Solid Edge and Femap Apps

Leading companies use Femap to analyze complex engineering problems and accelerate design. Other simulation tools either don’t offer enough capabilities to simulate real-life engineering problems, or haven’t kept up with the latest technology.

CAD-embedded simulation tools don’t provide analysis capabilities that are broad enough to simulate the real-life, complex engineering problems that you are faced with. Standalone, legacy Unix-based solutions that have been available in the market for a long time are showing signs of neglect, and are long overdue for replacement. Femap provides powerful and deep analysis capabilities in a modern, highly customizable and intuitive framework that is continually updated to keep up with the latest simulation technology. Implementing Femap can help improve overall productivity and simulation accuracy, as well as reduce turnaround times.


Case Study
Fatigue analysis for the rest of us

"Femap’s API enabled efficient integration of stress analysis and fatigue life prediction"

Durability by design

FatigueWizard Ltd. was launched in 1996 to provide the engineering community with a better option for evaluating fatigue life. Traditionally, fatigue analysis software has been very expensive and difficult to use, restricting it to the province of “fatigue gurus,” even though fatigue failures are a serious design concern.

“With the widespread use of FEA it is rare now to see static failures due to instant overload,” explains Julian Holt, FatigueWizard co-founder. “It is more likely that failure will occur because of repeated loading over time. Estimates vary, but it is accepted that between 60 to 90 percent of engineering failures now occur because of some form of fatigue failure.”

Holt, along with FatigueWizard cofounder Mark Swindell, have performed finite element analysis (FEA) and durability analysis for more than 30 years. Being “fatigue gurus” themselves, Holt and Swindell decided to expand the accessibility of fatigue analysis by creating software that the average engineer could use to perform sophisticated and accurate fatigue life predictions. “Our aim is to remove the misunderstanding that fatigue life calculation is the privilege of the few,” Holt adds. “We believe that it should be and can be carried out by any CAE engineer.”


Integrated with Femap

The program they created (also called FatigueWizard) is much more sophisticated than hand calculations but easier to perform. It was designed to be used as a routine step after running a stress analysis. For this reason, FatigueWizard is tightly integrated with existing FEA software such as the Femap® solution from Siemens PLM Software, which is the founders’ preferred FEA pre and post-processor. “We use Femap for all of our consulting work,” Holts adds. “It’s superior for the type of work we do, which is currently a lot of modeling where we’re working with surface models of thin-walled structures. Femap is particularly good at handling that type of data.”

The FatigueWizard program launches from within Femap (users see a button on the Femap screen that says “FatigueWizard”). The Femap data is converted to FatigueWizard data, the fatigue analysis runs, and the results are converted back to Femap and displayed on the Femap screen. All this back-and-forth between the two programs is transparent to the user, of course. Integrating FatigueWizard with Femap was a straight-forward endeavor, says Holt, thanks to Femap’s application programming interface (API). “Femap has a good API. It’s easy to use,” he notes.


Not for specialists only

One of the most important requirements in the on-going development of FatigueWizard is that it is intuitive to use. “What we want is for someone who is skilled at standard linear static analysis to be able to use FatigueWizard without any training. It has to be totally intuitive,” says Holt. Another requirement is a reasonable price. “We want FatigueWizard to be affordable for the one-man consultancy,” he adds.

In this respect, the integration with Femap is a nice fit, since ease of use and affordability are also characteristics of the Femap program. In fact, these are two of the main reasons why Holt and Swindell use Femap on the consulting side of their business. “After switching to Femap we realized we were able to work faster,” Holt says. “One of our main clients also switched to Femap and has noticed the same thing. They tell us Femap paid for itself in just six months by letting them get more work done in a given period of time.”

As a software developer, one of the things Holt appreciates about Femap is the development team behind the program. “It’s like with us and FatigueWizard,” he explains. “Femap is obviously written by people who know and use FEA.With some other systems, you get the feeling the developers are software people who’ve done a little FEA. Femap’s developers really know the field.

“I’ve been doing FEA for 20 years and have used all the high-end programs,” Holt concludes,“Femap is brilliant. It’s a very high-end system and very cost-competitive considering what it can do.”

