Punch! ViaCAD Pro v12 Upgrade From Any 2D/3D versions v9-v11 With Training Guide

ViaCAD Pro makes advanced 3D and 2D design work seem easy

Get professional quality CAD design output without pulling your hair out. Our software includes a wide selection of tools so that the right tool for the task is just a mouse click away. ViaCAD Pro has 3D mesh modeling capability with subdivision technology to go from coarse to smooth surfaces. You (and your customers) will be blown away the photorealistic rendering of your finished designs.

• Design complex organic shapes with extensive NURB surface modeling tools
• 2D Geometric and Dimensional Constraints to manage geometrical relationships between 2D shapes

• Push/Pull Modeling allows 3D surfaces to be edited with your mouse and cursor
• Powerful 3D editing tools such as blending, chamfering, and shelling
• Architectural and woodworking tools such as rabbet, miter and dovetail joints
• Extensive 2D drafting tools such as text, dimensions, 3D to 2D drawing, bill of materials
• Multiple Viewports provide 2, 3 even 4 views of your design and drawing between them
• Integrated Photo Realistic Rendering and support for Keyshot LiveLinking™
• And much more! 

Intuitive Design and Editing Utilities

Drawing precisely is easy with ViaCAD! We have designed it to be user friendly and intuitive to work with.

The LogiCursor™ anticipates your next action and guides your cursor to potential point selections in the drawing.

The Gripper adds drag and drop capabilities to make editing designs easy breezy.

Customizable Grids add another level of ease by providing precision drag and drop in rectangular, polar (circular), and isometric layouts. 

Precision Drafting and Annotations

ViaCAD Pro is also a robust design documentation tool with over 20 customizable dimension styles, including industry dimension formats. 

Other great features to help you document and annotate your projects include:

• 26-dimension styles
• Import bitmaps for logos and reference images
• Spell check is provided for another level of accuracy
• Single click Fills and Hatch 

Architectural Planning Tools

ViaCAD Pro includes all the professional level architectural tools you and your team need to draft, print, and collaborate on projects together.

• Architectural wall tools
• Composite walls to show materials
• Parametric doors and windows
• Instant 3D walls, roofs, and floor slabs
• Compatibility with AutoCAD^® DWG files
• ACIS^®-based geometry means you are creating with the same technology as software that costs thousands of dollars 

Woodworking Tools

ViaCAD Pro includes tools to speed up your woodworking projects. You can quickly create otherwise tedious joints such as Dado joints and miter joints.

• Joints including rabbet, miter, and dovetails
• Dado joints including options for through, stopped or blind
• Edge treatments including cove, round, bullnose, Dupont, waterfall, Ogee, and custom
• Tongue & Groove 

3D Modeling Tools

ViaCAD provides powerful solid modeling technology found in many higher-end products. Additionally, ViaCAD Pro delivers surface modeling tools to expand design capabilities.

• Feature-based History Tree for editing
• A complete design tool with extrusions, Booleans, surface modeling for more complex smooth surfaces
• Precise geometry suitable for 'concept to manufacturing'
• Associative surface modeling 

3D Print Check

Checks for print viability, displaying warnings or errors to the user.

Surface Normals Check

Facet normals define the inside and outside areas of a part. If facet normals are pointing the wrong way, the 3D printer may have problems creating the part. This will check for problems and we have several commands that can help you fix it.

Overhang Analysis

This will help you visually inspect modeling areas that may require structural support for 3D printing. Meshes, surfaces, and solids facets normals are compared to the work plane direction. Angles that are less or equal to 45 degrees are highlighted as red.

Wall Thickness Analysis

This tool provides a means to visually inspect modeling areas that may be too thin for 3D printing. Meshes, surfaces, and solids facets are examined using ray intersections.

Preview Slices

This interface will help you to slice models given a direction and thickness. The dialog box allows for animation through the slices and single-stepping. Use to verify that a part has closed, non-overlapping sections, a requirement for 3D printing.

Auto Position

The Auto Position tool translates the model to the positive x, y coordinate system at z=0.

Support Structure

Manually adds geometry to support material as it is created by the 3D printer. Support structures controls, include Attach Radius, Midpoint Radius, Base Radius, Base Thickness, and Drag base and midpoints to modify structure location.

Show Printer Volume

Toggles the boundary of the default 3D Printer. The volume is defined within the Printer Definitions dialog box.

