CoCreate Software GmbH & Co. KG announced that Gebrüder Trox GmbH has replaced its 2D design environment with CoCreate’s OneSpace Designer Modeling 3D software. The decision was based on the successful completion of a time-critical pilot project. CoCreate partner ASCAD has been entrusted with implementation, consulting and deployment of the enterprise-wide project, which includes 12 Designer Modeling and nine Sheet Metal licenses.

For more than 50 years, Trox has been producing and selling high-quality ventilation and air conditioning products and systems. In addition to headquarters near Düsseldorf and modern production sites in Germany, Trox has manufacturing facilities around the world.

Evaluating many products and visiting various reference customers proved that OneSpace Designer Modeling was the market leader in intuitiveness and efficiency. The dynamic modeling methodology and the fact that it was so easy to learn and use were further plus points. Also of major importance to the sheet metal processing company was CoCreate’s high-performance Sheet Metal module, which carried the process through to production.

The new 3D environment fulfilled expectations in the first pilot project: the complete decentralized ventilation system for the new Capricorn building - now part of the impressive main entrance to the Düsseldorf Media Port.

Company-wide implementation of the new software ran parallel to the pilot project. Based on the results, Trox expects an immediate 30% reduction in development time. At the same time, the number of prototypes will be reduced on average by 30%. 3D data based on the first designs with OneSpace Designer Modeling have already been transferred to external production partners in the USA and China.

The design phase for customized products has already been cut by 50%. Plus, company-wide use of the WebAccess 3D viewer will drastically reduce communication efforts and rework normally required for production.

3D-Tool simplifies and speeds up the analysis, presentation and communication of CAD data. The viewer dynamically displays CAD models in 3D and 2D. Complete projects can be saved into one compact EXE-File which for example might be sent by email. The recipient doesn’t need an expensive CAD system or 3D-Tool licenses to view the models.

The EXE-Files contain the viewer and the data and need no further installation to start up. The intuitive interface allows a close examination of the design without special CAD skills. So 3D-Tool eases the coordination inside the project team or with other parties such as customers and suppliers.

In the viewer, single parts and complex assemblies can be organized and edited as well as shown or hidden. It is quick and easy to add annotations and dimensions, to create cross sections or to change colors. Model orientations and display settings can be saved as custom views for quick access or played back later in a slideshow. A full screen mode is available for presentations. Any view can be printed separately or in combination with others, or can be exported as a picture file.

Besides the many 3D formats, such as STEP, IGS, VDA, SAT, PARASOLID, STL, SLP, VRML and 3DS, 3D-Tool also supports 2D formats like DXF, DWG and HPGL. So 3D-Tool can be used in combination with most Mechanical CAD systems like Pro/Engineer, CATIA, Unigraphics, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, AutoCAD und Autodesk Inventor.

The latest version 7.5 is downloadable from 3D Tool and can be evaluated for 14 days, unrestricted and without obligation, after requesting a free Trial Key.

For those applications where you need to squeeze a NEMA 17 or NEMA 23 motor into a tight spot, QuickSilver Controls, Inc., now offers adapters for its 15 pin D shell motor connector (D15HD). The QCI-D15HD-R1 routes the cable towards the motor shaft and the QCI-D15HD-R2 routes the cable away from the shaft.

Both adapters provide a height profile of 1 inch. Screws are included to secure the adapter to the motor.

Both adapters are designed to handle the full horsepower of either a SilverNugget N2 or SilverDust D2 servo controller/driver including both motor and encoder feedback signals.

VizUp Technology unveils a new polygon reduction system that enables anyone to reduce the number of polygons in a complex 3D model up to 90% without much effect on its visual quality.

VizUp is an ad-hoc polygon reduction system that enables you to reduce the number of polygons in a complex 3D model while retaining the quality and appearance of the original. The end result of the reduction is a 3D model with a well-balanced level of details and size, which is perfect for the use in virtual reality and real-time visualization systems. The process of reduction is extremely simple and doesn't require any advanced knowledge. VizUp automatically picks all necessary parameters without any manual interference on your side.

