What's New in Prinect Package Designer 21.10.41

3D Libraries Drafting Sheet Layout CAM Cost Estimator Design frames and print presentations Other new functionalities

3D

Use of Physically Based Rendering for defining surfaces of materials and finishing effects
Prinect now uses Physically Based Rendering (PBR) as part of the definition of material surfaces and finishing effects. With PBR, a method that manages how light interacts with surfaces, you can create material surfaces that most closely approximate the way in which real-world materials reflect light. Prinect applies a model that defines surfaces through their metalness, roughness, occlusion and opacity.
Enhanced functionality for the Folding Angle Slider
In the contextual edit bar, the slider, with which you set the folding angle for an action, has been made more prominent. It now presents the folding angle information in greater detail and lets you set the angle of folding in a much more straightforward manner.
Folding panels into cones and cylinders
You can now fold panels along curves, and thus design conic and cylindrical surfaces. You prepare the design in 2D, and set the actual folding in the 3D drawing. You can apply the functionality on curves (for conic shapes) and on straight lines (for cylindrical shapes). You can use curve folding for designing single-piece products (bottleneck labels, coffee cups, party hats) or elements of multi-part structures.
Experience 3D model textures in super high quality
You can now view textures in 3D models in super high quality, provided your video adapter has the capability. By default, the Prinect setup program installs 4k as quality size for rendering these textures, but you can increase this size to 8k or 16k in the System Configuration Utility after installing the program. (On the Common tab, click the Special Effects Test button, and then follow the instructions.)
Export to the .glTF file format
You can now export 3D models in the .glTF file format. The format is widely used in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Web applications because of its support of animation, motion and Physically Based Rendering of materials. Prinect exports 3D scenes in glTF's two file variants: .gltf and .glb. Largely identical functionally, the two differ in how they handle their 3D scene components:
  • The .gltf file only references the 3D model's components — as a result, textures (JPEG, PNG), shaders (GLSL), and geometry and animation (BIN) are each exported in separate files.
  • The .glb file is a compressed version of the .gltf format and contains in a single file the textures, shaders, geometry and animation. When you select this export, only one file is exported, which is smaller in size than the .gltf counterpart and loads faster in 3D editors.
Intuitive folding of panels
You can now make two panels meet each other by simply selecting edges on them that you want to join. You then choose the angle — acute or obtuse — at which you want the panels joined. This point-and-fold technique lets you follow your intuition and spares you the need to pre-calculate the angles at which panels need to fold in order to meet.
As-you-go indication of 3D model's user-facing side
On the 3D toolbar, the View Side icon — which you can use to position a panel facing its front, back, left, right, top or bottom side — has been given a second role: it now dynamically follows your rotating the model and indicates the view side facing you at each moment. This indication serves only visual purposes and does not change the set base panel.
Expanded View Options UI
You can now set the viewing environment of 3D scenes in a single dialog box. You can use it to set the scene's general view options, the colors for selected and highlighted panels, and how you want the dimension lines to appear. In earlier versions, these groups of settings were accessible through separate commands, but have now been put together to let you adjust your viewing environment in one go.
Greater control over the lighting of 3D scenes
You can now use a richer set of properties for lighting 3D models and their environments. The new options include lighting presets, a richer choice of backgrounds, greater control of the model's projection, intensity of the directed light, and gamma correction.
Export of models' artwork in extra high quality
When exporting 3D models to the file formats Web3D, Collada, glTF/GLB, PDF, U3D, you can now set the artwork quality to up to 16k.
Set viewpoints in folding sequences
When building folding sequences, you can now set viewpoints — snapshots of the model's positions in the 3D environment. When you play the sequence and it reaches a viewpoint, the model positions itself at the exact angle and place that you have fixed.
Preserving actions set to hidden panels
Prinect now keeps and highlights in the tabular area actions that are set to hidden panels — for example, because they are under activated conditional visibility. Marking these actions alerts you that there are panels that you will not see until they are made visible. When they are, the respective actions become active again. By keeping actions for panels that temporarily take no part in the 3D model, you can create a full and complete folding sequence that remains up to date at any moment.
Give panels their own names
You can now add your own, semantic names to panels. This helps you distinguish them better than by the generic names Panel1, Panel2, and so on. Using semantic panel names makes it easier for you to follow which panel does what.
Scaling and resizing of external objects in any dimension
You can now scale or resize an external object along any of its three dimensions. This lets you adjust the size of the packaging to the exact sizes of the product it will be holding. You can scale and resize proportionally and non-proportionally.
View 3D models in Solid and Wireframe view at once
You can now use a new mode for viewing 3D models that lets you view 3D models as at once Solid and Wireframe. The mode, called Solid Wired, lets you observe the model's edges in greater relief.
View 3D models without the perspective effect
You can now view 3D models in isometric view — a viewing mode with a field of view of 0, which removes the perspective effect and displays 3D models in a flat, simpler state. (You set the mode in the Projection area of the View Options dialog box.)
The buttons for measurement lines and overall dimensions are now on the Dimensions tab
The buttons for measuring distances in 3D models and for adding models' overall dimensions have been moved to the Dimensions tab and no longer appear on the 3D tab. The underlying functionalities remain as before.
The mode buttons for viewing the 3D model share a button group
The buttons for how to view the 3D model — with solid or transparent panels, or as a wireframe — are now in a common button group on the 3D toolbar.
Zoom and Zoom to Fit buttons removed
The Zoom and Zoom to Fit buttons have been removed from the 3D toolbar. The respective functionalities remain available on the main tool panel.
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Libraries

