Automated sports rim design in CAD system

This research project is conducted to find ways to create automation at design stage in the light of reducing time to design within a Computer Aided Design (CAD) package. As current trend of product development is toward mass customizations, it is found that one of the most effective ways to implement automation in design is by automating the part-repetitive steps that need to be done every time the part is created. This project focused on developing a way to automate the repetitive steps and a case study on a wheel rim design is undertaken. From literature researches, it is found that in wheel designing process, the designer repeat the steps of creating the CAD data for the rim of the wheel which has standard sizing of its important profiles. The two driving dimensions in creating a wheel are the diameter of the wheel and the width which both have standard sizes. Using the function relation and family table in the CAD system, a relation driven table is created which stores the database of all the standard rim sizes available. The only manual thing that designer need to do in designing wheel after the automation is implemented is to design the spokes of the wheel. Again, using relation and pattern function, the number of the spokes can easily be changed as the designer desired. In the end, a method of creating a wheel in significantly faster way than the traditional method is produced. This study paves the way for an automated of repetitive elements in a particular design of intermediate to extremely complex and detailed design.