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3D CAD World

The latest release of Simcenter 3D 2021

January 14, 2021 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

Siemens Digital Industries Software announces the availability of the latest release of Simcenter 3D software, part of the Simcenter portfolio of simulation and test solutions. Simcenter 3D and the Simcenter portfolio are part of the Xcelerator portfolio, Siemens’ integrated portfolio of software, services and application development platform. In the 2021 release, Simcenter 3D continues to further improve its powerful unified and shared engineering platform for all simulation disciplines to help users gain full value of the benefits that simulation provides in terms of cost, speed and impact to innovation. Introducing new enhancements to the AI (Artificial Intelligence) driven user experience, new simulation types as well as refinements in accuracy and enhanced performance speed, Simcenter 3D 2021 can help companies understand true performance of their designs early in their development process.

Evaluate sound performance with auralization: New in Simcenter 3D, pressure results as a function of time (bottom right) can be played as an audio file.

In many applications, product innovation includes the engineering of the advanced material used in them, which is why new materials are being introduced into the market at unprecedented speed. Cracking is a very important consideration for advanced materials, however micro and meso cracking in advanced materials is difficult to model with the finite element method. Simcenter 3D now includes full representative volume element (RVE) separation and 2D and 3D automatic insertion of cracks or cohesive zones in materials. Macro and microstructural models now allow for full mesh separation for a crack to propagate completely through a material.

“Simcenter Multimech allows us to model microstructural cracks and determine how they would affect the overall part,” states Neraj Jain, group leader in simulation and engineering at the DLR Department of Ceramic Composites and Structures. “Using this tool, we can actually see where a crack is developing, how the crack will change our material, and how it will affect the final microstructure of the material.”

New to Simcenter 3D is an auralization post-processing tool that allows users to listen to simulated pressure results to evaluate sound quality. This allows acoustics engineers to actually hear the noise produced from various vibrating components or products as opposed to having to visually evaluate through charts or graphs.

Simulation-driven design can drastically lower the time it takes to bring a product to market. For this reason, Simcenter 3D’s thermal analysis capabilities have been scaled into a vertical solution for mold designers and design engineers. The new NX Mold Cooling product uses Simcenter 3D technology to allow designers to rapidly set up and simulate the thermal performance of an injection mold insert directly in NX as they are designing the mold. This allows for easy and rapid thermal analysis of injection mold designs without having to wait for expert analyst feedback.

Filed Under: Siemens Digital Industries Software Tagged With: Siemensdigitalindustriessoftware

Siemens expands Convergent Modeling in Parasolid to increase productivity with mixed geometric data formats

December 17, 2020 By WTWH Editor Leave a Comment

Siemens Digital Industries Software has updated Parasolid software, its open software technology for geometric modeling. The latest release expands on the exciting potential of Convergent Modeling for applications such as generative engineering, 3D printing and reverse engineering with new tools for integrating previously incompatible facet and B-rep data formats within a single modeling session. This enhanced support for mixed models can help drive significant productivity gains by eliminating the need for time-consuming model conversion and allowing users to apply classic design techniques directly to facet models.

Parasolid can also now add more value to design and engineering workflows in many different applications by allowing users to intersect meshes with all classic B-rep surface types and perform more sophisticated configurations of fillets and chamfers on mixed models. In addition, there are new tools for direct editing of faces and for rendering and repairing mixed models. Extensive classic B-rep enhancements have also been made in areas such as blending, sweeping, non-uniform scaling and rendering, bringing users gains in modeling flexibility and performance.

The Parasolid geometric modeling kernel is used in Siemens’ own Solid Edge software and NX software and is at the core of the Xcelerator portfolio’s open and flexible ecosystem.

Siemens Digital Industries Software
www.sw.siemens.com/en-US

Filed Under: Siemens Digital Industries Software Tagged With: Siemensdigitalindustriessoftware

How to simulate multiple physical forces

December 15, 2020 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

Multiphysics simulations are becoming more complex, and take place earlier in the design cycle

Jean Thilmany, Senior Editor

Using multiphysics simulation software in tandem with design keeps engineers from following hypotheses that lead to dead ends. Of course, that significantly cuts development time, especially for complex products on which many physical forces come together: for instance, solid-state cooking ovens and the sonar on unmanned, undersea drones.