Faster modeling accelerates Powerwing redesign with Solid Edge 3D CAD Software

"Two to three times faster than traditional solid modeling, Solid Edge with synchronous technology speeds the conversion of a steel assembly to a molded plastic part."
 Razor USA LLC

 In only eight years, Razor USA LLC has grown from an upstart company with a single product to an established earner with lineup of more than 30 human and electric-powered toys. The company’s successful diversification can be seen in its revenues. Sales in 2001 were $20 million; sales in 2007 were $200 million. “The struggle for our company in the early years was to capitalize on the popularity of the original scooter while expanding the product line so there was less reliance on a single item,” explains Bob Hadley, the company’s product development manager. “We accomplished that, but our challenge now is to continually upgrade the product line with more items to maintain growth.”

Bringing a new product to market at Razor is a process of considering as many as 100 ideas each year, then narrowing that list down to 15 to 20 to develop more fully. Of those, one, two or possibly three might actually make it to market. “In our industry it’s important to be able to vet out design ideas as quickly as possible,” Hadley says. Today the company has even more advanced technology for doing that – Solid Edge software with synchronous technology.

Better for complex parts

Razor is not new to Solid Edge, having migrated from 2D AutoCAD to Solid Edge in the early 2000s. This was driven by the need for better communication with manufacturers in China. The superior visualization made possible by 3D assembly models, and the fact that the Chinese companies could work directly from Solid Edge geometry, alleviated the errors caused previously by miscommunication. The move to Solid Edge also helped Razor evolve from a one-product phenomenon to the extensive product line it has today.

“By allowing us to do upfront development about 50 percent faster compared to 2D, Solid Edge got us to where we could make faster decisions about which concepts to bring to market,” Hadley says. “With Solid Edge, we were able to introduce at least two or three times as many as new products each year as we could previously.”

When Solid Edge with synchronous technology became available, Razor was one of the first companies to adopt it. “I loaded Solid Edge with synchronous technology and after a few hours of training I was modeling parts,” says Hadley. “If you’re used to 3D, synchronous technology is a different way of thinking at first but once you get used to it, you’re off and running.”

One of the first things Hadley modeled was a complicated structural plastic part for the Razor Powerwing™, a caster-driven scooter that people propel by shifting their weight from side to side. The original part was a welded steel assembly; Hadley was converting it to an injection molded plastic part to lower the cost and improve manufacturability. “A part like this with deep rib sections and multiple drafted faces typically takes at least a week using conventional solid modeling methods. With a traditional 2D CAD package, it would take a month if you could even do it. But I was able to model it in just two days using Solid Edge with synchronous technology.”

Faster design changes

Another advantage of Solid Edge with synchronous technology came later, when Hadley was working with a mold maker to fine-tune the part’s rib structure. He estimates that they went back and forth at least 10 times. Because he had originally modeled the part using synchronous technology, what previously would have been very time-consuming changes were done almost effortlessly. “With structural molded designs, you frequently need to reposition and reestablish your web intersections,” he explains. “With traditional solid modeling, you erase everything and start over, and it can take two to three hours to reposition a rib structure. With synchronous technology you just grab the faces you want and drag them into position and they go there. You can reposition any number of faces or features in about five seconds.

“With synchronous technology, each feature is not dependent on when it was created or where in the model it was created,” Hadley continues. “This will come into play for us on just about every model since changes are the natural order of things.” Overall, Hadley estimates that synchronous technology speeds the design process by a factor of two or three compared to traditional solid modeling.

In addition, he has noticed another, unanticipated benefit of Solid Edge with synchronous technology. It has converted the remaining 2D AutoCAD user at Razor to 3D. “Since there are no complex history rules or modeling strategies to learn, he picked it up very easily,” Hadley notes. “In just a few weeks he’s already cranking out designs left and right. He’s just incredibly excited about finally joining the 3D club!


Source: http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=30503&ComponentTemplate=1481

Use of 3D CAD Modeling in Mechanical Engineering Design

The primary focus of 3D CAD Modeling is to develop highly accurate specifications and detailed drawings for manufacturing and construction purposes. The developer needs different 3D computer applications for design, detailing, drawing and manufacturing process. 3D CAD modeling allows for reuse of CAD data which positively impacts productivity, delivery schedules and eventually profitability.

3D CAD techniques have gained significant popularity because design data can often be reused across various stages of the manufacturing life-cycle. Each CAD system comes with proprietary file formats which need to be made compatible with other project software. By and large designers use STEP and IGES files to make 3D solid models compatible with other systems. The disadvantage of this practice is the extensive rework, significant delay, inefficient use of critical human resources and increased costs.

Powerful CAD systems such as AutoCAD 2010, Microstation and SolidWorks provide native 3D models to optimize data exchange effectiveness and quality. This practice results in less rework, better productivity and higher data integrity allowing the designer to save hundreds of man-hours. Further, all these systems come with routine updates to ensure compatibility with latest CAD software releases.

