Geometric Americas, a global leader in engineering and manufacturing software, announced the launch of STL Workbench, a powerful set of tools to assist a diverse set of requirements associated to creating and processing STL 3D meshes.

As ubiquitous as the use of STL meshes are for 3D printing, the tools needed to fix, modify and analyze STL meshes have been largely unavailable.  STL Workbench, available in Onshape, solves this challenge.

STL Workbench provides tools to heal, offset, simplify and hollow out meshes, providing users with much needed support in fixing and modifying 3D meshes.  To provide this industry leading toolset, Geometric has collaborated with Polygonica, the mesh processing software toolkit provided by MachineWorks Ltd., a leader in CNC simulation and verification component software development.

Swadhin Bhide, Vertical Head (GTS) – Geometric quotes “We are excited to bring STLWorkbench for Onshape users, who can now view imported STL files and perform mesh repair/simplification operations for 3D printing. We will continue to add more features to prepare models for 3D printing. This marks our first step in bringing out additive manufacturing solutions for Onshape users”.

“Polygonica delivers a compelling solution for mesh processing in a wide variety of industries” said Dr. Knight, Sales Manager for Polygonica at MachineWorks Ltd. “It’s critical in 3D printing and additive manufacture to ensure that users can create watertight meshes and modify meshes as required for successful 3D printing and additive manufacturing outcomes” he added.

Joe Dunne, Developer Relations – Onshape quotes “STL Workbench has delivered a very unique and beneficial product.  Our users often receive STL models from many different sources. The reality is these STL files can often have many errors. Now our users have a tool that will allow them to fix these issues. As an Integrated Cloud App Onshape, users can access STL Workbench just like Onshape, any platform, any location. Just login and it’s there along with Onshape. STL Workbench is an Integrated Cloud Application. It can be accessed directly from the Onshape App Store. Like Onshape there, this does not require any download or installation, and is available anytime you use Onshape.

CAMWorks 3D CAM software technology, Tolerance Based Machining uses tolerances, hole callouts, surface finishes and other annotations to automatically generate CNC programs for SOLIDWORKS 3D parts.

Geometric Limited, a global leader in 3D CNC machining software, today announced the availability of a revolutionary new technology that uses SOLIDWORKS 3D DimXpert and Model Based Definition (MBD) 3D dimensions and annotations to automate the programming process for CNC machined components.

Aligning with industry initiatives such as Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 for advanced manufacturing, CAMWorks has been uniquely structured to realize the benefits of automated CNC program generation based on tolerance, surface finish, and other annotations in SOLIDWORKS 3D parts. This functionality is possible due to CAMWorks’ ability to extract manufacturing features like pockets, bosses, holes, etc…, and automatically create toolpaths based on an internal knowledge base of user definable tools, feeds, speeds, and strategies.

Jim Foster (VP Channel Marketing and Sales –  Geometric) says, “The opportunity to reduce the need for 2D drawings while helping to automate CNC machining to this level is truly exciting. Toolpath programming processes that typically take hours can now be accomplished in minutes. CAMWorks with Tolerance Based Machining will save 70% to 90% over the typical times involved when using traditional CNC software to prepare parts and assemblies for machining.  For many of our product manufacturing customers, the competitive advantage this technology offers is significant.”

Geomeric Limited, a leader in Global Engineering services, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Embedded System solutions, and Digital Technology solutions, today announced the release of eDrawings Publisher for CATIA V5 10.6 with support for eDrawings viewer 2015.

eDrawings is the first email enabled collaboration tool designed to ease the sharing and interpretation of 2D and 3D product design data.

Features and Benefits:

• Generate ultra-compact eDrawings (up to 95% compressed) and share over email
• Share and receive feedback on product designs with review-enabled eDrawings and collaborate with unlimited number of recipients
• Take dynamic sections and hide/show/move components
• Measure dimensions in part, assembly, and drawing files
• Review changes using Markups
• Export files to STL, HTML, eDrawings EXE and image formats

eDrawings Publisher for CATIA V5 version 10.6 includes:

• Support for CATIA V5-6 R2015
• Upgrade of eDrawings viewer version to eDrawings 2015
• Support for Windows 8 and Windows 10

 eDrawings Publishers are also available for Pro/ENGINEER® and Creo®, NX, Solid Edge® and STEP and IGES files.

Geometric Technologies is pleased to announce the transfer of its business to HCL Technologies Ltd (HCL Tech). Under the transaction, the entire business of Geometric Ltd will be transferred to HCL Tech by way of demerger, except for its 58% share in the joint venture with Dassault Systèmes (3DS) (3DPLM Software Solutions Limited (3DPLM)). In return, shareholders of Geometric Ltd will receive shares in HCL Tech in a swap ratio of 10 equity shares of HCL Tech for every 43 equity shares of Geometric Ltd.

