In 1801 Gespard Monge wrote "La Geometrie Descriptive" - a dissertation that triggered a change from physical models to mechanical drawings to drive the upcoming industrial revolution.

While product development tools and practices continued to evolve - the dependence on engineering drawings would remain unchanged for nearly 200 years.

  In the last quarter of the 20th century, computer-aided tools and the Internet emerged to allow the creation and widespread transmission of intelligent, electronic 3-D models. Consequently, CAD models today are replacing drawings as the standard in product definition. Unfortunately, interoperability solutions allowing unconditional reusability of CAD models did not keep pace. As a result, CAD models today are being created and recreated at unprecedented levels. Product data interoperability - that is, the ability to freely access and share CAD files regardless of origin or destination - has never been more critical, yet more difficult.

  Mold shops and other downstream suppliers are the link in the product development chain where IGES meets the real world. Incompatibilities of IGES file translations between various CAD systems place today's manufacturers in a no-win situation as they race to meet production schedules, maintain cost parameters, keep customers happy and wage the "Bad CAD" war. Depending upon the complexity of the design and the initial success of importing an IGES file, mold shops are spending days or even weeks doctoring up imported part design geometry to an acceptable level to begin their mold design!

  To help combat the problem some mold shops have spent thousands of dollars on a variety of CAD systems to match those of customers. When IGES and other neutral file formats don't work, it forces downstream manufacturers to invest heavily in software systems and resources that they neither need nor can afford.

  Furthermore, wonderfully ergonomic forms also can be defined in the accurate CAD model. Many of these smooth and flowing shapes simply cannot be completely defined in traditional 2-D drawings. To accommodate this business, most manufacturers have embraced the new technology - enabling them to build molds based directly on these 3-D solid and surface models.

  Obviously the best scenario is to find a way to make IGES files work, allowing manufacturers to pick and choose the software system that meets their requirements - not those of their largest customer.                    

About First-rate Mold Solution Co., Ltd.
First-rate Mold Solution Co., Ltd. in China, provide industry design,mold design,mold manufacturing,molding analysis,project management service.

 About www.firstratemold.com
our website has a lot of professional knowledges in mold industry in blog and news, also we are interested in CAD/CAM/CAE, such as AUTOCAD,UGNX, PRO/E,CATIA, CIMATRON, SOLIDWORKS, MOLDFLOW and so on,we welcome professional engineer,mold maker and someone who are interested in injection molding,plastic product,injection mold and mold industry to our section of blog and news,we would like to share with them