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ICEM opens up links to other systems

Software company ICEM has expanded the scope of its surface modelling, validation and visualisation software to link it further into body engineering and manufacturing systems.

The new ICEM Shape Design suite has been developed in the months since ICEM announced a strategic tie-up with Dassault Systèmes and now links fully into the Catia V5 product lifecycle management (PLM) architecture.

More than 70% of ICEM customers in the automotive industry are using Catia, says ICEM’s product marketing director Pete Moorhouse. “This is very much OEM driven,” he says. “We need to be integrated into V5.”

ICEM’s chief executive Lee Cureton says the new software suite is part of a deliberate strategy to integrate surface engineering into other design systems with the aim of meeting vehicle OEMs’ for faster development and less rework. “The customer gains through needing less time to define the surfaces and having the design themes more accurately represented, and through down-the-line visibility,” Cureton said.

Dassault’s shape design and styling manager Philippe Laufer says that ultra-fast modelling is one of the main drivers in Catia development and that the group believes that a 12-week design cycle is “feasible” once all design inputs are integrated and realistic simulation of the real physical behaviour of a product can be achieved.

ICEM Shape Design (ISD) consists of a set of tools for the creation and validation of any type of surface, from freeform surfaces to complex mechanical shapes, and including body and interior surfaces. The core product, ISD Centre, comes in three standard configurations:
• CE3, the “entry-level” configuration which includes ISD Realtime Renderer to create accurate dynamic renderings and animations of digital models, and an IGES interface;
• EX3, which includes ISD Expert, for global surface model manipulation, including specialised Class A functionality and the creation of complex shapes such as tubes and helixes, and an IGES interface;
• RE3, which includes ISD Scan for reverse engineering from digitised data, ISD Quick Surfacer, enabling rapid construction of surfaces from digitised data, ISD Form, which generates shapes from curves or surfaces, and an IGES interface.

Other packages available include ISD Theme, which allows for the integration of designers’ initial work, such as 2D sketches and renderings, into a 3D format as the basis for 3D digital mock-up.

And ISD Renderer generates high quality photo-realistic images and movies of a digital mock-up using a powerful ray-tracing engine. This enhances the realism of the images by showing “real” soft shadows as well as accurate reflections and refractions of light.

Cureton says the ray-tracing idea is one where there is potential for further development. “To achieve this we’ve needed to have different maths, and we believe we’re one of the first to bring this to market. It enables you to see the physics before the physics exists, on a laptop.”