Following the recent release of Esprit 2007 from DP Technology Somatech has announced the availability of the Productivity Pack for Esprit 2007. The Productivity Pack adds further value to Esprit by automating repetitive tasks and providing greater ease of use saving time and increasing quality through standardisation of machining strategy. The Productivity Pack consists of three core modules, SimSolids, Feature Name and Blocks.

With SimSolids you can automatically generate solids or stl files for machine and cutting simulation by taking data from a specific layer.

Solids can be managed by layer, type, visibility or group.

This is particularly useful when generating large numbers of stock (raw materials), fixtures and clamps imported from models/drawings.

In Esprit under the feature tree descriptions about items such as holes and multiple hole related operations are limited by default to common naming and so may involve multiple searches before the right one is selected.

Through the automation in Feature Name the features are given a fuller description including diameter, depth and number in the range ensuring easy selection of the right feature.

This is particularly helpful in creating NC code for parts that have many such features.

Esprit Blocks is a powerful utility that allows the user to create, manage and store complete process cycles such as countersink, drill and tap as one process with a graphical display allowing for rapid repeat use and standardisation of machining strategy in future programming.

Esprit blocks is fully integrated into the Esprit Project Manager providing automatically details on features in the correct place for machining and documentation.

A user can build up a library of 'standard' blocks and then apply these to a programming task creating tool paths accurately, quickly and easily.

By reusing existing data best practices are implemented each and every time with a fraction of the time of creating from scratch.

For the ultimate in productivity gains Somatech recommend using the Productivity Pack in conjunction with 3D Connexion's Space Traveller.