New designs and structures
The Parametric Designs Library has been expanded by 369 designs as follows: Folding Carton (151), Corrugated Board (198), Grey Board (17) and PVC (3).
Access the indexes directly from the program's UI
You can now open the two indexes — for the Library of Resizable Designs and the Library of Displays and Furniture — directly from the program's main panel.
Indexes' content available in English, German and Japanese on UI Language Switch
When you choose to use the UI in English, German or Japanese, Prinect loads the content of the indexes in the language you have selected. When the UI language is other than these three, you work with the English-language edition.
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Drafting

Achieve precise drafting by using construction grids
The Construct grid functionality has been extended and now you can improve your drafting by constructing perpendicular and parallel grids on objects. Once you have constructed a grid, you use its lines as distance markers to draft object at exact distances.
Two types of material thickness
When defining a material, you can now set two different thicknesses:
  • Calculation Thickness. The value that Prinect uses when making calculations within resizable templates.
  • Real Thickness. The actual material thickness and also the value that Prinect uses to visualize 3D models.
Assisted breaking and trimming of overlapping objects
When breaking and trimming overlapping objects, Prinect now offers you a hint that helps you make the right decision about which object to break or trim. The hint gives you information about the overlapping objects (their IDs, styles, and lengths), making it an easy choice.
Use whole numbers for the Dx and Dy coordinates offsets during drafting and dragging
When drawing and dragging objects, you can use auto grid, a functionality that snaps the Dx and Dy to a system grid defined by the current zoom factor. When starting a new drawing, the default zoom factor causes the grid to produce whole numbers for the Dx and Dy offset values (in the contextual edit bar) — for example, 12.00; 45.0; 33.000. As you zoom in or out, the grid becomes denser or rarer, respectively, and Prinect switches to decimals to display the Dx and Dy offsets.
Automatic display of decimal values when working with imprecise formats
When drawing and moving objects, you can set Prinect to automatically switch to a special format of displaying values if the currently set format falls short. This is especially helpful when working with fractions, which do not always display distances accurately. To resolve this, Prinect can now be set to automatically switch to decimals when displaying such values.
Export of braille matrices (PDF, EPS, AI)
When exporting braille inscriptions, you can now export also the matrix that holds the braille text. The matrix is exported:
  • In a separate layer.
  • In the automatically generated Braille Matrix style.
Supported file formats: .eps, .pdf and .ai.
Auto-complete suggestions for functions and parameter names
When you start typing functions, parameter names and expressions, Prinect offers you auto-complete hints.
Library of Components loads in English, German and Japanese on UI Language Switch
When you switch the program's UI language to English, German or Japanese, Prinect loads the library of resizable components in the language you have selected, provided you have selected the Browse with System's language functionality. When the UI language is other than these three, the English-language edition loads.
Routing areas for pocket milling processing
You can create routing areas for pocket milling jobs. Pocket milling removes layers of material from a panel's surface. You can set the cutter to move shuttle-like between a panel's edges or to form concentric shapes. The functionality is most helpful for the processing of unbending materials — for example, glass or metal.
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Integration with Adobe® Illustrator®

