Products: December 2005

By DE Editors

Hardware, Software, Tools, and Utilities 

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COMSOL (Burlington, MA) renamed its FEMLAB mathematical-modeling software: COMSOL Multiphysics. Concurrently, it released  version 3.2. A key new feature is COMSOL Script, a command-line interface and modeling language with some 500 commands for numeric analysis, matrix operations, and visualization. Also new in 3.2 is the ability to choose consistent units when setting up a model and a Moving Mesh mode to simulate geometries with moving parts.

For complete details, go to comsol.com.

KeyCreator 5 is said to provide substantial new functionality that builds on the company's use of geometry and intelligent freeform modeling capabilities. This architecture lets you import, edit, and work with non-native files easily. Version 5's new pattern and feature discovery functionality, for example, lets you highlight, prune, and graft model elements, patterns, groups of features, and blends quickly.

KeyCreator 5.0 Direct Feature Editing Toolbox holds the tools to edit features in dumb models directly. For example, its face selection, pattern, and feature discovery capabilities let you find, name, select, and work with any pattern or feature in a model, including blends, sheet metal bends, holes, pockets, bosses, and countersinks. Moldmakers could, for example, use this functionality to speed the creation process by stripping away extraneous parts quickly.

The Toolbox's Prune capability enables you to create a tool solid from selected sets of faces of an existing solid, and the Graft function aids in dynamic orienting and positioning as well as uniting or subtracting pruned tool solids.

KeyCreator blends surface, solid, and wireframe modeling, which provides you with flexible model modification and editing functionality. Miscellaneous features found in Version 5 include user-definable 3D dynamic environment map rendering, zebra line analysis, dynamic transparent cutting plane, user-definable background image support, and sheet-metal bending.

The KeyCreator product family includes multidimensional design and drafting, NC programming, and the company's geometry-based foundation with localized feature editing and deformation techniques.

North American pricing for KeyCreator 5 begins at $3,495, including one year of maintenance. Current, maintenance-paying customers can download the new version immediately. For complete details, visit the Kubotek USA website at kubotekusa.com.

Vero International (Bingham Farms, MI) is shipping VISI-Series 13 and Machining STRATEGIST 7, updates of its solutions for the mold, die, and tooling industry.

The VISI-Series offers a combination of applications including fully integrated wire-frame, surface, and solid modeling, comprehensive 2D and 3D high-speed machining strategies, 2- and 4-axis EDM, and dedicated tools for plastic-injection molds and progressive dies. Among the new features, VISI-Modeling offers additional functionalities for surfaces management, new split plane relief application, improved assembly manager, and new SolidWorks and Solid Edge direct translators. VISI-Machining provides faster and easier to use rest machining strategies, improved calculation speed for all operations, and a new triangulator algorithm for optimized meshing; and VISI-Mold and VISI-Progress feature a new environment for a more flexible management of standard components. VISI-Mold also offers new tool assembly based on easy-to-access templates.

Machining STRATEGIST, the company’s standalone CAM package, features many unique capabilities for high-speed machining, many of which can improve the productivity of older CNCs with dramatically reduced air-cutting time and programs that include a smoothing arc that helps maintain continuous machine tool motion.

To learn more, visit vero-software.com.

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Noran Engineering (Westminster, CA) announced that users of its NEiWorks FEA system for SolidWorks can now access and import material properties from information provider MatWeb (Blacksburg, VA).

Matweb has developed an online searchable database of more than 50,000 materials that contains property values on the full range of engineering thermoplastics, thermosets, metals, super alloys, ceramics, semiconductors, fibers, and other engineering materials. The MatWeb information can be downloaded easily and accurately into NeiWorks.

The library allows product development engineers to test designs virtually using FEA for structural, thermal, and dynamic performance. Access to the database will help speed up product design cycles and improve quality by providing a fast way to identify and validate the exact material needed to optimize a part design and satisfy quality assurance requirements.

For more information, visit nenastran.com or gain access to the library at matweb.com.

CEC (Bedford, NH) has introduced usbDAQ/108 and usbDAQ/109, two portable USB data acquisition (DA) devices that deliver multifunction capabilities with simplicity and low cost.

Simultaneous Five-Axis Functionality for GibbsCAM

ProAXYZ from Gibbs and Associates (Moorpark, CA), is a suite of options supporting five-axis, simultaneous machining  and specifically implemented for GibbsCAM software. Originally developed for the five-axis precision machining requirements of the watchmaking industry, the ProAXYZ option suite has expanded its functionality to support a range of five-axis requirements.

The current ProAXYZ suite offers the following options:
• ProAXYZ 5as is an entry-level module that supports five-axis surface flow, five-axis swarf cutting, five-axis drilling, five-axis pocketing, and five-axis contouring
• ProAXYZ 5as+ adds collision control and multi-constraint technology to the ProAXYZ 5as functionality
• ProAXYZ GeoEdit is a set of geometry editing tools that are also useful for GibbsCAM advanced users
• ProAXYZ Art is set of functions that allows engraving with corner cleanup, maps 2D geometry onto a surface or solid, and supports importing Corel Draw .emf vector files.

