In recent years a new generation of specialized mold design CAD systems has begun to appear. By automating the tedious parts of the mold design process,

specialized CAD allows the mold designer to spend more time being creative with the tool design itself, helping to produce better quality molds.

The upshot of this is better molds and parts, faster. Specialized mold design software allows the tool designer to quickly and accurately divide a complex component into cavity and core halves, complete with all of the necessary split and run-off surfaces. Fast and intuitive tools allow the mold designer to isolate and extract complex sliding core mechanisms directly from the initial 3-D design, and then animate them to check for fit, function and clearances.
Once the main mold parts—such as cavities, cores, slides and mold locks—have been defined, the completed mold stack is only a few clicks away. Standard and user-defined components—including complex mechanisms, such as hot runners, staged ejectors, lifters, etc.—can be added to the basic stack at any time, each with associated holes and pockets for fitting.

Powerful yet easy-to-use, process-driven Wizards guide the mold designer through the remaining operations—positioning ejectors and other components, and creating waterways. In the event of a design change, all of the Wizards—right back to the very beginning of the process—can be re-played with the new part geometry, eliminating the need for reworking.
For mold shops that still require paper drawings, automated drafting creates GA and a detailed sheet of any components or plates with a single click. Automated bills-of-material give instant access to online ordering systems for purchasing the standard plates and components, guaranteeing that the entire build is ready on time, every time.
The end result is a complete, fully detailed and accurate 3-D model of the mold tool, and it is here that the real benefits of the process become apparent. Although the initial design can in some instances take longer than using traditional methods, manufacturing from this point forward is mostly automatic.

The 3-D model of a single plate, for example, is not simply a traditional CAD solid; it is a library of manufacturing data, allowing machining of all the holes and pockets to become a one-click operation when used in conjunction with a CAM system. Each hole or pocket is not just a geometric entity, but instead holds complete details of its function and how it is to be machined. User-defined rules are automatically applied as each plate or component is machined, creating all necessary toolpaths quickly and accurately. For complex cavities, cores and split surfaces, full 3-D CAM allows perfect reproduction in tool steel using up to five-axis simultaneous control for fine surface finish.