3D Systems Ships 3DMe Photobooth for Retail, Event Spaces

ROCK HILL, SC, USA, Aug 29, 2015 - 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced the immediate availability of its new generation of 3DMe Photobooth, which brings the full 3DMe experience to retail spaces and events. Always a popular attraction at events around the country, this revamped version includes an attractive user interface and is fine-tuned for easier point-of-sale, revenue reporting, and user experience.

3DMe Photobooth uses 3D imaging technology to capture an instant, photo-realistic facial image. Users can put their face on seasonal and branded collections of customizable 3DMe figurines, including characters from “Ghostbusters” and “Walking Dead.” Utilizing Photobooth’s state-of-the-art technology, users can play animations of their personalized character, social share and order 3D-printed full color figurines-all within minutes from the Photobooth kiosk.

For owners, the latest version of 3DMe Photobooth adds upon the kiosk’s consumer popularity, integrating enhanced operating features that make it even easier to maintain and operate. A new point-of-sale (POS) system allows onsite purchasing with a credit card reader, and included revenue tracking systems help owners pinpoint trends. Even the shipping and packing of the unit are streamlined. In minutes, after unpacking the 3DMe Photobooth, vendors can be attracting customers and generating revenue.

In addition, the new 3DMe Photobooth’s skin can be customized for improved visibility and branding. 3DMe Photobooth’s content can also be refreshed based on brands and seasons, so vendors can provide the free content and styles that attract new and returning consumers.

“We’re excited for the new opportunities that 3DMe Photobooth brings to retail and event spaces for increased foot traffic, recurring revenue, and for the joy it brings users,” said Peter Theran, Vice President of Global Consumer Products, 3DS. “3DMe Photobooth is always hugely popular with consumers, and now it’s easier for owners, too. It’s a win for everyone.”

3DMe Photobooth will have 12 language options and is available through authorized 3D Systems resellers and distributors.

To watch a video of 3DMe Photobooth for retail and event activations click here. To learn more about 3DMe Photobooth and how to become a reseller, click click here.

About 3D Systems

3D Systems provides the most advanced and comprehensive 3D digital design and fabrication solutions available today, including 3D printers, print materials and cloud-sourced custom parts. Its powerful ecosystem transforms entire industries by empowering professionals and consumers everywhere to bring their ideas to life using its vast material selection, including plastics, metals, ceramics and edibles. 3DS’ leading personalized medicine capabilities save lives and include end-to-end simulation, training and planning, and printing of surgical instruments and devices for personalized surgery and patient specific medical and dental devices. Its democratized 3D digital design, fabrication and inspection products provide seamless interoperability and incorporate the latest immersive computing technologies. 3DS’ products and services disrupt traditional methods, deliver improved results and empower its customers to manufacture the future now. For more information, visit www.3dsystems.com.

3D Systems Ships GibbsCAM 2015 for Production Machining

ROCK HILL, SC, USA, Aug 29,  2015 - 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced that it has begun shipping the latest version of GibbsCAM, its software for production machining. This comprehensive update to 3DS’ industry-leading software incorporates an all-new Universal Kinematic Machine (UKM) engine that further simplifies CNC programming. The release also includes multiple enhancements that extend capabilities and accommodate new machines of all configurations. For video overviews of GibbsCAM 2015,  click here.

As an integral component of 3DS’ design-to-manufacturing digital thread, facilitating cross-technology manufacturing between additive and subtractive methods, GibbsCAM enables improved production efficiency and greater profitability. Developed for ease-of-use, GibbsCAM empowers numerical control programmers and machinists with solid modeling, 2- through 5-axis milling, high speed machining, mill/turn, Swiss, multi-task machining and wire-EDM capabilities.

“We are committed to providing 3D digital design and fabrication solutions that enable our customers to be more productive and competitive,” said Ilan Erez, Vice President, co-Chief Operating Officer and CFO, Software Products, 3DS. “With the recent addition of GibbsCAM to the 3DS digital manufacturing thread portfolio, our customers can now enjoy the ability to use both subtractive and additive manufacturing to achieve the highest productivity possible. Manufacturers can use the two technologies in tandem, printing a metal part and then using a milling machine to achieve the required surface finish, for example. It’s a perfect fit.