VizUp has a refreshingly uncomplicated user interface, which consists of the 3D viewer in the center and a toolbar with all commands and options ready at hand. Once you loaded a model, you can compress it with a single click on the Reduce button on the toolbar. VizUp performs the compression automatically. The best thing in it is that a model is compressed for all possible ratios at once. This means you can see the effect of any compression level instantly without having to restart polygon reduction each time for 10%, 20%, 30%, and other ratios. Another good thing about VizUp is its unique ability to retain the original look of a model. VizUp doesn't change the coordinates of the vertices and it results in minimal distortions during texture mapping even at high compression ratios. You can examine the result of reduction in 3D from different perspectives and in different visualization modes. This includes displaying a model as a set of textures, a set of smooth surfaces colored according to the material properties, as an object consisting of flat polygons, as a wireframe, or as a set of vertices.

Version 2 of VizUp builds on the success of the previous release that saw a high customer adoption in 2005 and received favorable comments and recommendations from customers like the one that belongs to Stuart Williams from Virtuality. "I have tried out several commercial polygon reduction tools in the past, and this is easily as good or better than them. It's extremely simple to use and the polygon reduction is great. Very useful for simplifying models made with nurbs or metaballs. It reduced a high-poly vrml model from 617kb to 115kb with practically no difference in appearance. I had to check the wireframe view to be sure of what I was seeing."

VizUp's Features at a Glance:
- High quality of complex model optimization;
- Extremely simple and user
-friendly;
- Optimization is performed automatically, no parameter tuning necessary;
- Decrease the number of polygons dramatically without loosing quality;
- Perform optimization only once
- simultaneously for all possible reduction ratios;
- Visual control for model tuning during the process of optimization;
- Built-in 3D viewer is intuitive and lets you examine your model;
- File structure stays the same
- comments, text format, etc. do not change;
- Supports VRML 2.0/97 file format.

Hybrid electric transit buses are raising the industry standard for fuel economy, emissions, and reliability, according to a recently published independent study.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) compared different technologies used in regular revenue service in New York City and concluded that Orion VII buses powered by BAE Systems' HybriDrive® series propulsion system had superior performance. Orion is the transit bus brand of DaimlerChrysler in North America. "This is great news for any transit agency wanting to make a difference environmentally and control rising fuel and operating costs."

Hybrid buses tested by NREL on New York's most severe duty cycles achieved up to 45 percent better fuel economy than diesel buses and 100 percent improvement compared to natural gas on an energy-equivalent basis. The report also said bus drivers liked the increased power output of the hybrid buses, whose electric drive motor offers superior torque to help with acceleration and hill-climbing.

New York's hybrid fleet also proved most reliable in the study, with 7,000 miles between road calls, compared to 5,000 miles for natural gas and 4,000 miles for diesel. The HybriDrive® system also performed better than the other propulsion systems, with 10,000 miles between calls, compared to 8,000 miles for CNG and 5,000 miles for diesel.

In a series hybrid, the vehicle utilizes a smaller diesel engine, reducing weight and cost. All-electric drive maximizes efficiency and reduces emissions, and a regenerative braking system recovers waste energy and extends brake life. The design also eliminates the transmission, a significant maintenance item on transit buses.

The NREL study examined the operation, maintenance, performance, emissions, cost, and safety of urban transit buses operating in normal revenue service in New York, where usage and duty cycle are extremely demanding. The city operates a fleet of more than 4,000 transit buses including diesel, natural gas, and hybrid electric varieties. Currently, 325 Orion VII hybrid buses operate in revenue service, and 500 more are on order.

Orion is the leader in heavy-duty transit buses and was first to introduce clean diesel hybrid-electric technology to the North American market. Orion is a brand of DaimlerChrysler and utilizes the engineering, research and development, and financial backing of the world's largest bus and motorcoach manufacturer to provide superior products worldwide.

BAE Systems is the premier transatlantic defense and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services.