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Automatically determine fill levels and internal volumes

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The software 3D_Evolution Simplifier, known for data reduction and know-how protection, helps users automatically determine fill levels in tank systems or room volumes in air conditioning systems and vehicle interiors.

The German-French software manufacturer CoreTechnologie has added new functions to its 3D_Evolution Simplifier software. In addition to the generation of 3D envelope geometries for data reduction and know-how protection, the tool performs the otherwise time-consuming calculation of the interior volume for determining fill levels in tank systems or other spatial volumes in complex assemblies such as vehicle interiors.

From a user-defined starting point within the assembly, a virtual balloon is inflated to represent the volume of air or liquid in the interior. If necessary, auxiliary geometries are generated in the software to limit the interior volume or to define specific filling heights. The calculation and representation of the interior volume is done by a voxel model with freely definable edge length, influencing the calculation accuracy. The inner volume is represented by a triangulated solid, which can be converted into formats such as jt, stl or cgr for further processing in other systems. The virtual balloon can also be used in data simplification for automatic selection of interior or exterior components.

The tool processes over 40 different 3D formats, including Catia, Creo, Nx, Solidworks as well as JT and STEP without access to a CAD license and can therefore be used flexibly in any environment.

Improving coordination between electrical and mechanical design of electronic products

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Electronic products are more than just printed circuit boards (PCBs). PCB designers create the boards (components, copper traces, silkscreens) in the context of a specific device. They have to closely collaborate with the mechanical engineers who define the shape of boards and their enclosures, including mounting holes and the placement of critical components, to have the confidence that everything will fit exactly as planned when it goes to manufacturing.

When PCB designers and mechanical engineers work together to design electronic products, they often struggle to keep their work coordinated because they use completely different Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools. Altium’s CoDesigner allows mechanical engineers to design alongside PCB designers and supports multiple MCAD software platforms (including PTC Creo, Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor, and Autodesk Fusion 360).

“The benefit of Altium’s CoDesigner capability is the ease of quickly sharing the updated design to check potential mechanical conflicts in SOLIDWORKS. With this, our industrial designers can indicate what changes are desired from their point of view and make it easier to discuss the design,” says Gregory Knauff, Lead Hardware Engineer at SODAQ, a Dutch IoT development house.

Typically, when PCB designers and mechanical engineers have to work together on the same design, both are continually importing, exporting, and converting files, adding hours of manual labor, data loss, and rework to the design process. The CoDesigner capability eliminates that clunky and often tedious process.

Nyckle Sijtsma, Lead Industrial Designer at SODAQ, concurs. “I love how quickly design changes from the hardware team can be ‘pulled’ and tested with the latest 3D models using the CoDesigner capability. Also, being able to make changes in real-time helps in discussions between hardware and industrial design to test different ideas and shapes together quickly.”

This streamlined process ensures MCAD and ECAD are always in sync, yielding greater productivity, faster prototyping and shorter time-to-market, helping Altium Designer users change how they collaborate with their MCAD colleagues without the need to change the way they work.

Altium in collaboration with Quantel Laser, a division of Lumibird and a global leader in laser technology created a behind-the-scenes video exclusive to showcase the CoDesigner capability in action.

Jeremie Waller, Sr. Electrical Engineer and Laine McNeil, Sr. Mechanical Engineer, guide you through a hands-on demonstration of how they use Altium’s MCAD CoDesigner capability to optimize and streamline the way their design teams work together. Jeremie is using Altium Designer while Laine works with SOLIDWORKS for MCAD while collaborating with CoDesigner in Altium 365.

Altium
go.altium.com

Finding data more easily

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Selecting appropriate product data in engineering is often time consuming. However, the new EPLAN Data Portal, with a new user interface and improved search algorithms, makes it easier and faster than ever before. Expanded search parameters mean that users can quickly find exactly the components they are looking for. Individualized solutions based on configurators can be intuitively generated – as demonstrated by the Lenze product configurator.

More than one-third of all the data in the EPLAN Data Portal – for instance, those from Rittal – already conforms to the new, high quality Data Standard.

The new EPLAN Platform is on the verge of being released and will also mark the moment when the EPLAN Data Portal will exclusively be available for use in the EPLAN ePulse cloud environment. The platform’s updated user interface offers numerous enhancements for searching for and finding device data. Improved search algorithms and parameters make it much easier for users to quickly find the appropriate components to download. Increased system performance also ensures greater speed when selecting components. Another new feature is the integration of the Lenze product configurator.

