25 May 2011 Sydney time – CADDIT has announced the upcoming release of progeCAD 2011 for June-July timeframe. As of 25 May 2011 Sydney timezone, all new licenses and upgrades purchased of progeCAD 2010 Professional for Microsoft Windows, including progeCAD USB, Network NLM and Office license options, will receive a free upgrade to the new version of progeCAD 2011 for Windows upon its release, at no additional charge. This offer also includes all users who upgrade progeCAD now from an older version or from another older CAD package. This promotion does not include progeCAD Standard, and will conclude at the announcement of progeCAD 2011 release.

Over four years in development and planning, progeCAD 2011 for Windows is a largely re-written product from the ground up. progeCAD 2011 is a milestone release as regards compatibility to AutoCAD and other design products. progeCAD 2011 longer stores DWG/DXF using the old internal ITC database, rather is built directly on Teigha® DRX. This dramatically improves file performance (read/write speeds, etc). Although ITC SDS modules will still be supported for some time, progeCAD 2011 is the first generation offering developer access to a genuine DRX C++ API.

progeCAD is a trusted name for many companies looking for reasonably-priced CAD software for working with AutoCAD DWG files, plan view drawing, fixture plumbing and electrical layout and other design work. A free download of progeCAD is available at this LINK.

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No AutoCAD LT for MAC? Try iCADMac from CADDIT.

CADDIT has announce the availability of iCADMac in Australia and New Zealand. iCADMac is the low cost 2D/ 3D DWG and DXF CAD alternative for MAC users. Concurrent with AutoCAD commands, iCADMac opens, saves and edits direct AutoCAD® native DWG files. It is a user friendly 2D/3D CAD software using a conventional-style OS/X interface. Due to iCADMac’s high level of compatibility with AutoCAD it is ideal for design professionals like architects, commercial draftsmen, land and planning surveyors, structural detailing and building designers, kitchen and bath modelers, engineers and others who use Apple computers for their work.

iCADmac offers features to make it a complete primary CAD package with hundreds of commands for 2D design and 3D modeling. These features include full geometry set of lines, arcs, splines, text, dimensions, hatches and other entities. PDF import and export makes data exchange with graphic artists easier. Tables and cells can be used for bills of materials, component lists, revisions and text to organize and manage information within your drawings. iCADMac can insert, edit and clip Raster images (scanned images, photos, images from the Internet, etc.). in a drawing; iCADMac supports jpeg, bmp, gif, and png image formats with added support for polygonal image cropping. ACIS 3D solids support allows for the direct construction of complex 3D models in your CAD drawing. The newly updated iCADMac 26 April release now includes iCADlib (the new CAD block library with 20,000 blocks), Traceparts access, and several fixes related to printing and file access.

MAC users can sign up for a free 30 day full-function iCADMac demo at this LINK. Micrsoft Windows users should consider downloading progeCAD instead. iCADMac pricing is available from CADDIT.net.

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SolidWorks, Inventor and Solid Edge are just some examples of legacy 3D CAD solutions supported by Alibre Translate – a feature available with Alibre Design Expert at no additional cost. For those not familiar with Alibre, Alibre is an easy-to-use low cost parametric 3D CAD system mainly for mechanical engineering design of parts, assemblies, sheet metal and more. Alibre Translate (Now free with Alibre Design Expert) not only offers direct Solidworks file import of .sldprt and Solidworks .sldasm assemblies, but also Autodesk Inventor .ipt and .iam files, Solid Edge files and much more.

Alibre easily handles large SolidWorks assemblies like this laptop computer

SolidWorks users should have little trouble understanding Alibre’s straight-forward solid modelling and assembly design interfaces. feature sketch, extrusion, subtraction, shelling, draft, lofting are all functions also supported in Alibre Design. Alibre Design Expert adds non-parametric (direct) editing techniques commonly found in systems costing several times more than Alibre Design Expert (less than AUD $1500 in Australia – see prices here). Expert also includes Keyshot photo-rendering and Moi 3D surfacing software at no additional cost.

