2006 Series Builds on Revolutionary Target Driven Design(TM) Approach to Product Design and Development
In its 2006 release, thinkiD DesignXpressions offers new interactive capabilities, pain-free shape and model modifications and enhancements to GSM3 (Global Shape Modeling). It is the only creation/modification tool that creates rapid and accurate variations, modifications or refinements anytime, anywhere in the product design process -- allowing for faster iterations, unlimited design creativity and no rebuilding.
Major 2006 DesignXpressions enhancements include:
- GSM Planar. Designers can interactively manipulate and modify an
object's shape without worrying about design intent. This approach
provides both accuracy and quality while offering the same feel as clay
modeling.
- Dynamic Morphing. In Dynamic Mode, users can create infinite variations
of shape changes from a controlled GSM modification, preview them and
then stop to select just the right one. This offers a much higher level
of design freedom.
- Associative Blending Curves and Shapes: think3's tool for blending
curves and shapes is now associative (history-based). Designers can use
it to test a frame of "parametric free-form design." Associative
Blending Curves and Shapes introduces the ultimate "what if" tool for
making changes and fine-tuning curves. Users can also smoothly blend
shapes and update, while modifying the reference shapes.
- Associative Global Sweep. DesignXpressions' distinctive way of sweeping
curves along a 2D or 3D path, which can also contain sharp corners, is
also now associative. Users can experiment with different shapes by
changing driving curves and boundaries. For instance, to prepare
objects for moldmaking, designers and engineers can link parting lines
of their objects and addendum surfaces generated with Associative
Global Sweep. In effect, when changing the object, the parting line
will change and the addendum surfaces will update accordingly.
- Automotive Grid. The Automotive Grid is a handy, multipurpose tool for
designers to manage large objects -- cars, trains, airplanes, boats --
on a 2D grid layout, rather than standard dimensioning.
"Our goal of freeing designers of the traditional burdens they face in computer-aided design continues," said David Ciarloni, director of industrial design product marketing for think3. "DesignXpressions allows designers to concentrate on their passion -- design and shapes -- not the complexities of math and algorithms. More importantly, they have the comfort of knowing their designs are both beautiful and accurate."
Also new with this release think3's thinkdesign, offering best-in-class 3D design, has a number of new enhancements. New features include:
- Animations Maker. Designers can now conveniently create animations to
check collisions. Designers avoid design errors, improve quality and
quickly achieve the best results. Additionally AVI files can be created
for presentation development.
- Advanced performance in large assemblies. With enhanced performance in
large assemblies, particularly for the "Save and View Generation"
feature, users can better manage large numbers of parts.
- 2D Shaded Views. Adding realistic visualization, users can now insert
shaded views into 2D technical drawings, and enjoy high-quality
rendering. A user can now also create a high-quality, rendered color
picture.
- thinklight. thinklight is a low cost, easy-to-use application that
allows customers -- inside the company or out -- to show, zoom, pan and
measure think3 files.
- Part solution integration. Standardization is now easier than ever with
the complete library of parts now available in native format, both for
2D and 3D environment.
thinkPLM for 2006 Brings More Vendor-Neutral Capabilities
Providing a complete portfolio of business solutions, thinkPLM complements think3's industrial design products. Integrating design into product development, manufacturing and maintenance processes for the entire product lifecycle, thinkPLM helps companies share information and optimize efforts with external partners and suppliers.
With thinkPLM for 2006, think3 continues to increase functionality and product enhancements including more vendor-neutral capabilities and easier data management of large assemblies. The 2006 product release represents next- generation innovation for creating better design concepts, streamlining the design-to-manufacture process and bringing together disparate data and people from around the world. New for thinkPLM in 2006:
- CATIA integration. Engineers can now seamlessly access thinkPLM
functions from CATIA and automatically extract and maintain product
data information from technical documents -- including CAD document
relationships. CATIA integration supports multiple CAD strategies and
legacy migration.
- Assembly Navigator. Assembly Navigator eases data management for large
assemblies from within CATIA, Inventor and SolidWorks. Users can take
advantage of thinkPLM functionality: Part Data, Document Data, Preview,
Where Used and Vault History information, and more. And users can
control all relevant data management actions from a single window
interface.
- Windows client. The User Interface has been updated with dynamic new
icons.
- thinkconfigure. You can now generate Model/Drawing documents for
"children masters," even if there are no related "parent master"
documents. With the new Create Documents command, you can assign
template documents to masters, then copy and link them to parts created
by the Make BOM command. Also, with the Virtual BOM command, you can
see which part number will be reused and which one will be created for
a specific configuration -- before actually creating the BOM.
- thinkmaintain. The new Where Used feature lists all the Serial Numbers
of a specific component.
- thinkparts. Users can now take advantage of the new Export Part Number,
starting from an Index. When starting from a part, you can now open the
thinkparts catalog that part resides in. Also, an automatic coding rule
now supports catalog names.
- thinkteam System Administration. Updates afford users better control
over the following functions: Create Part Family, Query and BOM
properties editing, Query and BOM Filters by the Form command and the
Export command. Users can now define the Collection trees for a
specific group, user or role. New callbacks customize customer context
menus and check-in and out operations. And users can more easily input
Date attributes.
- thinkteam Vault Management. As the exchange area used by Vault
operations to manage local copies of thinkPLM files, the Private
Workspace (PWS) area may contain hundreds of files. The new PWS Manager
is an easy-to-use interface, on top of the PWS directory, that
streamlines file management. You can now quickly and easily check for
orphan files, clean unused files and check the status of local files.
About think3, Inc.
think3 provides innovative, next-generation industrial design solutions for the industrial design industry and is a leading supplier of product development solutions to mid-sized manufacturers worldwide. Customers include Honda, BMW, Mazda, Michael Graves Design and Alessi. Overall, the company enables more than 5,000 manufacturers to achieve dramatic gains in competitiveness and profitability by optimizing their product development process. think3's best-of-class products, services and unique business delivery model lower manufacturers' risks and remove barriers to successful implementation. With headquarters in Cincinnati and offices throughout Europe, Asia and North America, the privately held company has been leading innovation for more than 20 years. For more information, visit www.think3.com.
Contacts:
Ann Willey
think3, Inc.
Email:
Email Contact
Tel: (513) 263-6779
Fax: 513-263-6777
Web:
www.think3.com
CONTACT: Ann Willey of think3, Inc., +1-513-263-6779, or fax,
+1-513-263-6777, or
Email Contact
Web site: http://www.think3.com/