If the examples seem oddly specific, it’s because engineers who develop both types of applications described how their teams use Comsol multiphysics software at the Comsol Conference held online in October. The analysis software simulates how multiple, real-time physical forces would affect design.

Because Lauren Lagua works for a sonar team primarily funded by research and development dollars, “We don’t have a lot of time to spend on design and implementation,” she says. Lagua is an acoustic engineer with The Northrop Grumman Undersea Systems group. As a mechanical designer and acoustic analyst, she integrates tests equipment for undersea sonar systems and payloads for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

To make the most of funds, her team created a workflow for quick test-and-verify design. For transducers, their design method calls upon swift, but multiple rounds of prototyping and verifying. All the while, they must ensure the transducer can be rapidly manufactured. The transducers convert variants in pressure, brightness, or other physical qualities into an electrical signal.

Though Lagua’s team solves for electrical and acoustics tests early in the initial design stage, that doesn’t mean they’ve perfected design right off the bat. The process involves many design changes and modifications—or as Lagua puts it, “around and around we go.”

Of course, the models begin with design and CAD, but using Comsol for analysis in conjunction with design is the secret sauce that speeds the process, Lagua says. Because they simulate as they design, they get to the end result much faster than if they had to hand off the model to a dedicated analyst and await results.

“It allows us to quickly iterate on a design, to try out designs, to identify issues early on in the design phase and mitigate and fix them before they become bigger issues,” Lagua says.

“Say I’m building a transducer made of some type of material and I bond it to an electric substrate and see a bubble,” she says. “I can make a hypothesis about what failed. I then change the design, and test it with Comsol and compare it to our test events. We find issues with models and correct them quickly.”

“We’re able to design, prototype, test and verify a design sometimes in as little as a week,” she adds.

New materials and tank testing
Because it simulates how the material from which the object is made affects performance, the analysis software also helps engineers establish the material properties the transducer needs. They also use it to test prospective new materials, Lagua adds.

“We figure out if we have to change the design based on the prototype and maybe changing the materials is part of that,” she adds.

“The challenge is: materials vendors don’t always give you all their materials properties. And you need them,” Lagua says. “So, we use Comsol to model the materials.”

The researchers do this by plugging the materials properties they do have into the simulation and analysis software. They also find the materials they deem most similar to the one they are using and put those material properties in those as well.

“So, if I’m experimenting with a new polyurethane, it comes down to what we know about polyurethane in general. Then we look at the differences in data between the model and the test information and change and tweak the information we do have,” she says.

What is the test information she refers to?

Well, of course, the team needs real-world measurements to verify against and plug into the analysis software. These tests are also how they verify material properties against the information they have. They create model prototypes and study them, to study how that prototype would perform in the field.

Acoustical test events, as they’re called, take place at a specialized underseas testing facility that simulate open-water testing. The facility her team uses features a 50-foot-diameter, 300,0000-gallon tank lined with redwood for sound baffling. Onsite test and measurement equipment are placed on the prototype to gather immediate feedback and readings.

“It’s the closest an engineer gets to measuring how a device will act deep in the ocean—without actually taking the device deep in the ocean,” Lagua says.

“We take the results we get from the facility and bring them back into Comsol,” she says. “Then, with Comsol, you can run the same acoustic testing you do at an open-water tank,” she adds. “We have that information in our analysis software.

“Then we can and relate it back to our earlier test data and verify and tweak our model,” she adds. “We figure out if we have to change design or maybe change materials to optimize transducer performance.”

The engineers optimize transducer performance-based how that particular transducer’s end use.

“For example, we’ll optimize for acoustical performance: the highest level of sensitivity to capture the lowest amount of sound while having a large, broadband frequency coverage to hear over a very large range of frequencies,” Lagua says. “We’re really optimizing for multiple things in parallel.”

At the conference, Lagua shared one of the systems created through her group’s design iteration process: a µSAS (pronounced “micro-sas”) sonar to be affixed on UUVs. The micro-sas is small in size, weight, and power.

The U.S. Department of Defense is adapting Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, which function, in some ways, as a submarine without personnel aboard.

