Dec 25, 2009

MWH Soft Releases Industry’s First Extension for Sustainable Water Distribution System Design

mwh-logo MWH Soft, a leading global innovator of wet infrastructure modeling and simulation software and technologies, today announced the worldwide release of the Sustainability analysis extension for all its industry-leading water modeling product lines. The breakthrough extension is available in InfoWorks WS as well as the H2ONET, H2OMAP Water and InfoWater Executive Suites. The tool gives water utilities unprecedented energy efficiency management capabilities for reducing both power costs and carbon footprints while realizing increased reliability and design optimization.

A significant percentage of energy input to a water distribution system is lost through three key areas: pipe friction (plus minor losses at bends and fittings); control valves (e.g., pressure reducing and sustaining valves, flow control valves); and at the customer tap in maintaining a minimum level of pressure. (Tap losses are calculated at the network nodes and include domestic and non-domestic consumption and leakage losses.)

Now, for the first time, MWH Soft water network Sustainability analysis extension makes sustainable network design easily accessible and reliable, helping users determine the carbon footprint for pumps and the cumulative total energy lost across all elements in the network from source to consumer tap. A comprehensive visualization tool color-codes these elements based on their total environmental impact, providing a clear and instant overview of the problems and priorities. Users can also easily compare multiple network reconfiguration alternatives, rank networks from least to most efficient, pinpoint areas with the greatest potential for improvement, and instantly identify potential for pumped/pressure-reducing valve (PRV) optimization and future energy recovery.

“This groundbreaking extension will help our user community make an important contribution to the world by consistently developing sound energy optimization and rehabilitation programs,” said Andrew Brown, EMEA Regional Manager for MWH Soft. “We listened to the engineering community’s concerns about designing more sustainable, environmentally friendly systems. We’re confident we have delivered a powerful solution that will help users find the best designs in the shortest time — and gain a competitive edge in their global marketplace.”

“We are proud to simultaneously enhance the superbly engineered InfoWorks WS product line, H2ONET, H2OMAP Water and InfoWater with this vital technology upgrade, knowing it will make an immediate difference in people’s lives, our communities, and our society,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., Hon.D.WRE, F.ASCE, President and COO of MWH Soft. “We created this best-in-class carbon calculation tool to make energy efficiency management the simplest, most powerful choice with the highest pound-for-pound return — surpassing all competitive offerings by far. Sustainability clearly reflects our ongoing determination to provide our customers with superior, high-value software that helps them strengthen, protect, sustain and optimize their hydraulic infrastructures at maximum energy and cost savings.”

Please visit http://www.mwhsoft.com/ for more information.

     

Dec 21, 2009

GstarCAD 2009 Latest Update Package released!

gstarsoft-logo GstarCAD 2009 Latest Update released on Dec.17 2009!We have improved the following features and fixed many important bugs in this version.

1.we have big progress on re-development especially on VBA and Lisp.

2.The OLE plot function has been improved greatly.

3.GstarCAD can support some special foreign fonts successfully such as Hebrew fonts.

4.Multiline edit function has been improved greatly especially on some special multiple line.

5.GstarCAD can well support some applications such as some add- on software can be loaded and use on GstarCAD.

6.Menu function becomes more strong especially on loading some special menu files that from customers.

7.Layer tool bar become perfect, especially suitable for the long layer name.

8.When printing in model space, we supplying four items at selecting print area.

9.Support PKSER command to get the serial number of GstarCAD.

10.Plot function become more strong both on stability and on performance.

Please visit http://www.staricad.com/ for more information.

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Dec 18, 2009

CAD Schroer Offers MEDUSA4 Personal v4.0 for Free

CAD Schroer Group, the global engineering solutions provider, today announced its Christmas gift for hobby engineers: Version 4.0 of the free MEDUSA4 Personal software for Windows and Linux, available at www.cad-schroer.de/m4personal.

Version 4.0 of MEDUSA4, the professional 2D/3D design suite for mechanical engineers, was released on 2 September 2009. Now home users on Windows or Linux can also benefit from the new functionality and enhancements free of charge, just in time for the Christmas break.

The download now includes a whole new module for integration of color images. Another gift worth trying out is the new CSG eSERVICES online portal at http://eservices.cad-schroer.com. “It enables users to convert and license their designs for commercial use,” explains Michael Schroer, the company’s Managing Director. “Whether students wish to publish their research, or hobby engineers decide to patent a new design, this portal allows them to convert their work and pass it to other systems, publish or sell the results.”

MEDUSA4 Personal, the private-use version of the engineering design software includes many of the familiar options available in CAD Schroer’s MEDUSA4 ADVANCED package, such a SMART Edit and basic 3D, as well as valuable add-on modules, including parametrics and sheet metal design. From version 4.0, MEDUSA4 Personal now includes the MEDRaster Color module, which allows users to incorporate existing raster data, images or photographs in their designs. The new features in this holiday release also include many dimension creation and editing enhancements, expanded SMART edit and Smart Drafting tools, and URL support in drawings.

While MEDUSA4 Personal use is legally limited to non-commercial deployment, CAD Schroer has created an online portal in response to popular demand. At http://eservices.cad-schroer.com designers wishing to commercialize their work can convert drawings to PDF or DXF for a small fee, which also grants a license for commercial use of those designs.

  • To know what’s new in MEDUSA4 version 4.0, click here
  • To download MEDUSA4 Personal version 4.0 for Windows or Linux, click here
  • To know more about how to convert MEDUSA4 Personal drawings for commercial use, click here
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Animech Releases aniDim3nsion 2.0 for 3D Visualization

animech-logo Animech Technologies today announces the release of version 2.0 of their innovative solution - aniDim3nsion - for 3D visualization of product configurations.

With aniDim3nsion you can visualize a complex product configuration in front of customers directly in real time 3D graphics. By providing your sales personnel with aniDim3nsion you can reduce customer uncertainty, shorten the sales process and allow your sales department to focus on the main agenda – increasing your sales!

This latest release introduces unrivaled functionality like the possibility to change colors and material properties, generate images from 3D to be used in quotes and parametrically resize product modules. In addition to the core changes many customer driven feature enhancements have been implemented.

