IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

DESIGN OF A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR DESIGN

AUTOMATION

Umesh A. Bedse1, Laukik P. Raut2

1
M.Tech Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GHRCE Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GHRCE Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

Abstract
In research and development field, many research efforts have been made to save the overall time of product design and
development of any product. As we know that design phase has a lot of potential where overall time can be saved. Hence, design
automation has been the best concept came into picture which involves integration of different software like product design
software developed, modeling software and analysis software. It has been observed that many researchers are taking efforts in the
area of design automation like integration of different tailor made software developed using different computer programming
languages like Visual Basic, Java, C++ with different CAD software like Pro/E, CREO Parametric, CATIA, SolidWorks .But it is
observed that Visual Basic is having some better advantages over others like it will give dot frame work for design of product
input base as well as it can be easily interface with intermediate software like Microsoft excel which provides an input to other
modeling or analysis software and among all available parametric modeling software CREO is widely used in industries because
it has best parameterization quality. In this paper, integration of product design software developed using Visual Basic as
computer programming language and CREO Parametric as modeling software by taking the case study of design of CI Engine
parts has been done to validate the concept. Simulation of CI Engine is added in developed GUI which gives results of pressure,
temperature, volume at each crank angle of crankshaft in the form of graphs and maximum value of pressure and temperature got
are being used for structural and thermal analysis of major components.

Keywords: CAD, GUI, Simulation, CREO, Visual Basic.

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1. INTRODUCTION this automation requires experienced and highly skilled

people having the complete knowledge of design of that
If we look at the worldwide scenario, every industry is
particular product. The design of any product is generally
striving to do automation in every department to save
done based on the past experience of the designer because it
overall time, labor cost, to increase productivity and overall
is done on trial and error basis. Maximum engineering hours
profit. Maximum automation has been achieved in most of
gets wasted in formulating and understanding the existing
the industries because of the inventions of advanced
available design. Hence, it is necessary to make standard
machinery; robots are replacing labors right from loading
design process to satisfy user requirements.
and unloading of a job in the machine to the dispatch of the
final finished product. Still these industries are struggling to
To do this type of automation, one simple and the best way
save the time of design phase. It has been observed that
is the integration of different software of various stages of
design phase has so much potential to save the overall time
product design and development phase like product design
of product design and development phase. Hence, nowadays
software, modeling software, and analysis software. It has
inventors are concentrating on the automation in the design
been seen that nowadays there are so many CAD and
phase. To save overall time, automation in the design phase
analysis software like CATIA, CREO, Pro/E, HyperMesh,
is the best alternative.
ANSYS, Unigraphics NX etc available in the market but
specific product design software is not available. So, it is
It has been observed that there are so many 3D CAD
required to develop product design software in the form of a
modeling software have been invented to get the better
Graphical User Interface (GUI). To develop a GUI,
visualization of product to be manufactured and because of
knowledge of computer programming language is necessary.
these software, conversion of the 3D model to 2D
There are many computer programming languages available
manufacturing drawings has become very easy. There is so
like C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, JAVA, Python etc., but
much scope to save time in the design phase. But all these
among all these languages Visual Basic is the best option
creations of 3D model require highly experienced and
because it is very easy to understand and having strong and
skilled peoples to get work done in less time. The best way
best frame work(Jadeja, Bhuptani, & Gujarat, 2014). In this
is to do automation in design and modeling phase which is
paper, a GUI has been developed using Visual Basic as
very easy and cheap way to save overall time. Any industry
computer programming language due to its advantages over
can implement this type of automation; only thing is that
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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

