500+ Companies Confirm 3D Product Catalogs Mission Critical

PARTsolutions, LLC, a global provider of 3D part catalogs for manufacturers and enterprises, today released a new industry survey that provides a clear view into the importance of CAD-native 3D product catalogs to design engineers for product selection. Compiled by polling more than 500 companies — including 3M, Lockheed Martin, Ford Motor Company, Goodrich, Cessna Aircraft Company and Bose Corporation — the data reveals that supplying catalogs in paper, PDF or neutral file formats is no longer adequate, with 85% of design engineers preferring part downloads in their CAD-native format.

CAD-native 3D product catalogs are rapidly becoming a critical business component for manufacturers and necessary to get their products selected, designed in and purchased, with 80% of design engineers indicating that multiple units will be purchased for production once downloaded.

— 85% of design engineers prefer part downloads in their native CAD
format. 

— 87% of design engineers want to configure the exact part they are
specifying. 

— 85% of downloaded parts get purchased. 

— 80% of downloaded parts are purchased for prototypes and for multiple
units in production. 

— 73% of design engineers will choose one vendor over another because
they provide CAD data.

These findings are consistent with feedback gathered by PHD Inc. over a period of more than ten years. PHD was one of the first companies to web enable its product line of premium automation products including cylinders, clamps, escapements, grippers, slides, rotary actuators, proximity sensors and switches. Eliminating the time-intensive process of creating, migrating and translating catalog content has saved the company enormous resources. As a build-to-order business that offers more than 450 million product combinations, 3D product catalogs have been instrumental in establishing quick delivery as PHD’s primary competitive advantage. The technology has also resulted in 35 times more sales leads by allowing PHD to track who is accessing designs and proactively deliver sales and support information to its customers. Click here to see PHD’s PARTsolutions 3D product catalog in action.

Reid Supply Company has had a similar response from its customers. Earlier this month, the global industrial distribution company launched ReidSupply.com, an updated e-commerce website designed as a result of direct response to feedback from its customers. The feedback indicated a need for more web images and an improved data search experience. As a result, the Reid web services team utilized all of their print catalog’s images as well as their CAD drawings, which includes over 90% of every part in their catalog. They also employed a new search engine that shows customers their products faster and much more accurately. Reid has one of the largest FREE CAD databases in the industrial supply industry, the Reid digital library is already receiving more than 22,000 CAD downloads per month and is helping Reid Supply to further customer service and satisfaction.
Click here to see Reid Supply’s PARTsolutions 3D product catalog in action.

“In today’s competitive business environment, customers are demanding an endless array of configurable and custom products,” said Rob Zesch, president of PARTsolutions. “Supplying catalogs in paper, PDF or neutral file formats is no longer sufficient to get on the preferred supplier list. Rather, enabling customers to download the 3D CAD-native parts directly into their designs has become mission critical.”

PARTsolutions’ PARTcatalog product enables companies to host their configurable product catalog on-line, making it easier for customers and prospects to “Design In” products to their designs, while business intelligence tools generate valuable sales leads and marketing. For more information, visit: www.partsolutions.com.

PARTsolutions(R) LLC is a leading provider of PLM solutions for next generation 3D part catalog management and hosting, delivering solutions since 1992. For large manufacturers, the PARTsolutions product suite provides centralized 3D standard part catalogs making it easy for global design teams to find, reuse, and control standard and proprietary 3D parts. For component manufacturers, the PARTsolutions product suite provides web hosting of 3D part catalogs to increase lead generation, and to ensure that components get “designed in” to OEM products. The PARTsolutions CAD-Native advantage provides support of over 85 native and neutral CAD and graphics formats to meet the needs of the multi-CAD supply chain. The PARTsolutions product suite maximizes support of reuse and standardization initiatives to deliver measurable business growth through maximizing standard part reuse to get products to market faster with reduced cost.