Lean design for less than £50 a week

The software is ideal for companies practicing 'lean product development' or those who simply want to design better products faster. The release features some significant new enhancements, including full digital mock-up (DMU). DMU-driven processes bypass bottlenecks in production by providing complete 3D model information to everyone involved in design: manufacturing, purchasing, documentation, etc. And, with new 64-bit processing and lightweight model support, even large assemblies can now be represented as DMUs. These quick-to-load graphical representations of the model enable design engineers to work with huge models using only a fraction of the system resources needed by a rich model. The user can then download only those rich models or components that are needed. '3D configurations' is another new feature, which manages multiple views of an assembly within one file. Designers define multiple positions, draw lists and camera positions of parts and assemblies to represent product states, such as 'as-assembled' or 'in-transport' configurations. Users can create both exploded 2D and 3D views, or capture any simulation or animation stage. Both 'Drawing Manager' and 'Model Manager' now support Microsoft SQL Server 2005, broadening user choices when it comes to the underlying database powering the software. The 2006 release introduces handles to 'Designer Drafting' and 'Designer Modelling's Annotation module, so users can work directly on the drawing to change 2D geometry, dimensions and text. As users drag and drop, intelligent fly-by highlighting helps them to find precise points, such as intersections and end points. Designer Modeling's Annotation module also includes a 'wizard' that quickly creates drawings and speeds the detailing of 2D plans from 3D models, so designers can create annotated drawings up to twice as fast as before.