I-DEAS 8 Solid modeling software Star rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 Pros: Integrated PDM; wide range of powerful features and modules; Master Notation brings paperless engineering closer to reality. Cons: Not Windows-native; no universal Undo/Redo commands. Price: $4,994 See also: Features SDRC www.sdrc.com         SDRC I-DEAS 8 differs significantly from AutoCAD, but has a few things that will ease the transition for AutoCAD users. One of these is the Prompt window. It isn't exactly a command line, but it will keep you up to date on what you are doing (you can't type in commands though). The function keys and programmable hot keys provide quick access to many commands. The Master Drafting package is very complete, though I wonder if anyone can match AutoCAD's sheer volume of 2D drafting symbols. I-DEAS 8 reads AutoCAD DWG and DXF files directly and imports scanned images onto a drawing, eliminating the need to redraw the mountains of legacy data every company has.   Mike Hudspeth, IDSA, is a freelance industrial designer and CAD consultant based in St. Louis, Missouri. He specializes in helping companies select the right CAD system for their needs. This article originally appeared in the February 2001 issue of CADALYST Magazine.

Master a model with I-DEAS 8
SDRC integrates PDM with its powerful modeling program.
by Mike Hudspeth

SDRC began with a few University of Cincinnati students who were fascinated by structural analysis. They initially consulted with companies that had structural analysis problems and then started writing computer code to examine mechanical parts. As a natural progression, SDRC developed technology in many areas, including, fortunately for us, CAD. SDRC touts the master model concept where the engineer designs one master model, and other drafters use an assembly file. With it, a company can more fully use concurrent engineering to perform numerous project tasks at the same time instead of sequentially. In turn, you can involve manufacturing and procurement experts much earlier in the process to help adjust your designs and save you money.

Startup
I-DEAS 8 has its own proprietary modeling kernel for surface and solid construction. It runs on a wide range of platforms: SGI IRIX, HP (HP-UX), Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and Windows NT/2000. Its copy-protection scheme requires an Ethernet card. If you upgrade to a new computer, you must reinstall your old Ethernet card or arrange with SDRC for a new authorization code. I-DEAS is Windows compliant, but not Windows native. Although the GUI (graphical user interface) looks similar to Windows, some of the menus may not look and act very Windows-like. I-DEAS 8 emulates Windows, so it may take more memory or function more slowly than a native Windows program.

The installation is fairly straightforward. I had to make quite a few selections and was a bit confused about which options to install. I would have appreciated some type of printed Help. The installation choices I made took up about a gigabyte of hard drive real estate, which seems a lot to me. When all was said and done, installation took about ten minutes.

Once you install the software and start it up, the I-DEAS 8 Start menu greets you (figure 1). It introduces the TDM (Team Data Manager), which is product data management, I-DEAS–style. It handles everything I-DEAS dishes out, and then some.

To start a session, either create a new model file or open an existing one. You select which module you want to use and then what task you want to perform. When you're finished working on it, you check the drawing model in and the system tracks it from there. You can create and name libraries and projects so your files are arranged in logical groupings.

Figure 2. The clean, uncluttered interface is organized to present multiple options and information.

The GUI uses the classic I-DEAS black background and blue-gray icons. In the accompanying figures, we use a white background for printing purposes. You can easily change the colors to anything you want. The GUI is clean and uncluttered (figure 2) with its graphics window, icon area, prompt window, and listing window. That's it. You can also open additional windows and tear off icon palettes. The function keys provide quick access to various functions for increased efficiency. For example, pressing <Ctrl><F1> pans your view, <Ctrl><F2> zooms it, and <Ctrl><F3> rotates it. The <F4> key looks at the orientation of the active view and rotates it to the nearest canned view. That's handy when you want to see what your model looks like in a side view. The NT version of I-DEAS 8 has a new status bar at the bottom of the screen. The left side of the status bar displays quick Help messages. The right side of the bar displays icons that represent the available dynamic viewing functions. A welcome improvement for the next version would be to make these icons perform the functions they represent. I-DEAS has a software rotation capability, but also works quite well with 3D controllers such as a Spaceball and Magellan/SpaceMouse. I'm partial to hardware rotation devices, but if you don't have them, software is certainly better than nothing.

