Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships
Sashank Ganti, Senior Product Manager, Visualisation, Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division
Nexus
Collaboration across departments in manufacturing companies can be challenging. Departments often operate in silos, lack alignment and coordination, and face inadequate infrastructure that hinders collaboration. Without the right tools, sharing information, collaborating on projects, and tracking progress can be difficult.
Nexus 3D Whiteboard brings the ease of day-to-day document collaboration, like Office 365, to the world of complex 3D data. This tool allows experts from multiple disciplines to connect their sophisticated tools and collaborate seamlessly in real time.
Key features
Real-time insights: a simulation analyst can quickly share insights from a complex simulation with a designer by overlaying results directly on the CAD model.
Collaborative canvas: the 3D Whiteboard provides a canvas for designers and analysts to mark up areas of interest on the shared model and discuss potential design changes immediately.
Enhanced accuracy: a metrologist can superimpose scanned point cloud data on the CAD model to articulate problems to designers and other analysts, eliminating delays and rework.
The 3D Whiteboard is a zero-install, browser-based 3D viewer that can natively load various CAD, CAE, and Point Cloud data files. It includes built-in data security and identity management from the Nexus cloud platform. Using open data formats (gltf, glb, obj, STEP), it is extensible to many workflows across the value chain. The 3D Whiteboard is also available as an app on Microsoft Teams, boosting productivity with familiar tools.
Suppliers and machine shop owners receive CAD models from their customers for manufacturing. Oftentimes, the CAD has to be modified to machine the part using the available equipment. This requires collaboration between the suppliers and their customers. Traditionally, this collaboration occurs through screenshots contained in emails that are exchanged back and forth until contracts are finalised. This process is prone to errors due to a lack of proper communication and suffers from a high risk of contract violations due to a lack of proper change tracking.
The Design Review module in DESIGNER provides a seamless solution to this problem. With a few clicks, DESIGNER users can share an annotated 3D model with their customers, articulating proposed changes in full 3D detail. The customer can then use the 3D Whiteboard to understand the proposal and its implications and respond back. The easy-to-use commenting interface with Snapshots, 3D Pins, and inking keeps all of the communication in one place in the shared document for all parties to review at any time. Actions and decisions can be tracked together with the full context of the change for anyone to understand.
Furthermore, the system automatically generates emails and notifications to alert involved parties to changes. Users of Microsoft Teams can also pull up the 3D Whiteboard in any Teams call and immediately dive into an immersed 3D view where each user can manipulate and annotate the model individually.
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The million dollar question
How can designers, simulation analysts, and manufacturing engineers solve complex problems in real time and in a 3D environment? The short answer: big problems, like data flow between departments, require advanced solutions.
Introducing Nexus 3D Whiteboard
Nexus 3D Whiteboard brings the ease of day-to-day document collaboration, like Office 365, to the world of complex 3D data. This tool allows experts from multiple disciplines to connect their sophisticated tools and collaborate seamlessly in real time.Key features
Real-time insights: a simulation analyst can quickly share insights from a complex simulation with a designer by overlaying results directly on the CAD model.
Collaborative canvas: the 3D Whiteboard provides a canvas for designers and analysts to mark up areas of interest on the shared model and discuss potential design changes immediately.
Enhanced accuracy: a metrologist can superimpose scanned point cloud data on the CAD model to articulate problems to designers and other analysts, eliminating delays and rework.
Real-time collaboration
Nexus optimises data flows to occur in real time, allowing users to focus on solving problems rather than dealing with complex tools and data exchange processes. The analyst, designer, and quality specialist can work simultaneously using their applications, while Nexus keeps the collaboration data up-to-date.
Zero install and secure
The 3D Whiteboard is a zero-install, browser-based 3D viewer that can natively load various CAD, CAE, and Point Cloud data files. It includes built-in data security and identity management from the Nexus cloud platform. Using open data formats (gltf, glb, obj, STEP), it is extensible to many workflows across the value chain. The 3D Whiteboard is also available as an app on Microsoft Teams, boosting productivity with familiar tools.3D Whiteboard for design reviews
The first go-to-market offering of the 3D Whiteboard is the Design Review module in Hexagon’s popular CAD for CAM product, the DESIGNER. This offering allows users of DESIGNER to seamlessly invite stakeholders to review and approve changes to the design for machining.Suppliers and machine shop owners receive CAD models from their customers for manufacturing. Oftentimes, the CAD has to be modified to machine the part using the available equipment. This requires collaboration between the suppliers and their customers. Traditionally, this collaboration occurs through screenshots contained in emails that are exchanged back and forth until contracts are finalised. This process is prone to errors due to a lack of proper communication and suffers from a high risk of contract violations due to a lack of proper change tracking.
The Design Review module in DESIGNER provides a seamless solution to this problem. With a few clicks, DESIGNER users can share an annotated 3D model with their customers, articulating proposed changes in full 3D detail. The customer can then use the 3D Whiteboard to understand the proposal and its implications and respond back. The easy-to-use commenting interface with Snapshots, 3D Pins, and inking keeps all of the communication in one place in the shared document for all parties to review at any time. Actions and decisions can be tracked together with the full context of the change for anyone to understand.
Furthermore, the system automatically generates emails and notifications to alert involved parties to changes. Users of Microsoft Teams can also pull up the 3D Whiteboard in any Teams call and immediately dive into an immersed 3D view where each user can manipulate and annotate the model individually.
Learn more