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CAD/CAM Collaborative Design Outlook: Delcam to Showcase Enhanced 3D Mold Design.

Article Excerpt
Delcam plc (Birmingham, UK, +44 121 766 55 44, and Windsor, Ont., CA 1 800 664-3506, www.delcam.com) will be attending the Moldmaking Expo in Cleveland, OH next month (June 22, 23, 24) to demonstrate the latest release of its PS-Moldmaker mold design software. This updated version will allow designers of injection mold tools to move from processes based on two-dimensional drawings to new methods based on three-dimensional computer models.

PS-Moldmaker purportedly offers a broader solution than other similar systems, both through the inclusion of catalogues from a wider range of standard component suppliers, and through the inclusion of a range of Wizards, to automate many parts of the design process. In addition, PS-Moldmaker is now fully integrated with Delcam's PowerSHAPE hybrid modeling program. PowerSHAPE provides a wide range of tools to repair any problems with the component design, including missing, duplicate, overlapping or poorly trimmed surfaces, before work begins on the mold design.

Combining the two programs gives PS-Moldmaker the unique ability to produce non-standard components or mechanisms by allowing the user to exit from the automated process at any stage, carry out some manual adjustment to the design within PowerSHAPE, and then return to the automatic methods to complete the mold. Delcam states that users can benefit from the speed and simplicity of the high level of automation, and produce exactly the results they want, without any restriction on the size or complexity of the work that they can undertake.

Using PS-Moldmaker and PowerSHAPE allows companies to move from a two-stream system, where the core and cavity are designed and manufactured by one team using three-dimensional methods, and the components making up the rest of the mold are produced by a second group using two-dimensional drawing and machining techniques. Instead, the whole mold can be developed entirely in three dimensions by a single...

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