Alibre also offers fully integrated CNC software for 2.5-axis, 3 4 and 5-axis milling machines. Alibre CAM basic comes free with Alibre Design Expert, offering as the name indicates basic 2.5-axis milling from within the Alibre interface. A full comparison of Alibre CAM options are shown HERE. Solidworks users can also import their SolidWorks model into Alibre CAM for manufacturing.

Alibre Design is an easy, inexpensive and intuitive option for SolidWorks users. Although Alibre 2D detailing and drafting environment is quite comprehensive, Alibre also integrates well with advanced 2D CAD drafting solutions like Autodesk AutoCAD or progeCAD, a low-cost AutoCAD clone. A free 30-day trial of Alibre Design can be requested directly from CADDIT Australia by following the links and downloading HERE.

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Alibre Design 2011 was first released in late 2010 offering a number of important new features:

• Alibre’s first native 64-bit version
• New “in-place editing” UI framework
• New MIRROR and SCALE modelling commands
• On-the-fly library creation
• Direct 3D Solid->SheetMetal conversion

MoI:
In addition to these new features, Alibre Design Expert user licenses sold after 2 December 2010 are now entitled to get MoI – Moment of Inspiration – freeform surfacing software. At this point the best link between MoI and Alibre itself seems to be using STEP data, although ACIS SAT and IGES are also offered by MoI (the IGES interface seemed to loose the most data in our lab test, but we were expecting that). One major advantage MoI offers is a “point-and-click” workflow that doesn’t require use of special ALT-key combinations, which makes it perhaps more practical for use on tablet PCs.

KeyShot for Alibre:
“KeyShot for Alibre – Basic” is new realtime photorealistic rendering software offered with Alibre Design Professional and Alibre Design Expert. The updated capabilities of KeyShot for Alibre (formerly “KeyShot for CAD”) are outlined in this brochure, and summarized in the chart provided below:

It is worth noting that, although Alibre Design is now available as a native AMD64 bit application (Windows 7 compatible) many of the Alibre add-ons such as Alibre CAM and Alibre Motion are not yet. The 32-bit version Alibre add-ons will not work with Alibre 64-bit software and require Alibre 32-bit to install and run. However there seems little problem in running Alibre 32-bit version on a 64-bit PC now. Since the first major release of Alibre’s latest version of their easy-to-use 3D CAD system, a few minor bugfix updates have also been made available and the latest version of Alibre can be downloaded HERE.

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CAD on MAC OS/X (Version 10 or ‘X’ of the Apple operating System) is back. AutoCAD for Mac was (re)announced in August 2010. However, the cost of AutoCAD on Mac (several thousand dollars) makes this new option unviable for some small business looking for CAD software for Mac. As a low cost alternative to more expensive CAD on Mac systems, CADDIT will begin to offer the iCADMac product line from progeSOFT.

iCADMac “CAD for Mac” features include:

• Native Mac OS/X CAD software – no Boot Camp, VMware Fusion or Parallels virtualization required.
• Similar user interface to what some CAD for Mac users are already accustomed.
• Read and Write AutoCAD .dwg CAD files, edit and print.
• Convert PDF in to CAD / Print to PDF out from CAD
• Raster image modification tools for use in CAD drawings
• 3D solid modeling using the same ACIS libraries as licensed by AutoCAD
• Table and cell support used for bills of materials, component lists and more.
• Advanced interface for gradient hatching, entity property bar etc
• ALE symbol library including ready 15.000 Blocks for use in your drawing
• AutoLISP and ODA DRX C++ programming support
• Permanent perpetual license
• 12 Months free upgrade maintenance with new license with option to renew

CADDIT will be offering an AUD$175 discount to RRP pricing until 22 April. Architects, engineers, technicians and other CAD users looking for “CAD for Mac” will also enjoy free upgrades to additional functionality released in the iCADMac product for 12 months from the date of purchase. iCADmac can be downloaded for a free for a 30 day trial HERE. Questions about iCADMac in Australia and New Zealand should be directed to CADDIT here.

