Key Engineering Materials Vols. 345-346 (2007) pp 1593-1596 online at http://www.scientific.net © (2007) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Online available since 2007/Aug/15
WEB-BASED MATERIAL DATABASE FOR MATERIAL SELECTION AND ITS APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE (API) FOR CAD Doo-Man Chun1,a, Hyung-Jung Kim1,b, Jae-Chul Lee1,c and Sung-Hoon Ahn2,d,† 1
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Building 301, Room 1402, San 56-1 Shinlim-dong, Kwanak-ku, Seoul, Republic of Korea 2
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Institute of Advanced Machinery and Design, Seoul National University, Building 301, Room 1205, San 56-1 Shinlim-dong, Kwanak-ku, Seoul, Republic of Korea a
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected], d,†
[email protected]
Keywords: Material selection, Material property, Web services, Application Programming Interface (API), Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Abstract. Material selection became one of the important activities for engineers in design and manufacturing processes. A selected material at the beginning of design stage affects functionality of the designed part as well as manufacturability and cost of the final product. Unfortunately there are not many accessible material databases that can be properly used for design. In this research, a web-based material database was constructed. In order to assist designers to compare different materials, two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphs for comparison of material properties were provided via the web browser. Using these graphical tools, multi-dimensional comparison was available in more intuitive manner. In addition, this web site is open to the public, and one may add new material properties to the database in order to compare the data with existing materials. To provide the database in a commercial CAD (Computer Aided Design) environment, API (Application Programming Interface) modules were developed using Web services. The web-based material database can be accessible from http://fab.snu.ac.kr/matdb. Introduction Designers should consider material selection from the early conceptual design stage. Material selection is important in the design process. According to the selected materials properties, size, design, price and many other aspects of the product will differ even under the same working conditions. For these reasons, the material selection process is one of the important design processes [1]. Today, the number of available engineering materials is increasing. In this situation, designers need to review various information such as price, manufacturing process and environmental influence, as well as the materials properties, in order to select the proper material in the design process [2-4]. So designers have been using handbooks and software for material selection, but handbooks are difficult to update with new material and have limited accessibility. Much of the software is the stand-alone type and is not open to the public, so it is not accessible from ordinary engineers and companies. Some web-based software has good accessibility, but mostly only its simple search functions are available without a license [5-8]. For these reasons, designers often manually compare and select materials suitable for their working conditions. In addition, most designers use commercial CAD software in the design stage and they are familiar with CAD environment. In the design processes, new functions are required according to various customers’ needs and high competition in globalized market. One of the solutions is implementing modules of CAD software using application programming interface (API) provided by CAD software. For example, SmartFab software was developed in order to provide design for manufacturing (DFM) knowledge of micro machining process [9].
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In this study, a web-based material database with many advantages over traditional databases was constructed. The constructed database provides a material search function with various conditions and material comparison graphs based on material property charts developed by Ashby[1]. Fast, simple and proper selection of materials in the conceptual design stage could be possible with the constructed web-based material database. Also, Web services were implemented for database access, and material selection module with CAD environment was developed using Web services and SolidWorks API in order to assist designers to select proper materials during the design stage. System Overview System Configuration. The web-based material database consists of a client, a web server and a database server as shown in Figure 1. Its architecture is a typical 3-tier application. In addition, SolidWorks API module directly utilizes the Web services. Web services provide a standard means of interoperating between different software applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. Web services are characterized by their great interoperability and extensibility, as well as their machine-processable descriptions thanks to the use of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) [10]. So other clients with different platforms can utilize the Web services.