Every CAD platform has a unique way of representing 3D geometry for a given manufacturing design. If you try to open a 3D model in other application then you see some discrepancies in terms of white spaces, gaps, miss-alignment, etc - diluting the actual design intent. AutoCAD 2010 quickly and easily makes adjustments to optimize the models and removes all these differences well before the file get translated.

AutoCAD mechanical interface embeds optimization tools, automated repair modules and compliance with latest industry standards to offer its users easy-to-understand, fast and highly accurate 3D CAD translations. Organizations can purchase main suit and add-ons for a nominal fee to make their systems up-to-date for future use. This kind of scalability results in greater return of investment (ROI) and can win more business for the organization. AutoCAD and SolidWorks has found their extensive use across a wide variety of industries such as manufacturing, automobiles and machineries and helps mechanical designers, product developers and mold makers benefits of low cost and quicker turn around times.

Source : http://goarticles.com/article/Use-of-3D-CAD-Modeling-in-Mechanical-Engineering-Design/3946802/

CNC And CAD - Computer Aided Design

CAD stands for Computer Aided Design or Computer Aided Drafting. CAD was developed in the early 60s. Today it is the premier way to design, develop and optimized products. People use CAD every day to design virtually every product you see. Generally, designers use CAD to design a product, and then produce prints to manufacture that product. A print is a picture of a part or assembly that is very exact. It includes the dimensions and a parts list used to manufacture a product.

CAD is the use of computer based software packages that assist engineers, architects and other design professionals in their designs. CAD is the part of the main designing process and involves both software and sometimes hardware. Current software packages range from 2D vector based drafting systems to 3D solid and surface modelers.

Computer Aided Drafting software packages can generally be broken into two groups. The groups are 2-D drafting packages or 3-D drafting packages. Most all software packages are moving to 3-D design. 3-D design is really the next generation of CAD. Utilizing 3-D design, engineers can make a model of their product. They can then look over this model for any apparent defects before it is ever made.

CAD is used to design, develop and optimize products. CAD is mainly used for the engineering of models and/or drawings of components. It is also used throughout the engineering process from concept to design of products. These products can be used by end consumers or used in other products. For example, you can design a bolt in CAD, and then use it in a Sub-Assembly in a planetary, which is a part of an earth-moving machine. CAD is also used in the design of tools and machinery. Finally, it is used in the design of all types of buildings from sheds to shopping malls.

CNC And CAD Software - How Do I Choose The Right CAD Program For Me?

There are multiple CAD programs available for design. Generally people become familiar with one and stick with it. As far as selecting the right one, my advice is this. Most software companies have a free trial. Thirty-day trials are common. Take advantage of these trial periods and test the software out. Then at the end, decide if you want to try another software or stick with your best one. I would advise you try out at least three different packages.

The one you select will probably have to do with you liking the interface or finding it intuitive. Keep in mind it may work for you now. A simple to use and understand interface probably has some limitations for your designs. The very best programs are complex with many tools that give you the most control. I have found that I start with a simple program and outgrow it. At some point I move up to the next level of software. This usually means a higher price as well.

Types of CAD

There are different types of CAD out there. These are the ones I deal with from time to time. 2D CAD, 2.5D CAD, and 3D CAD. Here are some quick explanations of each type.

2D CAD

2D CAD is generally on the low end of CAD software packages. 2D CAD is most often vector based. The design consists on the X and Y-axis only. The designs are made up of lines, circles, ovals, slots, curves, etc. There is no “depth” to the design. Only the outline of the part is visible, to put it in a different way.

2.5D CAD

All of the same descriptions above apply, but the design is prismatic. By that I mean it has the depth of the material. There are Z levels, but they are on singular planes.

3D CAD

3D CAD is on the high end of CAD software packages. 3D CAD can be solid based, wire frame based or nurbs based. The design consists on the X, Y and Z-axis. The designs are made up of lines, circles, ovals, slots, curves, etc, but can also include Spheres, Pyramids, Torrids, Cubes, etc. There is depth to the design. The design can be rotated around 360 degrees. The design is an accurate description of what the part would look like if produced in the real world.

CAD Services in a better way

First of all, let’s have a brief introduction of CAD Services. Computer Aided Design (CAD) service is a type of computer-based tool, which can be used for drafting and designing related services. CAD is used in a wide range of designing fields such as architecture, mechanics and electronics. These CAD services enable a user to prepare faster and accurate drawings with flexibility in the drawing process. It also allows a user to modify dimensions with least efforts.

