The cove.tool suite analyzes a building’s envelope for the annual hours of direct sunlight. (Image courtesy of cove.tool.)

With buildings comprising one of the primary sources of the world’s carbon emissions, accurate design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can play a key role in minimizing these emissions. Over-designed systems not only cost more up front, but cost more to maintain and can be inefficient in their operation, generating unnecessary emissions.

More accurate estimation of thermal loads can help engineers design HVAC systems more precisely, improving efficiency. Using more sophisticated modeling techniques, designers can reduce uncertainty and avoid the need to add hefty cushions to design loads.

New Approach to Simulation

New software tools such as those from Atlanta-based cove.tool could significantly change decades-old practices of HVAC design and help reduce overdesign. “Traditionally, the goal was making sure you always had enough capacity,” said Patrick Pease, Mechanical Engineering Director at cove.tool. “You took whatever you calculated and added 30 percent or maybe even 40 percent. [With that approach], systems were oversized to guarantee they had enough capacity.”

Patrick Pease, Mechanical Engineering Director, cove.tool.

To help designers right-size mechanical systems, the company’s load modeling tool can establish peak cooling and heating loads more accurately than traditional methods, says Pease. “Engineers rely a lot on rules of thumb. And with enough experience, they can apply those very effectively to get sizes that will work. But to get down to the absolute right size and still meet all your demands—that’s when these tools really come into play.”

Using techniques based on American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards, the software can help calculate space, system and plant loads in various scenarios throughout the year. Engineers, contractors and owners can analyze heat flow for room elements such as walls, windows, roofs, skylights, doors, lights, people, electrical equipment, non-electrical equipment, infiltration, floors and partitions.

Load modeling tool enables HVAC load computation and production of sizing reports. (Image courtesy of cove.tool.)

The software has been tested in accordance with ASHRAE Standard 140, “Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs” and meets the requirements for simulation software set by ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and the ASHRAE Standard 183. The fundamental ASHRAE equations have essentially been digitized to enable ready analysis of multiple situations, according to Pease.

With rapid prototyping algorithms and automation of baseline inputs for domestic and international energy codes, designers can use the load modeling tool to perform real-time sizing on large, complex buildings with numerous HVAC conditions. “Say we have 500 rooms in a building. We want to do analyses not just once, but 500 times. These tools allow us to do that super quickly,” says Pease.

loadmodeling.tool is integrated with the wider cove.tool (cost vs. energy) platform and can be used throughout project stages, from early schematic design phases through construction. At the schematic and design development stage, it helps automate the evaluation of energy-saving concepts, such as the effects of daylighting, HVAC optimization strategies and high-performance glazing. At the construction drawing phase, a generated EnergyPlus model can help document compliance with ASHRAE Standard 90.1 or other green certification such as USGBC LEED, Green Globes and more.

Solar Loads

For load analysis, loadmodeling.tool can account for internal loads such as heat-emitting lights and operating equipment, as well as external loads such as solar gain entering through the windows and heat conduction though walls. Solar loads are some of the more complex loads to analyze, according to Pease.

“You need to calculate sun angles for the entire year and figure out when solar heat aligns with the heat from your lights or your equipment at the same time so you have peaks. That’s a very intense calculation that the tool does,” he says.

Location is also key to determining solar gain. “One of the data points that you have to input is location,” says Pease. “If you have a south-facing window in the northern hemisphere, you’ll get a lot of sun exposure, a lot of solar gain. That same window in the southern hemisphere will have much less gain.”

The software also allows designers to evaluate solar shading options. Users enter the depth and height of fins per window and analyze various combinations of shading, including iterative reviews of building performance with different solar shading strategies.

Neighborhood context can also be entered to simulate neighboring buildings or daylight obstructions, such as a high tree canopy.  Glazing percentage can be used to evaluate solar shading to evaluate energy performance. The platform autogenerates a climate report with every project to identify various passive strategies based on building location. The report can also interpret climate diagrams and recommend various solar shading strategies.

