IRONCAD 5.0 New Features

Getting Started with IRONCAD 5.0

Please take the time to read through this before running IRONCAD 5.0. This document contains all the new features introduced in this release. Additional new feature documentation can be found in the readme.txt on the InnovationSuite CD under the README folder. "Show-Me" tutorials have been provided with this documentation that will walk through simple examples of the new functionality added in this release. "Show-Me" tutorials are visually rich, yet extremely compact movie files, which transform static text help files into vivid product demonstrations. Each "Show-Me" opens in its own unique Java™ enabled browser window (and requires no plug-ins). In order to access the "Show-Me", you will need a browser that is Java™ enabled. Click on the following link to test your browser for Java support: Java Test. To see specific information on browser support, please click the following link: Browser Information . The following "Show-Me" tutorials will automatically begin to play when you select the "Show-Me" icon. Additional controls in the "Show-Me" can be used to pause, stop, fast-forward, and rewind. 

TEAMVAULT Integration 

Free Integrated TEAMVAULT Client for IRONCAD and INOVATE
   IronCAD, LLC proudly presents the InnovationSuite which contains three tightly integrated products consisting of TEAMVAULT, INOVATE, and IRONCAD. The integration to TEAMVAULT from IRONCAD and INOVATE is provided through the TEAMVAULT Client which is delivered free with IRONCAD and INOVATE. The TEAMVAULT Client provides capabilities to share, communicate, collaborate, and manage IRONCAD and INOVATE with the entire design team. The following "Show-Me" will demonstrate the key features provide in the TEAMVAULT Client. 

Quality 

Save Load Reliability and Performance Improvements
    Functionality has been added to increase save/load performance. All files, which include imported files, will now take advantage of the "Load on Demand" functionality inside of IRONCAD. Users can disable this optimization by turning on the option to "Load the exact surface description" in the Tools/option page. In addition to the loading optimization, more internal coding has been added to increase reliability of files during save and load. 

Installation and Security Enhancements  
    Installation of the InnovationSuite has been updated to the latest Windows InstallShield program. This update will increase the reliability of installation of InnovationSuite products. Users will have more selections available during the installation for IRONCAD and INOVATE. A repair option is also added in the InstallShield program to allow users to repair installed versions if they become invalid. Also, a new security management system has been added to both IRONCAD and INOVATE. With this new security, IRONCAD will be secured through hardware information from end-users machines. Information generated from the hardware will be used to generate a software activation license through Electronic License Management systems via the web, email, or by Fax. Also, this new licensing management system enables IRONCAD to run on a network license usage. For more information about network licensing, please contact your sales representative or contact IronCAD, LLC. at 1-800-339-7304.

DXF/DWG Import and Export Upgrades
    IRONCAD 5.0 has upgraded the import and export capabilities for DXF/DWG to support AutoCAD 2000 files. For a complete list of enhancements related to this upgrade, please read the Readme.txt included on the InnovationSuite CD under the README folder for IRONCAD.

Link Management Updates
   Updates have been made to increase the link management capabilities in IRONCAD. The update allows folders containing linked references to be moved in different directories and between network drives while maintaining the link associativity when loading into IRONCAD. Prior versions would require the user to locate additional linked files when opening files from folders that have been relocated. 

Architecture Update for External Links
    Major updates in the IRONCAD architecture have been made to enhance and strengthen externally linked file associativity. These changes will help maintain SmartDimension associativity on parts and assemblies when placed on externally linked files. Additional information can be found in the readme.txt on the InnovationSuite CD under the README folder for IRONCAD.

Automatic Dimension Association
    New functionality has been added to help eliminate dimension disassociation. When updating a drawing, dimensions that refer to vertex and edge information will have new functionality to automatically reconnect the dimension in cases where the dimensions can become disassociated. 

Drawing Enhancements 

Dimension to  Linear Silhouette Edges
    Users now have the ability to dimension to linear Silhouette Edges, which are lines projected from conical and cylindrical geometry. Simple examples of linear Silhouette Edges would be lines projected from cones, cylinders, elliptical cones, and elliptical cylinders. 

