The Component Designer is a powerful tool that gives you the power to combine the flexibility of 3DSMART, the graphics of AutoCAD® and the functionality of SQL Server™ database. Built to provide you with the necessary means to expand your design capabilities, the Component Designer gives you the freedom to create components and libraries to satisfy your own specific design needs. This freedom will empower you to rely on yourself rather than developers to produce the design environment you need.

The Component Designer consists of four major modules covering all the steps in the component creation process:

• Metadata Builder to create geometry of new components
• Library Design to assign components with properties, dimensions and descriptions
• Design Systems to group components and assign special conditions
• Menu Editor to make components available for placement in the Modeler

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Metadata Builder - Create Shapes for Components

The Metadata Builder allows you to create components of specific shapes, just as you do in AutoCAD. This powerful module enables you to create geometries as simple or as complex as you need utilizing familiar CAD concepts. For instance, you can copy shape elements from a variety of supplied generic shapes or create your own shapes.

Library Design - Assign Component Parameters

The Component Designer allows you to add new components or edit current ones within an existing library. A library consists of a collection of components in a defined group such as piping, cable trays, instrument assemblies, etc. The components within a library are distinguished by such attributes as size, rating, material, connection rules and other user defined parameters.

Design System Groups - Add Processes to Components

Design Systems are groups of components that share common features and characteristics. By grouping systems together, you are able to associate components with relevant processing actions within the 3DSMART environment. Here you can select component connectivity rules, select ISOGEN identifiers and define BOM grouping from 3DSMART predefined categories.

Menu Editor - Create Data-centric Menus

When you create a new component or a new library, you can easily update existing menus or create new menus for use in the 3DSMART Modeler. The Component Designer’s Menu Editor is designed to do just that by allowing you to create tabs for each group of components, draw the icons representing the component, and then assign the component it places when that button is selected in the 3DSMART Modeler session.

Benefits of the Component Designer Software

There are many benefits to using the Component Designer to enhance all aspects of you design processes, including:

• Edit components in the 3DSMART libraries or create your own components and libraries; you do not need to ask software vendors to provide this service
• Define the rule by which components behave; your newly created components will adhere to the desired specifications
• Your components are 3DSMART components; when you create new components and/or libraries, they will behave as native 3DSMART components
• You decide on features to be included or excluded from a component; you define the post processing of your data such as including it in ISOGEN output or BOMs