Research and Development in Virtual Engineering

Automatic Generation of Electrical Engineering and Fluid Power Simulation Models from ePLAN

Product development has set its sights on an integrated mechatronic simulation platform with which product features can be verified and optimized in several disciplines in parallel at an early stage by modeling and simulation.

The CAE tool ePLAN has become an established tool for the planning of electrical and fluid power circuits in recent years. The physical processes are diagrammed but cannot be analyzed in ePLAN circuits. Modelica is a cross-domain modeling language that allows detailed physical analyses of mechatronic models, which has been in use in industry for over a decade.

The Fraunhofer IFF has developed an ePLAN add-in, which enables users to derive interconnected Modelica network models from hierarchic ePLAN circuit diagrams automatically. An associative library has to be created largely manually in order to be able to convert the elements of an ePLAN circuit into related Modelica blocks. The elements of this XML library are categorized pairs of ePLAN symbols and Modelica models, which are also supplemented with meta data of all of the essential parameters.

The integration of this solution in the mechanical CAD2SIM system creates the fundamental basis for parallel use of CAD/CAE tools in engineering in general.