Once a tool is properly setup for electrode insertion, the VISI Electrode module will allow for easy  creating and editing of the tool. The Electrode module is started by using the “Electrode” dropdown menu and selecting the first option: Electrode. VISI then prompts the user to select the profile, sheet, or solid body. For relatively simple cavities, the most straightforward method is to select the faces that will be burned out with the electrode. After confirming all of the surfaces, select the direction that the electrode will be retracting toward. In the example above, the positive Z axis is chosen because of the part’s upright orientation with respect to the absolute datum. Next the system will begin to watch for collisions during the construction process by defining the obstacle part here. This is the part of the tool that will be checked against any collisions during the remainder of the construction.

After confirming the boundaries of the burn area and the obstacle, the option window for the electrode pops up. Different variables about the electrode itself can be changed here, including extending the piece beyond the size originally specified by the burned faces. As the electrode is modified, the button in the middle at the top can be selected to run a collision check for the electrode against the current pieces. When the part is finished, click the green checkmark to move to the next step.

Now the stock on top of the electrode will be added. Again using the Electrode dropdown menu, select Stock this time. Choose the electrode that was just created and again select the main body for more collision avoidance. A window similar to the electrode option window will now open for changing the parameters related to the stock. The middle button at the top will again check for collision during the construction of the stock.

Now move onto the electrode manager. The electrode manager can help keep track of multiple electrode designs throughout the same piece. For a single electrode as in this example, the manager tree will be rather simple branch. Right click on “Project” and give the project a new name. Next, right click and add a workpiece. Select the piece and specify any workpiece parameters. Finally add a new group (any electrodes working on this same workpiece will be added under this group) and then add the constructed electrode.

To add a holder from a library, use the Electrode dropdown menu and choose “Holder from Library”.  This opens the library that of available installed holders. Select one, and then choose the point on the electrode where it will be applied. Be aware that the holder may need to be rotated in order to properly mount onto the electrode stock.

After completing the electrode construction, a full simulation is available by right clicking on the electrode name in the Electrode Manager and selecting “Simulation”.

In this next article we will take a look at taking a mold part and how to analyze it for proper draft before designing the mold tooling. The part used in this instruction is the handle of a floor care machine. The complete assembly is shown here: Start by opening the plastic part file in the VISI Modeling interface. VISI Analysis allows us to look for draft across the entire part with just a few menu picks.

Start by using the “Analysis” dropdown menu and selecting the “Draft Analysis” option. The software then prompts you to select the body that you want to analyze. Pick on the part and VISI will ask you to select and confirm the normal plane. By default, the direction is normal to the workplane, which is fine for this example. The Analyzer toolbar then opens along the right side of the screen. The different color and numerical dialog box options allow you to customize the colors and the angle ranges for the draft analysis. For this example, I have set 67.5, 45, 0.5, 0, -0.5, -45, and -67.5 in each of the angle boxes, and left the colors the defaults. Now, by clicking the “Update Graphics” button in the middle of the toolbar in the Analyzer window, the model will update with colors to reflect the new values. The color shows that the angle of the draft for a wall is between the two values entered. For example, anything shown in yellow will have a draft angle of greater than 67.5 degrees.

The goal of this analysis is to find the areas with no draft and add some. If any of the walls show up as that dark green color, the angle is between 0 and 0.5 and could use additional draft. After updating the graphics it is seen that there are four ribs that need draft added to them. Close out of the Analyzer and we can manipulate the model to add this draft.

In the Modeling dropdown, select the flyout “Add Draft” and select “Draft by Edges”. Select one of the outward facing edges of the ribs that need changed. VISI will ask for a direction, select the Z-axis, and then choose “Reverse Direction” to compensate for the workplane datum facing the opposite direction. Add 1 degree in the dialog box and click “OK” to finish the edit. Complete this all the remaining 3 vertical walls and the model is ready for the next step.

In the last example we looked at translating some 2-D wireframe along the x-axis while creating two copies of it in the process. In this demonstration, we take it a step further and mirror those 3 T-Slots across a reference point for more drawing ease.

Prior to the video, I had already drawn two construction lines for reference during my mirror operation. Begin by again going to the “Edit” dropdown menu and now selecting the 3rd option: “Mirror”. VISI prompts you to select the elements to mirror. Choose 1 or all of the T-Slots. Now a reference point for the mirror is needed. For this example, the intersection of the two construction lines is chosen. By choosing this point (and by choosing the proper axis in the next step), the selected elements will mirror about the chosen axis, at a distance specified by the current distance between the elements and the selected reference point. After choosing that point, VISI asks the user to specify a plane or axis to mirror about. In this example, the X-axis is chosen, and the mirror is completed.

Sometimes a design is going to have the same feature used multiple times. When designing from the ground up in VISI, it’s easy to draw these features once, and then copy and translate it as many times as you need it throughout your design.

First start by drawing the original shape in the VISI workfile. Any construction methods will work here as long as the end product is made of 2-D wireframe elements. The “Translation” tool is started by clicking on the first option in the “Edit” dropdown menu. The software then prompts you to select elements. Either click on the ones that you want to translate, or window around the feature to select all wireframe components.

From here the software gives two options, one of which is shown in the video demonstation above. By clicking on the “Incremental Translation” button in the left-hand secondary toolbar, you are given a dialog box allowing numerical definition in the direction of the X, Y, and Z axes, as well as the option to either move (end with only 1 copy), copy (end with the original as well as one additional copy), or multiple copy (end with as many copies as the user specifies). After specifiying all values, click “OK” and the translation is complete.

The other available translation option asks you to select a reference point on the wireframe. After picking a point you can select another point anywhere to drop the original elements with respect to the originally selected reference point. This method is less precise than the incremental translation, but allows for more flexibility.

