Because the CAD and CAM packages are linked, the glass manufacturer can modify a process design at any time without creating additional work for the manufacturing departments, Pasquali added. This is a great advantage for those customers who want customized projects. Telescope driving and imaging software will control the telescopes. The telescopes were designed using computer-aided design software from CADkey of Marlborough, Mass., and finite element analysis software from Algor of Pittsburgh. The costs of the telescope production made it impossible for Torus to create a working prototype for testing and analysis.
Mistakes can be costly when designing such an expensive item.
In designing the telescope, the engineers spent about 60 percent of their time doing analysis on the FEA software to simulate the weight, stresses, thermal expansion, vibrations, and motions of the telescope, according to Jim Mulherin, president, chief executive officer, and optician for Torus. I used much of the solid modeling capabilities of our CAD system first to make sure everything fits inside the area we have to work with. Also, using computer models to analyze the structure has paid off, he added. Using the FEA process to develop new mounts and a fork assembly for the 0.5-meter telescope, the system was assembled in only three hours, quite a bit less than it would have been without the FEA process, Mulherin said. Briefly Noted Tech Soft America of Alameda, Calif., a reseller of the parasolid kernel modeler, offers a port to Linux.