Figure 1. System configuration of material database System Implementation. Web pages were developed using ASP.NET, which is an efficient tool for server-side programming and has a database connection and tools for Web services such as web service enhancements. The web methods of Web services were implemented using ASP.NET. MS*SQL was used as the database management system taking advantage of its compatibility with ASP.NET. In order to draw the 2D graphs, GDI+ library was used and an image file creation module was developed. X3D (eXtensible 3D) was used for 3D graphs. X3D is an Open Standards, XML-enabled, 3D file format to enable real-time communication of 3D data across all applications and network applications [11]. X3D is a graphic standard, and an additional X3D player is needed on the client’s side to see the 3D graph. SolidWorks API module was implemented using C#.NET. The version of SolidWorks was SolidWorks2005 which started to support the API using C#.NET. Web-based Material Database Search Page. The search page uses keywords, ranges of material properties and material classification as search conditions. Using these search conditions, the number of candidate materials for material selection can be narrowed. Analysis Pages. The analysis pages provide comparison graphs based on a performance index suitable for the product’s working condition. In the graph, each axis represents one material property
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and the ellipse or ball represents the range of two or three material properties in the same material group. The graph’s scale is a Log-Log scale in order to show the performance index and the ranges of material properties in simple and meaningful ways. Figure 2 shows 2D and 3D graphs for material comparison respectively. The lines in 2D graph and the plane in 3D graph represent performance indexes with two or three material properties. In these graphs, the upper-left sides of lines or a plane show better performance, so the arrows indicate a good candidate for a given performance index. Using these graphs, design engineers can get suitable materials in an intuitive manner.
Figure 2. 2D and 3D graphs of material selection Application of Web Services SolidWorks API Module was implemented in order to show how to apply Web services to the commercial CAD environment and how to utilize material database for material selection. Figure 3 shows the implemented methods, the procedure of material selection and user interface for material comparison.
Figure 3. Implemented methods of Web services and SolidWorks API module and its user interface Web Services Methods. Many networks have firewalls to protect systems, and direct database access has limited access resources. Therefore database can not be used by other applications, and users can utilize only the provided web pages and modules. Web services using Internet protocols which firewalls commonly allow, were implemented for database access. For security reasons, only data retrieval queries are supported with different forms for search, 2D graph, 3D graph and so on. SoildWorks API Module using Web Services. Material selection is considered from the conceptual design stage to the detail design stage, and the material selection modules embedded in CAD software
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are very effective because designers have been using CAD software during the design processes. Some CAD programs support the material information, but they simply provide limited material properties. This SolidWorks API module provides not only simple material properties, but also graphical analysis for material comparison that can be directly used for material selection process with intuitive manner. 2D graph is the same as what the web-based material database provides. In addition, ranking of selected materials with material properties using the user-defined weight factors is one of methods for material selection. Moreover, volume data extracted from CAD file utilizing the API functions is used for the mass and the price of raw work piece material for the part, so mass and price can be also considered for rankings. The ranking is calculated by normalization, entropy method, and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) [12]. The user interface of Figure 3 shows the rankings of candidate materials. Conclusions To support material selection process, which is one of the important processes in the product design stage, a web-based material database was constructed. It supports a search page and analysis pages for material comparison using 2D and 3D graphs. In addition, CAD module using Web services and SolidWorks API were implemented. It provides a search dialogue, 2D graph analysis dialogue and material comparison dialogue. This web-based material database and Web services focus on usability and accessibility in real design processes. However, additional data including manufacturing information and the development of additional comparison methods are necessary. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Korea Powertratin Co., Ltd. (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Project No. 10007753), Second stage of Brain Korea 21 and Micro Thermal System Research Center (ERC) of Seoul National University. References [1] M. F. Ashby and K. Johnson: Materials and Design, Butterworth-Heinemann, NY (2003). [2] M. F. Ashby , Y. J. M. Brechet, D. Cebon and L. Salvo: Materials and Design Vol. 25 (2004), p. 51-67. [3] L. Holloway: Materials and Design Vol. 19 (1998), p. 133-143. [4] C. S. Smith, P. K. Wright and C. Séquin: International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing Vol. 16 (2003), p.373-381. [5] Information on http://www.nist.org [6] Information on http://www.matweb.com [7] Information on http://www.grantadesign.com [8] Information on http://fact.kisti.re.kr [9] H. J. Kim, W. S. Chu, S. H. Ahn, D. S. Kim, and C. S. Jun: Journal of Computer Applications in Engineering Education Vol. 14 (2006), p. 169-177. [10] Information on http://www.w3c.org [11] Information on http://www.web3d.org [12] D. Jee and K. Kang: Materials and Design Vol. 21 (2000), p. 199-206.
