Artificial Intelligence, Medical Engineering and Education 387

Z.B. Hu et al. (Eds.)

© 2024 The Authors.
This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0).
doi:10.3233/ATDE231349

Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting

Based on DELMIA
Yan HONG, Qin HE 1, Haixia ZENG, Yi HUANG, Xiaoying XU
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department, Wenhua College, Wuhan, China
ORCiD ID: Yan HONG https: //orcid.org/0009-0004-9891-8713

Abstract. With the development of the economy and the innovation of technology,
enterprises are eager to have higher, efficient, energy-saving and environmental
protection technology applied in the cutting process. There are a lot of problems in
the cutting process right now, For example, there will be uneven cutting sectionˈ
Cutting dust debris splashing around causes environmental pollution and other
problems. So, it is still necessary to constantly improve the cutting equipment. This
paper studies the simulation of plasma cutting machine based on DELMIA. The
cutting path in AUTOCAD is imported into DELMIA, and the cutting nozzle is
simulated according to this path. At the same time, the second development of
DELMIA is conducted based on VB language. The information of different steel
plates can be automatically matched with the cutting nozzle type, cutting speed, etc.,
and is associated with the motion speed in DELMIA software. Seek the shortest
cutting path, reduce the empty path, increase the effective cutting working time, so
as to improve the cutting efficiency; And take into account environmental protection
to reduce pollution and reduce noise.

Keyword. Plate cutting; DELMIA; Secondary development; Digitization research.

1. DELMIA Introduction

DELMIA is a "digital manufacturing" simulation platform for design, manufacturing,

maintenance and man-machine processes, covering the digital manufacturing of almost
all mechanical products such as aviation, aerospace, automobiles and ships, involving
spot welding, arc welding, cutting, assembly, painting, final assembly, gluing, handling,
automation and many other professions [1-4].
The secondary development can make the software better serve the user, which
has an important role in improving the work efficiency and work quality. For this
reason, DELMIA provides users with secondary development interfaces and open
internal command sets, which brings convenience to users' secondary development
[5-7].
DELMIA mainly provides two secondary development interfaces, including the
open component-based Application Programming Interface (CAA) and Automated
Object Programming (V5 Automation) [8-9]. Based on the characteristics of the two
development methods, this paper chooses to use Automation method to carry out
secondary development of DELMIA, and the development environment chooses Visual
Basic 6.0.

1
Corresponding Author: Qin HE, E-mail: 267083084@qq.com濁
388 Y. Hong et al. / Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting Based on DELMIA

2. The Simulation of Plate Cutting Path based on DELMIA

DELMIA's 3D simulation has been widely used in aircraft assembly, automobile body
assembly, ship virtual assembly and other aspects [10-11]. Errors in product design,
tooling design and process design should be found early before the product is put into
actual production to reduce the rework and scrap of the product [12-16].
The amount of steel used in China's machinery industry has reached more than
300 million tons, and the amount of steel cutting is very large. However, in the actual
machining process, often due to insufficient preparation work, or blindly shortening the
construction period, resulting in the phenomenon of design, production, and
modification, thus increasing cost and extending the construction period.

2.1. Establish Cutting Machine Simulation Model

The plasma cutting machine is composed of rails, beams and cutting guns and other
components. In actual production, the cutting machine needs to be driven horizontally
and vertically. In order to achieve the cutting effect in actual production, constraints are
also added to the model in DELMIA, laying the foundation for the simulation of the
cutting machine below.

2.1.1. Creating Mechanical Devices

In the "Device Building" module, select the first command "New Mechanism"; Then
fix the base; Select the "Fixed part" command and select the guide rail as the base to fix
it. Finally, add constraints between components.For example, the cutting machine body
moves along the guide rail, you need to add a moving pair, select a line and surface that
the fuselage fits with the guide rail, and check the length drive, you can make the
fuselage move on the guide rail.

