Introducing Visual Components 4.10 – Design beyond limits
Design beyond limits. That’s the promise of Visual Components 4.10. As manufacturing and robotics evolve, we continue to prioritize usability, ensuring that our tools not only keep up with industry demands but also make your workflows smoother and more efficient.
With the latest release of Visual Components, we’re introducing new features designed to make it faster and easier to create simulations, connect with more robot controllers, and streamline workflows to help you get started quicker in your digital transformation journey.
Let’s explore what’s new in Visual Components 4.10 and how these features can help you push the boundaries of manufacturing design and production.
Expand your design possibilities with the CADENAS 3Dfindit add-on
Imagine having access to a world of millions of CAD models and parts at your fingertips. That’s exactly what the new CADENAS 3Dfindit add-on offers: an extensive library of vendor-verified components from over 6000 manufacturers, which builds upon the already robust Visual Components eCatalog.
Previously, if you didn’t find what you were looking for in the Visual Components eCatalog, finding the right parts for a simulation often required sourcing them manually, downloading them from multiple third-party sites, and importing them into your simulation environment. This process was time-consuming and error-prone. With the CADENAS 3Dfindit add-on, those days are gone.
Here’s how it helps:
- The add-on provides you with a massive library of parts, all certified and verified by manufacturers.
- No more searching third-party sites. Download, drag and drop components directly into your simulation environment from the 3Dfindit library.
- The combined power of our existing modeling features in Visual Components with the new add-on allows you to create functional simulation components quickly.
If you frequently need models for conveyors, grippers, cartesian systems or other components, you’ll appreciate how quickly you can find what you need and get to work.
By reducing the hassle of sourcing components from multiple places, we’re helping you save valuable time and focus on designing solutions that work.
The CADENAS 3Dfindit add-on is available in Visual Components Professional and Premium, as well as their OLP counterparts.
Expanding robot connectivity with OMRON robots
The OMRON robot connectivity plugin in Visual Components 4.10 brings new robot connectivity capabilities to the platform. With this addition, users can simulate OMRON robots with greater precision, ensuring accuracy in motion and cycle times.
But why is this important?
For companies relying on OMRON robots, the ability to create accurate simulations of robotic movements is essential for efficient project planning. With the new plugin, you can:
- Create proof of concepts faster, helping you evaluate your systems before committing to a physical setup.
- Eliminate human errors by creating robotic programs directly on or for the robot controller without the need for manual intervention, minimizing mistakes.
- Achieve accurate robot programming by ensuring your robotic systems perform as expected before deployment.
This addition solidifies Visual Components’ role as a leading robot offline programming (OLP) software provider. By expanding our support to include OMRON robots, our users can now leverage 18 robot post-processors from top brands. Our software translates robot programs into OMRON V+ code, enhancing efficiency with fast, easy programming and accurate OLP calibration tools. It improves accuracy and efficiency, helping you reduce time spent in your projects’ testing and integration phase.
OMRON robot connectivity plugin and the OMRON robot post-processor are included in both Visual Components Premium and Premium OLP 4.10. Visual Components Premium 4.10 now includes 4 more post-processors from globally recognized robotics brands: ABB, FANUC, Stäubli and Universal Robots. The OMRON post-processor is also available in all OLP product variants of 4.10.
Streamline your learning with guided workflows
Learning how to use manufacturing simulation or robot offline programming software can be a steep curve, especially for new users. The guided workflow in Visual Components 4.10 is here to change that. Whether you’re just starting or only using certain features occasionally, this new feature simplifies the learning process with clear, step-by-step instructions that gather all the “how-to” information in one place.
Here’s what the guided workflow can do:
- Instead of searching through various platforms (e.g., VC Academy, Help manuals, YouTube tutorials or the VC Forum), the guided workflow can be your one-stop hub for tutorials and commands.
- New users will appreciate the straightforward guidance, while seasoned users will benefit from being able to find specific instructions they might need quickly.
- The workflow helps teams become more self-sufficient, minimizing the need for support interventions or extensive training sessions.
What’s more, you can create your own custom guided workflows—providing step-by-step instructions for any tasks you find useful, such as programming a robot for a specific application or other processes you find important. This flexibility allows you to tailor the guidance to fit your unique needs.
Guided workflows are available in all versions of Visual Components 4.10. However, creating custom guided workflows is available in Professional, Premium, and their corresponding OLP versions.
Isolate what matters with focus mode
In large-scale projects, clutter is inevitable, and working within complex layouts can be overwhelming. Enter focus mode—a feature designed to help you zero in on specific components, parts of components, or sections of your project, fading out everything else to reduce visual noise.
The benefits are immediate:
- Hide irrelevant parts of your layout and focus on the specific area you’re working on.
- Isolating a problem area becomes much easier, helping you find and fix issues faster.
- Focus mode, especially when used with the sub-layouts feature introduced in version 4.9, simplifies navigation through complex layouts, making it ideal for large-scale projects.
This feature enhances the overall user experience for any user dealing with multi-faceted projects.
Focus mode is available in the 3D world toolbar of all Visual Components products.
Point clouds – more detailed and faster than ever
Point clouds allow users to visualize real-world environments with greater accuracy, and in Visual Components 4.10, they’ve received a significant performance boost.
With this update:
- Loading times for large point clouds are considerably faster.
- Level of detail (LOD) optimization can now be toggled on, allowing faster rendering and improving overall performance.
You’ll immediately notice the improvements if you’re working with big point clouds to simulate an entire factory floor. More realistic and detailed simulations mean fewer surprises when transitioning from the digital world to the real one.
The improvements to point cloud performance are included in all Visual Components products.
Design beyond limits
With Visual Components 4.10, we’ve listened to your needs. Whether it’s the vast component library of CADENAS 3Dfindit, the accuracy of OMRON robot connectivity, the simplicity of guided workflows or the enhanced performance in point cloud handling, this version is built to help you go beyond limits. Explore our release notes to learn more about the new features in Visual Components 4.10.
The latest version, 4.10, is free for customers with a valid maintenance agreement. Upgrading is easy—start here. If you’re in the market and looking for manufacturing simulation, OLP software, or both, contact us today to learn how we can help you go from concept to reality in the fastest way possible.
Further reading
Visual Components partners with CADENAS to deliver millions of vendor-verified CAD models for 3D manufacturing simulation
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