Kubotek renames CADKEY products

New owner Kubotek has renamed its CADKEY 3D mechanical design product line as KEYCREATOR and plans a new release in April 2004 that will integrate NC programming capabilities. Kubotek USA will sell new KEYCREATOR licenses for half price through April. Kubotek acquired the CADKEY product in December 2003.

In its initial release, KEYCREATOR will be available in four basic levels. Standard is basically equivalent to CADKEY Workshop. The other three levels add NC capabilities: 2-axis, multisurface, and multisurface with 2-axis.

The NC capabilities will be based on NC-Matic, a product acquired by Kubotek last year from Numerical Technologies. In the initial KEYCREATOR release, NC utilities will provide rapid toolpath generation for multisurface machining and production-oriented drilling, pocketing, and contouring. Release 2.0, due out in the third quarter of 2004, will add rest milling, enhanced roughing, and associative toolpath capabilities.

Later in 2004, Kubotek will add two more levels of KEYCREATOR. Pro will target at the shape design market with reverse engineering and deformation capabilities. Ultimate will include all functionality in all levels of KEYCREATOR. Each level can be upgraded to include direct translators for Pro/ENGINEER, Unigraphics, and CATIA 4 as well as new translators for CATIA 5 and SolidWorks.

KEYCREATOR will continue to use the CKD file format introduced in CADKEY Workshop and CADKEY GraphX. KEYCREATOR will read CKD files generated by those products as well as PRT files generated by CADKEY 5-19. CADKEY, CADKEY Workshop and CADKEY GraphX products cannot read CKD files from KEYCREATOR.

Once KEYCREATOR ships in April, CADKEY Workshop and CADKEY GraphX will no longer be available. CADKEY 19 will continue to be available via special request. Kubotek’s Web site says it will continue to support CADKEY 19 and Wirefram products “for the time being.”

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