Reduce Weight
A>V>C>Reduce Weight
A>V>C>Cut through windows or pockets in free places of the part to reduce its weight.
Trial
This program can be useful when you design plywood or MDF products for exhibition stands, interior design, offices, shops. Often there is a need to reduce the weight of structures. To do this, you can cut out the extra parts of the supporting invisible structures, that is, make windows in the middle of the parts. Or make pockets on the inner, invisible sides of the parts. Usually the process of designing such windows is long and inconvenient. It is necessary to get the outer contour of the part, offset the contour inside the part, extrude the 3D solid, and subtract it from the part. The matter can be complicated due to the need to keep the dadoes and holes in the attachment points with other parts. And it is also necessary to leave jumpers so that the windows do not turn out to be too long, and the entire assembly retains its rigidity. But all these problems can be solved in 1 click. You only need to call the Reduce Weight command (ReduceW), and it will do all this work with all the selected parts.
Program features:
- The program can cut windows both in rectangular parts and in arcuate parts and in parts of arbitrary shape.
- You can make through windows or pockets of a given depth.
- It doesn't matter how your parts are arranged in space. In any case, the program will lay them out in the XY plane (as the LAY command does), process them, and return them to their place.
- The program itself will choose the side in which it is necessary to make a pocket. This will be the side with the smaller area (which has blind holes and slots). But you can mark the front of the part with a color so that the program does not disfigure this side.
- You can select many parts at once, and even the entire assembly. You just have to wait a bit and pray that the Autodesk® AutoCAD® engine does not glitch.
- You can select blocks (assemblies), and the program itself will find and process all the solids inside the blocks. And inside nested blocks too.
- The program always ignores solids and blocks on the Annotations, Hatching, Axes, Other, Info, Excluding, Holes, and Fixture layers. But you can filter objects by layers, by technology, and by material type.
- The program will not make windows too small if they are smaller than the given offset and do not make sense for weight reduction.
- The program will take into account the presence of inclined ends, grooves, dadoes, and drillings and will not delete them but will leave the part material around them with a specified offset.
- If the hole is made in the center of the part, then the program will reach one jumper to it, preserving the integrity of the part. But if you need 2 jumpers from each island, then you will have to model the second jumpers manually.
- The program will check the size of the resulting windows, and if they are larger than the limit you set, the program will add a rectangular grid of jumpers (stiffeners).
- You can set up to 9 program styles and quickly switch them right from the command line.
Regardless of the AutoCAD localization language, you can switch the plugin to English, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese (PRC), Spanish, French, or Turkish localization.
Details
Operating system
Release date
Jun 9, 2022
Last updated
Apr 6, 2026
Version
2026.03.05
Language
Compatible with
ACD
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027
AMECH_PP
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027
Capabilities
Mechanical design
Tags
Scheduling
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Are there any known issues with this product?
Program restrictions:
- The program only works with 3D solid models (Solid3d), does not work in 2D, and does not work with polygonal meshes and surfaces.
- The program is designed to work with parts made of flat sheet materials. It has nothing to do with mechanical details and complex three-dimensional shapes. It is not possible to use the program for curved skins.
- The program may not be able to handle overly complex shapes. On parts with an excessive number of holes and dadoes, important elements can be removed. Be sure to carefully check the result. Remember that any automatic program always requires human intervention and will never replace the brain of an engineer.
- The shape of the window is not subject to any simplifications or rounding. On additive parts, the window can look very complicated. The program is designed for the window to be cut by the CNC machine and does not care about the complexity of the form, and weight savings are more important than the number of G-codes in the program.
- AutoCAD removes the coloring of solid faces during any processing, including the work of this program. Assign materials to surfaces and edges only after modeling is complete.
Is there additional support information provided?
Support is provided by e-mail avc.programming@gmail.com
You can ask any questions about the work of A>V>C> programs, their installation and configuration, optimization of the work of engineers, and setting up business processes in the exhibition business. Help is provided to all users, regardless of whether they made a donation or not. Any suggestions and comments are welcome for further improvement of the programs.
The main method of communication is e-mail. You can write in any language. If you do not write in English, then write in short, simple but complete sentences without abbreviations and without special terms.
Do not forget to attach the problem dwg-file to the letter.
Telegram: @avc_programming
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