The interferometric synthetic aperture sonar produces high-quality, 3-D images, enables longer sorties, and higher area coverage rates for UUV missions, says Alan Lytle, vice president of undersea systems at Northrop Grumman. The sonar takes 2-D sas and 3-D bathymetric images.

The UUV vehicles carry six sonar systems, which can be preprogrammed for the needs of the mission, Lagua says.

Northrop Grumman Corp.’s announced in February itµSAS (pronounced “micro-sas”) will be integrated onto L3Harris Technologies’ Iver4 Unmanned Undersea Vehicle, pictured for a 12-month test period, as part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s Generation Small-Class UUV program.

“We have sonars on both sides of the vehicle so you can look at images from two different aspect ratios and interpret them in 3-D just as your eyes would,” she adds.

“Because of its very small scale we were constrained in size, weight and power for our system,” she says. “We wanted the best acoustics possible at the smallest scale while conserving as much energy as much as possible.”

The group tested their late prototypes by sending them down to take imagery of a ship that sank on the bay near their Maryland facility.

Engineers at Northrup Grumman used acoustics simulation technology to develop the µSAS sonar mounted on the L3Harris Technologies’ UUV.

“In the 3-D image you can see the ship is in a big trough and the front is sticking out of a hole,” Lagua points out. “You wouldn’t be able to see that in 2-D.”

While she did not say exactly what sonar technology her team worked on, in February, Northrup Grumman announced that the company’s µSAS interferometric synthetic aperture sonar will be integrated onto L3Harris Technologies’ Iver4 UUVs.

The Iver4 UUV weighs 200-pounds, is nine inches in diameter and 99-inches long. Integration of synthetic aperture sonar on UUV of this diameter represents a significant step forward for the operational capability of small-class vehicles, according to Lytle.

The next-gen microwave oven
Then we veer to quite a different use for simulation in the early (and late) design stages. Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Food Equipment Group uses Comsol to analyze and simulate new heating methods for their solid-state ovens. The ovens, intended for commercial use, can cook a variety of foods, all at the same time and their different temperatures, says Chris Hopper, radio frequency systems engineer at ITW. He also spoke at the Comsol conference.

Solid stage ovens differ from convection microwaves, which use the same magnetron technology developed for radar in World War II. A “regular” microwave oven uses the open-loop magnetron system to heat foods.

Microwave ovens use radio frequency technologies developed in World War II. ITW Food Technologies is working on solid state ovens that would be an upgrade to the microwave. (Photo source: ITW Food Equipment Group)

But magnetron-based systems have many limitations, including low power and phase control, short lifetime, and high-voltage power supplies, Hopper says.

On the other hand, RF solid-state cooking features a closed-loop feedback system that can adapt to various loads and measure the food’s properties at any time during the cooking process, Hopper says.

“With solid-state, you can vary the power, measure what goes into the cavity and is coming out, and you can teach the oven how to intelligently respond over time to the feedback it gets,” he says.

“A magnetron can last from 12 to 18 months, but with solid-state power, the lifetime can be amplified for many years,” Hopper adds. “And the performance doesn’t degrade over time.”

“But before you start building, you want to investigate basic physical phenomena because we’re talking about a metal box with multiple phenomena,” he says.

Hopper’s team uses Comsol to iterate on the design using LiveLink for MatLab. The software allows them to synchronize their model with Comsol Multiphyics and define geometry, run multiphysics simulations, and optimize the model accordingly. For instance, they use simulation to study their model’s heating patterns.

“We look at what the presence of the food changes in terms of interference, hot and cold spots, and other qualities,” he says. “How does changing the phase affect the food itself?

“We don’t need it to be exact,” Hopper adds. “We’ll look at the accuracy once we’ve established that the simulation represents real-life experiments accurately,” he says.

“The culmination of our work is to develop algorithms,” Hopper says. “We can study hundreds of combinations of different phases in different sources. We can look at the data behind this and test and train models mainly worthy of further development for an algorithm.

“With simulations, we can phase out what wouldn’t work for outcomes we’re interested in,” Hopper says. “It saves us a lot of time because we don’t go down dead ends for algorithm development that may not work out.”

To study each phase and frequency combination separately would take weeks using testing equipment in a lab, he adds.

The virtual simulations also cuts labor costs in an unusual way, as the engineers run fewer experiments with actual oven prototypes and the food they cook.

