ANVIL-1000MD® is two-dimensional Computer Aided Design and Drafting
software. It is not exotic or glamorous. You won't see it featured in glossy magazine articles or television
documentaries with impressive pictures of "virtual reality". But it is one of the best practical
tools used by mechanical engineers, detail draftsmen and tool designers on a daily basis, around the world. Its
menu structure, or range of options, is compact enough that the average user feels that "I can get my arms
around it". He or she is in control, rather than being overwhelmed by the presentation of excessive choices
and unfamiliar terminology. But there is no question that ANVIL-1000MD® has
all the power and flexibility needed to pump out detailed and complete engineering drawings, hour after hour, day
after day. Reliably, unobtrusively and efficiently.
Much of the development in CAD software in recent years has been in the area of three-dimensional solids
modeling systems, with parametric or variational design capabilities. These high-end packages are visually
exciting and definitely have their place. But for every designer that can get comfortable with the concepts of
topology, associativity and defining constraints, there are probably a dozen detailers that need no more
horsepower than ANVIL-1000MD® offers. The translators that are included with
ANVIL-1000MD® encourage the transfer of two-dimensional views of the solids
models, for detailing, annotation and tool design. There is even the ability to automatically detect and
highlight the differences between revisions. While ANVIL-1000MD® is
available on the same brands of workstations that the modelers require, it is every bit as effective on a modest
personal computer. No translation of file formats is required when you mix computer platforms on a network.
The phrases "ease of use" and "user friendly" have been applied to software so exhaustively,
they have lost their meaning. The word that we have heard from casual and full-time ANVIL-1000MD® users alike, over the last nine years, is "intuitive". Partly this can be attributed to fully descriptive menu choices and messages, instead
of the cryptic abbreviations and command sequences found in so many other products. Less obvious is the lack of
restrictions on the functions that can be performed on geometry. You would assume that any CAD system could
define a circular fillet between a pair of intersecting lines. But with ANVIL-1000MD® it could be a pair of points, lines, circular arcs, ellipses, splines or polygons, or any
combination, without the user giving the issue a thought. This holds true for intersections, tangencies,
chamfers and distances along a curve. While the benefits of this freedom are hard to quantify, it means that
the user does not need to think ahead multiple steps to ensure that the geometry created can be used in
the next construction. He or she just proceeds in a natural manner, rather than being constrained to work the
way the software wants. Another benefit is that a user can easily pick up another's work to complete it or make
revisions, without having to be concerned with how the drawing was constructed.
This lack of artificial restrictions is also apparent in ANVIL-1000MD's®
annotation abilities. Numerous dimension forms can be applied to any appropriate geometry, conforming to your
choice of the many national and international drafting standards. You can also convert a drawing from one
standard to another in a matter of seconds. Complete geometric tolerancing, surface finish and weldment
symbology is included so that no "hand-finishing" of drawings will be necessary.
® ANVIL-1000MD
is a registered trademark of Manufacturing and Consulting Services, Inc.