  • For more information about aniDim3nsion, click here
  • To view a video showing some of the new features in anidim3nsion and try the online demo, click here.
      

Dec 17, 2009

Capvidia Releases CompareVidia 2010 for CAD Data Validation

capvidia-logo Capvidia announces a new release of the CompareVidia 2010. The CompareVidia application for validation of 3D CAD models has been further extended with the new functions. The performance improvement gives 30% boost compared with the previous release. The floating license configuration provides a flexible solution for multi-user environment at discounted price. The new wire-frame object validation opens possibility to include in the validation process auxiliary to 3D model objects as i.e. PMI describing manufacturing or dimension tolerances.

The report summarizing the validation results can be read back into CompareVidia for further detailed analysis of all entities causing the validation process to fail. The idea is to run the validation once and have possibility to investigate the results later. This also has an impact on archiving the validation results. An old report can be easily retrieved and investigated in more details at any time.

The support of native CAD formats has been updated to the latest version:

  • CATIA 4 (*.model;*.exp) CATIA 4.1.9 – CATIA 4.2.4
  • CATIA 5 (*.CATPart;*.CATProduct)  R2 – R19
  • Unigraphics (*.prt), version 11 to 18, NX to NX6
  • Unigraphics Assembly (*.prt), version  11 to 18, NX to NX6
  • ProE (*.asm;*.asm.*;*.prt.*)
  • Inventor (*.ipt;*.iam) (ipt - version 6-2010) (iam version 11-2010)
  • ACIS (*.sat;*.sab), version up to ACIS R20 
  • STEP (*.stp;*.step)
  • IGES (*.igs;*.iges) 
  • VDA-FS (*.vda)
  • AutoForm (*.af)
  • STL (*.stl)
  • VRML (*.wrl;*.vrml) Mesh (*.mesh)
  • ASC (*.asc) Parasolid (*.x_t)
  • SolidWorks (*.sldprt;*.sldasm) 
  • 3DTransVidia (*.xml)

CompareVidia supports now Windows 7 and is available in both 32 and -64-bit versions.

CompareVidia is being successfully used by numerous Boeing and Airbus suppliers in the US and Europe complying with the highest level of quality and validation procedures such as ISO 9002 and Boeing B6-51991, etc. for digital MDB.

Most of our customers react very positively on CompareVidia. The comment of Jorge Loutzenhiser - Quality Assurance Manager of MillworX Precision Machining, Inc. is not an exeption: "CompareVidia works like a Charm! We are very pleased with our purhase so far. Easy to learn; validation process quicker and easier than we expected."

Please visit http://www.capvidia.com/ for more information.

      

SYCODE Ships CATIA, NX, Pro/E 2D Importers for SolidWorks

sycode-logo SYCODE has released CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER 2D drawing file import add-ins for SolidWorks. These add-ins give SolidWorks the ability to read CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER drawings without the need of a CATIA, NX or Pro/ENGINEER license. "Suppliers to users of high end MCAD systems like CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER often use SolidWorks as their MCAD system,” explains Deelip Menezes, Founder and CEO of SYCODE. "These SolidWorks users often receive design data in the form of 2D drawings in the native file format of the high-end MCAD system. SolidWorks does not offer any way to read these 2D drawings, which can be a huge problem. The add-ins that we are releasing today are designed to solve this exact problem.”

The add-ins have been tested to work with the 32 bit as well as the 64 bit versions of SolidWorks and are available as a fully functional trials. They come with installers and detailed documentation in the form of compiled HTML help files which contains step-by-step tutorials to get end users started in the shortest possible time.

Please visit http://www.sycode.com/ for more information.

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Dec 15, 2009

Autodesk Offers Fatigue Wizard for Algor Simulation 2010

autodesk Autodesk has announced that Autodesk Algor Simulation customers on subscription will now receive Fatigue Wizard, innovative software that uses a wizard interface to guide designers and engineers of any expertise level through the steps required to perform complex fatigue analysis.

Fatigue Wizard adds extra functionality and ease of use to the Autodesk Algor Simulation line of products — part of the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping — helping to bring even the most advanced simulation capabilities to designers and engineers of all abilities. Fatigue analysis is vital for products such as steel rails, beams, girders and rotating stepped shafts that can experience mechanical failure under repeated or varying loads. Fatigue Wizard helps to predict fatigue-based failure and helps users design for durability by subjecting a product to cyclic stresses to determine its endurance limit and thereby increase safety.

Users can easily access Fatigue Wizard functionality though a menu option in Autodesk Algor Simulation products. From there, Fatigue Wizard provides step by step guidance through the process of setting up a fatigue analysis. Users can choose between stress- and strain-based analysis types; specify material information using an extensive, editable database; enter data to simulate real-world conditions, such as local stress concentrations and surface-finish effects; and more.

Fatigue Wizard functionality is available through an Autodesk Subscription Advantage Pack for Autodesk Algor Simulation 2010, one of many benefits for Autodesk Subscription customers. Autodesk Algor Simulation software’s multi-CAD interoperability applies to Fatigue Wizard as well, so users can take advantage of the new fatigue analysis tools regardless of the CAD package they use.

“Fatigue Wizard makes complex fatigue life assessment both achievable and affordable,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “The benefits of performing durability tests as part of the design process are well known. Fatigue Wizard will help those customers who previously may not have had the skills or budgets to realize these benefits firsthand.”

Please visit http://www.autodesk.com/ for more information.

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Dec 14, 2009

Solid Concepts Releases SolidView 2010 for 3D Viewing

solidview-logo

Solid Concepts Inc., a leading rapid product development service provider in the USA, announces the release of SolidView 2010 family of products for 3D viewing and markup CAD data.

