Management of Variants and Options
Variants and Options enables our customers to reduce the number of projects and therefore the time needed to make changes.
To help companies who have many configurations to manage, E3.series comes with built-in variant and option functionality. This enables our customers to create single projects containing all possible options; then through tick box selections automatically configure their specific designs.
The properties of each variant and option group determines the behavior. For example, the option or variant “must exist” or “only one” option or variant can be active or “0..n” or “1..n”.
For interdependent variant and options boolean expressions can determine the behavior. For example, if a navigation system is chosen then basic radio is automatically de-selected. Aliases can be defined to replace boolean expressions, this simplifies the selection of multiple variant and options.
The use of variants and options reduces the number of projects and makes it easier to track modifications during the development of system platforms.
"The design automation features and flexible API were key reasons we chose E3.WireWorks*, and we’ve now achieved significant time savings by automating many of the drawing functions."
Dominic Locas, R& D Manager, Fortress Technology
Configuration control
Anyone working with the numerous configuration choices in vehicle industries understands the complexity of the design process and the need for speed and accuracy when compiling design specifications.
To address this, E3.series 2012 has improved option handling with configurations and packages (a collection of functional additions to a vehicle). This benefits those working with options and variants as engineers can quickly access the specifications for different vehicle configurations and analyze the effects of alternative design scenarios. In keeping with E3.series’ object-oriented functionality, selecting the configuration automatically creates the relevant data for all departments involved in the production process.
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*E3.WireWorks is the E3.series edition for SolidWorks users