The MSC.Software Simulation Data Management Initiative
Boma Koko MSC.Software Corporation 2 MacArthur Place Santa Ana, CA 92707 USA Paper Ref. 2001-86Abstract
CAE simulation requires correct, auditable input data and generates large volumes of results data. These simulation data represent a substantial intellectual asset, but are typically ‘locked’ in various domain-specific application repositories. Accessing and compiling simulation data from such disparate sources incurs substantial time penalties, and is fraught with inaccuracies.
With world-class data management expertise and a unique understanding of simulation tools and processes, MSC.Software has therefore created the Simulation Data Management initiative – providing web-based solutions for engineering catalog management and enterprise-wide simulation data portals. The initiative aims to significantly leverage simulation data intellectual capital throughout the extended product development enterprise. The initiative includes software products, notably the Virtual Insight product line recently acquired from SGI and the MSC.Mvision materials data management suite, along with integrating technology components and Implementation Services to provide optimized implementation-specific solutions.
This paper reviews the components of the Simulation Data Management initiative, which include; enterprise simulation portal, engineering catalog (i.e. data and knowledge content) management, process integration and simulation database technology. Example systems are described, illustrating how solutions are derived based on integration of the components in accordance with the specific business requirements of the implementation.
Introduction
Great advances have been made over the years to significantly improve the fidelity of graphical representations of products and the digital models of products. These representations are described as digital mockups (DMU) and ‘complete’ virtual descriptions of products - but how complete can they really be, if they do not include simulation information in order to predict behavior?
The issue is not that we are unable to simulate the behavior of components and subsystems, nor even that we are unable to simulate entire products in some cases. The issues are more those of repeatability, predictability and visibility. Manufacturing companies are not leveraging their complete knowledge base. They are repeating mistakes. They are ignoring knowledge when it is not convenient to include accurate information easily.
The issue is that for too long the need to expose simulation knowledge, to the complete population involved in the execution of product development processes, has been ignored. The requirement is for simulation process integration, and MSC.Software has defined Simulation Data Management (SDM) as the foundation for this integration.
Companies should be able to make informed product development decisions, based on simulation knowledge. They should be able to make the required knowledge available to all those in the process - in a manner consistent with business rules. The entire population of those involved in a product development process often crosses company boundaries to form virtual enterprises. The resulting overall enterprise should have ‘equal’ access to the knowledge, and should have it much earlier in the process than is currently the case.
What to do? Enable the collaborative creation and maintenance of a truly complete digital product definition, with all form, fit and function represented.
The Vision:
Simulation Based, Function Driven Product Development
MSC.Software is dedicated to the proposition that form-follows-function and envisions a world in which its customers are able to simulate the product performance early in the development cycle, thereby coaching and guiding the product development. A systematic simulation database of functional behavior is thus created, which can serve as the knowledge foundation of the functional behavior of the product.
Objectives of the Initiative
The overall objective for Simulation Data Management (SDM), then, is to improve the product development process, through timely provision of information harvested from simulation processes (Figure 1).
What are the various types of information available to, or consumed by, simulation processes? The scope is extensive. The simulation process produces results that more closely approach reality as the model more accurately represents the complete environment in which the product must operate, and the process by which the product is created. The information includes shape, weight requirements, fuel consumption requirements, recyclability, manufacturability, supportabilities, useful life and much more.
Companies are already increasingly investing in technologies to improve general data management and the information infrastructure. Effective SDM should therefore complement and leverage these current capabilities, to further improve the return on overall investment.
Figure 1 SDM Enhances Simulation and Overall Development Processes
In summary, the objectives of the MSC.Software Simulation Data Management initiative are to:
• Make simulation information available to all participants in the product development cycle, as early as possible to best impact the process and the product.
• Make the reuse of simulation knowledge easier.
• Make the simulation process more visible (transparent) and better integrated with the rest of the product development process.
