New Smoke & Thermal Tools for Architectural & MEP Engineers from CFdesign 2011 Update

CFdesign smoke simulations allow engineers to better understand how to optimize make-up air (MUA) systems, reduce equipment sizes, and meet building codes while improving on NFPA guidelines which are especially stringent in atria and non-traditional spaces. In addition, building lifecycle costs can be dramatically reduced by using CFdesign to gain insight into sizing and installation of air handling systems and generators.

Thermal comfort indices can be studied with CFdesign and are used to help guarantee client satisfaction by combining all human factors within the built environment, including temperatures, clothing, activity levels, and air speeds. Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Percent Persons Dissatisfied (PPD) outputs are used to ensure that satisfaction within the built environment is maximized, leading to higher productivity, healthier occupants, and greener buildings.

“The CFdesign 2011 Winter Update further expands the set of simulation tools available to empower architects and mechanical engineers committed to designing safer, more energy efficient buildings. Architectural and MEP design engineers will find CFdesign to be the most comprehensive package available for simulating, investigating and optimizing the systems and sustainability strategies associated with ventilation, wind currents, data centers, thermal comfort and smoke removal,” says Parker Wright, CFdesign Industry Segment Manager, AEC.

CFdesign is released annually each fall followed by three scheduled quarterly updates, which is unique to the CAE industry. This consistent development process assures that CFdesign remains compatible and can take advantage of the latest release of each CAD/BIM tool, Microsoft Windows, and new hardware advancements.






CFdesign 2011 Winter Update is available for immediate download through the CFdesign customer portal.
Related Post:

• CFdesign's New Autodesk Revit Integration

Magnacad Ships JRIV for Design, Analysis, Data Management

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

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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• LMS Virtual.Lab Rev 9 Released for 3D Simulation

 

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CFdesign's New Autodesk Revit Integration

Blue Ridge Numerics, Inc., the leader in upfront CFD software, today announced the full integration of CFdesign 2010 with Autodesk Revit.  This revolutionary development allows architecture and MEP engineers for the first time to run computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies seamlessly from the Revit environment. Previously, traditional CFD software presented too many technical and time consuming barriers to be used by engineers at AEC firms.

CFdesign provides a straightforward flexible workflow with full associativity to the Revit model. This integration means Revit users won’t have to export/import their models. Now real world validation can be conducted on models at their desktop to understand how design changes can help achieve environmental objectives and energy certifications.

“The CFdesign and Autodesk Revit integration opens new doors for AEC firms. Never before have architecture and MEP engineers been so empowered to look at multi-scenario comprehensive fluid flow and heat transfer studies that seamlessly integrate with the Revit environment,” explains Derrek Cooper, product manager, Blue Ridge Numerics. “CFdesign 2010 enables engineers to quickly create and compare different models and make important design decisions early in the development process.  AEC firms now have the ability to offer their customers more effective design options with greater efficiency and with less risk.”

With CFdesign architecture and MEP engineers can both validate and explore their Revit models for thermal comfort, energy audits, solar loading, smoke egress/ LMA, occupancy safety, and external wind loading. In addition, CFdesign allows you to perform simulations for data center cooling and clean room design.

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

 

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LEDAS Ships Driving Dimensions Plug-in v1.2 for SketchUp

New update of Driving Dimensions plug-in significantly improves quality, stability, and performance; introduces multi-language support

LEDAS Ltd., an independent provider of variational design tools, technology components and software development services for CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM market, today announced the availability of version 1.2 of its Driving Dimensions plug-in for Google SketchUp software. The Driving Dimensions product line from LEDAS is aimed at making advanced MCAD technology available at an affordable price to all users of popular 3D software.

Version 1.2 contains significant improvements in quality, stability, and performance. This was made possible because it is based on the next generation of LGS 3D geometric constraint solving software component recently released by LEDAS. The new version generates solutions that users would expect to see as outcomes. When users now modify the parameters of driving dimensions, most edges and faces remain unchanged; the only ones to change are those needed to satisfy the new parameter values. In addition, the time to solve constraints has been significantly reduced, with the Driving Dimensions plug-in now up to ten times faster than the previous version on large models.