New Features in SolidView 2010 includes:

  • Performance

    • Faster File Loading – Download files twice as fast as earlier versions of SolidView.
    • Windows 7 and Vista Compatible – SolidView 2010 is built to take advantage of Windows 7 and Vista platforms.
    • Easy Network Licensing – The simple format no longer requires users to set permissions on folders and similar documents.
  • Measuring

    • More Measurement Options – New measurement tools are available enabling greater functionality.
    • Pick Assistant – Select various geometric entities for measurements, take measurements that are difficult or impossible to make with any other viewer.
    • Right Click Context Menu – Allows the removal of individual measurements selected by the user.
    • Enhanced Define Section – Rotate sectioned planes quickly with the enhanced selection tool.
  • Markups

    • Rich Text Support – Instructive text explains processes and increases user comprehension.
    • Scene Modification – Attachments and jumps can now be added to individual scenes.
  • Tools

    • Verify – (SV/Pro & Pro RP only) Check for errors in STL files.
    • Mold Analysis – (SV/Pro & Pro RP only) Quickly identifies the core, cavity, parting line, and any undercuts.
    • STL Repair – (SV/Pro RP only) SolidView 2010 presents greatly improved verify and repair functions to identify and fix common STL file problems. While the STL Verify function tests the STL file integrity, STL Repair fixes file problems such as small gaps, incorrect triangle normal, and misaligned triangle vertices.
    • New Compound Cutting – (SV/Pro RP only) New dynamic cutting capabilities allow users to section parts like never before.
    • Shelling and Offset – (SV/Pro RP only) The shell function quickly creates hollow parts from solid geometry.
  • New SolidView document (SVD) file format

    • File attachments - Attach any type of file to a SolidView document, including images, project data, video and sound to make a complete design document.
  • User interface
    • Ribbon interface – New sophisticated Ribbon Toolbars provide instant access to popular viewing, measuring and markup features.
    • Optional Classic Interface – Toggle easily between the new Ribbon interface and classic SolidView interface.
    • Active Dialog Tabs – Easily move from one function to another.
    • Quick Access Toolbar – A customizable toolbar that allows users to place frequently used functions in an easy to access location.
    • New Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts – Quickly navigate and select tools with the touch of a button. With selective zoom capabilities and many keyboard shortcuts, save valuable time and experience increased control for better part manipulation.
    • Enhanced Undo, Redo Capabilities – Improved undo and redo on every action taken and never lose your work again.
    • Advanced Assembly Tree – Arranging and organizing parts with the latest Advanced Assembly Tree gives you total control of your parts and project.
    • Custom Cursor/Smart Icons – These tools have become more intuitive with the operation you are performing, providing the most advanced capabilities for the task at hand.
  • File formats

    • New Support Now Available – SolidWorks 2010 as well as upgraded optional CAD interfaces to support UG NX6, ACIS V20 and Parasolid V19.1. SolidView/Pro 2010 continues to support STL, Solid- Works, VRML, DWG, DXF, OBJ CAD fi les and other popular 2D vector and raster formats, as well as add-on interfaces for Catia, Pro/E, STEP, IGES, SDRC, SolidWorks Geometry and Solid Edge.

For more information, visit http://www.solidview.com.

      

LEDAS Ships LGS 2D Geometric Constraint Solver v3.0

ledas-logo LEDAS Ltd., an independent provider of variational design tools, component technologies, and software development services for the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM market, today announced version 3.0 of its LGS 2D geometric constraint solver. As a core component of parametric drawing applications, LGS 2D allows users to express design intent through geometric constraints and driving dimensions applied to 2D points, lines, curves, and other elements of sketches and drawings.

Since its first release in 2004, the LGS 2D software component has been licensed and embedded by several CAD/CAM/CAE vendors into parametric drawing applications. In five years, LEDAS has released eight intermediate versions of LGS 2D.

New Features in LGS 2D 3.0

Version 3.0 of LGS 2D adds support for NURBS curves, equal curvature geometric constraints, memory management, and many additional improvements.

NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline) curves are commonly used in computer-aided design and computer graphics applications. Previous versions of LGS 2D supported NURBS curves, but required that they be evaluated on the application side. Whereas application developers before had to implement callback functions to regenerate the shapes of curves, they will now find that working with NURBS curves is as easy as working with lines and circles in LGS 2D 3.0. The application simply calls the spline creation function, passing all needed parameters (algebraic degree, control points, knots and weights), and then the solver evaluates the spline. This new feature reduces the software development cycle and shortens the time to market for a new parametric drawing application.

An even greater advantage to using the new NURBS curves support is the significant performance improvement. The derivatives of NURBS evaluation functions needed for numerical methods of constraint solving are now expressed analytically and computed by the solver.

Version 3.0 supports a new form of geometric constraint, equal curvature. It is useful for parametric drawing applications that require smooth (G2) tangencies between curves. In this case, application developers create both tangency and equal curvature constraints between two curves (or between a curve and a circle or a line) and then make the corresponding "help" parameters equal.

Version 3.0 allows application developers to define custom sets of memory management tools for controlling and optimizing memory use. This new feature is critical for applications that deal with large drawings, which are typically composed of thousands of geometric elements.

LGS 2D 3.0 also contains many other improvements, such as alignments for tangency constraints with curves, versioning for binary dump, and journaling enhancements. Several bugs in the autoconstraining function have been fixed, and issues reported by LEDAS customers have been resolved.

"LGS 2D is used by our customers to implement powerful parametric drawing functions, which are compatible with the capabilities of mainstream MCAD systems, but at an affordable price," said Dmitry Ushakov, Director of Product Management, LEDAS Ltd. "Our new version 3.0 is another significant step towards this direction: it introduces new functions aimed at supporting advanced user requirements yet shortening the application development time."

An integration module has also been created, which allows version 3.0 of LGS 2D to be used with applications based on DWGdirect of the Open Design Alliance (ODA). This integration module was developed jointly by LEDAS and the ODA, and it provides DWGdirect-based applications with support for constraints contained in the DWG 2010 file format.

Please Visit http://www.ledas.com/ for more information.

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SYCODE Releases CATIA V4 and V5 File Import Add-Ins for SolidWorks

sycode-logo SYCODE has released CATIA V4 and V5 file import add-ins for SolidWorks. These add-ins give SolidWorks the ability to read CATIA V4 and V5 parts and assemblies without the need of a CATIA license.

"SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray could not put it better when he recently said in an interview that SolidWorks customers are fed up with not being able to share data between CATIA and SolidWorks,” says Deelip Menezes, Founder and CEO of SYCODE. "As a SolidWorks Solution Partner, SYCODE has taken the initiative to offer a solution to this long standing problem. Using these add-ins SolidWorks users will now be able to open CATIA V4 and V5 parts and assemblies without needing a license of CATIA installed on the computer or network.”