Printer Definitions

Sets key parameters of the 3D printer, including length, width, and height of the volume accessible by the printer. The parameters in the Printer Definitions dialog box are used for commands such as 3D Print Check and Auto Position.

3D Design Advancements

Split Mesh This tool will divide a mesh into two portions based on a cutting plane. Split Mesh is an ideal tool for those working with facetted data along with 3D printing manufacturing processes.

Mesh Booleans This advancement provides a means to add or remove material from a mesh body. Previous versions only allowed Boolean operations on ACIS based solids. Now with the introduction of mesh Booleans, you can add/remove material imported from STL, OBJ, 3DS, and SketchUp.

Wrap Our new Wrap tool will help you place text, company logos, or complex 2D patterns onto 3D surfaces. The results are perfect for imprinting, embossing, or engraving.

PhotoRender SpotLight This new visualization tool creates a soft shadow directly under a group of objects. This is an alternate to the default PhotoRendering method that uses a distant light offset.

Weight and Volume Tables Whether you’re designing an aircraft, automobile, or picnic table, weight is the key control parameter in design. Tracking the weight of materials is a key control parameter in design. V12 introduces a new Bill of Material (BOM) attribute specific for creating a summed weight table.

Drafting and Annotation Updates

Best Fit Line and Best Fit Circle

Great for tracing precise curves over rough sketches. This tool will “best fit” a line or circle from a sample collection of points.

Angular Tolerance Updates

The Angular Tolerance interface has been updated to dynamically provide input from the Inspector dialog box.

Usability Improvements

Save Layers with View

Now you have the ability to save layers associated with view orientations.

Repeat Previous Command

This “right click” feature will save you lots of time by maintaining a list of last-used drawing commands. Select an item in the list to quickly change the current tool.

Interoperability Updates

Now you can work with file types from these other programs:

• PDF Import
• Adobe Illustrator Import
• SketchUp 2019 Import/Export
• Collada (DAE) Import/Export

 

10 fully detailed sections on all the tools most frequently used in any 2D or 3D Design.  Some of these include :

• The Graphical User Interface
• Sketch Creation Tools
• Selection & Manipulation Tools
• Modification & Information
• Annotation tools
• Creating Drawing Layouts
• 3D Modeling Tools
• Woodworking Tools
• Function & Operational Tools such as creating customizable Context Menus & Shortcuts and adjusting the Griper Properties.

2D & 3D Self-Paced Tutorials

Also includes 16 self-paced Work sessions containing the 2D Sketch and 3D Model of the same design. Each Worksheet contains detailed, colorful instructions on how to complete each task, including full animations per task. Each task contains full instructions in an animated, video format. Pause, rewind, or fast-forward your videos while you draw. Drag the movie to another screen and use the instructions on your laptop to produce the designs and the movie on the second screen to check your progress.

Progress through each session at your own pace, repeating any task as many times as necessary until you are ready to move to the next design. Tutorials 4 to 8 contain a full 5-part component to assembly design, progressively building the design with each tutorial. Access the PunchCAD Forum and Online User Guides for additional information from within your Training Guide. Get expert support from our Team from within your Training Guide.

Sample 1 | Helix and Pipe:

Sweeping a circle along a path to create the helix. Creating a Pipe from a single line to form an axis.

Sample 2 | Creating a Slotted Wheel:

Using the Lathe tool to create a solid.

Sample 3 | Assembling a Part:

Learn how to design using the component-assembly method commonly used in the industry. Assemble multiple parts in the same design and to create a highly organized drawing with Layers and Sub-Layers allowing complete control over each component.

Windows Recommended Requirements:

Microsoft® Windows® 64-Bit versions of Windows® 7, 8, or 10 ¹ Intel® Pentium® IV or AMD® Athlon64™ class 64-bit processor 3 GB of hard disk space 8 GB of RAM Mouse Pointing Device (wheel button recommended) OpenGL/DirectX9 Compliant video card with 256MB of dedicated RAM

Macintosh Recommended Requirements:

Macintosh® OS 10.11 through 11.01 or higher¹ x64 Intel® Mac® 3 GB of hard disk space 8 GB RAM or greater Mouse Pointing Device (wheel button recommended) OpenGL Compliant video card with 256 MB VRAM ¹ Program compatibility is not guaranteed for later operating systems ²User is responsible for all Internet access fees and phone charges. PC & Mac require a machine with an operating system using x64 (64-Bit) architecture.