Resolving conflicts between overlapping graphics bleeds in layout files
When working on layout files where graphics bleeds on adjacent panels overlap, you can now resolve such conflicts by choosing which bleed to use in the final production file.

Sheet layout

Multi-die nesting layout
A new layout option offers the arraying of layouts out of dieboard components.
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CAM

Crop and print marks management in samplecounter drawings
You can now transfer print marks to samplecounter drawings and create crop marks. The crop marks are then used as pinpoints on the machine's coordinate system.
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Cost Estimator

Three views for displaying cost models
You can now choose between three ways to view cost models in the Cost Estimator tab:
  • User View. If you have made your own pattern of grouping and arranging parameters, this view displays it. Designing your own view lets you group and order the parameters as you want to view them and not in the order Prinect uses for calculations (see Calculation View).
  • Calculation View. Display the parameters in the order that Prinect uses to calculate the total cost.
  • Debug View. Identical with the Calculation View but displays also any hidden parameters.
More options for exporting cost models
You can now use a larger number of options for the export of cost model data. These include three types of file formats (.txt, .csv, and .json) and additional options for formatting the exported data.
More functions for extracting cost model data
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Design frame and print presentations

Customize the contents of print legend tables
You can now arrange the information displayed in print legends according to your own needs. You can select which components of the legend table — style patterns, names, and values — to include and then, respectively, see in the print drawing. Using check boxes, you can control the information that goes into the legend table and out of it.
Customizing the black-and-white view for snapshots
You can now set your way of displaying the black-and-white snapshot that you can use in print drawings. The settings are adjusted in the 3D module but apply solely in the 3D area in print drawings.
Scaling of print parts gets a fixed-ratio technique
You can now scale print parts by setting a scaling ratio. Apart from the larger-part-wins scaling, which you can apply to groups of parts, you can now use a specific ratio — for example, 1:10, 1:5, or other — which you apply to print parts.
Customize how style names are listed in the legend table
You can now choose how you want Prinect to list style names in the legend table. You can choose between listing the names as a catalog, by name or by value. In the table, see the Order list.
Formulas extracting information from strings
You can now extract information from strings — series of characters that consist of letters, digits and symbols. You can:
  • Measure the lengths of strings.
  • Extract the position of string items within strings.
  • Extract portions of strings.
Formulas extracting information about dates and time
You can now extract information about dates and time and combine functions to display future moments in time. You can also set to display elapsed times.
Additional arguments have been added to formulas specific to sheets and dieboards:
  • Extract information about sheet and dieboard in drawings without actual sheets and/or dieboards. Sheet- and dieboard-related formulas now extract data from drawings that do not have an actual sheet or dieboard. They extract these data by using a parameter that takes account of objects in the Sheet, respectively, Dieboard styles. This functionality is most handy for drawings from imported file formats — for example, .cf2 — which often do not contain their own sheet or dieboard objects and define sheets and dieboards by means of regular objects in the Sheet and Dieboard styles.
  • Extracting cut box area and rule-to-rule box area on cutting die drawings. A cut box is formed by:
    • For 1up. By the overall dimensions of the design (its bounding rectangle).
    • For layout. The cut box is the overall dimensions of all parts.
    • A rule-to-rule box is the bounding rectangle of the drawing, which takes into account stripping knives and compensating rules.
  • When extracting margins, you can now ignore inliner objects.
Formulas exracting information about holes area
You can now use a formula to extract the areas of holes in 1up and layout drawings.
Formula for counting all objects in a specified style and its child styles.
You can now use a formula to count how many objects in a specific style and objects in its child styles there are in a drawing.
Formulas related to production on inliner machines
The following new formulas extract information specific to production on inliner machines:
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Other new functionalities

