Product Documentation that is Easy, Affordable and Complete
Abstract: Today’s companies have a huge investment in 3Dproduct designs. Using 3D CAD models and data directly to create product
documents greatly reduces product time-to-market and lifecycle costs. Product documentation software
provides these capabilities. To be effective, product documentation software
should be easy,
affordable, and
offer a complete end-to-end solution. Unfortunately most of today’s
applications are expensive, unnecessarily complicated and still require
multiple programs to publish final documents.
This white paper will discuss how product documentation can
benefit your company and what software attributes should be considered when
choosing a solution. The right software will
result in immediate
benefits for designers, engineers, technical publication teams and everyone involved
with your product’s launch and maintenance. Customers that
implement product documentation software report huge savings for manufacturing work
instructions, technical publications, illustrated parts catalogs and product information
brochures.
Product
Documentation Software: Six Major Benefits
Minimize engineering
involvement
3D
product design information typically resides in design and engineering
departments and is not available to downstream users, such as manufacturing,
technical publications, etc. As a
consequence, engineers and designers can spend 25-40% of their effort generating
illustrations, images, views and data packets in support of documentation
efforts.
By providing a lightweight
packet of the 3D model and data to the downstream user, engineers and designers
can minimize their involvement in product documentation.
Increase effectiveness of
documentation
Documentation
teams often use a time consuming, multi-step, iterative process with engineers
to converge on the desired view or illustration for the documents. This cycle requires considerable time and
communications for both documentation teams and engineers.
By having the 3D model and
data available, documentation teams can edit and create the required views
without extensively involving the engineers and designers.
Reduce errors
Current
processes usually require multiple translations, transfers, rendering and
reworks. Each of these steps creates an
opportunity to introduce errors.
By creating the
illustrations directly from the original design information with minimal
translations and transfers, the number of errors is significantly reduced.
Reduce time to market
Often
documentation efforts pace the product manufacturing and release. This occurs largely because the documentation
does not begin until the design is complete. The current process
requires documents to be created toward the end of the product design period,
or worst case, after the product is available and ready to be photographed.
By
essentially eliminating the iterative process between designers and the
documentation team, the time to market for most products can be dramatically
reduced. Product documentation software allows
technical writers to begin the creation of communications sooner and update as
the product design is revised. In addition, since the design is being used
directly, the documentation can be completed more efficiently and with fewer
errors.
Reduce product lifecycle
costs
Significant
product costs result from the various documentation requirements and from the
continual update. Current processes
involve multiple software applications and translations and accommodate very
little reuse of illustrations and content.
SolidWorks
---------> Photoshop ----------> Word ------------> Acrobat
Typical process includes
multiple steps with multiple software tools to create documents.
Product documentation
software facilitates extensive reuse of illustrations, text and layout, the
creation and sustainment of product documents is accomplished at less
cost.
--- Product
Documentation Software ---
Some solutions support
end-to-end document publishing with a single application.
Improve communications
Product
information is increasingly being shared throughout the enterprise and with
international partners, suppliers and customers. Pictures convey information much more
effectively than words and interactive 3D conveys information more effectively
than pictures, particularly across language and cultural barriers.
Product documentation
software captures images and lightweight, interactive 3D models with markups,
descriptive text and predefined views for easy electronic or printed
distribution. This enhances understanding and improves product communication.
Customers report
major savings from Product Documentation Software
The
move to Product Documentation software is driven by business pressures on time
to market, product lifecycle costs and return on investment. Since 3D CAD has become so pervasive, the
drive to reduce barriers between design engineering and downstream business
functions is accelerating. Product
Documentation software typically produces immediate returns to engineering,
manufacturing and technical publications organizations.
After
implementing a product documentation solution, companies are able to leverage
their existing 3D CAD files to quickly create supporting deliverables. This
process invariable results in the following proven benefits:
·
80% improvement in documenter productivity
·
25% less engineer time required
·
25% faster time-to-market
·
30% faster training
For
example, a large equipments manufacturer reports: “We immediately saved 88% of
documentation cost of generating illustrations for a parts catalog by using the
QuadriSpace solution.” These savings are
realized by having the lightweight model and associated data immediately
available without the need for extra CAD seats. Model editing, markup, and
publication to required formats are achieved quickly in a single, powerful
software application.
A
medical devices customer reports: “a 30% reduction in time and cost for
creating interactive, manufacturing work instructions and additional costs are
saved by reduced training and increased flexibility in the work assignments”. Additional savings are created by
‘automatically’ updating instructions when a part changes.
A
heavy machinery manufacturer reports: “an 83% reduction in time for creating
illustrations for product information manuals”.
