This latest version of the company's ground-breaking software for auditing and improving perceived quality in manufactured goods during the digital product development process introduces a number of significant enhancements designed to improve users' productivity and to enable more effective decision-making.  These include photographic-quality visualization, improved performance and memory management, automatic geometry update, upgraded gap and flush scenarios, improvements to the materials library and a new, easier-to-use graphical user interface (GUI).

"With this latest version of aesthetica we are expanding our horizons in terms of the markets we address", said Tim Illingworth, commercial director, Icona Solutions.  "Until now we have concentrated on the worldwide automotive industry, where perceived quality has an increasingly significant influence on sales and where we have been successful in attracting many of the industry's leading, global brands as customers.  Now we plan to introduce aesthetica to other manufacturing sectors, such as the consumer goods, domestic electrical appliances and consumer electronics industries, where perceived quality is becoming more of an issue for the buying public."

Major new features.  Many of the new features and enhancements introduced with aesthetica V3 are the result of direct customer input and feed-back.  They include:

Photographic-quality visualization.  With aesthetiva V3 there is a direct interface to Bunkspeed's HyperShot 3D visualization software for creating accurate, photo-realistic images of CAD models in realistic environments.  These can be produced on-the-fly during a design review meeting to show, for example, a range of gap and flush conditions on an automobile.  Images can be added to reports generated by aesthetica to provide very high quality gap plan or visual analysis reports.  Models exported to HyperShot contain the geometry, with variation, together with all materials and viewing positions defined in aesthetica.  With the model loaded into HyperShot, all that is then required of the user is to select an environment in which to view it.

Gap-and-flush scenarios.  The gap-and-flush fitting tool has been redesigned for aesthetica V3 to improve productivity during design review meetings.  The tool now supports the creation of complete gap-and-flush scenarios, with associated viewing positions and materials sets.  Once defined, these scenarios can be recalled instantly during a design review meeting to enable participants to visualize specific gap-and-flush issues so that they can be quickly resolved.

Improved user interface.  A redesigned and easier-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) is introduced with aesthetica V3 that will significantly improve productivity for users.  In addition to revisions to the main layout, dialogs and toolbar to make them more consistent, plus wider support for standard Windows functions, such as drag-and-drop, list sorting and resizable and undockable dialogs, 'hot keys' for all major functions have been introduced for advanced users.

Automatic geometry update.  In a live product development process, CAD models change frequently.  Version 3 of aesthetica features a sophisticated update function that will refresh geometry within an existing product or assembly model.  The update function will load one or more components of a product, from any of the data formats supported by aesthetica (IGES, STEP, ICN and JT), then automatically update the components within the workspace and map any existing textures and features onto the new geometry.  This will help ensure that the simulation and visualization of tolerance conditions is always performed on the up-to-date CAD model.

Improved performance and memory management.  Rendering performance has been significantly improved in aesthetica V3 through optimised use of graphics cards.  Users will experience up to a 10-fold increase in rendering performance, with a smoother and more interactive interface.  All materials are now shader-based, anti-aliasing has been improved and per-pixel lighting and soft-edge spotlights are now fully controllable within the preference settings in aesthetica.  Memory management has also been improved, meaning models now require up to 50% less memory than the previous version, allowing users to work with larger and more sophisticated models.

Availability.  Customer shipments of aesthetica V3 are scheduled to begin on 30 June, 2008.

About aesthetica

Icona Solutions' aesthetica software provides an accurate, visual simulation of the effects of manufacturing variation and component deformation in assemblies.  It enables a full perceived quality review early in the digital design process to resolve issues of fit and finish quality.  The use of aesthetica gives greater insight than has previously been possible into the impact of manufacturing variation on perceived quality by enabling the user to visualize a 'virtual' product at different states, in real-time, and precisely as the customer will see it.  It helps to improve perceived quality while saving time and improving communication in the design process.

About Icona Solutions Ltd. 

Icona Solutions Ltd.  Develops and provides innovative and unique solutions to audit and improve perceived quality in manufactured metal and plastics products.  Its software can form an integral part of a product design and manufacturing company's overall product lifecycle management (PLM) software environment and is supplied and supported globally both directly and through qualified, specialist resellers.  Icona Solutions is a member of both Dassault Systèmes' CAA V5 Adopters and of Siemens PLM Software's JT Open programs.  Find out more at: www.iconasolutions.com