It's a rare for today's MCAD programs to not have every single one of the user interface innovations introduced two decades ago by brilliant TriSpectives programmers. Yet IronCAD continues its streak in being unique. It is, I think, the only MCAD system that offers both mainstream modeling kernels -- Parasolid or ACIS. You chose either of them when you install the program. For instance, you would choose Parasolid when you work a lot with Solidworks or Solid Edge/NX; choose ACIS when you work with Inventor or BricsCAD. If a modeling operation fails in the kernel you selected, then IronCAD switches to the other one to complete the operation.
Well before Siemens PLM launched Synchronous Technology for doing both history-based and direct editing in one model, IronCAD was already there, being the first to combine the two modeling approaches.
Multi-part Drawings. In traditional MCAD, one part is modeled per drawing (or tab), and then multiple parts are joined into an assembly. IronCAD does not have that limitation, because its drawings can have as many parts as you want; creating an assembly is as easy as selecting the parts and clicking the Assembly button. In this environment, the assembly structure is free to change by simply dragging and dropping parts to new locations, along with building and collapsing assemblies to fit the design.
Flexible Shapes. IronCAD gained more UI-friendly features over the last two decades. Flexible Shapes are a more convenient version of IntelliShapes: as you place them, they cut automatically through parts and -- if necessary -- prompt for a size.
Here's another example of the intelligence in IronCAD: Place a tube in a model, and then make a 45-degree cutoff. When you place the next tube, IronCAD uses the same stock and cuts 45 degrees off the new item automatically. In addition, intelligence can be added to parts and assemblies to drive geometry changes, positions, orientations, and even apply business-specific rules.
Not all IntelliShapes are Flexible Shapes, but IronCAD tells me that they are adding more to catalogs as customers request them. In fact, the company is making the design intelligence available to users other than designers. They see the built-in ease-of-use suitable for sales people, such in putting together a preliminary design while seated with the customer. Examples include production layout and designing modular products, such as conveyor systems, racks, and fencing. Additional industrial parts are available free from online sites, such as Traceparts at www.tracepartsonline.net/ws/ironcad.
What’s New in IronCAD 2018
To make it easier to start IronCAD 2018, it has a new interface for new users. It reduces the number of processes traditionally needed and the mouse travel needed to find commands. For example, for people coming over from Inventor or Solidworks, IronCAD now starts the sketching or extruding on the xy-plane, as they would expect. (This isn't the way IronCAD normally works, due to its catalog drag and drop process.)
Pressing the 'S'-key brings up an on-screen or heads-up interface that has been in IronCAD for a long time. (See figure 1.) With 2018, it has a new ring appearance and can appear at the cursor as you click. The content of the ring changes, depending on the current operation, such as working with surfaces, sketches, or sheet metal. You can customize the commands displayed by the ring. The folks at IronCAD figure it has the added advantage of exposing useful commands users might not even know are available at the appropriate selection!
Figure 1: 'S'-key bringing up the new at-cursor command interface.
Large-assembly performance is a big deal in MCAD these days, and so if your computer has discrete graphics, like nVidia, IronCAD 2018 will zoom and rotate very large assemblies smoothly. (See figure 2.) IronCAD has been working over the last several releases to optimize the graphical performance. The new release sees speed improvements from 4-6fps to 40-60fps by enhancing the data structure and controlling the display of visual effects, such as transparencies, edges, and reflections.
Figure 2: Zooming and panning a large assembly model in IronCAD 2018
Mechanism Mode. "Mechanism mode" is where you drag parts to see them move in a mechanism, and then check for collisions. In 2018, collision detection is faster and simpler, because you need to select only a couple of components to be checked. This is faster and less confusing than checking the entire assembly for collisions.
When you create drawings from mechanisms, you can specify alternative position views, such as to show the mechanism in its collapsed state, in the fully extended state, and in a normal state. (See figure 3.) Each of the states can have a different style, such as with colors and linetypes. To show the lengths of extensions and angles of rotation, you can place dimensions between parts in the different states.
Figure 3: Multiple states of a mechanism shown in different colors
Model Simplification. New is shrink-wrapping, which is IronCAD’s name for model simplification. This is useful when you share models, to reduce the size or to hide proprietary aspects. You can specify which parts you want to keep and which to remove, such as all holes smaller than a certain size or all hidden parts.
Web Viewer. Also new is the IC Web Viewer, which exports models as HTML files; any modern Web browser can view the models. (See figure 4.) When you open the HTML file in the browser, you can toggle the visibility of parts, change viewpoints, review the tree structure, cross-section the models, and set different render types. There are several types of export:
- Full or low-data quality for desktops or mobile devices
- Local or server for local networks and for Web servers hosting the files.
Figure 4: Viewing the IronCAD 3D model in the Chrome Web browser
Sheet Templates. The new feature I like the best is default templates for sheets. The templates specify where the views should be located, as well as the direction of each view, whether sheet metal views are flattened or folded, and even the title blocks. The template dialog box lets us turn off the visibility of certain groups of elements, such as fasteners, surfaces, or 3D curves. The automatically-generated views can, naturally, be edited and dimensioned as needed.
Using the templates, IronCAD 2018 supports the creation of drawing and sheet views in bulk. You open an assembly, select a template, and with then with a single click wait for IronCAD to automatically generate all the drawings with all view layouts. This gives you a jump start to detailing by eliminating tedious tasks involved in creating new drawings, picking views, and so on. Sheets can be shared and copied to other drawings for reusable drawings. Views can be also be exported, such as to DWG files, for manufacturing.
