PlanetCAD launches PrescientQA 4.1 for Catia V4

The new release offers a range of new features including a new user interface, some advanced supply chain management (SCM) tools and a host of additional CAD standards to ramp up time to market. It will be good news for the more than 100 blue chip manufacturers in the automotive, aerospace and consumer product industries that are ready to upgrade. On the interface side you’re looking at clearer reports and visual identification of geometric errors, including a Windows-style interface for the Unigraphics version. The new SCM tools include version control management, password protection and file-level quality stamping for design standards files. And as for the CAD standards, the system now supports more than 300. Jim Day, design engineer at beta test site Black and Decker, said: “Models were checked two to three times faster than in previous versions… The configuration tool has been dramatically improved… The Windows-style interface eliminates repetitive tasks that were time consuming… The help section has been improved to include actual Catia models which convey a clear description of the model error and a corrective action.” PrescientQA now offers the Engineering Checklist tool within the Unigraphics version, which automates the process of tracking the list of items that a designer must complete for each phase of the design release process. It’s customisable and stored in the model as a permanent record. Also, its ability now to add custom fields to the quality metrics data provides greater flexibility to collect or subdivide quality metrics data to enable easier tracking for Six Sigma initiatives and the like, and for driving process improvements.