“With the new release of GibbsCAM 2015 we enable our customers to program any machine with a single program and a single interface,” continued Erez. “The new features and enhancements in GibbsCAM 2015 are designed to save time in programming, provide more flexibility in selecting and using tools, and make toolpath verification and machine simulation more accurate and efficient.”

Some of the new features in GibbsCAM 2015 include:

• New Tooling Functions and Capabilities that extend the ability to define, use and simulate tools, with new icons and dynamic 3D viewing of tools and tool holders. Support for straight, tapered and stepped shanks was extended to all mill tools, while new mill and lathe tool types are also introduced, including 3D form tools and 75° Diamond (ISO E-style) lathe tools.
• Numerous Enhancements for Hole-making that include additional support for hole features from CAD systems and full associativity for hole features from Autodesk Inventor, CATIA v5, Solid Edge and SolidWorks. New is the Hole Editor for editing hole features, including compound holes, which are supported with multiple straight, tapered and threaded segments. In addition, feature recognition has been enhanced, and the 5-axis drilling interface has been streamlined. These features simplify hole-making operations and make the programming process faster.
• Intermediate Tooling Support for Multi-task Machining (MTM), which makes tooling more manageable, simulation more accurate, and programming easier, with more accurate placement and orientation of tools. Additions include a tool block library and support for tool blocks, such as adapter blocks, holders for tool holders, right-angle and adjustable heads, and flash tooling. A fixture library and support for fixtures (chucks, tailstocks, steady rests and other work holding devices) are included.
• Machine Simulation which is greatly improved as a result of UKM, intermediate tooling support, and an improved rendering palette. Rendering is more accurate and efficient, displaying intermediate tooling for a more complete simulation of all moving components. Customized monitoring of key conditions is enabled with a new Stops and Watches feature. Combined, these additions make the programming-through-simulation process faster and more accurate.
• Integration with Sandvik Coromant’s Adveon Tool Library, which enables importing tools from Sandvik and ISO 13399 compliant systems to make a standard library available at any time, simplifying tool definition and tooling-data management. This also allows a shop to build, save and reuse a library, and link tools and tool assemblies to parts and processes, enabling faster reuse of a program for a subsequent part run, and faster updating when parts change.

Learn more about 3DS’ commitment to manufacturing the future today at www.3dsystems.com, and the new GibbsCAM 2015 software here.

About 3D Systems

3D Systems provides the most advanced and comprehensive 3D digital design and fabrication solutions available today, including 3D printers, print materials and cloud-sourced custom parts. Its powerful ecosystem transforms entire industries by empowering professionals and consumers everywhere to bring their ideas to life using its vast material selection, including plastics, metals, ceramics and edibles. 3DS’ leading personalized medicine capabilities save lives and include end-to-end simulation, training and planning, and printing of surgical instruments and devices for personalized surgery and patient specific medical and dental devices. Its democratized 3D digital design, fabrication and inspection products provide seamless interoperability and incorporate the latest immersive computing technologies. 3DS’ products and services disrupt traditional methods, deliver improved results and empower its customers to manufacture the future now. For  more information, visit www.3dsystems.com.

Delcam Hosts 2015 Asian Tech Summit in Bangalore

BIRMINGHAM, UK, Aug 29, 2015 - Delcam held its 2015 Asian Technical Summit in Bangalore earlier this month, where the company presented its latest technical and financial news to the media, customers and academics from both India and the wider Asian region. Headline sponsor for the meeting, the fifteenth in the series, was again HP, which presented its latest hardware developments to the attendees.

The meeting was the first Summit to be held since the appointment of Pete Baxter as Vice President in February. The audience was, therefore, especially interested hear his presentation on Delcam and its part in parent company Autodesk’s philosophy on ‘The Future of Making Things’.

The main focus of the other presentations at the Summit was on the latest versions of Delcam’s range of CAM systems that are due to be demonstrated at the EMO exhibition in Italy during October. Updates were also included on the other software in the Delcam portfolio, including the company’s design, reverse engineering and inspection software.

