01—Writing

Writing

I also use this site as a technical reference. Writing is where I keep pieces I want to come back to. They are about product models, configuration, CAD automation and manufacturing, usually starting from something I ran into in a project or experiment. Some are longer essays, others are reference pages or short notes, and those may still grow later.

The product range on showcase.kubuz.net: a stainless worktop, a DIN flange, an irregular cabinet wall, a laser-cut lamp shade, a sheet metal transition and a stair.

Fabrication kernel, part 3: putting it to work

Part 2 ended with one sentence: next step is designing with it. So that is what I did.

Someone using the Inoxplus configurator on a monitor: a stainless worktop with sink, hob, dimensions and an options panel.

From kernel to configurator

Early in October I wrote about the fabrication kernel I am working on. I ended by saying the next step was to design with it. That has happened. The kernel runs in Kubuz CPQ, the system Inoxplus uses to let its products be configured, and in a showcase anyone can open.

The kernel playground at kernel.kubuz.net: a perforated sheet-metal pan in 3D, with sliders for width, depth, hole and pitch, and the unfolded size, material and build time beside it.

Building a fabrication kernel for web configurators

I wanted web configurators for folded sheet metal, profiles and simple assemblies to update in the browser, without a full CAD system behind every change.

Tacton Studio with dynamic blocks beside the Kubuz app, which has generated an AutoCAD drawing of five rectangles from a Tacton XML report.

From Tacton configuration to an AutoCAD drawing

A configured product in Tacton already knows what has to be built: which parts exist, what their dimensions are, and where they sit.

Isometric illustration of a work table in box-section tube. One leg floats in blue below the frame, connected to three stacked layers of information.

Geometry is not the product model

CAD is very good at geometry.

Illustration of configuration into production: a cabinet in front of a configurator screen, an exploded assembly with unfold drawings, and sheet metal in a press brake.

What I mean by CPQM

CPQ stands for Configure, Price, Quote.

Isometric illustration of a cabinet wall with a door. A blue dimension across the full width holds left margin, door and right margin together.

Rules, constraints and domains: the difference

When people talk about product configuration, rules and constraints are often thrown on one pile.

Isometric illustration of a steel stair. On each step one stage: a drawing, a parametric part, a configurator and a blue product model at the top.

From parametric CAD to product configuration

I started as a drafter.

Isometric illustration of a platform with a blue bounded area holding frames in different sizes. Outside it, an odd frame stands half-built on a workbench.

From engineer-to-order to configure-to-order

Moving from engineer-to-order to configure-to-order is often presented as an automation project.

Isometric illustration of three pedestals with a CAD screen, a configurator and software, all connected to one blue folded part above them.

Where product logic lives: CAD, CPQ or software

Product logic has a habit of ending up wherever it was easiest to put it first.

Isometric illustration of a product model in exploded view: stacked layers above a configured cabinet, with drawing, bill of materials and sheet part as derived output.

What belongs in a configurable product model?

A configurable product model is easy to underestimate.

Isometric illustration of a press brake with a sheet longer than the machine, a blue bend line and a warning. Behind it, a larger press brake that can make it.

A configurator should know what the factory can make

A technically valid product is not automatically a manufacturable product.

Isometric illustration of a printed bicycle lug with bonded bamboo-veneer tubes. The glue line is blue.

Openframe: materials, joints and print strategy

Openframe is not an attempt to reproduce a conventional bicycle frame in plastic. The project explores how a frame changes when FDM, parametric CAD and home fabrication are treated as design conditions from the start.

Side view of the Openframe v0.2 prototype with bamboo tubes and black 3D-printed lugs.

Openframe v0.2: build, test, redesign

Openframe v0.2 was the first version where the concept could be evaluated as a complete frame. Not only separate lugs and test pieces, but an assembled structure where fit, alignment, stiffness and the first controlled ride tests could be observed.