Configurators streamline product selection
Lenze Director of Team Processes and Data Bernd Spiegel explains: “The direct integration of our product configurator into the new EPLAN Platform lets customers very quickly find the product they need. There’s no need to search for devices in extensive lists and customers get the devices that match their requirements. Aside from which, this cooperation also provides benefits for Lenze as a manufacturer of many products and variants. Maintaining the data for the configurator in EPLAN Electric P8 is much easier for us than doing that for all the distinct variants of a product series.”

A real life example: A user needs a frequency inverter. Using the Lenze Easy Product Finder, said user needs just a few steps to find a suitable device from the company’s i550 series of devices. The defining characteristics such as rated power, supply network type, and the type of fieldbus network are included as selection criteria. Once users have decided on a particular device based on these parameters, the associated EPLAN data can be generated in the detail view and then imported into the CAE solution’s device management.

Portal users need only a few steps to be able to find a suitable i550 series device using configurators such as the Lenze Easy Product Finder.

Around three million data sets available on the portal
The configurators of additional manufacturers, including Endress+Hauser, Bosch Rexroth and Rittal, all work in a similar way. This makes each manufacturer portfolio easily accessible to design engineers. Selecting devices and acquiring high quality data is easy and intuitive. The data is up to date and can be transferred directly into projects. Similarly to configuring features for a new car, users are guided through the various product families of the assorted manufacturers. Integrating configurators doesn’t just expand the data available in the portal (more than 1 million data sets) by approximately two million configurable variants, it also makes it easier for users to compile high quality device data.
In addition, there are selectors from Aventics, IPF and Schneider Electric that ensure fast product selection. There’s no question that the data is correct thanks to the targeted narrowing of selections via search parameters. This portfolio will soon be expanded with the offerings from two additional well known global players – meaning users have even more to look forward to.

EPLAN Data Standard becoming entrenched
More than one-third of the data on the portal already conforms to the new, high quality Data Standard, and solutions provider EPLAN has set further ambitious goals: half of all the device data should meet the Data Standard by the end of 2022, if possible. This calls for further commitments from device manufacturers, many of whom are recognizing the benefits of having 100 percent digital data. Big players that have been pioneers in this in the international arena include Chint (China), IFM, Pilz, Rittal and SMC (Europe), Numatics (USA) and Omron (Japan).

Pilz Vice President Customer Support International Arndt Christ says: “We’re pleased that we can now offer our customers high quality engineering data. In 2020, we decided to create our Pilz product macros to conform with the EPLAN Data Standard. The data standardization that is currently possible, which makes using the macros easier, benefits our in-house engineering departments in our affiliated companies and, externally, our customers around the globe. While macros previously had to be inserted into designs using value sets, today it can be accomplished using a functional template. The benefits include improved networking of data – for instance between 2D and 3D – fewer errors because the wiring connections are precisely defined, and time savings above all because the macros are standardized. The new Data Standard, particularly the functional template, is a mark of quality for our macros and meets our expectations for high quality data. We have a dependable partner for the future in EPLAN, someone we can work with to continue advancing this approach.”

EPLAN Software & Service
www.eplan.de

Students can jump-start their careers with offers available from Dassault Systèmes

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Dassault Systèmes announced the official availability1 of three student editions on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform tailored to help students prepare for their future careers.  In a global economy where existing jobs are transforming and new job skills are emerging, students can experience the digital technologies used by industry, develop in-demand skills, and achieve industry-recognized certifications that distinguish their technical expertise.

Through an easy online click and buy experience, students can purchase an affordable, one-year license to any of the following 3DEXPERIENCE Edu solutions for individual students:

Each 3DEXPERIENCE student edition provides a set of dedicated learning paths toward certification including SOLIDWORKS and CATIA Associate certifications.  Students also gain access to live webinars and opportunities for real-time communication with a global online community of peers and Dassault Systèmes experts.

The early adoption of the latest digital technologies can potentially play a role in students’ job prospects.  In fields like mechanical engineering, for example, students who have skills in advanced technologies such as virtual simulations, could be in high demand by companies seeking to reduce product development cycles.2

Dassault Systèmes
edu.3ds.com/en/software/stu

A look at hyperMILL 2021.2 CAD/CAM software suite

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OPEN MIND Technologies AG, a leading developer of CAD/CAM software solutions worldwide, has introduced its latest hyperMILL 2021.2 CAD/CAM software suite which offers users innovative and enhanced features for efficient, user friendly machining in applications ranging from 2.5D to 5-axis. “With our continued focus on providing a rich, simplified user experience, the latest version of hyperMILL offers enhanced machining strategies, increased options for data feedback, as well as more convenience,” said Mr. Alan Levine, Managing Director of OPEN MIND Technologies USA, Inc.

hyperMILL VIRTUAL Machining Optimizer detects violations of the axis limitations and optimizes movement sequences accordingly.

