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LEDAS Ships Next Generation of 3D Geometric Constraint Solver

11 Nov 2009

After four years of commercial use in professional CAD/CAM/CAE software packages, the next-generation LGS 3D geometric constraint solver is significantly improved in quality, stability, performance, and function

Novosibirsk, Russia, November 11, 2009 – LEDAS Ltd., an independent provider of variational design tools, component technologies, and software development services for CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM market, today announced the availability of version 2.0 of its LGS 3D geometric constraint solver. As a core component of parametric 3D modeling applications, LGS 3D allows users to express their design intent through geometric constraints and driving dimensions.

Since its first release in 2005, a dozen CAD/CAM/CAE vendors have licensed the LGS 3D software component, embedding it into applications that perform assembly design, motion simulation, and history-free 3D geometry editing. It now used by thousands engineers, architects, and designers around the globe. During last four years, LEDAS released five intermediate versions of LGS 3D – from 1.1 to 1.5.

New Features in LGS 3D

The new LGS 3D version 2.0 contains significant functional enhancements that were suggested by LEDAS customers. It also boosts performance and improves stability. These improvements were obtained after several man-years of testing the components with different applications on thousands of commercial scenarios.

A new API function supports the definition of simultaneous movements by several geometric objects, each with a different rotation and translation. LEDAS customers can now employ more sophisticated scenarios of motion simulation. On the application side, version 2.0 defines optional memory management tools for controlling and optimizing memory use. This new feature is crucial for CAD/CAM/CAE applications that model large assemblies.

The time LGS 3D takes to solve constraints has been significantly reduced, and it is now up to ten times faster than v1.5 for large models. The over-defined constraint diagnostics algorithm has been improved, a function crucial to 3D geometry editing applications that generate many constraints automatically to keep design intent.

Version 2.0 of LGS 3D is already embedded in several commercial applications running on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X, including recent versions of the Driving Dimensions plug-in for Google SketchUp and McNeel & Associates’ Rhinoceros. The Driving Dimensions plug-ins aims at making advanced mechanical CAD technology available to all users of popular 3D software at an affordable price. Please visit http://www.DrivingDimensions.com for more information.

"LGS 3D v.2.0 is ideal solution for those who are looking to implement state-of-the art constraint solving technology in their software for a reasonable price," explained Dmitry Ushakov, Director of Product Management, LEDAS Ltd. "Each month we receive evaluation requests from CAD vendors for our LGS 2D and 3D components. We are pleased to collaborate with all software developers – be it large established vendors or small start-ups – by proposing affordable licensing conditions and lifetime technical support."

About LGS Software

The LGS 2D and 3D geometric constraint solvers are used as parametric engines for 2D sketching and drawing, history-free 3D modeling, assembly design, motion analysis, and other geometric modeling applications. LGS 2D and 3D are cross-platform software packages running on 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, *BSD, AIX, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, and other OSes. Coded in C++, LGS 2D and 3D have a C-style API for easy integration into a broad range of software applications using a variety of wrappers, such as .NET, Java, and C++.

LGS 2D/3D supports the creation and modification of geometric models by means of explicit or implicit constraints. (Geometric objects include points, lines, circles, planes, cylinders, spheres, parametric curves, surfaces and swept surfaces.) Objects can be fixed in the absolute coordinate system or relative to each other. Supported geometric constraints include logical constraints between geometric entities (coincidence, parallelism, tangency, and so on), and dimensional constraints that specify the required values for distances, angles, or radiuses. LGS 2D/3D moves and rotates objects to positions that satisfy all constraints, yet minimizes transformations from the initial configuration. Other LGS functions implement advanced features of CAD/CAM/CAE systems, such as diagnostics of over- and under-defined parts of models, engineering variables and equations, help points, and tolerance management.

Several sample applications named “Lege’n’d 2D/3D” are available for free download from the LEDAS Web site. These representative examples are of different kinds of 2D sketches and 3D assemblies. The applications can be used by anyone to test the functionality, robustness, and performance of LGS 2D/3D. The sample applications were created with the Open CASCADE open-source application framework, and their source code is available to all licensees.

To learn more about LGS 2D/3D, visit the LEDAS Web site at http://ledas.com/products/lgs3d.

About LEDAS

LEDAS Ltd. is an independent software development company founded in 1999. It; it is based in the Novosibirsk Scientific Centre at (Akademgorodok), the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. A leader in constraint-based technologies, LEDAS is a well-known provider of computational software components for PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solutions: geometric constraint solvers for CAD/CAM/CAE, optimization engines for project management, work scheduling and meeting planning as well as interval technologies for knowledge-based engineering and collaborative design.

The company also provides services for PLM markets, including software development, consulting, reselling, education, and training.

More information about LEDAS is available at http://www.ledas.com.

LGS and Driving Dimensions are trademarks of LEDAS Ltd. Any other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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