• Enable collaboration with suppliers and customers (supply chain), using more complete digital product definitions.
• Make simulation based product development a reality.
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nConsistent data management nProcess integrationComponents of the Initiative
The IT industry has in recent years defined terms such as Portal, Hub and Content Management, to describe capabilities required by manufacturing companies to compete effectively. These enabling technologies, when pragmatically adopted, can significantly facilitate the execution of more complex processes in ever-shorter time spans.
MSC.Software’s SDM initiative takes into account that many companies have already invested, or are in the process of investing in engineering IT technologies. This investment situation requires an emphasis in SDM on integrating and complementing these technologies to best align them with the strategic business objectives of the organization.
The SDM initiative is composed of four major strategic components: • Enterprise Simulation Portal systems and services • Engineering Catalog Portal systems and services
(The more general ‘superset’ application of the MSC.Enterprise Mvision technology, already well established for Materials Data Management.)
• Content (Product & Process Data) Management integration services • Simulation Database management systems and services
Enterprise Simulation Portal Systems and Services
The idea of a portal is to provide a window into the world of information available to the person looking through the portal. The breadth of experience of the audience has resulted in the classification of portals into vertical and horizontal, to reflect their focus. One would say, for example, that a Product Data Management (PDM) portal is a horizontal engineering portal - while a Materials Data Management (MDM) portal is a vertical portal, as it provides more depth of support for a particular engineering domain.
Through a combination of on-going core competencies and recent strategic business acquisitions, MSC.Software has a comprehensive portfolio of technologies within the SDM initiative to provide both horizontal and specialized vertical portals, and indeed to provide the contextual ‘glue’ that links these approaches together.
To minimize duplication of data content held in existing systems, the enterprise simulation portal focuses on context management in order to better leverage existing content management technologies and investments. In this regard the philosophy is one of openness to the various PDM systems for integration.
Perhaps the simplest context-managing application, illustrated in Figure 2, could best be described as a web-based “Engineering Assistant”. The purpose of this assistant is to aid such tasks as gathering and maintaining references to the various components of data required for a simulation. This helps the analyst to save time in compiling the data and ensuring the accuracy of the data used in a simulation. It also assists a team of analysts by allowing them to work together with a consistent set of values that are traceable.
Moreover, configurations of previous simulations can be easily copied and modified to reduce process variation and quickly allow additional engineers to produce consistent results. These configurations (known as “trees”) may also be combined, to assist with system level simulation such as for NVH. Additionally, the trees can be used at other locations and for training purposes.
Finally, the assistant reduces the effort required to compile data for and publish reports, as required by other functions such as project management.
Figure 2 Simulation Portal Environment
The illustration shows a standard web browser featuring a generic CAE application on the right. To the left is a user-interface browsing component based on MSC.Software’s context management technology. This application illustrates the level of integration possible with the various sources of content for the task. It also shows how a casual user with appropriate access privileges (based on product development policies) can access information using very standard technologies such as web browsers, HTML, http, and TCP/IP.
The enterprise simulation portal is developed in a manner that allows customers to adopt additional modules as and when they require. These modules include vertical portals for disciplines such as Crash for the automotive industry and Rotor Dynamics, planned for the aero industry.
The Virtual Insight technology recently acquired by MSC.Software from SGI provides the opportunity to manage simulation data in its entirety – in a system which not only provides advanced portal facilities, but can also manage the scheduling of simulation jobs, if required (Figure 3). Note that as a module of the enterprise simulation portal, this technology adheres to the philosophy of openness to PDM systems as appropriate, and required by the customer.
It will be noted that in addition to running the simulation jobs and providing a variety of integrated post-processing options, this system also includes automation of data input and pre-post-processing functions. There are a number of benefits to this approach:
• A high level of automation ensures data consistency, vital for successful knowledge management capabilities.
• Off-loading the analyst with routine tasks greatly improves the efficiency of the overall process.
