Improve CAD Data Management with a Universal Language across Your Organization
Provide the full scope of PDM capabilities inside your CAD to improve productivity and reduce product errors
It takes work to make your business a success. It’s not just about making quality products: you’ve also got to stay on top of punch lists, export and share files, assign tasks and keep track of changes… It’s a lot of moving parts, and a lot that can go wrong.
But there is a better way.
Instead of working on CAD plus everything else, you can connect your CAD to a single platform equipped to handle all your design and product development needs. Draw up designs, securely share CAD data, assign and track tasks, add in markups, and collaborate with people inside and outside of your business, all on the same cloud-based platform.
The efficiency problem
Once upon a time, your team started out small. Anyone could find anything they needed, and the latest version of a CAD file was just a tap on the shoulder away.
Now, your team is growing and it’s getting harder to manage everything at once. You dread the chaos of team meetings when no-one seems to have the information they need. Comments, updates, markups, and punch lists are a headache.
Instead of helping get things done faster, your design and production process is bogging you down. It’s a typical conundrum: the more you get done, the more inefficiencies pile up:
- Exporting your CAD data when it’s time to ask for customer feedback, then manually re-enter markups and comments.
- Checking file versions every time you call up a design, and never being able to delete older versions.
- Creating punch lists, tracking issues and figuring out who’s doing what in meetings.
- Worrying about missed requirements and rework.
As the number of projects increased, we were spending a lot of time looking through spreadsheets to see what the status of each request was, who was responsible, what actions were on-going or closed and repeat this process for every project… we would communicate through emails and phone calls, which quickly became cumbersome and time-consuming.
It was difficult to manage all the information we have across our facilities. With that and having to monitor all our products and manage all the related data, we were having to contend with changing file names and locations.
When you start out as a small company with three people, it’s fine. But at the level we are now, it was becoming much more complicated.
As our team grew, we used to make mistakes using the wrong version of a part, losing us a lot of time and money.
If you’ve encountered any of these issues, you’re not alone. And it probably feels like business as usual.
But there is a better way.
An end-to-end solution that works with your CAD
What if you could connect your CAD to everything you need to run projects from design to delivery?
What if you could collect feedback, integrate changes, assign tasks and securely share 3D models without exporting files or keeping track of multiple file versions?
What if you always knew who was doing what without ever needing to ask – whether working from home, the office or anywhere with an internet connection?
It’s a better way to work. And it starts when you connect your CAD to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud is an integrated end-to-end solution that lets you design, collaborate and keep track of your projects from start to finish.
Everything is designed to work together in a single environment so you can deliver high quality projects faster, without rework.
Enhance your design and production process
Access all your applications in one place
Each team member uses the applications he or she needs, connected directly to your 3D design models. Access data securely through a web browser from anywhere, so you can work from the office, from home, or from the factory floor.
Share designs with customers in one step
Safe viewing lets you share designs with clients or external stakeholders without license issues, and with full control of access rights. Use 3DPlay to share your 3D model with customers for comments without needing to take screenshots or export files. Then add comments directly into your change management for fast, secure work.
Work faster together
Team members can work on the same 3D models at the same time, and save their changes without duplicating or renaming files. Because the platform is model-based, not file-based, your team is always working on the right version.
Stay on top of punch lists
Never lose track of important information. Punch lists are linked to your CAD so you can easily integrate markups, track design and production, and assign tasks to your team.
Banish costly mistakes
Get rid of delays and errors at every step of the process and eliminate rework altogether – so no more precious time or materials are wasted.
Fit the tool to the job
Enhance your design and development process with a solution that grows with your business. Add features and resources instantly when it’s time to step on the gas.
Globe Trailers: doubling production with 3DEXPERIENCE on the cloud
Based in Bradenton, Florida, Globe Trailers was founded in 1982 and bought by the Walters family in 2004. At the time of the sale, the company was making 30 trailers a year. Within six years that number has risen to 400 trailers, and industry demand is pushing them to expand their production even more.
“We’re trying to double production every year, and that’s difficult,” says Jeff Walters, VP of Engineering. “We needed a software platform that would support our progress instead of hindering it.”
The team switched to 3DEXPERIENCE on the cloud so they could improve their design and production process on every front. This means time and money saved for the company, and less busywork for their engineers.
“In the past, I would have to export analyses, transfer the files – which could be very large – and then they’d have to import them,” says Globe Trailer’s Senior Mechanical Engineer Brock Wilkinson. “The 3DEXPERIENCE platform makes workflow much smoother. It is easier to share information, and to collaborate quickly and effectively.”
But the biggest business impact of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is that Globe Trailers no longer loses valuable information.
“We burn, bend, saw, cut, and machine our own parts,” Walters said. “People don’t realize the thousands of parts that go into a trailer. In a normal conventional system, you have your 3D data, you have your 2D drawings, and everything else and it’s spread out over a bunch of different folders. But in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it’s all in one place. There are no corrupt files, no downtime, and no product failures. We’re working from one sheet of music and it’s very powerful.”
Collaborate with anyone, anywhere
Working collaboratively is just what teams do now. It shouldn’t be an add-on or a bonus feature. It should be the baseline you can take for granted, so you don’t lose time or energy getting your solutions to work for your whole team.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud is made for collaboration. Eliminate the extra steps that are slowing down your work and get everything working together, right from your CAD.
You can work better and faster when you rethink your design and production process with the 3DEXPERIENCE.
Meetings are more efficient as we’re all connected simultaneously to the platform and we can discuss live the 3D data model and make changes instantly – instead of the previous time-consuming slide preparation and looking at a presentation on screen and then doing changes afterwards.
We’ve shaved off one hour per week in review sessions because everything is already on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Moreover, by working on the cloud, we not only avoided having to install additional hardware, which saved us time and money, but we were also up and running right away and able to execute and manage projects in no time. The cloud was definitely the right choice.
Today, it’s much easier for [our engineers] to find the right files at the moment they need them. We also have external collaborators, and we can now make sure they have access to the most up-to-date information to work effectively with us.
In a normal conventional system, you have your 3D data, you have your 2D drawings, and everything else and it’s spread out over a bunch of different folders. But in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it’s all in one place. There are no corrupt files, no downtime, and no product failures. We’re working from one sheet of music and it’s very powerful.
[When Spain went into lockdown], we had to quickly switch to working from home and I’m so happy we implemented the system just in time. It’s allowed us to keep our business going and meet our schedule…
Using the 3DEXPERIENCE cloud, our engineers have been able to access all the tools and information they need from their home offices and collaborate and share information with customers to keep the momentum behind projects going.
Go further
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud is quick to deploy and set up.
Our offers include premium support, expert communities and online training so you can upskill your team.
Try the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud for just 330€ for 3 months with our Evaluation Offer.