The full or low-data versions are for laptops or mobile devices while local or server versions are for local networks or for Web servers. IC Web Viewer exports the model as an HTML file so that any modern Web browser can view it. With it, we specify which parts we want to keep and which to remove, such as all holes smaller than a certain size or all hidden parts.įigure 3: Viewing an IronCAD 3D model in the Chrome Web browser This is useful when sharing models, to reduce the size or hide proprietary aspects. The software’s shrink-wrapping function simplifies models. We can dimension between the different states, to show the lengths of extensions and angles of rotation. Each of the states can have a different style, colors and linetypes. When we create drawings from mechanism, we can now specify alternative position views, to show the mechanism in its collapsed state, fully extended state and normal state. In IronCAD 2018, collision detection is faster and simpler with selected components: You see the red warning for just the couple of parts we select. “Mechanism mode” is where we rotate parts to see them move and check for collisions. The trick to changing the speed from 4-6fps to 40-60fps is to temporarily turn off transparencies, edges and reflections. If your computer has a dedicated GPU, from nVidia or AMD, IronCAD 2018 will zoom and rotate very large assemblies smoothly. Large-assembly performance is a big deal in MCAD these days. The folks at IronCAD figure it has the added advantage of exposing useful commands users might not even know are available. Pressing the ‘S’-key brings up an on-screen interface that has been in IronCAD for a long time, but now appears at the cursor and has a new ring appearance it is called the “automatic heads-up display.” The content of the ring changes, depending on the current operation – such as working with surfaces, sketches or sheet metal – and the commands displayed by the ring can be customized. For people coming over from Inventor or Solidworks, a sketching starts on the xy-plane, as they would expect, but this isn’t the way IronCAD normally works. To make it easier to start with IronCAD 2018, there is a new-user interface that reduces the commands displayed by the ribbon. 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 traditional MCAD, one part is modeled per drawing (or tab), and then multiple parts are joined into an assembly.
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Additional industrial parts are available free from online sites, such as Traceparts.
They see the built-in ease-of-use suitable for sales people, so they can put together a preliminary design while seated with the customer. In fact, the company is making the design intelligence in Flexible Shapes available to users other than designers. Unfortunately, not all IntelliShapes are Flexible Shapes, but IronCAD representatives tell me they are adding more to catalogs as customers request them. When you place the next tube, IronCAD uses the same stock and cuts 45 degrees off the new item, automatically. Here’s an example of the intelligence in IronCAD: Model a tube and then cut 45 degrees off. 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.
IronCAD 2018 retains all the UI functions from that first release and has gained more in the following two decades, naturally. Well before Siemens PLM launched Synchronous Technology for doing both history-based and direct modeling in one model, IronCAD was the first to combine the two modeling systems. manipulator) interactively edited solids.įigure 2: IronCAD drawings can include multiple states of a mechanism shown in different colors SmartRender adjusted rendering modes to maintain speed and the TriBall cursor (a.k.a. It had 3D Illustration to generate 2D drawings of 3D models that remember they are 3D. TriSpectives introduced us to interactivity in MCAD, such as dragging-and-dropping 3D IntelliShapes from catalogs onto models, complete with mating (a.k.a.
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(Note that there are many other unrelated systems named “XCAD”.) Nevertheless, it pioneered the idea that MCAD software could cost a trivial $500 or even $0, and that a vendor could sell a million copies or more. Last I heard, it was being sold only in its native Hong Kong.
#IRONCAD 2018 UPDATE#
It also failed when it couldn’t update the software quickly enough. Then, the upstart CAD package made the eye-raising claim it would sell a million copies worldwide – at a time when 100,000 was considered a really big number. XCAD was launched at a jaw-dropping price of $500 in an era when MCAD was supposed to cost $5,000 or even $50,000 per seat. Figure 1: Zooming and panning a large assembly model in IronCAD 2018
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