Category: Reviews

IronCAD is getting a lot of attention these days, adding TraceParts, integrating GrabCAD, and more recently, adding KeyShot. To see what all the fuss was about, I figured I’d open up the software and take a look inside. I’m not entirely new to IronCAD. Back with IronCAD version 1 in the 90s I witnessed it…

From the blue gradient of the background to the uniformity of the ribbon bar, there is something eerily familiar to every MCAD software. I have said that learning new CAD software is like learning a new language: the vocabulary and grammar may be different, but the concepts are the same. The second language seems different,…

In June 1998 I would notice a blur periodically crossing my vision. I ignored it. Flash forward to 2013, and now I wish I’d paid attention to the IronCAD neXt Generation Design Collaboration Suite. It’s no longer a half-conscious blur but a full-featured MCAD suite consisting of software elements for 3D design, 2D design and…

Design professionals are sometimes on an insatiable search for the perfect tool that will make us all the more effective at our work, expanding our creative horizons in improved form and reduced time. A CAD solution would be a system that provides the flexibility to handle several different design situations, yet enables fast and optimal…

It is said that there is always the most appropriate tool for every task, one that is neither overkill nor inadequate for the purpose. After we completed our review of IronCAD 2013, we figured out the slot into which IronCAD fits. This review tells you about it, and makes some observations about this interesting but…

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader: My old man drove my brother crazy when they played tennis. R. Phillip was a teenage champion, as nimble as a gazelle. The old man was 50-something and lumbering. But he knew the game. He’d plunked the ball away from my brother, compelling him to speed to the net to return…