What's New in the MapleSim CAD Toolbox 2019.2

The MapleSim CAD Toolbox was substantially updated for the 2019.2 release.

The MapleSim CAD Toolbox 2019.2 has been updated to support the most recent releases of many popular CAD tools, including Autodesk Inventor, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, NX, and more. In addition, the toolbox now supports new formats, enabling it to be used with even more CAD tools.  These include AutoCAD 3D, I-deas, STEP/XML, and others.  Import of the STL file type is no longer supported.  For a complete list of supported file types, see Supported CAD Systems.

This release has significant performance enhancements.  It imports CAD files faster, automatically groups rigidly attached parts on import from a number of popular CAD systems, and is more responsive to manipulation of large models while rotating and panning.

As well, measurement options have ben added to the new CAD Toolbox.  In addition to the distance and edge measurements, users can now detect (and place coordinates at) the intersection of two surface normals.  This greatly simplifies placing coordinates for non-planar geometries like spheres, allowing you to quickly calculate and place coordinates at their center.  Additionally, the center of gravity measurement has been extended to handle multiple selections (rather than a single part), and now allows coordinates to be automatically placed at the calculated CoG.

Finally, the MapleSim multibody engine has also been updated in the 2019.2 release.  The more robust handling of kinematic constraints coming from the CAD models serves to simplify the transition from model building to model simulation.

The MapleSim CAD Toolbox now supports the concept of reference coordinates.  When coordinates are copied, they are automatically referred back to their original coordinate.  This means that when the original coordinate is moved, the reference coordinate will be updated as well.  Additionally, since coordinates are now defined relative to a part's local reference frame (rather than the model's global reference frame), they are moved with parts when the CAD model is updated.

Compatibility Notes

If you have both the MapleSim CAD Toolbox 2019.2 and 2019.1 releases and you open a MapleSim model with CAD subsystems created with the old CAD Toolbox, those CAD subsystems are indicated with a red icon in the corner:

and will open in the old CAD Toolbox.  However, importing new CAD models will be done using the new CAD toolbox, and CAD subsystems created with the new CAD toolbox are indicated with a blue icon in the corner:

Unfortunately, there is no automatic upgrade path from the 2019.1 CAD Toolbox to the 2019.2 CAD Toolbox. If you load a model built with the 2019.1 CAD Toolbox into MapleSim—and only have the 2019.2 version installed—the model will behave as if there is no CAD Toolbox installed (that is, you will be able to simulate it, but double-clicking on the components will not launch the CAD Toolbox).