D-Cubed Announces the Release of 2D DCM Version 4.3.0

July 2002 - D-Cubed announces the latest release of the 2D DCM, the industry standard solution for 2D variational solving used in the majority of commercial CAD systems across a variety of industries. This release includes some of the most advanced developments undertaken in the history of the product.

Enhanced support for NURBS curves: Designers now have fully functional variational control of freeform curves using a fast and reliable internal NURBS representation. The key point is that the 2D DCM enables advanced curve design techniques to be seamlessly integrated with the familiar dimension driven sketching environment.

Using the 2D DCM, the position and shape of internal splines can be specified by applying dimensions and constraints directly to the spline curve itself or to its control or interpolation points. An application is now also able to control the shape of a curve by specifying conditions, such as tangent direction, tangent magnitude and curvature, at specific points on the curve. These developments give applications access to powerful ways of manipulating spline curves variationally. Specifying the curvature, for example, can be used to assign 'natural' end conditions to spline curves (where the curvature is zero), or to maintain curvature continuity between a spline and its adjacent geometry.

This advanced functionality will appeal to a range of applications. Firstly, those mechanical CAD applications which are developing more sophisticated curve and surface tools for their end users will be able to extend their geometry support whilst maintaining traditional dimension and constraint driven modelling techniques. Secondly, industrial design applications, where freeform curves and surfaces have always been at the forefront, will be able to introduce their customers to the increased productivity made available by parametric design modification.

Similar functionality operating on fully 3-dimensional NURBS curves will be available in the next release of the 3D DCM, Version 2.7.0, currently scheduled for the end of August 2002.

Scalable sets: In addition to the above, enhancements have been implemented to rigid sets. In the 2D DCM, rigid sets define collections of geometries that will not move with respect to one another, whether or not dimensions and constraints are present. Rigid sets provide performance benefits and simplify the design process by eliminating the need to dimension and constrain regions of the model which are not required to be fully variational.

The 2D DCM can move, rotate, and, new in version 4.3.0, scale, a rigid set to solve any constraints applied between its constituent geometry and geometry that is external to the set. The rigid set's internal configuration will not be modified. One application for this functionality is to support the manipulation of standard parts, where a constant shape must be maintained but where the position and size of the part is variable.

About the 2D DCM

The 2D Dimensional Constraint Manager has been used in an increasing number of 2D and 3D CAD systems for over 10 years. In addition to driving the sketcher in many mainstream mechanical CAD products, applications as diverse as standard parts libraries, model translation, mold, ship and garment design have all benefited from the comprehensive, dependable and cost effective solution provided by the 2D DCM.

About D-Cubed Ltd.

Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, England, D-Cubed provides software components and technical consulting services to the CAD/CAM/CAE application development industry in all areas of geometric, solid and variational/parametric modelling. Most of the world�s leading CAD vendors have adopted one or more of D-Cubed�s widely respected component technologies for integration into their end-user applications. We have never developed, and do not intend to develop, our own end-user applications. This focus avoids any competitive conflicts of interest with our customers. 

www.d-cubed.co.uk

 

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