A new feature in Driving Dimensions version 1.2 is multi-language support. Now all tooltips and system messages can be translated to other languages. Version 1.2 comes with English and Japanese built-in. (Translation into Japanese was performed by EBATECH of Japan, a reseller of LEDAS solutions in Japan.)

LEDAS invites uses of the free version of Driving Dimensions to help translate the plug-in to different languages. As compensation, LEDAS will provide all collaborators with Pro licenses of the Driving Dimensions plug-in for SketchUp at no charge.

"The Driving Dimensions plug-in for SketchUp is our most popular software," said Dmitry Ushakov, Director of Product Management, LEDAS Ltd. "The free version of our plug-in has been downloaded by more than 15,000 SketchUp users worldwide since the first public beta was released a year ago. Significant feedback from users of both the free and Pro versions is allowing us to improve the quality of our software, and is giving us fresh ideas on new functions."

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

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• LEDAS Ships LGS 3D Geometric Constraint Solver v2.0
• LEDAS Adds Assemblies & Kinematics plug-in to Rhino

Dassault Systèmes Announces New Release of Abaqus FEA from SIMULIA

Lower Development Costs and Accelerate Innovation Through Improved Realistic Simulation Capabilities

Dassault Systèmes, a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced the availability of Abaqus 6.9 Extended Functionality (6.9-EF), its technology-leading unified finite element analysis (FEA) product suite from SIMULIA.

Designers, engineers, and researchers in a broad range of industries use Abaqus to predict the real-world behavior of products, materials, and manufacturing processes. This latest release delivers key new features and enhancements for modeling, advanced mechanics, and performance. These ongoing improvements are enabling customers to consolidate their simulation software, thereby lowering cost and increasing efficiency in their product development process.

“To meet product performance requirements within ever-shorter product development timelines, it is imperative that we perform physically accurate design simulations as fast as possible," stated Kirk Siefker, Senior Analytical Engineer, Engine Components, Schaeffler Group USA. "With the improved implicit dynamic capabilities in Abaqus 6.9-EF, we are able to simulate the realistic performance of our engine component and system designs 30% faster while enhancing our product’s overall performance.”

"The extended functionality of Abaqus underscores our ongoing commitment to delivering robust, customer-driven enhancements to our realistic simulation software more quickly," stated Steve Crowley, director of product management, SIMULIA, Dassault Systèmes. "The latest capabilities in 6.9-EF will benefit our users in every industry by helping them accelerate the evaluation of real-world product behavior during the design phase."

New features and enhancements in Abaqus 6.9-EF release include:

Modeling

• Interactive support is provided for meshing models using cylindrical elements, which can be useful in the analysis of pipelines by oil and gas companies.
• Geometry repair tools in Abaqus/CAE offer greater flexibility and broader scope for systematically adjusting the geometry of a model in preparation for meshing.
• An interface for model change definitions allows the deactivation and reactivation of model regions and contact pairs during an analysis.
• Users can now define direct cyclic and low-cycle fatigue analysis procedures in Abaqus/CAE. Low-cycle fatigue analysis can be used to efficiently predict fatigue life in electronic components such as solder joints.
• Discrete orientations provide a convenient method for accurately defining spatially varying material orientations on models with curved geometries such as aircraft panels and car bodies.

Advanced Mechanics

• Viscoelastic behavior can be now modeled with orthotropic/anisotropic elasticity in Abaqus/Explicit, which provides more realistic composite damage prediction.
• A new and efficient method is available for analyzing structures subject to air blast loading, which is useful for safety evaluation in the civil engineering and defense industries.
• Continued advancements in fracture and failure include contour integral evaluation for cracks defined with XFEM and the inclusion of the Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) in Abaqus/Explicit, which allows users to model brittle fracture of partially bonded surfaces.
• Breakthrough improvement in the implicit dynamics procedure helps solve unstable problems involving contact, buckling, and material failure. Examples include impact inside gear mechanisms and medical device deployment within patients.

Performance

• A new iterative solver in Abaqus/Standard provides performance gains up to 20x or more in comparison to the direct sparse solver. The iterative solver is intended for very large simulation problems typically found in applications such as powertrain, oil reservoir, and material microstructure simulations.
• Performance of creating high-quality surface meshes using the mapped meshing technique has been significantly improved. Depending on the part, performance gains of 2x to 40x are possible. This is extremely useful in meshing engine blocks and ship hulls.

