CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

4 June 2009

Product News

Streamlining Technical Illustration With Pictures by PC

German CAD/CAM developer Schott Systeme GmbH is reducing the time required to generate professional technical illustrations, through the latest release of their CAD and technical documentation suite, Pictures by PC 3.4.

According to the developer, it is one of the industry's only solutions to combine high end 2D and 3D CAD with technical illustration, rendering, animation and desktop publishing, Pictures is proving an essential tool in the creation of documentation such as product manuals, catalogues and sales/marketing literature.

A key element in this process has to date been the ability of the software to automatically generate typical 'thick/thin' line illustrations directly from imported 3D CAD models. The latest release of Pictures however will now offer a far greater degree of control over the illustration detail levels, helping in the generation of both simplified and more detailed versions of an illustration.

Direct Model Simplification

The current trend of including the minutest of details on a CAD model is one that will frustrate many illustrators, as generally only a simplified diagram of the product is required. To help overcome this, Schott Systeme have firstly included a new suite of 'defeaturing' tools. Based on their direct 'non feature' based 3D modeller, designs from almost any CAD system can be imported and subsequently modified without the requirement of a construction history or the original CAD software. These tools in addition then help to automatically recognise common features for removal such as ribs, pockets, holes, embossed text/logos and complex fillets/radii, leaving the illustrator with a much simplified version of the product ready for further detailing.

Technical Outline Defeaturing

Providing a different approach to actually modifying the 3D product data, Schott Systeme have in addition supplied the user with the ability to defeature the illustration during the actual rendering process. This later approach both enables the simplification of poor quality CAD models that cannot easily be modified in 3D, as well as instantly reducing the detail level of complex parts/features such as screw threads and gear wheels. By altering the actual rendering process in this way, 'thick/thin' line illustrations of differing complexity are more easily generated.

Download the latest brochure from http://www.schott-systeme.com\en\Downloads\A4Brochure-TechnicalDocumentation.pdf

Sign up for the latest technical documentation video demonstrations at http:// www.schott-systeme.com/en/newintrovideo-en.htm.

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