by Ralph Grabowski with Cary O'Connor |
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The thing about IronCAD is that they innovated a lot of technology that other CAD vendors subsequently copied, such as interactive 3D cursors (IronCAD calls theirs the "TriBall"), dragging and dropping parts into drawings ("catalog-based design"), hybrid direct and feature history designing, and more.
The product goes back to 1998 -- or even 1995 if we consider the initial inception -- and today the IronCAD mission is to be the leader in "innovative product design." As a result much of the new stuff in IronCAD 2016 leads to greater design automation. Not the automation you might be thinking of, but in how parts interact; I'll get into details later. The company's primary users are in the fabrication and assembly markets, such as machine designers, sheet metal fabricators, and so on.
Flexible Shapes
IronCAD 2016 brings flexible shapes to the modeling space, shapes that are parts with features that adapt to existing parts. They are not so much new, as newly adapted to reduce the number of steps for us. When we drag these shapes into drawings, their intelligent behaviors land them right side up, sized dynamically to the surrounding parts. For instance, there are "through" shapes that automatically cut parts with round or rectangular holes, then immediately prompt us for the diameter. See figure 1.
Figure 1Cutouts and holes applied to a plain cube using Flexible Shapes
Another for-instance: drag'n drop cam belts, sizing them from one gear to another one, and then making copies for twin belts. There are many more flexible shapes, and IronCAD plans to add more as customers request them. I can't wait to see other CAD vendors mimicking IronCAD, again.
While Cary O'Connor (who's been involved with IronCAD since 1998) was showing me flexible shapes, I noticed direct editing previews when he changed from feature-history to direct modifications. Not a new feature, as it turns out; previews let us see that what might get affected or combined by direct editing. IronCAD automatically determines which features are involved in the direct edit, and then shows how they change -- before we commit to the edit. This means that when we select a face and request a change, IronCAD works out what needs to happen to make that change in the model’s feature-history .Mr O'Connor told me that this kind of automatic determination (of what features need to be combined to perform a direct edit) is simply not possible in other CAD systems.
Another cool innovation is Smart eBehaviors, which add intelligence to assemblies, parts, and features. These control the position, orientation, sizing, and user-defined behaviors in parts. One example he showed me was the construction of a pair of water tanks of different sizes. While they were built with the same catalog object, features to the smaller tank resized themselves, as did the ones in the larger tank designed at the same time.
Mr O’Connor explains that the intelligence goes down to the feature level, meaning that very precise changes to models can be controlled, instead of just overall assembly position, orientation, or global parameters. The intelligence connects between objects. Changing the diameter of a tank, for instance, all attached parts like legs and connected pipes also change. Other possibilities for Smart eBehaviors are for sales persons dynamically configuring products for clients in areas like furniture design, exhibit layout, and conveyor system layout.
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Like any other MCAD system, IronCAD imports parts from Inventor and other MCAD systems; but then we can add IronCAD’s intelligence to the imported parts and then add them to IronCAD’s drag'n drop catalog. Additional parts are available from places like TraceParts and GrabCAD.
IronCAD Mechanical
IronCAD Mechanical is a new tool set that comes with standard items, like flanges, standard holes, o-rings, threaded bosses, and springs. These are more powerful than before, because they now employ Smart eBehaviorsl.
For example, after we drag a bolt onto some steel plates, we can tell the dialog box to recalculate the depth based on a plate or all of the plates in which the bolt is inserted. We can include things such things as automatically adding appropriate hole cuts and the correct thread lengths. Imagine multiple pieces, such as three steel plates, and we specify whether one plate should be counter-bored, and another have some other special treatment. See figure 2.
Figure 2Defining bolts based on the material in which they reside
In a similar manner, placing an O-ring on round stock cuts out a groove for the ring automatically.
In yet another example of the Smart eBehaviors, say we cut 45 degrees off the end of a steel tube. When we place another tube next to the first one, IronCAD knows to cut 45-degrees off the new member -- as well as to use the same type and size of steel stock while automatically aligning the new member. This is especially useful for P&ID: specifying a single pipe that automatically mates and sizes the other pipes we add to the model, including couplings and reducers.
Other tools in the set include automatic part numbers, export a face to DXF for a 2D mill, and place the TriBall on the center of gravity of a part.
All of these new Mechanical Tools are free for 30 days, then list for $650; if we don't want to pay, they go to reduced capability mode in which things like holes, bearings, and so on continue to work.
Multi Physics
IronCAD works with FEA software from a company I had never heard of, AMPS Technologies. One of the special features is that it works on multi-part bodies without having to specify contact points. This is the second year their multiphysics appears in IronCAD, whereby fluid analysis is added in addition to the fully coupled stress, thermal and electrostatic analysis. We'd use this fluid capability to determine how much heat is being added to a cooling pipe.
Like other extra-cost parts of IronCAD, multitphysics is free the first 30 days, and then still works afterwards but with limited quality, such as low-resolution meshes. Even though the extended version is node-limited, MPIC's technology using Sefea gives you extended capabilities to test your products at a lower mesh level while achieving the same accuracy as 2nd-order elements, but is more robust and requires lower computing cost.