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

LMS Virtual.Lab Rev 9 Released for 3D Simulation

LMS, the engineering innovation company, has released the latest version of its integrated solution for 3D functional performance simulation: LMS Virtual.Lab Revision 9. A milestone release, the LMS Virtual.Lab Revision 9 software suite is filled with brand-new performance capabilities and breakthrough technology to ramp up engineering productivity, most notably with new BEM and FEM capabilities and a brand-new ray tracing solution in LMS Virtual.Lab Acoustics. Dedicated industrial application solutions found in LMS Virtual.Lab Motion have been significantly enhanced for improved usability as well, while the new thermal fatigue solution in LMS Virtual.Lab Durability and the MADYMO coupling safety feature in LMS Virtual.Lab Structures are clearly breakthrough solutions in their respective simulation markets.

“We are very excited about LMS Virtual.Lab Revision 9. Of course, it provides major advantages for all types of performance engineering in general, but I really must say, for the acoustics market, we kicked it up a notch. Not only did we massively broaden the suite’s FEM capabilities, but we also enhanced our unique BEM technology. These breakthrough developments show why we’re the acoustic simulation market leader,” stated Stefaan Goossens, Vice-President Simulation at LMS International.

In addition to the extensive work on LMS Virtual.Lab Acoustics, LMS Virtual.Lab Motion has been extended with key industrial applications for driving dynamics, aerospace, wind, powertrain noise & vibration, tracked vehicle and a superior 1D/3D co-simulation methodology for mechatronics system-level simulation.

Especially for thermal applications, LMS Virtual.Lab Durability’s new thermal fatigue feature helps engineers analyze the impact of changing temperatures on fatigue behavior to accurately evaluate fatigue on vital engine parts, exhaust systems and turbo chargers.

For the transportation safety market, the new coupling with MADYMO occupant safety software permits users to easily position MADYMO crash test dummies, and by integrating the MADYMO crash test dummy with the vehicle FE model, users can perform complete occupant safety simulations.

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

Exa Releases PowerFLOW 4.2

USA Exa® Corporation, a global innovator of fluids simulation (CAE/CFD) software for product engineering, announces a new release of its flagship product, PowerFLOW®.

PowerFLOW 4.2 simulates true rotating geometry – an industry breakthrough that enables practical and accurate prediction of fan noise, fan performance, brake cooling and wheel aerodynamics. In addition to improved accuracy and simulation process turn-around time, PowerFLOW 4.2 also offers the ability to simulate long-term transient thermal protection situations such as key-off and soak.

PowerFLOW 4.2 simulates true rotating geometry for accurate prediction of fan noise, fan performance, brake cooling and wheel aerodynamics.

Since its inception, Exa Corporation has been committed to the seamless integration of simulation and analysis into the engineering process. This new release continues the mission and offers capabilities that further enhance accuracy and overall turn-around time. “With PowerFLOW 4.2 and true rotating geometry, not only are we handling real-world applications that were not practically possible before, but we are also providing tools, templates and physics improvements that streamline the simulation process, enabling product performance analysis to be performed at the very earliest stages of design,” commented Charles Alexander, Exa’s Director of Product Management for Simulation Products.

True rotating geometry, frequently called ‘sliding mesh’ by the simulation community, simulates the actual movement of arbitrary geometry during the course of the simulation. “PowerFLOW is an inherently transient simulator,” remarked James Hoch, Exa’s Vice President of Software Development. “Updating the position of the geometry at each time-step is a natural extension of the core technology, resulting in very accurate prediction of the fluid flow in and around rotating geometry.”

PowerFLOW 4.2 Overview
This newest Exa release adds functionality that not only extends the simulation capabilities of PowerFLOW, but when coupled with complementary products such as PowerTHERM® and PowerACOUSTICS™ also improves aerodynamic, aeroacoustic and thermal results.

• True Rotating Geometry. PowerFLOW 4.2 further extends Exa’s leadership in simulation technology by offering the first practical and accurate simulation of the actual movement of rotating components. True rotating geometry enables prediction of the noise and performance of HVAC and cooling fans. It also improves accuracy for any application that has rotating components, especially those transient in nature such as brake cooling and wheel aerodynamics. PowerFLOW 4.2 offers an easy-to-use case setup for true rotating geometry as well as built-in support for visualization of results showing the geometry rotating.