These add-ins are powered by the widely used 3D InterOp technology from Spatial. 3D InterOp is the industry standard for proprietary and neutral CAD file format data exchange and is used in almost all the major CAD systems. Besides data exchange 3D InterOp also offers powerful repairing and healing features which are extensively used in these add-ins. Repairing involves checking the file for corrupted data and fixing invalid data. Healing corrects the differences in precision. The add-ins also create detailed log files which are extremely useful in identifying data translation problems and aid in locating and fixing errors.

The add-ins have been tested to work with the 32 bit as well as the 64 bit versions of SolidWorks and are available as a fully functional trials. They come with installers and detailed documentation in the form of compiled HTML help files which contains step-by-step tutorials to get end users started in the shortest possible time.
Please visit http://www.sycode.com/ for more information.
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Cadcorp business partner, Symology, begins roll-out of its latest infrastructure asset management system, Insight Version 3.1

Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer Cadcorp has announced that Symology, a Cadcorp business partner and value-added reseller, has begun the customer roll-out of the latest version of its integrated infrastructure asset management system. Insight Version 3.1 includes the latest version of the Cadcorp SIS - Spatial Information System ActiveX Control to provide users with sophisticated, integrated digital mapping capabilities. Insight is used extensively by Highway Authorities, Utilities and Contractors throughout the UK.

Announced by Symology earlier this year, Insight Version 3.1 features a range of enhancements to the system’s embedded mapping functions. As well as major enhancements gained as a result of upgrading users to Cadcorp's latest SIS 7 products,  Symology has also introduced a new concept within Insight called "Hot Layers" -  a powerful new facility allowing mapping layers to be generated on-the-fly from the results of any of the Insight Enquiry/Reporting screens.

The "Hot Layers" concept has limitless uses, and it only takes a small amount of imagination for users to utilise these facilities to their full potential. Example uses of this functionality could include creating layers containing:

  • All Assets with a particular Value or Condition Rating
  • All active Customer Service requests
  • All street lights with current defects
  • All highway inspections due next week
  • All the assets with components which are out of warranty
  • All the bridges inspected in the last year
  • All the gullies emptied last week
  • All the streets in a survey route
  • All streets which are winter gritted

These exciting new facilities, which also include the ability to export multiple map layers in PDF format, utilise Cadcorp's embedded ActiveX Modeller and Manager software products, as well as products from other GIS suppliers.

The embedded GIS facilities also provide full enquiry and update capabilities, as well as enabling users to "drive" the system from the map.

The embedded mapping functions use the advanced capabilities of the Cadcorp ActiveX engine to enable sophisticated symbology definition and layer control; the ability to read and display multiple CAD, GIS, raster and database formats on the fly, without translation (including MapInfo TAB files); and the ability to access remote Open Geospatial Consortium® (OGC) Web Map and Web Feature Services over the Internet.

The Insight system allows multiple map definitions to be defined and allocated to users; different users can access embedded mapping with personally tailored views.

The ability of the Cadcorp SIS family of software products to connect directly to spatially-enabled relational database management systems, such as Oracle and PostGIS, also helps Insight users to store, manage and access spatial data at a corporate level, rather than at a departmental level, and to benefit from the data sharing that this brings.

In addition, a suite of National Street Gazetteer Maintenance tools (with new DTF 7.1 enhancements), include the ability to use the Ordnance Survey MasterMap Integrated Transport Network™ Layer and also maintain associated street data such as traffic sensitivity and reinstatement category information.

"We are really proud of this new version of Insight, and with the extensive enhancements we have received as a result of utilising the latest Cadcorp SIS 7 suite.  Not only does it bring us right up-to-date with the latest versions of the mapping products we use, it has also given us the opportunity to introduce the new ‘Hot Layers’ concept – the feedback we have received from customers to date has been extremely positive,” said Scott Hutchinson, sales and marketing manager at Symology.

“We are delighted that Symology has chosen to make the GIS facilities provided by Cadcorp SIS available to its Insight users with this latest version of its application,” said Mike O’Neil, managing director, Cadcorp. “We are confident that it will continue to be a popular choice for UK highway authorities and utility companies alike.”

Please visit http://cadcorp.com/ for more information.

      

Dec 13, 2009

Eagle Point Announces New AutoCAD Civil 3D Add-ons for Surveyors

egale-point-logo Today Eagle Point announced the introduction of Surveyors' Toolbox, its third add-on product for AutoCAD Civil 3D. The Surveyors' Toolbox allows surveyors to comfortably and productively move to AutoCAD Civil 3D with simplified COGO routines and user interface. Its integration within Civil 3D allows you to interact with native point, parcel, surface, alignment and profile data. Multiple routines (both dialog and command line based) are included to input raw alignment, lot and field traverse information directly into your drawings, bypassing the requirement of using an external survey database. Robust point placement routines are also available to quickly locate COGO points that can be uploaded to the field for staking.

"This product not only helps Eagle Point clients transition to Civil 3D more productively, but also provides a simpler COGO interface and command set for any surveyor making the switch to Civil 3D," explains Steve Biver, Civil Product Line Manager for Eagle Point. "As organizations continue to reap the benefits of the dynamic Civil 3D modeling capabilities for the design work, many have expressed interest in migrating their survey work to the same platform to eliminate the need to transfer between systems. This product offers those organizations the ability to streamline the survey workflow, both in entering survey data on the front end of a project as well as producing job files for stakeout on the back end."

Please Visit http://www.eaglepoint.com/ for more information.

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Dec 8, 2009

Delcam Releases PowerINSPECT 2010

delcam-logo Delcam has launched the 2010 version of its PowerINSPECT inspection software, which offers even easier inspection of parts, tooling and prototypes against CAD data.  The system is already the world’s leading hardware-independent inspection software, with this new version making it even more attractive to users of all types of metrology equipment, including manual and CNC CMMs, inspection arms and optical devices.