Leveraging BIM Data

With loadmodeling.tool integrated into the wider cove.tool platform, designers can import and export data with building information modeling (BIM) and other formats. Using drawing.tool, users can import geometry directly from various CAD and modeling platforms. The drawing.tool helps define the rooms used for load models and enables translation of 3D models from various sources into analysis-ready geometry.

“By bringing all the geometry information into the tool, you save a ton of time,” says Pease. “If you have 500 rooms, nobody wants to redraw all the rooms and define them. The tool will bring that information in.” The tool can also be used to assign material properties and make minor edits to clean up BIM data, adds Pease.

After running load modeling, the entire detailed model can be exported in a wide range of formats including OpenStudio (.osm), EnergyPlus (.idf) and .gbXML. Models exported to .gbXML can be imported into a wide array of other software platforms including TRACE 3D and IES:VE.

The drawing.tool allows designers to import and leverage BIM data. (Image courtesy of cove.tool.)

Other Tools

In addition to loadmodeling.tool and drawing.tool, the cove.tool suite includes the analysis.tool, the quote.tool and the api.tool. Analysis.tool allows designers to select material components based on cost and performance data. Using machine learning, analysis.tool can scan multiple component options and help select the most cost-effective choice.

Quote.tool interacts with manufacturer data and enables communication amongst project team members via a chat feature. Quote.tool uses advanced analytics and a project profile to filter through hundreds of building designs and connect design teams and manufacturers.

Api.tool comprises a set of HTTP endpoints that help integrate custom applications with cove.tool. Api.tool is developed around the RESTful architecture which offers resource-based URLs and uses standard HTTP methods and status codes.

Because the cove.tool suite is cloud-based, complex models can be run without overtaxing local computing resources. With base models ranging from 10 megabytes to 500 or more megabytes, excluding load modeling results, the amount of data generated in energy modeling can be staggering, says Pease. “Load modeling can generate gigs worth of data. With a web-based solution, we can use cloud computing power to do all the data crunching.”

With the complexity of HVAC analysis, it is understandable that designers have relied heavily on rules of thumb, rather than conducting detailed analyses. But with increased attention being drawn to sustainability, energy efficiency and emissions reduction, the age-old approaches that produce overly conservative designs may not be acceptable on future projects. The cove.tool platform can provide a new suite of tools for conducting complex analyses in a manageable manner and right-sizing HVAC systems.

To learn more, visit cove.tool.

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The company also recently announced plans to go public with Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital share exchange, or other business combination. Tailwind Two has invested extensively in founder-run businesses similar to Terran Orbital, with notable success in the space industry.

In one of the more noteworthy recent wins, Terran Orbital subsidiary PredaSAR Corporation was awarded a $2 million contract to support an on-orbit cooperative demonstration between its PredaSAR satellite constellation and the U.S. government’s Blackjack satellite constellation. The contract, awarded by the U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC) in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is intended to demonstrate that the two constellations can be linked, strengthening U.S. Department of Defense capabilities while also leveraging the commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data capabilities of industry partners.

PredaSAR, which is building a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation of 48 satellites to serve both government and commercial clients, is planning to launch its first satellite in Q4 2022. Blackjack, a joint effort of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), SSC and AFRL, is a technology program to demonstrate the military utility and operational concepts of proliferated low-Earth orbit (pLEO) architectures.

PredaSAR plans to launch its first satellite in Q4 2022. (Image credit: PredaSAR.)

The PredaSAR-Blackjack cooperative aims to “demonstrate that satellite constellations as networks can be linked together,” said Marco Villa, Terran Orbital’s chief revenue officer and executive vice president. The connection of constellations launched in different orbits will challenge the team to “take hardware, software and vehicles and find optimal condition where they can cross-link with each other,” he noted.

Terran Orbital chairman and CEO Marc Bell said that the project shows how direct communication between satellites “is much faster than sending signals to the ground. It’s very energy efficient. The optical technology is not new but the cost has come down.”