The program also featured presentations from several of Delcam’s Indian customers. These included companies from Delcam’s traditional markets in toolmaking and subcontract machining, such as Godrej Ltd – Tooling Division, Ashcraft Engineers and Shree Engineers, as well as Mr. Vijayragavan from Titan Company Ltd, who described his company’s use of Delcam’s PowerMILL and ArtCAM software in the manufacture of watches. In addition, speakers from IMTMA and TAGMA detailed how their associations were working with Delcam to improve skills and productivity within Indian manufacturing.

International customers that presented at the Summit were Jason Hogan from 360 Knee Systems, who described his company’s use of Delcam software in the manufacture of bespoke systems for knee replacement surgery, and Craig Tanner from ASPETAR Sports Hospital, who talked about his work producing custom orthotic insoles for elite athletes with Delcam’s OrthoMODEL system.

Even so, the presentation that received the most interest from the audience was that by Prof. Karunakaran, from the Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT Bombay. He covered several projects on hybrid layer manufacturing using PowerMILL to program both additive manufacturing with different welding techniques and the subsequent machining of the welded structures into finished parts. For more information, visit www.delcam.com.

ODA Appoints Sergey Vishnevetsky as Director of Development

PHOENIX, AZ, Aug 28, 2015 - Open Design Alliance (ODA) announced the appointment of Sergey Vishnevetsky as its new Director of Development.

Vishnevetsky joined the ODA in 2002 as a software developer and was involved in the early stages of the Teigha platform, before its first release. His ability to solve engineering problems along with his technical knowledge and experience led to his appointment as Development Manager in 2013.

“I have gained great satisfaction from addressing complex development tasks and enabling the ODA to bring the Teigha project from concept through to a mature and widely used product,” he said. “I enjoy the fact that my job demands creative vision as well as organizational management and team leadership.”

ODA President, Neil Peterson, said “Sergey has a thorough understanding of system analysis, design and testing plus solid experience in CAD application development. In addition he has built a high-performance development team, which focuses on the strategic aspects of software development as well as urgent day-to-day-tasks.”

Before joining the ODA Vishnevetsky worked on various research and development projects in the areas of visual representation and data storage. He has extensive experience of software optimization, working with a range of platforms and languages. His areas of knowledge include the full software life cycle process; object oriented analysis and design; Agile software development; and CAD.

For more information, visit http://www.opendesign.com.

IMSI/Design Ships TurboCAD LTE Pro v8

NOVATO, CA, USA, Aug 28, 2015 - IMSI/Design, a leading software provider and developer of the #1 best-selling CAD in retail, announced the release of TurboCAD LTE Pro version 8 for Windows 10. TurboCAD LTE Pro 8 is a major update to the professional 2.5D CAD solution that works like AutoCAD LT, with similar UI, command line, and support for .DWG, but boasts many additional, innovative features. A new customizable object manipulation tool, IFC import, and improved roof tools are among dozens of new and improved features. A video is available at http://youtu.be/d3GW1tL5Tr0

“TurboCAD LTE Pro continues to be a robust CAD alternative or companion product for professionals, especially those users familiar with AutoCAD products and looking for common architectural and mechanical design features”, stated Bob Mayer, President of IMSI/Design. “This is our first TurboCAD release since the release of Windows 10 and we believe customers will find LTE’s performance is really optimized under the new OS”, added Mayer.” TurboCAD LTE Pro version 8 also supports Windows 8, 7, and Vista.

TurboCAD LTE Pro V8 new and improved features include:

Architectural / Simple BIM

• New IFC Import: Simple Building Information Modeling (BIM) is now more advanced with the ability to import intelligent Walls, Doors, Windows, Slabs and Roofs saved in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format, the industry standard for BIM information.
• Improve Roof Angles: TurboCAD now makes it easy to control the rise/run and/or degrees of a roof angle.
• New Slab Roof Object Types: TurboCAD now allows users to make a roof slab object type. With one slab, you can quickly create a flat roof, or use in conjunction with new roof angles, mitering, and edge cut tools to join several slabs together and create nearly any roof style.
• New Mitering of Roof Slabs: Select two or more roof slabs and have them “meet” automatically.
• New Roof Edge Cut Orientation: A new “Edge cut” roof property for roof slabs allows users to select different methods of roof building, either plumb or square.
• Improved Roof Modifier: Now you can quickly create holes in roofs for chimney’s, skylights, etc. and trim edges of roofs. 