To make those simulations available to product specialists, who don’t need or want to see the fine print, the ITW engineers created an application from the Comsol data. Product specialists download it, view it, and offer feedback based on their own experience, Hopper says.

“We have a chef here who is responsible for bringing value to our customers,” Hopper says. “There are certain questions he wants answered and, through the app, he doesn’t want to try it out in the kitchen many times. “He can look at temperature, airspeed, time and determine the parameters of the food he can cook and how the food will change as the result of those things.

In the end, many companies are learning that multiphysics simulation can be as important as model creation itself, says Bjorn Sjodin, Comsol vice president of product marketing. He calls the trend “the democratization of simulation.”

“More engineers are using simulation,” he says. And he expects the trend to continue.

The capability to simplify complex analysis and simulation by making application expands the reach beyond engineers.

Soon, a sales representative may be demonstrating oven phase and frequency to a potential customer. After all, “there’s an app for that.”

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

Filed Under: COMSOL Tagged With: COMSOL

Latest release of IronCAD helps move 3D designs to production faster

November 30, 2020 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

IronCAD, a 3D CAD productivity platform for metal fabricators and custom machinery manufacturers, announces the release of IRONCAD 2021, which contains many exciting improvements and capabilities that help customers drive innovation and move to production faster.

Every year, IronCAD global customers submit feedback with enhancement improvements that matter the most for increasing the design productivity or improving the 3D to the production drawing process. In addition to user feedback, after having endured an unprecedented year, it was essential to keep IronCAD users working and ensure that productivity is the way of life for their business with the release of IRONCAD 2021. In this year’s release, the main focus was on improving productivity to help create designs and production drawings faster. With this in mind, the goal for IronCAD 2021 was to improve the performance from 3D to the 2D detailing stage, improve the detailing user experience, continuous quality improvement, as well as improvements that make the design process more productive.

Examples of the new improvements in IRONCAD 2021 are:

Improved IntelliShape Handles for Increasing Performance – New behaviors to quickly symmetrically size shapes with a right-click drag, quick access to handle values attached to the cursor, and more powerful snap options to get precise locations from a point or center point that allow users to design faster with IronCAD shapes.

User Interface Improvements to Enhance the User Experience – Easier access to multiple catalogs, direct feedback on face and edge length/area information, direct selection access to assemblies, parts, features, and faces in the current selection viewing direction, TriBall® shortcuts to reduce steps in repeating copy/link commands, and many more to improve the user workflow in design.

Sheet Metal Design Improvements and Accessibility – Improved processes in selecting stocks, automatic bend alignment on angled sheet metal stock for creation and updates, and accessing common commands for sheet metal bends to speed up the design and editing of sheet metal.

Overall 2D Technical Drawing User Improvements – 2D Annotation catalog for common annotations, 2D Template catalog to quickly change templates for drawings, new tools for revision clouds and ISO Tolerance Codes for dimensions, improved bulk view creation options to automatically generate drawing layouts that speed up the 2D detailing, and many other improvements to enhance the detailing process for production designs.

Communication Improvements for Sharing – The free Share 3D viewer has an improved user interface and support for measure and textures while supporting large geometry data sets that allow users to communicate 3D designs faster and easily with customers on any tablet or laptop device on any platform with an HTML5 supported browser.

“In a year with major uncertainty and with businesses and people across the globe impacted in unique ways, IronCAD worked closely with our customers to shape the 2021 release to meet their current needs and to help plan for future capabilities for remote working and collaboration,” stated Cary O’Connor, V.P. of Marketing for IronCAD. “IronCAD remains committed to focus on our customer satisfaction and to deliver solution to assist our customers in remaining competitive and innovative in these challenging times. IronCAD 2021 is our first stepping stone in this direction and more solutions are being developed with our teams to deliver innovative solutions to our customers.” he continued.

Try the newest, updated version of IronCAD now for free by navigating to https://www.ironcad.com/free-online-trial/ to start your free online trial.

IronCAD
www.ironcad.com

Filed Under: ironcad Tagged With: IronCAD

Experience a seamless workflow from CT scan to full statistical analysis

November 18, 2020 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

Volume Graphics is extending data export from its non-destructive testing and analysis software based on industrial computed tomography (CT) to the statistics software Q-DAS qs-STAT. This close cooperation between Volume Graphics and Q-DAS, which are now united under the roof of Hexagon,  takes automation to the next level: statistical evaluations can now be fully integrated into a CT scan data analysis workflow.