Note for Windows users – those looking for a reliable, low-cost 2D / 3D design solution on Microsoft Windows should download progeCAD for Windows HERE.

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Parametric Technology Corporation announced “creo, a PTC Product” at the at the Park Plaza Castle in Boston USA last week. “creo” is the name given to the overall design platform of PTC product development tools for “the next twenty years”. According to PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann, creo “is the Latin root of the word create and… means I think, I create, I believe“. Creo is slated as successor to the long-successful Pro/ENGINEER product line.

The new PTC Creo design platform is more than a new CAD program. Creo is a completely redeveloped design software framework that delivers a seamless and uniform design interface for modelling, drawing, simulation, detailing, manufacturing and other applications. Creo will accomplish this by means of a common data model capable of merging design information in from multiple design modes – not just parametric. With Creo, PTC answers four ongoing pain issues widespread in product development industries today:

1. Ease of use for casual users and non-CAD personell
2. Interoperability to use CAD files from any given CAD program
3. Switching costs caused by migrating data from other CAD software
4. high-level configuration driven design with multiple variations

PTC Creo will answer these problems respectively via the four cornerstone technologies upon which new Creo applications are built:

• AnyRole Apps – scalable, easy and “role specific” applications for all types of users
• AnyMode Modeling – seamless data portability across multiple CAD drawing modes
• AnyData Adoption – enables direct CAD file editing in Creo from any CAD system
• AnyBOM Assembly – drive 3D CAD assembly configurations using Windchill PLM – watch THIS…

The full event can be watched HERE. What I find interesting about AnyMode Assembly is PTC’s departure from today’s typical large-CAD business rhetoric, insisting that all CAD users are best served using in-depth 3D design mode tools. In observation, Brian Shepherd Executive Vice President, PTC Product Development stated “some users… are best served working in a 2D mode.” He went on to say “We don’t need a religious zeal around converting from one mode to another. We’re about any mode.”

PTC has an initial release target of summer 2011 for the new “Creo, a PTC product”. CAD users are encouraged to keep their PTC maintenance current and active, so as to be in best position to enjoy these new technologies when they are released. For more information in Australia about either PTC Pro/ENGINEER or next year’s new Creo platform, feel free to contact CADDIT here.

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progeCAD is a powerful but low-cost architectural or mechanical design package, somewhat similar to AutoCAD from Autodesk. progeCAD features include Autodesk’s DWG format read/write for all versions of AutoCAD from 2010 and as far back as R11. Most of the basic commands are the same, workflow and interface all follow a similar logic. For years CADDIT Australia has been offering progeCAD Professional annual licenses to schools free of charge. One school in the New South Wales TAFE system wrote of progeCAD:

I personally consider that your company’s provision of this program for academic purposes, free of charge is the best thing that has happened to the CAD industry for a long time… I teach across a number of campuses in the Hunter and am trying to convince other sections to switch over from AutoCAD to ProgeCAD for teaching purposes. The benefits of allowing students to download the program and develop their skills at home at no cost cannot be underestimated, apart from the ethical aspect of positively discouraging the use of pirated AutoCAD software.

CSTC in Queensland Australia writes:

It is an exceptional program in the standards it allows students to apply to drawing – variety of linetypes, lineweights, hatchs patterns etc. We are enjoying using it, our trainees and apprentices appear to like the feel of it. Great program.

A few of CADDIT’s academic program subscribers are from outside Australia. One school from overseas writes:

Since we only have a single, one-semester course that uses CAD, this offer CADDIT makes to license ProgeCAD to schools at no charge is a wonderful effort supporting education. Our students are able to gain experience with professional software and several have applied these skills in internships and subsequent educational experiences in vocational/technical programs and college. Without ProgeCAD’s support, we would be forced to use some consumer-level software, as it would be extremely difficult to justify spending thousands of dollars to license professional CAD software for a lab that will be used with a single class of students.