Productivity and Usability Enhancements 

• New Conceptual Selector: Manipulate and modify 3D objects like never before. The totally flexible design of Conceptual Selector allows users to customize any visual and editing parameters available in the application (eg. Move, scale, or rotate).
• Improved Nudge: The TurboCAD Nudge function now offers more efficient pick-up and placement of selected object(s) using the numbers pad.
• Improved Block/Group Editing: While in block/group edit mode, users can now snap to objects outside the block or group.
• More Flexible UI: Users can now re-size dialog boxes as needed for their design environment. Adjust the screen size, resolution, and more. Works with the majority of dialog boxes including general property pages, multiline text, dimensions, program setup, and Drawing options pages.
• New Contact Manager & File Sharing: Users now have the ability to create and maintain contact lists and send files to individuals or groups from within TurboCAD.
• New Backup Open Documents On Program Close: New default option automatically saves any modified documents you have open when the program closes, and then reloads when the program is next opened.
• New Untitled Documents: Documents that you have created and not saved are backed up using the name "Untitled" followed by a number and the date/time.
• New File Buffer: New option to save the Undo/Redo buffer of a file when it closes. The buffer is re-loaded when the file is reopened, to be used from the last point. 

Rendering and Visualization

• Improved RedSDK Rendering: Updated engine (to v3.5.0.2) and new displacement shader for more realistic materials.
• Dynamic Cutaway Plane: Cut away plane, for looking inside a 3D model, works in draft mode, in mixed draft and wireframe, and in mixed draft and hidden line modes. 

Drafting and Detailing

• Improved Format Painter Tool: Use the Format Painter to transfer Custom Properties and Property Set Definitions (PSD) from one object to another. This huge productivity improvement is also a crucial feature for extending BIM/IFC models.
• New Dimension Units Format ‘By Drawing’: Users can now globally define dimension units at the drawing level.
• Improved Dimension Text: Dimension Text can be set to non-rotatable. With this property selected, dimension text will always face the user no matter the orientation of the drawing.
• Sorted Layers in Drop Down Lists: The Layers in the drop down and simple lists are now sorted as per the Design Director. If you change the control view order in Design Director the same ordering will be in all other Layer controls.
• Improved Trim Tools: New ability to trim hatched or closed objects and maintain the hatch or closure.
• Improved Join Polyline Tool: The Join Polyline Tool now works on Beziers and splines without converting them to a polyline, so that their original curve status is maintained. 

Interoperability 

• Improved AutoCAD (DWG/DXF): Read/write filters for 2013-2015. Dynamic blocks are imported as simple blocks.
• New SketchUp (SKP): Read/write filter based on SketchUp 2015. 

Availability and Pricing

TurboCAD LTE Pro version 8 has a suggested retail price of $299.99 and is now available. Also available is TurboCAD LTE with a suggest retail price of $149.99. Upgrade pricing is also available to previous owners of TurboCAD LTE. For more information, visit www.TurboCAD.com or call IMSI/Design at 1.800.833.8082 (+1.415.483.8000).

About IMSI/Design

IMSI/Design is the global leader in retail CAD (Computer Aided Design) and home design desktop software, and a pioneer in mobile solutions for the AEC (Architectural, Engineering, and Construction) industry. With over 16 million products distributed since 1988, IMSI/Design products include the award-winning TurboCAD, DesignCAD, TurboFloorPlan, TurboViewer, and TurboSite families of precision design applications for desktop and mobile. For more information, visit www.IMSIdesign.com.

CNC Reorganizes Educational Division

TOLLAND, CT, USA, Aug 28, 2015 - CNC Software, Inc.’s dedicated educational division recently underwent organizational changes designed to better align it with the needs of the industry it serves. Effective July 1, 2015, the group of four representatives housed in the Gig Harbor, WA office report to divisional leaders located in the Tolland, CT headquarters.

