Industrial designers are involved in a creative and innovative process. They need a design tool which allows many ideas and approaches to be investigated quickly. On the fly modifications and "what if" scenarios need to be carried out at pace. Therefore the design environment must be intuitive and unobtrusive. This requires a powerful modeler which is easy to use.
Unlike other systems, with DeskArtes Design Expert the user does not have to become a computer expert to create complex surface models. The designer can achive optimal results with minimum effort. Other vendors offer CAID products using a technology base which has been primarily developed to meet the needs of animators or engineers. Such tools are not very well suited to the creative process. The tool can often be relegated to the role of data capture and is usually performed by experts, who have mastered the system after many months of trying.
The approach taken by DeskArtes to the modeling dilemma is based on many years of innovative research together with actual designers. The solution is to is to first devise a conceptually simple but powerful methodology and then develop the technology required. Modeling in DeskArtes is based on a "Build and Blend" methodology.
3D surfaces are built from profiles, silhouettes and cross-sections. Editing curves in two dimensions using a two dimensional display and mouse is much easier than editing surfaces in three dimensions. This approach of describing 3D objects using 2D curves is very familiar to the industrial designer and closely matches the traditional ways of working.
Create more complex objects by using advanced features such as surface trimming and blending. The various blending tools offered by DeskArtes Design Expert include rolling ball blend and variable radius blend. Surface building and skinning from 3D curves, as well as local surface editing tools are also supported as further design tools.
The "Build and Blend" methodology allows the users to model objects far more quickly than with other systems. The conceptual simplicity allows the user to become productive in a fraction of the time that would be required with other systems.
The modeling methodology further allows the user to create products which are manufacturable. The design can then be transferred directly to CAD/CAM systems for manufacture, or Rapid Prototyping.
The Design Expert supports data transfer to rapid prototyping machines and other applications by means of the STL format. However Design Expert is far more than just a format convertor. The model is first triangulated in an optimal manner. Gaps and overlaps in the model are identified and corrected. Illegal intersections and incorrect topology are reported.
These features allow Design Expert to produce correct STL files from good geometry, a capability other systems have great difficulty in matching.
DeskArtes Design Expert provides reliable and robust data transfer to and from other CAD/CAM systems. The Design Expert supports 3D data transfer using the VDA-FS and IGES standards.
Being polynomial B-spline/Bezier based, there is never any loss of accuracy when exporting geometric data to other systems. NURBS and high degree surfaces from other systems can be imported into DeskArtes Design Expert with any user supplied accuracy.
The Design Expert also supports IGES format to communicate with 2D Drafting systems. Curves which have been generated using 2D CAD systems can be imported and used to build 3D surfaces. Alternatively, 3D models produced by DeskArtes can be sliced two dimensionally and exported to 2D CAD systems for the preparation of engineering drawings.