Many users want to statistically analyze the quality data of their scanned components. This is often a basic requirement for automated applications. Q-DAS solutions, such as the Q-DAS qs-STAT package, are considered to be the de-facto standard for statistical analysis. Volume Graphics had already implemented an option for data export to the Q-DAS software in the earlier Release 3.3 of VGSTUDIO MAX. But now, as an integral part of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, Volume Graphics and Q-DAS are working on making the data exchange between computed tomography and statistics even tighter.

Volume Graphics software transfers not only the measured values, but also an image of the CT-scanned component (in this case a cast part) into the Q-DAS qs-STAT statistics software package. This enables the dimensions to be clearly linked to the corresponding detail in the report. Visual support makes it easy for users to identify critical processes quickly, as well as weak points and deviations; green bars show time-series of measured values for specific features of the object. Summary graphics like those shown here are an essential tool for the definition of corrective actions needed to optimize a manufacturing process.

The first result of this collaboration is the option to also export 3D representations of components or measured features to Q-DAS software. This option was recently introduced with version 3.4.3 of VGSTUDIO MAX, VGMETROLOGY and VGinLINE. In practice, the user simply marks the relevant box in the export mask. The software then adds the corresponding part image to the data to be exported. Users can make their reports, which they define and access with Q-DAS qs-STAT, even more transparent. They can immediately see which measurement series belongs to which detail (see image).

“Currently, it is possible to export 3D component representations from our coordinate measuring module using measurement data,” says Johannes Knopp, Product Manager Automation & Inline at Volume Graphics. “But progress does not stop there. Our development department is already working on including additional results from the array of gray-value-based material analyses, such as defect analyses, in the export functions. The aim is to realize a seamless, fully automated workflow for all CT quality data.”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: volumegraphics

Tech Soft 3D completes acquisition of Visual Kinematics in continued expansion of CAE offerings

November 12, 2020 By WTWH Editor Leave a Comment

Tech Soft 3D, a leading provider of engineering software development kits (SDKs), announces that it has acquired Visual Kinematics (VKI), maker of DevTools, a suite of component software development kits (SDKs) for computer-aided engineering (CAE) applications. This acquisition continues the company’s growth plans to scale global reach and increase its product offerings.

“The CAE market is exploding and the applications for simulation will only continue to expand,” said Ron Fritz, Chief Executive Officer at Tech Soft 3D. “Analysing how your design will function in the real world offers such massive cost savings that simulation is already well established in the design process. Tech Soft 3D is focused on adapting our tools to address this rapidly growing market space, as well as taking some of the core capabilities available in these technologies to serve the needs of additive manufacturing, AR/VR, IoT, machine learning, AI, etc.”

Based in Saratoga, California, the team at VKI has spent more than 30 years developing a component software product line that addresses a spectrum of CAE simulation technology needs: from mesh generation and interoperability tools to solvers, visualization and graphics. VKI’s tools provide developers with the ability to import/export of the analysis results from the vast majority of the world’s most widely used simulation solutions including those from ANSYS, Siemens and Dassault Systèmes. VKI component tools have been installed in analysis products including mechanical, fluids, electro-magnetic and multiphysics applications. With a reputation for delivering innovative, commercially robust products, VKI is relied upon by the CAE industry’s largest and most respected software companies such as ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes (SolidWorks), Siemens, Autodesk, Hexagon (MSC.Software), PTC, Ceetron and ESI Group to deliver applications for structural analysis, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics and electromagnetics.

“We have been committed to providing the absolute best solutions to our customers, enabling them to build integrated, customized, end-to-end CAE analysis solutions, and we couldn’t be happier knowing that our customers will now have even more tools at their disposal,” said Gordon Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer at VKI. “The commitment that Tech Soft 3D has to building the strongest suite of CAE development tools in the industry is unmatched, and we are excited to be joining the team.”

Tech Soft 3D has long been a provider of data access and engineering graphics SDKs to the CAE market, working with partners such as ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes (EXA) , Altair, Numeca, MathWorks and Siemens (CD Adapco).

