Time-consuming research and manual parts creation as a barrier to innovation

The increasing proportion of electrical and electronic components used in the development of automotive or aerospace systems has made the search, testing and procurement of components an additional challenge. According to studies, as much as 90 percent of automotive innovations today are created in the areas of electronics and software. The Siemens Xcelerator portfolio from Siemens combines the software tools, including Capital software, for digital transformation on a single platform. A key element of this strategy is to provide intelligent part data to cover the design, manufacture, and service of electrical systems as well as encompassing E/E system and software architectures to efficiently engineer today’s smart products.

In the past, Siemens’ Capital software users needed to manually create library parts and symbols by referring to websites of part manufacturers or part distributors to provide the required electrical data. Even when users wanted to compare different parts from different vendors, they had to go through individual websites and datasheets. This process of manual creation and maintenance of library parts and symbols involved a huge amount of time and effort.

“In order to drive the advanced automation delivered by the Siemens E/E systems development portfolio of tools including Capital software and, Solid Edge® software even further, high quality electrical part data is needed. That’s why Siemens teamed up with CADENAS, an expert for intelligent CAD catalogs and Digital Twins,” says Glenn Reynholds, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “By adding 3Dfindit.com to Capital software, users save valuable time by reducing administrative and search overhead, which they can use to develop creative products and accelerate time to market.”

Additional functionality offers excellent support for developing E/E systems

Using the new embedded 3Dfindit.com part library can greatly reduce the manual effort for engineers by providing access to thousands of ready-to-import components from various renown international vendors. Users working on a design, can seamlessly import new parts into Siemens’ Capital software solution and add them into their designs just by a single click.

“Engineers spend about 27% of their time searching for components. We help to drastically reduce this effort,” explains Jürgen Heimbach, CEO of CADENAS GmbH. “If users start a search query via the search field in Capital and do not find what they are looking for, the search query is transferred directly by launching 3Dfindit.com. In addition to a parametric text search, a number of intuitive search functions such as shape search, sketch search or color search help engineers to easily find the supplier components they need.” Engineers can hover across the 3D preview of the digital part to see and search for electrical properties of each cavity. Furthermore, the tool provides a selection of matching accessories as well as components that are similar to the selected product.

When importing a part into the Capital software library, important attributes are also transferred such as description, number of cavities, and complex electrical part definitions like connector systems including the available terminals/contacts and the wire sizes they support.

Besides the free access to thousands of ready-to-import parts, 3Dfindit.com reduces effort and time taken to create library parts and their symbols. When importing components, full control over mapping with respect to customer standards and conventions is maintained. It comes with easy-to-edit configuration files to customize the import of parts and symbols. The embedded component library also provides an easy comparison between similar parts.

Bringing vendors of technical products and engineers together

The close cooperation between CADENAS and Siemens also opens up opportunities for manufacturers of electrical components. “It’s not just geometry that makes perfect design data. Engineers need extensive metadata without having to search for it,” emphasizes Jürgen Heimbach. “When manufacturers learn about the possibility of providing their products with all relevant design data in accordance to the ECLASS standard, they recognize the value it can add to their customer service. To ensure competitiveness, it is absolutely mandatory for vendors in the E/E sector to make product data for components such as connectors seamlessly available in the planning software. Digital transformation can only be successful if all stakeholders work closely together and making this happen is CADENAS’ mission.”

The 3Dfindit.com part library with its manufacturer-verified component data is available by default in recent Siemens Capital software installations.

Note: A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here.