Autodesk Inc., a world leader in 3D design software for entertainment, natural resources, manufacturing, engineering, construction, and civil infrastructure, announced the release of PowerShape 2017. This CAD software combines the strengths of surface, solid, and mesh modeling to prepare molds, dies, and other complex parts for manufacture. Ideal for use as a modeling companion for PowerMill or FeatureCAM.

The design of 3D complex parts just became more effective with the following improvements to PowerShape 2017:

- Accessibility shading to identify areas of a part that cannot be machined with 3-axis machining alone
- A new rib capping tool allows users of EDM technology to automatically create surfaces in order to stop cutting tools from machining slots that will be produced by EDM. Hundreds of surfaces are created in a single command, saving hours of manual modeling.
- The PowerShape electrode wizard offers improved EDM hardware integration for shop-floor burning
- Finally, regular users of reverse engineering tools can benefit from improved fitting of surfaces to imported triangle meshes