Chris Lohman Posted April 22, 2002 Share Posted April 22, 2002 Following is a list of some of the new features in 5.2. This list does not contain bug fixes, or new features that were seen as bugs. These are enhancements only. IronCAD 5.2 New Features **Modeling Enhancements** New 3D Annotation Capability New 3D Annotation capability is available in the scene environment of IronCAD/Inovate to allow for better communication in 3D. Users can create text with leaders that reference parts, assemblies, and IntelliShapes. These annotations are used to add design information that can be shared by others in the design process. New Loft Surface Creation Capabilities Using the existing loft capabilities of IronCAD, users can create both solid and surface based loft shapes. This addition continues to show the progression of IronCAD's emerging surface modeling capabilities. In the upcoming releases, additional surface creation and editing capabilities will be added, allowing IronCAD to grow in both the solid and surface modeling areas. Catalog Drag & Drop Enhancements Users are now able to drag and drop items directly into any catalog, without first selecting the desired catalog as was necessary in previous versions. With this capability, user can quickly drag items into any catalog without having to specify beforehand which location to drop the items. New Drag & Drop Between Catalogs Enhancements now allow the user to copy items directly from one catalog to another, further enhancing the power of catalogs in IronCAD/Inovate. Scene Browser Scroll Option Additional control over dragging items within the scene browser has been added. By default the scene browser will now scroll dynamically with drag operations. This feature can be adjusted in the Tools/Options menu under Interactions, or by holding down the [ALT] key when dragging. New Color Options Available for 2D Sketch New color options are available for the 2D Sketcher allowing for improved visual representation. Options for 2D profile geometry, geometry constraints, and the geometry indicators can be adjusted in the Tools/Options menu in the color tab. New Linked Instance Dimension Representation A new display representation for dimensions used in certain linked parts/assemblies has been introduced. In the case of child reference dimensions, the extension line and arrows will appear dotted indicating the reference relationship. The originating dimension is displayed in the default display of SmartDimensions. This display representation is used to convey that the linked dimensions are references of the original dimension. These dimensions can be edited and moved. However, they are removed if the linked part/assembly containing the dimension is removed from the linked instance group. To learn more about this behavior, please view the ReadMe.txt contained on the InnovationSuite CD. 3D Curve Editing Capability for Edge Generated 3D Curves Edge generated 3D Curves (3D Curves created by right-clicking on an exiting edge) can now be edited using all existing 3D Curve capabilities. Users can edit the curves using the 3D Curve creation tools (Spline, Line, Arc, and Smoothly Connected Curves). This allows users full functionality in editing 3D Curves created natively or from edge generated 3D Curves. **Drawing Enhancements** New PDF Export Option Available for IronCAD Drawings A new option to export as PDF (Adobe file format) is available from within an IronCAD drawing. This allows the ability to export IronCAD Drawing Files as vector representation files that can be viewed on any computer that has the free Adobe Acrobat viewer installed. Vector representation gives users clean and accurate representation of lines and text when viewing and printing. Viewable IronCAD Drawing Files Native IronCAD Drawings are now viewable with or without IronCAD due to the new IronCAD Drawing Shell Extension. When installed this free utility enables any Windows PC user to right click on an IronCAD 5.2 drawing and view (using Adobe Acrobat) or print it. This functionality exists by default when Ir Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Parrish Posted April 22, 2002 Share Posted April 22, 2002 Thanks for the comprehensive listing, Chris... sound like this next release is a good one... Two questions, though... 1. When is 5.2 due for release? 2. What is the price of the Granite One add-on? Thanks, Dave Parrish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 22, 2002 Author Share Posted April 22, 2002 The development and marketing team are still sticking to "this quarter" for the release date and I have the feeling that they will hit it. Since I don't deal with pricing at all I'll have to leave the granite kernel price to the sales guys. I would normally ask Kevin but "he's" on maternity leave this week. (I'll leave that to your imagination) I'll try to find someone to let you guys know what it will cost. One thing to keep in mind with the granite kernel is the currently functionality will not be lost. IronCAD will still import native ProE parts version 20 and prior without the granite kernel. We would support the latest version for free if we could but PTC decided they didn't want people importing their files without PTC earning a little money for the convenience so they decided to encrypt their format and charge everyone for the Granite Kernel. Another note on the kernel to keep in mind is the kernel only enables you to load/save in whatever the latest version of ProE is. Their latest version is the baseline that granite will function from so all new versions of ProE should be supported but not back versions. This version thing is what PTC chose to do and we can't do anything about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Ludin Posted April 22, 2002 Share Posted April 22, 2002 "this quarter" used to be Q1/02. That has now moved to Q2. So I'm sure it will be realized this quarter, whenever that may be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 22, 2002 Author Share Posted April 22, 2002 They intend to release it in Q1/02 . Release means they officially state it's good to go to manufacturing, it doesn't mean it will actually arrive in that timeframe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Ludin Posted April 23, 2002 Share Posted April 23, 2002 Q1/02 is over already (time funs when you're having flies), does that mean, 5.2 has been released? Beat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 23, 2002 Author Share Posted April 23, 2002 Oh hehe, ok I need to medicate with larger doses of caffeine before I post in the community I'm thinking, quarter = 4, Jan-Feb-Mar-Apr = 4. DUHHHHHH So please allow me to correct myself: This month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsulli Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Thanks for keeping us updated on the upcoming enhancements, Chris. They look very promising. Great job, IronCAD people! BTW, I've noticed that some modeling programs allow you to create (or automatically create) a hole chart, which assigns letters to the different-sized holes. Is there any chance that we may see such a feature in a future release? Thanks, Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Dorrington Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Hey Dave, I think we tried this once before. Check out http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/index.php?showtopic=304 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Parrish Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 While we are at it... can we PLEASE get standardized numbered thread sizes (ie. #8, #10, etc.) and