• Long Term Transient Simulations. PowerFLOW 4.2, an inherently transient solver, coupled with Exa’s PowerTHERM, now allows for the simulation of minutes or even hours of real time for the accurate prediction of critical thermal cool-down conditions such as key-off and soak.

• Accuracy. In addition to the accuracy benefits realized with true rotating geometry, PowerFLOW 4.2 offers an improved turbulent thermal wall model and porous media physics for enhanced precision and robustness in these extremely complex simulations.

• Turnaround Time. Exa continually works to streamline the engineering simulation and analysis process. Exa has now published validated design study best practices using reduced resolution runs that dramatically reduce the time and compute resources required. With PowerFLOW 4.2 extensive turnaround time enhancements are included, such as: application specific case templates—a sophisticated automated case setup capability which allows capture and re-use of company best practices; enhanced cluster/queuing support; automatic coarse-to-fine seeding capabilities; and real-time volume visualization.

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

InnovMetric to Show PolyWorks v11 at EuroMold

InnovMetric Software Inc., the leading supplier of hybrid 3D metrology solutions for engineering and manufacturing, will demonstrate the latest intermediate release of PolyWorks V11 at EuroMold 2009, a trade fair held from December 2nd to December 5th in Frankfurt, Germany.

A hybrid metrology solution is one that offers the flexibility of combining high-density point cloud digitizers and tactile probing devices within the same measurement task, ensuring optimal accuracy and speed in all circumstances. Leading the field of industrial point-cloud-based inspection for nearly 10 years, InnovMetric has developed and released in 2009 an outstanding set of new functionalities for tactile probing, including:

• A new flexible Digital Readout (DRO) with configurable appearance and contents, statistics, and tolerancing
• A powerful Build/Inspect mode for measurement-driven assembly
• Guided six surface points and RPS alignment techniques
• Real-time bundle adjustment for large volume metrology
• Temperature compensation by specifying material and temperature or by best-fitting targets

Keeping the same high standards that has made its reputation, InnovMetric has, in all cases, equaled or surpassed the implementation of commonly used probing software, propelling PolyWorks as the only true hybrid 3D metrology software platform on the market.

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

Moldex3D Releases Free New Tools to Enhance Collaboration and Productivity

CoreTech System, the true three-dimensional (3-D) CAE simulation solution innovator today announced the official release of its new free software—Moldex3D Viewer and Moldex3D eDesignSYNC.  Moldex3D’s new free software products are designed to strengthen the collaboration with project team members and upgrade overall productivity.

NEW!! Moldex3D Viewer–Strengthen the Collaboration
Moldex3D Viewer is a standalone Moldex3D result visualization tool, and it can be used to visualize Moldex3D analysis projects interactively. With Moldex3D Viewer, benefits or defects of the designs can be shown and discussed visually, and therefore better communication among the project team can be achieved.

For a CAE engineer who utilizes injection molding simulation software to study and optimize his design projects, it is essential for him to share knowledge acquired from simulation results with his team members, including part designers, mold makers, or even customers. Those results are more than often best explained through visualization. Moldex3D Viewer is designed specifically for this need, it is exactly a comprehensive platform to expand the collaboration and strengthen your competitiveness. Both Moldex3D users and non-users will be greatly benefited.

NEW!! Moldex3D eDesignSYNC –Upgrade Overall Productivity
Moldex3D eDesignSYNC is a free interface for Pro/ENGINEER and SolidWorks users to have direct access to the full analysis power of Moldex3D/eDesign. With a simple button embedded inside Pro/ENGINEER or SolidWorks, eDesignSYNC converts CAD models in their native format for direct analysis with Moldex3D/eDesign true 3-D plastic injection simulation software. From now on, there is no need for CAD users to export the model into a neutral format, such as STEP or IGES, or clear up the mess after importing any more. With eDesignSYNC, CAD users can fully concentrate on analysis for part design and manufacturing optimization.

“We believe the release of Moldex3D Viewer can highly strengthen the collaboration with project team members, in the meanwhile the release of Moldex3D eDesignSYNC will highly benefit CAD users to access CAE simulation more easily. Many companies recover rapidly from the severe economy crisis with using Moldex3D to speed-up product cycle and optimize mold design, we hope with the release of Moldex3D Viewer and Moldex3D eDesignSYNC, CAD designers as well as project partners will be benefited from the simulation result of Moldex3D true 3-D injection molding simulation”, said Dr. Venny Yang, President of CoreTech System.

