Mike Twining

Not sure if this helps or not but I'm trying to pad my thread count so here goes: The move from IC6-IC7 was AWESOME as far as memory management goes. The move from IC7-IC8 was not noticeable, but only because I stuffed my machine full of memory durring IC6. I would suggest you look into sticking some more memory into your machine. That worked WONDERS for me (saves tons of time in file loading, saving... everything). As you will be nearing the 2G mark, I would also look into using the Windows "/3GB" switch (this will help allocate all your memory better for IronCAD to use properly). There are several threads that discuss the switch on this forum. I am working (what I call) huge models running 2Gig of memory with the /3gb startup switch, and I think my pagefile is getting bored. The short answer: I don't think IC8 is going to help your memory situation. Get some more RAM and tweak your boot.ini and you will be on your way again. MikeT

...back-to-back posts... anyway. Another way to put it: Density (in ironcad) is a material specific property, not a geometry specific property.

Nope. IronCAD tool will report total weight only (kg). You would have to manually divide the reported weight by the part length to obtain what you are looking for (if you do really want a report of "weight-per-length"). The weight density input in ironcad is a weight-per-volume (not weight-per-length) input, which is why you are not getting the results you expect from your experiment. MikeT

Just another reason I vote for IronCAD for linux!

Might I suggest .DXF? Probably a little easier than the snail mail.

After training countless "newbs" on the inner-workings and best practices of IronCAD: after stating for the millionth time "Tri-Ball is the answer to 95% of all IronCAD questions" a co-worker finally designed a custom keyboard template that will help people new to IronCAD in learning the program. Below are some conceptual photos: If this is your keyboard: kb1.bmp ...then this is your template: kb2.bmp MikeT Edit: Oops... well, it looked a lot cooler in the e-mail that was sent to me... it had all the keys blocked off except for F10 & the Space Bar. I guess you had to be there.

You guys never answered the phone!... ...kidding, seems to work fine, however I did have my one and only "unexpected exit" out of IronCAD 8.0 AFTER installing them.

I assume all this info still applies. The "certified" driver for IronCAD has since been updated, but still lags behind the latest drivers by... well... a couple versions. This is your last chance to stop me from screwing up my machine and tieing up all your tech-support guys on a video driver issue . (Just kidding, I am going to install it regardless of how many IronDUDES tell me not to: I hope you guys have Caller ID over there) FYI- Latest Nvidia Quadro driver is at rev. 77.18. MikeT

Is that new? I have never seen that option before

That sounds familiar.

I agree... the best that I have made were merly image exports (I used jpeg) that were later stitched together using some pre-installed Microsoft XP software. I like that method better because you have something to show if your animation bombs out after 6 hours.

It is very rare that I disagree with IronKevin, but I like to do things a little different. MS Office can use much more than just the .bmp format (which is oversized and lacks a lot of the "bennies" of other formats). For #1-#4 I would export .jpg images out of IronCAD (File->Export->Image). Not vector (I don't think), but it will do everything else and you have a lot more control over the image quality (plus the file size will be greatly reduced). #5: In any Office program (or OLE enabled for that matter) you can "Insert->Object" and grab yourself an IronCAD file, which then you could open by simply double-clicking on the object in your file). It's no Ctrl-C -> Ctrl-V, but very cool none the less. MikeT

Version 2.1.2 (I think) of the spacemouse drivers was released on 5/5/05. For those interested, the windows version can be found here. Ejoy MikeT

Does anyone know if it is possible to get information from the file properties (i.e. information in the form "$PRP-IC......") into a cell in a BOM (either active BOM or Template)? MikeT.

Memory is like $$$ ... there is no such thing as too much.

I knew that would get you all fired up ....by the way, you forgot to mention the absence of parent-child relationships, top rate tech-support (that one is for you big-daddy), catalogs, non-history based modeling, kernel collaboration, and a superb 2d drawing enviornment. Mike T P.S. Ok, I lied about the 2d, but I was on a roll.

(/begin lighting fire) ... that OTHER CAD company has had colission detection since v. 2000 (/fire off) At least Cary left it ambiguous enough to think that it will happen in a future release. So... what kind of timeframe are we looking at for 8-beta to come out... weeks, month, month(s), .... year? Now that we have complained about everything there is to complain about in 7, I am getting anxious. MikeT.

That makes me feel better on several fronts. Thanks for the info, and you know that I am all over that! MikeT Oh yeah... by the way... check out the video... that is awesome!

Hey yall- I am trying to set up a 4-bar linkage such that I can move one arm and have the other 2 (1 is fixed) move with it. I am having problems getting IronCAD to stop unlocking locked constraints. Attached is an example of what I am trying to do (I want to rotate the "Upper" bar and have the "Lower" and "linkage" bars move with it, without moving the "vertical" bar). Unfortunately, the linkage is not a parallelagram so the two horizontal pieces won't move the same (hence, no mirrored assembly trick). I have officially run out of ideas on getting this thing working. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Thanks! Mike T 4_Linkage.ics

You want power?... try the Intelli AND the Space Mice together..... oooooo..... soooo many buttons.... *drool* MikeT

I get the same "feeling" from my ECC memory. 2 Mikes don't make a wrong.... MikeT.

If you have installed MS Intellimouse 4.x (the mouse software, and I believe they are on v5.x) with your mouse, be sure that in the Intellimouse interface, the middle button is still assigned to "AutoScroll (default)" or IronCAD won't recognise your button click. Just as an additional note, the Intellimouse 4.x software allows for something called "Program Specific Button Settings" which the 5.x version does not. This allows you to program your mouse buttons to do whatever you want in each specific program. It is a great tool for getting your thumb buttons (button 4 & 5) doing things in IronCAD. MikeT

I like the sound of that .... "genius". Unfortunately, the reality is that I am just uber-lazy and would rather drag-and-drop then click the mouse a bunch of times. MikeT

Yep- 1. Create your part file... & save it. 2. Open a new scene and insert (link) your part file. 3. Select the part and copy (ctrl-c) 4. Go to your catalog and paste (I think you might need to use the right-click menu to actually paste). Now when you drop that part in from the catalog it will come in as an external link. Enjoy. MikeT.

Yeah... "they" even get mentioned in one of the episodes (the latest "web" bike for Jr.). It's strange to hear Paul Sr. mention CAD software. MikeT