IronCAD is similar to the later releases of Solid Edge. Subsequent releases fixed the limitation, and now both techniques can be used at the same time. When Siemens PLM added Synchronous Technology to Solid Edge, the first two releases required users to decide right at the beginning of a new design whether to model the part with traditional techniques (ordered) or to use synchronous techniques a part could not have both ordered and synchronous features. I think you’ll find the similarities remarkable. In this article, I’m going to dissect some of the main features of Solid Edge’s Synchronous Technology and compare them with IronCAD.
#History of solid edge cad software#
Lesser known is IRONCAD, the makers of the IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite, who began developing hybrid software in 1998, years earlier than any other vendor. Of the hybrids, the most notable ones are Solid Edge and NX from Siemens PLM that use a combination of synchronous and ordered environments within the same part file. While some vendors busily wrote distinct applications, others merged technology through a hybrid approach.
Siemens PLM has had their Synchronous Technology, Autodesk their Fusion, and Dassault Systemes their V6 – along with lesser players. PTC’s CoCreate had employed the technology since the 1990s. Several vendors have been working at adding direct editing functions to their history-only modelers. SpaceClaim was probably the last software vendor to make the CAD world rethink the possibility of direct modeling. The second language seems different, but similarities become evident with the third and fourth languages. I have said that learning new CAD software is like learning a new language: the vocabulary and grammar may be different, but the concepts are the same. Synchronous Technologyįrom the blue gradient of the background to the uniformity of the ribbon bar, there is something eerily familiar to every MCAD software.