Synopsis.Sol Questions and Responses 80MSFC20Q41979.pdf

PWS

Section

MSFC MBE Environment Requirements: Questions Responses PWS Change

2 How many initial independent simultaneous users are needed to support these requirements?

One, two, more?

Can you associate the number independent simultaneous of users needed to support each of the roles listed in the [requirements] sections below? This information is needed to clarify the number of licenses needed and the associated cost How many instances of the CME should be considered for installation and licensing (DEV, Test, QUAL, PRE-PROD,PROD)

3 The CME shall provide high-end PLM functions: Are their specific PLM functionalities other than mentioned in point 3 ( in “PLM RFQ Attachment A MBE requirements pdf final” document) that should be considered in scope?

No a.Manages complex product information throughout lifecycle Please define what you consider complex information, that term is vague. See SOW change a. Manages tightly integrated engineering data at model level to include design, analysis, manufacturing, operation, and associated meta data at the start with configuration and change management with minimal set up out of the box.

How many workflows within each of these environments: engineering and manufacturing?

What are the specific engineering and manufacturing workflows to be provided?

e.Enables collaboration on data, specifically models Please describe the level of collaboration that is needed. See SOW change e.Enables collaboration among different engineering disciplines during in-work development and during structured processes like PDR, CDR, DCR, etc.

4 Can you describe what is meant by third-party integrations that are disallowed for managing data? Does that include out-of-the-box CAD integrations written by partners? What is the reason for disallowing third-party integrations to connect to these applications but allowing third-party integrations to connect to Windchill ICE?

Can you provide sample data that needs to be managed for each application in the Engineering Application Suite?

See SOW change

Your RFP states, in section 8, “NASA/MSFC Core tools that we are currently using and are not open to changing: Mentor Graphics ECAD, NX NASTRAN, Femap, Process Simulate Human, and Fibersim. CAD, structural & thermal analysis, CAM, AM, and Operations tools shall be chosen to work with the latest software versions of these tools per the interoperability requirements, without need for custom or third-party integrations.” However, in Section 5, the RFP states, “Any new PLM shall be capable of integrating with our current PLM, ICE Windchill, either directly or via third-party tool”. This is limiting the use of any third-party tools for integration when it comes to Siemens based technologies only but not for PTC based tools. Is there a technical or business reason why?

See SOW change

What is stated in sections 4, 5 and 8 are in conflict and limits the scope on vendors to competitively respond to the RFP.

See SOW change

We are requesting that the RFP in Section 8 be changed to state, “NASA/MSFC Core tools that we are currently using and are not open to changing: Mentor Graphics ECAD, NX NASTRAN, Femap, Process Simulate Human, and Fibersim. CAD, structural & thermal analysis, CAM, AM, and Operations tools shall be chosen to work with the latest software versions of these tools per the interoperability requirements either directly or via third-party tool.” We are also asking that section 4 be changed to, “Any proposed PLM should be capable of managing the data from existing and proposed engineering application suite either directly or via third-party tool. This will effect consistency between Sections 4, 5 and 8. As a result, the RFP will be an open and fair comparison.

See SOW change

What is the meaning of the phrase “existing and proposed Engineering application”? Existing and proposed Engineering application suite are the core existing and the proposed Engineering applications in MBE environment.

What are the proposed Engineering applications? Proposed Engineering applications are the vendor proposed applications to support the MBE environment.

We are not aware of any formal request that NASA posted for a side-by-side comparison between vendors. Was this ever done as part of the due diligence process?

All offerors will be equally evaluated.

5 Can you describe what is meant by third-party integrations that are allowed for connecting to ICE Windchill? Does this include only out-of-the-box integrations or does it allow for custom integrations?

Why are third party tools allowed here but not in section 4 and 8? See questions listed in the previous section

6 Please describe what is meant by "update automatically"? Does this not allow for any manual interaction?

In this section, it’s stated “shall all reside in the CME/PLM” yet in Sections 8 states a list of Core Tools are “not open to Changing” so are the Core Tool on or off the CME/PLM platform?

7 Can you explain what is needed for "Operations/Manufacturing simulation." Design digital models to be readily available for process development, manufacting and operations. Producibility and manufacturing simulations and human factors are utilized for assesment of latest designs for manufacturing which is required to be in concert with the latest design and and related changes as it takes place and automatically without manual process.

How many initial independent simultaneous users are needed to support these requirements?

One, two, more? This question comes up in the previous section 2.

70 Scaleable to 250

See SOW change

See SOW change

See SOW change

See SOW change

The common modeling environment (CME) will be compromised of an integrated set of existing and future repositories, including a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tool to manage the interoperable tool set. The CME will accommodate 70 PLM users either authoring , reviewing or consuming functions scalable to 250.

d.Provides engineering and manufacturing workflows (configuration to be required after the fact based on requirements we will give at that time).

