What’s New – IronCAD 2021 Product Update 1

Apr 12, 2021 | , , , , , ,

IronCAD 2021Product Update #1

Extending IronCAD 2021’s Usability and Productivity

 

We’re excited to announce the latest release of IRONCAD 2021 Product Update #1, which focuses on extending the usability and productivity of IronCAD 2021 making your innovative 3D designs get to production faster. This new release contains many exciting improvements and capabilities that help you drive innovation, reduce design time, and communicate more efficiently. Our goal for IRONCAD 2021 Product Update #1 was to continue improving on usability by reducing steps on common functions, providing more tools to enhance productivity in 3D and 2D detailing, and extending collaboration and communication tools and functions.

Below are more specific details about this release and focuses specifically on the following areas:

 

Quick Links

User Interface and Usability Improvements

 

Improved Behaviors in Symmetrical Handles

IronCAD IntelliShape Handles are a key aspect of designing with IronCAD. One of the powerful capabilities is the ability to push and pull the IntelliShape handles to size features symmetrically. There are multiple methods to perform symmetrical sizing and the most common are to use the toggle handle, ctrl select handles, and right-click drag handles. New behaviors for the right-click drag and ctrl-click multi-select handles make it much easier to quickly symmetrically size handles and to move on to other tasks. In previous versions, these commands would remember this state and set the handles to remember this setting so that if you click the handle again it would remember that it was a symmetrical handle. Now it will no longer remember this setting. It will simply symmetrically drag and reset the handle to its previous state.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATE

 

Ability to Turn Off TriBall Via Right-Click Menu

New option added in the Right-click menu of the TriBall to quickly turn off the TriBall for new users. This can also save time by adding a quick option to quickly turn off the TirBall with a simple right-click option.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Quick Deselect of Objects with the ESC Key

New options have been added to allow you to use the ESC key on the keyboard to deselect objects like parts/assemblies/features/faces instead of selecting in the scene background. This allows for a quick method to deselect in the scene and provides a useful way to deselect when you are zoomed into the models where the scene background may not be selectable to click to deselect.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Import 3D CAD Files and Set Default BOM Settings to Treat As Part

Save time downstream and use the new import option in the Import Settings to optionally set the Treat as Part behavior for imported Assemblies/Parts. This setting is found in the General setting of the import dialog. This new behavior can help reduce extra data being generated in Bill of Material in the drawings for imported data by setting it to treat as a single line item in the Bill of Material.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Mechanism Mode Default to Part/Assembly

Changes to the default behavior of the Mechanism mode include changing the default filter to select Part/Assemblies by default for drag/move and to turn off collision detection by default. These changes will make the common behavior to select and drag components to test the mechanism motion simple and the default behavior.

 

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATE

 

Support for Larger Preview Images in Windows Explorer for IronCAD Scene/Drawing Files 

Under Tools/Options/General, there is a new option to allow a different size to be saved for the preview image of the IronCAD documents. Once set and new files are saved, the preview image will be larger making it easier to see your files before opening when browsing for example.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Starter Catalog Paint Group

New Paint Group has been added to the Starter Catalog that contains many common paint colors and textures that can be used to add a bit of realism to your designs. Colors, Transparency, Chrome, Wood, just to name a few are available to help to get you started on your way to make your product come to life.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Starter Catalog Training Videos & Resources

The training videos and resources group of the starter catalog has been updated with links to newer videos and include more videos. Check out all the new resources available on IronCAD.Academy for training to get a jump start on key IronCAD topics.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

 

General Modeling and Sheet Metal Design Improvements

 

Sheet Metal Sketch Bend Support for Cut and Cross Break Lines

The sketch bend tool for Sheet Metal design now supports both cut lines and cross break lines. Cut lines allow both the combination of bend and cut to create bend regions like thin tabs that can even be found on thin products or corrugated packaging products. Cross breaks are most commonly in an X shape, forming a slight pyramid shape in the metal without overly distorting it. The crossing ridges stiffen the face of the metal and help prevent it from buckling under a load. When used correctly this bending method offers a very cost-effective way of strengthening your parts. Cross breaks are often incorporated on machine enclosures and ductwork where the added rigidity reduces noise from vibration or airflow. Both options are found in the Sketch Bend tools and can be applied in a single sketch bend feature if desired.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Sheet Metal Pin Favorite Stock in Stock Dialog Pop-Up

