We have many ViaCAD users who also include Adobe Illustrator in their tool chest. One common use is to create text in Adobe Illustrator using their advanced text tools (kerning/tracking) and then importing into ViaCAD. Once in ViaCAD you can extrude into 3D and perform operations such as blending and chamfering. This video shows how you can share data between the two applications.
Encore Software, Inc., a leading retail software publisher and wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of ViaCAD™ 2D/3D v8 in the Apple App Store. ViaCAD is a highly functional, low-cost 2D/3D design product that revolutionizes the entry point for sophisticated, precise, general-purpose design.
New Features: v8 introduces significant feature enhancements related to usability, 2D drafting, 3D modeling, performance, and data sharing. Specific features include:
• New Push/Pull tool for planar objects and faces of solids
• Interactively translate, rotate, scale faces with the Gripper
• Dynamically create linear and polar arrays of features
• Automatically create 3D walls, windows, and doors from 2D drawings
• Create 3D roofs and slabs
• Logicursor™ snapping updated to callout coplanar faces and cylinder axis alignments for intuitive part positioning
Full Featured CAD for All: ViaCAD 2D/3D includes a powerful array of design tools not normally seen at this price including an innovative user interface supporting the LogiCursor™ technology. Based upon the highly precise ACIS® modeling kernel from Dassault, ViaCAD provides over 300 design tools for hobbyist and professional designers. Featured among these tools are:
• Associative NURBS-based modeling with skins, covers, and nets
• Constant and variable radius blending and chamfering
• Twist, bend, boss, hole, Boolean, and shell features
• History based solid modeling
• Local face editing tools for designing independent of history tree
• Draft, annotate, and automatically generate 2D drawings from 3D
• Mass properties and interference checking
• Intelligent wall, door, and window tools
• Access 90 minutes of training videos, plus free phone support
Industry-Standard Interoperability: ViaCAD provides an extensive set of interoperability solutions for professional industry standard data sharing through IGES, STEP, and SAT. Additional formats include SketchUp®, AutoCAD® DXF/DWG, Adobe Illustrator, Rhinoceros®, STL, 3DS Max®, and more.
Pricing and Availability: ViaCAD is available from Apple’s App Store at http://www.itunes.com/appstore/ for $99. For more information including versions for PC visit http://www.punchcad.com/
ViaCAD 2D/3D v8 introduces some exciting new features that once again push the “value” bar higher in the CAD industry. Check out some of the new features and the video demonstrating v8 in action.
• New Push/Pull tool for planar objects and faces of solids
• Interactively translate, rotate, scale faces with the Gripper
• Dynamically create linear and polar arrays of faces
• Automatically create 3D walls, windows, and doors from 2D drawings
• Create 3D roofs and slabs
• Logicursor™ snapping updated to callout coplanar faces and cylinder axis alignments for intuitive part positioning
Visit www.punchcad.com for more information on this new product release.
One my favorite shortcuts is the “c” key. Hitting the “c” key with a snap point highlighted by LogiCursor will set the WorkPlane to the snap location. Hitting the “c” key repeatedly thereafter will toggle the WorkPlane orientation from:
Check out the video below where the “c” key is used to set the workplane for a profile to sweep along a 3D path.
A design practice taught to me while in the aerospace industry is to use construction and reference surfaces where I would later trim these surfaces back into a final surface. This practice seems to produce smoother surfaces. For me, this practice has extended outside the aerospace industry into any shape that may involve complex surfaces. However, when you have many surfaces, the final trimming can be a bit tedious. With that in mind, I’m exploring a new multi-surface split tool inside Shark FX for V8. This tool would allow the designer to select a large number of surfaces, find all intersections, and split accordingly.
Check out the video below where I create an interesting bottle bottom using the multi-surface split tool. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please drop me an email at tim.olson@evo-soft.net.
Dragomir Ivicevic is the founder of XYZ Marine Products which is known in the marine industry for its highly rated Extreme Boat Anchor. Dragomir is also the inventor and mastermind behind the novel design approach that makes this anchor rated #1 in the industry and a preferred choice by demanding customers such as the US Navy and Oceaneering International. The Extreme Boat Anchor was designed using Shark FX.
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Encore is pleased to announce open beta testing of ViaCAD Pro v7 for Mac and PC platforms. Over 120 changes and enhancements have been addressed in this major product upgrade relative to v6. Most notably, ViaCAD Pro now includes photorealistic rendering to produce high quality images from your 3D digital designs. Come visit our new lab site to access the beta and join in on the discussion of this exciting upgrade.
PunchCAD Labs
Download the beta and join the discussion at the labs.
Preliminary Release Notes
Review over 50 pages of new features and changes in the release notes.
ViaCAD Pro v7 Demos
Watch ViaCAD Pro v7 take on modeling a snowboard.
How to use ViaCAD Pro to model a bolt.
This tutorial demonstrates how you can use ViaCAD Pro to create a bolt. Tools demonstrated include :
• Extrude
• Sweep Along Path
• Protrusion
• Intersection Boolean
• Model to Sheet For a 2D Drawing
ViaCAD contains a collection of tools to edit parts without a history tree. These tools are invaluable for modifying parts where you:
Check out the video below showing these interesting tools.
Background
Our first implementation of tools to modify faces independent of features was around 1997. We had source code to the Local Operations technology from Geometric Software Solutions (GSSL). At the time this was a third party component technology on top of ACIS to perform shelling and draft operations. Later the technology was acquired by Spatial and tightly integrated into the ACIS kernel. When you hear feature free modeling hype from CAD vendors typically the underlying workhorse is “Local Operations”. If you are a software geek, click here for the Spatial docs on Local Operations. Interestingly, Local Operations is also the component name within the Parasolid kernel.
I was first introduced to ACIS in 1992 by Bruce Morgan of Spatial. 
For those of you unfamiliar with ACIS, this is the underlying modeling kernel in ViaCAD and Shark. At that time I was responsible for Lockheed’s internal CAD development group. Bruce came in with his ACIS sales hat on with the mission to get Lockheed to incorporate ACIS components into our CAD tools.
What he set into motion though was something quite different!