Any new PLM shall be capable of integrating with our current PLM-ICE Windchill- either directly or via third-party tool. Some level of configuration may be required, but if so it should be minimal. The method, approach, and level of effort, for such integration will be a factor in evaluation of such solution.

The core tool set shall maximize interoperability/associativity between tools. Specifically, the Mechanical Computer-Aided Design (MCAD), Electrical CAD (ECAD), stress & thermal analysis, Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM), Additive Manufacturing (AM), and Operations Simulation models shall

Any proposed PLM should be capable of managing the data and actively and automatically propagate any changes across existing and proposed Engineering application suites . The PLM shall be immediately updated as needed to accommodate the latest versions of the Engineering application suite as they are released.

d.Provides engineering and manufacturing workflows

Any proposed PLM should be capable of managing the data from existing and proposed Engineering application suite without custom or third-party integrations. The PLM should beable to manage the latest versions of the Engineering application suite as they are released.

The common modeling environment (CME) will be compromised of an integrated set of existingand future repositories, including a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tool to manage the interoperable tool set

Any new PLM shall be capable of integrating with our current PLM, ICE Windchill, either directly or via third-party tool.

The core tool set shall maximize interoperability/associativity between tools. Specifically, the Mechanical Computer-Aided Design (MCAD), Electrical CAD (ECAD), stress & thermal analysis, Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM), Additive Manufacturing (AM), and Operations Simulation models shall all reside in the CME/PLM allowing changes to update automatically across all of those models for a specific design.

Initially, the core set shall include a primary CAD, structural & thermal analysis, ECAD, CAM, Additive Manufacturing, and an Operations/Manufacturing simulation tool. In later phases, the tool set should be able to scale to include all other disciplines like systems, fluid dynamics, etc.

MSFC MBE Environment Requirements: Questions Responses PWS Change

8 Can you describe what is meant by third-party integrations that are disallowed? Does that include out-of-the-box integrations written by partners? Can you provide sample data that needs to be managed for each application?

See SOW change

Will NASA be using the additional tool sets outlined in the current MSFC PLM & Tool Environment? See attached PowerPoint

Current requirements are limited to the core tools listed in section 8.

“Abaqus and Ansys” is not listed yet there stated in Section 12b.

Current requirements are limited to the core tools listed in section 8.

Is the list of Core Tool listed in Section 8 complete? Yes 9 Each individual core tool shall have the following characteristics:

a.High-end/High-performance. Able to handle our complex space applications and environments How is this measured? Item 9. is deleted and RESERVED b.Accurate/trustworthy results How is this measured?

c.User interface that is evaluated as efficient and intuitive How is this measured?

How is this measured?

In this section , it defines four characteristic of the Core Tools, however in Section 8 it states the Core Tools are “not open to changing”, what is the relevance of Section 9 to the RFP response?

10 Additional CAD tool requirements:

a.Support high-end Model Based Design (MBD) Product Manufacturing Information (PMI)capability, including export to 3D Portable Document Format (PDF)

Are any other export formats required or allowed besides 3D PDF? Describe the use case for which the 3D PDF will be used.

Other formats are allowed. Only 3D PDF is required.

b. Support integrated AM and topology optimization tools In addition to topology optimization tools, does the CAD tool need to support Generative Design?

See SOW change b. Support integrated AM and topology optimization tools and Generative Design

11 Additional thermal analysis requirements:

a. The tool shall provide a high-end space thermal capability, including capability to generate on-orbit environments (view factors to space/vehicle). The ability to calculate solar, albedo, nor IR fluxes when in an orbital space environment and provide planetary surface environments.

Please define what "high-end" means and how do you quantify? See SOW change a. The tool shall provide a space thermal capability, including capability to generate on-orbit environments (view factors to space/vehicle). The ability to calculate solar, albedo, nor IR fluxes when in an orbital space environment and provide planetary surface environments.

c. Can provide 1-d fluid system modeling for simplified fluid modeling. This is integral to most of the tools MSFC uses to model Environmental Control and Life Support Systems and active (pumped) fluid models.

The tool shall simulate a pumped fluid loop and the heat transfer to/from thermal hardware. The tool shall also provide a means of determination of pressure drop and mass flow essential to size pumps, valves, etc.