Simultaneously, Geometric Ltd., will be merged into 3DPLM Software Solutions Ltd (3DPLM), thereby giving 100% ownership of 3DPLM to Dassault Systèmes (3DS), the current joint venture partner of Geometric in 3DPLM. In exchange for the ownership in Geometric Ltd., shareholders of Geometric Ltd shall receive one listed redeemable preference share of Rs. 68 each carrying dividend of 7% p.a. in 3DPLM against every one share of Geometric Ltd.

The transaction is through a scheme of arrangement and amalgamation and is subject to approval from shareholders and creditors, and various other statutory and regulatory authorities including the relevant courts.

As consideration for the scheme of arrangement and amalgamation, shareholders of Geometric Ltd. will receive the following:

Geometric Ltd’s shares will be extinguished as a result of this scheme of arrangement and amalgamation.

All shareholders of Geometric Ltd (including its Promoters) will receive the same consideration per share of Geometric. Appropriate transaction documents have been signed which include representations and warranties from the Promoters of Geometric Ltd to HCL Tech and Dassault Systèmes (3DS).

Rationale for the Transaction

HCL’s global engineering services business, with a revenue of around $1.2 billion in calendar 2015, is a leader in this space, and has an industry leading position in hardware & software engineering, product development & testing, embedded, digital and mechanical engineering. The acquisition strengthens HCL’s presence significantly, in the PLM consulting as well as mechanical and manufacturing engineering space. It also significantly strengthens HCL’s Automotive and Industrial practices.

HCL will inherit several unique Geometric processes, methodologies and intellectual properties in PLM and digital manufacturing, along with highly specialized professionals in the PLM consulting as well as mechanical and manufacturing engineering space. The transaction thus creates a unique portfolio of end–to–end engineering and R&D capabilities across the full product lifecycle – hardware, software, mechanical & manufacturing engineering and PLM consulting. This in turn will benefit both Geometric’s employees and customers.

G.H Rao, President, Engineering and R&D Services, HCL Technologies said, “We are looking forward to an exciting journey and extend a warm welcome to the employees, customers and partners of Geometric. With the broad end–to–end capabilities and rich experience across PLM consulting, mechanical and manufacturing engineering that Geometric brings in, the synergies allow us to take advantage of the rapidly growing manufacturing engineering and PLM services market. It also provides several cross–sell and up–sell opportunities as the customers will benefit from a unique services portfolio of end–to–end engineering, R&D, digital technologies and internet of things capabilities.”

Manu Parpia, CEO and MD of Geometric Ltd. said, “I welcome this as a truly synergistic transaction, as both our employees and customers will benefit. Our customers will have access to a wide range of engineering services which complement Geometric’s offerings. Geometric’s employees will have the opportunity for growth as they can serve HCL Tech’s large customer base”

JM Financial Singapore Pte Ltd acted as the exclusive corporate financial advisor to Geometric Ltd.

CAMWorks 3D CNC Machining Software uses surface finish, GD&T and tolerance information in SOLIDWORKS® 2016 to automate the generation of CNC Toolpaths

Geometric Ltd, a global leader in 3D CNC machining software, will present critical new functionality in CAMWorks to simplify and speed up the CNC programming process in the Tool and Die Industry by using manufacturing data; including tolerances, surface finish, GD&T, thread callouts, etc. in SOLIDWORKS 3D models, at Booth #C05, Hall 2 from 6th to 9th April, at DIEMOULD India 2016 in Bengaluru, India.

CAMWorks now has the ability to read dimensional information and will automatically select the correct tools, speeds, and feeds to meet the surface finish requirements called out in the model, set nominal values for asymmetric tolerances and select the appropriate tools, operations, and strategies to generate toolpaths to meet the requirements. This functionality automates the CNC programming process and eliminates the necessity to manually calculate allowances when defining CNC tool paths, or the need to rebuild 3D models to mean geometry, eliminating potential mistakes, while saving time and money, and will streamline the transition from design to manufacturing.

Available through an upcoming, second-quarter 2016 point release of CAMWorks® 2016, ‘Tolerance Based Machining’ will automatically select the correct machining strategies and eliminate long-standing differences between design practices required to tolerance parts based on fit, form, and function vs. manufacturing’s need to machine geometry based on mean dimensions and tolerances. CAMWorks 2016 is also the only CNC application that can read surface finish annotations and automatically select the tools, operations and strategies for correct tool path generation.

“For years, CNC programmers have had to read drawings and manually select tools, feeds and speeds, and hope the selections achieved desired results,” explains Swadhin Bhide, Head – Geometry Technology Solutions at Geometric. “CAMWorks solved part of this problem by capturing best practices and using those practices to automate toolpath generation. Now this game-changing technology has been extended to automatically read surface finish and dimensional requirements and select the correct machining strategies to automatically generate toolpaths.”

“With this new capability, CAMWorks 2016 software will automatically select the correct tools, feeds and speeds based on geometry as well as the manufacturing information captured in the 3D model. This significantly speeds up the CNC programming process, while reducing errors and time consuming manual efforts previously required,” he added.