MACH 2010 Show, A Success for Radan

MACH 2010 proved to be a great success for the world’s most powerful sheet metal CAD/CAM software, Radan.

Radan featured alongside Planit Software’s other market-leading software brands on a 140-square-metre stand in the CAD/CAM zone...and after watching a demonstration, a visitor to the stand agreed to purchase Radan 3D and Radraft.

“This is a completely new customer for us,” said Planit’s Regional Director Simon Lee. “We had demonstrated Radan to them 18 months ago, but they put their purchase plans on hold because of the recession. We invited them to our stand, and were delighted when they made specific plans to visit us. And even more delighted when they agreed to take Radan to convert their customers’ designs.”

And Simon Lee believes that having such a large, impressive stand which showed the three Planit brands of Radan, Alphacam and Edgecam together, highlighted Planit’s position as a global supplier whose solutions are best-in-class within their respective markets, and are integral to the success of thousands of companies of all sizes around the world.

Each of Planit’s brands has two new releases each year, and the show was used to launch numerous enhancements to the new updates, including:

* The latest release of Radan 2010 R2 features a new nest core and advanced multi sheet nester which delivers significant cost savings through maximised material utilisation
* The wealth of Alphacam’s new features includes intelligent Multiple Pocketing and Rough/Finish commands which deliver reduced cycle times. Process times for solids are also reduced with improved solid feature finding and routines for advanced 3D toolpath generation
* Edgecam’s new background processing functionality enables users to take full advantage of their multi core hardware, delivering superior efficiency and reduced time to create the tool path.

All the latest releases have been developed with the end-user’s requirements in mind, specifically to reduce lead times and increase productivity, efficiency and profitability.

ADVANCED

The subcontract company which agreed to purchase Radraft and Radan 3D will use the advanced technology to solve its job preparation and production issues, including folding and unfolding 2D and 3D designs, which previously had to be carried out manually prior to manufacture on their Bystronic machine.

Radan 3D is a high performance and versatile 3D modelling package designed to simplify sheet metal design and engineering assembly modelling. Based on the ACIS solid modelling kernel and employing modern parametric techniques, it provides design flexibility, and a unique 2D-to-3D method of creating 3D objects.

In addition, Radan 3D allows the import of a range of file formats, including Inventor, Solidworks, Catia V4 & V5, SAT, IGES, STEP and Parasolid, as well as the creation of assemblies in the 3D environment. Parts can be unfolded directly into the sheet metal part editor, ready for onward processing. This enables a smooth and efficient workflow from design to manufacture. Advanced features in 3D’s unfolder include the ability to completely eliminate corner relief, or to replace corner relief generated from the model with a standard-sized corner relief hole.

Radraft provides a comprehensive drafting solution for drawing preparation and all 2D geometry manipulation. With many advanced features and an easy-to-use graphical interface, Radraft is a highly productive tool designed to meet engineering drawing needs. The standard toolset made available in Radraft, reduces training requirements, eases deployment and delivers higher productivity.
EDGECAM

As well as the Radan sale, Planit Software had another sales success at MACH. A deal was closed on the latest issue of Edgecam, following a demonstration to the Managing Director of a component manufacturer.

PRE-QUALIFIED

Simon Lee says: “We found we were being pre-qualified with people getting information about our products, services, company history and our position of strength in the market, from the internet. It meant that when they came on to our stand they already knew that using our software can improve the productivity of their machine tools, shorten design and manufacturing time, optimise material usage and deliver high quality goods and services to their customers. It demonstrates that companies are increasingly carrying out research typically online, to find out what best suits their needs before coming to shows like MACH, so they can go straight to see a demonstration of the product they’re interested in.”