CAD Solutions for Fabric Design Professionals

MP ANEL N EWS

Form-finding and patterning software for AutoCAD

October 2006

MPanel v12 releasing soon!

MPanel v12 is due for release in early November. If you hold a current MPanel Technical Support Contract this

new update will be sent to you automatically.

If your contract has lapsed, please contact us for help in reinstating your contract. If you have previously evaluated

MPanel and would like to see the newest features, please do let us know, as the evaluation version of MPanel v12

will be available soon after the permanent version is shipped to our current.customers.

MPanel v12 has new features in the following areas:

Model Builder

Seam types

Relaxation engine

Output to plotter

Paneling

Toolbar and Option screen layout

Here are some examples of the new features:

Model Builder now draws polylines from XYZ.

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53.1

151

37.8

Will draw a 3DPoly based on a set of coordinates from the clipboard.

190.3

235

37.8

The coordinates can be copied from a text document or from a spread-

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216

64.8

sheet. They can be in XY or XYZ columns. The tool can be applied

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174.3

37.8

several times, to build up a the outline of a complete 3D model from a

list of system coordinates

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Model mirroring

You can set the model to mirror the local forces on an

edge which produces the same shape as if the whole

model was mirrored.

This is useful if you are working on a large symmetri-

cal model, as you don’t have to draw or relax “the

other half” of the model.

Set the number of panels you want from a mesh.

You can now set the numbers of panels that are drawn

from each mesh. The tool will accept a number of panels

that can be derived from the mesh… so a mesh with 12

panels can be paneled as 6,4,3,2,or 1.

Seam Allowance Options

You can now define what type of seam you need on each side

of the panel, including lap-over, lap-under, fold-to, butt, etc.

Here we show the right panel overlapping the left; with the

top and bottom folded to a guideline, with lineup marks

added.

New Output Options

On the panel output the panel entities are now

separated onto different layers for output to the plot-

ter. By default their layers are:

Cut Curve=C

Annotation lines, curves and text = A

Lineup marks = D (drill)

This change is for compatibility with the AAMA dxf

specification for output to cutter plotters.

Remember the IFAI Expo 2006

Your MPanel Support Team will, once again, be on hand at the IFAI to answer any questions about MPanel. This

year the Expo will be held in Atlanta, GA from Oct 30-Nov 2. Please stop by Booth #1700 and let Andrew and

Timothy show you how fast and easy it is to design your tensile fabric structures using our MPanel software.

Get your free 30-day MPanel Evaluation

If you haven’t yet tried MPanel, please do contact us and we will send you a free, fully functional, evaluation copy

of MPanel to try out in your own design environment. We will even hold a training web conference with you to

get you started! To request this MPanel evaluation please send us an email with your company contact information

to support@mpanel.com .

You can also contact us through

Just search for MPanel Support and choose the representative that

is closest to you.

US and Americas contact:

Australia contact:

UK, Europe and Asia contact:

Timothy Akes

Alan Stewart

Andrew Askwith

CAD Effects, LLC

Structureflex

Meliar Design

10805 Sunset Office Drive, Ste 300

280 Bay Road

Lower Cwm Barns

St. Louis, Missouri 63127 USA

Cheltenham, 3192 Victoria, AU

Llanafan Fawr, Builth Wells,

(314) 631-6300 voice

(03)9581 6150 voice

Powys, Wales, UK LD2 3SG

(314) 754-9388 fax

(03) 9581 6177 fax

+44 (0)1597 860291

takes@cadeffects.com

alan@structureflex.com.au

andrew@meliar.com

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