Since its launch in 1997, Moldflow Plastics Advisers has influenced the way that designers check their plastic part designs to ensure that they are suitable for manufacture.

Plastics Advisers goes interactive in Version 6.0 Since its launch in 1997, Moldflow Plastics Advisers has influenced the way that designers check their plastic part designs to ensure that they are suitable for manufacture. Now, the release of Moldflow Plastics Advisers 6.0 (MPA 6.0) offers some new features and enhancements for collaborating with other users and with Moldflow experts. The Moldflow Community Center is a suite of tools based on a standard web browser interface, enabling users to access a discussion forum to exchange ideas and tips, ask questions and obtain answers, gathering collective knowledge to solve common problems.

This is also the place to look for hints and tips posted by Moldflow support engineers and fellow users.

The File Exchange Area is a common file storage and download area for useful files, such as common runner layouts and standard runner sizes.

Patch releases and a list of known bugs can also be accessed here, along with upcoming training sessions, both web-based and conventional seminars and workshops requiring physical attendance.

More specific problems can be addressed by utilising a product usage feedback facility, an automatic method of reporting issues directly to Moldflow from within the product.

A Moldflow customer support engineer will review the issue of concern, take appropriate action and update the user on the status of the enquiry.

Using the same communication route, MPA 6.0 users can have a say in future Moldflow software development.

The software is configured to log product performance and product usage information and automatically send that information to Moldflow through a secure FTP connection.

Information collected in these logs allows product usage patterns to be investigated and areas for future revisions to be identified.

Of course, no proprietary or confidential information is gathered in this process.

Other technical enhancements embedded in MPA 6.0 include: Gate modelling and design - to aid troubleshooting and optimising the gate design, two powerful tools are being introduced with MPA6.0.

The first is the ability to run an automatic gate sizing analysis, which estimates the best gate dimensions and automatically updates the mould with the calculated dimensions.

The second tool is automated gate design advice, which removes the guesswork involved in troubleshooting gate-related problems.

The information provided is specific to the type of gate being worked on at the time.

Two new gate cross-sections -- half-round and trapezoidal - have been added to the database of supported gate types.

The half-round gate can be used to model gates that are part of an ejector pin or an insert.

The trapezoidal gate allows for easier modelling of typical edge, fan and tab gates.

Within MPA 6.0, it is possible to perform an analysis with only the gate(s) attached to a part cavity model.

This is extremely useful when several gate design analysis iterations are planned, and when analysing a complete multi-cavity layout with the feed system attached would be time-consuming.

Once an optimised gate design is determined, the sprue and runners can be added easily to complete the feed system.

Users can now automatically create runners in three-plate moulds, which eliminates the tedious task of manually creating runners for standard three-plate mould layouts.

Another useful modelling enhancement is the facility to create a mirror copy of a part cavity model.

Users no longer need to depend on their CAD system for importing mirrored components, and therefore on separate CAD models for analysis purposes.

The ability to edit runner system lengths easily decreases modelling time and makes it possible to re-use previously created runner system layouts.

A library of standard geometric sizes can be created for use when modelling sprues, runners and gates.

MPA users who want to perform more in-depth analysis can export their data using the Moldflow Plastics Insight 3.0 (MPI 3.0) study file format.

All pertinent model, material and analysis information is exportable from MPA, eliminating the need for redundant actions in the MPI 3.0 environment.

Results comparison - MPA 6.0 includes a powerful results comparison utility for simultaneously comparing analysis results from two or more models.

Users simply open two (or more) models with results, then synchronise the Windows displays and the results plot scales.

This is an aid to interpreting results and to being able to identify quickly optimised combinations of part geometry, materials selection, gate locations and processing conditions.

CAD interfaces and integrations - Moldflow Design Link 3.0 (MDL 3.0) is integrated with MPA 6.0.

MDL 3.0 provides a geometry data translation interface between MPA 6.0 and leading CAD systems using standard file formats such as IGES, STEP and Parasolid, as well as allowing the direct import of native Pro/Engineer part files.

The MPA CAD integrated versions have been updated to support the latest product releases from leading CAD vendors, including SolidWorks 2001Plus, Solid Edge 11.0, SolidDesigner 2001 and Mechanical Desktop 6.0.

In addition, autodesk inventor 5.0 is now integrated with MPA 6.0.

The materials database has been redesigned to save commonly used materials as a separate list.

Search criteria can be customised to search by virtually every materials property in the database.