CAD has many built-in features and helps in giving simple and easy accessibility to the user. CAD can be identified as a user friendly computer based services used for all 2D and 3D modeling purposes. Some of the services from CAD are: AutoCad drafting, cad drafting services, CAD Outsourcing, 2D modeling, 3d modeling, animation, CAD Conversion, mechanical drafting and design, architectural cad drafting and design. These services can also be utilized to design machinery and various other tools. This is useful for engineers, architects, advertising designers and 2D as well as 3D animation professionals. Architectural CAD Drafting and design would literally mean architectural drawing on Computer and getting your architectural drawing done in Digitized format. When it comes to designing of buildings, CAD is used in architecture as an efficient tool for designing all types of buildings. CAD can also be used by consumers in designing and developing various products. It can also be used as a mediator in other products. It is very useful in engineering processes to create conceptual designs and layout analyses of components in manufacturing methods.

Now when talking about CAD drafting software, CAD drafting software is used mostly for developing architectural and complex machine designs or drawings. CAD drafting software has all the primary features available in commonly used engineering CAD software. The most eminent characteristic of this type of software is that it allows users to differentiate components that is, to mark different components of a design with different color combination provided with the software.

This helps in reducing product design time and improves the effectiveness of the designed products. Nowadays, the most advanced CAD drafting software available in the industry can support up to sixteen million color variations. Moreover the graphic user interface (GUI) provided with the software continuously prompts the user to color each and every new component that is added to the design products.

CAD Design Process - CNC Process

CAD Design Process

When designing something complex in CAD you will find there is a bit of a process. First you design parts. Then you build the parts into Sub-Assemblies. Next you build sub-assemblies into Groups. Then you build the groups into the machine. It is a logical pyramid process. You can also think of it like a file structure inside of a computer.

Designing Parts

Parts are your building blocks. Without this level, nothing could be produced. The part level breaks the entire “thing” down to its simplest form. You also manufacture at the part level. You make parts, and then assemble them into other things. Parts are generally made out of raw materials.

Think of a differential on the rear axle of a car. The differential is made up of gears and a housing. Each of these are parts of the differential and the differential is the assembly of these parts.

Designing Sub Assemblies

Sub Assemblies are the next level up and I am guessing you are getting the idea. You first design parts, then put them together into sub assemblies. In the car example above the differential is a sub assembly in the axle “Group” of the car. Sub Assemblies are put together to form groups.

Designing Groups

Moving up the design chain, groups are usually things you can identify with. It could be a door, engine, transmission, or cooling package on a car. Above we used the example of an Axle as a Group. Groups are put together into machines. Our example is a car, which is at the machine level.

Designing the Machine

Finally, the top level of all your designing, the machine. The machine could be built for the end user or be sold to another manufacturer. That manufacturer could use your “machine” as a sub assembly or group. You can see all this is just a matter of viewpoint. You can consider just about anything a sub assembly, group or final machine. It is all just semantics and what you are using the item for.

6 Things to Look For While Shopping CAD-CAM Software

CAD/CAM software is not needed by everyone. Only the specialized people can use it and it is used for special purposes only. Generally the manufacturing industry is the user of CAD/CAM products and the designers who design the products produced by these industries use CAD. When going for such software, the buyers often get attracted by the various new tools, objects, etc and in the process they lose their objective about what they need the software for.

You should also see that you do not need to change your existing set up for the software. The best software is that which fits into your existing set up without disturbing your production and business. This is especially true for the CAM software. The software must have the ability to match with your existing software and all the software that you may procure in the future. This means that your new CAD/CAM software should be able to handle all the incoming data and match the outgoing data with your existing software.

Next the question is how flexible is the software in relation to further development. Remember that this software is costly one. You do not intend to restrict your business just because you do not have the money to buy new products. So you should be able to incorporate new modules at negligible cost. Your software must grow with your business as and when necessary.

You should also be able to upgrade the software without any glitches and with minimum cost if not free. If you are not sure, then ask your vendor to get the terms regarding upgrade. Make sure that you get software where there are no hidden costs in the post purchase stage. The support should be very efficient and any bugs must be fixed at once.

Most of the times, the software is bought from the resellers. So the responsibility starts from here but often the resellers pass the buck to the developers and this causes delay and confusion. So you should get your software from a well known reseller who has the reputation of acting as a bridge between the developer and the customer. Since the software is costly, you can shop for financing or a lease. They may sound new to you but it is getting popular.

