Arden Software has confirmed the latest release of its CAD software for the packaging sector. Impact 2019 Release 2 is now available offering a range of new features and product enhancements designed to streamline packaging design workflow. The software upgrade was due for release earlier this year, but was postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This latest release includes improvements to graphic handling, an extended range of file formats for exporting, 3D model assembly enhancements, plus a new version of the Impact Plug-in for Adobe Illustrator, which will for the first time offer a live 3D preview of artwork changes.
Matthew Hewitt, Business Development Manager at Arden Software, said: “We released Impact 2019 last year, bringing with it a whole host of feature enhancements which have been well received by designers and die-makers, so we are confident this follow-up release will help further improve the creative process for Impact users.”
Hewitt continues, “A number of our customers were given an early preview of the upgraded software and since then we’ve added even more new features. We’ve developed a range of software enhancements that will simplify the packaging design process and improve the user experience in the fastest, most efficient way.”
Key highlights of Impact 2019 R2 include:
- Improved graphic handling – enhanced support for 2D and 3D graphics which improve the quality and speed of working with artwork when generating 3D mock-ups;
- Extended 3D file format exports – a greater range of 3D file formats can now be exported, complimenting Impact’s import capabilities. Newly added files formats include Step Exchange (.STP), JT Open (.JT), Wavefront (.OBJ), Stanford Triangle Format (.PLY) and Stereo Lithography (.STL);
- Upgraded Plug-in for Adobe Illustrator – The new Live Link feature offers a CAD 3D preview of artwork changes;
- Improved DXF export – Impact now boasts support for exporting to a wider range of AutoCAD Exchange (DXF) formats, offering greater file compatibility;
- 3D model assembly improvements – the speed and ease of assembling multi-piece 3D models, especially featuring slot alignment, is greatly improved, including automatic rotation where possible;
- Master project support for Impact Enterprise – offered as a long-standing Impact feature to allow the reuse and tracking of commonly featured design parts which may have been manufactured across a range of products. Users of Impact Enterprise can now benefit from this across their company-wide synchronised design database;
- Linked revisions support for Impact Enterprise – Also now available company-wide to Impact Enterprise customers is the ability to trace the reuse of a CAD design and any design variations that may have been based on it;
- Improved Layout Estimator – offers what-if analysis of various layout machine/sheet combinations to achieve the most efficient, fastest or least wasteful manufacture of short or long run production. The latest version of this plug-in offers speed improvements, extended analysis results, MS Excel export support, improved layout previews, custom gutter support, the ability to save and load default settings, as well as a great deal of other improvements.
Users can also look forward to the new Bill of Materials (BOM), which is set to be released next year. This new feature can accurately generate multi-page BOM reports from an Impact project, which provides a quick and easy way to define all the related items that are required to build one or more solutions. This includes 2D and 3D parts that may have been added from the new, customisable component libraries.
Arden is now working on the next release, which will include a next generation parametric design engine. This update, which enriches the entire use of the product’s design and editing capabilities, moves away from the legacy history-based approach to parametrics, capturing the designer’s intent as they draw and also offering the advantage that any existing or imported drawing can be resized quickly and effortlessly.