For more information, visit http://www.moldex3d.com/

Symscape Releases SymLab v2.0.1 for CFD

Symscape announce the release of SymLab (v2.0.1), which includes the world's first automated simulation telemetry system for posting images to TwitPic and posting associated messages (tweets) to Twitter. This new feature is useful if you want to check on the progress of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation while you are away from your simulation's host machine and you have access to Twitter. It is also a great way to share CFD simulation progress with other colleagues on Twitter in real-time.

The new TwitPic and Twitter integration is available through the following SymLab add-ons:

• Professional
• RANS Flow
• Transient

See "Telemetry Posting to TwitPic and Twitter" on how to configure the automated TwitPic and Tweeter posting for your simulations.

Also included in this update is the ability to capture movies (.avi) for multiple windows (e.g., View Window, Plot Window, Monitor Window) simultaneously.

Existing SymLab users will receive this update free through our automated update system. New users are welcome to try these enhancements with our free 30-day trials.

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

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• Symscapes Symlab RANS Flow 2.0 Released

SolidACE Ships BuiltWorks 2010 for SolidWorks

SolidACE announces today the launch of the first commercial release of BuiltWorks 2010, a computer aided structural design and engineering software suite for use in the SolidWorks environment.

“With so many years of experience in structural engineering, we are excited to bring the benefits of the SolidWorks’ 3D modeling and design environment to our particular field of use with this great product.” commenting on the commercial launch of BuiltWorks said Dr. Vladimir Popov, the CEO of SolidACE, “Users will greatly benefit from the integrated workspace BuiltWorks provides in seamlessly combining various engineering analysis applications and industry standard drawing formats within the SolidWorks modeling environment. We are engineers proudly developing tools for our fellow engineers, based on our in depth knowledge and experience.”

BuiltWorks was developed to meet the Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Plant industries requirements for flexible and versatile tools, while being able to integrate with leading engineering analysis and design software. Customers throughout the structural engineering industry will benefit from the fully integrated workspace that BuiltWorks provides, particularly those who are familiar with the SolidWorks design environment. BuiltWorks provides intelligent modeling tools that facilitate the creation of a 3D parametric model of a steel structure under design. The use of both SolidWorks Weldment and BuiltWorks Structural members, either as Part or/and Assembly, seamlessly integrates solid physical model to leading analysis and design engineering application STAAD.Pro.

BuiltWorks also includes functions for component modeling using international standard libraries of steel shapes as well as connection detailing by setting relations like alignment, joining and cutting structural members at intersections and placing endplates. Drawing generation and calculated bills of quantities are fully available. Full SDNF import/export functionality allows for flexible and efficient workflow with third party Structural and Plant applications.

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

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ODA Announces First Production Release of DGNdirect

The Open Design Alliance (ODA) today announced the first production release of DGNdirect available to ODA members globally. DGNdirect includes a comprehensive feature set for DGN files, including the ability to load V7 and V8 files, convert V7 to V8 files, save V8 files, access data, edit data, render data, and export to PDF and SVG file formats.

Early work on DGNdirect began in 2003 as an independent project. As the ODA platform expanded and matured, the decision was made in 2007 to restart DGNdirect development as an integrated part of the platform. Integrating DGNdirect into the ODA platform provided a number of key benefits: consolidation of common functionality such as geometry and rendering, consistent API styles between DWGdirect and DGNdirect, and clean support for features which utilize both formats such as mixed external references (DWG files referenced from DGN files and vice versa). The new DGNdirect was released for testing in March 2008, and during the past year and a half the feature set and overall quality have grown steadily.

Chief Technical Officer of the ODA, Neil Peterson, stated, “Delivering DGNdirect to ODA members is an enormous success for our development teams and for the ODA platform. Beta versions of DGNdirect have seen heavy use among ODA members for more than a year now, which has helped greatly to stabilize core functionality. DGNdirect builds on the success of our beta releases and contains support for a number of key features including dimensions, True Colors, and improved support for text.”