Resulting in simplified programming and increased process reliability, hyperMILL VIRTUAL Machining NC code-based machine simulation has also been enhanced. Within the VIRTUAL Machining Optimizer module which links individual part programs with smooth and safe connections, the cutter is able to remain close to the workpiece, violations of the axis limitations are now detected and movement sequences are optimized accordingly. There is also a new option in VIRTUAL Machining to apply a special approach and retract strategy to machines where the cutting tool can be retracted into a tunnel

A forerunner in CAM Additive Manufacturing, OPEN MIND has introduced more capabilities in hyperMILL 2021.2 ADDITIVE Manufacturing including a Weave Mode. This new mode generates a toolpath in a wave-shaped or zigzag movement, to apply material to contours or to fill areas, allowing the application area to be widened and the thickness to be increased for the individual movement. This continuous application also improves the metallurgical properties of the applied material.

In the integrated hyperCAD-S CAD module, additional file formats for import and export have been added including SAT as standard ACIS text, and OBJ and 3MF for importing mesh data. Also, electrode creation has been improved via the optimized selection of the raw material. To support EDM machining, the hyperCAD-S Electrode Converter can now be used to create import files for several EDM machines such as Exeron, Zimmer & Kreim and OPS-INGERSOLL.

3D Z-Level Finishing enables machining with free tool geometry.

For increased quality and ease of use, enhancements to some CAM cycles are offered in hyperMILL 2021.2 such as 3D and 5-axis Equidistant Finishing capabilities that define the milling area by selecting bounding curves so that individual areas on a surface model can be targeted. With 3D ISO Machining, multiple bounding curves can now be used to allow different areas to be machined in one job. In addition, 3D Z-level Shape Finishing includes several innovative features to improve machining quality, including optimized sorting of toolpath, smooth overlap at boundary, free tool geometry and trim toolpath to stock

For improved clarity, hyperMILL 2021.2 also has new functions that provide better feedback during CAM programming. Automatic Stock Display displays stock automatically for any machining job. Also, there is a new Preview of Selected Entities feature that highlights entities such as curves, faces or points when a job is selected. And for component alignment at a touch of a button, a new BEST FIT feature aligns the NC program automatically to the component position, eliminating manual alignment and optimizing the options offered by VIRTUAL Machining.

OPEN MIND Technologies AG
www.openmind-tech.com/en

Varjo unveils reality cloud platform for capturing and sharing our reality for a true-to-life metaverse

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Varjo, the leader in industrial-grade VR/XR hardware and software, today announced a pioneering new reality with Varjo Reality Cloud. The new platform will enable virtual teleportation for the first time by allowing anybody to 3D scan their surroundings using a Varjo XR-3 headset and transport another person to that same exact physical reality, completely bridging the real and the virtual in true-to-life visual fidelity. This real-time reality sharing will usher in a new era in universal collaboration and pave the way for a metaverse of the future, transforming the way people work, interact, and play.

“We believe that Varjo’s vision for the metaverse will elevate humanity during the next decade more than any other technology in the world,” said Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Varjo. “What we’re building with our vision for the Varjo Reality Cloud will release our physical reality from the laws of physics. The programmable world that once existed only behind our screens can now merge with our surrounding reality – forever changing the choreography of everyday life.”

For the past five years, Varjo has been building and perfecting the foundational technologies needed to bring its Varjo Reality Cloud platform to market such as human-eye resolution, low-latency video pass-through, integrated eye tracking and the LiDAR ability of the company’s mixed reality headset. As the only company having already delivered these building block technologies in market-ready products, Varjo is uniquely positioned to combine them with Varjo Reality Cloud to empower users to enjoy the scale and flexibility of virtual computing in the cloud without compromising performance or quality.

Using Varjo’s proprietary foveated transport algorithm, users will be able to stream the real-time human-eye resolution, wide-field-of-view 3D video feed in single megabytes per second to any device. This ability to share, collaborate in and edit one’s environment with other people makes human connection more real and efficient than ever before, eliminating the restrictions of time and place completely.

To further accelerate bringing the vision for Varjo Reality Cloud to life, Varjo today also announced the acquisition of Dimension10, a Norwegian software company that pioneers industrial 3D collaboration. Their virtual meeting suite is designed for architecture, engineering and construction teams and will become a critical component to making virtual collaboration possible within Varjo Reality Cloud.

