{"id":32736,"date":"2026-05-11T15:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lino.de\/?p=32736"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:39:29","slug":"article-design-automation-mechanical-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lino.de\/en\/article-design-automation-mechanical-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Three days to build a variant that a rule set could have generated in minutes. Why manual design processes are no longer defensible."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Any manufacturer still asking its engineers to model standard variants by hand and type metadata into a PDM system one field at a time is not wasting money. It is wasting engineering judgement. That distinction matters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem has a name: repetitive expertise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In special-purpose machinery, in plant engineering, wherever customers order configurable products, the same pattern plays out every day. An engineer with five or ten years of CAD experience opens Autodesk Inventor, reads the requirements sheet, and builds a variant that draws on parameters he has seen dozens of times before. Then he starts again from scratch on the next one. Not because there is no better way. Because no process exists to carry his knowledge forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequence is not dramatic. It is mundane, and that is precisely the problem. Lead times of two to five days per variant. Errors introduced when CAD data gets transferred to the PDM system by hand \u2014 mismatched file names, incorrect revision states, bills of materials that need to be completed after the fact. Every manual handoff is a point where something can go wrong, and in high-variant manufacturing it goes wrong regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the knowledge actually lives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The real asset of a mechanical engineering company is its codified product knowledge: which parameters drive which geometries, which combinations can actually be manufactured, which rules apply to each product family. In most organisations, that knowledge lives in people’s heads, not in systems. When the expert leaves, the rules leave with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design automation addresses this directly. Rather than asking an engineer to apply his knowledge manually on each new order, it captures that knowledge once \u2014 as a rule set \u2014 and executes it automatically. Tacton Design Automation runs embedded inside the Autodesk Inventor interface. A customer specification goes in; a valid 3D model, drawing set, and bill of materials come out. Every generated variant is checked against the rules before it leaves the system. Invalid combinations do not get built because they cannot be configured in the first place. And maintaining the rule set requires no programming knowledge \u2014 product managers and design leads can update it directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In engineering, automation also freed up 75 percent of capacity, which is now used for additional orders and new models.”\u2014 Michael V\u00e4th, Standardisation Manager, Gebhardt Logistic Solutions GmbH<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-automating is a different kind of mistake<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here is where many implementations stall. A company automates CAD generation \u2014 a real step forward \u2014 and then hands the output back to an engineer to enter into the PDM system manually. The metadata still needs typing. The documents still need filing. The bill of materials still needs checking. The media break has moved one step downstream, not disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lino Automate PDM closes that gap. Once Tacton generates the CAD data, Lino Automate PDM transfers it directly into the PDM system: documents created, metadata populated, bill of materials structured and filed \u2014 all according to the naming conventions and revision logic already defined in the system. No engineer re-enters information the configurator already knows. Currently, adapters are available for four systems: Autodesk Vault, Soldiworks PDM, PRO.FILE, keytech PLM, and SAP PLM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What companies actually gain<\/p>\n\n\n\n