Delcam enhances ArtCAM Pro

Delcam will demonstrate the latest version of its ArtCAM software for design and manufacturing of signs, furniture and other woodworking products at the July 24-27 AWFS fair in Las Vegas.

Delcam also announced improvements to ArtCAM Pro, its professional software package for design and manufacturing of 3-D models or 3-D sculpted reliefs.

The main addition is a new way of working called free-relief modeling, according to the company. This technique allows previously-created reliefs to be selected and then moved, rotated, rescaled and copied, either individually or as part of a group. Any part of the design can be isolated, edited and then recombined into a group for duplication or further editing within the group. At any stage in the process, either individual items or a group of items can be saved within ArtCAM Pro’s clipart library for use in future projects.

Examples where the technique could be used include creating the feathers in a model of a bird or designing a forest of similar trees without them all appearing identical.

A related development that will also make it easier to create more complex designs allows the interaction between different layers to be viewed in real time. This will make it much faster to choose the optimum combination of the different layers as the effects of changing the overlap can be seen instantly, according to Delcam.

Sketching in ArtCAM Pro has been made easier by giving the designer the freedom to alternate between straight and curved vectors while drawing. Once created, vectors can now be added to or closed, and any nodes within them can be edited or deleted, at any time, either in the 2-D or 3-D view, the company says.