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Arden Software wraps up 2024 with new releases of Impact and WEBcnx

19/12/24

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Arden Software is wrapping up the year with the launch of new and improved versions of Impact and WEBcnx – our flagship software for packaging.

Impact 2024 and WEBcnx 2024.2 mark the latest releases of our flagship software, introducing much sought-after new features and enhancements.

Impact 2024: Enhanced flexibility and efficiency

Impact 2024 is the next major release, taking our industry-leading packaging design software to the next level, and building upon and refining the ground-breaking Dynamic Constraints feature first introduced in Impact 2023. This industry-first tool, saw Impact become the first ever packaging design CAD software to offer geometric constraint tools, which captures the designer’s intent as they draw, and also enables quick and easy resizing.

This latest update makes Impact even more powerful and intuitive for designers. A standout feature in this release is improved layer revision, a highly anticipated addition based on customer feedback. Users can now add revision comments directly to layer properties, offering new options for updating projects. These enhancements provide a new level of detail, ensuring that every change is seamlessly documented within the project’s layers.

The new Waste Planner in Impact 2024 simplifies the tool ordering process, providing greater clarity and accuracy when defining waste areas. By automating the detection and categorisation of waste as stripped or retained, it eliminates the manual and inconsistent steps traditionally involved. With customisable Master Tool Settings for different jobs and manufacturing processes, the Waste Planner ensures consistent results and streamlines communication across all stakeholders.

The snapping tools have also seen significant upgrades, offering easier access to overrides and configuration of the Smart Snap tool, giving designers greater control over snap modes.

This update also introduces enhancements to 3D design capabilities, with updated Scene Templates offering greater flexibility when building pre-defined 3D scenes, complete with cameras, animation paths, and other scene configurations, giving designers more options for visualising their packaging designs in a dynamic, 3D environment.

WEBcnx 2024.2: Streamlining design approval and collaboration

As design workflows become increasingly collaborative, WEBcnx 2024.2 introduces a comprehensive new Annotations feature that transforms how teams review and approve designs. This innovative feature allows design team members to mark-up design files with shapes, notes, and freehand drawings, making it easier to communicate feedback and track changes during multi-departmental design reviews. This is especially useful for ensuring precise, actionable instructions that keep projects on track.

The Design Dialog is another key upgrade in WEBcnx, bringing all design components together in a single, convenient dialog. This update consolidates project and layer information, streamlining the design process and making it easier for users to access essential details. The new design dialog also includes new options for reporting rule lengths to assist with tool costing estimation.

Additionally, new options allow export and report template Custom Actions to output all layers in the design into a single, multi-page PDF or zipped up format.

Seamless workflow between Impact and WEBcnx

The combined power of WEBcnx’s new annotation tools, Impact’s enhanced layer revision options, and the WEBcnx approval workflow delivers a more streamlined and transparent design process. Customers can now capture detailed feedback, track changes with precision, and move through approvals faster and with greater confidence.

The new features also ensure seamless workflow between the two platforms – WEBcnx 2024.2 now allows annotations to be viewed directly in Impact, via the WEBcnx plugin. This is a highly requested feature offering a more integrated and efficient design approval cycle that simplifies collaboration and ensures every detail is accounted for.

Key benefits of the combined Impact and WEBcnx updates include:

Streamlined feedback and approval: Annotations within WEBcnx, coupled with layer revision tracking in Impact, make approval workflows faster and more efficient by centralising communication and reducing misinterpretations.

Detailed Change Tracking: With the added ability to add revision comments in Impact’s layer properties, all project updates are thoroughly documented for complete transparency and traceability.

Efficient project updates in Impact 2024: The new project update options allow customers to choose specific layers for revision or update, avoiding unnecessary rework on unaffected areas and improving productivity.

Peter Barke, Arden Software Product Manager, said: “These enhancements to Impact and WEBcnx pave the way for faster, more flexible design workflows, enabling packaging professionals to stay ahead of the curve with innovative tools that simplify the design, revision, and approval processes.

“By listening to our customers and responding to their needs, we’ve introduced key features such as the improved layer revisions in Impact and the new Annotations tool in WEBcnx, which directly address challenges in collaborative design environments. These updates not only streamline communication and feedback, but also enhance efficiency, accuracy, and traceability at every stage of the project lifecycle.

“The seamless integration between Impact and WEBcnx ensures designers and approval teams can work more closely than ever, delivering high-quality results with confidence and speed. At Arden Software, we’re proud to provide solutions that empower packaging professionals to achieve even greater levels of creativity and productivity.”