“The VKI portfolio is the perfect complement to our HOOPS toolkits, as well as our recently acquired Ceetron SDKs for visualization of CAE results,” said Gavin Bridgeman, CTO at Tech Soft 3D. “We will be working hard to integrate our tool sets, offering the most complete and robust CAE component technology solution on the market. It’s an exciting time, and I look forward to building the future with our new colleagues.”

Tech Soft 3D intends to continue to maintain and support VKI’s existing customers and partners that are using its market-leading SDK offerings for CAE, and will retain their staff. Details of the acquisition are not disclosed. Tech Soft 3D is backed by investment firm Battery Ventures.

Tech Soft 3D
www.techsoft3d.com

Filed Under: CAD Industry News, News Tagged With: techsoft3d

Siemens expands Xcelerator portfolio with enhanced Model Based Definition in latest version of NX software

November 5, 2020 By WTWH Editor Leave a Comment

Siemens Digital Industries Software announces the availability of the latest version of NX software, including capabilities that allow companies to use a rules- and knowledge-based approach to Model Based Definition, which builds in best practices and leverages artificial intelligence to dramatically improve productivity. NX Model Based Definition provides a rich set of data that defines a variety of characteristics beyond size and shape to enable a truly comprehensive digital twin. By including non-geometric data within the CAD model, engineers can now produce a complete digital definition of a product in an annotated and organized manner, creating alignment throughout the production process, from design to production through validation.

This image is showing how a PMI can be authored in NX using rules. The NX MBD solution dramatically simplifies the task of authoring PMI and captures key characteristics and knowledge.

“I’ve been in the CAD/PLM game my entire career, over 35 years. Rarely have I been as impressed by a big leap forward as we saw today,” said Tom Gill, Senior Consultant at CIMData, after reviewing the technology. “Siemens continues to innovate and reimagine CAD design in a way that truly looks to the future of design.”

This image is showing the NX PMI Advisor, a fully integrated PMI validation solution that provides notification verifying whether PMI is compliant with industry and company standards. The NX PMI Advisor removes the dependency on highly trained GD&T experts and produces higher quality parts in less time.

A first to the industry, patented technology, NX Model Based Definition answers many of the challenges companies face when digitalizing the design process and transitioning from 2D to 3D. In trying to replicate a drawing-based workflow in the context of 3D CAD design, many companies are ending up with a 3D drawing, which does not have the tools to capture the true business intelligence needed to take advantage of the digital twin and digital thread. Using NX Model Based Definition, designers and engineers can automatically create and reuse data, adding more intelligence to the model, and subsequently leverage the data to inform other products and decisions — moving to a model-based enterprise. Avoiding the manual process of data validation and correction can help enterprises leverage their designs in a new and innovative way, enhancing productivity across the business.

Siemens Digital Industries Software
www.sw.siemens.com

Filed Under: Siemens Digital Industries Software Tagged With: Siemensdigitalindustriessoftware

Kubotek announces Keycreator 2021

November 3, 2020 By WTWH Editor Leave a Comment

Kubotek3D, a leading supply chain software provider, today announced the availability of a new major release of KeyCreator 3D CAD software. The 2021 release provides improvements to Model-based Definition capabilities, productivity enhancements to various functions, and updates to CAD translators.

Model-Based Definition (MBD): Face colors supporting the digital thread
KeyCreator MfgCAD software has been designed to maximize productive re-use of CAD data. In the 2021 release the materials system has been enhanced in numerous ways to better support definition of what each face color means and quickly apply or copy those colors to appropriate faces.


For complex tooling design, face color attributes on the 3D model are commonly used as a form of MBD to signify manufacturing information such as surface tolerance and hole type. These colors are later converted to cycle parameters in the NC program. When this process can be automated, it follows the strategy called preserving the digital thread. This increasing popular concept saves time and errors over a human reading a drawing and re-typing the details into manufacturing software.

“The color tools available in the 2021 release of KeyCreator are a game changer.” said Bill Bechard, Designer, Superior Tool and Mold in Windsor, Ontario. “I have used premium CAD software that can’t deliver this automated face color manipulation. Our CNC cutting automation is reliant on face colors, so these tools will save many hours on every job we process. I am eager to start using the software.”