In the 2010 version of PowerINSPECT, the creation and editing of inspection sequences has been improved by adding the ability to insert extra points or features anywhere within the sequence, not just at the end. This will be useful for all users but especially for those creating inspection sequences with larger numbers of measurements. It will also make it easier to update complex sequences during long production runs, when process or design changes require modifications to the inspection routine.

The ‘simple measures’ functionality included in the previous PowerINSPECT release has been extended in the latest version.  The range of pre-defined inspection sequences for common measurement patterns has been increased, and simple alignments have been introduced.   

The GD&T Wizard has also been improved and simplified.  PowerINSPECT now offers the ability to select features from the CAD view, with item types shown by an icon, making selection easier.

PowerINSPECT 2010 includes improved simulation for checking sequences that are to be run on CNC CMMs or to be used for On-Machine Verification.   The collision checking has been made more flexible and easier to use, with options to stop the sequence automatically once a collision is detected and to continue the simulation until the next problem is found.

The ability to reuse measurement results has been extended. PowerINSPECT 6 introduced the ability to create a feature from a combination of other features, for example, to combine the results from a series of circles to create the inspection report for a cylinder.  PowerINSPECT 2010 builds on this functionality with the new ‘point source’ feature which gives the ability to define these relationships offline. This improves consistency for batch measurement, with the measurements being able to be reused in the same way for every component.

Finally, labels for reporting purposes can be attached to selected points within point clouds generated by laser scanners. For example, the user could highlight in the report the points that are furthest out of tolerance or could identify critical points in the design for detailed reporting.

Please Visit http://www.delcam.com/ for more information.

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Magnacad Ships JRIV for Design, Analysis, Data Management

magnacad-logo Magnacad Design Inc. a leading provider of CAD, CAE and PLM solutions has announced today the launch of their new encompassed design engineering solution bundle - JRIV. Developed to fill many needs, JRIV can reduce time and overhead of manufacturing companies that require total design, engineering, and data management solutions. JRIV addresses this need and surpasses it by incorporating the most productive solutions with the most cost-effectiveness. And, in addition, provide technical abilities beyond any other solution currently on the market.

The components of JRIV were selected based on ease of use, advanced technology, and cost of ownership. “We have created a solution that has met these objectives and more.” says Tom Lehnhaeuser, president of MDI, and he adds, “We successfully created a bundled solution using IronCAD 3D design application as the core foundation upon which the other applications would integrate.”

The three primary applications powering JRIV are IronCAD from IronCAD, LLC, Element from Range Software, and DesignDataManager from CSI, Ltd. These three formulate a single integrated solution for;

  • Design/Engineering
  • Analysis
  • Product Data Management and Workflow

Also, additional modules can be implemented as needed for Cable and Wire Harness design and 3D PCB design. MDI has provided additional features through the use of freeware and open-source applications all at no extra cost! “The free and open-source applications included obviously can be retrieved independently by users worldwide, hence the reason no costs were applied to the JRIV product. “We took the liberty of doing the research and providing the ancillary applications with JRIV simply because it saves the customer time from this task themselves. Aside, we have created custom integrated toolbars and menus to use with these applications so as the installation and user experience is fully seamless to the end user.” states Tom.

Some Open-Source or Freeware integrated functions included are;

  • Web Conferencing (up to 10 attendees) with Screen Sharing
  • Vector-based Desktop Publishing
  • Screen Video/Audio Capture
  • Unit Conversions Tool and more

Please Visit http://www.magnacad.com/ for more information.

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Right Hemisphere and Lightmap Introduce Studio Lighting Capabilities for Deep Exploration Authoring Software

right-hemisphere-logo Right Hemisphere, the standard for Visual Enterprise solutions, and Lightmap Ltd. today announced a new professional lighting tool for users of Right Hemisphere’s Deep Exploration authoring software. Lightmap has an easy-to-use, professional lighting application called HDR Light Studio and has developed a plug-in version of it specifically for Deep Exploration 6.0 called “HDR Light Studio Live.” Right Hemisphere and Lightmap are hosting a free Webinar on Tuesday, December 15 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to demonstrate what this tool can do and how straight-forward it is to apply to models and scenes.

Available for purchase in January 2010 from the HDR Light Studio Web site, the software plug-in can create HDRI light and reflection maps for CG renderings and provide instant feedback to users on their rendered scenes. Users create lighting designs by placing light sources onto a 2D canvas representing a sphere map and interactively modify their properties. As users manipulate the lights on the canvas the shape is automatically distorted in real time so they maintain their shape when mapped onto a lighting sphere.

“As much as 80% of the rendering production process is spent on the creation and optimization of lighting,” said Right Hemisphere President and CTO Mark Thomas. “The real-time lighting creation and feedback loop this plug-in enables dramatically reduces the time it takes to create professional quality images that can truly replace traditional photography.”

“Deep Exploration is a fantastic product and its environment maps do a good job of lighting models,” said Lightmap CEO Mark Segasby. “But we saw an opportunity to add another layer of sophistication to it with what we do best. Our software gives Deep Exploration users more control over their lighting and reflections, and allows them to quickly test and tweak their lighting set ups. This is a classic partnership in which everyone wins, particularly the end user who craves perfection in his final renders or has a client who demands it.”

Please Visit http://www.righthemisphere.com/ for more information.

     

Dec 7, 2009

Carmel Software Releases the First Gas Pipe Sizing Software Applications for the iPhone

carmel-software-ogo Carmel Software is pleased to announce that it has released the first suite of gas pipe sizing software applications for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The HVAC Pipe Sizer (Gas Low), the HVAC Pipe Sizer (Gas High), and the HVAC Pipe Sizer (Gas Plus) applications allow users to quickly size a simple low pressure (< 1.5psi) and high pressure (>= 1.5 psi) gas piping system by inputting a number of piping and gas properties.

The Pipe Sizer (Gas Low) application allows users to size low pressure gas piping systems by inputting the gas flow rate, the gas velocity, the gas pressure drop, and/or the pipe diameter. It also allows users to size existing pipe systems by specifying the pipe diameter and gas velocity. Users can specify additional parameters such as the type of gas, various properties of the gas, the pipe material type, the total length of pipe, quantities for up to 11 different types of pipe fittings, and much more. Units can be displayed in either english or metric units.

