CADSEEK Polaris is our flagship application which serves the broadest range of use cases and users. There are several features that make the Polaris search experience both unique and powerful.
Primary users:
Any user that designs parts, works with design files, or manages parts.
Use cases:
Part reuse and all types of knowledge reuse such as design reuse, cost estimation, quotation, and more.
Many users want to begin a PLM search using a descriptor such as hub, solenoid, or a supplier name like ACME Co., but in a PLM environment these searches are almost always incomplete because many relevant designs lack the attribute value and are therefore invisible to the search. In other cases, the attribute is so prevalent that the user is overwhelmed with the clutter of hundreds or even thousands of results.
Polaris provides two methods to make searches comprehensive:
It is difficult to overemphasize the efficiency gained by combining attribute and shape-search capabilities, allowing users to maintain a traditional start to their search process, but seamlessly transition to a focus on shape-based searching.
Bounding Box Search: users can also initiate a search by estimating one or more bounding box dimensions, e.g., length in the range of 15 to 20 inches, width in the range of 5 to 8 inches, etc. Bounding box dimensions are a type of attribute value computed for each design during the initial file encoding process.
New employees, or those with a different native language, often struggle with attribute search. An innovative method Polaris provides is visual browsing where users can display every family tile (image right) and use numerous filtering tools to control which families are displayed. For example, the families that are shown in the Navigator (image right) can be filtered by:
A benefit of CADSEEK's accuracy, is that the ability to group parts by shape provides the ability to also search parts by function, i.e., if one part is an impeller, and another part is 95% similar, then it is almost impossible for that second part to not also be an impeller. This means that CADSEEK's classification of shape-based families, is also a classification by part function, allowing users the ability to use attribute filters to choose the families displayed.
Family tiles are positioned in the Navigator by aspect ratio, so that families of flat parts migrate to the far right, needle like to the near left, squarish to the near right, and so on, so that with a little experience users will begin to intuitively know where a tile for a type of part will generally be positioned.
The 3-dimensional iTargetNavigator space displaying the family tiles can be explored in a video game like manner with zoom, rotation and view height controls.
Polaris provides numerous built-in inspection and compare tools, which are convenient for all users and especially valuable for those without access to CAD software.
Inspection tools include orbit, clipping, measure, annotation, element transparency, and exploded view where one or many elements can be selected from the assembly and used as a search target. The compare tool overlays two designs in a color-coded format to highlight differences.
Polaris serves part reuse and knowledge reuse cases across numerous enterprise domains.
A special version of Polaris is available for search on 2D extrusion files. Polaris's ability to classify the designs into families provides useful organization and makes finding data much easier.
