History Based Direct Modeling Using IRONCAD – Part 2

<< Part 1

Before I get to direct modeling I would like to briefly show how features are created in IRONCAD. IRONCAD has this rather peculiar concept of IntelliShapes, which are basically features that you drag and drop on to faces of parts. Most of these IntelliShapes come in pairs, one to add material and the other to remove material. For example, there is an IntelliShape called “Cylinder” which when dropped onto a face is equivalent to sketching a circle and extruding it to get a cylinder. Then there is its counterpart called “H Cylinder” which does the same thing but removes material to yield a hole, hence the “H” in the name. Take a look at this video.

So now you may be thinking that these dropping these IntelliShapes and moving them around may be a cool thing to do. But what about features  that you create yourself? Take a look at this video.

Pretty neat, I’d say. To save time I didn’t dimension the IntelliShapes I dropped or sketches I created. But you can do that as well in order to create and position your geometry accurately.

If you are coming from the 2D CAD world and don’t want to bother yourself with the intricacies of traditional history based parametric modeling then a CAD system like IRONCAD which makes you model as you think may be something you may want to consider. As opposed to having to first think and plan your model completely upfront and then start modeling, all the time wondering whether what you are currently doing will or will not come back to bite you later on.

Part 3 >>