16 Design Product News Technical Literature Environmental metal recovery. Eriez has introduced a brochure about the company’s eco-friendly products and sustainable practices using technology for magnetic, vibratory and inspection applications. www.eriez.com Overload safety couplings. 12-page Zero- Max catalog of Torq Tender overload safety couplings has been published. The overload safety couplings disengage motor drives for overload protection in models that will disengage torques from 2 to 3000 in. lb. www.zero-max.com Vibration Mounts. The V115 CD-ROM from Advanced Antivibration Components features vibration mount catalogs and eStore Interactive links to over 3000 products. From the CD-ROM, users are able to order online, request a quote, check stock, and download 3D models. www.vibrationmounts.com Power products. The Phihong Technology Power Solutions catalog includes fixed and interchangeable-plug wall plug adapters, car chargers, desktop adapters, open frame power supplies, LED drivers, and Power-over-Ethernet products. www.phihong.com/catalog/index.html Bearings, cable carriers. 2009 catalogs from igus are available on CD-ROM. The searchable CD features full versions of the company’s cable carrier, continuous-flex cables and bearings print catalogs, as well as videos and links to CAD files. www.igus.com Vibration measurement. IOtech has released the 2009 Vibration Measurement and Analysis Solutions Catalog and is available for download from the IOtech website. Included in the catalog is the IOtech 600 Series of Dynamic Signal Analyzers (DSA). www.iotech.com Inch, metric components. Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument has announced a 360-page “Inch / Metric Supplement Catalog, D795” CD catalog. http://sdp-si.com/web/html/newprd- D795CD.htm CAD Industry Watch By Bill Fane Are you a large operation that suddenly needs a few extra basic CAD seats in a hurry Are you a smaller operation that only needs a few CAD seats Do you only need a CAD seat on an occasional basis DoubleCAD XT from IMSI/Design could be the answer. DoubleCAD XT is available as a free download from http://www.doublecad.com/Download/ tabid/1128/Default.aspx. That’s right; a fully-functional unlimited commercial-use license is free. DoubleCAD XT 1.1 claims to be AutoCAD LT 2009 compatible workalike, with 2010 “coming.” My first impression was that DoubleCAD XT 1.1 looks almost exactly like AutoCAD LT 2008, with toolbars that appear to be virtually identical to the AutoCAD 2008 products. It does not have a ribbon menu, as do the comparable AutoCAD 2009 products (illustration above). DoubleCAD XT calls itself a “workalike,” suggesting that users can easily switch back and forth between it and AutoCAD LT. There are two issues here. The first is that there are some differences between the two in how the interface and some commands operate, including differences in what happens when you press Esc, the space bar or Enter. The other main issue is the basic interface itself. If your background is AutoCAD 2008 or earlier then you could probably convert or even switch back and forth without too much trouble. On the other hand, switching between DoubleCAD dpncanada.com September 2009 DoubleCAD XT: Capable CAD at zero cost AutoCAD LT 2009 (background), AutoCAD 2008, DoubleCAD XT (foreground). AutoCAD LT user market the target for DoubleCAD XT XT and AutoCAD 2009 or later would probably be about as awkward as switching from or between AutoCAD 2008 and earlier versus AutoCAD 2009 and later. DoubleCAD XT has its own proprietary file format, but it also claims to support AutoCAD .DWG files from R14 up to 2009. For the most part it seems to, but there are a couple of points to be noted. One item that may be significant in your operation is the fact that AutoCAD 2008 added self-scaling annotative objects such as text and dimensions. AutoCAD LT offers full support for them, but DoubleCAD XT only displays the first size created and does not display the alternates for other scales that may be attached. Also, it does not have any method of setting the annotation scale, so all annotative objects appear all the time in all viewports regardless of viewport scales. The most significant point, however, occurred when I saved the drawing from DoubleCAD XT and reopened it in AutoCAD LT. The annotative objects had lost their annotativeness, and all the alternate scale representations had disappeared. Another significant difference is support for External REFerences (XREF). The Help facility sort of says that DoubleCAD XT supports them, but the wording is a little vague. What actually happens is that the “externally-referenced” file simply gets absorbed into the current drawing as a local block definition. Interestingly, DoubleCAD XT properly opens an AutoCAD drawing containing xrefs, and the xref connections survive the round trip if you save it back and then re-open it in AutoCAD. On the other hand, DoubleCAD XT has a number of features not found in AutoCAD, such as self-healing walls, transparent fills, Bezier curves, and support for Google SketchUp. Bill Fane (bill_fane@bcit.ca) is a software reviewer and retired mechanical engineering instructor at BCIT in Burnaby, BC. ADVICE & GUIDANCE NEED A TECHNICAL SPECIALIST FOR YOUR ADHESIVE NEEDS Master Bond Can Help! We solve problems. For more than 30 years Master Bond has offered world class technical service. When you contact us, you speak directly to a knowledgeable, experienced technical representative who has years of expertise in solving problems. This assigned representative will understand your needs and will work with you throughout the design, prototype and manufacturing process. Our approach to specific technical problems emphasizes simplicity of application and reproducibility of results. We provide clear-cut answers to questions and recognize the uniqueness of every application. Contact us today and let us select a compound tailor made to your specifications. 154 Hobart St., Hackensack, NJ 07601 Tel: 201-343-8983 ■ Fax: 201-343-2132 www.masterbond.com ■ main@masterbond.com EPOXIES • SILICONES • POLYURETHANES • CYANOACRYLATES • UV CURES MapleSim 2 analyzes the 3rd dimension Last year, Maplesoft introduced its MapleSim 1.0 product. With it, designers and engineers can create mathematical models of complex electro-mechanical-thermal systems simply by dragging and dropping objects from a comprehensive library of several hundred predefined component modules and then connecting them together as appropriate. The just released MapleSim 2 feeds everything to the Maple 13 computational engine when you run a simulation of your design. Maple 13 then derives the equations, simplifies them by as much as 90%, and returns the probed results as graphical plots. You can easily play what-if scenarios by changing the input parameters and then running the simulation again. MapleSim 2 makes it even easier MapleSim 2 can produce 3D animations of its output, as well as create graphic plots. to optimize your design in that you can now work backwards. You simply define a desired output and then the input parameters are automatically varied until the output matches what you wanted. Another very significant change in MapleSim 2 is the addition of 3D visualization and animation capabilities. As you create your model, physical connection links are represented as simple ball-and-stick connections. When your analysis runs, MapleSim 2 still produces the same graphed outputs from your probe points that version 1 did, but it also displays a 3D animation that can be viewed from a number of orthogonal or pictorial viewing directions. Force and torque arrows and path tracks can also be displayed. You can re-play the animation, pause, rewind, play backwards, or use a slider bar to go to a specific frame without running the analysis again. Fast-forward and fastbackward speed can be varied by more than two billion to one (2 ±31 ) so that you can analyse something as slow as a bureaucrat or as fast as something breaking just after the warranty expires.
September 2009 dpncanada.com Design Product News 17 How do we turn more ideas into successful products The Siemens answer: PLM Software to build the right product — and build the product right. Escalating costs. Tighter schedules. Increased complexity. The challenge of turning more ideas into successful products has never been greater. You need a product lifecycle management solution that improves everything from design to manufacturing – and beyond. Find out how Siemens PLM Software can help your company stand out, no matter how tough the challenge. www.siemens.com/plm/answers. Answers for Industry. © 2009 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of Siemens AG. All other logos, trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners.