KEY POINTS
  • Managing multiple CADs while harnessing the features of a full-fledged 3DEXPERIENCE Platform has always been a challenge. Power’By addresses this specific challenge by enabling CAD co-existence.
  • Data validation prior to migration is critical to ensure success of this implementation. Tools developed for the same can enable data accuracy as well as improve efficiency.
  • Migration rehearsals are necessary when dealing with legacy data. Data quality is ensured with iterative cleanup cycles
Collaboration on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is enabled for the SOLIDWORKS users with the Power’By functionality. This allows SOLIDWORKS customers to leverage large range of 3DEXPERIENCE apps and harness the power of a full-fledged 3DEXPERIENCE platform while continuing to design in SOLIDWORKS .

Context

A European wellness equipment company was using SOLIDWORKS and a non-DS PDM for managing their CAD data and wanted to get this data onto the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. When this project started, the existing EDAT solution was not supporting migration of SOLIDWORKS data into the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. The customer was already on a predefined path for 3DEXPERIENCE platform implementation and the data from SOLIDWORKS was a critical success factor.

Challenges

The customer’s challenges were common w.r.t CAD migration along with some additional context specific challenges as detailed below.
  • Identify an effective approach for migration in the absence of EDAT
  • Transformation of the product structure post migration of data.
  • Merging of data from two data sources .
  • Data scenarios were not documented, making analysis and validation challenging.
  • Migrated data should then be usable for creating digital mockups; model based engineering and manufacturing as well as possible use in DELMIA in the future.
  • The customizations on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform were being implemented in parallel. The migration scripts had to take care of these changes dynamically.

Our Solution

DSGS developed a comprehensive solution, which catered to the needs and addressed the challenges of the customer. The primary components of our solution included
  • Analysis of source data and report out possible data corrections at the source
  • Extraction scripts from legacy PDM
  • CAD Checker Reports for data validation before migration
  • Data cleaning strategy
  • SOLIDWORKS import tool using the same strategy as SOLIDWORKS UPS connector
  • Data Transformation using OOTB and custom web services.
In addition to these technical aspects of the solution, it is imperative to note the below best practices which helped secure the quality of data migration.



  • Analysis of source data – Identify gaps w.r.t target data model (missing mandatory information, missing links etc.,) is essential to define the right approach for data migration. This analysis helps in determining the need for number of rehearsals to ensure the final production migration if of good quality.
  • Automated data cleansing – Wherever possible, if the data can be cleansed programmatically it should be done so that it reduces the efforts for manual data cleansing. Ofcourse, where data needs to be analyzed before cleansed can only be done manually.
  • Multiple migration rehearsals – When dealing with legacy data migrations, data quality aspects might be tricky. It is necessary to ensure good quality data finally goes into the target system. Multiple migration rehearsals become imperative to ensure that.

Critical Success Factors

Comprehensive migration assessment – During the assessment phase of the project, rules for revision selection and replacement were defined to ensure allegiance to the target data model.
  • Product Structures could be different in source and target. The same were highlighted to the customer and remedial measures were configured as per the business rules.
Detailed test cases – were written to ensure comprehensive validation.
  • Detailed manual validations were performed where necessary (Geometrics, Designs)
  • Tools like CAD Checker used to export product structure and validate for completeness.
Identification of sample data – Worked collaboratively with the customer to identify the right set of sample data to verify during each rehearsal. 10 prod structures identified in first dry run and went upto 500 in 4th dry run.
Collaboration with R&D – Worked collaboratively with DS R&D to come up with solutions for product issues by contextualizing the inputs and validating the solutions.
Production Migration Strategy – Worked with multiple stakeholders to define production migration strategy in terms of sequence of operations, cut over time, and ensuring availability of all teams to ensure smooth cutover.

Conclusion

Digital transformation is the need of the hour. For customers wanting to take the next step into the world of PLM, without changing their CAD authoring software, Power’By 3DEXPERIENCE is the answer. A comprehensive migration strategy helps customers with this complex and strategic step. Due diligence, coupled with methodical tracking of data through extraction, transformation and loading helps in achieving quality data migrations.


Mekhala GOVINDA
(Senior Program Manager)
Contributor: Gopala KOTA
IN.DSGS.Marketing@3ds.com
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