After creating the blank in FormingSuite, you may see that when zooming in that the blank has jagged edges, particularly around the corners. If you plan to export the blank to your CAD software, consider smoothing the blank first to clean up the sharp edges.

Once all of the steps up to and including completing the blank are finished, the “Smoothing” icon becomes available in the vertical toolbar. If that button is clicked a dialog box pops up offering different resolution options for the smoothing operation. Just as when creating the mesh in FormingSuite, the default values that the software calculates can typically be accepted. If any calculation problems are encountered, then it may be time to change the resolution values. After accepting these values, the smoothed blank is created in the Workbench.

In the same manner that the original blank is exported, by right-clicking on “Blank Smoothed” the user can export the smoothed blank. The above demonstation video shows how the two blanks differ after being exported into Visi.

A recent customer support call we handled asked how a Visi user could be more flexible in placing balloons while dimensioning in Plot View. As users know, by default the balloons seem to snap to predefined positions when moving the cursor around which limits how you are able to design your drawings.

Going to the “System” dropdown menu and selecting “Grid Parameters” opens the dialog box that allows you to change this. By varying the anglular inputs in “Vertical Snap”, “Horizontal Snap”, “Bold Step”, and “Angular Snap” you can change the snap positions that the balloons can be placed. Try varying angle values in this dialog box to see what fits your needs.

If you want to change this option permanently and not just for the current workfile, you can find the same dialog options by going to the “System” dropdown again and selectiong “Options” this time. Click “OK” and a second window opens. Choose the “Grid” tab in this second window. By changing the numbers in this window, the values will be saved for whenever Visi is opened.

Sometimes when you are creating a blank you will be working from a model that has holes that will be added farther down the production line. It is possible to make FormingSuite ignore those holes and treat the piece as a solid part before adding the mesh.

After you import the part file, create the skin, and specify the material, the option to “Fill Holes” becomes active. After selecting this, a dialog box opens asking which holes you would like to select. Choose the holes by clicking directly on the model. You can select multiple holes by holding down the Control key (Ctrl) while you click them. After selecting all of the holes, click “OK” to change the skin in the Workbench. After this, you can mesh the part using the green arrow at the bottom left. When the mesh is viewed, you should see that all of the selected holes have been filled. From here, you can continue the analysis as normal.

By default, FormingSuite comes with a library of commonly used materials for easy analysis purposes. As you work through more customer projects however, you will ineviably come across a material that is not available in the library. FormingSuite makes it easy to add new materials to the Material Library however as long as you have the material information.

From the launch screen, go to the menu bar along the top and open up the “Tools” dropdown menu. In the menu, select “Material Library”. In here you can see the material properties of all of the preinstalled materials. By clicking “New” toward the bottom of the dialog box, a blank entry is created. You are able to name the material in the “Name” field, and then add any comments about the material in the box below (such as customer, uses, supplier, etc.). For analysis purposes, the material property boxes must be filled as well. These numbers can be obtained from your steel service supplier. They are obtained through laboratory testing methods and are not able to be calculated on your end.

After entering the material properties, you can also switch to the “Cost” tab. In here, you can save fixed material costs, scrap costs, extra material costs, and consumables. If these values are not added in the library, you can add them after solving for the blank. You can also edit them after the blank or here in the library if costs change at a later date.

All of the values in the Material Library are editable after saving the entry. To finish, click “Save” and then “Close” the Material Library.

WESTMINSTER, CO ‐ December 17, 2009 ‐ TransMagic, Inc., developer of 3D CAD data exchange products announced the first release of a true 64‐bit version of their flagship product, TransMagic EXPERT. Translating large 3D design files is a memory‐intensive operation that has been very challenging, primarily due to system memory restrictions. TransMagic 64‐Bit permanently changes the landscape for large CAD file translation by solving this common manufacturing problem. TransMagic reports that the new platform offers 10‐20% better performance and a tremendous increase in file size capability. Translating multi‐gigabyte files on a single computer is now a reality, with TransMagic 64‐Bit.

The new TransMagic 64‐Bit release renders the 3GB memory limit of 32‐bit applications obsolete for the purpose of translating large files. The ability to efficiently reuse design data in any application offers tremendous value and efficiency to manufacturing organizations. Companies that can easily leverage their design investments in downstream manufacturing or simulation applications will reduce their costs and have a competitive advantage. Medium size files can quickly exhaust memory resources on a traditional 32‐bit computer. To translate a file in a standalone application the computer must simultaneously maintain both the source file and the target file in memory during the process until the translation is complete. This creates an upper limit on the file size capability of all 32‐bit 3D translation products. With modern 64‐bit applications like TransMagic, memory access and hence file size can be virtually unlimited.

“For some time we’ve been seeing complex assembly files larger than 1 gigabyte at automotive and aerospace companies,! ” states Craig Dennis, CTO of TransMagic. “In the past there was no way to access enough memory to support the translation process for these large files. Being first to market with 64‐bit means these limitations are now footnotes of a bygone era.”

About TransMagic

TransMagic specializes in developing and marketing products that replace difficult 3D data exchange processes with intelligent automation. TransMagic offers standalone products and embedded PLM integrations that seamlessly translate and repair multi‐CAD files. TransMagic supports all major CAD systems and analysis, manufacturing and simulation applications. Supported formats include Autodesk (Inventor), Dassault Systèmes (CATIA, SolidWorks, ACIS), PTC Pro/Engineer, Siemens PLM Software (NX, I‐deas, Solid Edge, JT, Unigraphics, Parasolid), IGES and STEP. TransMagic’s customers include ABB, Boeing, Chrysler, Caterpillar, Honda, Lockheed Martin, Ericsson, GE, Siemens, SEMA and NASA.