Design Checker

Information > 3-D, Further > Design Checker

The Design Checker is a tool that enables you to increase the quality of your drawings and reduce costs and time through an early detection of errors in the design. You can auto-check your drawings for their compliance with specific construction guidelines; it detects, for example, invalid features, incorrect bolting sets, dummy parts, and much more. If any errors are detected, HiCAD issues an appropriate message and suggests corrections.

A number of tests that cannot be modified has been predefined by the ISD. However, administrators or users with programming skills can define their Individual checks and use them in the Design Checker.

When you call the function, the Design Checker dialogue window will be displayed:

HiCAD checks the active drawing or all assemblies of the selection list. Activate the desired option in the Test execution area. As long as the dialogue window is open, you can freely change the selection list to be checked.

Select the checks that you want to perform and click the Start button to execute the checks. The current state of the check is indicated by the Test and Total progress bars in the dialogue, separately for the currently performed check and the total progress for all checks.

 

The results of the checks will be shown in the Test results pane.

The symbols have the following meaning:

Click the symbol to obtain more detailed information on the test results. To expand or collapse all test results, click or , respectively.

The symbols within a test result have the following meaning:

An error has been detected / warning.

No errors have been detected.

When you click on a result list item, the corresponding part will be highlighted in your drawing. A multiple selection of parts (press CTRL+click) is also possible. The highlighting will still be preserved if you move or rotate the view while the Design Checker is open.

Click the symbol to zoom in on the part causing the error.

 

Please note:

 

The checks need to be based on the HiCAD .NET API and must be provided as C# or Python scripts. User-specific checks should only be defined by administrators or users with sound knowledge of the HiCAD API and Python script creation. The availability of checks in the Design Checker as well as the configuration of the tree structure of the checks can be specified in the DesignChecks.XML file in the HiCAD folder Script.

 

Different checks have been predefined by ISD:


General


Feature


HCM


Steel Engineering

If no maximum values >0 have been specified in the Configuration Editor, the calculation cannot be performed. In this case the Design Checker will issue an appropriate message.

The check can also be done depending on the beam types (catalogue designation). The parameter Maximal length and weight of beams in the Configuration Editor serves for this. By clicking the symbol a dialogue box appears, in which you can type in the maximal values of the beam/profile type as desired.

The profile type can be chosen by clicking in the catalogue.

A new row resp. the current row can be deleted with the buttons or .

For this test the following requirements must be met:

(1) X-direction: Length, (2) Y-direction: Width, (3) Z-direction: Height

The check can also be done depending on the beam types (catalog designation). The parameter Maximal length and weight of beams serves for this. By clicking the symbol a dialogue box appears, in which you can type in the maximal values of the beam/profile type as desired.

The profile type can be chosen by clicking in the catalogue.

 

A new row resp. the current row can be deleted with the buttons or .

If you change the settings at Modelling > Part properties, please restart HiCAD.


Sheet Metal

The test Sheet dimensions developed checks whether the blank sizes of sheet developments exceed the maximum dimensions according to the sheet dimensioning table in the Catalogue Editor (Factory standards > Sheet dimensions). If this is the case, the sheet cannot be produced. The sheet dimensioning table in the Catalogue Editor consists the practice-oriented dimensions (Column L1 and W1) for the corresponding materials and sheet thickness (Column T).

This test checks the dimensioning for semi-finished products. For this, the table Sheet dimensions (defined by semi-fin. prod.) under Factory Standards> Sheet dimensions is evaluated in the Catalogue Editor. The table shows the maximum length and width of the semi-finished product as a function of the TableID of the semi-finished product.

The dimensions of the ALUCOBOND panels stored in this table are predefined by ISD. However, you can extend this table as required for other semi-finished products.

 

This test checks for sheet metal parts whether collisions occur between flanges or bend zones during a development or a bending simulation.

 

This check finds all sheet metal parts with no or more than one direction symbol.


Glass

With the checks

Maximal dimensions

Maximal weight of glass panes.

it is checked whether the dimensions and weights of glass panes exceed the maximum values specified in the Configuration Editor, at Analysis > DesignChecker > Max. dimensions and weight of glass panes

 


Individual checks

Administrators or users with programming experience can define their own checks and integrate them into Design Checker.

These checks are required to meet the following conditions:

 

Suppose you have created such a Python script for an individual check and it has the name DC_USER.PY. To integrate the test into the Design Checker, proceed as follows:

In the file DesignChecks.xml, one block belongs to each of these groups as follows

For example, if you want to add your test to the General group, you must add the following line:

<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="DC_User" DesignationTextKey="" DesignationText="My test" ExecuteCheck="True" DescriptionText="My individual test" Script="DC_User.py" />

The ExecuteCheck parameter determines whether the check is active when the Design Checker is called. The parameter DesignationText is the text that will be shown for this check in the Design Checker.

<DesignCheckGroup DesignationTextKey="DC_TestsGeneral" DesignationText="Allgemein" ExecuteCheck="True">
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="DC_User" DesignationTextKey="" DesignationText="My individual check" ExecuteCheck="True" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_User.py" />
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="TestEmptyOrInvisibleViews" DesignationTextKey="DC_TestEmptyOrInvisibleViews" DesignationText="Empty /hidden views" ExecuteCheck="False" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_Views.py" />
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="TestEmptyParts" DesignationTextKey="DC_TestEmptyParts" DesignationText="Dummy parts" ExecuteCheck="False" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_EmptyParts.py" />
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="TestMiroredParts" DesignationTextKey="DC_TestMiroredParts" DesignationText="Mirrored parts" ExecuteCheck="False" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_MirroredParts.py" />
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="PartsNoItemNumbers" DesignationTextKey="DC_PartsNoItemNumbers" DesignationText="BOM relevant parts without item number" ExecuteCheck="False" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_PartsNoItemNumbers.py" />
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="BuildCadModel" DesignationTextKey="DataModel" DesignationText="Data model" ExecuteCheck="True" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_BuildCadModel.py">
<RepairScripts>
<RepairScript RepairScriptId="FixCadStructure" />
</RepairScripts>
</DesignCheckDescription>

Result:

 

If your tests are to be listed in a separate group, you must create a corresponding DesignCheckGroup, for example

<DesignCheckGroup DesignationTextKey="" DesignationText="My group" ExecuteCheck="False">
<DesignCheckDescription DesignCheckId="DC_User" DesignationTextKey="" DesignationText="My individual check" ExecuteCheck="True" DescriptionText="" Script="DC_User.py" />
</DesignCheckGroup>

 

Result:

Information - Other FunctionsInformation - Data Structure Check