Center for Virtual Product Development and Digital Process Chains

In the early 1980s, dedicated professors founded CAD centers throughout Baden-Württemberg with the aim of systematically promoting computer-aided construction (CAD).

Today, the CAD Center at Aalen University of Applied Sciences sees itself as a modern centre for virtual Product Development. It provides 59 high-quality work stations and forms a central infrastructure for digital development processes.

In addition to teaching, the CAD center supports

• the planning and implementation of Bachelor's and Master's Theses
• Application-related and industry-oriented research projects

As a central facility; central institutes, the CAD Center supervises several hundred students - and the trend is rising.

The CAD Center also supports the "Makeathon" of the Faculty of Optics & Mechatronics, which takes place once a semester.

The focus is on holistic solutions for

• 3D design
• construction
• product data management
• collaborative venture, partnership, collaboration

The CAD center provides common software solutions to virtually map the entire product development process (PLM) on the computer.

In the context of Industry 4.0, the end-to-end digital process chain is becoming increasingly important. This also includes the complete digitalization of attachments and processes.

The CAD center offers training in the Mechatronics Concept Designer (MCD) for this purpose.
The MCD is a tool integrated into Siemens NX (Unigraphics) for modeling Mechatronic Systems within a CAD environment.

The resulting models are known as "digital twins".

To illustrate this, a 3D printer was built as a complete MCD model as part of a final thesis.

The 3D printer is not only used for demonstration purposes. It is available to students to produce models from projects or final theses.

In addition, individual components or the entire printer are used as a starting point for student projects.

In addition to classic development processes, the CAD center also offers training in the field (of) reverse engineering.

The Rapidform XOR software is used.
This is used to derive precise CAD models from point clouds - for example from 3D scans of real components - and process them further.