availability of technical support for software errors, training, and assistance with proper software usage.
The matrix approach suggested in Appendix C is a good way to relate both management and technical requirements.

Leading SMB CCCP vendors Vendor Primary products URL Company Revenue
(Approx.)
Alibre Alibre Design www.alibre.com Private – 10 Mill USD est.
Autodesk Autodesk Inventor Series
www.autodesk.com 1.1 Bill USD
CoCreate Designer Modeling 2005
www.cocreate.com Private – 40 Mill USD est.
PTC Pro/ENGINEER www.ptc.com 660 Mill USD
SolidWorks SolidWorks www.solidworks.com 160 Mill USD;
parent company - $1 Bill USD
UGS Solid Edge www.solidedge.com 900 Mill USD
VX VX Mechanical www.vx.com Private – 20 Mill USD est.

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
Appendix B - Technical
requirements
The technical requirements of the system are designed to measure how well alternative solutions meet the desired needs of a specific customer. Different than the management requirements it is possible to test that proposed systems meet technical requirements.
To assist you, we propose a starter list of technical requirements broken down into thirteen technical sections. They are shown below. At TechniCom we have been very successful in developing and using an objective scoring methodology which measures the extent to which each proposed system can you're your technical requirements. We discuss this in Appendix C.
Each of these technical sections contains subsidiary requirements. We have made an effort to be concise with this list. Our web site related to this document has a spreadsheet listing over 190 detailed requirements, far too many to be useful here.
Readers of this document are welcome to peruse these more detailed technical requirements, perhaps finding others useful for their evaluation. We suggest that this requirements list be prioritized to avoid being overwhelmed by an huge list of technical requirements, most of only minor importance.

Suggested technical requirements
I. System architecture - the system should be scalable (has the power to grow without changing systems) to meet both current and intermediate future needs; the system should be fully associative so that changes to one geometric form update all other related files and documents; be reliable.
II Geometry creation and manipulation - all required geometry should be able to be easily created and modified; the Geometry also should allow for all necessary information for manufacturing; productivity, usability, and reliability are of primary importance.
III Assembly creation and manipulation – even your largest desired assemblies should be able to be easily created and viewed with adequate performance. Important characteristics of assemblies include easy placement of parts, interference checking between parts, ability to create lightweight assemblies and envelopes of assemblies, the ability to manage various techniques for managing multiple configuration options, the ability to facilitate teams working concurrently on different parts of the assembly and ease of creating and maintaining Bills of Materials.
IV. Creating and maintaining engineering drawingsshould be fully associative and easy to create and maintain from the 3D representation; they should meet the required drawing standards; allow full and complete annotations for production and allow markups.
V. Manufacturing and tool design - should allow production-level NC milling and turning toolpath generation; analysis of the manufacturing results from the model; toolpath generation as automatic as possible; support manufacturing engineering planning within the same model format; allow two way support for tolerance analysis. Should also allow all the required tooling to be designed and, if applicable, support mold design and analysis, and progressive dies.
VI. Simulation and analysis - allows analysis from simple to complex FEA analysis, has automatic mesh generation via preprocessing, includes post processing for easy analysis of the results, and supports many types of analysis directly from the model.
VII. Extended or Third Party Applications – system has a wide variety of native or integrated applications
to extend system to fit user needs; applications of interest should seamlessly integrate with system; and ideally third party support should originate with system vendor. System vendor supports an open philosophy so third party applications can easily be added.
VIII. Interfacing/communication - supports all required industry standards for translating product data between systems; supports Web-based viewing and model synchronization (assuring that you are working on the latest model); has tools for Internet based concurrent engineering.
IX. Product Data Management - installs easily as add-on if desired to improve on file based management; supports data vaulting and change control easily; allows for use of user-defined and standard attributes for finding and storing non-geometric data; maintains relationship among all CAD/CAM/ CAE files; allows storage or connection to non CAD data.
X. Graphics/display and system issues - all models should be able to be visualized easily with excellent performance; have reasonable hardware requirements; have excellent disaster recovery mechanisms. XI. User interface - should be easy to learn; easy to remember; be customizable; have good help documentation and training tools; be obvious to use.
XII. Vendor support - vendors should provide excellent support for software problems and issues, as well as for software operational questions; be responsive to user questions and feedback; have available local expert consulting as needed.
XIII. Vendor environment - the software vendor's revenue or growth should place it in a leading position; good reference sites should be available; the vendor should have regular and well attended userPage