What is meant by 1-d? Do applications that do 3D fluid system modeling meet this requirement? 1d modeling is required for simplified modeling applications within a spacecraft vehicle. 3d is typically not required for these purposes. This would be 1d incompressible/compressible flow that is integrated into the thermal solution at a higher level. Could be series or parallel flow 1d entities that simulate flow, pressure drop, and heat transfer to/from hardware items.

d. Can update model by opening and editing in Excel directly Please describe the type of model updates that should be driven by Excel See SOW change d. Can update model by opening and editing in Excel directly primarily to perform parametric studies. Update parameters and re-execute the model for a given solution set.

e. Can use simple conditional logic in fields (no FORTRAN input files or codes needed) Can you provide an example of simple conditional logic that is referred to here? Like an if/then statement. A conditional statement, symbolized by p q, is an if-then statement in which p is a hypothesis and q is a conclusion. The logical connector in a conditional statement is denoted by the symbol . The conditional is defined to be true unless a true hypothesis leads to a false conclusion.

f. Can map individual FEM models to parts at the assembly FEM level. Having to map design model to FEM models indicates two different data bases are used. Does this requirement conflict with previous requirements for integrated functionality?

See SOW change f. Can map (show results) for individual parts at the assembly (integrated level).

g. Can map to multiple identical parts at once with no need to reposition due to being linked to the CAD This is unclear. Please elaborate. Can you provide an example? This would be mapping temperature results to a part that is identical, but is used multiple times within an integrated solution. So, import and mesh one part then use that meshed part multiple times in the total model. To be able to map these all as one integrated solution.

h. Position changes in general are maintained at the design level and Finite Element Model (FEM) are repositioned automatically; benign to moderate changes in geometry can be updated from the CAD effortlessly and maintain thermal couplings with an automatically updated mesh

This is unclear. Please elaborate. Can you provide an example? If a part is meshed for thermal solution,then the part is later moved (repositioned), the positional changes should be updated in the thermal solution with regard to updates in the CAD definition.

Therefore, for further small changes, they should be able to be accomplished at the CAD definition level.

i. Has an effective command finder tool How do you define effective? See SOW change i. Has a command finder tool This is unclear. Please elaborate. Can you provide an example? See SOW change k. The thermal analysis tool should be able to add additional features, solution methods, materials as the tool is developed.

This could be considered typical maintenance and updates along with import capabilities (database of thermophysical and optical properties).

In this section additional thermal analysis requirement are stated, are these requirements in addition to the current Core Tools such as Thermal Desktop?

This RFQ has no requrement for Thermal Desktop. We do have a requirement for a new thermal analysis tool in requirement 7.

Are these requirements to be available on the Platform or via integration to Thermal Desktop? Yes, they are to be available on the platform.

12 Additional structural analysis requirements:

a. Trusted core solver Define "trusted." Standards, verification models, users? See SOW change Solver must support industry standard methods of solutions for numerical modeling In this section additional structural analysis requirements are stated, are these requirements in addition to the current Core Tools such as Femap?

Yes

Are these requirements to be available on the Platform or via integration to Femap? On the Platform

NASA/MSFC Core tools that we are currently using and are not open to changing: MentorGraphics ECAD, NX NASTRAN, Femap, Process Simulate Human, and Fibersim. CAD, structural & thermal analysis, CAM, AM, and Operations tools shall be chosen to work with the latest software versions of these tools per the interoperability requirements.

See SOW change d.Accepted by the user community

k. Open to adding and modifying features based on feedback (e.g. can add optical property library)

b. Allow design analysis solver flexibility options embedded in the pre/post processing tool for use by preference in the various engineering departments at MSFC: NASTRAN, ANSYS, or Abaqus

NASA/MSFC Core tools that we are currently using and are not open to changing: MentorGraphics ECAD, NX NASTRAN, Femap, Process Simulate Human, and Fibersim. CAD, structural & thermal analysis, CAM, AM, and Operations tools shall be chosen to work with the latest software versions of these tools per the interoperability requirements, without need for customer third-party integrations.

MSFC MBE Environment Requirements: Questions Responses PWS Change

13 Additional CAM requirements:

c. The CNC programming language, G-Code, file shall be generated directly from the CAM toolpath using an output post processor

Advanced Lattice Design: The ability for the lattice generator software to perform curved surface conformal lattice designs, connect two different lattices using a node-strut linker, and to be able to independently change lattice cell dimensions and strut thickness.

Furthermore, the lattice design element of the software should be able to draw node-strut meshes based off the triangulated mesh of the object, i.e. the points of the surface serve as nodes and the triangle legs serve as struts for the purpose of generating the lattice.

Additive Simulations: Simulations from design-to-print and post-print processes. Validation of end-to-end as much as possible, but at a minimum showing the layers and vectors.

14 Additional Additive Manufacturing (AM) requirements:

a. The AM tool shall provide capability for additive design, advanced lattice design, topology optimization, and additive simulation

What do you consider "advanced lattice" design? What types of AM simulation are you looking for?

Advanced Lattice Design: The ability for the lattice generator software to perform curved surface conformal lattice designs, connect two different lattices using a node-strut linker, and to be able to independently change lattice cell dimensions and strut thickness.

