3-D mold design is fully parametric; only time and the ability of the designer can limit what can be accomplished in this area.

When presenting a bid to design and build a mold for a new customer or existing customer, nothing is more pleasing than showing a past mold design in 3-D. The design can be rotated, shown in halves, up close, transparent, and so on.

Designing in full 3-D space is similar to building the individual components in the tool room. When done correctly, the design saves the moldmaker from having to create his sketches from scratch. The models of the components are ready for the CNC department.
Another advantage involves the customer’s need to make a change to the product. The design will update to the new geometry once it replaces the old geometry; if details already have been created, they will update automatically.

A word of caution though, the designer always should verify that the design, details and drawings have updated correctly. Depending on how the mold was designed or placed together in the assembly, updating can go without a problem or minor fixes will be required.
When creating the 3-D mold design, the same rules that apply to 2-D design should be followed – model it once, use it many times. Today’s component manufacturers are supplying many of their components as solid models. Should you need to model an item, save it to a component library for the future.

At first, the 3-D mold design will take a bit longer to get from the computer to the floor, but once it reaches the floor, the moldmaker and specialists can use the geometry of the solid model to make their jobs easier.

The models are then able to be sent to the floor before the mold designer has completed the design. As he creates the cavity/core assembly, he can verify sizes and interfacing locations to the mold base. Once this is complete, these items can be sent to the tool room for fabrication. The mold designer now can complete the mold base design and any components that will have to be manufactured by the tool room.

While the tool room is ordering steel and getting its game plan in order, the mold designer is preparing the assembly for the 2-D layout and detailing the necessary components for the shop.

There are those who look at full 3-D mold design as fluff, which means that not all of the components need to be in a solid model state – the mold base builder may not use the models that you supply, the moldmaker or machinist may not need a strap modeled, and so on. What is important is that it represents a clear view of the finished mold – errors are more easily seen in the fully assembled 3-D mold design.

Another drawback is the software. To keep the design fully parametric, it should be passed along the same software platform; otherwise, you can keep it as a 3-D solid model that is not parametric.

Individual designer skill level is another issue – as a designer becomes more familiar with the software and moves beyond the fundamentals, he may introduce skills into the mold design and detailing that the next person is not aware of or familiar with. This is an area that has to be addressed by the moldmaker or the customer because as we become faster, not everyone involved will be up to speed or have power user skill levels.