The ProAXYZ option suite is implemented using GibbsCAM’s DTK API. ProAXYZ options can be incorporated into the full range of GibbsCAM configurations. More information can be obtained at the GibbsCAM website, gibbscam.com.

National Instruments Announces New Devices and Driver

The new PXI-5114 dual-channel, 8-bit digitizer from National Instruments (NI; Austin, TX)—also known as a PC-based oscilloscope—is designed for high-speed validation and manufacturing test applications such as consumer electronics tests and semiconductor component tests.

NI also released the first IEEE-1588 PCI interface for distributed synchronization and driver software that expands NI hardware digital test capabilities.

The new PXI digitizer provides 250MSps real-time and 5GSps equivalent-time or random-interleaved sampling with 125MHz bandwidth for general-purpose time-domain digitization. Engineers can use the module’s onboard memory of up to 256MB per channel to store larger waveforms or to store more than 1 million records when using the multirecord acquisition mode. The digitizer also features a variety of triggering options including SDTV/HDTV video triggering, and a wide set of input ranges from 40mV to 40V. Price: $2,995 to start.

The new NI PCI-1588 interface allows users to synchronize clocks and events on multiple distributed devices with submicrosecond precision using the IEEE-1588 precision time protocol (PTP). It’s useful for developing synchronized data acquisition systems as well as synchronizing IEEE-1588-capable industrial control and test and measurement devices. Price: from $499.

Finally, digital test engineers now can use the new NI-HSDIO 1.4 driver software with NI high-speed digital devices to perform time-critical digital test applications such as bit error rate testing (BERT), stimulus response testing, and pass/fail manufacturing tests. The new driver is available as a free update and adds key features to all existing NI 6552 and NI 6551 digital waveform generator/analyzers.

For more information, visit ni.com.

DWF Writer can Output to Solidworks, Pro/E

Autodesk (San Rafael, CA) says that the latest version of DWF Writer makes it easy to publish and share 3D design data from other 3D design software including Solidworks and Pro/E.

New DWF Writer functionality lets you share 3D MCAD models and design data with non-technical team members at any point in the manufacturing process. As a result, product developers can save designs in an industry-standard format and send these files electronically for bids or for production at manufacturing sites worldwide. Off-shore team members can view and understand designs easily, using the free Autodesk DWF Viewer, Autodesk DWF Composer, or Autodesk data management solutions.

DWF Writer now also supports publication of 2D files from a Microsoft Windows system printer driver. It retains intelligent design data in 3D models to help ensure communication of design intent. To get the free download, visit auto desk.com/dwfwriter.

Autodesk has also released two free tools: DWG TrueView for viewing DWG files and DWG TrueConvert for translating DWG files between newer and older versions. Autodesk says its research shows that up to 85% of AutoCAD users frequently share DWG files with their counterparts. The new tools help users better communicate and manage data by offering more options for sharing the file version and format best suited to the situation. DWG TrueView lets users view, plot, print, and publish to DWG files. DWG TrueConvert updates the Autodesk Batch Drawing Converter and provides conversion tools for DWG files to be translated to another version.

Download DWG TrueView by clicking here. Download DWG TrueConvert by clicking here.

Simulate Power Systems with IC Model Library

EMA Design Automation (Rochester, NY) and AEi Systems (Los Angeles, CA) have released the Power IC Model Library for Pspice. The Library offers more than 150 cycle-by-cycle transient models for SMPS controllers, regulators, switchers, and FET drivers. Parts from Texas Instruments, International Rectifier, Intersil, National Semiconductor, Analog Devices, Micrel, Vishay, and others are represented.

You can perform high-speed cycle-by-cycle simulation to show true large-signal performance; simulate current-mode control using the latest accurate modeling techniques; run CCM and DCM converter simulations; analyze control systems including loop gain, input filter design and analysis; analyze in both time and frequency domains; and measure power stage loss and stress analysis for all major components. In summary you can simulate your entire power system.

Designed for the PSpice analog and mixed signal simulator, the library also includes useful application circuit example schematics for just about every part (DSN, OPJ, SCH files), symbols for both Microsim and Capture (OLB, SLB files), and support for both Microsim Schematics and OrCAD Capture symbol and schematic formats.

The Power IC Model Library can be used by both Microsim Schematics version 8.0 customers and Cadence/OrCAD version 9.2/10.x customers, or any simulator that supports PSpice syntax.

To evaluate the models, click here.  Get more details at ema-eda.com.

Optical System Modeling Offers Enhancements

Optical Research Associates (ORA; Pasadena, CA) has released CODE V 9.6 which, according to ORA, delivers new capabilities in optical system modeling, tolerancing, and optimization. The software now calculates the scalar diffraction efficiency of a diffractive surface and includes this in all diffraction analyses. This is particularly useful in the design of spectrometers and other grating systems, as well as for applications in aerospace and consumer products using kinoforms. CODE V 9.6 also improves the process of modeling complex optical systems with a simplified method for defining offset, tilted surfaces, and enhanced capabilities for specifying user-programmed surfaces and diffractive phase profiles.