2.1.2. Setting the Device as a Robot

For convenience, the device can be set up as a software-recognizable robot, with all the
characteristics and uses of the robot, and can drag the various parts of the cutting
machine through the compass. First, "Frames of Interest" is established, click the
Frames of Interes command, select the device to be created, that is, the cutting machine,
click Fram Type, and select Tools as the type. Then grab the compass to the bottom of
the cutting torch of the cutting machine, select the point where the cutting torch cuts
the steel plate and the steel plate contact.

2.2. Cutting Process Simulation

In this paper, the nesting diagram of former one-stroke cutting is selected in the
simulation, and DELMIA's DPM module is used to carry out the cutting machine
Real-time simulation. The main Robot Arc Welding module provides different tools to
create an efficient and intuitive simulation environment, often combined with two
modules: Device Task Definition and Workcell Sequencing. Form a complete system to
meet the needs of welding simulation.
 Y. Hong et al. / Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting Based on DELMIA 389

2.2.1. Creating Tag Points

In Robot Arc Welding module ----Tag----Tag on Intersectin Parts, wait until the
command icon turns yellow, select the steel plate plane first and then select the track.
Flip Curve is to adjust the direction of the track line. If the arrow direction is wrong,
click to reverse adjustment. To evenly create Tag points over a path, select Equal
Spacing and enter the number of Tag points.

2.2.2. Create RobotTasks and Simulations

Tasks should be assigned to Process before simulation. To do this, select the new
command from the file menu. Select Process Library from the dialog box, then enter
the interface, select Create New Activity Type - Create New Activity Subtype - save
and close.
Enter Workcell Sequencing module, the Activity Management toolbar and select
Insert Activity Library - Activity Library file - Insert Activity - resource allocation, The
created tasks can be assigned to the process for simulation. The simulation effect
diagram is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Simulation effect of cutting machine

In order to set the cutting nozzle speed, many parameters need to be modified to
make it move at a uniform speed. The precision file in Controller - Flyby is selected
ON, the intensive reading type is selected Speed, and the value is 100; Motion Profile
is to enter the robot speed, generally choose absolute, enter the speed value can be.
Multiple speeds can be defined and set to the current value.
390 Y. Hong et al. / Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting Based on DELMIA

Figure 2. Motion Profile Figure 3. Accuracy Profile

2.3. Check the Cutting Speed

In order to ensure that the cutting process of the cutting machine maintains uniform
motion, verification is required. Click the Data Readout command in the Simulation
Analysis Tools toolbar to bring up the Option toolbar. Click the second command to
bring up the dialog box.
Change Tcpspeed to Yes in the Selection list, then click Spread Sheed in the
second column, select Clear, and clear all data. Then Update, Update Process Cycle
Time, and click Robot Task Simulation to conduct simulation after the update.

3. DELMIA Object Structure

All data is blocked in DELMIA Automation, It takes the form of an object and forms a
tree structure. Application is the root object, which is the entrance to DELMIA. All
DELMIA objects can be obtained by using the Documents, Windows and System
Service attributes of the root object.
First obtain the Application object, you can obtain Documents and Windows
collection objects; Then Document objects such as Part and Product can be obtained
through Documents object. For the created Document object, you can obtain the
Document by saving, closing and other methods. For the object that needs 3D modeling,
modeling operations can be carried out. The document object also stores the viewpoint
of the document, such as the front view and the left view, etc. These view objects are
stored in the camera object. This is for part documentation and product documentation,
there is no such concept for engineering drawings; Using Cameras, you can obtain
Camera objects Camera2D and Camera3D.
A Windows object is a collection of all open Windows, and a Window object is a
specific window. The relationship between the two is similar to the relationship
between Documents and Document objects. Viewer object is a property of Window
object, generally using Window, ActiveViewer can get it, and then use many methods
of Viewer object, such as Reframe, ZoomeIn, ZoomOut, you can zoom in and
reorganize the view.

4. Secondary Development of Plate Cutting based on DELMIA

In the plate cutting virtual simulation process, because the cutting parameters must be
set each time, and for the steel plate with different plate thickness, the cutting nozzle
 Y. Hong et al. / Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting Based on DELMIA 391

model and cutting speed of the cutting machine have corresponding data, in order to
avoid the trouble of adding parameters each time in the simulation and in order to
better display all the parameter values in the cutting process, In this paper, the speed,
cutting time, energy consumption and exhaust emission of cutting machine are
controlled by DELMIA software secondary development method.
It is mainly to realize the selection of various commands and parameters on the
cutting interface.

