Developing complex products in CAD (computer-aided design) with a distributed team can be a challenging task. However, with Creo Parametric’s Advanced Assembly Extension [AAX], managing distributed development becomes a seamless process even on a global scale.

This powerful extension facilitates and automates the exploration of product assembly variations and adds intelligence to your CAD design assembly so it reacts correctly in any situation.

Clearly Defining and Communicating Complex Design Intent

To kickstart any complex design project within CAD, it is vital to have a clearly defined source of design intent. This serves as the backbone of the development process and enables smooth collaboration among team members.

Furthermore, Creo Parametric AAX has tools for creating and managing space claims, assembly interfaces, and location points. These features help define design intent and make sharing information easy. With a clear and structured design intent, it becomes much easier for team members to understand their tasks and contribute effectively.

Distribution and Communication of Design Intent

Once the design intent is defined, the next crucial step is to distribute and communicate this intent to team members efficiently. Creo Parametric AAX allows team members to focus on their relevant tasks by providing options to copy relevant geometry or use published geometry in their subsystem. This ensures that each team member can work on what’s relevant to their task without any confusion or delays.

Controlling Inter-Dependencies

Intelligent inter-dependency management within a complex product design is essential to ensure flexibility and adaptability. Advanced Assembly offers powerful tools to create and track desired interdependencies, preventing the creation of unwanted relationships that can hinder design flexibility.

By allowing users to control inter-dependencies effectively, teams can confidently make changes and reuse design components while maintaining the integrity of the complex product.

Leave No Rock Unturned with Complex Designs

The path to innovation often involves exploring multiple iterations and variations of a design. This Creo extension empowers designers to leave no stone unturned by offering efficient tools to create and manage assembly variations.

Families of Assembly Designs

Creating new assemblies for minor variations or component substitutions can be time-consuming and unnecessary. Creo Parametric AAX simplifies this process by allowing designers to define variations in assembly dimensions or switch out components without the need for separate assemblies.

By identifying what differs from the original design, designers can switch family instances of component family tables or subassembly family tables effortlessly, with automation taking care of the rest.

Interchange Parts and Assemblies

The ability to interchange functionally equivalent components is a valuable feature when exploring design variations. This CAD extension enables designers to relate independent components, making it easy to switch them within an assembly. Additionally, simplified exchange members can be substituted into a design to streamline the display while retaining accurate mass property information.

Raising the IQ of your Complex Design

Dealing with constant change is a fundamental aspect of design. Creo Parametric AAX allows designers to enhance their complex models with intelligent logic, automating component sizing based on calculations or user input.

This intelligence extends to switching out components or subassemblies automatically for Family Table or Interchange instances when specific conditions are met. By raising the IQ of your design, you can navigate design changes faster and more efficiently.

How to Put it Together or Take it Apart

Ensuring smooth communication of assembly procedures is crucial for efficient manufacturing and engineering processes. This extension for complex designs offers intuitive process planning functionality to disseminate process information effectively throughout the organization.

Easily Create Assembly Process Sequences

With user-friendly tools, users can define assembly processes step by step. With intuitive drag-and-drop techniques, exploded views, and jogged explode offset lines, AAX provides a clear and accurate representation of each process step, making it easy for all stakeholders to understand the assembly process.

Create Alternate Bills of Materials (BOMs)

Creo Parametric AAX empowers users to create alternative BOMs that reflect specific assembly stages or grouping of design components based on the assembly process. These alternative BOMs, such as manufactured BOMs or fabrication BOMs, enable clear communication of the assembly process and facilitate efficient manufacturing operations.

Creo Parametric Advanced Assembly Extension [AAX] offers a comprehensive suite of tools and functionalities to manage the distributed development of complex designs.

From clearly defining and communicating design intent to exploring design variations and enhancing design intelligence, AAX ensures that no aspect of the design process goes untouched. By leveraging this extension, design teams can collaborate effectively, respond to changes efficiently, and create flexible and reusable complex products

Codebeamer challenges the fast-paced and competitive business landscape for companies streamlining their software development processes. This innovative application lifecycle management (ALM) solution solves requirements, risk, and regulation compliance issues with ease.

This article explores Codebeamer, the challenges of current regulation operations, and the capabilities of Codebeamer to overcome those challenges.

Application Lifecycle Management

Before we dive into Codebeamer, let’s talk about the impact of application lifecycle management on your production process.