Additionally, Varjo welcomed Lincoln Wallen to the company’s board of directors. Wallen currently serves as the CTO at Improbable, is a recognized scholar in computing and AI, and brings to Varjo his extensive knowledge of large scale cloud computing, and moving digital content production into the cloud. Previously, Wallen has worked as CTO of Dreamworks where he transitioned global movie production to the cloud, including the development of a cloud-native toolset for asset management, rendering, lighting, and animation.

Varjo
varjo.com

IMAGINiT Technologies releases utilities for Autodesk Revit, Civil 3D and Vault 2022 software

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IMAGINiT Technologies now offers more than 75 utilities that extend the capabilities of Autodesk Revit, Civil 3D and Vault 2022 software.

The new Utilities enable teams to improve both productivity and accuracy by removing redundancies and rework, as well as by reducing errors associated with manual updates and changes. As a longstanding Autodesk Authorized Developer, IMAGINiT’s dedicated team of software developers rigorously beta test the Utilities to ensure the highest quality user experience.

“For more than a dozen years, our software development team has been listening to customer challenges we encounter in the field, to student feedback from our training courses and to the technical issues resolved by our support center,” says Bill Zavadil, president, IMAGINiT Technologies. “Our unique combination of software development expertise supported by real-world insights from both our customers and application engineers, enables us to transform these challenges into purpose-built tools that give our customers a distinct competitive advantage.”

All IMAGINiT Utilities run directly inside the Autodesk software eliminating tedious and time-consuming tasks and boosting productivity. And to further minimize downtime, all utilities now include a direct link to IMAGINiT’s popular online education portal, ProductivityNOW, where subscribers can quickly find answers to their toughest questions.  

 IMAGINiT is launching new tools in each of the following three collections of Utilities.

IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit  

More than 40 unique IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit now fully support Autodesk Revit versions from 2018 through 2022. In response to customer requests, IMAGINiT is also including the most popular tools from their previously-retired Scan to BIM software to help teams work more efficiently with point clouds in Revit. These new tools dramatically reduce time spent on tedious tasks, allowing teams to use their time more effectively.

 IMAGINiT Utilities for Civil 3D  

The IMAGINiT Utilities for Civil 3D include three new Utilities designed to maximize team productivity by accelerating processes through automation, making critical data easy to extract and simplifying complex workflows. Each of the 17 Utilities fully support Autodesk Civil 3D software versions 2019 through 2022 allowing more users access to the full power of these productivity tools.

 IMAGINiT Utilities for Vault Client  

More than a dozen IMAGINiT Utilities for Vault Client now fully support the Autodesk Vault 2022 software release. Each of these Utilities are designed with the sole purpose to improve management processes, automate workflows and provide access to critical data.                           

 IMAGINiT Utilities Availability 

Available in standalone or network versions, IMAGINiT Utilities are complimentary to clients who have an active Autodesk subscription through IMAGINiT. Otherwise, companies may purchase and download individual IMAGINiT Utilities directly from the IMAGINiT eStore. 

 

Radica Software integrates electrical CAD software with OpenBOM

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Radica Software, the developer of Electra Cloud electrical CAD software, has partnered with OpenBOM to integrate their online collaboration solutions. The integration creates a new feature that allows users of Electra Cloud to export and convert bills of materials (BOM) directly into OpenBOM with just a few clicks. This new feature is crucial for any team working on design projects using multiple software such as 2D/3D CAD drawing solutions, who can now have all BOM reports exported easily into a centralized location on OpenBOM and allow team members access the files in real-time. The new feature is particularly helpful to anyone using Onshape product design platform and at the same, it is also available to all users of Electra Cloud.
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Having a real-time access to BOM reports in a centralized location is crucial to speed up communication and collaboration between design, engineering, manufacturing, and purchasing departments.

Thomas Yip, CEO of Radica Software said, “Automation is key to making work efficient and productive. Previously, users of Electra Cloud ECAD had to manually export their bill of materials that contained a long list of parts, components, pricing info, and others into OpenBOM. We’ve been getting requests from users to make this process simpler and that motivated us to work with OpenBOM to solve the issue. This has kickstarted our partnership with OpenBOM.”

“The new integration between Electra Cloud ECAD software and OpenBOM helps engineers to streamline the information flow between engineers and the rest of the team. It eliminates the mistakes and supports modern connected SaaS application approaches,” says Oleg Shilovitsky, CEO and co-founder of OpenBOM. “By partnering with Radica Software, OpenBOM expands the line of CAD add-ins supported by OpenBOM and supports multi-disciplinary BOM collaboration,” continued Shilovitsky.

The integration also allows automatic extraction and synchronization of data via OpenBOM with accounting systems, which help improve purchasing processes for project owners. In addition, it provides users with real-time data and real-time collaboration, so they no longer need to worry about version control.