Figure 3. Analysis driven design—SDRC I-DEAS 8 uses VGX technology to capture design intent in this truck suspension assembly.

VGX (figure 3), short for extended variational geometry technology, enables dynamic manipulation of geometry, dimensions, and constraints. SDRC says VGX is different than parametric modeling. It lets you easily examine and change your design. It is a history-supported modeler. You'll find the VGX interface in virtually every module in I-DEAS 8.

Assemblies
I-DEAS 8's Associative Copy command has some nice changes. You can now freely move, orient, and constrain copies. A Compare Assemblies command lets you preview changes before you accept them.

Version 8 now lets you use the Instance Name to sort and filter. You can pick a pattern from another part and use it as an instance of either a part or assembly. The instance is associative (linked back) with the original pattern. The Select by Proximity tool helps you identify and select (or unselect) from closely neighboring parts. This is handy in large assemblies. VGX adds very interesting capabilities to assemblies, including drag and drop, tolerances, tangent constraints between cylinders, color coding for broken constraints, and constraints to construction curves.

Figure 4. Master Notation technology lets you capture and convey intended information without creating a drawing.

Drafting
You've all heard about the so-called paper-less society—you know, the one that has created more paper. In I-DEAS 8, you can apply annotations other than notes with the Master Notation module. You can detail a part on screen without creating a drawing (figure 4). For those who want to eliminate drawings in their organization, this is a great tool. You can add notes, GD&T, weld symbols, dimensions (with tolerances), and URLs in model space. And, although you can show every last dimension in one view, you can use model views to organize annotations logically in separate views. When I-DEAS retrieves a model view, it reorients the model and shows the dimensions assigned to that view. If you want other dimensions, you can add them, of course. There are also 3D annotations on assemblies. These annotations are basically the same as those described, except that you can save them with the part or any assembly components. These types of things are handy for communicating information to someone without creating a fully detailed drawing. Just call up the appropriate model view with its annotations and print it out for them. I-DEAS also has a free viewer so you can send information to people who don't have SDRC software (figures 5 and 6).

Figures 5 (left) and 6 (right). The I-DEAS Viewer has some powerful capabilities. In addition to viewing and measuring, you can also cut cross sections.

Although I-DEAS 8 brings us closer to the paperless society than other programs, you still must create paper drawings. I-DEAS 8 approaches drawing generation in an all-new way. Drafting is an integral part of the Design module. There are two ways to begin. The Standard View Quick Mode determines the view by how you place it on the drawing. The Model View Mode takes the view, as well as the annotation, directly from the solid. From these views you can derive other types of views such as sections, details, and auxiliary views. They're fairly standard in that you pick the parent view and some geometry that establishes a hinge line, and then place the new view.

I was surprised to learn that SDRC is popular for 2D drafting, especially in Asia, because you can create unassociative 2D drawings with its Master Drafting stand-alone 2D drawing package. If and when you want to do 3D modeling, SDRC is there. I-DEAS 8 has a few new screens in the Master Drafting package, so users with older versions should be careful when running macros saved from earlier versions. You can import and export data to and from other applications. You can use AutoCAD native files, CADAM, CGM, IGES, and picture files, just to name a few.

Harness Design
I-DEAS 8 includes a variety of modules. The Harness Design module lets you create wiring bundles (with separate wire entities), retainers (such as grommets, covers, brackets, and troughs), and such. In v8, when you flatten a 3D packaging design into a manufacturing formboard, it maintains the associativity that used to be lost. Any changes made to the packaging design show up in the formboard when you update it. What's not to love about that? A unified Bill of Materials lets you pass MCAD data to a central Oracle database, but the transfer is one way only.

