CAD program available via Internet -- for less cost

According to Cadmax Corp., production solid modeling has reached the point where many users are knowledgeable and experienced enough that they no longer need guidance from resellers in order to be successful. To that end, Cadmax is now marketing a new midrange solid modeling program for mechanical CAD applications over the Internet. The company plans to offer these users the Solid Master software package, which provides all the functionality of the leading midrange packages at one-third to one-half the cost. It also offers an easy path to convert from 2-D to 3-D solid modeling.

Cadmax reports that Solid Master is the only midrange production solid modeler to offer solid modeling, free-form surface modeling, interactive hidden line, and production and detail drawings as a fully integrated single product. In addition, in feature-based solid modeling, the software enables users to simultaneously model multiple parts, mixing models, production drawings, and assemblies in a single file. It runs on a single user interface, so redundancy is eliminated and the system is easy to learn and use.

Solid Master not only shares some of the conventions pioneered by its predecessors, such as the Parasolid kernel, but it reportedly is also the only mid-range program to offer all four major modeling options. Boolean solid modeling, in addition to conventional feature-based modeling, makes it possible to model geometries that are difficult or impossible to fully constrain and that are hard to define using conventional feature-based tools. Free-form surface modeling gives users the ability to define geometrically complex surfaces as general sweeps along curves, proportionally developed shapes, lofted bodies, blends with circular or conical cross sections, and so forth.

The program has features that enable users to infer constraints, which makes the process of creating sketches easier than with comparable systems. Solid Master?s dynamic construction lines allow users to create a sketch while automatically assigning parallel, perpendicular, tangent, and connect constraints without any additional steps. It also minimizes the number of dimensions needed to constrain geometry.

The software is available over the Internet for less than $2000, which includes end-user support.

Cadmax Corp.
Baltimore, MD
Phone: (410) 532-2803
Fax: (410) 433-1192
www.cadmax.com