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Over 25 Years of CAD/CAM from
the Heart of Bavaria
Working from our head office in
the heart of Munich, Schott Systeme GmbH have been
developing CAD/CAM solutions for over the last 25 years. From
these beautiful surroundings, and with the alps in the
distance, our team continue to develop the same product
today as that with which we started all those years ago,
Pictures by PC.
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Innovation in CAD
The original Pictures by PC software was conceived
in the early 80's as the product 'Graphics and Dots', one of
the first ever computer based graphics packages of that
period. Developed for the CPM platform shortly before
the advent of the PC, the software gave companies
their first opportunity to create professional and breath taking
computer generated business graphics. The sudden
popularity of the software soon coincided with the
release of the first PC's, subsequently prompting co founders
Hans-Joachim Schott and Silvan Greverus to develop
Pictures by PC. As a result, and now being experts in the
field of PC based vector graphics, we had in effect
taken our first steps in
producing what is known today as CAD (Computer Aided
Design).
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3D Design Solutions
Soon after the introduction of these first 2D CAD tools, it became
apparent that more descriptive methods of representing
designs were needed. 3D solid modelling was still to
remain some way off, so to overcome these limitations
Schott Systeme developed a range of complex
Bezier based 3D surfacing tools. This ability to describe
more complex shapes ultimately resulted in our customers
being able to actually design in 3D for the first time, as
opposed to just in 2D. One of the very first freeform
CAD modellers was
born, years before one would hear the names of the
mainstream modellers we know today.
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Providing Business and IT Solutions
One
philosophy has been of paramount importance throughout the
23 year development of Pictures, and that has been
retaining a 100% open architecture. In short, creating CAD and CAM tools
was not to be the challenge, rather creating a software
solution that was 100% open, and one that Schott
Systeme
customers could fully customise. For this reason, the
company embarked on developing our own programming
language 'Bix Basic', one with which 'Pictures by PC' was
written. This decision not only resulted in Pictures data
being totally transparent, but it also enabled our customers to develop specialist applications based around the
software, resulting today in Pictures being the basis for
a number of world leading solutions including automated Dental and Orthopedic
machining.
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Product Manufacture
The
ability to visualise a design using our CAD tools
naturally led to the possibility of automatically generating CAM toolpaths to machine
the design. Limited considerably by the processing power of the
first PC's however, Schott Systeme embarked on developing leaner
and more optimal methods of calculating toolpaths. This
approach is still true even with today's more powerful PC's,
and Schott Systeme customers enjoy the ability to both
design and machine on the most basic of computers, even
for the more processor intensive tasks such as calculating
5 axis toolpaths. As a company we also maintain the philosophy of creating a
fully integrated 'one-stop-shop' solution, resulting in the ability to
design, mill, engrave, turn and wire cut parts with a
single product, Pictures by PC.
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Today
The
philosophy at Schott Systeme is a simple one that has remained the same over
the past 25 years. We not only continue to develop the same
product, meaning our customers never have to change, but most importantly we include
over 95% of all features within the standard software,
removing the need to continually purchase extra modules.
In short we believe in an honest approach to software
development, and one
that helps our customers earn money and remain productive.
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