In the area of tolerancing, CODE V 9.6 enhancements include a singular value decomposition algorithm that will automatically select the best subset of compensation parameters from a larger set of choices. This will improve as-built performance during actual assembly of optical systems. Also, tolerancing data is now more readily exported to other software programs for manipulation and analysis. And, in terms of optimization, CODE V 9.6 capabilities have been extended with additional built-in constraint types, along with more flexibility for defining the optimization ray grid.

For more information, visit opticalres.com.

CFD Solver Works for Pros and Rookies

CD-adapco (Melville, NY and London, UK) has released version 1.08 of its STAR-CCM+ CFD analysis software. The company designed STAR-CCM+ from the ground up with the intention of making it easy for novices to use as well as robust enough to solve the power user’s compute-intensive analyses requiring tens of millions of cells.

With STAR-CCM+ 1.08 you can simulate all flow types. A key to its speed and power is its polyhedral cell approach to meshing. The polyhedral cell technology approach provides quick and easy meshing, improved solution accuracy, and faster solutions than other methods. Further, it requires less memory than hexahedral or tetrahedral meshes.

STAR-CCM+ has an object-based user interface that you populate only with the features that are activated—nothing extraneous appears in the interface. The interface guides you through the setup and analysis of a CFD problem but, unlike most interfaces, STAR-CCM+ eschews the fill-in-the-form approach. Rather, it poses a sequence of relevant questions until it compiles all the answers needed to run your analysis.

STAR-CCM+’s polyhedral cell functionality can import meshes from most leading grid-generation systems, including those of STAR-CD, ICEM, GridGen, and Fluent/Gambit. The software also embeds within most major MCAD systems, and it can run on Windows XP machines. Additionally, it runs on dual-core workstations, high-performance computers, and most 64-bit Linux-class systems. Version 1.08 also supports supercomputer MPIs (message passing interfaces).

For complete details, visit cd-adapco.com.

VectorWorks UPgrades to Machine Design 12

VectorWorks Machine Design 12 offers a variety of new features and product improvements, says Nemetschek North America (Columbia, MD). VectorWorks Machine Design, formerly VectorWorks Mechanical, has been renamed to more accurately reflect its use in design firms, machine shops, and metal fabricators.

New features include a full set of ISO fasteners to go with the existing ASME inch, metric, and DIN fasteners; a universal Fastener tool to save time placing fasteners in drawings; and 2D objects with corresponding 3D objects.

VectorWorks Machine Design also offers live sections: views created from a 3D model that update automatically as the model changes. Another new feature allows users to create a 2D drawing directly from a 3D model.

For pricing, availability, and full details, visit nemetschek.net.

Geotest Adds Six New 3U PXI Cards

Geotest-Marvin Test Systems, Inc. (Irvine, CA) has added six new 3U PXI cards to its family of PXI modules and mainframes. The Geotest PXI portfolio has been expanded with the high-performance GX5283 digital I/O instrument, two 3U switch cards, the GX1838-20 multichannel DC source, the GX5641 digital I/O instrument, and the NX5001 ROM emulator.

The GX5283 offers digital test capability by providing 32 channels of 200MHz test rate capability with 512MB of memory in a 3U form factor. The GX1838-20 builds on the GX1838 and offers three precision, programmable +/- 20V sources. The addition of two new 3U switch modules provides general-purpose and high-current switching capabilities for a variety of applications. Plus, the NX5001 further expands Geotest’s catalog of ROM emulators by adding 3U versions of the NX5000, which support 8-, 16-, or 32-bit ROMs.

For details, visit geotestinc.com.

Gridgen Now Up To 15 Times Faster

Pointwise (Fort Worth, TX) has released Gridgen Version 15.08, the latest installment of its CFD (computational fluid dynamics) meshing software. This release includes an enhancement to the solution's numerical techniques for hexahedral grids.

Structured hexahedral grid generation has long been a Gridgen strength and smoothing those grids to improve quality (smoothness, clustering, and orthogonality) involves solving elliptic PDEs. To compute the solution, Gridgen had used a simple over-relaxation algorithm, but with V15.08, says Gridgen, a new multi-grid algorithm accelerates convergence of the PDE solution by up to a factor of 15, especially for large grids.

Other new features in Gridgen V15.08 include a 20 to 50 percent increase in graphics performance, an extension of the Unigraphics Native CAD Reader to version NX 3, and an upgrade of Gridgen's support for HP-UX on PA-RISC to version 11.11.

Gridgen mesh generation for CFD runs on Windows, Linux, Mac and Unix; generates structured, unstructured, and hybrid grids; and interfaces with CFD solvers such as ANSYS CFX, Fluent, and STAR-CD as well as many neutral formats like CGNS (cgns.org).

For more information, visit pointwise.com.