Arnold van der Weide, ODA President, added, “The ODA platform was originally developed to work with the DWG file format. Later the core platform was expanded to include ADTdirect, a vertical application which supports custom architectural objects, but still within the DWG file format. The release of DGNdirect marks a new level of achievement for our organization—it is a tangible example of how the ODA platform can be used to provide comprehensive support for new file formats. It clearly demonstrates the strength and versatility of the platform, and we expect this type of usage to increase in the future.”

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

IRONCAD 2009 Released for MCAD

IronCAD is pleased to announce the latest release of the industries fastest and easiest to use 3D design solutions IRONCAD and INOVATE. Many customer driven feature enhancements have been implemented in this latest version including these key items:

• Innovative and Structured Part Modes in a Single Environment
• Integrated Fully Functional 2D Mechanical Design Tool
• User Interface Improvements Including:
  • Support for the Fluent Ribbon User Interface
  • Improved Interface Icons for Clarity and Accessibility
• Support for Multiple Body Parts Including Copy/Delete Functions
• Reference Datum Features (Plane, Axis, and Point) Support
• Enhanced Feature Commands Including Pattern, Scale and Mirror
• Strong Reference Association Support for 3D Curves and Surface
• User Selection List Capability for Direct Access to Face/Edge/Vertex Locations
• Many 2D Sketch Improvements in User Interface and Capabilities
• Dynamic Direct Editing Improvements Including:
  • Automatic Selection Controls and Graphical Representations
  • Automatic TriBall Activation for Improved Productivity
  • Direct Editing Driving Smart Dimension Capability
• Improved SmartAssembly Connection and Display Capabilities
• Side-by-Side Application Support for IronCAD Products
• Freely Distributable IRONCAD Scene (.ics) Viewer and CAXA EXB Viewer
• Updated Partner Programs Including 32-Bit and 64-Bit IronPro Support
• Limited time, a free of charge CAXA Draft license with IRONCAD license

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

Related Post:

• Schott Systeme Launching New Design & Machining Functions Within Pictures by PC 3.4 CAD/CAM Software
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Schott Systeme Launching New Design & Machining Functions Within Pictures by PC 3.4 CAD/CAM Software.

Helping mold tool companies to remain competitive, German software developer Schott Systeme have frozen their pricing for the 12th year running, while at the same time launching a raft of new design and machining functions within their latest Pictures by PC 3.4 CAD/CAM software.

Outlining the company's pricing policy, company founder and owner Hans-Joachim Schott states, “Our aim is to enable our customers to invest in the very latest CAD/CAM technology, for every single CNC machine tool, while keeping both purchase and operating costs to a bare minimum.” This policy means that their complete moldtool package for design and machining continues to remain under €10,000. With ongoing maintenance costs also being a major consideration, Herr Schott continues “Our customers have to earn money with us, so we have retained our 25 year old policy of not charging for yearly maintenance, instead offering free life time support, while giving our customers the choice of when they wish to purchase major upgrades.”

Focussing on their new software release, Schott Systeme have developed this latest version with the streamlining of the moldtool design and machining process very much in mind. This process starts with the quick and ‘clean’ import of customer models, and here Schott Systeme have enhanced their data import facilities to include the very latest versions of STEP and 3D IGES Solid formats. However for customers having to deal with poor quality data, considerable thought has been put into actual model repair, with an entirely new range of advanced surfacing functionality and a more advanced ‘Healing’ suite. Their existing ‘Tribrid’ mixed modeling techniques have also been improved to help customers working with STL mesh models, enabling them to construct core and cavity molds from mixed mesh, solid and surface models. This is also being accompanied by a new suite of mesh analysis, repair and handling tools.

Pictures by PC 3.4 also sees a number of enhancements to speed up the machining of mold tools. Firstly the software now utilises multi core processing, with users receiving an instant improvement in toolpath calculation times from between 30-50% on dual core PC’s, and from 40-60% on quad core versions, with additional gains achievable by using their latest 64bit version. The company has in addition further enhanced their ‘Freeform Feature Recognition’ module, aiding in the automatic extraction of complex freeform mold features to machine, such as tapered walls and freeform chamfers.

The company will be using this years Euromold exhibition to both celebrate their 26th anniversary, in addition to showcasing these latest CAD/CAM enhancements. Visitors are welcome in Hall 11 on Stand C63.