Another student used the opportunity to submit a new concept for a local highway intersection to local planning authorities..
progeCAD can be downloaded free of cost HERE. For more information about how progeCAD can be used in your school, visit http://www.caddit.net/progecad/educational.php

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Alibre Design is one of Australia’s most affordable mid-range 3d mechanical CAD solutions. Within the next several weeks Alibre 2011 is expected for release. This major release both adds new features as well as improving many existing ones. A crucial focus for Alibre Design 2011 has been improvement in efficiency and ease of use, including fully customizable keymaps and in-place editing. Developers may also be interested to know that much of Alibre is now written in the Microsoft C# programming language, which allows developers to add new features even faster than before. Here are a few of the many feature enhancements of the new Alibre 2011 version release:

Alibre Design 2011 will offer Alibre’s first native 64-bit version, which basically means you can make larger, more complex assemblies and have more files open simultaneously, without the restrictions of older 32-bit operating systems and memory access. With the offering of a 64 bit version comes a tremendous increase in both what can be created in Alibre Design and the types of workflows people can use. Both Alibre Design Professional and Expert versions will be offered as 64-bit editions.

Direct 3D Solid->SheetMetal conversion will allow CAD designers to take ordinary 3d solid models or imported 3D files (like STEP or Parasolid) and automatically convert these into sheet metal parts that can be flattened and machined in Alibre CAM. Of course, the resulting sheet metal parts are fully associative to their original counterparts, so that if you change the original model, the associated sheet metal version will update automatically. The new solid to sheet metal conversion tool will only be offered with Alibre Design Expert edition.

Alibre Design 2011 will add new MIRROR and SCALE modelling commands. Alibre 2011 will offer a new “Double Intersect” sketch command that allows you to join two figures at their theoretical intersection. The tool has several modes, all completely transparent to you, which adapts to the types of figures and orientations that a designer encounters. Alibre 2011 will also make it possible to create libraries of your most commonly used hole types on the fly. Simply fill out the form, type a name, and press Create. The hole’s parameters can now be recalled instantly via the Presets dropdown. Alibre 2011 will also offer a new multi-plane creation tool, which can be useful when drawing multiple solid loft profiles, etc.

Alibre will begin rolling out their new “in-place editing” UI framework with Alibre Design 2011. In-place editing takes floating toolbars and context menus much further by opening relevant toolbars and icons just by selecting entities. Any changes are immediately displayed in real time, and to close in-place editing toolbars, we simply move the mouse away from the entity we initially selected. Alibre Design 2011 will offer this framework first in its Detailed Drawing Workspace, but is eventually to be deployed in various forms throughout the product.

Until release, CADDIT will begin offering free upgrades to all new Alibre Design Expert users a free upgrade to Alibre Design Expert 2011 upon release – but while still at current sale prices for V12.1. Alibre is suitable for a wide variety of mechanical design projects, including machine design, fixture design, vehicle and product development, sheet metal products and more. A free full-version trial of the current Alibre Design software in Australia can be downloaded here. For further questions about Alibre products, CADDIT support can be contacted HERE.

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CADDIT.net has released a new update of progeCAD 2010 10.0.10.8 for immediate download on their website. progeCAD is a low-cost compliment for AutoCAD from Autodesk, offering similar commands and editing AutoCAD DWG files but costing thousands less to buy. The progeCAD 10.0.10.8 update is free to all licensed progeCAD 2010 users and offers several key fixes that our users have requested, including these listed below:

For End Users:
Gradient hatch: improved visualization in printing
Improved performance when layouts have hidden or shaded viewports
ICAD.LSP continues loading even when reading ICAD.SDS fails
Fixed active layout in status bar opening a drawing on paper space
Last path used to open drawings is saved correctly
Fixed save of Dynamic blocks of DWG 2010 version
Fixed save of drawings containing Multileader and improved plot settings extraction
Fixed change of active DIMSTYLE in dialog
Changed reopen of property palette after print, to avoid conflict between print dialog and property palette
Fixed isolated crashes caused by certain entity displays
Fixed isolated crashes on Trim/Extend commands
Fixed problem of command typing with Windows 7 (Chinese Version)

For Developers:
Fixed ‘send of message’ to VBI workspaces

New Features:
Added Beta version of LispDefender (Lisp protection)
Added Proxy capability for both updater and registration

AutoCAD LT users are especially invited to try this latest release of progeCAD 2010. progeCAD offers several important features that AutoCAD LT does not, including 3D modelling and rendering, full programmability (C++, VBA, AutoLISP), multiple profile support, Network Licensing, DWG 14 export, Express Tools, Image Tools, advanced PDF printing and more. A free no-obligation trial of progeCAD Professional can be downloaded HERE.

