Envision3D's graphics technology can deliver complex product models like this copier almost instantly over the Internet or an intranet.

With Envision3D manufacturers can distribute complex 3-D designs to departments within their enterprises and to business partners, suppliers, and customers. Envision3D opens access to models of nearly unlimited size to desktop computers, while respecting resource constraints. Teams can collaborate dynamically throughout the product-development process, reducing review cycles and time to market, with access to 3-D designs at 10 to 20 times the speed of previous systems, according to the company.

Envision3D's client/server architecture delivers large 3-D models, such as process and power plant designs and complex mechanical assemblies, almost instantly over a manufacturer's intranet, as well as over the Internet. By using technologies such as continuous level of detail and occlusion culling, geometric information communicated to the user's desktop is kept to the bare minimum without affecting what the user actually sees. As a result, 3-D engineering information becomes almost immediately accessible at the highest level of detail. Both technical and nontechnical users can access, annotate, and check dimensions of 3-D models in real-time from almost any desktop or laptop computer.

Envision3D's underlying architecture enables the software to scale to deliver very large models (in excess of 100 megabytes) that are highly complex (comprising more than 3,000 triangles and over 50,000 objects). In addition, Envision3D uses OpenGL application programming interfaces to take advantage of hardware acceleration. This further enhances the visual experience for the userÑa feature that's especially important for nontechnical users who aren't accustomed to the longer times required to load complex solid models produced by a computer-aided-design (CAD) program.

Envision3D's uncluttered user interface is about as intuitive to navigate as a Web browser. Navigational controls allow users to interact with complete assemblies and Òwalk throughÓ models to view components in detail. Different navigation modes are available, including object-anchored mode (in which users isolate and rotate an object) and a view-oriented mode (in which users control the heading, pitch, roll, and position in the model).

Envision3D operates independently of any single CAD system, so users can interact with and view models generated by different systems. The software can import geometry, attributes, colors, and lighting data in a variety of formats, including virtual reality modeling language (VRML) 1.0 and 2.0, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, and Bentley DGN.

With Envision3D's dimensioning capability, users can check assemblies and parts for entry and exit paths and part dimensions. Annotation capabilities enable users to communicate design issues and concerns by adding circles, arrows, text, or other shapes to highlight critical design points. Managers and other personnel from marketing, manufacturing, and procurement can participate directly in design reviews at any location by using a standard Web browser. Markups can be placed directly on objects within the 3-D model and are saved in a database located on the Envision3D server. Additional information on the product, including a whitepaper, can be obtained on the Web at www.adaptivemedia.com.

Accordingly, engineers can include CFD as an integral part of the design process and model the behavior of fluids in equipment. When an optimal design has been achieved, it can be exported from CFX-BladeGen to a CAD system for design and manufacture.

CFX-BladeGen can handle a variety of rotating and stationary bladed components. It can be used to design new blades or modify existing designs. A range of blade types is included in CFX-BladeGen for devices such as pumps, compressors, turbines, turbochargers, fans, and blowers. Additional information on the software can be obtained via e-mail at info@asc.on.ca.

Shape optimization enables users to parametrically optimize solid-model design configurations—for example, to minimize weight without exceeding the material yield strength. With the software, users can automatically vary specified dimensions and run a simulation to produce an optium design within the specified design constraint. When the optimization process is complete, the software automatically updates the geometry of the Mechanical Desktop solid model.

Design optimizations can be performed with stress, vibration, and buckling simulations, or any combination of the three. Accordingly, design objectives can be optimized by minimizing or maximizing mass, volume, frequency, and critical load factors while complying with design constraints tested for stress, displacement, strain, frequency, and load factors.

In addition to updating the solid geometry dimensions, MSC/InCheck's optimization tool produces history, sensitivity, and local trend graphs. Such graphs summarize the changes in a dimension variable throughout the optimization, the sensitivity of the objective or constraints to changes in the dimension variables, and the objective or constraint trend with positive or negative changes in the variables. This feature helps engineers gain insights into how modifications to design dimensions affect design weight, stress, volume, frequency, and other design objectives and constraints.

With the convection and conduction heat-transfer capabilities, engineers can apply fixed temperatures, as well as convection, heat-generation, heat-flux, and heat-flow boundary conditions, to a solid model. MSC/InCheck calculates the temperature distribution on the part. The temperature distribution can then be used as input to simulate the thermal stress characteristics of the design.

The latest version of MSC/InCheck provides new ways to organize and communicate simulation results. For example, the software automatically generates Web-enabled results reports: Hypertext markup language (HTML) and virtual reality modeling language (VRML) simulation-result summaries can be generated, allowing users to communicate design-performance data using the Internet or an intranet.

MSC/InCheck operates on Windows platforms loaded with Mechanical Desktop. Further information can be obtained on the Web at www.macsch.com.

Structural Research and Analysis Corp. (srac), in Los Angeles, has announced that cadam Systems Co., in Tokyo, will become the master distributor in Japan of SRAC's COSMOS/M for Helix, a design-analysis program that works with the Helix Design System. Under the terms of the agreement, Yokogawa Techno-Information Service Inc., one of the largest resellers of COSMOS/M products in Asia, will provide pre- and post-sales support to the Japanese reseller network.

Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd., in Herzliya, Israel, and Parametric Technology Corp. (ptc), in Waltham, Mass., have announced that Tecnomatix's computer-aided production-engineering products—ROBCAD, DYNAMO, and VALISYS—are now fully integrated with PTC's Pro/ENGINEER product-development software. The integration is enabled by Tecnomatix CAD Linked and Embedded Objects (CLEO) technology, which was tailored for the Pro/ENGINEER open architecture. CLEO provides direct access to the Pro/ENGINEER database, which not only holds the geometry of each part definition, but also contains manufacturing information and assembly definitions connected to that part.

Eigner + Partner, in Karlsruhe, Germany, has opened an office in Boston to serve customers for its product-data-management (PDM) and engineering-document-management software in the United States. The company's main product line is CADIM/EDB, a stand-alone PDM system.

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