Overview

Functional Modeling Part is a product designed to offers a new approach to developing 3D digital models, called "functional modeling". It enables product designers to focus on the functional goals and design constraints of their product.

This Functional Modeling Part User's Guide is intended for users who need to become quickly familiar with the Functional Modeling Part product.

The following are discussed:

Functional Modeling Part in a Nutshell

Functional Modeling Part offers a new approach to developing 3D digital models, called "functional modeling". The objective of functional modeling is to enable product designers to focus on the functional goals and design constraints of their product. Capturing this information in the product model provides the information from which geometric form can be derived through the combination of behavioral features and a minimum of geometric construction. The end result is a significant reduction in the effort required to generate the 3D model by allowing more time for designers to focus on engineering issues, exploring alternative design approaches, and optimizing their design.

Functional Modeling Part provides tools to create volumes and features that contain inherent behaviors and which interact. The behaviors capture different design functions, such as adding material, subtracting material, or protecting space. Because they contain inherent behaviors and they interact, they are called "functional volumes" and "functional features".

Functional Modeling Part is available under two licenses: FMP and FM1 which is a subset of the first one.

As a scalable product, Functional Modeling Part can be used in cooperation with other current or future companion products such as Assembly Design and Generative Drafting.

Before Reading this Guide

Before reading this guide, you should be familiar with basic concepts such as document windows, standard and view toolbars. Therefore, we recommend that you read the Infrastructure User's Guide that describes generic capabilities common to all version 6 products. It also describes the general layout of V6 and the interoperability between workbenches.

You may also like to read the following complementary guides:


  • Part Design User's Guide: explains how to create 3D shapes
  • Sketcher User's Guide: explains how to sketch 2D elements.

Getting the Most out of this Guide

The Functional Modeling Part User's Guide has been designed for users new to the application.

To get the most out of this guide, we suggest that you start reading and performing the step-by-step user tasks which cover all product functionalities. You can also take a look at the sections describing the Interface Description at the end of the guide.

The term "functional feature" is a generic term designating all functional features, not only the features you can create from the functional features toolbar.

Help Pictures in all Functional Feature Dialog Boxes

There are help pictures you can access in all functional feature dialog boxes. Help pictures guide you to build a feature easier. For more information, see Help Pictures.