The Pipe Sizer (Gas High) application allows users to size high pressure piping systems by inputting the gas flow rate, the gas velocity, the upstream gas pressure, the downstream gas pressure, and/or pipe diameter. It also allows users to size existing pipe systems by specifying the pipe diameter, the upstream gas pressure, and/or the gas velocity. Users can specify additional parameters such as the type of gas, various properties of the gas, the pipe material type, the total length of pipe, quantities for up to 11 different types of pipe fittings, and much more. Units can be displayed in either english or metric units.

The Pipe Sizer (Gas Plus) application combines the functionality of both the low pressure and high pressure gas calculations into one app.

"The iPhone is an amazing new platform for developing simple software tools that users can utilize on-the-go. We developed the HVAC Pipe Sizer knowing that it would be a great app for using out in the field to quickly size or analyze a simple piping system," says Jack Cunningham, Director of Sales for Carmel Software.

The HVAC Pipe Sizer (Gas) applications are the perfect tool for HVAC technicians, designers, architects, and even students. Please go to www.carmelsoft.com/iphone for more information on these and other HVAC iPhone apps.

 

           

ZWSOFT Releases ZWCAD 2010 Beta

zw-cad-logo ZWCAD Software Co., Ltd., the leading supplier of CAD platforms, announces the availability of ZWCAD 2010 Beta software for public evaluation. Designed to seamlessly integrate with Windows 7 and communicate with other Windows applications, and now available in 14 languages*, ZWCAD 2010 Beta is ready to take ZWCAD users into the next decade.

In ZWCAD 2010 Beta, there are several major advances in CAD optimization. You’ll work faster and more efficiently because the Memory Optimization with compressed processing and new optimized arithmetic improves the efficiency of commonly-used commands and reduces CPU usage and memory, resulting in greater speed and stability, especially when of dealing with large drawings. 

ZWCAD 2010’s newly-developed In-Place MTEXT Editor will help you focus on your design and make your work experience more efficient with new and improved functions for your convenience such as:

  • Text Formatting Toolbar to adjust settings to the text style for a multiline text object and set the character and paragraph format of the selected text.
  • Paragraph Dialog Box to set the formats of the paragraph (including tab stops, indents, paragraph alignment, paragraph spacing and line spacing).
  • Display Options Menu to modify the way of the Text Formatting toolbar and provide additional editing options.

Meanwhile, ZWCAD 2010 Beta has made a lot of improvements in other features, such as Hidden Plot, Render, Refedit, Splinedit, Undo and Hatch. With these improved operations, you can work more smoothly.

Also in ZWCAD 2010 Beta, APIs like Lisp and VBA have been greatly enhanced, with 13 new functions added to the Lisp ax and Vlr series. ZWSOFT has added new commands to VBA as well, such as AppendOuterLoop and AppendInnerLoop to increase your proficiency. Another highlight of ZWCAD 2010 Beta APIs is the introduction of ZWSOFT's own runtime extension, ZRX. As the most powerful API (application programming interface) in ZWCAD, ZRX enables developers to migrate their former ARX applications to ZWCAD quickly.

““Even with all the improvements we’ve made, we know we can be better!  We want to hear from our customers in order to know what they really need,” said Joh Li, director of ZWSOFT R&D Department. “We encourage our customers to download and test the new ZWCAD 2010 Beta release so that we can bring about an official version with better quality in January, 2010.”

  1. To download ZWCAD 2010 Beta, click here.
  2. For ZWCAD 2010 beta online survey, click here.

*ZWCAD 2010 Beta version is available in 14 multilingual versions, including Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hungarian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

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Dec 4, 2009

VX CAD/CAM 2009 v14.2 Released

vx-logo VX Corporation, a pioneering developer of integrated CAD/CAM solutions, announced today the release of VX 2009 v14.2, which is now available for download from support.vx.com. This release not only contains many enhancements in drafting, modeling and 2-5 axis CAM, but there is a significant performance enhancement to the direct edit shape morph technology and improved sectioning of unhealed imported parts.

As a step to increase performance, customers can now build a "light- weight" morph feature that can be edited and tweaked more rapidly.

In this example, Morph is used to directly edit the bend angle of this forging This enhancement is especially important to customers that use shape morphing for non-stylistic applications, like bending and unbending parts, model repair, back draft correction and applying over bend.

VX has always been able to produce section views of unhealed imported parts for quoting and inspection, but this latest enhancement rounds out the tool kit by now supporting bent sections of open shapes.

"These latest enhancements to VX 2009 version 14.2 are just two examples of our responsiveness to our customer needs." said Bob Fischer, VX Vice President Sales and Marketing "We are continually striving to provide customer-driven updates to our software."

Customers running earlier versions of VX 2009 can download and install this update from support.vx.com. Customers running older versions of VX (VX 2008 V13.xx and earlier) can purchase an update to V14 from the VX web store or from their local reseller.

Visit http://www.vx.com/ for more information.

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ESI Announces the Sheet Metal Forming Simulation Suite Version 2009

esi-logo

ESI Group, pioneer and world-leading supplier of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes, announced today the release of its Sheet Metal Forming Simulation Suite Version 2009, including PAM-STAMP 2G and PAM-TUBE 2G. Dedicated to all engineers involved in the Sheet Metal Forming process, the main objective of the simulation suite is to significantly shorten time to market by allowing users to make fast decisions from an early stage of the design right through to production in a continuous improvement process and within a collaborative environment.

PAM-STAMP 2G, ESI’s complete and integrated streamlined stamping solution, covers the entire tooling process and provides a trade-oriented application for Automotive, Aerospace, and general Sheet Metal Forming applications.

While PAM-STAMP 2G Version 2009 keeps on improving the accuracy of the simulation with precise springback results and capabilities extension, this latest release includes several new process simulations, such as:

  • Rollhemming, enabling the simulation of the real robotic roller movement;
  • Superplastic forming;
  • Buckling analysis for stamping process instability analysis.

In addition, as well as offering a number of optimization tools including Blank outline optimization, Trim line optimization and Die compensation which drastically reduce cost and time, PAM-STAMP 2G’s performance has been improved thanks to the set-up simplification through automatic tools, multi-layer material dedicated set-up and new post-process functionalities.

