An email came across my desk the other day from Brian Sather (one of our Technical Marketing Managers here at Autodesk). He had just spent some time with a customer switching from PTC to Autodesk. I would say ProE to Inventor....but, it wasn't that simple. Take a read at what the folks from JWC Environmental had to say about switching away from the dark side.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with Rob Sabol, Director of Research and Development at JWC Environmental about some of the impressive changes they’ve witnessed in their product development processes since implementing an Autodesk Digital Prototyping workflow in their 4 engineering groups.
JWC Environmental was founded in 1973 with the introduction of the Muffin Monster into the wastewater industry. The company sells worldwide with offices and manufacturing in Georgia, England, and China to complement their base in California. The company, which now has 22 engineers on staff, has expanded over their almost 40 year history by inventing new grinding and screening equipment for virtually all types and sizes of plants..
Rob said JWC was operating on multiple different platforms—with everything from VersaCAD for electrical schematics, ExpertCAD and Pro/ENGINEER for mechanical design, and Pro/INTRALINK for managing their design data. After seeing how seamlessly Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical and Electrical, and Vault operate together, he was convinced that he could simply get rid of the other platforms and standardize on Autodesk design and data management software.
“Jump right back into Inventor”
Rob was also looking for something easy to use and easy to learn, explaining that “Pro/ENGINEER has so many idiosyncrasies that it’s difficult to be productive after spending any amount of time away from the software.” He found what he was looking for in Inventor—the cost of hiring and training Inventor users is significantly lower than before and, because he only gets to spend a few days a month working directly in the software, “I can jump right back into Inventor and get working.”
“A group of kindergarteners could tell the difference”
Without hesitation, Rob said “our drawing quality has been the biggest improvement since switching over to Inventor. Even a group of kindergarteners could tell the difference.” He specifically called out view placement, GDT and weld symbols, and dimensioning schemes as key improvements when using Inventor. He continued, “…our engineers were fighting it so much with Pro/ENGINEER that they’d just do the minimal amount—but they take the time now that they actually like the software.”
“It works perfectly for us”
When talking about data management, he said “Pro/INTRALINK was confusing as hell! There was a slight learning curve with Vault, but once it was up and running it works perfectly for us.” Rob also said that instead of using one vault for the entire company, they have four separate databases for their different engineering teams. “Now we don’t have to worry about another group making changes on accident.”
Working closely with KETIV, a leading Autodesk solutions provider with over 25 years of experience delivering CAD software and services, JWC has seen improvements in a variety of other areas as well—from improved overall modeling practices to simply being able to provide access to the necessary capabilities that their engineers need to do their job which wasn’t always economically possible before.
“We now have one package that everybody gets to use.”
Pretty awesome to hearthose kinds of things directly from the customer. We all know that there is a lot that goes into switching your design tool. I have heard it best described as 'replacing the heart of your organization'. When doing the design tools 'heart transplant' there are many things to prepare for: training, process improvements and data migration to name a few. Good planning and good partners can help companies do this as painlessly as possible. I will be following up this post with some of the details around transitioning to a new set of software tools...and what it takes.
But one thing people often forget is: that they know how to do this. Why? Because they have done it before. Just think back to what the basic steps were when your company went from 2D to 3D.
I am really looking forward to writing more about this topic...and hearing from more and more companies who have went through it.
Being a 'switcher' is a good thing. Anyone else remember those old Will Ferell Mac commercials?
-lw
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Our company switched to Pro E for 3 years, and coouldn't take it anymore. Been back with Inventor for 2 years now and loving it... mostly. :)
Posted by: Chris | 10/11/2011 at 03:06 PM