Note: TransMagic R15 SP1 is nearing release. Here’s a preview of what it can do.
New Formats: Creo 13, NX2606, and more…
Semantic PMI Write to STEP AP242 – (EXPERT only)
How it works: Just save the file to STEP, and make sure the STEP Write settings are set to AP242.
Note: This feature is only avaiable in TransMagic EXPERT.
Benefit: Semantic PMI should allow you to enter read the PMI data into other CAD systems.
PMI Note Visibility on a Per View Basis – This means that you can now show only the PMI notes you want to show in any given PMI view.
How it works: Just open a part that has PMI in it. Open the View Browser and create a few views. Right-click on any view you want, and choose Add PMIs To View. You can see these steps in the screenshot below. In the example, we have selected notes for Perpendicularity, Flatness, and Angular Size. Those also appear in the graphic display. Then just click Apply and that view will display only the selected notes.
Benefit: This feature gives you the ability to simplify and fine-tune what PMI you show in each view, allowing better communication between team members and more clarity, particularly on very busy PMI parts.
Window Select and Crossing Select – Window Select is new option here, allowing the user to select just the components inside an implied window.
How it works: From the Selection toolbar, click on Window Select. Then window the objects you want to select, by clicking once with your left mouse button, then dragging and clicking again; only the components within the window should be selected (see the screenshot below). Crossing Window is the button shown under Window Select, and it operates by selecting everything inside the window, but also anything that ‘crosses’ the window.
Note: There are some circumstances where this tool still selects parts that cross the window. We will address these cases as they come up.
Benefit: Window Select gives you more precision on your selections.
Invert Selection – Invert the selection set has been enhanced. First, here’s how Invert Selection works.
How it works: Select some components, then right click on the components, and choose Invert Selection, and again choose Invert Selection (for a normal invert selection). See the screenshot below. That is the standard way to use Invert Selection. Below, we will contrast that to Invert Selection Global.
Benefit: Being able to chose what you don’t want in order to get what you do want. Because sometimes choosing what you don’t want is faster than choosing what you do want.
Invert Selection Global
How it works: Invert Selection Global is for cases where you are using a special selection mode, such as Select Only Solid Bodies, or Select Only Surface Bodies. See screenshot 1 (and keep scrolling down, since this feature takes a little explaining).
Benefit: You can use this tool too select everything other than the currently selected geometry, regardless of whether the unselected geometry is surfaces or solids. This greatly increases your selection possibilities.
Start with Window Select – Now that we’ve set Select mode to Select Only Surface Bodies, let’s do a Window Select on the components. Notice that the second and fourth components in each row are colored blue and are surfaces, and the other components are solid bodies. When we window as shown in this next screenshot, we only get the surfaces within the window area.
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Invert Selection – Now, if we were to apply an Invert Selection to the previous selection, only the other surfaces would be selected, as shown by the next screenshot.
Select five surface groups and – But, if we take the same situation, where there are five surface models selected, and apply a Invert Selection Global to the selection set….
Invert Selection Global – We would get the following result – so the benefit of Invert Selection Global is that it selects everything on the screen, whether it is a surface or a solid, other than the geometry that is already selected.
Remove Duplicate Surfaces – This searches the file for any surfaces that are the same as existing surfaces and in the same location. If it finds them, it will delete them.
How it works: Just click the Remove Dupe. Surfaces button, and then run Auto Repair Wizard to re-evaluate the model and turn it into a solid model.
Note: This feature is only available in the MagicHeal add-on.
Benefit: This tool can save a lot of time if you run into a file that has a lot of duplicate surfaces.
Command Locator – The Command Locator sits on the upper right side of the TransMagic interface, and responds to entered letters, giving the user the ability to find and launch different commands at will.
How it works: Just enter the first few letters of the command you are searching for. In the screenshot, the letter ‘a’ has been entered, which populates the list of all the commands that start with the letter ‘a’. You can see that Annotate and Atomize appear in this list. If you were to then click on Annotate, you’d be able to immediately click on a model you want to annotate. If you click on Atomize, the Atomize dialog box will be opened.
Benefit: This tool gives users who are not familiar with TransMagic’s menus an alternate way to find commands.