When working with different suppliers as part of the design and manufacturing process, there will always be a requirement to exchange design data back and forth. However, the CAD systems used by different suppliers may be different to the ones you use.

So how do you go about exchanging data if it’s in a different format?

Theorem CADverter products offer the capability to receive, create, work with or share CAD data that is not native to your own company. CADverter allows direct translation between many of the major CAD systems as well as standards based formats such as STEP.

The latest CADverter range of products from Theorem now support the processing of Model Based Definition (MBD) information as standard.

This is helping to streamline the manufacturing process into a paper free process by producing an information rich 3D CAD model that fully defines a product/component ready for manufacture.

CADverter products translate assembly structure, geometry, attribute, and where available 3D Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) (FTA) (GD&T) and Metadata between CAD systems. As modern 3D CAD applications allow for the insertion of 3D dimensions and annotations, as well as other product information within the 3D digital data set, for both components and assemblies, the risk of error is greatly reduced as all information required to manufacture is also translated to the new format helping to remove the need for the more traditional 2D drawing creation process.

GoUniversity is a different kind of classroom offering on demand training for product design teams. GoUniversity offers busy people and companies the benefit of 24×7 access to training classes as a more flexible way to reach your goals.

It’s free, convenient, and interactive with live CHAT to get your questions answered during business hours. Courses are built by trainers and engineers that use the same products you do every day.

What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2016
A Digital Launch Experience

Our featured GoUniversity course is What’s New in SolidWorks 2016.  Sometimes it’s hard to travel to a seminar or to have an entire engineering team travel to a technical event. We’ve taken the newest features and enhancements built into SOLIDWORKS 2016 and gone digital for your convenience.

As a first-year Denver Math Fellow (I assist math teachers and tutor in small groups), last week I was give a reprieve from my daily grind of lesson plans and teaching by participating in what my school calls Explore Week. This is a week where I was partnered with a teacher, chose a topic to explore with students, made a video promoting our explore class, and had students sign up to join us.

The topic my teaching partner and I decided on was “Creating Furniture Using Non-Traditional Methods and Materials.” Our course included designing and creating furniture models from cardboard, as well as 3D printing simple models. It was a lot of fun, and as I said, a nice change of pace, not to mention I really felt I was in my comfort zone.

Explore Week was made possible by the efforts of several companies, including:

Software we used for the project:

• Onshape for 3D design for 3D printing
• Autodesk 123D Make for converting 3D designs to 2D cardboard designs for laser cutting of cardboard

Hardware we used for the project:

• Epilog laser cutter (owned by the school)
• MakerBot (Fifth Generation) (also owned by the school)

Example 3D printed models were generously provided by:

• Wohlers Associates
• The 3D Printing Store (which also provided an excellent presentation on 3D printing, as well as bringing a MakerBot Replicator 2 onsite for additional printing capability)