For industrial products, it is estimated that over 90% of product innovation today is driven by, connected to, or enabled by, software. That sort of dependency emphasizes the need for a seamless application lifecycle management system to ensure the production of quality products keep up with the pace of software development.

There are many ways that that industrial product implementations of software might be invisible to consumers, impacting the confidence consumers have on the innovation of the product. For example, the software that controls a vehicle’s braking system, or the software app that remotely starts the vehicle and provides engine oil live notifications are both systems directly affecting the consumer.

To put it simply, ALM drives the functional behavior of a product, enabling software-driven innovation for the life of the software, not only at the product’s initial release. Software updates, for example rolled out to update a vehicle’s braking system or to a mobile app, demonstrate how ALM continues to drive functional behavior innovation beyond production.

That’s why Codebeamer is such a key component to your production process as it regulates all of your requirements and risk factors to ensure your product is up to date and following necessary compliance markers.

What is Codebeamer?

In today’s competitive business landscape, companies need efficient and collaborative solutions to streamline their software development processes while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Enter PTC’s ALM solution – Codebeamer.

Codebeamer is a complete application lifecycle management (ALM) solution that focuses on governance, development, and maintenance of software applications within a product.

Think of it as your project’s central command center, where all the pieces of the product development puzzle come together. It’s a digital hub that fosters collaboration, tracks progress, and ensures that everyone is on the same page; from engineers and designers to project managers and stakeholders.

For companies operating in heavily regulated industries, maintaining compliance with safety-critical regulations, guidelines, and quality standards can be challenging. Fortunately, Codebeamer simplifies this process with preconfigured templates and best practices.

It enables companies to enforce the use of mature processes, enhance product quality, and streamline safety-critical audit preparations. With Codebeamer, you can achieve compliance with ease, providing a single source of truth for auditors and stakeholders.

Codebeamer’s robust ALM functionalities, such as analytics, requirements and risk management, validation, DevOps, software development and product line management capabilities set it apart from the rest of the competition.

Codebeamer takes all of your development tools and houses them in one central development hub. This makes for any easy access point for all engineering needs and allows your process to be automated for regulatory compliance control.

As a developer, project manager, or team lead, you understand the importance of efficient and collaborative solutions in today’s fast paced manufacturing industry. Without the right application lifecycle management platform, you may face difficulties in streamlining your development processes while ensuring regulatory compliance. That’s where Codebeamer, a powerful and user-friendly ALM solution, comes in.

Product engineering leaders rely on Codebeamer for its enterprise-grade scalability, high availability, top-notch performance, and configurable workflows. With Codebeamer as your ALM solution, EAC is here to partner with you to overcome operational challenges and drive success in your software development efforts.

Overcoming Operational Hurdles

When companies do not utilize the advanced capabilities of ALM software like Codebeamer, they face a multitude of challenges that hinder their efficiency and productivity. Some of the challenges that companies are facing today:

Siloed Departments

First, teams often work in isolated siloes, with different members using different versions of documents. This fragmented approach leads to miscommunications, delays, and inefficiencies. Relying on paper-based processes further slows down collaboration and increases the risk of errors.

No Traceability

Without the artifact and process traceability provided by Codebeamer, companies face difficulties in tracking the evolution of their projects. No clear visibility into changes and baselines makes it challenging to manage requirements, risks, and test activities effectively. This lack of traceability can lead to confusion, rework, and compromised product quality.

No Continuous Improvement

As many have come to realize, the absence of automated workflows and process reuse capabilities means that companies must resort to manual workarounds, resulting in increased effort and a higher potential for errors. Continuous improvement becomes more difficult to achieve, as the lack of standardized processes and tools hinders the identification and implementation of best practices.

Out-dated Documentation

The reliance on Excel, Word, and paper-based processes further exacerbates these challenges, as it hampers industry-specific process enforcement, impedes e-signatures, reviews, and manual validations, and limits collaboration and accountability.

Unscalable Tools

Finally, as companies grow and evolve, their tools often fail to scale with their business needs. This puts a strain on IT resources, as they struggle to address security, performance, and high-availability concerns. The complex web of disjointed tools and broken integrations results in time-consuming and error-prone tool validations, further impeding progress and hindering collaboration.

Without Codebeamer software, companies face a multitude of challenges that limit their ability to optimize their processes, collaborate effectively, and achieve sustainable growth.

