{"id":55128,"date":"2024-02-05T16:45:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/?p=55128"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:34:20","slug":"redefining-the-role-of-designers-in-the-rfq-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/redefining-the-role-of-designers-in-the-rfq-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Redefining the role of designers in the RFQ process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Winning more business, making better decisions, and decreasing the number of physical prototypes can be achieved by adopting appropriate strategies.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to my employment at Siemens, I worked as a design engineer for several years, utilizing a range of CAD and CAE software to develop customized machinery and automation equipment. These projects presented two primary obstacles; strict delivery timelines and the customer\u2019s unwillingness to finance R&D efforts, resulting in only one chance to get it right. Though enjoyable, the job was also stressful, as unexpected design changes could quickly eat into profits or even result in a loss. Sometimes design changes caused delays in delivery which unfortunately led to some unhappy customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who is passionate about lifelong learning and enjoys sharing knowledge with peers, I devised the following story to discuss how I would have used Siemens NX and Simcenter software to accelerate the design process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Animations help quote the job<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of our sales reps sent me the following message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Starting with a blank slate, I begin sketching some ideas in Siemens NX. To ensure the gripper moves parallel to the payload sides, I will use 2 parallel bars and incorporate a bell crank that will be driven by an actuator. Animations can effectively communicate ideas, much like a picture speaks a thousand words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the past, I would have needed to create 3D models of the mechanism assembly along with the respective assembly relationships to simulate its motion. However, now that I can animate sketches using NX Animation Designer<\/em><\/strong>, it’s much quicker and easier to evaluate concepts and perform what-if studies prior to modeling. This is especially useful since the project is still in the quote phase and we don’t want to invest too much time at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effortlessly solve complex motion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How would you approach this request – manual articulation of assembly constraints? With this approach, you’ll probably spend a lot of time with numerous iterations to achieve the desired motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a better way, and one of my favorite commands is Inverse Kinematics<\/em><\/strong>. It is incredibly simple to use and can save so much time. Here is the workflow:<\/p>\n\n\n

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In this example, I set limits on the appropriate joints to mimic the robot’s physical constraints and received the following prompt that the target could not be reached.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As seen in the animation above, the robot was unable to grip the payload due to its limited range in motion and a simple fix would be to raise and\/or move the conveyor further away from the robot. However, the conveyor height is a fixed customer requirement, so what if we grasp the payload from overhead? To validate this idea, a simple edit is made by re-orienting the target location triads and the motion re-solves in nearly real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It appears this change will work, so I\u2019ll give our sales rep an update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Efficiently handle change request<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Changes happen all the time, and Siemens NX makes it a breeze to handle them efficiently thanks to its integrated environment. I received a new floor plan from the customer. They added some equipment near our pickup location, and I needed to include it in our simulation. To do this, I used a bounding box to highlight the obstruction. Additionally, I activated the Collision Avoidance option in the Inverse Kinematics command. After resolving the motion path, the simulation was able to avoid the newly added obstacle without any issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Siemen NX empowers designers to effortlessly animate concept models, validate complex motion, and handle change request with ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I urge you to redefine the role of the designers at your company and involve them in more RFQ activities. For most, this is a major shift in thinking since involving them in pre-sales activities is often seen as too expensive. But isn’t it more expensive to lose the sales opportunity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Try our 30-day design simulation online trial<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winning more business, making better decisions, and decreasing the number of physical prototypes can be achieved by adopting appropriate strategies….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84482,"featured_media":55322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"industry":[155,172],"product":[428,577],"coauthors":[10817],"class_list":["post-55128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cae-simulation","industry-industrial-machinery-heavy-equipment","industry-small-medium-business","product-nx","product-simcenter-3d"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/02\/Inverse-Kinematics-01.gif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55128"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55585,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55128\/revisions\/55585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55128"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=55128"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=55128"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=55128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}