standardized couner-bored holes (ie. for standard english and metric socket head cap screws)? PLEASE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 24, 2002 Author Share Posted April 24, 2002 IronCAD Enhancement Requests go here http://www.ironcad.com/community/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=40 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsulli Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Rick Dorrington: Hey Dave, I think we tried this once before. Check out http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/index.php?showtopic=304 id=quote>id=quote> Oops - it was right under my nose! Thanks, Rick. I really like the new capability of exporting to Adobe Reader format. Although our Documentation department manager insists that "Our official drawing format is Autocad", he is steering toward using more Adobe Reader documents, since they are read-only and will hopefully align us more with ISO 9000 principles. I understand that exporting accurately to Autocad is a moving target, but currently, I must spend an additional 15 minutes to "tidy-up" my Acad exports so that our draftsperson doesn't get upset. Here's a question that's related to this topic: How many of you get to see (in-person) a demo of a newly-released version of IronCAD? We used to be able to do this, but our VAR is not close-by anymore and many of us never actually see all the new features in action. Granted, an on-line or CD-included demo is good, but you can't ask a CD or the computer any questions you may have during the "show". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Parrish Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Good point, Dave... Here's a suggestion... an online Introductory Tour of V5.2. IronCAD would assign one of their resident techno-wizards, like Chris or IronKevin and we could all participate as viewers. Conference call would allow us to ask questions... or, use an online chat mode. To make things go smoothly, perhaps have a presentation outlined and hold questions 'til last. I have participated in one with AutoDesk's Inventor product a while back. The conference was set up by a 3rd party company. It worked really well. Almost like being right there except there were no free donuts or coffee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsulli Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 That's a great idea, Dave. I'd go for that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 24, 2002 Author Share Posted April 24, 2002 In the Whats New document that is included in the help menu, for ever new feature there is a movie showing exactly how to use it. Cary O'Connor spent a great deal of time building these so that you don't need training So once 5.2 releases, if the Show-Me's prove inadequate then everyone please say so and we'll organize an hour of web/phone conference training. If you want to see what a Show-Me movie looks like, just check out the What's New document in the 5.0 help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dlalonde Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Acrobat Reader files (PDF files)are Not read-only! Please see my post on this topic later today for more info. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 24, 2002 Author Share Posted April 24, 2002 Exactly Dave, the cool thing about exporting the PDF is not so that you can just view it, but so that others can load the vector data into Illustrator or other applications and actually manipulate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dlalonde Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Yes, excellent or evil, depending on what you need .... let me give an example.... My wife (evil and cunning) would request autocad general arrangement drawings from the valve manufacturer (big steam valves) and have the drawings edited to add actuators, brackets, had her title block and other info customized with her company info, then sent the altered dwg to the end user. The valve manufacturer got wise and started sending pdf files instead, but she just opens them in Adobe Illustrator and saves them as .dwg files! So much for drawing security. She should hope that the valve mfg doesn't read about security setting in Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not the reader). The pdf can be locked up if required, you can inhibit printing and access to the data in the file. Our art dude provided the image below... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsulli Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Fortunately, Adobe illustrator cannot export to an icd file, so it would be very difficult for someone to be able to modify the native IronCAD file, wouldn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dlalonde Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 Yes, fortunately, but for companies that use ironcad, e-cad, etc only as authoring tools and use pdf as the official distribution and archive format, the security issue remains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizek Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 I saw no mention of adding the ability to modify sheet metal in the flat. Is this no longer coming? It has been promised for quite a while (since 3.0 I believe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 25, 2002 Author Share Posted April 25, 2002 Major functionality like that is never in a point release. Yes it is still planned, when, no set date. The marketing guys control what goes in when based on the amount of effort and I've heard that modeling in the flat goes against the design of sheetmetal and thus might require a significant rewrite. I'll let them know however that you're still waiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizek Posted April 26, 2002 Share Posted April 26, 2002 Chris, When you say, "I've heard that modeling in the flat goes against the design of sheetmetal" are you saying it goes against the IronCAD way of designing sheetmetal or that it goes against general sheetmetal design. I agree, it doesn't seem to fit in the way IronCAD designs sheetmetal well, but if you are talking general sheet metal design, I disagree, the flat design is more important than the actual folded sheet metal part due to the use of standard tooling used to create the flat blanks. I would hope that we could get to the point that you could create in the flat, and select the locations that you want to fold to create your sheetmetal part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted April 26, 2002 Author Share Posted April 26, 2002 I meant it goes against the way we coded sheetmetal. I believe it would be difficult to add the modeling in the flat functionality to our existing code. I have heard that we would have to do more of an extensive rewrite of our code, to support modeling in the flat. Now, I'm just a tech support guy. I'm relaying what I've heard and derived from conversations internally regarding this. I could be completely off base so don't take my word as "official". The bottom line is, they (the guys that decide what goes into our product) understand how important and usefule it is and do plan on adding that functionality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest svangeldern Posted April 26, 2002 Share Posted April 26, 2002 Chris, The new feature list is nice....but.......is there a repaired bug list available? IMHO, I'd rather see proper thread depiction, accurate hardware, ect. then new bells and whistles in a point release. Thanks, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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