From SSC’s perspective, the interoperability demonstration plays a key role in reducing the risk of building hybrid space architectures and maximizing the utility of commercial services, according to Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo, SSC’s pLEO program manager. The SSC has two main objectives in the PredaSAR contract, said Trimailo: 1) demonstrating the ability to move commercial satellite data into a government network and down to tactical users as quickly as possible; and 2) incentivizing commercial satellite service providers to incorporate government-compliant cross-links on their constellations. “We’re looking [for service providers] to integrate these high-speed optical cross-links so we can pull the data into our networks and make them accessible to the tactical warfighter at the speed of need,” he noted.

Another key benefit of the project is the opportunity “to work with multiple modalities of data,” said Wellesley Pereira, AFRL’s space vehicles directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, N. Mex. By linking satellite constellations, data in various forms, such as visible, infrared and radar, can be “fused together” to create more valuable data, he noted. Along with providing additional data, the team aims to establish faster data transfer between constellations or across constellations.

In addition to the PredaSAR contract, Terran Orbital has landed several other key projects. In February, the company was awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to provide three microsatellite class satellites, launch procurement, integration and operations in support of product demonstration. “This contract award provides an exciting opportunity for the company to demonstrate our capabilities as a small satellite provider delivering cost-effective end-to-end solutions enabling missions,” said Bell.

Terran and Lockheed Martin have teamed on several other projects, including a 2020 contract to build satellites for the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency using small buses from Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., a Terran Orbital company. Lockheed Martin also worked with Tyvak on a mesh network in space demonstration known as Pony Express.

In another significant win, Tyvak was awarded the Precise Space Flight Experiment by the AFRL to develop a spacecraft for new very low-Earth orbit (VLEO) missions. The Precise experiment will examine ionization processes in the ionosphere, the ionized gas region between 90 and 600 km altitude that impacts radio propagation. The contract was awarded through SSC’s Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), which connects the DoD with technology innovators and creators. A 2024 launch is planned.

In December, Terran Orbital announced the successful stationing of the EchoStar Global 3 small satellite into its final operational orbit. Tyvak designed, manufactured and operates the satellite on behalf of EchoStar Corporation, a global provider of satellite communication solutions. The stationing trajectory included the furthest and most rapid altitude change ever achieved by a nano-satellite, according to Terran Orbital. It also included a 1.5° inclination change to place the satellite at the exact altitude and inclination required for its mission.

“Nano-satellites were not previously able to maneuver like this once placed in orbit,” said Bell. “The ability to conduct both significant altitude and inclination changes enables less expensive, faster ‘last-mile’ delivery of a satellite to desired orbits.”

These projects and others have led Terran Orbital to undertake significant facility expansions. In September 2021, Terran Orbital announced plans to invest $300 million and build what the company believes will be one of the largest satellite manufacturing complexes in the world in Brevard County, Fla. Once completed, the 660,000-square-foot facility will manufacture 1,000 complete satellites and over 1 million satellite components per year, creating approximately 2,100 new jobs on Florida’s Space Coast. The company is also adding 60,000 square feet of space for assembly and production at its facility in Irvine, Calif.

Even with ambitious plans in sight, Boca Raton, Fla.-based Terran Orbital is pledging to maintain a managed growth strategy and avoid becoming “overstretched,” according to Villa. “We have been diligent in growing in a way that’s conducive to the amount of business we are doing.”

Terran Orbital’s growth coincides with a rapidly expanding small satellite market—generally encompassing satellites under 1,200 kg (2,600 lb). Within that market, nano-satellites (those ranging from 1.1 to 10 kg) and microsatellites (those 11 to 200 kg) appear particularly positioned for rapid growth. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the global nano-satellite and microsatellite industry was valued at $2.23 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $8.69 billion by 2030.

According to the report, an increase in production and the launch of CubeSats—cube-shaped satellites measuring approximately 10 cm in each direction—have contributed to the boom. Terran Orbital subsidiary Tyvak was founded by Jordi Puig-Suari, who was the coinventor of the CubeSat.