New capabilities have been added to allow you to store your most used stock tables as favorites that will appear in a condensed list in the Sheet Metal Stock Dialog on drop from the catalog. Go to the Tools/Options/Sheet Metal Stock Page. You will find a new column added that will allow you to select your favorite stocks. When you drop a stock into the scene, you will see a new option at the bottom of the dialog to filter the favorite stock items. This will filter the list to the pre-set stock items you have selected.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Sheet Metal Stock Dialog Automatic Set Default Stock

Using the Stock Dialog on drop of sheet metal stock from the catalog, you can now automatically set the default stock to be the selected stock. This allows a quick way to change your default stock quickly in the session of the design versus using the tools/options process.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Sheet Metal Stock Dialog Right-Click Drop Setting

Options are available to disable the sheet metal dialog pop-up on the drop of sheet metal from the catalogs. However, you can quickly access the dialog at any time by simply right-clicking and dragging sheet metal stock from the catalogs and it will automatically display the dialog when you need it. Left-click and drag will drop the default stock, right-click and drag will pop up the dialog to allow the change of stock.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Import 2D Reference Curves (from DWG/DXF) Allowed for Projections into Other Sketches 

DWG/DXF data used in the Import 2D Reference Curve command that supports large data sets for reference to build 3D Geometry around has been enhanced to support the ability to project 2D curves in sketches from this imported data. This enhances the capabilities to allow more creation capability in the 3D.

 

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATE

 

Mirror Feature Support for Sheet Metal Punch Bend

The mirror feature now supports the sheet metal punch bend feature. Simply create a punch bend on your sheet metal part and use the mirror feature to mirror it to the desired location. The unfold operation will properly handle this condition allowing faster design creation of complex sheet metal parts.

 

Available in:

COMPOSE

 

Defining Front Views on Parts/Assemblies Quick Definition

The Front View Definition tool has been enhanced to reduce the number of steps needed to define the face and edge needed for the front face definition. Now the tool will use the edge nearest to the cursor location when you right-click to access the command (or envoke the command with a hotkey) as the reference edge and face and all you need to do is to confirm the selection. The reduces the extra clicks to select the face and control dialog boxes to determine the selections.

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Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFT

 

Defining Front Views for Non-Planar Objects

When you have objects that may not have a straight edge or planar face, new options have been added to allow selections for coordinate anchors (local coordinates) or global coordinates to define the front view faces and edge directions to align your objects for the view creation in tools like the Bulk View Creation process (or Automated Drawing View Creation).

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Import Multiple Point Clouds into a Single IronCAD Scene Support

Using the Import command, you can now import multiple point cloud sets into the same IronCAD document. Previously, this would limit to only 1 point cloud set in a single IronCAD scene. This is useful for users working with multiple scanned data sets that need to import and combine data sets into a single file.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Ability to Reduce the Imported Point Cloud Set by % of Points to Import

A new option on the Import Settings Dialog under Point Cloud to set the % to reduce is available. Useful to reduce large scanned point clouds when data points are not needed to define the geometry to reference.

 

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Ability to Select Point Cloud Sets to Move/Reposition

New commands are added to allow you to reposition a selected point cloud data set using IronCAD TriBall positioning tool. Select the desired data set and use the TriBall to define the origin and reposition to any location in the scene including referencing an existing point cloud data set point(s).

 

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Ability to Merge Multiple Point Cloud Sets into One Set

After importing multiple point cloud data sets and repositioning them into the desired location, you can now merge these data sets into a single data set to reduce clutter in the scene browser. Simply start the command and select to merge all point clouds or selected sets.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Ability to Box Select Point Cloud Points to Hide/Delete Points

After importing point cloud data sets, it may be necessary to hide/delete unwanted points. New tools are added to hide/delete points within or outside of a defined box region.

