Advanced mechanical drawing software

Modern Machine Shop, May, 2002 by Shauna R. Pope

The company released CADKEY GraphX Version 20 advanced mechanical drawing software for drafters, mechanical design engineers and manufacturing engineers. Built on anew contemporary architecture, the product allows users to quickly create accurate drawings from scratch or generate drawings from solid, surface and polygon models that are imported from other systems, including ACIS and Parasolid models.

The software utilizes "intelligent" dimensioning on native or imported drawings to help prevent costly manufacturing errors by prohibiting the creation of dimensions that do not match geometry or are not properly constructed. It also allows referenced geometry to be stored in separate files or grouped in one file for optimum data organization. For interoperability with other CAD/CAM/CAE systems, industry-standard data translators (DWG, DXF, ACISSAT, Parasolid XT, STEP, IGES, STL, VRML) are included. The software is optimized to run in Windows XP, 2000, NT 4 and will run in Windows 98.

The latest Version 20 Technology architecture integrates the latest advances in Windows file structuring as well as several advanced components from leading CAD technology providers. The software is said to be the first commercial application that uses the GeMS++ object-oriented database and memory management tools. This technology offers an unlimited undo/redo system, optimized file saving for smaller file size, faster file loading and advanced data protection.

Another key component of the software is a unified graphics system based on the HOOPS Application Framework. HOOPS provides optimized graphic processing critical to large assemblies as well as output of next-generation compressed graphical files (Open HSF) forsharing of data over the Web.

CADkey Corporation, (508) 229-2020. Enter 159 at www.mmsinfo.com to visit Online Showroom, or write 159 on RS card.