IronCAD Releases Next Generation Design Collaboration Suite

By DE Editors

Image courtesy of IronCAD LLC.

IronCAD, LLC (Atlanta, GA) recently announced the 2011 Next Generation (XG) release of its IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite of product development applications. In a complementary announcement, the company unveiled its newest product IRONCAD DRAFT, a production-level 2D mechanical detailing application. IRONCAD DRAFT is said to provide an integrated 3D collaboration component that provides the ability to view, assemble, analyze, annotate, render, and reference 3D model data in your 2D designs while maintaining full connectivity to changes in 3D.

According to the company, the IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite XG enables you to leverage 3D within a 2D design process, conceptualize in 3D without restrictions in the modeling history, and complete full 3D and 2D production designs. The suite itself has three main components: IRONCAD for full-featured detail design; INOVATE for creating, modifying, interrogating,  and communicating 3D designs; and now IRONCAD DRAFT. The suite also includes an integrated fully functional EDM (electronic data management) solution for managing CAD and related engineering project data internally and externally across the web. Optional third-party partner applications provide extended functionalities for CAE and other applications.

“Today there are many CAD users who need to share and reuse data across multiple CAD platforms and also between 2D and 3D,” said Richard Serna, Sales Director of IronCAD, in a press statement. “The integrated 2D and 3D functionality ]in IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite 2011] is totally unique and enables us to deliver real productivity gains to those users keen to collaborate and share data.”

“Add to this our complete range of add-on native translator products,” continues Serna, and “we are now able to expand the collaboration process within a multi-CAD environment. The feedback from initial testing and customer surveys has been extremely positive.”

Image courtesy of IronCAD LLC.

IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite 2011 XG has been enhanced with many customer-driven requests such as direct editing of features outside of the edit feature mode and offset pattern feature support and body-to-body trimming, according to the company. Core modeling functionality has been extended with lofted sheet metal, unfold developable part support using native or imported parts, and new rib and emboss/deboss feature creation support. Animation and visualization betterments include real-time graphics support for bloom, fast silhouette, ambient occlusion, and reflections; 2D/3D curve paths;  next in path placement; and copy paths.

IronCAD says that its new IRONCAD DRAFT production-level 2D mechanical detailing component represents “2D Drafting Redefined.” IRONCAD DRAFT provides the ability to leverage 3D data with full association in your 2D detailing, and it enables automatic reuse of such critical information as bill of materials and measurement information from the 3D data.

Image courtesy of IronCAD LLC.

“For decades users have needed to choose between working in 2D or 3D,” said Serna in a prepared press statement. “Historically, designers have wanted to work in 2D. They prefer the ability to control and craft their drawings and to detail them clearly and efficiently. To these users, drafting is an art form, not merely a series of lines on a piece of paper. IRONCAD DRAFT provides an extremely powerful 2D mechanical drafting tool with an easy to learn, industry-standard user interface, and a unique 3D integration capability, enabling users to leverage 3D model data created by suppliers,  customers, and colleagues in their 2D designs while maintaining full association to the data. For companies that have IRONCAD 3D data, this integration expands upon the capability by allowing the 3D to be pervasive throughout the company at an affordable price range.”

Built on the combination of IRONCAD 3D and CAXA 2D Draft technologies, IRONCAD DRAFT XG is described as offering fundamental 2D creation and editing tools in addition to mechanically focused utilities and parametric standard parts. Its detailing functionalities offers the ability to create 2D entities including lines, parallel lines, arc, circles, rectangles, elliptical curves, polygons, splines, and reference entities such as centerlines and hatch patterns. IRONCAD DRAFT XG supports input options during feature creation to specify size and other options such as automatic centerlines. Utilities such as Block association, Command Editor, Format Painter, Properties Window, and the Text Editor are reported to be intelligent functions that support “quick and efficient methods to complete complex engineering tasks.”

Image courtesy of IronCAD LLC.

IRONCAD DRAFT XG can import industry formats such as ACIS,  Autodesk Inventor, CATIA V4/V5, IGES, IRONCAD 3D, Parasolid, Pro/ENGINEER,  SolidWorks, STEP, and UG NX as well as a variety of graphical formats. It enables you to import multiple models to build assemblies, verify interferences, and to communicate the 3D representations with realistic rendering and animations. Design projects can be shared and communicated using freely distributable viewers, and data is exchangeable via DWG/DXF and image formats. Miscellaneous features include AutoCAD compatibility,  user-customizable Windows 2007 ribbon interface, and an API (application programming interface) for extended customization for corporate SOPs and similar process imperatives.

Image courtesy of IronCAD LLC.

The IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite products and its accompanying portfolio of partner products are available for immediate download. IRONCAD DRAFT is also available for immediate download. All customers buying IRONCAD DRAFT and the Translation Read bundle, which supports native read of Autodesk Inventor, CATIA V5, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and UG NX data, before December 31st 2010, automatically receive a launch promotion price of $595.

For complete details, visit IronCAD on the web.

See a full list of new features in IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite 2011 XG.

Go to the IRONCAD DRAFT web page.

Download an overview of IRONCAD DRAFT.

Download the IRONCAD DRAFT datasheet.

Explore the IronCAD support center.

Register for an evaluation copy.

See why DE’s Editors selected IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite XG as their Pick of the Week.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.