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Drawing Environment Improvements

 

Double-Click to Quickly Edit Properties for More Annotations

This has been added to support double-click edit to the property page for the following elements: Item Bubbles, Revision Tags, Hole Table Items, Feature Control Frame, Datum Feature, Datum Target, Surface Texture Symbol, and the Welding Symbol

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Spacebar to Reactivate Last Used Command in ICD for faster annotating

A new hotkey has been added to enable a last-used activation in the IronCAD Drawing. For Example, This can be used to quickly activate the Smart Dimension tool again after a previous usage of the tool.

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Arrow Keys to Scale the Placed Views

Now you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to scale the placed views like you could when you were placing views in the standard view placement.

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Hatch Scale Option

The “scale” factor is applied to the entire hatch pattern in a similar way as a hatch pattern angle is applied.  The property is available in the Edit Hatched Region dialog that is available from a hatched region’s right mouse popup menu. The option is not available in the Hatch Style dialog that is used to modify the Hatched Region style for within the Styles, Layers, and Defaults dialog.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Top-Level View-Based BOM Setting for Expand to Children

The Bill of Materials in the IronCAD Drawing (ICD) has been enhanced for the Top-Level selection for View-Based BOM’s to have options to expand automatically to include the children objects. This is useful to create a BOM of parts and sub-assemblies below a view of an assembly. This option can be controlled on the right-click properties on the BOM.

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Improved Scaling and Tight Bounding Box for Views for Bulk View Templates

New settings on the view have been added to set a tight bounding box to create an improved scaling behavior for the Bulk View Creation process. When building templates, setting this option will help create views that remain scaled tight to the views sizes defined in the templates.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Allow Custom Scaling In Bulk View Creation

When using the Bulk View Creation tool, new options in the Tools/Options/Technical Drawing allow you to define a Custom Scale to be used. This will allow the view to be scaled even more precisely to the defined template view size.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Option to not have view name on DXF/DWG export

A new option added to the Export for DWG/DXF to turn on/off the option to use the View Name. This is useful when you want to export a single view and do not want to include the view name on the exported file name.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Section View with Depth

New options like the Broken-out section to section to a specified depth have been added to the section view. This is a useful option to section a view and to hide geometry that is not needed to be show behind a certain depth of the section.

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

Import 2D Reference Curves Shown in Drawing Views (ICD/CAXA Draft)

Imported 2D Reference Curves can now be projected to the 2D technical drawing for reference in the drawing. This allows visibility and dimension reference callouts to be made when using imported data to construct layouts around the imported data.

 

Available in:

IRONCADDRAFT

 

Additional View Scale Sizes Added to ANSI Drawings

Additional view scale sizes have been added to the ANSI view scales to offer more sizes when projecting views and to offer more scaling options for the Bulk View Creation process.

 

Available in:

IRONCAD

 

 

Collaboration and Sharing Updates

 

Support for the Rhino 6.0 in Native Translator

IronCAD’s Native Translator has been updated to now support Rhino 6.0. Additional format support is listed below for formats such as SolidWorks, Inventor, Pro/E, Unigraphics, and Catia.

  • CATIA V5: V5R8 – V5–6R2020
  • Pro/E (CREO): 16 – Creo 7.0
  • UG NX: 11 – NX 1899
  • Inventor: V11 – V2021
  • SolidWorks: 98 – 2020
  • SolidEdge: V18 – SE 2020
  • JT Import: 8 – 10.2, 10.3, and 10.5
  • IFC: IFC2x3, IFC4

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATEDRAFTCOMPOSE

 

Support for KeyShot 10.1

IronCAD DCS 2021 fully supports the latest release from KeyShot, version 10.1. Along with this support, IronCAD’s transfer and update commands have been refactored to take advantage of the newest API’s to be faster and more stable.

 

Available in:

IRONCADINOVATE