Overview

Welcome to the ICEM Shape Design User's Guide!
This guide is intended for users who need to become quickly familiar with the product.
 
This overview provides the following information:

ICEM Shape Design in a Nutshell

ICEM Shape Design allows users to model both aesthetic and ergonomic shapes to the highest Class A quality standards. The product features unique surface modeling techniques such as Feature based modeling and Approximation, Reality modeling, Freeform Associativity used in the capture of design intent. Using these breakthrough methodologies, ICEM Shape Design dramatically improves the productivity and ease-of-use of the Class A design process compared to existing products. The product delivers an entirely new approach to Class A design and a new level of integration in the overall development process.

Reality modeling - Through seamless integration in the global product definition process, ICEM Shape Design permits direct access to arbitrary and concurrently active commands, such as local control points, matching constraints, curve and surface creation commands. The modeling process is completely managed by both Feature based geometry and 3D interactive tools providing comprehensive and dynamic performance, enabling direct shape control. The use of collaborative commands frees the user from having to enter, leave, and then re-access commands hundreds of times a day, with all selection interactions involved. The number of interactions required to obtain the desired shape is greatly reduced so that the user can focus on the modeling job instead of repetitive command usage.

Freeform Associativity - Combines two worlds: parametric and feature based methods and freeform modeling techniques. As the user models shapes interactively, the product uses Features and associative updates to manage related Class A constraints, such as matchings, fillets, flanges, sweeps etc. In particular, the product preserves the design characteristics of those features. With this unique combination of proven concepts, the product updates all Class A features automatically in real time, keeping them current throughout the design process. This approach allows the user to immediately understand the extended impact of each shape modification as it is made, instead of the more traditional approach of only after making a series of manual adjustments. For example, a Class A fillet remains a Class A fillet: when affected by an interactive shape enhancement, the fillet can still be driven by its parameters, such as the radius, keeping the shape characteristics up to date.

Capture of design intent - ICEM Shape Design through powerful Feature based Geometry Creation, Modification and Analysis tools, allows the user to store complete modeling environments. This feature allows the work to be resumed later without having to redo or select anything again. When combined with the use of concurrently active and associative commands, this capability allows the user to capture all design constraints and dependencies throughout the life cycle of a design model. This means that Class A features do not have to be done again and again; instead, the features automatically adapt to the new shape.

Function - In addition to the complete set of traditional Class A commands, the product delivers powerful tools such as: G3 matching (a level beyond curvature continuity), and Global Modeling capabilities.

Before Reading this Guide

Before reading this guide, you should be familiar with basic Version 5 concepts such as document windows, standard and view toolbars. Therefore, we recommend that you read the Infrastructure User's Guide that describes generic capabilities common to all ICEM Shape Design products. It also describes the general layout of V5 and the interoperability between workbenches.

Getting the Most Out of this Guide

To get the most out of this guide, we suggest that you start reading and performing the step-by-step Getting Started tutorial.

Once you have finished, you should move on to the Basic Tasks and Advanced Tasks sections, which deals with handling all the product functions.

The Workbench Description section, which describes the ICEM Shape Design workbench, will also certainly prove useful to find your way around the ICEM Shape Design workbench.

Navigating in the Split View mode is recommended. This mode offers a framed layout allowing direct access from the table of contents to the information.

Accessing Sample Documents

To perform the scenarios, sample documents are provided all along this documentation. For more information about this, refer to Accessing Sample Documents in the Infrastructure User's Guide.