others. During the literature survey, it has been observed tailor-made software which will be the only media of
that among all above-stated modeling software, CREO integration with available CAD package. Any number of
Parametric has been the best option and this is the software formulae for design calculations, any number of buttons and
which is adopted by most of the industries because of its check list box for the selection of available standard values
advantages over others like it has strong and best from stored database like material properties, all these can
parameterization quality which is very important for design be added which depends on designer and developer of that
and modeling automation. To analyze the design is correct software. The developer has complete freedom to go in any
or not analysis of product designed is very important and in depth of advancements to make that particular product
this paper analysis of important components is done in design software. With the help of development of this
ANSYS Workbench 14.5 analysis software. product design software, huge repetitive calculations get
solved within a second which avoids hectic manual work of
Hence, in this paper integration of a GUI or tailor-made a designer. Hence, the designer will get extra time to think
software developed using Visual Basic as computer for better innovations.
programming language and CREO as modeling software for
design. The designer gets output within a second in terms of 2. METHODOLOGY
design parameters in the form of excel spreadsheet from

Fig 1 Methodology

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In above-shown flow chart, three phases have shown, first is Axial thickness of piston ring (mm)
product design phase, the second is integration phase and Thickness of piston head (mm)
the third one is a modeling phase. Integration of all these Diameter of crank pin (mm)
phases results in design automation. Length of crank pin (mm)

In the first phase that is product design phase, with the help 3. CASE STUDY
of computer programming language and standard design
relations development of a GUI has been done by using tool To validate this design automation concept, in this work
available in tools like buttons, text box, list box, combo box, case study of the design of IC Engine parts has been taken.
pointer etc. This development of a GUI completely depends We knew that there are so many numbers of mechanical
on designer which will be useful to satisfy user components present in complete IC engine and design of
requirements. The user will enter the input variables and these components is very time-consuming. Hence, it has
after click on design button, coding behind that button will been decided that design of IC Engine components will be
run and give the output result within a second in terms of the best case study to fulfill all the objectives of this work.
required design parameters in pre-decided text boxes. After During literature survey, it has been observed that many
getting all design output variables, these results will be put researchers have done work in this area by taking so many
together in excel spreadsheet in specified cells and this excel different case studies and by using different computer
spreadsheet will be the only media to integrate with programming languages and modeling software to achieve
intermediate software to do the design automation. After their goal of work but they have taken simple components or
assigning all the relations from relations tool in modeling assemblies as a case study. Main reason behind this case
software to the dimensions of a 3D CAD model to get study of IC engine is that assembly of complete IC engine
modified, the user has to update this excel spreadsheet only has many numbers of parts and hence it will be helpful to
to get the modified model. The second phase that is achieve design automation in such big assembly. But for the
integration phase is nothing but the integration of excel initial stage to achieve this automation, design of only major
spreadsheet with the intermediate modeling software. The components of IC Engine has been taken into consideration
third phase is nothing but the modeling phase, in which user like the design of crankshaft, piston and cylinder.
first do the modeling of parts or import the already stored
model from the database and with the help of excel analysis Simulation part is also added in the developed GUI to see
menu user can get the regenerated model within second by the pressure, volume and temperature variation at each crank
using this integration concept. Once the user has assigned angle of crank shaft of CI Engine during compression,
output design variables to the model, after that whenever the combustion and exhaust stroke in terms of graphs.
user has to do modifications in the model, there will be no
need of remodeling, the user just have to edit this excel 4. PROBLEM DEFINITION
spreadsheet as per the required modifications and within a D models of parts of the machine and its manufacturing
second user will get modified model. If the regenerated drawing which also requires skill. [3]
model is not satisfactory, then again open the excel sheet Integration of design and modeling phase of the simple
and edit the dimensions from cells and regenerate the model, component is done till now but the integration of
repeat the same procedure till the user will get the design, modelling and analysis phase is not done yet.
satisfactory model. In this way, design automation gets
Designer waFor design and modeling of the product,
done.
the time required is generally 60-70% of the overall
time of the product development. Hence, no scope of
To validate this methodology, in this paper case study of the
innovations in existing designs is possible [1]
design of IC engine parts is taken. For this design, required
Nowadays design process is currently done on past
important input and output variables are specified below.
experience; experienced persons are required every time
Complete GUI is developed to obtain these output variables.
for designing. This involves selection of
Input Variables:- standard parts and materials which require complete
Brake Power (KW) knowledge of product design. [2]
Speed (rpm) After design calculations are done, it takes much time to
Mean effective pressure (MPa) make CAstes the most of the overall time in
Number of strokes understanding the existing designs and struggles with
Explosion Pressure (MPa) the challenges associated with the modifications in
Number of piston rings existing design and the improvements in those designs.
[4]
Output Variables:- Repetitive manual calculations take much time and it is
Bore (mm) really tedious work for designers, hence, 100%
Length or Stroke (mm) accuracy is not guaranteed with the manual procedure
Diameter of piston (mm) of design.
Radial thickness of piston ring (mm)

