Release Notes – 04/28/2023

Introduction

These are the latest release notes for CDS Visual Mentor.

Overview

This is version 2.1. This has new capabilities and bug fixes as noted below.

What's New

· Multilingual

We are excited to announce the release of our newest feature - support for the multiple languages such as Spanish, German, and French. We recognize the importance of providing a localized experience to our users. With this new feature, users can now use our product with ease and comfort in their native language. These languages are now available in the user interface of our product.

Tutorial Video: How to change the Language setting Tutorial Video

· Embed Link

This new feature is designed to access Mentor instructions from the other apps with the embedding of this link. Users can use this link directly or embed it in their other systems (like Learning Management Systems, Sharepoint, etc.) to access the procedure. After the procedure is published, this link is available under Share options and it will always point to the latest published procedure so there is no need to re-embed the URL every time there’s a procedure update or modification with a new version. This will not ask for authentication when accessed by anyone.

Tutorial Video: How to copy the Embed Link for the Procedure

· CAD Object Naming

This feature now allows the CAD file object names to be available in Mentor after the import of that CAD file. When you view the model tree in Studio that would now show the actual names as per the CAD object naming. This will reduce effort to match objects with CAD tool.

· Search objects in Model

Now the users can search for the object or part with its name in the model tree using search box.

Tutorial Video: How to search the objects

· Navigate to part directly in list from UI

This is exciting feature where you can directly jump to the part in the model tree from the CAD visualization by right clicking the part you are keen to find. This is very helpful when the CAD object list is large.

Tutorial Video: How to navigate to the object

· Export to PDF

This feature now allows users to export the Procedure to a PDF format. The feature will allow users to generate a document that includes all the necessary information about the work instructions, including step titles, descriptions, and graphical representation.

Tutorial Video: How to export to PDF

· Create images and videos based step in Procedure

This feature allows users to create their work instruction steps with images and videos. This is useful where the step does not contain the animation but only the images or videos such as the safety-LOTO (Lockout/Tagout) procedure. Users can now add images and/or videos to the step in the Procedure and turn off the animation for that step. The feature supports a range of image and video formats, including JPEG, PNG, and MP4. Additionally, this allows the addition of hyperlinks, enabling users to access additional resources.

Tutorial Video: Create Image and Video based step in Procedure

· Model Scale on Import

This feature imports scale and size properties from CAD files when they are imported to Mentor. If during import the scale property is not available in the CAD file then the user is given the option to select the near value of scale which will make the model appear at a real-world scale.

Bug Fixes

The zoom setting as configured in the Studio is now rendered in the viewer correctly.
For applying materials (color, texture) to the entire CAD selecting a complete model tree with the topmost item and applying material is now fixed.
The issue with applying the fade-in/fade-out effect to complete the step using different frames is now fixed.

Known Issue

The thumbnail image is not displayed for all work instructions.
Textures and Bump under Materials feature may not work for all the models.
The images added under step or media references are not available in PDF.
PDF downloaded maybe corrupted when the first step is image/video based.

Enhancements

Improved Error handling on CAD file upload and processing.

Coming Soon

Ability to change the order of steps in Studio
Duplication of Procedure for creating hand change procedure or adding multi-languages
Preview of complete sequence in Studio
3D Toolbox of machine tools for usage in animation creation
Custom tools importing in Studio
Edit WI with CAD replacement
Variant Work Instructions
Reports export: to export the report in different formats (pdf, excel, CSV)
Report: To see the time spent on the step-in procedure (step-level time distribution)

Mentor Release Notes v2.1