10 Tips For Choosing Software and Software Leasing Solutions

There is software available for all types of jobs and purposes. So it will not be very difficult to find software for the job you do. There is software for tax calculation and managing businesses, financing software, accounting software, designing software and many more uses, one for almost any job you can think of.

So when choosing software, see if the following tips help you.

1. First determine the purpose for getting the software and the volume and nature of work that you want to do with it.

2. The next thing that should determine the acceptability of the software is the ease of use. Get information about its user friendliness before deciding upon any software.

3. But user friendly software may not always be pocket friendly. Actually the software is priced on the number of users who are supposed to use it. So get one according to your volume of work.

4. Sometimes some software is costly because they carry many facilities. In such cases you will have to decide whether you want so many features or the basics will do.

5. Ask whether the software can be customized to greater demands in case your business needs them as it grows and the cost of such improvements.

6. If you have to pay a good amount for software then you should also get after sales services including on-site and off-site services. When you choose software, read the fine print and see what you are getting in the package. Sometimes the companies charge extra for customization. If your package includes that then make sure to compare the prices and facilities of similar software in the market.

7. After installation you will find bugs in the software and you will have to make sure that you do not waste time on them. Get the assurance of the turnaround time for fixing such bugs.

8. You should also get assurance from the developer about the updates and regular notifications on them.

9. Regarding support, you should get to know the hours of business and the promptness of service. Since most of the times software is used for business or important work, going without it can cause loss of valuable time.

10. Finally, you will have to decide whether you want to go for outright purchase of the software or software leasing.

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3D Modeling A to Z – What is It? How it is Done? Different Techniques Involved

In this article we will look into what the 3D modeling is all about. We will see the subject in general, and then dig into the details and inspect the various techniques employed in the modeling process.

Concepts:

If you have seen a sculpture ever in your life, you already know quite a little about 3D Modeling. 3D Modeling is nothing but the creation of a character or a model having three dimensions (as in real world) using the techniques and tools provided by a computer software. The software we use for the purpose will be a 3D Modeling and animation tool like 3DS Max, Maya, SoftImage etc. The tool will provide a set of tools that a 3D artist can use to sculpt or model, an object in his imagination, into a 3d computer representation. This 3D model can be altered, animated or rendered into a movie in accordance to the artists need. This is what 3D modeling is, if we look it from a broad top view.

Lets dig a bit deeper:

Every 3D Model in computer representation is composed of polygons. The polygons may have three or more vertices and such hundreds or thousands or even millions of polygons may comprise a 3D Model. So is it like, a 3D artist draws each and every polygon as such? Fortunately, no! Here comes the softwares like 3DS Max and Maya to our rescue. These 3d modeling packages provide a wide variety of modeling tools that an artist can use for creating a polygonal model. The artist will usually draw the outlines that define the models shape in three dimensions, and the software will tesselate that into a polygonal mesh. All that an artist has to do is define the 3 dimensional profile of the character he has in his imagination. There are a number of modeling techniques that are widely used. Lets go through them one by one:

. Primitive Modeling: This is a very basic modeling technique and hence has several draw backs too. The software tool like 3DS Max, Maya etc provides a set of 3D primitives like spheres, boxes etc. The artist alters these shapes to suit his/her character modeling needs, using lattices, deformers etc. For example, a human head can be modeled using an altered sphere, a neck using an altered cylinder etc. This modeling technique is more suitable for building objects like houses, furniture etc rather than, for live organic modeling, since the shapes appear distinct and the blend of various body parts will not be seamless.

· NURBS Modeling: NURBS stands for Non Uniform Rational Bspline. Dont get scared by the name. In the nutshell, it is nothing but a mathematical curve, represented using a set of equations. If we see this modeling technique from an outer view, all we see is a set of simple curves that we call NURBS. How the 3d tool implemented it we dont need to care much (too much mathematics). These curves are very flexible and have control points on them which we can use to change its shape.

Suppose you want to model a human head using NURBS modeling, you will start with an outline shape and then draw a number of curves extending from one side of the profile shape to the other end, separated by spaces. These curves define the shape of the figure. These NURBS curves can be joined to form a 3D NURBS surface. The NURBS modeling has its advantages and disadvantages. It is an easy to model approach, since the NURBS curves are easy to manipulate. But this modeling technique has very limited extensibility. Suppose you want to add an extra limb to your alien creature after the modeling is complete, it will become extremely difficult, if you choose NURBS modeling.