IronCAD Family
IronCAD is more than a single MCAD program. It comes in a variety of levels:
- IronCAD is everything, with all 3D, drawings (detailing of 3D models), and CAXA Draft (their AutoCAD workalike)
- Inovate is the lower-cost 3D version without the 2D add-ons, sheet metal, and so on
- Draft is 2D with some 3D checking but no 3D feature-level modifications; for instance, it can import 3D parts but only to check clearances
- Compose (free) is for configuring parts and assemblies, viewing, and annotating, but not for modification or editing. It has no solid modeling and no 2D (other than viewing 2D); we'd need to purchase a translator to bring in models from other CAD systems.
A comparison PDF can be viewed athttp://download.ironcad.com/download/Product/Information/ProductComparison.pdf. More info from http://www.ironcad.com |
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There is a fair amount of software coming out of France, and the volume is not just due to the world's largest CAD vendor being located there. I've gotten a spadeful of press releases from French software companies in the last month.
Abvent SA, for instance, is beta testing its Render[in] 3 for SketchUp right now through to February 29. Based on Artlantis 6, Render[in] (I would say it's oddly named, but look at how I spell upFront.eZine) renders in real-time inside Trimble's free SketchUp Make and the not-free SketchUp Pro (both 2015 and 2016 versions) using a physical radiosity engine.
Download the beta from http://renderin.com/download-renderin3 after creating an account. |
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There is more at our WorldCAD Access blog about the CAD industry, tips on using hardware and software, and our popular travelogues. You can keep up with the blog through its RSS feed and email alert service. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week:
- Q&A with Anna Ladilova, mathematician at C3D Labs
- A bit of history of IronCAD 2016
We're on Twitter at @upfrontezine with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary throughout the day. Elsewhere on the Twitter stream, we captured these thots:
Roopinder Tara (@rtara) Feb 1: Bernard Charles very glad he gave @SOLIDWORKS to Gian Paolo Bassi, he says at #SWW16.
Roopinder Tara (?@rtara) Feb 1: SOLIDWORKS on the cloud has new name -- Xdesign. Too bad http://xdesign.com is taken. Think someone should have thought of that. |
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Re: BYOL (Bring Your Own License)
I get so tired of the continual misrepresentation regarding cloud security, such as for Amazon AWS. Their Web page https://aws.amazon.com/agreement takes you to the current legalese regarding how confident Amazon is regarding complete and total security for its customers.
Of particular interest are the following sections:
- Section 8.1 gives Amazon the right to turn your stuff over to any regulatory or governmental agency. It reads in part, "We may disclose Your Content to provide the Service Offerings to you or any End Users or to comply with any request of a governmental or regulatory body (including subpoenas or court orders)." I assume this means that they can do this without subpoenas and court orders, because "any" does mean "any." So if a foreign (or our own) government wants a look at your intellectual property, they can have it.
- Section 10's disclaimers are fun, too: they are not responsible for anything of note or worth; you came here, too bad so sad.
- Section 11 is particularly nice. The evasion from any repercussions from use of their products and the statement of their complete confidence in what they offer is particularly heart-warming.
What Amazon really means is that they still will not stand behind the service they sell, because they know they are porous and also willing to share our stuff with any governmental entity who can (and probably will) use it against us in numerous ways. - Dave Ault
The editor replies: Cloud-dependent companies like Frame and Autodesk have to downplay the problems you describe, otherwise they may need to change their business plan. I am glad to see someone reading and annotating T&Cs.
Mr Ault has expanded his letter on his SolidEdging and Inventor Pro HSM blog athttps://solidedging.wordpress.com/2016/02/11/amazon-aws-peril-for-all-associated-cad-cam-program-customers/
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Desktop has possibly given engineers a place to engineer and design by putting design thoughts in a close cubicle. After 20 years, they started considering the desktop like their own drawing board. By nature design is an innovation (sorry, the word is badly overused these days) and absolutely personal.
Now putting all in the Web will possibly make it more personal and accessible (connected -- do they like to get connected?). With all the concerns around latency, bandwidth, and security things will move, possibly others who are dying to be connected (operations, construction, etc.) will drive them to move fast.
I am fan of your writing and for 15 years reading your blog. - Pranab Sui
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Let's face it: Subscription anything is nothing but slavery. What happened to self-initiative and industry? Isn't all security built on private property ownership? What happened to rights and corresponding responsibilities? Can we launder all liability into the social collective (like the Borg)? - Chris Cadman
The editor replies: At least with a magazine subscription, we could always cancel when the editorial became repetitive or irritating, but software is how we make our living. In economics, it is called "rent seeking" where vendors get paid by customers, even when the vendor provides little or no service in exchange.
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On behalf of everyone here at CCE, I would just like to thank you for the mention in your e-newsletter and for the prior mention(s) you've made; it is much appreciated. Everyone here loves your perspective and we always look forward to reading your content! - Arianna Clark, marketing coordinator CCE |
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Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine. In return, you receive our 56-page whitepaper "MobileCAD is Reaching Maturity," free and unavailable from anywhere else.
Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these:
Or you can mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada. |
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"Here it is the Year of the Monkey, and I'm still writing Year of the Goat on my checks." - David Burge (@iowahawkblog) on Twitter |
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