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Boosting Sustainability in Product Design with Autodesk & Makersite
Client Name
Autodesk
Autodesk: Autodesk, Inc. is a trailblazer in the world of design and technology. Renowned for its groundbreaking software solutions across architecture, engineering, construction, product design, and entertainment, Autodesk empowers innovators to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. From creating greener buildings to designing smarter products and even bringing spectacular blockbusters to life, Autodesk’s software is at the heart of shaping a better world.
Makersite: Makersite is revolutionizing product data management with its award-winning cloud platform. Specializing in agile product lifecycle management, Makersite helps global manufacturers efficiently handle sustainability, cost, and compliance. Their cloud-based platform aggregates data and integrates live applications to support more sustainable, cost-effective, and compliant product design.
In today’s fast-paced manufacturing world, sustainability often takes a backseat until the final stages of design. This delayed focus results in costly redesigns and increased time-to-market. The challenge was to shift sustainability considerations to the earliest phase of product design—by assessing CO2 emissions and costs upfront. This proactive approach not only ensures more sustainable products but also provides recommendations for alternative materials that lower both costs and carbon footprints.
- Fetching BOM from Fusion: A key challenge was to efficiently retrieve the Bill of Materials (BOM) from Autodesk Fusion and format it in a way that would support the impact assessment.
- Consolidating Data for Insights: To provide meaningful insights, it was crucial to display environmental impact calculations and alternative material recommendations in a single, intuitive tree table.
- APS Viewer Integration: Incorporating APS Viewer with heatmaps into Fusion to visualize the environmental impact on each component of the product design posed another technical challenge.
- Our solution leveraged Fusion APIs to pull the BOM for every component in the design, navigating through each leaf node and converting the data into a custom JSON format. This ensured a streamlined flow of data for impact assessment.
- To enhance the user experience, we utilized Autodesk’s HIG component library for the design interface. For the advanced tree table functionality, we integrated a third-party library that allowed us to display both the environmental calculation and the product recommendations side by side, providing a seamless view for decision-makers. By comparing the names in both data sets, we ensured that the relevant details were displayed inline, offering clarity and precision.
- To visualize the heatmap data, we authenticated the user via Autodesk OAuth, enabling access to the APS Viewer. This step was crucial for loading the 3D model and integrating heatmap data, allowing us to match the component details from the APS tree hierarchy with the assessment results. The result was a powerful, interactive visualization tool that provided instant feedback on CO2 emissions for each component.
- Early Sustainability Insights: Users now receive valuable insights into CO2 emissions during the early stages of the design process, enabling them to make more sustainable decisions right from the start.
- Cost Estimation: The solution also provides a high-level cost estimate for materials and manufacturing, helping teams budget more effectively and avoid surprises down the line.
- Alternative Recommendations: By offering alternative material suggestions that lower both CO2 emissions and production costs, the solution empowers manufacturers to make more eco-friendly and cost-efficient choices.