Codebeamer Capabilities

Let’s talk about how Codebeamer embraces the challenges of current processes and transforms the way companies manage requirements and risks throughout a product lifecycle. This software offers a range of powerful capabilities that empower businesses to achieve greater efficiency and collaboration.

Comprehensive Lifecycle Management

Codebeamer offers a complete suite of ALM features, including requirements management, risk management, and test management capabilities. By centralizing these processes within a single platform, teams can achieve better visibility and control over the entire development lifecycle. With Codebeamer, your company can effectively manage the flow of requirements, assess and mitigate risks, and ensure comprehensive test coverage – all within an integrated and intuitive environment.

Regulatory Compliance Made Easy

For companies operating in heavily regulated industries, maintaining compliance with safety-critical regulations, guidelines, and quality standards can be challenging.

Fortunately, Codebeamer has a variety of pre-built regulatory process management packages available to meet specific compliance needs by industry. Some of those packages are listed below:

These pre-built compliance “templates” make for quick deployment of a system to manage any compliance issues that your company may be facing.

Collaboration & Organization

With its wiki knowledge base, holistic search, and document management features, Codebeamer provides a comprehensive platform for organizing and accessing critical project information. Moreover, secure collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders is facilitated, ensuring seamless cooperation throughout the development process.

Process Traceability

Codebeamer goes beyond simple traceability by offering granular artifact, process, historical, and code traceability. This comprehensive traceability allows businesses to track the evolution of their projects with precision, enabling better decision-making and risk management. Additionally, the software enables the reuse of requirements, test cases, processes, and even code, promoting efficiency and reducing time and effort.

Seemless Integrations

With built-in integrations, Codebeamer seamlessly connects with popular tools, enabling smooth data exchange with MS Office and ReqIf formats. The software is also extendable through plugins and APIs, ensuring flexibility and adaptability to meet specific business needs. Furthermore, Codebeamer provides industry-specific workflow templates, along with features like e-signatures, review systems, automated audit trails, and validation. These capabilities streamline processes, drive compliance, and enhance project quality.

Integrating PLM and ALM systems enhances visibility across the engineering digital thread, provides agility to quickly react to changing needs, and guarantees the ability to capture and manage evolving requirements – all while allowing for complete end-to-end traceability.

Being under the PTC umbrella of solutions, Codebeamer now seamlessly connects with Windchill via OSLC, allowing engineers to link and trace between Windchill PLM parts to Codebeamer items like requirements or tests. A smooth overall user experience is ensured by Single-Sign On, links viewable in both directions, and automatic link suspecting following changes.

The graph below shows the different ways Windchill connects with Codebeamer and streamlines the process even more.

Enterprise Scalability

Whether your business is a small team or a large enterprise, Codebeamer scales to accommodate your needs. It offers a secure and agile platform, ensuring high-availability for uninterrupted operations. Codebeamer can be deployed as a SaaS solution, hosted in the cloud, or implemented on-premise, providing the flexibility and control required for various business environments. Regardless of the size of your company, Codebeamer can support your Agile delivery, reduce risks and costs, and accelerate cycle times.

Taking Advantage of Codebeamer

Codebeamer is a powerful ALM solution that offers numerous benefits to companies in industrial manufacturing and automotive engineering. Its unique digital workflows, regulatory compliance capabilities, and flexibility make it a standout ALM platform for any development team.

By leveraging its comprehensive lifecycle management capabilities, promoting collaboration and efficiency, simplifying regulatory compliance, and providing a scalable and intuitive platform, Codebeamer empowers teams to optimize their software development processes.

With Codebeamer’s robust capabilities, EAC is here to support your business in achieving greater success, efficiency, and collaboration throughout your development projects.

If your company aims to enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and achieve higher product quality, Codebeamer is the solution you’ve been looking for.

Our team at EAC is committed to understanding your unique challenges and providing tailored solutions for your business. Let us showcase the expertise we have in manufacturing processes, as we partner with you to achieve success through technology and strategic thinking.

Reach out to us today or watch the webinar replay to discover the value that Codebeamer can bring to your organization.

If you’re wondering how to get effective and long-term PTC Windchill Support, look no further.

We partner with PTC and are a Top Solution Provider because our experts truly believe PTC products are the best in the industry for the Digital Thread and improving the complete product development process. Our company would like to address some of the pain points you may experience while using your Windchill PLM platform. As well as inform you about the steps we are taking to enhance your overall user experience and boost efficiency across your enterprise.