Visit http://www.schott-systeme.com/ for detail information.

iCADsales Offer progeCAD 2010 Pro Free Upgrade

iCADsales.com has announced that those purchasing progeCAD 2009 Professional will receive a free upgrade to the next release, progeCAD 2010 Professional, coming soon.

New Features

Some of the features of progeCAD 2010 Professional will include read/write and create DWG 2010 drawings and new improved Adobe PDF printing, which will take advantage of the PDF layering capabilities designed for CAD. Other compelling features included in the upcoming release are described on http://www.icadsales.com/index.pl/progeCAD-2010.

Upgrades offered with Discounts

To celebrate this milestone release, iCADsales.com is offering upgrades from progeCAD 2009 Professional to the new release for its customers at 2009 Pro pricing, and an additional 10% discount.

50% Off Discounts for Selected Products

Both New Customers, and those who already own licenses of progeCAD Professional, can take advantage of special 50% discounts on progeCAD companion products available when they purchase either new licenses of progeCAD, or place a pre-order for the 2010 upgrade before it is released.

Updates and Upgrades

As always, progeSOFT gives its clients free updates to minor releases through a notification system built into the software. progeSOFT only charges an upgrade fee when changing major versions, such as moving from progeCAD 2009 to progeCAD 2010. The software will continue to function normally regardless of the users decision to upgrade or not.

Compatible with Windows 7

progeCAD 2010 Professional has been designed to be compatible with the new Windows 7 Operating system from Microsoft. Users planning to migrate to the new operating system are encouraged to upgrade to progeCAD 2010 Professional soon to ensure compatibility and secure progeCAD 2009 Pricing on their upgrade to progeCAD 2010 Professional. Those with older operating system will not suffer from any issues due to the new release running on the new Windows 7.

Industry Specific Add-on Products

iCADsales.com also offers the progeBILLD series, architectural building services design software add-ons, progeEARTH, a civil survey design software add-on, and the progeCAD Viewer DWG, which allows viewing, markup, and printing of DWG files. 30-day evaluations of these products are available for free download on our website.

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

AEC Design Releases CADPIPE 10.1 for 3D Piping, HVAC

AEC Design Group has released CADPIPE 10.1 which incorporates many new features for most products.

"The release contains many significant new features that our customers can use to enhance their performance, saving time and money,” said Paul Hutchins, general manager. “We work hard to include as many new features as possible with every release, ensuring that our customers remain leaders in their industries.”

Designing has never been easier.  If you haven’t upgraded to CADPIPE v10.1 please visit www.cadpipe.com today to download our latest and greatest.

CADPIPE 10.1 is compatible with AutoCAD 2007-2010 (32 & 64bit), AutoCAD ADT 2007-2009, AutoCAD Architecture 2010, & AutoCAD MEP 2007-2010.

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

City of Phoenix, Ariz., Acquires Bentley’s SewerGEMS to Enhance Analysis, Design, & Operation of Wastewater Infrastructure

The city of Phoenix, Ariz., has acquired Bentley’s SewerGEMS multiplatform software for sanitary sewer systems to enhance its ability to analyze, design, and operate its extensive wastewater infrastructure. The infrastructure serves approximately 1.5 million residents and includes about 5,000 miles of sewer mains and 92,000 sewer manholes. Through their use of SewerGEMS, engineers with the city’s Water Services Department will be able to create a dependable wastewater model that will facilitate flexible master planning, rehabilitation sequencing, development capacity allocation, and sanitary sewer overflow warnings, while improving the efficiency of daily operations.

Over the last few years, the water department’s wastewater planning efforts have been moving away from a “predict and plan” approach to the more proactive practice of “anticipate and prepare.” The problem is, predictions of future growth areas and likely growth rates, changing weather patterns, water appliance efficiencies, and customer behavior are highly unreliable, offering little insight into conditions for which the water department must prepare.

Erich Lais, P.E., city of Phoenix civil engineer III, said, “By developing and analyzing our wastewater model with SewerGEMS’ built-in hydraulic and hydrology tools, wet-weather calibration methods, Scenario Control Center, and many other capabilities, we will be able to explore a broad range of possible future factors and develop a plan to prepare for each. As a result, we will be better able to adapt to changing conditions and consequent wastewater system requirements, enabling us to continue to meet our customers’ needs.”