“One of the advantages of using OpenBOM is that it saves time and costs because it has ready-to-use templates, making creating a BOM report a simple task,” Thomas explained.

Both Radica Software and OpenBOM are also discussing potential deeper integration including allowing OpenBOM users to export data into Electra Cloud. Electra Cloud is the world’s first fully browser-based electrical CAD software with Vecta.io, a powerful graphics editor software, also developed by Radica Software, as its engine. The cloud-based software allows third parties to build their own custom vertical solution on top of Vecta.

Radica Software
radicasoftware.com

CAD/CAM Services announces first article inspection capabilities per AS9102

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CAD/CAM Services – a computer-aided design and engineering firm with expertise in 3D scanning, modeling, and conversions – announced the expansion of its inspection capabilities to include first article inspections (FAI) per customer or AS9102 standards.

The firm is certified for high precision conversions by both the aerospace industry and the Department of Defense; it offers in-depth inspection programs to provide OEMs with accurate CAD files. This ensures that all CAD drawings and models match the original specifications and are capable of producing parts and assemblies that meet all design requirements.

FAI is a comprehensive, independent and documented quality control process used by aerospace manufacturers to verify that a supplier conforms to all required physical and mechanical specifications. However, a number of other industries have also adopted the reports in recent years, including automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, and general manufacturing.

CAD/CAM Services is known for its CAD Perfect conversions, and its engineers are capable of converting any CAD format file into any other CAD system. Its CAD engineers can also make the model (or drawing) compliant with any internal aerospace standard.

With its 3D scanning and reverse engineering expertise, the engineers can create replacement parts for both new and older aircraft to further assist aerospace suppliers. CAD/CAM models include full assemblies that are accurate to ±.002” over any X, Y, & Z axis.

In addition to AS1902 reporting, the firm can also supply any FAI reporting that a supplier may require, including Q-Checker.

CAD/CAM Services
www.cadcam.org

Keysight expands relationship with Ansys for wireless design workflow products

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Keysight Technologies, Inc., a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced an expanded collaboration with Ansys to integrate Keysight’s PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS) RFPro environment with Ansys HFSS electromagnetic simulation.

As a result of this collaboration, radio frequency (RF) and microwave engineers can eliminate the time-consuming bottleneck of manually coupling design tools to simplify workflow and improve time-to-market. The initial collaboration between the two companies, originally announced in February 2021, improved the workflow between the companies products to speed time-to-market for 5G, aerospace and defense, as well as automotive applications.

“Keysight’s PathWave framework helps customers get to market faster from design through production. Developing open interfaces between design and test software products, enables end-to-end workflow solutions across system/circuit design, verification and manufacturing,” stated Tom Lillig, general manager of Keysight PathWave Software Solutions. “We have expanded PathWave beyond Keysight products, to connect Ansys HFSS with PathWave ADS RFPro. This partnership enables customers to solve large, complex development challenges, even faster.”

Keysight’s RFPro simulation solution is an electromagnetic (EM) environment for RF and microwave circuit designers and is seamlessly integrated within Keysight PathWave ADS. RFPro makes performing EM analysis easy, simplifying EM-circuit co-simulation and saving hours to weeks of simulation setup time.

“Ansys is committed to building world-class products in an open ecosystem,” said Steve Pytel, vice president of Ansys Product Management. “Collaborating with Keysight complements this strategy, enabling Keysight and Ansys to provide comprehensive solutions that address our customers’ engineering challenges.”

Keysight’s ADS RFPro was introduced in PathWave ADS 2019 and has generated broad adoption within the ADS user community. Keysight is now addressing customers’ larger workflow challenges with PathWave workflow solutions. HFSS is a trusted, widely used, finite element method (FEM) solver and now in addition to Momentum and Keysight FEM, ADS design engineers have access to HFSS as an additional simulation option within ADS RFPro.

Steve Pytel, vice president of Ansys Product Management also commented, “Many customers couple Keysight’s PathWave ADS and RFPro for RF circuit design with Ansys HFSS to verify and validate their assembled RF modules. The manual process to move design files between tools is time consuming and can create bottlenecks — especially as die-counts increase for complex RF modules in applications like 5G and 6G. We are collaborating with Keysight to alleviate this pain point — ultimately creating an efficient workflow that drives fast results for our mutual customers and spurs innovation within the industry.”

The PathWave ADS RFPro HFSS link option will be available in Keysight’s ADS 2022 and is expected to ship in the summer of 2021.

Keysight Technologies
www.keysight.com