As with any complex software system, there can be a number of frustrations that users may experience when working with Windchill. Here are some common Windchill complaints that we hear in the industry:

Overall, these frustrations can make it difficult for users to work efficiently and effectively with Windchill. Read on to learn how our EAC Productivity Apps provide Windchill support for all users and make your PLM system and ThingWorx Navigate work FOR you, not against you.

Windchill Support: User Interface

We understand that the complexity of the PTC Windchill user interface can sometimes be overwhelming. Windchill’s user interface can often be cluttered and difficult to navigate. The system has a lot of options and features based on how complex an integrated product database must be. In response to this feedback, we created EAC Productivity Apps.

Our goal is to simplify and streamline the interface, making it more intuitive and user-friendly across teams and departments while keeping security high. By reducing clutter and improving navigation according to different job titles and roles, we aim to enhance your productivity and reduce the learning curve.

Quick Search App

For example, the Quick Search App provides a simplified way for users to enter a number or attribute into a single search bar to find the data results within the context of their job role. This removes the need for users to apply an understanding of how Windchill objects are related and eliminates unwanted, irrelevant data for the task at hand.

Report Viewer App

Our Report Viewer app gives individuals outside the engineering department the ability to view and run Windchill reports with ease. Within the Report Viewer app, you can easily:

Part Associations App

This app provides a “shortcut” for users (especially shop floor employees) to access critical CAD files and documentation, and it consolidates results onto a single screen. Quickly access drawings, parts, assemblies, and other documents associated with CAD and part data.

For users who are in Windchill every day, we strongly suggest seeking out adequate training and support as a first step towards solving some of these frustrations. Even the most seasoned users may find tips and tricks that can simplify their workflows on a day-to-day basis.

BoM Compare App

Pro Tip: Did you know that Windchill BoM comparisons exist in Windchill?

They do! Now with our BoM Compare App, this feature is easier to find and leverage. View a side-by-side comparison of two Windchill bills of materials and select which attributes to compare, all with the click of a button.

Streamline PTC Windchill Navigation

Easy navigation is a huge factor that plays into workflow productivity. Windchill has many menus, screens, and options, making it difficult for users to navigate the system and find the information they need. This can be especially frustrating for infrequent users who are not familiar with the system.

Our EAC Apps are purposefully designed with easier navigation in mind. Instead of constant mouse clicks and multiple new windows opening across your screens, our developers created an ideal workflow. And significantly reduces how long it takes for you to get the info you need based on your job role.

Another challenge we hear from Windchill users is how long it takes to search for and find the data they need. We acknowledge that searching and finding documentation in Windchill can take way too long and cause a lot of frustration. This is especially true for people who only need to go into Windchill once in a blue moon. EAC Apps gets users to the data or drawings they need in just a few mouse clicks.

Below is a timetable that compares the number of mouse clicks it takes in the standard Windchill interface (a user with Windchill experience and skill) versus how many it takes using our productivity apps with little to no training needed.

Support Windchill Performance and Speed

Windchill can be slow to load, especially when working with large amounts of data or performing complex operations. This can lead to delays and frustration for users who need to work quickly and efficiently.

Additionally, optimizing the platform’s performance with maintenance on the back end is critical to ensure smoother operation, faster response times, and improved overall stability.

As a start, we highly recommend checking out the infographic, “6 Ways to Check and Maintain Your Windchill System” to support a healthy Windchill environment.

If your Windchill system continuously crashes or freezes, there is a serious issue that needs attention. For additional help, our managed services team is dedicated to resolving these issues and providing you with a more efficient and seamless experience. Our managed services, EAC Alliance, takes the heavy lifting off of your system admins so they can focus on their core responsibilities.

Learn more about the EAC Alliance program for Windchill. In regards to system crashing or freezing, that does NOT have to be your “normal”. In fact, 99.5% of our Alliance customers see a 100% in Windchill uptime and over 99% in availability. And 100% of our customers say they experience a significant improvement in speed and performance.

For most apps, you don’t even have to log into Windchill at all to get the info you need quickly and securely whether you’re a finance team member in your home office, or a builder on the manufacturing shop floor using your phone or tablet.

Quick Access App

More specifically, the Quick Access App eliminates the need to go into Windchill at all. Shop floor personnel can submit a problem report, a change request, or a new variance directly within the app. The Quick Access app improves user adoption and streamlines access to critical data sets.