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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

5. IMPLEMENTATION
5.1 Development of a Graphical User Interface

Fig 2 Developed GUI

In this chapter, a GUI is developed using Visual Basic

computer programming language in Visual Studio 2010. To
develop this above shown GUI in Fig.2, a case study of the
design of IC engine parts has been taken which contains the
design of piston, the design of crankshaft and design of
cylinder. Text boxes used for input variables are shown
above design button in every part of design in a GUI, and
text boxes of output variables or design parameters are
shown below design button. Code containing design
calculations of each part is run on the click event of that
particular design button. To make it more user-friendly, the
pointer is added to a particular text box to give suggestion Max. Pressure
about standard value as shown for text box of cylinder wall = 63 bar
pressure in the design of piston section so the user should
not open the design data book to see those standard values
and ultimately time get saved. With the help of this GUI,
repetitive calculations are done in few seconds which saves
much time.

SIMULATION
One more important part added in this software is a
simulation of CI engine. With this simulation, pressure,
temperature, and volume are obtained in the form of graphs
at each crank angle of crankshaft so the user can visualize
the variation of pressure, temperature and volume with
respect to crank rotation through each degree of angle. To
achieve this simulation huge coding is there. Fig 3 Graph of Pressure Vs Crank Angle

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Fig 6 Excel Spreadsheet

5.3 Modeling Phase

Fig 4 Graph of Volume Vs Crank Angle

Max. Temp
= 2575 K

Fig 7 Assembly model of IC engine

Here, assembly modelling of IC Engine has been done using

CREO Parametric 2.0 as modelling software. This assembly
contains parts like cylinder block with fins, piston,
connecting rod and crankshaft as shown in Fig.7. For design
automation, excel analysis has to be done for each part
separately by integrating excel sheet and after all, parts get
modified separately finally assembly gets regenerated
automatically.
Fig 5 Graph of Temperature Vs Crank Angle
5.4 Integration of Excel spreadsheet with CREO
5.2 Generation of Excel Spreadsheet
Generation of excel spreadsheet is the most important step
Parametric
in this project because to do the integration of product Integration of excel spreadsheet and CREO is the only way
design and modeling software excel spreadsheet is the only to here achieve design automation because excel file is the
available media. So, this excel sheet must contain all only media to integrate product design and modelling
required output variables to be used for integration. software.

Below excel sheet shown in Fig. 6 contains all the output In modelling software like CREO, Pro/E, CATIA etc., there
variables used as important design parameters of the is one menu available that is excel analysis through which
cylinder, piston and crankshaft of IC engine. this design automation happens. The user need to load excel

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file produced from a GUI developed using Visual Basic analysis, steps are shown in above Fig. 9 by red arrows and
computer programming language and assign values of numbers.
output variables of a particular design to that model through The first step is go to excel analysis menu in analysis option
relations tool. available in the menu bar, one window will appear on screen
as shown in Fig.9. In that window, to load excel spreadsheet
go to Load File icon and browse the excel file. Excel file
will appear on screen as shown above. Select dimensions
from excel file to be assign for the modification of the
model. Here the first column is selected which contain
output design parameters of the design of cylinder block.
Then click on output cells button of excel analysis window
shown by number 3 in circle, it will get values from excel
cells to CREO. Next step is to click on Compute button
shown by number 4, values will come to results list as
shown. The final step for excel analysis is go to Add Feature
as shown by number 5 and type the name of the excel file
there and finally close the window. This completes the excel
analysis step for regeneration of cylinder block.

