CUPRO Planning

CUPRO needs some serious attention and updating:

• Abbreviations are not logical because they are based on Dutch.
  • Current main classes are:
    • Cold rolled shapes (constant material thickness, bending radius)
    • Extruded shapes (typical sharp corners)
    • Hot rolled shapes (industry standard shapes, currently DIN)
  • In addition to C, E and H there is a need for Free form (F) shapes.
  • This creates a challenge: All options directly available or first choose a main class.
    • A best of both approach is possible: Choose main class and enter an option or enter a valid option directly.
    • It is very tempting to create a DCL dialogue for all options but this slows down power users. A dialogue may be considered as a main option but it requires a lot of work
• There are several technical improvements possible.
  • 2D and 3D:
    • For 2D or 3D: Press enter (2D) or extrusion height (3D)
      • For 2D the result is now a region. If exploded coherence is lost. The result should be a polyline (or circles in case of round tube) or a set of polylines in case of hollow chambers. In that case these entities can be grouped be means of an unnamed group.
      • For 3D the result is a solid. It is not logical to create surfaces so this does not need to be changed.
  • The current UCS defines placement. A temporary UCS - based on entered insertion point and entered angle - is an interesting way to work with. If the sizes are known, some handy move and rotate shortcuts can be made: L = move half width left, R = right, U = up, D = down. P for rotate Plus 90 degrees, M for minus 90 degrees. Finally V = Flip vertical and H = Horizontal. UCS should be restored.
• Content

  • Catalogues (.cat files) can be extended with other than DIN profiles. All over the world different structural steel profiles are used. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_steel#Standards.

  • Several Free form profiles can be added like rubber hollow chamber, elliptical tube and half round rods.