• New meta-methods such as stochastic simulations of multi-disciplinary optimizations produce extreme amounts of data, which can by no means be manually checked into the SDM system.
• Providing an efficient platform to create variants automatically further increases the efficiency of the analyst.
Figure 3 The Simulation Process, as Managed by the Virtual Insight Enterprise Simulation Portal
Architectural Considerations for an SDM Portal
It is relevant to consider the system architecture on which an application can operate. The integration of applications in a ‘conventional’ data management environment is typically performed on the client side, since that is where the data is normally generated (such as in a CAD system, for instance). In the simulation domain, while the simulation models may be created by local preprocessors, the main volume of data (the substantial output files, such as 50-1000GB MSC.Nastran-DB’s) is created on the server side. A server-centric structure, with a thin-client, therefore offers many key benefits for SDM:
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• Simulations can become sufficiently large and complex to the point where conventional client systems cannot handle them. Keeping these simulations on the server prevents the client from becoming overloaded.
• Since the simulation (at least of complex models) is performed on the server, there is no requirement to dump the substantial result files to the client, if post-processing can be done on the server automatically.
• New possibilities of supplier integration are enabled, in which suppliers can perform work on large models even via a very remote connection.
This stronger bias towards a server-based architecture with a thin-client directs the whole system architecture towards a portal framework. So instead of having the integration on the client-side, the SDM solution abstracts the application, process and data management behind a portal framework. This portal then provides access to both the data and functionality (applications or procedures) to all process partners, enabling them to drill into the data and perform analyses, without having the analysis tools installed on their system.
So ultimately a large SDM implementation acts as an ASP-Portal for simulation, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 The Architecture of a Large Server-Based Simulation Portal
Materials Data Management Systems and Services
Materials Data Management is the process of providing an automated, auditable process for storing ‘raw’ incoming materials property data, processing these data into values suitable for use in design and analysis, then making these design values available in the appropriate formats for CAD and CAE simulation packages. Materials Data Management is one of MSC.Software’s specialist core
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competences, and although there are many systems (including Internet sites) purporting to be ‘materials databases’, MSC.Mvision and MSC.Enterprise Mvision (Figure 5) and the associated implementation services, are the acknowledged best in class offerings.
The product family includes tools enabling customers to create their databanks of materials knowledge, tools providing integrated access to the resulting data compilations, and a comprehensive library (the world’s largest) of authoritative off-the-shelf Databanks to supplement in-house data as required. All of these products are licensed for installation on customers’ own networks – but the data are also available for subscription access via the DataMart on MSC.Software’s www/engineering-e.com site.
Materials Data Management yields a variety of significant benefits, depending on the particular ‘bottle-necks’ in the processes of the company implementing it. These benefits typically include enabling engineers to spend time engineering, rather than looking for data and substantial direct savings on physical testing (and re-testing) of materials and component prototypes. Ultimately, companies benefit through fewer bad materials decisions and subsequent redesigns. One MSC.Mvision customer demonstrated savings of one man-year per year in one area of application alone, representing an outstanding ROI.
Figure 5 Example MSC.Enterprise Mvision User Interface
Engineering Catalog Portal Systems and Services
The benefits of centralized catalogs, and ready access to information for re-use, have been readily demonstrated by companies such as Aspect, and the PDM vendors. However, it has also been recognized that these systems do not provide the level of engineering functionality at the granularity required for effective management and manipulation of what has been variously described as engineering or functional data. It is often required to address in-process data, and to catalog and store engineering information for reuse. Compared to PDM systems and generic relational databases, the Engineering Catalog Portal application provides a compact, adaptable and ready-to-go solution - and by supporting user-definable schemas and data-processing automation, it puts information into context to create more value-added knowledge.
