Introduction
As a Product Engineer, you face constant pressure to reduce development time while maintaining high product quality. You need the right tools to turn complex ideas into testable prototypes. When new technologies are introduced into your workflow, they should be able to improve efficiency rather than causing disruptions. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides tools for design mockup within the overall development process. This provides design teams the ability to visualize, test and refine new product ideas before they move intp formal development. We will look at the different types of supporting tools available to designers today and highlight the specific mockup tools available.
Mockup Support Tools
Engineers use several types of mockup tools to design, develop and test physical products. Each serves a specific purpose in the product development lifecycle.
2D Digital Prototyping Software
Before moving to three-dimensional spaces, many teams start with 2D digital prototyping. These applications allow engineers to draft initial concepts, map out dimensions and plan basic functional requirements. While they lack the depth of 3D modeling, 2D tools provide a quick way to communicate ideas across medium to large teams. They help teams establish the foundational geometry of a product before committing heavy resources to advanced modeling.
3D Platforms
Three-dimensional CAD applications represent the core mockup tools for modern industries across the product spectrum. These systems allow designers to build precise virtual models to test material stress, simulate environmental factors and verify assembly processes. Real-time design feedback within these systems empowers teams to iterate quickly, reducing the likelihood of costly errors down the line.
Physical Prototyping Systems
Even with advanced software, teams eventually need physical mockups. Physical prototyping systems include 3D printers, CNC machines and rapid tooling setups. These tools take digital files and turn them into tangible objects. Engineers use these physical prototypes to conduct ergonomic testing, verify structural integrity and present final concepts to stakeholders.
ENOVIA Support for Mockup Capabilities
ENOVIA provides a number of roles that support mockup development and collaboration on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Multi-CAD Integration: ENOVIA provides MCAD and ECAD integration roles specific to each of the following file-based authoring tools:
SOLIDWORKS
CATIA V5
NX
Solid Edge
CREO Parametric
AutoCAD
Inventor
Altium
Cadence Allegro
These allow seamless navigation and authoring of multi-CAD product structures, enabling engineers to work with designs from multiple sources in a single context. This helps visualize products in their entirety, regardless of authoring tool. These integrations also provide a holistic environment of CAD data in conjunction with our cloud -based CAD solutions from Catia and SOLIDWORKS.
Real-Time Collaboration: ENOVIA provides the ability for design teams to collaborate on designs from any location, ensuring stakeholders have universal access to the latest design data. This fosters better communication and faster decision-making.
Lifecycle Management: Engineers maintain full control over lifecycle functions like release and revision, ensuring that changes are governed and aligned with specific product configurations.
Visualization and Analysis: The platform provides tools to visualize 3D components, explore product features, and analyze changes using capabilities like measurement and sectioning.
Efficient Design Iterations: By making design reviews and mockups universally accessible, you can reduce the number of design iterations, accelerating the development process.
ENOVIA 3D Product Architect (PAU) role
This role, drives the mockup process for product engineers by enabling efficient creation, modification, and exploration of multi-CAD product structures utilizing the design data provided by CAD solutions that are integrated with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
The role is made up of two applications:
Product Structure Editor: Enables you to explore and modify product structures without the need for a CAD system. The ‘Product Structure Editor’ app gives you the ability to create new structures, validate designs, and release them, all from one browser-based app.
3D Compose: Enables you to define and manipulate the 3D structure of physical products using a web viewer.
These two applications can be linked so that selection through cross-highlighting provides flexibility in visualization and selection of product data.
Digital Mockups: Engineers create web-based 3D digital mockups directly in the Product Structure Editor, saving time and improving communication across the product development chain. This also expands the ability to explore new concepts as it eliminates the need for a dedicated CAD solution during the initial product development process. This ability includes reviewing product structures, proposing changes, and reusing existing designs to create new ones.
The 3D Product Architect role ensures that everyone from the design team to the manufacturing floor teams stays aligned through “one version of the truth” as all tools and underlying data reside on a common platform, reducing miscommunication and costly rework. Mockups or new structures are created either from scratch are by deriving a new structure from a previous design.
Initialization of a New Product Structure
Derivative of an Existing Product Structure
Mocking up the Resulting Product Structure
Reference Materials
There are a number of sources for information on the topics mentioned above. This best place to start is the application User Guides
Product Structure Editor User’s Guide
As the Portfolio Manager for this role, I regularly create content on the 3D Product Architect role and maintain an archive here.
Archive of 3DProduct Architect Posts in the ENOVIA User Community
You can also search within the community as a whole for a broader list across all media types or selected ones and then use the embedded search at the top:
You can also search within the titles of the wiki pages for all other archived information and What's New information...
Summary
Effective product engineering requires tools that deliver precision, support collaboration and manage costs. The ENOVIA 3D Product Architect role and supporting applications on the platform allow you to turn ideas into market-ready products by streamlining mockup processes through visualization, collaboration, lifecycle management, and real-time simulation feedback.