“This is an exciting quarter as it marks the official integration of our educational division into our corporate office. It is more important than ever that we continue to respond to the needs of the educational industry since they are helping to develop the future of manufacturing.” President Meghan Summers West said. “We made a strategic decision to align this division even closer with the rest of our company. Previously, our educational group worked as a standalone department, but now it has been integrated into our main organization, allowing us to allocate even more resources to our educational ventures.”

Dan Newby, who had previously served as the Educational Sales Manager for over 27 years, will report to Doug Nemeth, Director of Sales for North America and Europe, and will continue his work as Educational Territory Manager. He will now have additional and increased support combining efforts from the entire corporate sales department. Other staff onsite in Gig Harbor will report to respective department managers in Tolland, CT.

“I’m excited about this change because it means we’ll be able to better understand and respond to the needs of all of our customers – whether they are in the educational or industrial arena,” Doug Nemeth said. “By integrating both divisions, we can leverage the expertise and experience of our entire staff and continue to lead the way when it comes to preparing students for jobs in manufacturing.”

CNC Software’s commitment to the educational industry is evident in its devotion to exciting and engaging educators and students to help develop future machinists, engineers, and programmers. According to the most recent analysis of CAM software seats produced by CIMdata, Inc., CNC Software’s Mastercam is the world's most widely used CAM software in both industrial and educational settings. With over 100,000 paid, installed educational seats worldwide, Mastercam has nearly twice the installed base of the closest competitor.

For more information about CNC Software, Inc. and/or its product Mastercam, visit www.mastercam.com or call 800-228-2877. Outside of the USA, call 011-860-875-5006.

Pointwise, Sculptor, OpenFOAM Webinar on 15 Sep, 10AM CDT

FORT WORTH, TX, USA, Aug 27, 2015 - Pointwise and Optimal Solutions will present a webinar entitled “Automotive Design Optimization using Pointwise, Sculptor, and OpenFOAM” on 15 September at 10 a.m. CDT (GMT - 5).

High quality meshing coupled with robust shape deformation techniques enable large design space exploration for optimization without the need to remesh the geometry. To demonstrate this, we introduce a collection of best practices for cleaning complex analytic CAD encountered in the automotive industry and demonstrate a robust meshing technology in Pointwise that can automatically generate high quality boundary layer resolved meshes that retain their quality when morphed by Optimal Solutions' Sculptor during the optimization process.

Hybrid volume mesh generated for the full DrivAer model using Pointwise's T-Rex with cells colored by  volume.

The case study for this work is the DrivAer model developed by the Institute of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the Technische Universität München. Using this geometry, we demonstrate a technique called Solid Meshing to heal faults in the geometry and recover the original engineering intent and when coupled with T-Rex (anisotropic tetrahedral extrusion) enables automated, high quality volumetric grid generation.

Using the DrivAer mesh, we define a set of volumetric shape deformations using few design variables within Sculptor. A technology called Arbitrary Shape Deformation is used to smoothly morph the nodes of the mesh that are inside of the volumetric deformation space. Even for large deformations, this technology can maintain surface boundary layer thickness and orientation.

By eliminating the requirement to remesh after each volumetric deformation, solution changes are minimized and primarily subjected to the changes seen by the OpenFOAM flow results due to model differences. Also, all tools have been coupled to form an automated optimization framework making it possible to find the subtle shape changes that produce large improvements in design performance.

This webinar will demonstrate how to

• Quickly clean up and organize dirty CAD using Solid Meshing.
• Generate a high quality surface and volume mesh using T-Rex.
• Save time by directly examining grid quality metrics within Pointwise.
• Export grid and boundary conditions in native OpenFOAM format.
• Easily define shape deformation control points using Sculptor.

Presenters will be Pointwise's Travis Carrigan and Mark Landon from Optimal Solutions.

Mark Landon is the Chief Technology Officer and founder of Optimal Solutions software. He is the architect of Sculptor, a program for morphing CAD, CFD, FEA, geometry and shape optimization. Dr. Landon holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Structural Mechanics from Brigham Young University (1989). He has also been an Adjunct Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Colorado, the University of Idaho, and Brigham Young University, a Senior Advisory Engineer at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory (1993 to 2011). Previous employment includes working on the Space Shuttle Main Engines and performing aerodynamics shape optimization of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles for DOD & NASA. 

