John is working on a packaging machine and needs a support bracket in NX CAD software. Initially, he designed a bracket, but the design changed, and the part isn’t strong enough to support the changes. Now he needs a bracket that can hold more weight. John performs a search inside Teamcenter PLM using PARTsolutions 3D shape search to find parts that are geometrically similar to the bracket he used in his design.

Now, John can see brackets that already exist within Teamcenter that are similar to the one from his design and made from various materials with slightly different features. This allows him to find a bracket that will work within his design to replace the bracket he created, saving John’s time and facilitating reuse of a previously created part.

Bob needs a motor for his design. He has a source model in his design from a vendor that his company does not support any longer. Using 3D similarity search, Bob can find a similar motor from an approved supplier in just a few minutes and continues with his design work in SOLIDWORKS CAD software. He can then check the part into SOLIDWORKS PDM for future use.

Randal is working on an aircraft subassembly in CATIA CAD software. He needs to make a slight change to the assembly, which in turn causes a half-inch industry-standard fastener to be short by one-quarter inch. He performs a 3D similarity search on the model using CADENAS 3D shape search tool. Randal filters the search to only search within CADENAS AIA industry-standard fastener library and finds a replacement fastener that is three-quarters of an inch long. He finds a three-quarter inch AIA industry-standard fastener that already exists inside Enovia PLM.

Sarah needs an actuator. She begins her search in the PARTsolutions desktop application. Starting with her preferred manufacturer catalog, she drills down through part categories until she finds the actuators. Once she locates an actuator that will fit, she performs a 3D similarity shape search to find other manufacturers that make similar parts.

Using the shape search tools, she locates an actuator from another manufacturer that is a better fit for her design. PARTsolutions desktop application has sliders and dropdowns that allow Sarah to configure the actuator to the exact dimensions and requirements she needs within the manufacturer’s specifications for the actuator. Sarah transfers the actuator directly into Inventor. The actuator is built through Inventor by PARTsolutions in seconds. All the metadata is inside the model, including the correct manufacturer part number that will show up in the final bill of materials.

PARTsolutions has a built-in duplicate part search. By running a report, admins can find a list of duplicate parts, excluding mirror image parts, to find duplicates within a specific percentage match of a source model.

Once PARTsolutions generates the report, admins can identify the location of the duplicate files and mark them as obsolete for use in future designs. They can choose the CAD model with the most accurate information and mark it as preferred for reuse.

When an engineer searches for that part in the future, he will only see the preferred part in the results. This ensures all engineers are using the same master part instead of one of several duplicates.

Using a source part, engineers and procurement folks can search the CADENAS library for geometrically similar parts to find possible replacement parts from alternative manufacturers. They can combine the 3D shape search with attribute information to narrow the results to parts that not only look the same but have the same specifications.

This allows users to find potential replacements for parts that are being phased out, for better pricing on parts, or for faster lead time.