Since specific colors have different meaning for different shops, KeyCreator 2021 now stores material definitions in design and template files and allows loading and saving sets of materials from configuration files. An update to the selection filtering system allows quick access to faces with a specific material from any function. To extend support for design data from any source, KeyCreator 2021 recognizes unique face colors on imported models and automatically creates matching material definitions. This feature speeds up the process of defining a standard set of colors to be used on future jobs headed to a specific shop.



STEP AP 242
Kubotek proprietary readers for STEP (ISO 10303) files have been expanded to cover AP 242 to support customers using a full, standard-based MBD approach. STEP AP 242 defines critical manufacturing annotations including Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) and their relationship to the faces of the 3D model. These annotations and the nominal size and position of the precise geometric model provide an unambiguous part definition. This form of MBD can provide process efficiency by eliminating the need to translate the design into detail drawings and better support automation of downstream activities such as NC machining and inspection.

A second STEP enhancement has added to the 2021 release to open and export compressed ASCII STEP files which use the extension “.stpZ”. Compressed STEP files are around 20% of the size of uncompressed STEP files. The stpZ format has been gaining in popularity since originally released in 2013, especially in the aerospace and automotive industries.

Productivity improvements
KeyCreator 2021 also provides several other user-driven time-saving enhancements.
• Auxiliary drawing views defined perpendicular to a line/edge
• Significant speed improvement re-opening the Detail Style Editor
• Axis indicators selectable for vector direction or position
• Create 2D section slice geometry from part reference geometry

Updated CAD translators
Interoperability with other CAD software has been updated with the latest versions of two major CAD file formats:
• Autodesk Inventor 2021
• PTC Creo 7.0
Select this Data Exchange link for a complete list of translation features in KeyCreator 2021.

Kubotek3D
www.kubotek3d.com

Filed Under: Kubotek Tagged With: kubotek3d

CoreTechnologie presents a new 3D printing software version at Formnext Connect

November 3, 2020 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

The German-French software manufacturer CT CoreTechnologie will present a comprehensively revised version of the 4D_Additive software at the virtual Formnext Connect tradeshow from 10th to 12th of November 2020.

Since the trade fair this year is taking place online only, interested parties can get a demonstration of the software on the virtual booth of CT and ask questions directly to the software specialists. By this means, the concentrated know-how of CoreTechnologie for solving the tasks and challenges of additive manufacturing is available to the visitor.

On 10th and 11th November 2020 each day at 10am and 2pm, Expert Sessions will be held, in which an overview of the software will be presented and the extensive innovations of the software will be explained in detail. New tools for the creation of 3D surface textures as well as structures for lightweight components and for saving the models in high-precision step-format will be explained and shown live. The Expert Sessions will also be available as video in the Formnext media library.

CoreTechnologie
www.coretechnologie.com/products/4d-additive

Filed Under: CAD Industry News, News Tagged With: coretechnologie

Radica Software partners with Onshape to bring 3D drawings and electrical CAD on one platform

October 21, 2020 By WTWH Editor Leave a Comment

Radica Software, a developer of cloud-based electrical computer-aided design software (ECAD), announced it has partnered with Onshape Inc. Both companies have agreed to integrate their technologies to provide end-to-end drawing solutions for engineers around the globe. The integration makes it easy and efficient for engineers to complete product designs using 3D CAD software together with Electra Cloud’s 2D electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic drawings, in real-time, all within a single online platform on Onshape. This offering is already available, and users can now subscribe to Electra Cloud directly from Onshape’s app store.

Users may share parts, designs, and symbols so they can be reused throughout the entire company. This eliminates tedious repetitive tasks and frees up engineers’ time so they can focus on important priorities to improve bottom line.

Onshape and Radica Software already have plans for deeper integration within the coming months. For example, users will be able to customize Electra Cloud with a plugin that will extract information from Onshape and automatically populate electrical drawings. Conversely, electrical drawings made on Electra Cloud can also insert parts into 3D Onshape drawings, for workflow management or even simulations.

The partnership with Onshape is the first for Electra Cloud since its launch in early 2020. Radica Software is also looking to widen its market reach through partnerships with other industry players around the world.

Radica Software
radicasoftware.com

Filed Under: Company News Tagged With: radicasoftware

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