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MathCAD 15.0 now integrates Knovel® Math for updated MathCAD Extended Libraries for Mechanical, Civil and Electrical engineering. Knovel Math offers MathCAD users fully documented engineering and math worksheets from trusted reference works which have been validated and quality tested. Transcribing equations for math calculations is often an extremely time consuming process. Knovel Math helps to speed up this process by quickly finding the required calculations, changing the input values in MathCAD and updating these instantly. Topics can be quickly searched and MathCAD enabled articles will be identified by the symbol . Articles are offered in both US Customary units and metric units for ease of use. Articles are opened in MathCAD with anything highlighted in green are the input values that can be changed and yellow highlighting indicates the output values which are updated instantly. MathCAD 14 users can also use the old Library Extensions from that version on MathCAD 15, as well.

How Does Knovel Benefit Mathcad 15 Users?
Active PTC Maintenance Support Customers have additional access to several other resources including Knovel. Members need to log into the website http://www.ptc.com/support/maintenance/gold/index.htm and follow the links to the Knovel website. Log in requires your active PTC Web Support username and password. For a limited time, PTC Maintenance Customers can sign-up and gain free access to Knovel without obligation. MathCAD customers are also entitled to 10 free downloads in any format (MathCAD, Excel, PDF etc).

What Kind of Solution Content Does Knovel Offer?
Knovel Math provides a variety of MathCAD worksheets on topics such as statics, stress and strain, flexural analysis, steel, concrete and timber, surveying, fluid mechanics, engineering economics to name a few. Using Knovel Math’s search database makes it easy to find worksheets or browse through the several MathCAD enabled articles. Once the desired worksheet is found, clicking on the MathCAD link will automatically download the worksheet into MathCAD. All documents are fully documented with detailed descriptions, some diagrams and worked examples.
Knovel also currently offers a “Free Titles Package” which is a free subscription package containing more than 10 premier handbooks and databases. Registration is free however this package won’t allow you access to the full to all the information available but it does give you enough access to get a taste of what Knovel can offer. Several of their most widely used titles are included in the free subscription which includes:
• Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
• Electric Machinery and Transformers (3rd Edition)
• Engineering Problem Solving – A Classical Perspective
• Essential Practices for Managing Chemical Reactivity Hazards
• Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables
• Handbook of Nanomedicine
• Hyperspectral Data Compression
• International Critical Tables of Numerical Data, Physics, Chemistry and Technology (1st Electronic Edition)
• Knovel Critical Tables (2nd Edition)
• Knovel Sample Book
• Large-Scale Adsorption and Chromatography, Volumes 1-2
• Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization (MMPDS-01)
• Smithsonian Physical Tables (9th Revised Edition)
• Teaching Engineering
• Wettability
As an added bonus Knovel® also offers registered users access to new and popular handbooks via their “Titles of the Week Program” where every week, 2 popular titles from their extensive databases are chosen and made available for a limited time. All of which can be used to enhance your MathCAD experience especially for those with a strong engineering background. Knovel® Math can be accessed via MathCAD in the main page by going to Tools > Knovel® > Search Knovel Math. This will direct you to their website or alternatively you can go to http://www.knovel.com/web/portal/main.

The new Knovel MathCAD options are one aspect of the value Mathcad 15 delivers to its users. For a free demo of Mathcad 15 inside Australia, test users can download the free full-version trial HERE. Users outside Australia should contact their local PTC partner, or contact PTC directly.

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