2D Positioning Enhancements
    New in the drawing environment is the ability to multi-select lines and text for drag-and-drop positioning. Along with this, an option has been added that creates copies of the items being moved when holding the "CTRL" key down. This will allows users the ability to make multiple copies of text quickly speeding up the detailing process. This ability to copy with the "CTRL" key will work for selected text, text with leader lines, and selected sheet curves only.

Cosmetic Thread and Callout Options
    Ability to hide and show cosmetic thread and callout information for holes and fasteners has been added to IRONCAD 5.0. Options include the ability to hide all, show all, hide selected threads or callouts, and show selected threads and callouts. When hiding or showing selected threads or callouts, selections can be performed by pick basis or box selecting a group of entities. This new functionality allows users to display only the needed information on a per view basis on a drawing without having to make adjustments from the 3D environment.

Multiple Leader Line Enhancements for Item Bubbles
    Multiple leader line Item Bubbles referencing multiple instance parts or parts with identical BOM information can now be created. An option has been added when right-clicking on a Item bubble to create an additional leader line. This leader line can be moved, to instanced parts or parts that have identical BOM information, within the same view or between views on the drawing.

Bend line Association to Bend Geometry 
    Options have been added to the default element properties for bend lines to allow association to bend geometry. This association will maintain the bend line length to the length of the bend during updates of the sheet metal geometry. This option can be turned on/off by default and can be turned on/off individually to allow for modification of the bend lines by the user.

Centerline Extension Line Distance Control on Creation
    New options have been added to set the centerline extension distance on creation of centerlines. The new option will allow the user to set the distance past the geometry selected for the extension lines to extend. The value can be set as a percentage of the entity selected or as a specified length in the sheet units.

Modeling Enhancements 

3D Curve Enhancements
    Additions have been made to the 3D Curve to enhance the creation and editing capabilities. An option to for "Smoothly Connected" has been added to create smoothly connect or tangent line types during creation. A Connector option has been added to create a connection between two selected end-points by using arcs and lines in the shortest distance to close the path. Users also have the ability to create 3D Curves from a selected group of edges on existing geometry. Additional control has been added to automatically extend perpendicular from geometry when selecting on existing geometry during the creation of 3D Curves. This option is on by default but can be turned off by holding the "Shift" key before selecting on the existing geometry. Splines created from the 3D Curve toolbar now have additional tangency handles that allow users that ability to adjust the magnitude and direction of the start and endpoints of the 3D spline. 

Surface Creation from Sweep, Extrude, and Spin
    New options have been added to the Extrude, Spin, and Sweep wizard to allow the creation of surface shapes. These surface shapes will have similar interaction as existing Intellishapes like handles. Surface shapes can be used to communicate information about geometry, for cutting planes, and for creating surface geometry for exporting into surface modeling software.

3D Sweep Creation
    New functionality has been added to enable the creation of 3D sweeps. Users can use the current sweep creation wizard that now has new options to select a 3D curve to sweep along. In addition, the user can drop the sweep path start point directly onto a 3D curve to set the default of the sweep command to 3D instead of 2D. After the creation of a 3D sweep, the 3D curve used to create the shape will remain as a 3D curve and a new 3D curve will be added to the newly created shape. Users will have the ability to edit the 3D curve in a sweep by right-clicking at the IntelliShape level. The initial 3D curve can be used again for other operations or can remain as a curve in the scene. Sweeps can be created as solids or surfaces by selecting the option in the wizard. In order to create a sweep along a 3D curve, the curve needs to be a single connected path. If the path is not smoothly connected, the sweep will automatically interpolate the smooth connection for the sweep path.

Dimension to Pattern
    The ability to dimension to the pattern has been added in this release. Using the 3D SmartDimensions, dimensions can be placed on the pattern skeleton in order to place reference or driving dimensions. When selecting the skeleton with a SmartDimension, the dimension will automatically snap to the origin point allowing dimensions to be placed from the origin to any location on other geometry.

Water Tight Corner Relief for Sheet Metal
    New sheet metal functionality has been added to allow support for watertight corners. This new functionality will automatically create closed corners on sheet metal when the corner relief handles are positioned outside of the bend length. Options have been added in the IntelliShape properties that allow user set depths for the corner condition in addition to the general SmartSnap handle behavior.

