Mechanical Technology October 2015

⎪ Computer-aided engineering ⎪

Adding value: from CAD design to manufacturing efficiency MECAD Systems – the original developer of SigmaNest, a material optimisation package for CNC plate and pipe cutting systems, is a South African company originally established to support analysis and manufacturing software. Today, SigmaNest is a SolidWorks Gold Partner. MechTech talks to Robert Pereira, product manager for DS SolidWorks.

M ECAD Systems has origins going back to 1985, when Megkon Systems was es- tablished as a provider of finite element analysis (FEA) services through a product called NISA, which was the very first FEA package to run on personal computers (PCs). “We did consulting work on the use of this software and soon became a reseller,” Pereira begins. The company took on sole South African distribution rights to MasterCAM in 1992 and changed its name to MECAD Systems the following year. “We also took on a dealership for the early 2D draught- ing and direct solid modelling package, CAD Key (now KeyCreator), which was one of the first PC-based design packages to incorporate 3D capabilities. “Then, in 1995, the first release of SolidWorks emerged and we immediately saw the potential and became a local

emerged in 1995, and according to Pereira: “This was the first parametric CAD package to be developed to run spe- cifically on the Windows platform. Almost all other PC-based design software pack- ages were ported across to Windows from the DOS or UNIX platforms, which cre- ated some awkwardness with respect to functionality in Windows,” he suggests. For the first two years, the company released two version updates per year, followed by a new release every year since. “And MECAD in South Africa has been involved from the very first releases,” Pereira relates. In 1997, Dassault Systems (DS), the CATIA developer, decided to buy SolidWorks and to push the program aggressively into the broader market- place. “SolidWorks had already run out of growing space and needed a bigger partner, while DS hadn’t yet acquired a lower-end product to supplement CATIA. I think DS paid around US$310-million for the company, a bargain considering what it is worth today,” he says. Dassault Systems immediately began to foster partnerships and to acquire soft- ware add-ins to supplement the central package. “SolidWorks has established a large collection of solution partners with programs to suite every conceivable de- sign and analysis requirement. At the pin- nacle of this idea are the Gold Partners, which offer fully integrated software that runs inside the SolidWorks environment. “MasterCAM is a key example of a SolidWorks Gold Partner. The interface is very close to that of SolidWorks, its annual release dates are always ‘in-sync’ and 100% compatible, and MasterCAM is translated into the same seven or eight key languages adopted by SolidWorks. Globally, there are some 700 Gold part- ners such as these,” Pereira says. He further cites the development of SolidWorks Simulation, which includes

reseller,” Pereira tells MechTech . The development of SolidWorks began in 1993, when a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, Jon Hirschtick, put together a team of high-end CAD systems’ developers to create a powerful and cost effective package that would run on the Microsoft Windows platform. “Up to that time, there were two branches of CAD software. At the high-end, there were large and expensive programs such as CATIA, IDEAS, Unigraphics and Computervision’s CADDS, which all ran on UNIX-based mainframe computers. “On the other branch, you had the low-end CAD packages that ran on the DOS-based PCs, such as AutoCAD and CAD Key. Jon Hirschtick’s idea was to create a mainstream CAD package that would be powerful, less costly and did not depend on expensive mainframe hardware platforms,” Pereira explains. The first release of SolidWorks

Johannesburg-based equipment manufacturer Osborn is a specialist OEM of crushing and screening equip- ment for mining, quarrying and road construction.

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Mechanical Technology — October 2015