GETTING IT RIGHT:

ENSURING THE ACCURACY

OF CALCULATIONS
THROUGHOUT ENGINEERING

Andrew McGough
Product Manager PTC
Mathcad
AGEN DA • Challenges in Leveraging Engineering
Knowledge
• Overcoming the challenges
• Documenting Engineering Knowledge
with PTC Mathcad

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CHALLENGES LEVERAGING ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE

Validation Tooling Tech Pubs

Product Conceptual Detail Analysis & & Quality
Requirements Design Design
Prototype Mfg Purchasing

Capture & communicate design intent + critical v alues

PLM

• Ideal process is to effectively & efficiently capture and communicate:

– Design intent
– Engineering critical values
– Optimized parameters
– Compliance with performance envelopes
– Validation analyses

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CHALLENGES LEVERAGING ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE

• How is this captured and

communicated today?
– Lack of standardized processes
and tools
– Multiple tools and mediums for
data discovery and analysis
– Information is stored in multiple
formats and different locations

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CHALLENGES LEVERAGING ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE

Question: How do these challenges impact your process?

• Inability to capture, share and reuse design

intent
• Lack of process and tool standardization
• Lack of early design validation causing
need for rework
• Designs not tied to customer requirements
• Calculation errors lead to poor design
decisions and costly rework

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CHALLENGES LEVERAGING ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE

Challenges

Inability to capture, Lack of process Lack of early design Designs not tied to Calculation errors
share and re-use and tool validation causing customer lead to poor design
design intent standardization need for rework requirements decisions and rework

Engineering calculations are
often created using disparate
systems and arcane
languages causing poor
communication and loss of
knowledge
Problems can be introduced
due to design intent stored in
multiple locations, leading to
process inefficiencies and
product delays
Is your design optimized? Loss of traceability between Mathematical errors are either
Is it the best trade-off market requirements and the caught too late (leading to
between cost, strength, final design introduces errors costly rework) or missed
time-to-market, customer that lead to inefficiencies and entirely (leading to increased
requirements, etc.? delays after-market service or costly
recalls)

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OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES

• Using the right software for the

right purpose drives productivity
• Communicating results is as
important as calculating them,
critical for knowledge transfer and
collaboration Personal
Collaboration Process
Productiv ity
• Engineering activities do not
happen in isolation, but as part of
processes that support business
initiatives

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OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES
Automatically capture, share and re-use design
intent

Standardize engineering calculations

Perform validation and verification throughout

design process

Tie the design directly to customer requirements

Eliminate calculation errors

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DOCUMENTING ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE WITH PTC MATHCAD

A digital engineering notebook to perform your calculations and

manage your engineering intent

• Analyze • Solve • Document • Share •

PTC Mathcad combines the ease and familiarity of an engineering

notebook with a powerful mathematical engine

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DOCUMENTING ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE WITH PTC MATHCAD

• Standard Mathematical Notation

– Don’t need to know Mathcad to
understand Mathcad documents

• Comprehensive Support for Units

– Reduce unit assumption and prevent
calculation mistakes

• Document-Oriented Approach
– Calculate results and communicate
ideas at the same time

• Visual Presentation Features

– Help annotate calculations with use of
integrated text, images, plots, and
areas

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INTUITIVE MATH INPUT

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EASE OF COMMUNICATION

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SHOW YOUR WORK!

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SHOW YOUR WORK

• Engineering calculations a visible,

dynamic part of the design
• For model based definition, the
initial engineering design concept
is now always available
• Show your work!

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