With its wide range of design options and applications, a world without sheet metal would be inconceivable. Sheet metal structures can be found everywhere in sizes, shapes and colors limited only by the designer’s imagination. Designers and engineers alike appreciate the material’s durability and flexibility. The MegaCAD Sheet Metal 3D software modules incorporate extensive sheet metal expertise. This innovative solution takes the material properties into account at every design stage and features sophisticated tools for manufacturing.
From design to production, MegaCAD Sheet Metal 3D is an integrated solution that offers advanced technical features at an attractive price while being easy and intuitive to use.
MegaCAD Sheet Metal 3D for unfolded views and special shapes
Some designers start in 2D and “fatten” the surfaces into solids. Others begin in 3D and develop a sheet metal part in a subsequent step. Users of MegaCAD can use either approach, and have a wealth of additional options at their disposal.
MegaCAD Sheet Metal 3D automatically unfolds sheet metal parts with the click of a mouse. The result is available on-screen within seconds as a 2D contour with all bending lines and required notches that can be edited further as a 2D drawing.
The benefits at a glance
- 3D modeler and fully-featured 2D drawing board in one
- flexible, accessible design without time-consuming searches for suitable non-standard items
- smooth data interchange through 2D/3D interfaces
- generate defined standard parts by entering a few parameters
- automatic detection of incorrect notching and incongruities
- German software: accessible developers and support
- convenient operation, from design to production
Sheet metal work from design to manufacturing
Powerful design tools and advanced features for processing sheet metal parts are united in a single user interface in this special software. In-depth knowledge of material properties and handling have been incorporated in the software. Technical requirements of the production process are identified during the design phase and solutions automatically offered.
MegaCAD Sheet Metal 3D supports the entire production process – from the design of the sheet metal structure through the automatic unfolding process to creating the manufacturing drawing. The SF module for the free and flexible design of special shapes makes creating sheet metal structures of any conceivable design for container and pipeline construction, chemical laboratory equipment and HVAC applications easy and dependable.
Its design options greatly simplify structural, penetration and unfolding problems. The algorithms used ensure that curves of intersection are generated evenly. This not only facilitates manufacturing, but is also advantageous for quality assurance.
Hardware and software recommendations for MegaCAD 2014
Operating systems
MegaCAD 2014 was designed for Windows XP Professional SP3, Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 SP1. It can also be used in Windows 8. MegaCAD 2014 is available in 32-bit and 64-bit(1) versions.
We recommend Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit).
Terminal servers, virtual PCs
MegaCAD 2014 is not suitable for use on terminal servers and virtual PCs.
Graphics cards
Graphics cards of the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series and models of the GeForce 400 series are adequate for small or mid-sized projects. In both cases, models for around €100 will provide sufficient performance.
For demanding users, we recommend using a PNY NVIDIA Quadro 600 or Quadro 2000 graphics card, or an AMD FirePro™ V4900, V5900, or V7900. MegaCAD 2014 uses the advanced OpenGL features of midrange and high-end graphics cards.
Desktop PCs and notebooks with onboard graphics using shared memory, i.e. without a separate graphics card with dedicated memory, are not suitable for use with MegaCAD 2014.
The Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip integrated in third-generation Intel® Core™ i5 and Core™ i7 processors provides sufficient performance to run MegaCAD 2014. We nevertheless recommend using a separate graphics card with dedicated memory.
Displays
We recommend matte (anti-glare) 24-inch TFT displays with 1920 x 1200 resolution (16:10). Full HD 1920 × 1080 displays (16:9) are less suitable due to their lower vertical resolution. 1280 x 1024 is the minimum resolution required to use MegaCAD 2014 productively.
Input devices
A 102-key keyboard and a 3-button (laser) mouse with a scroll wheel, or a trackball is required for MegaCAD 2014. For MegaCAD 3D, we also recommend the use of a 3D input device such as the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator or SpaceExplorer, or the SpaceControl GmbH Space Controller.