Fig 8 Cylinder Block

Part model of the cylinder block has open in new window

separately from assembly model. Now, the user wants to
modify this part model of the cylinder block. To avoid
manual modification, excel analysis option is selected as
shown in Fig. 9.

Fig 10 Dimensions to be Modify

These are the dimensions of cylinder block before

modification. The user has to modify these dimensions to
get updated model.

Fig 9 Excel Analysis

There are some important steps to be followed by the user at

the first attempt of modification after that user just have to
modify dimensions in a particular cell of excel sheet and
there is no need to do excel analysis again. To do excel
Fig 11 Relation Tools
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After completing excel analysis and relations tool steps, go

to regenerate model menu shown in fig.12 and click on the
regenerate icon to get a regenerated model of the cylinder
block. This completes the first attempt of regeneration as per
the output variables got from product design software in the
form of excel sheet. Now, hereafter whenever the user wants
to modify this cylinder model, there is no need to do all the
above mentioned 13 steps. The user just has to update the
dimensions in excel sheet and do the following steps shown
in Fig. 13.

Now, the next step is to add relations using relations tool

available in tools menu shown by number 6 in Fig.11, after
clicking on relations menu one window will open as
shown named Relations. Now, click on the model of the
cylinder block, dimensions will appear in blue color with
letter d followed by one number which is different for each
dimension. For bore of cylinder d1 is appeared. Next step
is go to option Insert Parameter from list icon shown by
round bracket numbered by 7. A new window will open
named as select parameter as shown in fig.11. In that
Fig 13 Update Excel sheet to re-modify model
window go to Look In list box and there click on
featured object type shown by number 8. Now, go to excel
To update the model again as per user requirements, go to
sheet listed in the model tree of CREO appearing on left-
excel sheet available in a model tree on left-hand side of
hand side is shown by number 10. Dimensions selected
CREO software screen. Right click on that sheet and click
during excel analysis will listed there. To assign relation for
on edit definition icon there. One window will open named
the bore of the cylinder, bore dimension is shown by d1
as analysis as shown in Fig.13. Then click on next button
and present in (2, 1) cell of excel sheet. After finishing 11 th
from that analysis window, excel sheet will open as shown,
step, click on insert selected button that is step 12.
now edit the required dimensions to be modified in excel
Likewise, repeat the same procedure for all preselected
sheet, save the sheet and then click the button Compute
dimension of the cylinder. This completes the relations tool
from excel analysis window and close the excel analysis
step for cylinder block.
window. The last step is just to click on green tick available
on analysis window was shown and finally, go to the model
menu and regenerate the model. Within one click model gets
modified as per the user requirement.

Fig 12 Regeneration of Model

Fig 14 Regenerated Assembly

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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

The final step is go to assembly and click on a regenerate

model to get regenerated assembly as shown in Fig 14.

5.5 Analysis Phase

Analysis of cylinder block and piston is done in ANSYS
Workbench 14.5. For this analysis, modeling of IC engine is
done in CREO Parametric as mentioned above. User just has
to import that model in suitable format like STEP file format
to complete the analysis phase. In this project, analysis like
steady state thermal analysis and static structural analysis is
done on two main components which are cylinder block and
piston because these two main components actually goes
under all chemical reaction of fuel and ultimately goes
through highest temperature and pressure because of
combustion of fuel during combustion stroke. Hence it is Fig 16 Steady State Thermal Analysis of Piston
necessary to do thermal and structural analysis of these
components to get the best result. Also to observe the deformation of piston due to high
pressure generated on piston head, it is necessary to do static
For steady state thermal analysis is to be done it requires structural analysis of piston. For this analysis user has to
input maximum pressure value applied on piston head, user
maximum temperature value to do the analysis and with the
can get this value of pressure from simulation graph of
help of developed GUI, user gets that value of maximum crank angle Vs pressure generated using developed GUI as
temperature through simulation graph of crank angle Vs shown in Fig 3.
temperature as shown in Fig. 5.
In this case, maximum pressure generated value is near
In this case temperature consider inside cylinder block is about 63 bar and analysis results obtained are shown in
2575 K which is got from graph as shown and convective below Fig 17
heat transfer with stagnant air medium is considered for fins
and results of temperature is shown below.

