WHAT IS RADAN ?Radan is Professional CAD/CAM Software used in the Sheet Metal Industry. It’s extremely Expensive, and Licences are sold on a per Machine basis.
CAD stands for Computer Aided Design, anything that you use for Technical Drawings on a Computer can be considered a CAD program. The most common CAD program is AutoCAD.
CAM stands for Computer Aided Manufacture, instead of just Drawing on the Computer, it is actually capable of making things.
What is possible with Radan ?
Radan has been making Software since 1976, and is a UK Company. The Radan Software is capable of controlling a CNC Driven Machine, such as a Punch Press or a Laser Machine.
The Radan Software is focused completely around the Sheet Metal Industry. Radan Products are too expensive to consider using them as just CAD Design Software.
What exactly are these Machines ? Well a Laser Machine is a machine that Cuts Metal using a Laser. It’s one of the most recent Innovations in the Sheet Metal World. The Laser slices through metal at considerable speed, and can cut holes and complete components with ease.
You can draw directly into the Radan Program, similar to AutoCAD although, we think it’s a much better User Interface.
Alternatively you can import AutoCAD Drawings into the program. You create a symbol from either the AutoCAD Drawing, or by Drawing it yourself. Then you tell the Laser what it should do by profiling the shape.
The Laser can either etch the Metal, Remove (Vaporise) the Plastic, or actually cut through the Metal. Each symbol has a profile (Tooling path) Drawn around it. You then set the material of the component and save it to your schedule.
The schedule is really clever, say you loaded a Sheet of 1 mm Stainless Steel on the bed of your Laser. You can set the material as 1 mm st/st, and then run the schedule Application. This pulls out all of the components that suit this material.
In the Sheet Metal Industry components are cut out of a Flat Sheet of Metal, as it’s a Business Money and therefore very important. The Radan Software is capable of nesting the components. When you click run on the schedule, the Program will try to get the best use out of the Sheet as possible, and so will try many different Layouts.
If the Components are small, then small tags can be left to hold the tiny components firmly in the sheet, so that they don’t get damaged. Then when you Remove them, it’s just a case of breaking the Tabs.
Once the Sheet is finished on the Computer, it can be sent down to the Laser Cutter, and this Machine then follows the instructions, that you designed on your Computer. The Sheet of Metal is then Removed, and the separate components should be able to be Removed.
Radan Software is protected by a Dongle, and this is one of the most Secure forms of Copy Protection, since to run the Program you need a Physical Dongle Plugged into either the LPT Port or USB Port. Radan continually Upgrades its Software, to allow for improvements and the Advancements in technology.
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