Manufacturing
The Machining module has many new capabilities. It supports undercutting tools, refinements in setup procedures, enhancements to face milling, and more. VGX Mold Base software automatically creates a full injection mold by looking up parts out of standard molding catalogs, such as DME, Futaba, Hasco, and Strack, and pulling them all into an assembly. It works very smoothly. The VGX Core/ Cavity software works with the mold base software to create molds or dies for injection molded parts. The Core/Cavity software can also work as a stand-alone package for other types of molds and dies. The Mechanism Design module lets you model and examine joints, clearances, and interferences. There is also a Mechanism Simulation module. Both modules use the ADAMS dynamic solver. The solver, load-case, and function command markers and spring dampers all feature enhancements. Loads that you generate in Simulation convert to finite element loads and return as point forces, moments, and body acceleration velocities. Load transfers can create a finite element model with nodes at the joints, a load set, or you can just add them to an existing model. You can create bushings and field matrices through a forms-based user interface. In other words, just fill in the blanks and the software does the work.

Help and tutorials
You access Help files with or without running I-DEAS 8. The Help directory is HTML-based and is well organized and easy to use. Tutorials are available on the SDRC Web site.

Figure 7. Strong modeling features round out a powerful modeler. For instance, when you want to fillet four or more edges that meet, I-DEAS 8 automatically applies a corner blend to keep things smooth.

Modeling
The core modeler offers many improvements. You can create free-form surfaces that aren't tied to the surfaces on which they are created. The variational sweep surface feature is easier to construct because of improved methods of path definition and its ability to allow discontinuous inputs. It's easier to generate intersecting corners on Booleans. When you want to blend a vertex with four or more edges, I-DEAS 8 applies a corner blend for a smooth transition (figure 7).

The Sheet Metal module's unfold feature deletes invalid entities if you want it to. I-DEAS 8 can take a surface and apply a shell to it. If the object you want shelled has thickness, the shell hollows it out. If the object has no thickness, the shell gives it one. It combines two commands into one. When you shell an object and the resulting shell swallows edges or faces, I-DEAS doesn't bomb out; it automatically analyzes the situation and provides the best solution it can find. Generally, it swallows the edge or face and goes on its merry way.

Figure 8. Printing is all new in v8. Now, no matter what platform you are on, the print (not plot, as in previous versions) looks the same.

Another nice feature is I-DEAS 8's Dynamic Extrude. You select a face or edge of a model and drag graphically. A number appears near your cursor to tell you how far you've gone. Once you get in the area you want, you can enter exact numbers. When you create a protrusion, the preview of the extruded solid is white. When you create a cutout, it's red. This makes it easier to track what you're doing.

The program's modifiers are very helpful because they generally say what they mean. I-DEAS 8 recognizes distances such as UNTIL SELECTED and THROUGH ALL even on features with draft. Feature patterns are fairly easy to make, and I-DEAS 8 lets you suppress individual members of the pattern.

One thing that you can't do is clock the features (which means when you create a circular pattern of four holes 90¼ apart, you can select one of the holes and tell it to rotate, say, 5¼).

The history tree in I-DEAS 8 is different from that in any other CAD program. It's laid out much like a flow chart. With color-coding, it conveys the information you need.

Missing commands
I miss universal Undo and its sibling, Redo. I-DEAS 8 has an Undo command, but with limitations. As long as you have people, they will make mistakes, sometimes several steps back. Rolling an Undo back to a state before a mistake should be a user's inalienable right.

The final word
This high-end software is capable of equally high-end work. Starting at around $5,000 for the basic modules, including drafting, assemblies, and part modeling, and its own PDM system, I-DEAS 8 has serious CAD firepower.

It's a good, solid offering—sorry, I couldn't resist. If you're in the market for a CAD system that can grow with your needs, SDRC's I-DEAS 8 is worth a look.