Based on the number of end users, the commercial segment contributed to more than three-fourths of the global nano-satellite and microsatellite market revenue in 2020 and is projected to maintain the lion’s share of revenue from 2021 to 2030, according to the report. Based on application, the Earth observation segment accounted for more than half of the global nano-satellite and microsatellite market share in 2020 and is anticipated to retain a similar share. The report found that the communications segment is expected to grow significantly by 2030 due to an increase in demand for faster and secure communications throughout the world.

Meanwhile, NASA recently voiced concerns over the number of satellites in orbit. In a February letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), NASA noted that approximately 25,000 total objects are currently tracked on-orbit and that an additional 30,000 satellites are being proposed for LEO by SpaceX in an amended FCC application for SpaceX’s Starlink Gen 2 system. NASA recommended that “SpaceX generate analysis demonstrating the auto-maneuver capability is sufficiently scalable to the entire proposed constellation size … while accounting for challenges in flying lower altitudes during greater solar activity.”

Along with SpaceX’s plans, a bevy of other companies and agencies around the world have plans to launch satellites in the next few years. Some sources estimate that over 50,000 satellites will be launched into space over the next decade. The activities of Terran Orbital and other small satellite vendors will make this an interesting market to watch.

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A lot has changed since the late ’90s, which may be considered the golden age of user groups. Both the role and format of user groups have changed. User groups today primarily meet virtually instead of in person. While the changes are largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, other factors may also be at work, such as changing demographics and additional ways to obtain new information.

Regardless of the driving forces, some changes to user groups may be permanent, though industry experts predict a rebound in personal interaction at some point. When the pandemic dust settles, some combination of virtual and in-person gatherings appears most likely.

Onshape’s Richard Doyle, user group coordinator for Onshape.

“Most user groups went virtual [due to the pandemic], though some are meeting in person,” said Richard Doyle, user group coordinator for Onshape, the cloud-based CAD program that is now part of Boston-based PTC. “I don’t think that means user groups are dead. One of the main draws is to connect with people and user groups help achieve that.”

Doyle has overseen the creation of approximately 30 user groups for Onshape after making a career of managing SOLIDWORKS user groups. Onshape was acquired by PTC in 2019. Onshape user groups initially went virtual in April 2020, leading to a new format and, according to Doyle, more advantages for himself and users. “We soon realized that we could more easily schedule multiple meetings, attendees could join the meetings from almost anywhere, and meetings could be recorded for future use. To date, we’ve held more than 80 online meetings and we expect to schedule at least 50 in 2022,” said Doyle.

While Doyle sees advantages to virtual meetings, he also thinks live meetings will always have a place. “People join user groups mainly for two reasons. The number one reason is to learn, and the number two reason is to network,” he said. Because of the networking aspect “live events are still desirable. You miss out on some of the camaraderie [with virtual meetings only].”

Other PTC user groups are administered by PTC/USER, an independent consortium of PTC software users. The groups offer support, education and online discussion forums for products such as Windchill and Creo, the successor to Pro/ENGINEER. PTC/USER includes over 50 regional user groups located throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.

In addition to the pandemic-driven, virtual meeting approach, changing demographics in the CAD workforce may also be contributing to a shift in meeting formats. KaDe King, president of the AUGI board of directors, says that she noticed a shift in user group meetings even before the pandemic began.

“AUGI has noticed trends in how people interact,” said King, who is also a senior technical specialist and trainer for U.S. CAD, an Autodesk reseller, in Ogden, Utah. “The way people are moving into our industry and getting information is different. People under 40 go to the Internet first.”

AUGI’s KaDe King.

The proliferation of specialty CAD products and virtual meeting platforms has also contributed, noted King. “Originally it was just AutoCAD” that AUGI groups discussed, but vertical products such as Civil 3D, Revit and others have expanded the horizon of topics for user groups in the last two decades. Users have also found information on YouTube and other online sources to answer product-specific questions.