For more information or to register, go to www.pointwise.com/webinar.

About Pointwise, Inc.

Pointwise, Inc. is solving the top problem facing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) today - reliably generating high-fidelity meshes. The company's Pointwise software generates structured, unstructured and hybrid meshes; interfaces with CFD solvers, such as ANSYS FLUENT, STAR-CCM+, ANSYS CFX, OpenFOAM, and SU2 as well as many neutral formats, such as CGNS; runs on Windows (Intel and AMD), Linux (Intel and AMD), and Mac, and has a scripting language, Glyph, that can automate CFD meshing. Large manufacturing firms and research organizations worldwide rely on Pointwise as their complete CFD preprocessing solution. For more information, visit www.pointwise.com.

About Optimal Solutions

Optimal Solutions' flagship product Sculptor provides innovative, proprietary technology, Arbitrary Shape Deformation, so engineers can deliver improved/optimized designs for many applications in less time than using traditional methods. Sculptor gives the engineer the tools to morph CAD, FEA, multi-physics CAE, CFD, or other geometric numerical models to find those subtle changes that create substantial improvements in design performance. Sculptor has an internal Optimization Control Center or it can be linked to most commercial and governmental optimization codes to fully automate the analysis/optimization process. Design of Experiments with Surface Response Methodology with graphics can be used to quickly explore and visualize the design space. Multiple Disciplinary Analysis and Optimization, fluid structure interaction, Shape Matching, and applying the deformations on the original CAD models are just a few of the areas where Sculptor has been used by many of the world's leading institutions. For more information, visit http://gosculptor.com/.

Delcam to Preview PartBuilder for Additive Manufacturing at TCT

BIRMINGHAM, UK, Aug 26, 2015 - Delcam will preview its new set of pre-processing software tools for manufacture by 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing at the TCT Show to be held at the NEC, Birmingham, on 30th September and 1st October. The PartBuilder software, which is currently under development at Delcam’s Birmingham headquarters, will provides quick and easy methods to prepare for production CAD files from both native and neutral formats.

PartBuilder covers four main steps in model preparation:

1. Checking the quality of the CAD model and repairing any problems it might have
2. Positioning the part in the optimum orientation for layer-by-layer manufacture
3. Addition of any fixtures, supports and other geometry that might be required to ensure reliable manufacture and easier post-processing
4. Exporting the complete data in a suitable file format for manufacture

At the start of the process, PartBuilder undertakes an analysis of the imported CAD model to verify the quality of the incoming design and so give the best possible chance of successful manufacture. Common problems in either solid models or mesh files, such as gaps or overlaps in the data, can be identified and repaired to give a water-tight CAD file that will generate an accurate and successful part.

The CAD model is then positioned within the machine envelope, either for manufacture as a single item or as part of a group of components that will be built simultaneously. Orienting the model on the build platform must consider a number of factors, including production time and cost, fixturing quality, heat effects and any critical areas of the part. PartBuilder allows the user to accept the optimized suggestions made automatically by the software or to try a variety of manually selected orientations.

Fixturing can then be created in PartBuilder that may be required for a number of reasons, the most important being the need to support the mass of the part during the build. Fixtures are also used to transfer heat away from the part so that thermal and mechanical stresses are minimized.

PartBuilder is able to analyze the model to identify critical areas that need fixtures to ensure geometric stability during the build and adequate heat management, and to generate the geometry required. As with the part orientation, the user has the ability to edit the suggested results manually if required.

The positioning of the fixtures also needs to take account of their removal after the build, both to ease their removal and to minimize any witness marks or scars that may be left on the part.

In addition to fixtures, other geometry types may need to be added, such as spigots to grip the part during polishing and other finishing operations, or datum tabs to provide a known location for finish machining programs.

The final stage is the export the complete model from PartBuilder in a suitable data file format for the 3D Printer or AM equipment. PartBuilder can output models in a growing range of manufacturers’ proprietary file formats, including CLI data for EOS machines and MTT data for Renishaw equipment, as well as STL mesh data that can be processed directly by most additive machines’ own software. For more information, visit http://www.delcam.com.