The Quick Access app enables team members to quickly view a product’s structure, supporting information, and digital content. It also facilitates rapid issue capture to ensure quality and speed time to market.

Help with Effective Windchill Customizations

Another pain point that has been highlighted is the limited flexibility for customization within PTC Windchill. We understand that different organizations have unique requirements, and we are committed to empowering you with the ability to tailor the platform to your specific needs.

We are actively working on expanding the customization options and offering more flexibility to adapt PTC Windchill to your workflows and processes. Each EAC App allows for ample customization based on what your team or department wants or needs! We’ll set you up for success.

The best part is, even if you upgrade your Windchill version, you don’t have to start over with custom code like you do with ThingWorx! Our apps help administrators maintain the user portal after ThingWorx Navigate upgrade releases.

Windchill Security and Task Support

Need to give Purchasers access to only specific assets? Our EAC Apps allow you to share critical data securely with those who need it based on particular permissions and settings.

Give your shop floor access to the latest drawings, and design changes with easy-to-find and digestible data without having to email busy engineering teams. By expanding access to users in multiple departments with just a few clicks supports your Windchill investment.

Task Management App

Meet the Task Management App. Task Management helps users complete multiple tasks within one window! Streamline your workflows, filter by team assignment, and finish your to-do list. This app will fuel your efficiency, user adoption, and time management.

The Task Management App was designed to enable stakeholders to review and act on assigned Windchill change tasks. It provides visibility into important open tasks and their status.

Additionally, we have a robust knowledge base, user mentoring, and tutorials to assist you in leveraging the full potential of PTC Windchill. Our training and mentoring team is always available to address your queries and provide timely assistance.

Support for Windchill Collaboration and Integration

Is your engineering team the only department accessing Windchill data? If so, your company is not maximizing your technology investment. Our experts stress the value of collaboration and integration with other tools and systems for seamless workflows and processes surrounding your current tools and technology environment.

Our intuitive role-based apps make it easy for stakeholders in other departments to get the data they need from Windchill in a matter of seconds – instead of constantly having to ask the engineering team for answers!

Each app can be tailored to a specific role in your organization. Plus our PLM Apps integrate with any 3rd party system and expand Windchill’s integration capabilities, allowing you to connect with a broader range of applications and enabling smoother collaboration across different teams and departments.

Windchill Support for BoM Reports

For example, a healthy manufacturing BoM report requires input from multiple departments including design, procurement, manufacturing, and sales, and even more stakeholders need access.

The BoM Reports App allows all departments across the enterprise to accurately see the BoM data they need in real-time in the context of their job role. Within the app, you can view lists of unreleased products, created or modified parts in real-time (Cheers to supporting the digital thread strategy!)

Windchill Support for Change Management

Furthermore, Change Management is a core operational asset that can make or break processes across the enterprise. Our Change Management App aims to automate the critical flow and hand-off of information between teams and departments.

Enable excellent project management with an app that provides graphical views of problem reports, change requests, change reports, change variances, promotion requests, and more. This app is highly customizable based on the department and role of each user for maximum efficiency.

Bonus PTC Windchill Support: Implementation & Upgrades

Without experts who have the adequate time and capacity to do so (it’s seriously a full-time job), Windchill may not always be implemented properly in a timely fashion. This leads to data inconsistencies and errors. Errors that almost all manufacturers just can’t afford to be making.

The right approach matters, especially with PLM. To mitigate risk and save your IT team from a heavy burden, check out our service offerings for advanced Windchill support including Windchill implementations, upgrades, installs, and migrations.

Why Windchill is Still Critical for Success

Your feedback and input have been invaluable in shaping the direction of our efforts to improve your experiences with the complex yet powerhouse that is Windchill. We want to assure you that we are committed to continuously enhancing the platform with EAC Apps to serve your needs better and exceed your expectations.

The amount of power and robust capabilities of Windchill is the best investment a company can make on its digital transformation journey and implementing the digital thread. Connecting your data is critical. Finding and accessing your data with user-friendly PLM apps expands Windchill usage and amplifies your Windchill investment.

EAC Apps is the practical solution for PTC Windchill support by increasing Windchill usage and user satisfaction across the enterprise.

If you have any further pain points or suggestions, we would love to hear from you. Your insights are vital in driving our ongoing improvements.

Discover more info in the EAC Apps Brochure or check out the webinar replay.

P.S. Did you hear? We released the latest version of EAC Apps 3.3.0! Check out the Compatibility Matrix and Release Notes here.