| The 11-story parking garage design by Epaq Care Solution holds up to 470 cars. The 500,000-part garage is the largest known Pro/E model. |
| Epaq engineers use HP workstations, such as the zx2000 running Intel's Itanium 2, 64-bit processors. The engineering firm equips its computers with 8-Gbytes RAM and Windows XP. |
Engineers at Epaq Care Solutions in South Africa use 64-bit workstations running Intel Itanium 2 processors to model, spin, and simulate operations of a 3.7-Gbyte parking-garage model. The firm says it's the largest Pro/E model known. The company runs Pro/E and Windchill on computers from Hewlett-Packard Co. (www.hp.com), to manipulate the entire model.
As the model grew in size and simulations became more complex, the engineers saw the need for more computing power. So the company turned to HP's Itanium-based workstations. The advantage of 64-bit computers is that they handle larger models in memory than 32-bit systems. Computing in 64 bits is starting to emerge as design companies begin modeling larger assemblies.
"The model is of an 11-story, 470-bay, fully automated parking garage," says Anton Greef, senior design engineer with Epaq. "We designed it in detail down to every last nut and bolt -- 500,000 components in all. The assembly file opens on the computer in just one hour. Then the workstation lets us spin the huge model on screen in real time. Computers let us load the model in less time than comparable systems, perform interference checking, and engage in collaborative, fly-through reviews with a level of detail previously unthinkable for desktop workstations."
-- Paul Dvorak