Delcam releases DentCAD for dental design

Delcam has launched DentCAD, a new computer-aided design program for the dental industry. DentCAD brings to the industry the benefits of speed and accuracy given by CAD software in many other sectors. It can be used for the fast, reliable creation of dental restorations, including copings, crowns and bridge frameworks.

It is expected that many companies will want to use DentCAD alongside Delcam’s DentMILL program for dental manufacturing. However, in keeping with the company’s "open” approach to its software, DentCAD can be used with any combination of scanner, machining software and computer-controlled machine tool.

The key benefit of DentCAD is that is extremely easy to use and so is ideally suited to dental technicians that have no previous experience of computer-aided design. The whole process is based on a series of "Wizards” that guide the user through the entire design process.

A wide range of visualisation tools are available at every stage, including sectioning, shading and transparency options that allow detailed inspection of the shape being developed. This ensures that the results are exactly as required by the patient.

The system is also very flexible, so allowing different design options to be developed and compared. For example, key parameters like the margin line and the cement thickness can be varied and the computer model will automatically update to reflect the changes. In addition, sculpting tools let the user add or subtract material interactively, while the dynamic editing tools allow the complete model to be reshaped quickly and effectively.

DentCAD offers levels of speed and accuracy that are impossible to achieve with manual methods. Complete restorations can be designed within minutes of importing the scanned data. The complete design can then be supplied to DentMILL or another machining program for the manufacture of the item.