New CAD Software for Electrical and Fluid Design Flow

June 1, 2010 – Munich, Germany and Westford, MA, USA – Zuken has introduced E³.Functional Design, a new product that extends the electrical and fluid E³.series design flow by enabling engineers to capture initial product design structure at a functional level. This reduces design effort in the very early stages of product development by allowing engineers to specify, at the functional level, a product’s electrical and fluid systems and then use these as the foundation for creating detailed schematic/wiring and fluid design diagrams.

E³.Functional Design captures the initial design information at the beginning of a project to describe the functions and communication channels between the individual modules. It allows the engineer to refine and add sub-functions to these modules as planning progresses - preparing the project for creation of individual schematic/wiring and fluid diagrams.

E³.Functional Design is more than just a design capture tool; it also has intelligent functionality to speed up the design process. It automatically connects all components with the same signal and displays this mapping in connection and device properties. Functional units can be moved between modules at anytime with the affected signals being updated on the connect points immediately. This enables the designer to optimize the module configuration and establish the best functional load through the communication channels. When the desired functional units are correctly assigned, the modules are replaced by standard components from the library. These standard components include the additional information needed to complete the project, such as connector, mating connector, and connector pin terminals. Additionally, they inherit the already defined connection information from the functional design. This enables the schematic/wiring and fluid diagrams to be created quickly and easily.

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No Compromises – Delivering Quality and Higher User Productivity

March 30, 2010 – Munich, Germany and Westford, MA, USA – Zuken has today announced the latest version of E³.series, the state-of-the-art solution for wiring, harnesses, cable, fluid, hydraulics, and panel design. E³.series 2010 focuses on reducing design time with automation, fewer mouse clicks, enabling fast throughput; from early concept to manufacturing and after-sales support. The latest version has been created in response to listening to users, observing the gaps in the design process, and staying true to the commitment of delivering high value, truly dependable solutions.

The variant & option management capabilities deliver more flexibility and allow for easier design re-use across projects. Variant & option configurations can be saved and applied in multiple projects, and can be activated using Boolean expressions. Active variants & options can be viewed with inactive variants & options grayed-out or invisible, simplifying the use of variants & options by making each configuration clearly visible to the user.

The ability to quickly and easily modify bulk data in a table format for automatically updating sheets, connections, pins and devices delivers significant time savings to engineers working on large projects. For wire connectors alone, not having to update this in the graphical view saves hours and eliminates error-prone manual steps. These tables can also be exported to create custom reports. Additionally, sub-circuits, parts of a sheet, one or multiple sheets can be grouped together and updated as a project group. This makes it possible to update or exchange parts of a drawing through just a few mouse clicks.

The ability to import 3D mechanical data directly into the component library using the STEP format saves time and effort in library creation and management. This provides a true 3D representation of the part in the E³.panel, eliminating the requirement to build the panel using a 3D mechanical tool. Parts are now shown in their true 3D shape and size within E³.panel, greatly improving panel and cabinet design. This fast and simple method for defining electro-mechanical devices not only saves time but helps prevents mistakes from occurring during the design of control panels and thus improves design quality.

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New Features for E3 Series Fluid 2010

When Using Models inside E3 Series Fluid you now have the ability to see if a hose/tube is compatible with another component pin. The diameter can also be defined for the component pins of fluid models and for hoses/tubes in the Database. It is also possible, to simultaneously assign a fluid Device Designation. Another great feature is the option to view hose/tube documentation in both the Pneumatic Drawing and the Mechanical Layout as illustrated. This also allows the user to simply click on the actual drawing layout and perform calculations on hose/tube lengths.

Scope of Project

Testing machine with electrical and pneumatic components in the schematic AND in the panel layout

New Functionality

Assign Step Models to Models
– Display STEP Model in Project Window of DBE

New Functionality

Display Parameters for Panel Connections