More global settings for the export to PDF
You can now set an expanded array of settings for exporting projects to the PDF file format. The new settings are set globally and work in tandem with the per-case settings for export to PDF.
New installation settings and work resources directories
Changes have been made to where Prinect puts its installation settings and work resources: The earlier settings and resources directory — HDBWork[version number] — has been retired and now the installation's settings and work resources are installed by default in C:/ProgramData/HDB/Package Designer. In this directory, you can find, among other resources, the installation's local and shared settings, samples, OpenGL settings, standards libraries, and the PO database and files.
NOTE: Normally, the C:/ProgramData directory is not visible in Windows Explorer, and if you want to access its contents, you need to allow visibility of hidden items.
Start menu location and install-language libraries
Changes have been made to how the Prinect installation appears on the Start menus:
  • You can now find the installation under the Prinect category.
  • There you also find links to the Prinect libraries and the help system, which load in the language selected in the setup program.
Unicode characters in file names
Prinect now recognizes Unicode characters in file names. This means that you can save, open, import and export files whose names feature diacritical marks, as well as file names in non-Roman scripts — for example, Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese.
Import CorelDRAW files
You can now import files of the CorelDRAW format (.cdr).
More options for importing DDES line types
When importing DDES line types, you can now use a larger number of options to tell Prinect what to import and how. You can set rules for importing line types:
  • Whose widths and perfo patterns are identical with existing Prinect styles.
  • That are identified by specific names in the DDES file.
  • That are held in separate layers in the DDES file.
Cut box area statistics
You can now follow area statistics for individual boxes, specifically the area for a box's bounding rectangle, the waste area in the bounding rectangle.
More display options in the Styles tab
The Styles tab now offers:
  • A Details column, which lists the production process and the line width associated with a style.
  • Context menu options that let you choose the columns you want to see in the tab.
Translation of strings
You can add your own translations to text strings that normally appear in English but that Prinect does not translate when you switch to a different user interface language. These include the descriptions of selection type entries in cost model and parameter template parameters.
Renamed controls for adding external drawings on the File menu
The controls that let you add external drawings to projects have been renamed as follows:
New functionalities in the active drawing icon
The icon of the active drawing now offers shortcuts for you to:
  • Review/edit the drawing's properties: Double-click the icon to do this.
  • Review/edit the properties of a placed sheet and/or dieboard: when you are in the respective drawing, right-click the icon and use the command you need.
View a drawing's material name and thickness in the graphical area
You can set the program to always display the active drawing's material name and thickness in the graphical area's upper left corner.
Association of tool type to production processes during style definition
Among other properties, a style points to a specific production process, which is then associated with a tool. When defining a global style, you can now set additional information about the tool type. This information is most helpful when Prinect is integrated with external production systems whose production processes may require information about the tool type — it helps to differentiate between the tools used in production.
Presets for manufacturing joints
The functionality that defines and applies manufacturing joints to structures — defining the side (right, left), the panel (short, long) and the method of joining (taping, gluing, stitching) — has been expanded. Now you can set presets, which you can apply to structures. Setting a manufacturing joint is necessary if:
  • Prinect is integrated with an external production system that requires information about the joint.
  • You want to create a multi-purpose structure that can change its behavior.
By using an editable manufacturing joint, you can produce, for example, two different designs from the same structure.
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