The 'S'-key quick commands are for the first time available in sheet (drawing) mode, and so are useful for accessing commands quickly, such as dimensioning. Speaking of dimensioning, IronCAD 2018 has new shortcut keystrokes that adjust the look of dimensions individually, such as relocating the text or toggling post- and prefix text. You can adjust the properties of any single dimension and have IronCAD apply them instantly; there is no need to exit and restart the command, as in some other CAD packages.
You can define a list of user-defined strings for dimensioning, such as Typ., Common, Pre, or whatever you commonly use. While placing dimensions, you can select these words from a list for use in pre/postfix and over/under locations.
One final new feature I need to mention: the automatic hole quantity leader. You can place a leader that points to one hole, and the leader text reports the number of all holes of the same size.
What Ralph Grabowski Thinks
TriSpectives began with fireworks and disappeared as quickly. Under IronCAD, it recovered and resumed its place as a remarkable product that leads the industry in innovation. It is priced a touch lower than other mid-range MCAD packages, but includes more than the base versions of its competitors.
The remarkable new features in the new release show that IronCAD hasn't lost its touch as the company continues to focus on productivity enhancements to reduce the overall design time. http://www.ironcad.com/
What The IronCAD Collection Consists Of
IronCAD, the product, is priced at around $4,000. The primary users of IronCAD are machine designers, modular product designers, and sheet metal fabricators. Here is the software that IronCAD LLC offers:
- Design Collaboration Suite
- IronCAD: the full meal deal
- IronCAD Inovate: only 3D modeling, without 2D, sheet metal, and so on
- IronCAD Draft: just 2D with limited 3D for assembly design and transfer to 2D
- IronCAD Compose: free collaboration software
- CAXA Draft: an AutoCAD workalike
Design extensions
- IronCAD Mechanical: for building fasteners, additional utilities, and so on
- Multiphysics for IronCAD
- SimWise Motion for IronCAD
- Native translators
- KeyShot rendering
As IronCAD LLC proudly points out, "Unlike some CAD software companies today, which only sell limited subscriptions, IronCAD offers perpetual licenses for its products."
[This article first appeared in Design Engineering magazine, and is reprinted with permission.]
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PTC last week shipped Creo 5.0, its MCAD system. New functions include...
- Topology optimization
- Creo Flow Analysis
- Additive and subtractive manufacturing
- Geometry creation with sketch regions and volume helical sweeps
- Design in perspective display mode
- Open and update Inventor files
- High-speed machining tool paths
...and more. Get the details from www.ptc.com/en/products/cad/creo/whats-new
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Vectorworks integrates Vectorworks Cloud Services with Bluebeam Studiofor online review and approval processes of digital construction drawings and 3D models. "Vectorworks is the first BIM software to integrate with Bluebeam Studio for real-time markups and review." The surprise is that it took so long, given they have had a common owner (Nemetschek) for 3.5 years now.
Vectorworks users publish drawings as 2D or 3D PDFs to Vectorworks Cloud Services, where they launch a Bluebeam session and then send invites for comparing, marking up, and collaborating in real time with Bluebeam Revu. Marked-up PDFs are saved back to Vectorworks Cloud Services for storage and management. www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vectorworks
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"The Theranos story is an important lesson for Silicon Valley: innovators must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.”
- Jina Choi, SEC
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Looking to acquire -- or be acquired -- take in Cambashi's 'Assessing Acquisition Opportunities' Webinar Mar 27, 7-8am PDT. Or, as they put it, "a welcome dilemma." Register thru register.gotowebinar.com/register
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So, how does the promise of CAD/CAM/PLM fit into this story? "Tesla Workers Say Almost Half of Model 3 Parts Need Rework" www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/03 (Image source insideevs.com.)
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In addition to standard 'perpetual' and 'rental' licenses, Graphisoft now also offers subscriptions for ARCHICAD and ARCHICAD Solo -- monthly or annual, in US and Canada.
The best part of the licensing offer: "Customers can choose to mix both perpetual and subscription products, license options and terms to provide the maximum flexibility for their practice." Unlike, say, subscription-exclusivist Autodesk. helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/licensing
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Eckhart makes tools that make cars, and now it's working with Stratasys to figure out which parts to 3D print:
- Make them lighter with carbon-fiber-reinforced nylon
- Add voids for better lines of sight
- Reduce parts count, perhaps down to a single part
www.businesswire.com/news/home
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MODit is still in stealth mode, but apparently "creates editable, precision 3D models in moments instead of days" with a "scanning camera and 3D data intelligence platform." Co-founded by the guy who co-developed the now-discontinued Spark 3D printing platform at Autodesk.
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Re: How Tech Soft 3D Undergirds the CAD Industry
I like the angle you used for this article. So true.
- Jean Haney, co-founder
Visual Integrity
HOOPS, Hierarchical Object Oriented Picture System, is a retained graphics system. It has a database. Many products like Autodesk products, however, already have their own database. It would be wasteful to keep two copies of the data.
So we separated the immediate drawing interface that HOOPS was built upon and called it the HOOPS Immediate Drawing Interface. I told programmer Bob Covey that we’ve got to work an E in there, so we added Extensible, and HEIDI was born. It was the basis for the original release of 3D Studio Max.
- Scott Sheppard, program manager, office of the cto
Autodesk
“Khronos Group” not Chronos Group :-) . www.khronos.org
- Bradley Rothenberg, ceo
nTopology inc.
Speaking of HOOPS, I started CAD with VersaCAD 5.2 and Nth engine video [graphics].
- Jim Longley
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"Network effects are very positive things, but there’s a tipping point where they fall over into the madness of crowds."
- Peter Thiel
www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/technology |
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