multi-CAD Archives - 3D CAD World

Dealing with the challenges of multi-CAD design environments has become a reality for nearly all product engineers and designers today. It’s nearly impossible to find a company that uses only one CAD system. Even those that do standardize on one system, chances are that they work with suppliers and partners who use a different system, making the ability to work with multi-CAD data vital to success in today’s product development environments.

Juggling CAD data in multiple formats is a headache. Because each system uses a proprietary underlying file format, translations must be done when moving data from one system to another. Opening up and working on a CAD model created in another systems almost always results in rework and wasted time. As a result, interoperability issues cost companies significantly, both in terms of lost productivity or in expensive third-party translation services.

MagicCheck software quickly opens all major 3D CAD formats, including point data, to compare against the source CAD model and analyze accuracy.

Easier model comparisons

When engineers and designers receive 3D CAD models created in other systems, they often need to evaluate where partners or suppliers have made changes. Determining what is different between models and where changes have been made either to parts or assemblies is not an easy task. Good news on that front from TransMagic, the developer of 3D multi-CAD interoperability software.

The company just released MagicCheck R2, a 3D geometric data comparison application. New features of the software include multi-body comparison, three-point move positioning and dynamic dimensioning.

MagicCheck’s new assembly comparison and dimension features will allow suppliers to instantly find even the smallest model and assembly changes in new data sets, dramatically improving the accuracy of quoting based on 3D CAD data. This feature also allows companies to easily document changes to downstream processes, such as NC toolpaths and QA inspection plans.

The MagicCheck R2 feature enhancements allow users greater control over 3D CAD data for more accurate and detailed comparison results. The multi-body compare capability enables advanced comparison of parts in multi-bodied assemblies.

Now users can manipulate the alignment of parts anywhere in space using the new three-point Move function for precise analysis. The dynamic dimensioning intuitively guides users to create professional-level dimensions on any 3D part or assembly, enabling companies to produce more accurate quotes and share precise model query data among teams.

Multi-core processing enables increased performance and faster model import speeds by allocating system processing across all available system cores instead of the standard process of using one core at a time.

The new dockable browser panes and upgraded visualization features allow users to customize their 3D model comparison environment to their requirements. Supporting numerous file formats, MagicCheck R2 includes updated file format support for CATIA, NX, Inventor and Parasolid. New formats introduced in R2 include DWG/DXF and SMLib.

For more on MagicCheck R2, click here.

Barb Schmitz

Amid the excitement of users, partners, analysts and members of the press–along with hundreds of Boston-based employees, PTC announces the release of Creo 3.0. Among the most impressive of its enhancements and feature upgrades is what PTC has dubbed Unite Technology.

Designed to help its customers overcome the struggles of dealing with CAD data in multiple formats, Unite Technology provides users with an easier way to use multi-CAD data in Creo. The new release also offers new integrated concept design tools that make it easy and fast to capture concept ideas–both good and bad–for future use and to reuse concept designs in the detailed design process.

Other productivity enhancements within the release will reportedly add to customers’ ability to focus on higher levels of innovation and product quality.

Unite Technology.

Unite technology enables CAD data of varying formats to be used directly in Creo apps, including Creo Parametric, Creo Direct, Creo Simulate, and Creo Options Modeler apps. This ability should go a long ways towards customers gaining efficiencies from consolidating multiple CAD systems onto PTC Creo.

The Unite Technology should also facilitate design collaboration with partners who use competing CAD tools by allowing users to easily reuse existing CAD data as is, in its current format, with no need for a costly upfront migration. It also enables users to convert existing legacy data to PTC Creo easily, on demand, and only when modifications are actually needed.

There is no need to convert entire assemblies to modify individual parts, users simply convert parts as changes are required.

Creo’s Unite Technology makes collaboration easier because it enables design participants to natively open SolidWorks, CATIA and NX files directly in PTC Creo without the need for additional software or any error-prone translation or conversion process. Users can also import SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, Solid Edge and Autodesk Inventor files into Creo without the need for additional software.

This new functionality also enables higher levels of concurrent engineering between the product development teams and suppliers/partners/customers by allowing designers to quickly and easily incorporate native CAD geometry created in other systems earlier in the process, create design intent across CAD formats and, as new versions of the non-PTC Creo data are updated in the assembly, ensure that any design intent build between the original part and the PTC Creo parts are protected when the part is updated.

Unite also helps promote the reuse and sharing of data and eliminates the need to manage many secondary formats, and significantly reduces the need to export data in neutral formats. Data can be shared in customer/supplier’s native format, eliminating the step of using neutral file formats.

The new release of Creo 3.0 will enable customers to work and consolidate data from any CAD source.

New concept design tools

PTC Creo 3.0 has also made some improvements in the area of concept design. These new tools and features include:
* Align Freestyle design functionality (part of PTC Creo Parametric) enables designers to create and drive freeform designs parametrically, combining organic geometry creation and modification with associative parametric design intent.

* Greater scalability and richer tools in PTC Creo Layout to support 2D concept engineering activities with seamless re-use in the 3D parametric environment

*A more powerful and easier-to use 3D direct modeling app (PTC Creo Direct) for quickly creating concept designs that are fully reusable in PTC Creo Parametric

* PTC Creo Design Exploration Extension provides a dedicated environment in PTC Creo Parametric for developing design alternatives, investigating modeling approaches and safely understanding the consequences of design changes.

Other new features include a completely redesigned Help system that uses Google search functionality, integrated hardware libraries, automated fastener assembly workflows, MathCAD integration (shipped free with Creo Parametric), a new 3D Thickness Check for injection-molded products, new analysis tools, photorealistic rendering courtesy of KeyShot, and improvements to the Creo Flexible Modeling Extension and ECAD Collaboration Extension.

We really just scratched the surface of all the new bells and whistles in Creo 3.0. For more information on Creo 3.0, check out this page. Creo 3.0 with Unite Technology will ship mid-July.

Barb Schmitz

TransMagic Facilitates 3D CAD Comparison with MagicCheck R2

Creo 3.0 Announced at PTC Live Global

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