Vero Designer — “The New Standard” Say Manufacturers

Delegates on the first training courses for Vero Software’s new specialist direct modelling CAD for CAM system say it will become the new industry standard.

As a stand-alone optional application for its CAM portfolio, Designer enables users to create new designs or modify existing geometry from third party CAD systems. Focusing on specific needs of machinist programmers, it provides a quick, dynamic editing and modelling environment, where users sketch, drag, hold, push or twist, to create and modify models…and it is not dependent on having a series of parameters that drive it, or a feature tree.

David Garner, Managing Director of CNC Training Centre, says Designer is easier to use than traditional methods. “It’s much smoother and far less clunky. I’d been looking for a good modelling system for some time…but I don’t need to look any further now. This is the best way forward and I believe it’ll become the new standard way of doing things.”

Vero Applications Engineer Ben Miller, who is delivering the first courses, says they cover functionality in all three Designer licenses, from Essential to Advanced, and are aimed at getting users into the mindset of direct modelling.

“Delegates will be able to prepare and produce models much faster and easier than in a traditional history-based modelling system.”

Colin Merry, Managing Director of DJM Engineering (Banbury) Ltd, attended the course “to stay in touch and remain at the cutting edge of having the proper tools to provide the right service to our customers. And Designer definitely fits the bill for that.”

His company manufacturers components for the aerospace, automotive and medical industries, and he says Designer will be ideal in helping them with design ideas for solving their customers’ issues. “It’s looks like being a professional platform for us to put solutions together.”

His brother, Ian, feels Designer will quickly become an integral part of their system, giving them the ability to quickly design parts as full, technical, models. He says having a full 3D visual is particularly valuable. “Immediately after investing in Designer we needed to create an injection mould tool, and the customer only had a 2D wireframe sketch. We created a model in Designer, and they saw the finished part on screen which made it easier to discuss how we were going to make it.”

And Peter Rank, of Rank Brothers Ltd., says they frequently need to modify customers’ CAD models. “We can simply import the model into Designer and manipulate it, getting it ready for CAM. We don’t get a tree structure with customers’ files, so the fact that Designer’s not reliant on a tree is a big advantage.

“And we’ll be more efficient in making jigs and special tooling, giving us a competitive edge.”

Concluding, Ben Miller says they are expecting to provide additional training courses in the coming months, following the considerable interest shown at the recent MACH exhibition. “Visitors to our stand were particularly impressed with Designer’s ability to read native CAD data, clean up any poor geometry, close gaps, stitch it into a solid, and then make modifications that are important to the CAM process, such as the suppression of features, or the modification of draft angles.”