What is 3D CAD?

3D CAD is a system by which designers and engineers can produce both simple and complex designs quickly and efficiently.

It gives the user a greater visualisation allowing a more streamlined design process. This significantly shortens the lead-time to production therefore saving both time and money. The key feature of 3D CAD is that it is a historical and parametric process allowing the user to revise specific features and the design intent at any stage.

What is 3D CAD used for?

There are many uses and applications for 3D CAD and Cti uses the 3D data to produce triangulated models to offer a wide range of services from initial design to Simulation, CNC machining, CMM, Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Tooling - all of which need just one model, eliminating unnecessary duplication.

Cti's Capabilities

Cti possesses a wide variety of 3D modelling packages including Solid Works 2005, Pro-Engineer Wildfire, I-DEAS NX, Inventor and Catia V5. The advantage of having all these packages at Cti's disposal is that design communication and file transfer between customers and Cti are greatly improved as the native format, in most cases, can be used.  However, file formats such as .iges, .step and .stl can also be imported and exported.

Cti also holds licences for Magics; software that manipulates STL files used in Rapid Prototyping and Simulation. Therefore, any files that have been damaged in transfer can be manually repaired.

If no 3D data exists, 2D drawings can be converted into a 3D model.  If no 2D drawing exists, components can be scanned and reverse engineered to produce the model.

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire is a registered trademark of Parametric Technology Corporation; Catia V5 is a registered trademark of Dassault Systémes; SDRC I-DEAS NX, Parasolid XT, Unigraphics and Solid Edge are registered trademarks of Electronic Data Systems Corporation;Autodesk Inventor Series 6 is a registered trademark of Autodesk; Delcam PowerSHAPE is a registered trademark of Delcam Plc; SolidWorks is a registered trademark of SolidWorks Corporation.