PAM-TUBE 2G Version 2009 also hosts a variety of enhancements based on users’ feedback from the last version, among which:

  • Design of the pre-forming tools, providing the end-user with a more complete end-to-end solution for complicated hydro forming parts;
  • Functionalities improvements and simplifications in Tubemaker, such as a true one-click solution for the addendum creation;
  • Interactive creation of tailored tube as well as the subsequent simulation through all stages for bending and hydro forming to meet the growing demand for special parts with tailored material and/or thickness;
  • Automated bending macro creator to simulate multi-stage processes;
  • Support for 3 new variations of bending: stretch-, press- and freeform bending.

The Sheet Metal Forming Simulation Suite’s latest release thereby offers an accurate and realistic modeling tool for tube forming simulation, which includes an intuitive pre-processing module leading the user through process design in order to ensure better forming results.

“The most significant state-of-the-art physical parameters identified by PSA’s hemming specialists were integrated into PAM-STAMP 2G,” said Patrice Auger, R&D Manager for Assembly processes PSA-Peugeot-Citroën. “Validated through real-life industrial cases, this new tool has quickly become essential to guarantee successful product definition and process reliability.”

“The enhancements within PAM-STAMP 2G Version 2009 represent a significant advancement in the software’s modeling capabilities. The usage of simulation for predicting new industrial processes is also enlarged thanks to the set up focusing on real industrial data,” said Caroline Borot, Sheet Metal Forming Product Manager, ESI Group. “Those benefits, coupled with continuous improvements in our core strengths which are stamping accuracy and springback prediction, deliver great value to ESI’s customers”.

Visit http://www.esi-group.com/ for more information.

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Planit e2i 2010 R1 Includes Stock Control Feature

planit-logo Planit Software’s manufacturing management system - e2i – has just delivered significant enhancements in its 2010 R1 release.

e2i tracks and manages cost and quotations throughout the design and manufacturing process and for many Radan customers is a critical element in achieving a competitive advantage.

Included in 2010 R1’s developments is Stock control, which has been redesigned to make management more intuitive. Users can now manage the total quantity of a stock item in relation to real time supply and demand, rather than individual allocations. Stock Control has been enhanced to enable users to record the consumption of raw materials at the point of use. Dave Caughley, Development Manager for e2i, is excited by the newly re-engineered Stock Control feature as he explains “Stock Control is a powerful feature within e2i and with the current cost of materials, every extra job that can be squeezed out of stored material is a financial boost to our customers.”

e2i 2010 R1 also benefits from enhancements to the Sybase PowerBuilder and InfoMaker tools. These upgrades give customers a much improved environment to create reports, for example, the new development tools have allowed the addition of calendar controls to help users set date fields. In addition these developments have enabled users to benefit from new reporting tools, which allow the creation of new tree-style reports.

The latest release of e2i supports both Windows Vista and Microsoft’s latest release Windows 7.

e2i will now also benefit from CLS -  Planit’s new licensing system. This provides users with additional functionality including license management, where users can “reserve” licenses so they are always available to them.

Visit http://www.planit.com/ for more information.

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Dec 3, 2009

LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim Rev 9 Released for 1D Simulation

lms-logo LMS International, the engineering innovation company, has released the latest version of its multi-domain system simulation solution: LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim Revision 9. The new release delivers a straightforward, interactive framework with advanced capabilities for performing 1D system simulation. With improved ergonomics, enhanced data management, ready-to-use simulators – e.g. for hybrid vehicle architectures – and Modelica compliancy, LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim Revision 9 offers users brand-new features that will drastically improve productivity and efficiency to design innovative and high-quality products.

John Deere Werke Mannheim is one of the first LMS customers to test this latest release and fully supports the solution’s enhanced features.

“At John Deere Werke Mannheim, we use LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim software to build virtual tractor models for model-based design, system integration and validation. The upcoming improvements in the LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim Revision 9 interactive environment will help us create a more efficient process from system definition to result analysis. Good responsiveness to software enhancement proposals is important at John Deere. The LMS Imagine.Lab development teams have really succeeded in improving the software based on our requirements. This strengthens our confidence in LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim as a valuable simulation solution for our upcoming projects,” stated Dr.-Ing. Julian Baumann, PV&V Dynamic System Simulation Engineer at John Deere Werke Mannheim.

LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim Revision 9 comes with turn-key simulators for various applications in a wide range of industries: powertrain, hybrid vehicles, comfort and driving dynamics for the automotive sector, fluid actuators for aviation and full-wheel loader simulators for the off-highway industry. With these simulators, users no longer have to build their model from scratch and only need to adapt the model to the architecture. Users can then quickly assess drivability and comfort issues as well as performance and fuel consumption.

The new release features improved ergonomics and data management to optimize productivity. For example, cycle analysis is made easier with 1D and modulo plots as well as multiple 3D animation windows. Users can now easily manage the history of component parameter changes and model architecture changes. Sensitivity analyses can be stored in a unique LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim model file and easily recovered with a specific experiment-load-and-save GUI.

With the new release, Modelica code can be seamlessly written and imported from existing codes as well as combined with standard LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim components in a single tool. The solution also makes it possible to graphically assemble different Modelica models.

“We are thrilled about the new features in LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim Revision 9. Not only did we improve and extend the global capabilities of the system simulation platform, we also improved the software’s ergonomics and added ready-to-use simulators to considerably increase productivity and efficiency in 1D simulation,” commented Stefaan Goossens, Vice-President Simulation at LMS International.

Visit http://www.lmsintl.com/ for more information.

 

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Kubotek Officially Releases KeyCreator Version 9

kubotek-logo Kubotek USA has officially released KeyCreator Version 9.  KeyCreator is a practical, proven and complete 3D direct modeler, and as the recognized pioneer of 3D direct modeling and editing, KeyCreator has the largest and most established installed-base of 3D direct CAD in the world. KeyCreator’s versatility is ideal for conceptualizing solutions and rapid design of the most challenging one-of-a-kind engineering projects.

