CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

6 June 2007

Product News

New Features and Increased Capabilities: Presenting the 2007 Versions of thinkdesign, thinkiD DesignXpressions and thinkPLM

Improved capabilities in thinkiD DesignXpressions 2007:

Rake Sweep . This is the first result of the wider Touch and Design project www.kaemart.it/touch-and-design which will make it possible to work with a virtual scraper tool. This command allows a designer to create High Quality surfaces by simulating the movement of a real tool. Unique in its field, it is dedicated to designers working with Class-A forms.

Double Fillet . Significant improvements have been made to this command, which can fillet groups of surfaces and automatically propagate the fillet to tangential surfaces.

Evolved Link . In addition to connecting complex series of surfaces, now also curves or existing surfaces can be selected and "snapped" correctly to the existing geometry, thus generating the best continuity result.

Freehand Curve on Surface (I-Interact add on). This new tool makes it possible to draw one or more curves rapidly and easily on selected surfaces or on the faces of solids. It will be welcomed in all those cases where it is necessary to "draw" shapes on existing forms.

Global Shape Modeling . The Global Shape Modeling (GSM) and Zone Modeling commands now perform a point check for any form of incompatibility on restraints that need to be made to correspond, thus saving operator time and speeding up the modification process.

Fillets on edges . It is now possible to manipulate dynamically the starting points of fillets created on three or more edges that meet at a vertex. By entering a "Set Back" value it is possible to vary the distance between the shared vertex and the border of the fillet along each edge. With this option the designer can "model" the fillet so that it satisfies not only functional but also esthetic requirements.

thinkcompensator . This solution, which revolutionizes the calculation of compensation due to the "spring-back effect" in sheet metal forming - and any deforming process caused by manufacturing - has an optimized calculation engine. It can manage meshes with different densities, allowing an automated loop to be effected with the FEA analysis solution.

Improvements and innovations in thinkdesign 2007:

Flexible Assemblies . The improvements adopted in this version allow the various instances of a sub-assembly to be highly flexible within an assembly, and their constraint-free components can be moved to assume different positions among the various instances.

Managing Assembly Graphics . The management of large assemblies has been further optimized, especially as regards viewing: by simplifying the smallest parts of an assembly composed of thousands of elements, and thanks to the regenerative power of the graphics, thinkdesign can ensure fluid manipulation even on large models.

Standard Welds . From today, thinkdesign can manage representations of welds and associated symbols according to the different standards. This series of tools will be a great boost for those dealing with fabrication and welded-part design in general.

Drawing Layout . The new functions and options of the X-Hatch command enable hatch spacing to be calculated automatically as a function of the section area, when transferring from 3D to drawing layout. Besides considerably improving assembly section readability, this ensures compliance with ISO standards.

Interactive Solid Modeling . New options make this tool even more effective for modifying native and imported solid geometries. The user can step outside the parametric logic of profiles and constraints and the sequence with which the object was constructed, to obtain the modification result desired. With the Move Face feature, the system automatically constructs the solid faces adjacent to those selected.

Sheet Metal Wizard . This tool makes it possible to create multipart sheet metal components using a single solid, without the need to decide at the outset that it will be made of sheet metal. The designer can thus focus more on the object's function, deciding later how to break it down for cutting, folding and assembly operations.

Face to Face Fillet . With this new command the user can apply a fillet by directly selecting two faces of a solid and not the shared edge. An important characteristic is that it is not only possible to create fillet surfaces between two selected faces, but also to continue on with other tangential faces, thus managing complex "face eating" situations.

Hole Management . The hole orientation capabilities of the hole creation command have been extended. Now even the "least standard" cases of positioning, with axes inclined with respect to the surface to be created, can be supported completely.

Associative Helix Variation Laws . Important new improvements have been adopted for the Helical Surface command: its total associativity characteristics have been completely revised and it now provides variation laws on the radius, pitch and angle of evolution.

Markup . The application now has a set of markup commands. These commands are especially useful to those working in the field of project revision: they can now provide indications for modifications in a totally integrated way. These functions are the same as those found in the thinklight application, so that operational homogeneity is ensured.

ANSYS Integration . With this new integration, solid models created in the think3 3D environment can be transferred directly to the ANSYS simulation environment. When there has been a CAD modification, the associativity links allow the FEM scenario to be updated. At the same time, restraints and loads can be maintained, and the three-dimensional geometry of thinkdesign can be regenerated, after an optimization cycle with the ANSYS solver, if required.

The new features of thinkPLM 2007:

Product Configurator Wizard . The new tools for defining and managing product configurations allow masks to be created that guide the user step by step through the configuration logic process, where every choice is related to the one previous, leading to the required configuration and ensuring its feasibility.

Offline Product Configurator Browser . This tool was designed for users who are not technicians, such as sales personnel. They can use the masks defined with the configurator wizard product to enter and store configuration data collected from the customer, without having to worry about the architectures that are at the base of the configurator. This can also be done when the user is off-line from the company database. The information collected can be sent to the company as a simple email attachment, for interception and correct database processing.

Independent CAD Functions. The thinkPM solution had already made product life cycle management possible with CAD solutions other than think3's proprietary ones. Now it has extended and upgraded some importing and managing functions for data existing in the different CAD integrations. These improvements are aimed at increasing even more the availability of the great benefits that think3 users have long enjoyed to users of other CAD products.

For more information, please visit:   http://www.think3.com/

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