Handle Control for Corner Treatment in Sheet Metal
    A new option has been added to the right-click options on handles for "Snap to Point for Corner". This option will snap the handle to a point with a specified offset value to allow for valid sheet metal creation. The offset value is set in the Tools/Options/Sheet Metal under the "Advance Options". 

3D BOM Editor
    New in the Tools catalog is the ProActive BOM tool. This tool allows the modification and creation of BOM information within the current scene environment. The tool will display the current scene structure inside of the window for selection of parts and assemblies to add BOM information. Part Number, Description, and any custom BOM information can be added to parts and assemblies. BOM information for the entire scene can be displayed and exported to Excel. A Suppression Manager has been included in the ProActive BOM which will suppress everything in the scene except for the selected shape in the structure for better visualization when adding BOM information.

2D Curve Geometry Feedback
    In the 2D sketcher, new geometry icons have been added to the mouse cursor to display the line type of the moused-over curves. Icons for arcs, fillets, lines, circles, b-splines, and ellipses have been added for better visualization during selection.

Additional Catalog for UNI/DIN Standards
    An additional catalog has been shipped with IRONCAD and INOVATE that have UNI/DIN standards for Fasteners and Holes. Other tools supplied in this catalog include a thread adder to circular geometry, UNI/DIN Formed Steel, Rings, O-Rings, and Holder Ring creator. The Fastener and Hole tool have additional new features that include automatic size detection and automatic hole creation for fasteners when dropped. All new features can be viewed in the "Show-Me". The catalog can be found under the installed directory of InnovationSuite under the IRONPRO/Catalog folder. All of these tools in the additional catalog require that the scene units be set to millimeters. 

General Enhancements

Camera Picker Toolbar for View Orientation
    A new toolbar option has been added to allow selection of the view orientations. Front, back, top, bottom, right, left, top-front-right isometric, top-front-left isometric, bottom-front-right isometric, and bottom-front-left are the possible view orientations available for selection. This toolbar is a standard toolbar that can be docked and closed like all the standard toolbars in IRONCAD and INOVATE.

Default Templates Selector
    Users now have the option to select the default templates to be used for scenes and drawings. This will increase usability by allowing a single click option for new scenes and drawing.

New Scene and Drawing Commands
    Two new toolbar commands have been added to create a new scene or a new drawing. These commands use the default template defined by the user to create new scenes and drawings. These commands are added to the standard toolbar by default and can be removed by using the toolbar menu via drag and drop if desired.

Position Dimension Color Control Added
    A new color option has been added to the Tools/Options/Color tab for the position dimension. This will allow for better visualization of the position dimension when viewed in the scene.

Save As Template Option
    When saving templates for scenes or drawings, a new save as type has been added for templates. When this option is selected, the location for the templates will automatically change to the current IRONCAD template directory location. The file extension for templates will remain as .ics or .icd.

World Origin and Local Origin Designators
    Parts/Assemblies that reference the world origin will display position dimensions to the origin as X,Y,Z values. For example, a single part or a top level assembly in the scene environment will have position dimensions that reference the world origin. When shapes reference local coordinates, the position dimensions will display as L,W,H values. Local coordinates are assigned to shapes that have position information that reference a parent shape. For example, Intellishapes, Parts under assemblies, and sub-assemblies will have position dimensions that refer to the Parent shapes anchor. In this case, the position dimensions will be displayed as local coordinates L,W,H. These new changes will help users in positioning and understanding the coordinate system being used.

New "Show-Me" Documentation for Help
    "Show-Me" demonstration files have been added to the IRONCAD and INOVATE help documentation to help demonstrate key functionality items within the products. These files are imbedded in the normal help documentation with "Show-Me" icons available to view key help topics. These "Show-Me" files shorten the learning curve in IRONCAD and INOVATE by providing visually rich documentation on key functionality usage.

Automation Enhancement to Support View Creation
    New automation code exposure for view creation has been added to support VisualBasic customizations for IRONCAD. Through VisualBasic users can now create standard and general views.

Automation Enhancements for Configurations
    Automation has been enhanced to support configurations through VisualBasic.  Options are available to create, retrieve, update, and select different configuration in the scene environment.