CoreTechnologie (CT) has released the latest version of its ‘3D_Evolution Simplifier’ software, with new functions.

The new selection tool is particularly useful for digital mock-up and VR applications, and it is designed to simplify large assemblies of cars, trucks, planes and trains.

For VR and DMU (digital mock-up) requirements, often only the external or internal parts of a very large vehicle assembly are needed.

Especially with extremely large assemblies, the selection of the desired components or sub-assemblies is often very difficult and takes a large amount of manual work and time.

Even modern 3-D systems quickly reach their limits, as complete and detailed car assembly needs to be displayed to manually select the desired scope.

CT (www.coretechnologie.com) has developed a new voxel-based function for the 3D_Evolution Simplifier software tool.

It selects the desired items through a ‘balloon’ stretching out from a user-defined starting point, and there is practically no limit to the size of the data.

The selection process takes place very quickly thanks to multi-processor calculation. The automatically selected models, which represent either the interior or exterior, can be converted to all common 3-D formats.

The software offers direct interfaces for major systems such as Catia V5 and V6, NX, Solidworks, Creo and Inventor, as well as standard formats such as STEP, JT, FBX, DWG and DGN.

A clever side-effect of the balloon calculation is that the contact body consisting of voxels represents the interior volume minus all bodies contained therein — and thus represents the volume of air or liquid inside. The automatically created model is a closed volume that can also be used for further simulation purposes.

From detailed engine, gearbox or machine and plant assemblies, the Simplifier generates exact enveloping bodies as solid geometry with significantly smaller file sizes and thereby guarantees CAD and VR performance with up to a 95% reduction in element count.

The simplified models exactly represent the outer shell; the inner geometry has been completely removed.

In addition, the simplified shell provides the advantage of sending 3-D data, effectively protecting valuable ‘know-how.’

When collaborating with suppliers, customers or partners, as well as in downstream processes, automatic selection and envelope geometry generation of complex components is an integral part of the PLM process chain, both for the protection of know-how and for the automated creation of lightweight 3-D models used for VR and DMU processes or for further operations in the CAD system.