Paraform Expands the Boundaries of Digital Form Development with Next Generation Product Release.Business Editors SANTA CLARA Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2002 Increased Automation, Greater Scalability, and Enhanced Color Management Deliver Dramatic Performance Enhancements for Design, Engineering, and Digital Content Applications Paraform, a technology innovator in industrial and digital content creation The development of newsworthy, educational and entertainment material for distribution over the Internet or other electronic media. See DAMS. software, today announced the introduction of Paraform 3.0, the newest release of its pioneering Digital Form Development(TM) software. Employing breakthrough enhancements in workflow and productivity techniques, Paraform 3.0 is changing the way that 3D professionals create complex, free-form shapes in a variety of industrial and design environments, including the automotive, aerospace, consumer products, defense, entertainment, and medical markets. "Paraform 3.0 represents a major milestone in our endeavor to complement traditional 3D parametric modeling Using the computer to design objects by modeling their components with real-world behaviors and attributes. Typically specialized for either mechanical design or building design, a parametric modeler is aware of the characteristics of components and the interactions between them. with a more scalable and accurate way of designing organic, freeform free·form adj. 1. Having or characterized by a usually flowing asymmetrical shape or outline: freeform sculpture. 2. shapes and 3D digital content," said Venkat Krishnamurthy, CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. of Paraform. "By embedding intelligent automation, enhanced workflow tools, and full color support within an improved, easy-to-use platform, we have added increased power and flexibility that will substantially speed up the product design and delivery process." Originally developed to link all the steps in a production workflow and to bridge the gaps between industrial design, CAD/CAM CAD/CAM in full computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing. Integration of design and manufacturing into a system under direct control of digital computers. , and quality assurance processes, Paraform comes with modeling and editing tools that transform point-cloud data to polygonal pol·y·gon n. A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments. po·lyg  o·nal adj. files or polygonal files to NURBS (non-uniform rational b-spline) surfaces. The core functionality focuses on free-form geometry and patented mechanisms that automatically adjust design geometrics ge·o·met·rics n. (used with a pl. verb) 1. Geometric qualities or properties. 2. A pattern or design characterized by the use of geometric figures: based on intelligent inferences. Paraform's goal of enabling designers to rapidly and freely create, explore and evaluate organic shapes in three dimensions, supports the industry goal of being first to market with complex free-form products. The latest version of Paraform provides increased automation, scalability, and comprehensive color management capabilities. Together, these new functions enable designers to use Paraform in a highly automated mode. When more domain expertise and insight is required, user intervention can be employed for complex, customized objects requiring precise inputs and refinements during the design process. Optimized for large datasets, Paraform 3.0 features automatic surfacing and sectioning, global shape deformers, surface and space curve-based deformers, full color support, solids and inspection enhancements and a variety of interoperability improvements. Automatic Sectioning and Surfacing Paraform 3.0 delivers improved automated curve generation. -- Curves can now be based on precisely created section curves at numerically or visually specified planes, sections swept along guide curves and automatically over the entire model. -- All curves, whether on the mesh or in free-space, can be automatically intersected and patches or surfaces can be automatically created, while still offering precise user control. -- Curves can be edited directly on the surface with Paraform's patented surface curve formulation and comprehensive editing tools -- all editing is associative with mesh edits. "Paraform already offers unparalleled user control that is crucial for our applications," said Jeff Hutchings, of Boeing Commercial Aircraft. "By adding intelligent automation tools such as automatic sectioning and surfacing, Paraform further leverages the user's expertise resulting in dramatically improved productivity." Fully Associative Points, Polygons, Curves, Surfaces and Solids The Paraform 3.0 product suite supports all elements of digital design, engineering, manufacturing and inspection workflows. Regardless of the source or intended use of the data elements, Paraform integrates seamlessly into the CAD/CAM/CAE platform environment. Specific key enhancements of Paraform 3.0 include: -- Mesh boundary editing and inverse templates that allow users to edit meshes with arbitrary space curves. -- Global shape deformers that enable flexible and precise global deformations of polygon meshes with up to C2 continuity. -- Comprehensive color support throughout editing and surfacing. Texture Mapping In computer graphics, the application of a type of surface to a 3D image. A texture can be uniform, such as a brick wall, or irregular, such as wood grain or marble. The common method is to create a 2D bitmapped image of the texture, called a "texture map," which is then "wrapped around" and Mesh Editing Texture capabilities include very large surface management and user-defined areas. Paraform's approach makes texture mapping more precise and usable compared to arbitrary, patch-delineated topology approaches. This includes support for texture maps on exported polygons as well as NURBS. Patch UVs can be automatically aligned and textures can be stitched during export to ensure convenient management of large models. Mesh editing operations such as hole filling, mesh refinement and other functions automatically interpolate See interpolation. mesh color. Interactive painting tools are also available to add or repair color data. "The advanced enhancements in Paraform 3.0 provide unparalleled texture management throughout the workflow. This allows us to leverage color data in a multitude of ways," said Tom Flack, COO of Optimal, one of the largest suppliers of reverse engineering equipment and services for the U.S. automotive industry The automotive industry is the industry involved in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of motor vehicles. In 2006, more than 69 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide. . "These new capabilities reduce both cost and time-to-market by streamlining workflow and the re-use of knowledge gathered during previous projects. Paraform 3.0 is easy to learn -- it can be used for basic projects requiring entry-level skills -- but it's also ideal for the most demanding digital design applications." Paraform 3.0 is compatible with a wide variety of third-party products and file formats. About Paraform Paraform develops and markets Digital Form Development(TM) software applications for a variety of industrial and digital content creation applications including concept modeling, reverse engineering, vendor verification and inspection, rapid prototyping Building a part one layer at a time using a method of additive fabrication such as 3D printing. Such parts are used for concept modeling to determine if the product design meets the customer's expectations. , engineering analysis (FEA (Finite Element Analysis) A mathematical technique for analyzing stress, which breaks down a physical structure into substructures called "finite elements." The finite elements and their interrelationships are converted into equation form and solved mathematically. , CFD CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics ), manufacturability analysis, tooling modification and repair, legacy data processing data processing or information processing, operations (e.g., handling, merging, sorting, and computing) performed upon data in accordance with strictly defined procedures, such as recording and summarizing the financial transactions of a , visual effects and animation. Paraform's 200+ customers come from a range of markets including: automotive (Honda, Daimler Chrysler, Ford, Porsche); aerospace (Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon); consumer products (Mattel, Titleist, Adidas); defense (US Navy & Army, NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. , Sandia National Labs); entertainment (Disney, Sony, Electronic Arts); industrial (Alcoa, GE, Sumitomo); and medical (3M, Dentsply, Stryker). Paraform is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. For more details, dial 408/241-6601, send email to sales@paraform.com, or visit our Web site at www.paraform.com. Note to Editors: Paraform and Paraform 3.0 are trademarks of Paraform, Inc. All other names are trademarks of their respective holders. |
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