EngineerCX Suite

FormulaCAD

Increase productivity and accuracy of your engineering office through easy rule based CAD and BOM Automation

FormulaCAD is a unique CAD automation solution designed to provide enormous power, ease and collaboration.

FormulaCAD automates the creation of drawings and modules by defining reusable unit components stored inside a database and controlled through user-defined rules.

Standard CAD software have parametric facilities, whereby change in parameter will lead to change in dimension of geometry or model. However, Knowledge based Engineering or Rules based Automation goes much beyond that, whereby it becomes possible to capture and implement much more complex rules and logic, like the one shown in above figure.
FormulaCAD leads to following benefits:
  • Increased productivity
  • Faster Design and Timely Delivery
  • Capture of design rules and knowhow
  • Consistency
  • De-skilling of routine job

FormulaCAD Architecture


  • Rules Driven Creation of CAD Models – assembly / drawing
  • Replaces Programming paradigm with
    • Database
    • Familiar Formula Language
    • Front end GUI

FormulaCAD Rule Definition

Excel - like Formula Language

  • Familiar Excel functions like for Engineering, information, logical, lookup, math, date and time, text and data
  • Customized for use in CAD environment
    • Point functions
    • Vector functions
  • Can be customized by Risersoft to provide more functions as per project requirement

Easy-to-use Graphical User Interface

  • Familiar and easily navigable user interface for rule definition and execution
  • Formula Builder feature with syntax highlighting and test formula facility
  • Standalone apps with no dependency on Visual Studio or other development environments.

Rule Types Overview

  • Parameter
    • Define a parameter and its formula
  • Child
    • Call other components into a parent component
    • Enables working in context of unit components in a “building block” approach.
  • Action
    • Assembly constraints
    • Geometry manipulations like move, mirror etc
  • Snapshot
    • Drawing complete with title block, borders and field values
    • Word documents with pictures and text from the CAD model
  • BOM
    • Bill-Of-Material Rule can be used to generate detailed BOM along with geometry
  • Inheritance
    • Define parameters and actions once and re-use as required

Easy-to-use Graphical User Interface

  • Familiar and easily navigable user interface for rule definition and execution
  • Formula Builder feature with syntax highlighting and test formula facility
  • Standalone apps with no dependency on Visual Studio or other development environments.

Cloud Database Backend

FormulaCAD stores its data in a database leading to various advantages:

  • Listings and Reports.
    • Salient Example: Where-used reports of parameter rule
  • Data Tools like Design Tables for
    • Engineering Data Management
    • Table based components for managing a family of similar parts / assemblies.
  • Team Collaboration
  • Integration with ERP / Design systems

FormulaCAD 2D

Define and execute 2D rules

FormulaCAD has a full featured user interface for 2D rule definition that can be used to define rules and execute them either in test mode or for a particular customer work order.

Define Rules

Base Entities

  • FormulaCAD defines all AutoCAD entities as base components that can be called in any parent component
  • Most 2D Entities are available
    • 2D Curves
      • Line, Polyline, Rectangle, etc
      • Circle, Ellipse, Arc, etc
    • Annotations
      • Text, Multiline Text
      • Leader, TextLeader
    • Arrays
      • Rectangular
      • Polar
  • Entity definition
    • Each entity has multiple ways of definition
    • For example, Rectangle can be defined using point + length + width or point1 + point2
    • Multiple entity definition feature resembles the facility provided by Autodesk user interface
  • Existing Blocks
    • Existing blocks can be associated with a FormulaCAD component and called by geometry creation rules.

Geometry Manipulation Actions

FormulaCAD allows rule definition for manipulation of entities just as you would do it through the 2D user interface.
Following actions are available:

  • Move
    • Move entities from one point to another
  • Mirror
    • Mirror entities with reference to a mirror line and keep or delete the source entities
  • Trim
    • Trim entities on the intersection points
  • Rotate
    • Rotate entities with reference to a base point and a rotation angle

Geometry Query Functions

FormulaCAD formula language has special functions for querying the geometry model and using the data for defining further rules.

Execute Rules

Create 2D geometry and BOM

  • Each component definition results into an 2D block
  • Nested components will result into nested 2D blocks
  • Create geometry on the fly with “Test component” feature – FormulaCAD will instantaneously create geometry in the 2D window as per defined rules
  • Any BOM rules are also evaluated and BOM generated.

Examine the FormulaCAD run log

  • Each run generated a run log which is detailed output of what parameters were calculated and what values were obtained
  • Any error information and suggestions are also output leading to rich iterative workflow.

FormulaCAD for 3D

Define and execute FormulaCAD rules from within CAD environment

FormulaCAD has a full featured user interface for 3D rule definition that can be used to define rules and execute them either in test mode or for a particular customer work order.

Define Rules

Base Components

  • Part authoring with sketch constraints
  • Part authoring with 3D Entities like Box, Cone, Cylinder, Sphere
  • Map model parameters to component local parameters
  • Entity Marker
    • Select faces and edges in Inventor model and give it a user-defined name
    • Use this name while defining constraint rules
  • Call any of the base component in a parent component with a variable quantity defined in terms of parameters

Geometry Manipulation Actions

  • FormulaCAD allows rule definition for manipulation of entities just as you would do it through the 3D user interface.
    Following actions are available:
  • 3D Boolean
    • Union, Subtraction
  • Oppose/Align
    • Mate or Flush two entities with an offset distance
  • Move
    • Move entities from one point to another
  • Mirror
    • Mirror entities with reference to a mirror line and keep or delete the source entities
  • Rotate
    • Rotate entities with reference to a base point and a rotation angle

Execute Rules

Create 3D Assemblies on the fly

  • Each component definition results into an 3D Assembly
  • Nested components will result into 3D Assembly Tree
  • Create assembly on the fly with “Test component” feature – FormulaCAD will instantaneously create assembly in the 3D window as per defined rules

Examine the FormulaCAD run log

  • Each run generated a run log which is detailed output of what parameters were calculated and what values were obtained
  • Any error information and suggestions are also output leading to rich iterative workflow.

Cloud based Workflows

Web Application

  • Login from a standard web browser
  • Change parameters and execute components
  • View resultant geometry from within the browser

Web Services

  • FormulaCAD Web API for Parametric CAD generation from within your web apps
  • Need to pass parameter values and get geometry back as per defined rules

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