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
group meetings.
Appendix C - Testing and evaluating
how systems meet the technical requirements
We propose that you use an objective scoring methodology that allows measuring the extent to which each proposed system can meet your company’s requirements, enabling you to objectively distinguish between competing systems. Our experience proves that this method can eliminate many of the subjective valuations8 often used, avoiding nasty surprises in the implementation process.
A matrix scoring methodology, if used with the proper weightings for your company needs, can be highly effective.
It is often desirable to add, for each requirement, its priority (weight), and vendor compliance (we suggest using a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being perfectly meets the requirement and 0 being totally non-compliant). The previously stated “Selecting . . . .” report goes into much more detail on this subject.
If you are having trouble objectively entering the weights, consider using outside resources. Weighting these requirements will depend upon your industry and where your company fits in that industry value chain, For example, a company producing automo-

Management Requirements
Importance
(Weight)
(0-100)
Vendor Compliance
(0-10)
Score
(weight*compliance)
Requirement A
Requirement B
Requirement C
. . .
Total Management Score

Technical Requirements
Importance
(Weight)
(0-100)
Vendor Compliance
(0-10)
Score
(weight*compliance)
Requirement A
Requirement B
Requirement C
. . .
Total Technical Score
Use as many requirements as is necessary. Ensure that the importance weighting numbers in the importance column total to 100. Compliance score reflects how close the tested system comes to compliance for each requirement with a weight. If desired, management and technical requirements can be combined into a total score by assigning each a weight totaling 100, resulting in one combination score. tive dies will have different requirements than will a company producing automotive engines. Even hough they are in the same industry. Likewise, a company producing low cost consumer products will be far different than a company producing high cost white goods such as refrigerators.
To evaluate compliance score, consider using either one or more of the following techniques: a benchmark, a paper analysis, or installing trial systems in-house with a properly trained internal erson aided by a vendor support person. You might instead consider “loaning” a system and using vendor supplied on-line training augmented by local support. The latter is a good way to evaluate what post installation support might be like. Keep in mind, however, that users trained on a particular system tend to become zealots for that system. We will provide industry specific suggested weightings at www.technicom.com/buyers_guide as well as at www.ptc.com/go/smb. This table is available there as a blank spreadsheet. We also include a much more detailed table for thosepurists who demand additional technical requirements.
We welcome all advice and comments. Feel free to write the author at: buyers_guide@technicom.com.

Selecting a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM System
Appendix D - An explanation of terms
MCAD - Mechanical computer aided design
Product development system - A system that primarily supports the development of products CCCP - CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM - computer aided design, computer aided manufacturing, computer aided engineering, product data management.

Appendix E - Additional suggested reading material
Raymond Kurland, Is Systems Engineering - Tomorrow’s CAD?, May 2004, http://www.cad-portal.com/Interesting_Articles/Art_index.php3
D.H. Stamatis, Guidelines for Six Sigma Design reviews - Part One, Quality Digest, April 2002
Ken Crow, Product Development Best Practices and Assessment Software, http://www.npd-solutions.com
Footnotes
1 Naming of such systems is always a problem. Do we call it a mechanical CAD system, a mechanical design automation system, a CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM system, or as I prefer to call it - a product development system? We may use these terms interchangeably, so beware.
2 In a survey of users in September, 2004, when asked what are the primary business needs that would cause you to change CCCP systems, the number one answer was product quality! 692 users responded to our questionnaire, 55% from North America and 31% from Western Europe. This survey focused on the buying patterns of CAD/CAM/CAE users.
3 Vaulting means the ability to retain work in process and released data in data storage with the ability to view the data and/or check-out and check in the data after modification. A data management chief will be needed to assign rights to specific users for such functions. For example, someone in purchasing should be able to view what a product contains and how it fits together, yet not be able to modify any data other than cost data.
4 These are generally known as engineering data authors.
5 Engineering costs include an engineer’s salary plus overhead plus expected business contribution.
6 Postprocessors convert “computer-speak” machine instructions into instructions that the NC machines understand - sometimes called G-code.
7 Kurland, R., Selecting Mechanical Design Automation Software - An Evaluation and Benchmarking Template, Version 4, revised 2001, and available free from TechniCom’s web site at http://www.technicom.com.
8 Valuations not based on facts.