The Engineering Catalog Portal is the more general application of the MSC.Enterprise Mvision technology to the storage and web-based dissemination of engineering data content and knowledge – as a ‘superset’ of the current application of managing material property data. The portal is thus a platform for managing function- and process-specific engineering data. The materials heritage provides the facilities for handling the richness and features of such data (such as curves, unit systems, numeric precision and footnotes), along with powerful querying and customization capabilities. Much of this capability is directly applicable to other types of engineering information, whether derived by analytical means, or the results of test data acquisition.
This offering, like the Enterprise Simulation Portal offering, provides customers with web-based access technology for all its features.
The services offered under this program allow customers to develop systems for loads management, test data management and others – in addition to the Materials Data Management application for which MSC.Software has such renown.
Content Management Integration Services
The more integrated a company’s engineering IT infrastructure, the higher the throughput they can expect in their product development processes. Integration Services from MSC.Software help customers pursue the elusive goal of moving simulation further upstream in the overall product development process, with the attendant time-to-market and efficiency benefits.
The last ten years have seen the maturation of PDM systems provided by various vendors. CAD system vendors provide some integrations for their particular CAD system and in some cases make the integration sufficiently general to integrate other CAD systems. Other vendors provide systems with document management origins and CAD neutral positioning in the market. Customers have taken to employing multiple PDM systems and justifying such decisions by thinking of enterprise level systems differently from functional/ departmental/domain systems.
None of these systems currently provides a satisfactory solution to the issues pertaining to simulation data management. This is partially due to the lack of domain expertise in CAE tools and processes, and to resource constraints.
With extensive expertise in PDM, CAE, and other data management applications, MSC.Software is in a position to provide services concerned with specifying and integrating these technologies to create great value for its customers. Customers have also come to expect MSC.Software to provide the solution because of its unique position in the industry.
Simulation Database Management Systems and Services
The amount of information held in simulation databases is extensive. These data include case control information and results information. Most of this information has been accessed in the past by a file exchange paradigm that has been quite effective. The Nastran (OP2) file format is an industry standard upon which several homegrown and commercial systems rely.
Any “enhancements” to this approach must be undertaken with a great deal of care. Against that backdrop is the question of enhanced productivity gains from file exchange based on industry standard forms such as XML or for even more active exchange based on application programming interfaces (API). MSC.Software is therefore researching the development of a simulation database system offering a consistent format to support MSC.Software’s complete suite of simulation products, and others developed by its customers and third party developers. Developing such a system will significantly enhance the value of the intellectual property that MSC.Software customers have in their simulation data management infrastructure.
The ability for this project to provide easier means of directly accessing simulation information from such global technologies as the Internet can only spread the use of simulation data and the value of such information.
An Integrated Approach
The implementation of an SDM solution is typically a multiphase project, which requires a combination of various MSC.Software competencies, technologies and services - together with the customers’ best practices and external third-party components. The details are specific to each implementation, underlining the need for a study of the environment and the process details to maximize impact.
MSC.Software has adopted the approach to initiate SDM projects with a Requirements Definition Analysis (RDA) to document the current “as is” situation and the customer’s required “to be” process and infrastructure. Based on the outcome of this RDA an implementation plan is derived for building an SDM solution, which focuses on an incremental approach to building the system. By this incremental (rapid-deployment) approach, the focus is on maximizing user acceptance and hereby minimizing any risks associated with the project.
Conclusions
MSC.Software believes that the Simulation Data Management initiative, in conjunction with the business motivation of customer companies, will enable the realization of significant enhancements in collaborative product development in the supply chain. Participants in the extended enterprise will be able to make changes, and simulate the effects of such changes on the behavior of the product, in addition to studying the effects on geometric and aesthetic properties. They will be able to truly evaluate the complete form-fit-function equation.
MSC.Software has several engagements currently in progress in which the customer companies expect a significant impact on their processes by taking advantage of Simulation Data Management. The flexibility of starting from different points has also been well received.
With this initiative, MSC.Software invites its customer companies, and others in the simulation community, to make it possible to leverage their assets in simulation intellectual capital - throughout the product development process.