Processors and RAM
| Basic specifications for small to medium projects | Recommended specifications for larger projects | |
| MegaCAD LT MegaCAD Metall 2D MegaCAD 2D | AMD Athlon / Pentium 4 1 GB RAM (2) | AMD Athlon X2 / Intel Core 2 Duo / Intel i3 2 GB RAM |
| MegaGENIAL MegaCAD Metall 3D MegaCAD 3D MegaCAD Unfold & SF MegaCAD Profi plus | AMD Athlon X2 / Intel Core 2 Duo / Intel i3 2 - 4 GB RAM | AMD Phenom II / Intel i5 and i7 (3) AMD Opteron / Intel Xeon (4) 4 - 8 GB RAM |
(1) Not all applications are available in 64-bit versions at the present time. For more information, please refer to our price list.
(2) We generally recommend 2 GB RAM for users of Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.
(3) MegaCAD can be run on multiprocessor/multicore systems. It only uses one processor (core), however. We therefore recommend third-generation Intel i5/i7 processors with Turbo Boost®.
(4) While Opteron and Xeon processors are typically used in servers, they are also suitable for high-end CAD workstations, particularly if significantly longer availability of spare parts is a consideration.
Interfaces
Smooth data exchange with all major systems
Mature interfaces for seamless integration into existing CAX environments
With the help of MegaCAD 3D converters, users can import 3D models created in other CAD systems and work on them in the convenient, familiar MegaCAD environment. The finished design can then be transferred back to the customer’s destination system.
MegaCAD is thus an ideal complement to existing high-end CAD systems. In many cases, the investment and training requirements for such systems are completely disproportionate to the design task to be solved. With its mature interfaces, MegaCAD can be integrated into existing CAD-CAM environments with ease.
All major interfaces are available to this end:
The MegaCAD direct interfaces support the import and export of CATIA 4 and 5 data, as well as the import of Inventor and Pro/ENGINEER files. Thanks to its CATIA interface, MegaCAD has earned an established position among automotive suppliers.
The SAT (ACIS) format guarantees direct, lossless data interchange with the more than 250 CAD/CAM applications also based on the ACIS kernel.
MegaCAD 3D also supports the direct import and further processing of AutoCAD 3D models (DXF/DWG). This feature distinguishes MegaCAD from many competitors.
The user can also process neutral formats such as IGES, STEP, STL or VDAFS.
The output of STL files, which is supported by all MegaCAD 3D versions, is the basis for the rapid prototyping of MegaCAD 3D models using a variety of methods such as stereo lithography, fused deposition modeling (FDM), laser sintering, etc. The optional STL converter allows such files to be imported.
MegaCAD 3D models can also be used for Internet presentations via VRML output.
The file formats in detail:
| SAT and SAB (ACIS 1.6–22) | import and export of solids, surfaces and 3D splines |
| VDA-FS | import and export of surface models in 1.0 and 2.0 formats |
| IGES 2D+3D | import and export of trimmed surfaces and volume models (manifold solid B-rep objects) in 5.3 format, including all 2D data and 3D assembly structures |
| IGES 2D | import and export |
| STEP | AP203 (import and export) general mechanical engineering AP214 (import and export) automotive design |
| CATIA 4 | *.MOD and *.EXP import of 4.1.x and 4.2.x formats export of 4.2.4 format |
| CATIA 5 | import and export of up to CATIA 5 R21 |
| Pro/E | import from Revision 16 to Wildfire 5 |
| STL | import with healing function export with a variety of setting options |
| DWG/DXF (2D+3D) | import and export (ACAD 12 to 2012) MDT proxy elements solids (embedded SAT files) surfaces (new algorithm with optimized memory management of triangular surfaces from older AutoCAD versions) model and layout areas |
| VRM | export of 1.0 format (geometry only) |
| WMF | export and import of Windows meta files (vector graphics and bitmaps) |
| BMP | import and export of various bitmap formats (BMP, PCX, TIFF, JPEG, etc.) |
| HPGL | import and export of 1.0 format |
| CDL (2D+3D) | export and import of geometric data as ASCII files |
| ACESS | export and import of 2D drawings as MDB (Access) files |
Hardware and software recommendations
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo / Intel i5 |
| Memory | 2 GB RAM |
| Operating system | Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 SP1 |
All converters require a current version of MegaCAD.