Furthermore, the lattice design element of the software should be able to draw node-strut meshes based off the triangulated mesh of the object, i.e. the points of the surface serve as nodes and the triangle legs serve as struts for the purpose of generating the lattice.

Additive Simulations: Simulations from design-to-print and post-print processes. Validation of end-to-end as much as possible, but at a minimum showing the layers and vectors.

b. The AM tool shall have direct integration features, including toolpath generation, for our existing manufacturing machines, including our specific ConceptLaserRP and EOSPrint machines

What other manufacturing machines other than Concept LaserRP and EOSPrint? As a minimum the AM tool should support EOS and ConceptLaser.

c. The AM tool shall have a direct integration with Materialise Magics AM solid object manipulation software; allows for use of existing Magics models

We need the use case for this integration with MAGICS. We being the design and set-up authoring tools, what is the need to integrate with MAGICS’s manipulation software? This appears to be an unnecessary requirement but clarification is required.

The required integration with MAGICS is an integration/interoperability of our metallic additive manufacturing support profiles to maintain support for our legacy additively manufactured hardware that was built with MAGICS support profiles in the past year. This integration is required for rebuild application and existing certified AM processes.

d. Specific features required are effective overhang, volume analysis, and channel diameter analysis tools

15 Additional Operations/Manufacturing Simulation requirements Assembly Process Describe what is meant by assembly process. Is that within CAD, physical? This is simulation of assembly processes and related human interations through process simulation in virtual environment, using CAD data.

The Manufacturing and Assembly tool shall have the ability to simulate assembly processes and related human interactions virtually

Import (translate) CAD geometry from multiple sources What about directly opening non-native files? What sources of CAD geometry?

Again why translate – this is in conflict to previous sections listed

Load lots of data in to a simulation session What do you mean by "lots of data?" See Sow Change The Maufacturing and Assembly software shall create and use lightweight models and load in at least 10,000 files. Some recent examples are: Case-1: 6,500 files (4GB), Case-2: 3,200

Move geometry from place to place Explain what place to place means. During manufacturing simulation and assemly process, large data sets are required to be moved from workcell to workcell or pulled from multiple digial environment which can slow down the development effort.

See Sow Change The Manufacturing and Assembly tool shall Import (translate) CAD geometry from multiple sources which include: IGES, In this section, additional Additive Manufacturing requirements are stated, what is the meaning of “advanced lattice design” and what to be included in “additive simulation”?

MSFC MBE Environment Requirements: Questions Responses PWS Change

The RFQ does not specify the number of users of each of the tools requested, please provide user quantities.

70 users scaleable to 250

The RFQ does not request training support. Is that to be part of the proposal? No Does the scope include licensing for other software tools including CAD/CAE/CAM/Thermal etc.

apart from PLM software?

Yes

Please help us with the below details (in the cells with ?) of the current tools used for this program at MSFC (If not available, should Vendor assume that it would need to propose the same as part of this RFP):

Sl. No. - Category of Tool - License Type (US/Global) Tools Used Number of users / Type of Roles 1 - CAD - US New tool + Creo 70 / Designers 2 - CAE - US New tool, NXNASTRAN, Femap, ANSYS, ABACUS 40 / Stress and Thermal Analysts 3 - CAM - US New tool + Catia CAM 5 / CNC planners/operators 4 - ECAD - US Mentor Graphics 20 / Board designers 5 - Additive Mfg. - US New tool + Materialise Magics 5 / Designers, planners/operators 6 - Composite Mfg. - US Fibersim 5 / Designers 7 - Process Simulation - US New tool + Process Simulate Human 5 / Operations, Human Factors 8 - MFG Simulation - US New tool 2 / Manufacturing Specialists Does future road map include migration from current Windchill to new PLM? (Or the current Windchill will be used as is via a third-party-connection?)

No

What kind of data and functionalities is the current system expected to continue with? Drawing and Model formal configuration management process, in-work multi-state Creo CAD management

Is there any other (apart from Windchill) Enterprise System (ERP/DOORS or similar) where Engineering Application/Design data is stored today?

Doors, Cradle, No Magic Teamwork Cloud, File Shares

Whether cloud deployment is an option or only on-premises should be considered? Optional, but has to be certified for sensitive government data (FEDRAMP approved)

Vendor assumes that no H/W shall be procured as part of this RFP? True; vendor should provide hardware specifications needed to accommodate their proposed solution

Do we need to consider (on PLM configuration setup) any Engineering and Manufacturing supplier collaboration globally?

No

Please confirm if there will be any additional scenarios for the below requirements and associated acceptance criteria if any apart from the inputs shared in section 10 to section 15 (in “PLM RFQ Attachment A MBE requirements pdf final” document):

No additional scenarios