KeyCreator’s unique approach to 3D direct modeling gives users the freedom they need to be creative, practical and efficient in their design. This no nonsense style to CAD design and productivity uses Direct Dimension Editing to instantly drive changes to the model.  Direct Dimension Editing means that model building and editing is done without concern for how the model was created, who created it, and in what order it was created.

The Version 9 release offers current users significant enhancements and performance improvements. For instance, KeyCreator internal updating algorithms have been optimized for Version 9.0 to reduce the time needed to complete a variety of editing operations. This performance improvement results in transform operations that are an average 73% faster.

Other performance metrics show that KeyCreator files open on average 33% faster. Display performance has improved considerably, as well. The display improvements are especially important to overall productivity since they are normally used many times throughout a design session.

Additionally, the Dimension Driven Edit function’s initial selection prompt has been expanded from accepting just dimensions to also allow selection of edges. This supports quickly creating dimensions and driving edits on those faces without having to exit the function to dimension them. Dozens of other new features, performance and productivity improvements were asked for and added into KeyCreator Version 9.

Says Charley Gressett, Senior Project Engineer from RTS Packaging, LLC, “KeyCreator V9 manipulates my largest, fully weighted, assembly models effortlessly. This release stands heads and shoulders above all of Kubotek USA’s previous efforts. A fantastic job. Well done. Your users are going to say thank you very much!”

Visit http://www.kubotekusa.com/ for more information.

 

     

DP Technology Ships ESPRIT 2010

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) industry leader DP Technology is pleased to announce that ESPRIT® 2010, the production release of the latest version of its ESPRIT flagship product, is now shipping.

New developments within this latest version of ESPRIT place great emphasis on providing existing ESPRIT customers with additional tools that will increase their productivity.

"We believe that concentrating on serving the needs of our existing customers is the best investment we can make,” says Chuck Mathews, DP's vice president and director of product development. “With the 2010 release of ESPRIT, more than ever before, we are utilizing the latest computer technology to solve the practical real-world challenges our customers face on a daily basis.”

ESPRIT 2010 has been optimized to fully embrace the capabilities of the latest multi-core computers, an especially valued time-saving characteristic for 3-axis and 5-axis programming. ESPRIT 2010 runs on Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows® Vista™ and Windows® 7™ operating systems.

Improvements That Every Customer Will Enjoy
Every ESPRIT customer will enjoy the benefits of an all new, faster-to-use, graphical user interface (GUI) used to define machining operations throughout ESPRIT. This new tree-style GUI is used to define machining parameters used for cutting parts in milling, turning and wire EDM programming. Using the new GUI, cutting parameters are entered and immediately validated for the given workpiece. The GUI also adapts to display only questions pertinent to the given cutting environment, minimizing the number of choices the programmer needs to consider. The new tree-style GUI uses a small portion of the screen, providing the programmer with a clear, unobstructed view of the workpiece at all times. This new GUI is designed to look familiar to existing ESPRIT customers, allowing them to easily transition to and gain the productivity benefits of ESPRIT 2010.

Thanks to the new multi-threaded stock automation engine in ESPRIT 2010, customers can now benefit from instantly starting the part program simulation at any time and at any point in the program. This new feature eliminates the need to simulate all operations from the beginning or to save the results of previous simulations. Now ESPRIT customers can start a simulation with the stock that results from the completion of all previous operations without first waiting for the simulation of the previous operation. The use of multi-threading technology — with which stock calculations are done in the background, which doesn't slow the programmer down — makes this ideal scenario a reality in ESPRIT 2010.

Machining pockets has just become significantly easier with ESPRIT 2010 due to advancements in feature recognition. The upgraded advanced feature recognition now automatically recognizes pockets with any combination of open and closed walls, fillets, chamfers and tapered walls. In addition, undercut areas that can't be reached with the given tooling are automatically excluded. These new pocket features may also be based on native CAD features, resulting in the features in ESPRIT being associative with the original CAD model. As a result, if the CAD model changes, the user is notified and can choose whether to automatically update the ESPRIT feature and its associated machining to match the CAD model. This association is maintained from the CAD model to the finished toolpath.

Support for the Latest CNC Machine Tools
ESPRIT 2010 offers dramatic improvements in the support of integrated multi-tasking, mill-turn machine tools. All ESPRIT milling and turning machining capability, from 2-axis turning to 5-axis milling, is available for any type of mill-turn machine tool, including lathes that perform milling, mills that perform turning, Swiss-style machines and other “integrated mill-turn machining centers.” In the 2010 release, support for these multi-tasking machine tools has been enhanced through increased flexibility in cutting tool configurations and orientations, enabling the support of a wide variety of machines. The newly added support for additional rotary axes, three or more, allows the ESPRIT customer to completely program and easily simulate the most complex and sophisticated machine tools currently available on the market.

For the ESPRIT wire-EDM customer, the 2010 version includes support for EDM machines with rotary axes. This allows EDM programmers to perform wire-EDM cutting in 5- and 6-axis using turn-and-burn (indexing the rotary table), and turn-while-burn full 5-axis simultaneous cutting with a rotary table. This new version also provides EDM programming with an innovative new 4-axis pocketing, no-core cutting, machining cycle.

New 3D Machining Techniques
ESPRIT 2010 includes 13 new FreeForm 3- and 5-axis machining cycles that are available for milling, mill-turn and Swiss-turn machine tools. These high-speed, multi-axis machining cycles offer a wide variety of new choices and capabilities for ESPRIT customers who are performing 3D machining. Additions for 3-axis include a new roughing cycle that can also be used for rest-machining, seven new finishing cycles and three specialized cycles — 3D contouring, pencil tracing and corner machining. Two new specialized 5-axis machining cycles are also included within this release, swarf machining and impeller machining. All of these machining cycles, which add up to a tremendous amount of new technology, will be provided to existing ESPRIT FreeForm customers as part of their ESPRIT software maintenance contract (SMC).

Availability
ESPRIT 2010 is now shipping to existing ESPRIT customers with active software maintenance contracts (SMC). We expect that all North American customers will receive their updates before the end of 2009. International SMC updates are starting in December and will continue into the first quarter of 2010. ESPRIT 2010 is also available now to new ESPRIT customers.

Visit http://www.dptechnology.com/ for more information.