2017.1.0.1 - Innovation and Industrialization – new features to attack your end market & product improvements to deliver robust solutions.
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Q4 2016

Welcome to the last edition of the Spatial Quarterly Newsletter for 2016, bringing you the latest news on Spatial products and events.

 

Realease 2017 1.0.1

At the end of July, we announced the availability of Release 2017 1.0 for Spatial software development toolkits (or SDKs). That release focuses on major improvements and new features in two areas: innovation and industrialization. Following up on that success is Release 2017 1.0.1, which became available to our customer base on November 17th. This release brings new functionality and improvements, increasing the quality and robustness of Spatial's 3D modeling and 3D interoperability SDKs.

Also discussed in this newsletter:

  • Customer Spotlight: Renishaw
  • 3D Insiders' Summit 2016 Highlights
  • Blog Posts
We hope you find this content valuable and would love to hear from you!

3D Modeling Updates

3D ACIS Modeler

New with this release for the 3D ACIS Modeler is new healing functionality to repair planar slices. Planar slices generated from polyhedral models may have anomalies such as open circuits, self-intersections, degenerate segments, improper edge-to-edge intersections, etc. Those anomalies may be inherited from the input model (for example, when scanned), and hence the slicing algorithm may not address them properly. The new API specializes in the repair of such anomalies present in the planar slice data generated for 3D printing.

Along with a number of enhancements to improve the robustness of the modeler, an examine mode is now available. When operating in this mode, a Boolean operation ignores errors, notes them, and proceeds until it can execute with stability. Examine mode potentially reduces the number of attempts made by Incremental Boolean Workflow. This mode enables the complete list of issues to be identified before proceeding automatically or engaging the user to address them.

 

CGM Core Modeler

With this release, the CGM Core Modeler can recognize holes, pads, pockets, slots, notches, and logos, providing parameter information back to the host application. CAM applications can also use these feature parameters for building manufacturing plans or optimally deciding the order of features to be machined. To indicate that a format change has occurred, CGM is now at Release 2017 1.1.

To learn more about the new feature recognition capabilities, visit our blog post, CGM Core Modeler Enhances Feature Recognition.

 

CGM Polyhedra

In addition to a number of hybrid modeling API calls, CGM Polyhedra now supports wire healing. As a part of the 3D ACIS Modeler slice enhancements, the slice API now returns a general-purpose wire body.

3D InterOp Updates

3D InterOp updates the supported version of two formats with this release: Inventor version 2017 and Solid Edge version ST9, keeping end applications compatible with the latest versions of the CAD file formats.

Translation of persistent names from CAD data enables the tracking of topology through modifications to the models in the originating CAD systems.  Persistent name functionality is extended in this release with:

  • PNAMES on more objects: work-planes and laminar edges
  • PNAME improvements for many file types

Added to this release is the support for translation of work-plane data for both Solid Edge and Unigraphics NX files. Work planes are construction geometry used to define the basis of a feature in a CAD system, for example, the plane that a sketch is defined on as the basis of an extrusion. While these constructs are not part of a model’s geometry, the information is sometimes useful for applications that use the construction data.

For Solid Edge files, the translation of sheet bodies is now supported. Sheet or surface bodies are 2D geometrical bodies often used as an input for creating 3D geometry, such as sweeping a sheet along a profile.

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Manifold-1.pngRenishaw

Renishaw is a world leader in the field of additive manufacturing (3D printing) where it designs and manufactures a range of industrial 3D metal printers which print parts from layered metal powder using laser sintering.

Prior to 3D printing, it is necessary to generate the printer’s laser scan paths that fuse the powder layers to each other to additively form a part. Build preparation software is thus key to generating the high-quality part builds. To maximize build quality on its own printers and to provide its industrial customers with a simple UI in which to orient, support and set build parameters, Renishaw has developed its own build preparation tool – QuantAM.

Prior to the latest release of QuantAM, Renishaw has relied on the most common CAD export format, stereolithography (STL), as the input to its tool. The STL format describes a surface as a collection of connected triangles — the more complex a surface is, the larger number of triangles that are needed to define that surface.

While STL import has served the industry well, there are several limitations with this format, not the least of which is that it both limits and complicates the ability to edit the model. With the help of Spatial’s technical team, Renishaw has integrated two key components into QuantAM: the 3D ACIS Modeler with CGM Polyhedra and 3D InterOp. This move to a native modeling kernel delivers significant advantages to both Renishaw and their customers, including the ability to edit the model directly, access to world-class healing as well as the support for a much wider range of input formats.

See the case study, Spatial SDKs: Streamlining Solutions for Metal AM in Renishaw QuantAM, for more details.

 

Read about more Success within the Spatial Community  

Read Spatial case studies now

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3D Insiders' Summit Highlights

Spatial held its 3D Insiders’ Summit 2016 in Broomfield, Colorado, on September 28th and 29th.  The summit is an educational event that focuses on technical topics that help our customers innovate outside of the box.  Attendees discovered what was new at Spatial, learned about the latest features, and gained insight about our future product plans as well to network with other industry professionals.

After the opening remarks by our general manager, Linda Lokay, giving an overview of the nearly thirty-year history of Spatial, Brian Rohde and David Hornsby shared with the Insiders the top ten reasons for moving to this new release.

 

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Brian and David also shared roadmaps for the next one to three years for 3D ACIS and CGM modelers plus 3D InterOp with the Insiders. The goal is to not only help our customers plan their product roadmaps, but also to validate our plans.

Both days featured parallel sessions where Spatial experts shared insights and conducted hands-on tutorials. Two examples of these sessions are:

  • Redefining Boolean Workflows covered the new incremental Boolean workflow. Discussed the reasons that Boolean operations often fail and how the new workflow can address these issues.
  • Model-Based Definitions and Support for Manufacturing Applications explored the information that is available in engineering data and ways to access and use it in typical industrial workflows.

 

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The focus of the Insider’s Summit is on our customers. One of the more interesting sections is current Spatial customers talking about their applications, providing insights into how broad the applications are for 3D modeling. For example, Insiders saw presentations from:

  • David E Kropp, co-founder of AutoDesSys, Inc.
  • Sebastien Ho, who leads the CAD R&D team at TraceParts
  • Liming Li of Mitutoyo
  • Payam Haghighi, a research scholar at Ohio State University

Details of the events can be found in two blogs: Insiders off to a Good Start on Day One and Day Two Wraps up the Insiders’ Summit.

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blogBlogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

Spatial periodically issues blog posts to highlight interesting industry trends or technical details on our products. Below are our two most popular posts.

 

CGM Core Modeler Enhances Feature Recognition

The 2017 1.1 release of Spatial’s CGM Core Modeler improves the robustness of its feature recognition capabilities by extending the range of recognizable structures. Feature recognition rapidly identifies manufacturable structures in a model (such as holes, pads, logos, etc.), enabling users to group and perform subsequent operations on these constructs. This capability enables improvements to many workflows, such as reducing complexity for downstream simulation and analysis.

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To learn more about the new feature recognition capabilities, visit CGM Core Modeler Enhances Feature Recognition.

 

Healing and Preserving 3D Model Intent

Part and parcel with model-based engineering is model translation. Because the model is now the specification, accurate translation from one system to another becomes essential. But even if a model is accurately read, the intent of the model has to also be properly interpreted. Key to proper model interpretation is healing — the process of modifying model data so that it conforms to the rules of the target system, while adhering to the intent of the source.

To read more about healing, visit Healing and Preserving 3D Model Intent.

 

Visit Spatial's Developer 2 Developer Blog