The new release of think3’s suite of CAD products provides many improvements and innovative
features for engineering, styling and tooling departments

Milan, July 22, 2009 – Think3, the multinational company currently celebrating 30 years of activity in the Product Development Process, presents ThinkDesign 2009.1, its new release of CAD products developed and enhanced by think3’s R&D to offer strong functionality improvements to users in the engineering, styling and tooling departments.
The 2009.1 release includes new features for the creation of frame elements for the industrial machinery market, improvements to commands for curve and surface editing, enhancements in the sheet metal functionalities and many other new features for the Machinery and Components sectors.

Version 2009.1 introduces the new Frame functionality, a fully integrated module of ThinkDesign, which is an instinctive sketch-based method that facilitates the creation of frame elements. The Frame module simplifies the process of creating frame structures with easy-to-use, powerful and flexible tools to achieve significant reduction in design time.

The new Hole command has been redesigned, offering greater ease of use and completeness with respect to standards, in order to make designer’s work increasingly smooth and productive. It can be used for creating and redefining standard, simple, shaped, and free dimensional holes.

The new Mirror mode for curve and surface editing enables the user to maintain continuity of the curve/surface being edited with respect to the virtual mirror of the entity. Additional options under the Mirror mode node give full control to the user to define the type of continuity (Position, Tangent or Smooth curvature) to be maintained about a user-selected plane.

ThinkDesign 2009.1 introduces enhancements in the Global Modeling commands. With the E nhancement in GSM Transformation of Mesh, it is now possible to modify the original mesh thanks to GSM (Global Shape Modeling) technology.
Also new for the Die Design community: the new GSM command called GSM Fillet Reduction. It enables the modification of a set of selected fillet surfaces by changing their curvature, while retaining the desired continuity along borders. It can be used to modify some high curvature areas to let the material fill properly during stamping.

Improvements have been made also in color management to provide better control over the application of colors and increase understanding in complex models (better dynamic visualization). Different colors are now allowed for solid and solid faces, useful to highlight different technological meanings of different parts of the same object. It is possible to use a unique component’s color in order to better visualize it in an assembly. Color will be maintained after adding or modifiying features and can be maintained after imploding/exploding of solids/surfaces.

The graphic environment has been enhanced with the new 3D Section View mode, the Planar Reflection option in High Quality rendering, the Shaded Drag&Drop for the visualization of components positioned in an assembly in shaded mode, and a set of other features that assist in the visualization of data.

As for new features and improvements in Part Modeling, a new Insert New Faces check box has been introduced in the Extend Faces/Close Solid command selection list which, upon activating, creates new faces to fill the selected holes. It enables an easy closure of holes by saving time in complex models, which is very useful to pre-process shapes used in metal stamping and mold creation.

ThinkDesign 2009.1 includes, among many other features, a completed extension to the CADENAS/PARTsolutions libraries and the full, seamless integration with TD PLM, think3’s web-based solution for implementing a PLM system.

For more information, contact Samanta Fumagalli, PR & Communication Manager, Email Contact, tel. +39 (0)39 6411141.


Information about think3, Inc.
Think3 has been operating in the ICT sector for 30 years and provides the only technology that links three separate design areas: the concept, its development and the finished product. In this way, think3 enables thousands of company customers to innovate, to compete and to rise to the challenges of global markets, thanks to the integration of processes, which helps to accelerate time to market and to reduce costs.

Think3 boasts a consolidated presence across Europe, the US and Asia. The company has also secured a strong presence in China following joint venture deal sealed with Beijing Extech Science & Technology Co. Ltd to create EXTECH, a brand new company based in Beijing, with offices across the country. In the rest of the world, think3 is present throughout its network of selected VARs (Value Added Resellers).

All this means that think3 can count among its customers some of the most significant enterprises in the industrial market.
For more information visit our site at www.think3.com


think3, Italian branch office of think3 Inc.                 
Mario Bonelli                 
Centro Direzionale Colleoni – Palazzo Taurus 2                                
Viale Colleoni, 3                                                 
20041 Agrate Brianza - MI                                         
tel. 039.6411.111                                         
fax 039.6411.120                                                
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