4.1. Insert Steel Plate Cutting Information

The program interface is set up plasma cutting machine, CNC cutting machine and
laser cutting machine three types, and is equipped with semi-automatic and automatic
options, you can make the whole cutting data at a glance.
Double-click the form, write its event code, and enter the following:
Add cutting machine type
CboCuttingMachine. AddItem "plasma cutting"
Add cutting speed
cboCuttingSpeed.AddItem "0.027"

4.2. Setting the Cutting Speed

There are a variety of options for steel cutting information in the interface. In order to
reduce the workload, the software is edited to automatically select the corresponding
cutting nozzle type and cutting speed when selecting the thickness.
Double-click the plate thickness form and write the event code as follows:
Private Sub cboThick_Click()
Select Case cboThick.Text
Case "5-15"
cboCuttingType = 1
cboCuttingSpeed = 0.08
End Select

4.3. Associated Cutting Speed

The previous section only set the cutting speed of the cutting nozzle on the program
interface, but it is not related to the speed of the cutting machine, and it cannot play a
role. In order to realize the control of the speed of the cutting machine on the window
interface, I wrote a method program to obtain the speed of the robot.
Get the PPR object
Set currDoc = DELMIA.ActiveDocument. PPRDocument
Gets the resource object Set Res = currDoc.Resources
Get the robot object Set Rob = Res.Item(i)
Get controller object
Set RobCon = Rob.GetTechnologicalObject ("RobGenericController")
Get the MotionProfile
RobCon.GetMotionProfiles MPro
Gets the name of the MotionProfile and assigns a cut speed value
MPro.GetName Pname
MPro.SetSpeedValue cboCuttingSpeed
392 Y. Hong et al. / Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting Based on DELMIA

As shown in Figure 4, this program is to obtain the speed of the robot and make
the cutting speed reflected in the cutting machine when the program is running.

Figure 4. PPR structure

As mentioned earlier, the secondary development of DELMIA is accessed on a
per-object basis in the PPR tree. First, access the PPR object, set the object to the
current document, and then get the PPR resource object, there are multiple resources
under the resource, The robot object is obtained through the Item method of the
resource object, and then the GetTechnologicalObject method of the robot is used to
access the Controller object. This sequence is broken through step by step. Multiple
objects under the controller can be obtained by the Get method.

4.4. Simulation Results, Program Implementation

In DELMIA, there is a Gantt chart that records the time of each stage of the robot
movement. After establishing the task, click on the Gantt chart command, and then it
will prompt you to Select an Activity. Click the little man below Process to enter the
Gantt chart page. This section is to implement this process in the program to obtain the
movement time.
Set Doc = DELMIA.ActiveDocument
Set RootP = Doc.GetItem("Process")
Set Act = RootP.ChildrenActivities.Item(i)
oOCT = Act.CalculatedCycleTime
txtTime = Round (oOCT / 3600, 3)

5. Conclusion
In this paper, the nesting diagram is successfully imported into DELMIA, and the
 Y. Hong et al. / Research on Digitization of Plate Cutting Based on DELMIA 393

cutting task of the cutting machine is created for real-time simulation, and then the
cutting process is verified, a more accurate cutting process is obtained, and the
digitalization of the cutting process of the cutting machine is realized. Then using V5
Automation interface, using VB language to DELMIA secondary development. The
information of different steel plates can be automatically matched with the cutting
nozzle type, cutting speed, etc., and associated with the motion speed in DELMIA
software, and finally the cutting time can be obtained to calculate the energy
consumption and gas emission during the cutting process. The program can be used to
guide the actual production and facilitate the production management of the cutting
process and even the entire processing process.

Acknowledgment

This study is supported by the first-class undergraduate specialty construction project

in Hubei Province (J09007802) and the teaching quality and teaching reform project of
Wenhua University (J09007014).

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