Fig 17 Static Structural Analysis of Piston

Fig 15 Steady State Thermal Analysis of Cylinder Block If user is not satisfied with the analysis results, he just have
to enter the different input variables in a GUI and according
Same steady state thermal analysis is done for piston also by to output variables designer just have to modify excel sheet
to get modified part model. As input variables get change
considering same temperature and convective heat transfer according to that values of temperature and pressure
and results of temperature of piston is shown in fig 16. obtained from simulation graphs will get change. Then user
has to import modified model in ANSYS Workbench and
enter obtained values of temperature and pressure for
required analysis. In this way user has to repeat this process
till the satisfied results of analysis he will get.

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6. CONCLUSION Engineering Sciences & Research Technology, vol.

3(4), pp. 4089-4095, April 2014
With the help of this integration of tailor made software [2] Prof. U. M. Nimbalkar, Akshaykumar V. Kadam,
developed using Visual Basic as computer "Automatic Assembly Modeling for Product Variants
programming language and CREO as modeling using Parametric Modeling Concept," International
software, up to 95% of the time has been saved as Journal of Engineering Research & Technology, vol. 4,
compared to the time required for conventional design no. 4, pp. 79-89, April 2015
and modeling process. [3] A.S.Rao, Abhishek C. Lad, "Design and Drawing
This integration is the best way to avoid repetitive Automation Using Solid Works Application
tedious work of engineers and hence, engineers can Programming Interface," International Journal of
possibly do the innovations in their respective field. Emerging Engineering Research and Technology, vol.
Engineering hours got saved with this concept. 2, no. 7, pp. 157-167, October 2014
There is no need to have highly skilled persons for [4] S. Sundar ,Yaswanth Peddireddy, "Automated Design
design and modeling in industry, a person can import and Modelling of Knuckle Joint," International Journal
the existing models from the available database and will for Scientific Research & Development, vol. 3, no. 2,
modify that model as per the user requirement in some pp. 235-239, 2015
cases.
As we already discussed that design and modeling
phase has much potential where time can be saved by
the implementation of automation and here the results
are in front of us. This integration will surely play a
very helpful role for industries.
To achieve this design automation, Visual Basic is the
best option for computer programming language due to
its advantages over other languages as mentioned above
and CREO Parametric is best option for modeling
software because of its strong parameterization quality.

7. FUTURE SCOPE
The work presented here consist of design and development
of a GUI using Visual Basic and modeling using CREO
modeling software to achieve design automation for the case
study of design and modeling of IC engine. Also the
analysis of some important components is done in ANSYS
Workbench 14.5. Yet, the concept presented in this paper
could be further modified and extended with following
considerations.
This concept can be implemented using different
programming languages and different modeling
software to achieve best results as per the designer
convenience.
This system can be used to achieve automation in
analysis phase to get more advancement in product
design and development phase.
Present work shows, design automation of IC Engine,
instead of that designer can take any product design as
per their industry requirement and according to that
product, development of a GUI and modeling has to be
done.
In a GUI only, advance simulation of components can
be done in the form of graphs to achieve better results.
This complete system can be further integrated with the
CAE packages available.

REFERENCES
[1] J., Bhuptani, K. M., & Gujarat, R. Jadeja, "Developing
a GUI based Design Software in VB Environment to
Integrate with CREO for Design and Modeling using
Case Study of Coupling," International Journal of
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