PowerSHAPE points to solid
Delcam will demonstrate the latest version of its PowerSHAPE Pro software for design, modelling for manufacture and reverse engineering at the Develop3D Live conference and exhibition this month.
The 2014 R2 release includes a range of new functionality for the design of products and tooling. In particular, the new version introduces powerful new tools to make re-engineering complex parts from scanned data faster and easier.
By offering a combination of modelling and reverse engineering functionality, PowerSHAPE Pro provides the most comprehensive range of design techniques available in a single CAD program. Having all the different technologies in the same package reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines the whole product development process. At the same time, the combination of quick and easy direct modelling options, together with powerful and flexible surface modelling, makes PowerSHAPE the perfect choice for design for manufacture.
The new automated tools for re-engineering provide quicker and simpler methods for segmenting a mesh of scanned data into primitive regions, such as planes, spheres, cones, cylinders and tori, as well as into revolved or extruded surfaces. Primitive surfaces or solids are then fitted automatically to those regions. The user has control over the fit tolerance used when creating the geometry and over the types of primitive to be identified.
For more complex geometry, or when finer control is needed, mesh segmentation can be carried out manually. The user simply chooses the region where the geometry is to be created and selects the primitive type to be used. PowerSHAPE Pro then creates the surface or solid to the specified tolerance. As each region is converted, it changes colour, making it easy to see the areas of the model that still require work.
Regions with complex, free-form geometry can now be replaced with a single surface. The target area can be selected with a set of easy-to-use options, while a single dialogue box gives control of the fit of the surface to the mesh. The same technique can be used for areas with large amounts of detail, such as logos or textures.
Once the main surfaces have been created, whether by automatic or manual methods, they can be trimmed together to form a single, closed solid automatically. Interactive controls allow dynamic adjustment over how the surfaces are trimmed to each other, while specific faces can be marked so that they are kept or deleted.
The direct modelling functionality in PowerSHAPE Pro then allows designers to tackle all the common problems that they find, such as insufficient draft or inappropriate fillet sizes, when physical prototype models are converted directly into product designs. It is faster to use direct modelling than surface modelling for these edits and so these techniques can shorten the overall time needed to produce designs that can be manufactured efficiently.