Other factors such as time savings have also contributed to the growth of virtual meetings, added King. Online meeting platforms such as Meetup allowed users in metropolitan areas to avoid traffic by meeting online, she said.

King agrees with Doyle that virtual meetings do not provide the camaraderie of in-person meetings. “Some things you miss out on are different companies hosting meetings, food and refreshments and interaction with speakers.” She opines that some younger professionals “don’t know what they’re missing” by not attending in-person meetings.

Nonetheless, AUGI is adapting to the changing landscape. “We’re working to adjust how we do things. We’re planning to add a Meetup-type of meeting on a quarterly basis. It will provide a format to listen and participate in sessions,” said King. Meetup is a relatively new platform specifically designed to help users find and build local communities.

With over 70 physical user groups and 140 online groups across the world, AUGI has a storied history. It started in 1990 as the North American AutoCAD User Group, was renamed in 1996 as Autodesk User Group International, and was reincorporated in 2019 as just “AUGI.” The organization was part of Autodesk prior to the reincorporation, but that is no longer the case.

Even though AUGI is not directly affiliated with Autodesk, the organization is still loosely connected to the company and its annual conference, Autodesk University (AU). Because AU has met virtually over the last two years, that has hindered some of AUGI’s normal networking. “We miss that human connection,” said King. Also, AUGI’s board of directors used to get together two to three times per year in person. “Now we’re limited to Zoom calls,” King noted.

Other CAD user groups are encountering similar challenges. In-person meetings may be hard to find, but online meetings are prevalent. Bentley, for example, has about 30 user groups around the world, approximately half of those in the U.S. According to Bentley’s user group website, “members are dedicated to sharing ideas, best practices and learning more about Bentley applications. Membership is open to all Bentley users and is not restricted by industry, job title, or location.” 

Dassault Systèmes has a variety of user communities for its different products, where users are invited to share experiences and give feedback, and where they can also find technical content. SOLIDWORKS user groups, for example, which originated in 1997, are active in various locations around the world. According to the  SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN) website, the SWUGN “is run for our users, by our users,” with a mission to “empower real people who use SOLIDWORKS products to collaborate with, learn from and teach others.” In addition to SOLIDWORKS, Dassault user groups are available for other products, such as 3DEXCITE, CATIA, SIMULIA, among others.

In addition to groups recognized by software vendor websites, additional user groups can be found on social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Meetup and WhatsApp. On these sites, if you type in “CAD user groups” or “BIM user groups,” you’ll likely find a handful of potentially applicable pages.

User groups have also been formed around work specialties, rather than specific products. The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) educates and supports users of various additive manufacturing technologies. Members include operators and owners of rapid manufacturing and prototyping technology—stereolithography, selective laser sintering, 3D printing and others. AMUG 2021 may have been the first industry conference and tradeshow to emerge during the pandemic. The next in-person AMUG conference is scheduled for April 2022 in Chicago. Time will tell if pandemic conditions allow it to proceed.

In the near term, most user groups will likely continue with some sort of hybrid model. “We plan to continue online,” said Onshape’s Doyle. “But there’s still an argument to be made for live events,” he said, noting that the company plans to hold some day-long “targeted events” to transition back to live gatherings.

CAD professionals will want to watch the user group landscape closely over the next few months, as networking opportunities morph and develop. Virtual user group meetings are likely to continue, but the new hybrid models may offer the best of both worlds.

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Continuing a consolidation trend in residential and commercial design software, two technology vendors have completed a noteworthy merger. Norway-based Compusoft and Westford, Mass.-based 2020 Technologies Inc. announced the merger completion in December 2021, marking the latest in a string of mergers and acquisitions conducted by Compusoft.

Founded in 1989, Compusoft provides configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions that aid planning, configuration and visualization for the kitchen, bathroom, furniture and window & door industries. Compusoft’s customers work throughout the sales value-chain, ranging from customer representatives through manufacturers in more than 100 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. The company’s current products include Winner Flex for design and order processing, Innoplus and SimpliPlan for bathroom design and planning, 3CAD for 3D design and production and several others for various situations.