The extensive model editing, customizable render styles, markups and publishing
options are all integrated into a single software application that enables an
efficient workflow without the involvement of designers and engineers and without
using CAD seats.
Additional
savings in time and effort are achieved by using a single, full capability,
integrated solution that is structured for product documentation.
Key Attributes of
Product Documentation Software
Complete Solution
Most
product documentation software is only useful for a single aspect of the
process. For example many viewer-like products create images that are then
inserted into a page design program. In addition, page design programs do not
support 3D CAD data. This means that both programs are required to create the
documents and the update process becomes fragmented.
Pick a product that provides
a complete, integrated solution. This will get you all the way from 3D CAD
files to final product documents in the shortest time.
Easy to Install and Use
Many
products that claim to focus on product documentation are complicated and work
like CAD software. This requires an extended training period and the document
creation process takes longer. In addition, many proposed documentation
solutions require complicated integration planning and time-consuming IT
effort. For most documentation projects this is just not necessary.
The best products on the
market provide a user experience much like Microsoft Office. This makes installing
and using the software easy and familiar, even for non-CAD users. Your team
will spend less time fighting the software and more time creating informative
documents.
Affordable for Entire Teams
Without
affordable document authoring products, a single expert ends up with all the
work. This is counter-productive to your efforts because it limits the reuse of
the 3D information.
Look for affordable
solutions that can be purchased for entire teams of users across the enterprise.
Make sure that the products include the 3D, page design and publishing tools that
you need to be successful.
Enterprise-Wide
use of 3D
While 3D CAD has dramatically improved the engineer’s ability to
rapidly design complex products, to-date, the product information contained in
these CAD models has not been available to downstream participants who need it
for product communication and collaboration.
Downstream users are unable to leverage the readily available 3D content
to create print and online documents.
Non-design activities that benefit from this information include:
·
Manufacturing – Assembly
instructions and procurement
·
Technical documentation
– user guides, data sheets
·
Sales and
marketing
– online catalogs, virtual product walkthroughs, sales presentations, sales
training, brochures
·
Service and
support
– interactive training, parts catalog, service bulletins
·
Collaborative sourcing
and development – customer briefings, supplier communications, quality
inspection and reporting, design reviews
As a result of their inability to leverage existing product
information for communication and documentation, the downstream user has become
the bottleneck in meeting company requirements for reducing time to market,
improving product quality and reducing costs.
Manufacturing Work
Instructions
Typically,
manufacturing personnel don’t have access to 3D CAD tools. Product
Documentation Software
provides a means of fully using the 3D model and associated data to easily
create associative BOMs, procurement documents, and manufacturing work
instructions. The documents can be
animated, interactive 3D or printed and contain the model, parts and special
instructions for each step of the manufacturing process. This capability is
extremely powerful for offshore operations. Furthermore, if a part
changes, automatic update capabilities will update the entire documents with the revised parts.
Technical Publications
Many
technical publications groups use a multi-step, and multi-program, process for
generating illustrations for product literature. These typically require engineering personnel
to capture the specified view and render style in an image from the 3D CAD
tool. Tech pubs must then add the
markups in a paint tool and publish using yet another program. When using an integrated product
documentation product, all tasks are accomplished with a single software solution. This
allows Tech Pubs to easily design and publish illustrations directly from the
3D CAD for all product publications.
Illustrated Parts Catalogs
Creating
illustrated parts catalogs or interactive parts lists is simple with
QuadriSpace solutions since it is easy to explode the assemblies and the parts
data is imported from the 3D CAD program while maintaining the associativity of
the parts and data.
Service and Support
Operator,
repair, maintenance and training material can be readily generated by using the
comprehensive 3D editing, page layout, text editing and flexible publishing
tools. These can be published to print,
video, Flash, 3D PDF or native electronic CD or .EXE formats for broad
distribution to users. The ‘automatic’
update capability also applies to these documents.
Product
data sheets and sales and marketing materials are easily produced using the 3D
editing, extensive markup and multi-model management tools.
Engineering Communications
Engineers
can share designs using lightweight models that are secure and manageable. They can be printed or electronic,
interactive 3D models which transcend language and cultural barriers.
Product
documentation software can be used to document designs by capturing the 3D
model and the associated parts data in a form accessible by those needing
access to the design but that don’t have access to the 3D CAD tool. Also,
QuadriSpace’s product documentation software supports multiple models from
various 3D CAD tools.
Eldad
Sayada, Widetech CEO.
Follow
me to the next article about “ Available solutions for 3D documentations”; https://twitter.com/EldadSayada ; http://widetech-ltd.blogspot.co.il/
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