There’s a good chance engineering companies that work with extremely large data sets across both two- and three-dimensional environments use IronCAD for design.

On November 30, the company introduced its 2017 IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite, which makes it faster for users to work with large data sets, thus reducing design time from concept to production detailing, says Cary O’Connor, vice president of marketing at IronCAD.

The majority of IronCAD customers are involved with the design and manufacture of large, complex machines with many thousands of parts, factory automation layouts, and other assembly layout processes, according to an IronCAD statement.

Updates introduced in the 2017 IronCAD suite include an improvement of up to 30 percent in save and load times for large assemblies, ten-times faster graphics performance when interacting with large assemblies, faster regeneration times on complex models, and faster updates on 2D drawings of large assemblies.

The collaboration suite is comprised of a  range of CAD products that provides collaboration between 3D and 2D to simplify CAD data management and communication throughout the organization and with external partners. Included is the IronCAD design product  that allows allows users to choose from parametric, direct, or a combination of both in a single environment. Also included it the Inovate 3D design and collaboration product, the Draft 2D detailing and 3D collaboration product, and Compose, for 3D configuration and collaboration.

Included in the overall 2017 update to the collaboration suite are improvements to general modeling and detailing environments that  reduces the design time from concept to production drawings.

Improvements to modeling include upgrades for 2D sketch, sweeping, and sheet metal capabilities. Two-dimensional detailing is improved in the IronCAD and the draft detailing environments, with upgrades including revision tables, BOM editing, and improved processes to commands.

The 2017 release includes more than 100 enhancements, O’Connor says. The full list of updates can be found at www.ironcad.com/whatsnew along with videos that present the features.

Engineers that work with extremely large data sets use IronCAD design software because 3D models made in IronCAD require only one file, regardless of complex the model is. Assembly part data is integrated into a file’s unified design environment rather than linking to external files. Feature, part, and assembly data can be stored in catalogs that can be prebuilt to include frequently used parts and assemblies, allowing designers to extend the use of 3D data throughout the enterprise.

Find out more at www.ironcad.com.