Delcam’s FeatureCAM aids premier provider of pharmaceutical packaging
Anderson Packaging’s reputation as a premier provider of packaging solutions for major pharmaceutical companies around the globe has made it one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical contract packagers in the United States.
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Delcam’s PS-Shoemaker provides improved grading and data transfer
The new release of Delcam’s PS-Shoemaker software for footwear design and manufacture includes completely new grading functionality and a much broader range of data translation options. It also incorporates the new Smart Surfacing technology and the larger icons recently released in Delcam’s PowerSHAPE CAD system, and so makes the creation of complete design models from wireframe data much easier.
PS-Shoemaker is the only software suite that offers integrated design and manufacture of both uppers and soles. This unique combination of functionality is the key to Delcam’s position as the world’s leading supplier of CADCAM software to the footwear industry.
Grading is the special scaling process used in the footwear industry to produce shoes of different sizes. It does not simply apply a single mathematical expansion but involves a complex series of relationships, depending on whether men’s, women’s or children’s shoes are involved. Consistent grading of the last, sole, tread pattern and heel is essential to produce accurately matched components. Better-matched components ease assembly and finishing operations, and give a higher quality product that is less likely to fail in use.
The new release of PS-Shoemaker provides faster and more accurate grading methods for all standard international sizing systems. Improvements have also been made to group grading; the ability to fix the dimensions of specified components, while the remainder of the design is changed to give the required range of sizes. This allows designers to use the same size of airbag in a number of shoe sizes or to lock the shape and size of an area of the shoe so that standard logos or other decorations can be used on different sizes.
Smart Surfacing is a uniquely easy method for the creation of surface models that was recently introduced into PowerSHAPE. Like other surface modellers, the software has always provided a range of alternative methods for constructing a surface from a given set of lines, arcs or points. The user has had to choose between a number of solutions to pick the result that is most appropriate for the particular design.
With Smart Surfacing, the choice of method is made automatically by the software to give the best possible surface. If the user is unhappy with the automatic selection, or is simply curious to see other options, he can scroll through the alternative solutions.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Smart Surfacing is that the software’s selection is updated automatically as extra information is added to the design. As any additional lines or points are inserted into the model, the system reviews the chosen surfacing method and regenerates the surface automatically if an alternative solution has become more appropriate.
The new data translation options include the ability to import or export the DXF and pdf formats. This will make it easier to read 2D data into the software and to export drawings and illustrations for comment by customers and retailers. Export of 2D data to cutting machines has also been improved, with support now provided for a wider range of equipment. In addition, STL output from the upper design module has been made more reliable, making it easier to produce a single model of both upper and sole.
20 July 2006
