The new FreeForm 3D modeling software “Pinch” and “Crease” digital clay to add intricate forms and details.

SensAble Technologies (Woburn, MA) announces the availability of a major new version of its FreeForm 3D modeling software. With new design functionality and expanded interoperability, the new FreeForm version 10 builds upon its strengths for designing complex organically-shaped products with enhancements that let product designers strike the perfect balance between aesthetics and manufacturability. Its features include:

• New “Design for Manufacture” Features
  • Advanced toolsets for power modelers and novices alike, including Deform, bend, twist, inflate, and deflate features that support fast design iteration and posing of models. No-fail geometry remains what CAD designers term "water-tight" or without gaps or holes - essential for CAM software.
  • “Pinch” and “Crease” digital clay to add intricate forms and details – geometries that are hard to define with mathematically-based solutions.
  • Faster scan cleanup and accurate reproduction of surface details with features for selectively sharpening and recreating details inherently lost during the scanning process
  • Control height or depth when adding or carving digital clay, providing user-defined consistency and precision.
  • Fix draft in select areas; specify differing draft requirements or pull directions for increased flexibility and control.
  • Fast access to model volume, weight and surface area data to help manage production costs.
• Advanced Time-Saving Interoperability
  • Create and manipulate multiple geometry types – voxels/digital clay, NURBS, and mesh – within one familiar environment. Leverage models created in other CAD packages, and design with downstream RP, CAM, and/or CNC requirements in mind.
  • Add intricate sculptural details to user-defined areas of NURBS or mesh models, and then stitch into one water-tight model for accurate manufacturing.
  • Reduce import time in third-party rendering packages by exporting FreeForm models as individual pieces or as groups – while maintaining relative positioning – in a single OBJ file.
  • Use FreeForm sketch data in blueprints and tooling by exporting in commonly supported file formats such as AI, DXF, IGES, and PDF.