The city of Phoenix acquired SewerGEMS to complement the WaterGEMS license it acquired in 2007 to model and analyze its water distribution system. Because SewerGEMS includes the same model management tools and has a user interface very similar to that of WaterGEMS, it will be very easy for the city’s project teams to use this new software.

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

Symscape’s SymLab RANS Flow 2.0 Released

The new SymLab RANS Flow add-on for Windows and Linux as part of the latest release of SymLab (v2.0). SymLab is a unified simulation environment which can be extended using add-ons into a complete Computer-Aided Engineering system for fluid flow analysis.

SymLab RANS Flow

The new SymLab RANS Flow add-on can simulate realistic (viscous) gas and liquid flow with heat transfer using state-of-the-art Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). SymLab RANS Flow makes it easy to simulate complex fluid flow around and through your design with SymLab's automated meshing tools and its easy-to-use visualization tools.

SymLab RANS Flow uses a custom version of OpenFOAM¹ that is capable of simulating complex fluid flow and heat transfer over and through virtually any configuration, whether it be the external flow over a wind-turbine, aircraft, car, or a submersible, or the internal flow through a computer case, mining drill, pipe, or duct.

SymLab v2.0 Enhancements

Amongst many SymLab v2.0 enhancements, the highlights are:

• Improvements in the robustness of the triangle and tetrahedral meshing algorithms and improved quality of the meshes that both tools produce
• The quadrilateral and hexahedral meshing algorithms are no longer constrained to have equal resolution in all topological directions
• SymLab can now exploit multi-processor/core CPUs to speed up certain operations, such as the solution time for the solver used in the SymLab Panel Flow add-on

SymLab RANS Flow is also included in the SymLab Professional add-on, which provides a complete Computer-Aided Engineering system for fluid flow analysis, and contains:

• RANS Flow
• Panel Flow: use a panel method to simulate idealized (inviscid) fluid flow around streamlined shapes and through simple ducts
• Builder: create and modify 2D and 3D geometry
• Transient: explore time-dependent simulations and visualization of results
• Exchange: import and export IGES, STEP and faceted file formats
• Viz Export: export 3D results to high resolution, high quality renderers and other visualization packages

For more information and free trials, visit http://www.symscape.com/

Maplesoft Engineering Software MapleSim 3 Enhance Understanding & Tackle Complexity of Modern Engineering Problems

Maplesoft™, the leading provider of high-performance software tools for engineering, science, and mathematics, announced several new products that will help educators, researchers, and students better understand and manage the complexity of engineering modeling and simulation problems. MapleSim™, the most advanced solution for physical modeling, combined with a collection of new toolboxes, enables fast model development, advanced analysis, and the creation of complex multi-domain models that lie at the core of modern engineering.

• MapleSim 3 – MapleSim, Maplesoft’s core physical modeling product, has a rich modeling platform which has been greatly enhanced in this release. Modeling capabilities have been extended with new component libraries for hydraulics and electrical machines. New refined solvers that handle even greater model complexity have also been added. An extensive collection of prebuilt models greatly accelerates the introduction of MapleSim in any academic setting.
• MapleSim Control Design Toolbox –The MapleSim Control Design Toolbox provides a solid set of essential control design tools that extend MapleSim’s exceptional plant modeling capabilities to support control design. This toolbox takes advantage of the symbolic approach for designing, analyzing, and testing control systems, which results in greater flexibility and accuracy. In addition, developing plants and controllers together in the MapleSim environment accelerates the development process. With this toolbox, MapleSim can be used to teach the fundamentals of control design in a way that provides deeper insight and understanding.
• MapleSim LabVIEW Connector –This toolbox integrates MapleSim's rich modeling environment into the popular LabVIEW® real-time platform from National Instruments (NI). Engineers using LabVIEW can quickly develop and optimize complex engineering system models in the intuitive visual modeling environment of MapleSim. This new toolbox joins the MapleSim Simulink® Connector (formerly known as the MapleSim Connectivity Toolbox), which provides enhanced connectivity with Simulink and Real-Time Workshop®. When combined, these products ensure that MapleSim now connects to all popular real-time platforms typically found in university labs.

Visit www.maplesoft.com to learn more.