Tooling & molds service provider credits KISTERS for cost-effective CAD alternative

When it comes to design, CAD software certainly has its place but purchasing and maintaining multiple CAD licenses can be expensive, whether you’re a small business or large enterprise.

1 Source Design explains why KISTERS 3DViewStation has become the plastic injection tooling company’s go-to alternative for multiple, expensive CAD software licenses.

3D and 2D data is created by the engineering department and partners. However many departments must access to the same CAD data for various reasons. For instance, production, sales, and even purchasing departments must collaborate. Team members with access to the same tools should be able to share CAD data – a seemingly intuitive and simple task.

One option is purchasing a CAD software license for each collaborator. Among numerous reasons this was a poor solution for 1 Source Design:

• high effort of training
• long waiting times
• high licensing costs

The Southern Ontario, Canada plant operates 24/7. With over 30 years of experience and more than 45 employees, the tool and die industry supplier creates injection molds for plastic parts. With supply chain relationships in China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Portugal and partners in the USA, 1 Source Design was in need of faster data translation and viewing speed for large designs (>700 mb).

After a trial period, Davis chose 3DViewStation as its visualization solution. He elaborated on his rationale:

• ability to save native format files into .stp
• stability of the software
• fast speed, especially when opening large files

The sales engineer was also very pleased that 3DViewStation works with existing CAD and PLM solutions “seamlessly”. Often employees could be up and running with KISTERS software within about 30 minutes. “The learning curve has been relatively flat so far,” Davis observed.

In the daily operations, Davis’ team primarily uses 3DViewStation to approve and grant access to engineering graphics without the need for additional, pricey Unigraphics and PowerShape license seats.

The latest developments of 3DViewStation can be reviewed in more detail at https://www.3dviewstation.com/blog.html.