IRONCAD's Unique Two Design
Paradigms! Innovative Design
Structured Design
You Decide the Design Process!
IRONCAD uniquely provides two design
paradigms in its single modeling environment to fit the needs of the
designer and the task at hand.
We have IronCAD's unique
Innovative Design Paradigm. The only other packages that could come
close to the design freedom are the direct edit only packages. But
IronCAD is the only CAD system with true integrated history/direct
edit modeling. I feel history is the best for conceptual design with
flexible direct edit functionality available as you move into the
design. You are rarely put into a design corner.
Innovative Part Design allows users to build a non-restrictive
history of features that make up the design aspects of the part.
Although it has a history of features, the system allows the user
the ability to dynamically change the history order without inverse
effects of feature dependency rules and restrictions. SmartUpdate
technology within Innovative Part Design aids the users by
intelligently managing the feature history giving predictable
results when changes are made by the user. Innovative Part Design
also provides a level of flexibility by allowing the user to refer
to geometry elements regardless of the history order in which the
geometry appears. This flexibility allows the user to work as if
they were working with a physical object in their hands eliminating
rules implied by the system.
Since the Innovative Part Design
supports features, users are able to add specific design rules to
create parametric design intent. The advantage in this approach is
to apply intent when needed allowing the user to place only the
critical design intent during their design process without the need
of system applied rules that may not apply to their design task.
In addition to the non-restrictive history based capabilities,
users are able to directly edit the geometry regardless of the
underlying definition of the feature. This capability allows the
user to work on imported data containing no feature information
directly as well as the Innovative Parts with feature information.
Unlike other direct geometry systems, IRONCAD will maintain the
feature design information that is not affected by the direct
geometry modification, creating the only application that can truly
support a mixed feature environment.
Here is a video showing
the creation of a part using Innovative Design.
This was a
presentation for the USA dealers by Cary O'Connor VP of Marketing.
Structured Part Design
Structured Part Design is a history-based structure of features
that build the design following a intended design order determined
by the user. This part design allows the user to define a rigid
sequence to their design that can be predictably changed based on
the intent provided by the user. During the design process, users
can "rollback" to any stage of the design to edit the feature
definition at the stage in which the feature was created. After this
modification, the remaining features will update accordingly to the
changes applied. Structured Part Design also provides a powerful
multiple body capability to aid the user in designing the part that
could be made up of 2D Sketches, features, 3D curves, and surface
features. Using command tools such as Boolean, users can combine the
multiple bodies as a feature operation event which allows the user
to fully edit the underlying definition at any stage to alter the
design.
In addition to the feature-based design, users can
apply direct modeling edits which can be additional feature of the
design or they can convert the design into an Innovative Part Design
to have additional flexibility in modifying the design regardless of
the feature order.
Structured Part Design - Feature Behavior
Rules
Structured Part Design is designed to take advantage of many
Innovative Part Design concepts like handles, catalog drag & drop,
and TriBall positioning. However, certain rules are applied as
follows:
TriBall Feature Behavior
- The TriBall positioning tool can be used to position features
that do not have any association references applied to the
feature sketch. This allows for quick positioning of
non-associated features. Once a feature's sketch contains either
positional sketch placement references or constraints to 3D
elements, the TriBall positioning will become inactive. In
Structured Part Design, design intent and references are applied
to maintain consistent updates and changes in the design. Once
this design information is applied, the free-form position
capabilities are not valid.
Feature Linking -
Linked feature support is not valid in the Structured Part
Design. The Innovative Part Design linked feature concept allows
the user to place related copies of the features in various
locations on the part. However, this concept is not valid for a
rigid structure where the user will need to define intent for
the placement of the features so that modifications can
consistently maintain when they are made. This is the current
behavior, however we are always investigating ways to improve
productivity in the future.
IntelliShape Handles
- IntelliShape handles continue to be part of the flexibility in
Structured Part Design for catalog based features. However,
sketch based features will only support "Profile" handle editing
(no access to sizebox handles).
Catalog Drag & Drop
- Catalog Drag & Drop functionality is still valid in the
Structured Part Design. Users can continue to drag & drop
features to and from the catalog.
Anchor Behavior -
Anchors are created within the Structured Part Design, however
the "Attach to Surface" behavior is not supported. The "Attach
to Surface" behavior is a temporary constraint behavior that is
powerful in the Innovative Part Design, but is not a valid
constraint method for the Structured Part Design. The "Attach to
Surface" behavior however can be achieved through feature
profile associations.
Structured
Part Design - Reference Association Rules
Structured Part Design is based on a rigid ordered history
structure to enable an ordered design intent in the design. This
design concept implies that reference associations in the features
can only apply to geometry/features that are recorded prior to the
feature being edited. Reference associations cannot refer to
geometry that is created after the feature in the structure and
cannot refer to elements outside of the part (this is a planned
enhancement to support in a future version). This design rule makes
it easy to enable predictable and understandable design intent into
the feature design and updating process. Warning messages will
appear when a reference association has been lost due to changes to
the design to help rebuild the model to the desired intent.
Here is a video showing
the creation of a part using Structured Design.
I have also created an article that shows a similar video tutorial
that shows the model being defined step by step.
It is
very important that you look into how you or your engineers are
creating the parts. Streamline Sketching and Feature Based Modeling
is easy to learn and implement. It, alone, will increase
productivity 10X. Now, IronCAD with its unique integrated
history/direct edit functionality can increase your productivity
another 5X or more with changes! Again, time is money in
engineering.
More on Streamline Sketching and Feature
Based Modeling.
