Cadalyst - February 2008 - (Page 31)

cadlabsreview Figure 2. The IronCAD Tri-Ball allows you to manipulate objects in just about any way imaginable. Push, pull, rotate, and even resize. Figure 3. How many times have you wanted to show threads but couldn’t because of poor hardware performance? Not anymore! Also new to v10 sketching is Over/Under/Fully Defined Status. With this function, green geometry is fully defined, red geometry is overdefined, and so forth. It even supports geometry configurations (similar to what you might find in SolidWorks). One of the really nice things about IronCAD v10 is the single-scene environment. It provides the ability to do pretty much anything within the same file. When users open IronCAD files, they might find a part, an assembly, or even a drawing. Each file can be anything. That means you only have two file formats — scene and drawing — to keep track of. Some may not like that, but I do. Another thing I like about IronCAD is the Tri-Ball (figure 2). It is a marvelous thing indeed. You can rotate, zoom, and resize just by activating the Tri-Ball and pulling. It works on individual features as well as assemblies and just about anything else. With the 3D helix, users can build any kind of thread they can imagine because IronCAD v10 lets them sketch their own profiles and sweep them along a designated helix. And speaking of threads, how many times have you had to go through the trouble of modeling actual threads because someone asked you for a pretty picture? With IronCAD v10 that’s a thing of the past. All you need to do is specify threads, and IronCAD v10 will apply bitmap threads (figure 3)! Not only will it save modeling time, it will translate into faster performance after the transition to an assembly as well. And speaking of assemblies, IronCAD v10 can handle larger assembly data sets than ever before. IronCAD says its research indicates that 10,000 components and fewer are approximately average for their users, but that it’s not unusual for customers to reach 30,000– 40,000 components. Collision Detection is a new feature of the assemblies module, but it will work on parts, assemblies, or combinations of both. When a designer has properly constrained an Figure 4. Look at the reflections made possible by HDRI. The models take their lighting cues from the information contained within the panoramic background image. www.cadalyst.com | cadalyst | February 2008 31 http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - February 2008

Cadalyst - February 2008 Contents Editor's Window CAD Central Tech Trends More than Meets the Eye — A Look at Today's CAD Viewers IronCAD v10 — 3D Modeling Software AcceliArch with AcceliCAD — Add-In Architectural Drawing and Modeling Software CAD Manager MCAD Modeling AEC Insight CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry

Cadalyst - February 2008

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