topic Re: Factory Design Utilities and Configurator 360 in Configurator 360 Forum (Read Only)

Factory Design Utilities and Configurator 360

K_Baker_89 — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 12:08:49 GMT

Hi,

(I've also posted this in the FDU forum to get their take on it, available here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/factory-design-utilities-forum/factory-layout-in-web-browser/m-p/7812165#M4486)

Is there a way to build Factory Layouts via a web browser? Something like Configurator 360 maybe?

We have a large catalogue of busbar elements which are snapped together (using FDU connection points) to build up a run. The ultimate goal is to have a tool allowing people to build their own busbar runs using our catalogued parts via a web browser.

Does anyone have experience of Configurator 360 and FDU?

Cheers,

Kurt

Re: Factory Design Utilities and Configurator 360

Jon.Balgley — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:43:10 GMT

Hi --

Most Configurator 360 (C360) customers have parametric models where all the permutations are predictable and can be generated by "merely setting some parameters", even if there are hundreds of parameters with trillions of possible permutations. That's different from your "busbar" scenario.

In theory C360 can do this, but you should evaluate whether it meets your needs in practice. Here are some things to investigate and consider:

First of all, you'd have to decide how (or if?) to input some kind of representation of your customer's environment. C360 doesn't support underlays, unfortunately.

You could use the C360 "embedding" API to push some limited data (e.g., key points), but not a whole DWG or IAM. (C360 expects you to have the parametric "main" IAM, not your customer.)
Maybe you could (manually) create/upload a unique C360 "design" (main IAM) for each customer? Depends on whether you're doing one-per-month, with hundreds of iterations, or hundreds-per-month.

For the busbars, you'd want to use C360's "accessories" mechanism.

This uses a different kind of connector, similar to FDU's, but different. So you'd have to re-create those. Perhaps you'd want to re-create/modify your components anyway, in order to make more web-friendly "lightweight" representations.
The "accessories" mechanism is clearly less-than-ideal, and you must assume that Autodesk will not be making any improvements to it. For example, there's no way to lock it into a "plan view". If you think -- "it would be great, if only Autodesk would..." -- then don't go there, at least not yet. Keep your eye on us for the future.
But if your needs are limited, then it might be a good fit, and that's great, we're 100% with you!

I hope this helps. Please realize that I can only discuss C360's current capabilities. I don't want to accidentally mislead you by "speculating" about the future.

Other folks in the community, please feel free to chime in!

Re: Factory Design Utilities and Configurator 360

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 09:41:22 GMT

Thanks for the information about the factory utilities.

Re: Factory Design Utilities and Configurator 360

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 11:59:41 GMT

Hi Kurt,

checkout your original thread......

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/factory-design-utilities-forum/factory-layout-in-web-browser/m-p/7812...

cheers

Re: Factory Design Utilities and Configurator 360

KKizildemir — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 06:46:38 GMT

Hi Kurt,

Here's an FDU-like application we've made on C360. Feel free to ask question about that.

Cheers