Compusoft’s 3CAD is used to control production processes from customer design through CNC production.

2020 Technologies has historically been used by professional designers, retailers and manufacturers in the interior design and furniture industries. Founded in 1987, the company has direct operations in 11 countries and supports customers in other locations around the world through a network of value-added resellers. Its products include 2020 Design Live for kitchen, bath and closet design, plus a host of others for various applications.

2020 Design Live is used by kitchen, bath, and closet designers.

The combined group will specialize in providing solutions for CPQ, visualization and manufacturing of products in highly configured spaces. Together, the group will provide an expanded suite of end-to-end solutions for sales-related processes in the kitchen, bathroom, furniture and window/door industries. While it is not yet clear if any of the companies’ products will be combined, the merger brings a wide variety of products together under the umbrella of one organization.

“There will be an even broader range of solutions backed by an extensive content database to power the sales of our customers,” said David Tombre, Compusoft CEO. “Our combined expertise will also give us the ability to accelerate innovation and maximize the potential of our products to meet our customers’ needs.”

Mark Stoever, 2020 CEO, added, “This combination brings together some of the brightest minds in software from across the world, particularly in R&D, sales, content and support, united to better serve our customers. We look forward to what the future holds.”

The Compusoft-2020 merger was originally announced in June by parent organizations Genstar Capital and TA Associates. Compusoft is a portfolio company of TA Associates, a private equity firm that invested in Compusoft in 2018, while 2020 is a portfolio company of Genstar Capital, a private equity firm that more recently acquired 2020. Prior to the merger with 2020, Compusoft had also acquired Access Information Technologies, publishers of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for window- and door-related industries, InnovaItalia, an Italian distributor of Compusoft’s 3CAD software, First Degree Systems, a UK provider of software solutions for the window and door industry, and Soft Tech, a multi-national provider of door and window software.

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Ever since its introduction over 20 years ago, IronCAD has developed a loyal following in the manufacturing world for its 3D modeling capabilities. That standing will likely be solidified with the recent release of IronCAD 2022, the latest version of their Design Collaboration Suite.

For CAD history buffs, IronCAD descended from a product called Trispectives, developed by 3D Eye, an Atlanta-based company. 3D Eye was acquired by Visionary Design Systems (VDS), a  Santa Clara, Calif, company that launched IronCAD in 1998. The development team later spun off from VDS to form IronCAD LLC, the Atlanta company that now produces IronCAD and other products.

The new collaboration suite includes a host of new features and improvements to existing features, such as tools for building 3D models and producing 2D drawings from 3D models. With already established capabilities for 2D/3D design, drafting, and dimensioning, the new tweaks further streamline the process of creating multiple sheet drawings from 3D models.

“The IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite 2022 drastically reduces the overall time to create 3D designs and move them into the 2D Detailed Production Drawing, saving engineers and designers time and allowing for companies to increase productivity,” said Cary O’Connor, vice president of marketing at IronCAD. “Automating and simplifying tasks will continue to be a focus in 3D design and communication to streamline the process from customer requirements, customer acceptance, and into production in order to win customer’s business.”

IronCAD enables design work to be done primarily in a 3D environment.

Building on its reputation for user-friendly 3D modeling, IronCAD adds several improvements to its repertoire with this release. As with previous releases, users can work primarily in a 3D environment, dragging and dropping shapes and components from catalogs to build parts and assemblies. The popular TriBall feature is alive and well, allowing users to graphically align geometry along selected axes with mouse clicks.

The TriBall feature allows users to graphically align geometry along selected axes.

Extending the TriBall functionality, users now have additional orientation control to define the plane to create 3D curves, such as by toggling the plane definition with a tab key. The 3D curve creation and editing types have also been updated to support similar capabilities found in the 2D Sketch feature.

The 3D Rotation feature includes additional options to rotate about the scene center when the cursor is located in space, providing more predictable rotation results. New controls have been added to provide more control over shape behavior.