· Surface Modeling: This is a widely adopted modeling technique used primarily for organic modeling. In this modeling technique, the 3D artist creates a spline cage profile for the 3D character. The splines intersect between each other, creating a completely closed profile of the character, unlike the NURBS technique. Once the spline cage is complete, the 3D artist can apply a surface modifier on this spline cage, which creates a 3D filling surface out of the 2D splines. This method has the advantage that it can be extended to adapt to varied requirements, during any stage of the modeling process. This offers a lot of flexibility to the artist. This technique is used widely in 3D animation softwares like 3DS Max.

· Polygonal Modeling: This is one of the very few modeling techniques that can be used for various modeling scenarios. This modeling technique is used both in organic and inorganic modeling. The basic principle behind this modeling technique is as follows. The 3D artist draws the shape of the model he wants to create using the polygon tool. Then the polygon will get subdivided and extruded, so that the model gets the 3D form. This process of subdividing and extruding continues until the whole model is completed. In this modeling technique the artist in fact creates a polygonal mesh himself. But this polygonal model will have the minimal number of polygons only, and it will be far from a smooth and perfect figure. After this stage, the artist would apply a smoothing modifier on this polygon model, which converts the model into a realistic and smooth looking character.

· Sub-division Modeling: This is a hybrid modeling technique, which inherits the merits of both NURBS modeling and Polygonal Modeling. It also offers a host of other enhancements. In sub-divisional modeling, the artist usually starts with a polygonal model itself. The polygonal model that has been already created is converted into a sub-divisional model. The sub-divisional model has control points and lattices that can be pulled and moved, to alter the original polygonal model that lies beneath. This modeling technique also permits the artist to select the level of refinement to be done in a particular area. Hence those areas requiring higher detail can be assigned with more control points and higher no: of vertices, whereas the other areas will remain with a base vertex density. This gives significant performance boost.


Conclusion:

The above discussed modeling techniques are used by the 3d artist to create a model that he has in his imagination. The model obtained through these modeling techniques will be dependent on that specific modeling technique. Such a model is converted into a pure polygonal mesh and is rigged and animated based on the requirements. During the stage called rendering, the scene which contains many such polygonal models, gets converted to a two dimensional image or a movie by the 3D animation softwares rendering engine.

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Simple, Easy CAD Software Home Design - A Look at Some of the Best in the Biz

There is definitely a lot of CAD software in the market today that can be very effective in home design. What remains to be the industry leader today is AutoCAD and the latest release, AutoCAD 2009, is truly one of the best in the business. It has hundreds of different features on board that all aim to increase productivity, as well as make the entire drafting process a breeze. It also happens to be compatible with Windows Vista as it takes advantage of some of the capabilities of this latest Microsoft operating system.

However, there are more CAD software available out there. In fact, some of them might even provide better functions than AutoCAD. It all depends on a user's needs, as well as his specific situation. Nevertheless, here are three of the more popular CAD software home design programs that are both simple and easy to use.

SolidWorks 3D CAD

SolidWorkds 3d CAD is a program that is part of the SolidWorks Office Professional software. It offers a full range of CAD production tools, as well as full 3D MCAD support. Also included in the kit is a handy product data management feature called PDMWorks which is a unique solution for all product data tasks, may it be for an individual or the workgroup. Two other main features of this particular CAD program are MotionManager (timeline that controls springs, gravity, and motors based on time) and CommandManager (an embedded layout menu that facilitates advanced customization).

TurboCAD Pro 14 Platinum Edition

Another handy CAD software is TurboCAD Pro 14 Platinum Edition. This is probably one of the best applications in the market in terms of design productivity and power. It also makes use of the most advanced tools for both architectural and mechanical designs. Aside from 2D drafting, ACIS solid modeling and 3D surface support is also on board this program. The photorealistic rendering provided by LightWorks is a great addition as it provides visual results that are like no other. TurboCAD Pro 14's expansive library of architectural object types are almost limitless as it includes hundreds of different types of railings, stairs, windows, and doors.

Solid Edge

One powerful CAD program that works well for all types of manufacturing companies is Solid Edge. What makes this particular product stand out is its ability to convert the complexity of design into a very manageable and fully integrated discipline. In fact, Solid Edge is the only modern home design software that integrates various design management functions to the everyday CAD tools used in the industry. This is truly an excellent choice for designers of all skill levels.

Find out more info at Home Design Software Guide to buy software visit Home Design Software.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Diarioti