For calculating masses of solid objects, users can now multi-select parts or assemblies and perform calculations on multiple objects. Multi-select has also been added to dimensioning tools and the search browser for selecting parts or assemblies. With the new dimensioning tools, users can edit multiple dimensions at once to streamline drawing annotation.

Bending Sheet Metal

Along with the solid modeling improvements, IronCAD 2022 expands tools for working with sheet metal geometry. Sketched bends can now be shown in a dynamic preview that is updated when settings are changed. A new option has been added to disable and enable individual bend shapes within bend settings.

Sketched bends can be shown in a dynamic preview that is updated when settings are changed.

Sketch bend handles are now shown in the folded state on the selected bend to allow easier modification of sketch bend shapes. When placing the cursor over a bend shape handle on the sketch, the bend shape geometry is highlighted for easier identification.

While IronCAD’s 3D capabilities may be the more captivating features, the suite still includes plenty of tools for working in 2D. Two unique 2D drawing environments — ICD and IronCAD Draft (CAXA Draft) — are available, and both directly link into the 3D scene to update 2D data. The ICD environment provides a more intuitive user interface, but the CAXA Draft environment is more suited to traditional detailed drafting and allows users to work natively with DXF/DWG files. IronCAD 2022 includes new features for bulk view creation (BVC), with the dialog box in the 3D Scene remembering previous settings when using the BVC tool.

A handful of other tools have been added for working with 2D drawings, particularly for dimensioning. For example, the Auto Dimension tool can be set on a per-view basis in templates used for BVC to automatically create dimensions when creating drawings.

The Auto Dimension tool can be set on a per-view basis for creating dimensions.

A new feature has also been added to associate properties to the sheet name, enabling sheet names to be automatically based on the content in the drawing. New options for rotating text boxes are also included.

For bill of materials (BOM) generation, a structured BOM type has been added, providing users the ability to expand and collapse rows in a BOM. This enables selectively hiding and displaying the children of an assembly. Improvements have also been made to the automatic updating and display of BOM tables. Item bubbles support new display types, such as split rectangular shapes, to provide enhanced drawing user interface finishes.

A structured BOM type provides users the ability to expand and collapse rows in a BOM.

Crossing Platform Boundaries

Throughout most of its history, IronCAD has been able to handle many different file types, primarily because it is a dual-kernel CAD program, supporting both Parasolid and ACIS technology. This provides versatile data exchange across different CAD platforms and transferable geometric calculations, such as determining blends and shells.

In IronCAD 2022, the native translator has been updated to support additional formats, such as Rhino 7.0. Support has also been updated for SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, Pro/E and Creo, UG NX  and CATIA. For DWG/DXF exporting, users can now select certain views when using the Export to DWG/DXF command.

Enhancements have also been made to multiphysics for IronCAD (MPIC), an integrated finite element analysis (FEA) simulation tool that works directly in the IronCAD interface. The tool includes stress, thermal, and electrostatic analysis. The latest version of MPIC includes new piezo-electrical material as well as other improvements.

IronCAD 2022 includes a new screen recorder to enable recording videos for communication with customers as well as with the IronCAD network. Touch interactions have been included to support communication with IronCAD products on tablets and other touch screen devices.

The entire IronCAD suite includes four primary components: IronCAD for 2D and 3D design, IronCAD Inovate for 3D design and collaboration, IronCAD Draft for 2D detailing, and IronCAD Compose for 2D/3D viewing and configuration. Compose enables teams to view and comment on designs and engineering data generated from various CAD systems.

For new users, IronCAD provides access to numerous training videos via its IronCAD Academy and feedback is available via a community forum. Traditional documentation and technical support may not rival that of larger CAD vendors, but user testimonies indicate the software’s intuitive feel offsets that drawback.

About the Author

Andrew G. Roe is a registered professional engineer and technical writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He has over 30 years of experience in engineering and technical writing, and has written extensively about design software and related applications.

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