3DMojo

Many times I am asked to explain how 3DVIA Composer "integrates" into a PDM or PLM system. While this is a perfectly valid question, what I find interesting is that this question is often asked before anyone even begins to use the software, and sometimes it is even asked as a pre-requisite or must-have before further consideration of the product.

I find this line of thought to be extremely backwards. Asking to see the integration before seeing the content creation system is like putting the cart before the horse. And unlike the chicken or egg debate, the answer to this question is obvious: content creation must always come before content management. It makes no sense to create a complex and powerful content management solution, and then not have an effective way to create content to add to that system. It's like buying a PDM system before you have CAD software and CAD data to manage.

Additionally, it makes no sense to implement a content management system but then put in place an inferior content creation system. Without great content, what are you managing? While we could spend all day discussing the pros and cons of a single vendor solution versus a best-in-class composition of products, one thing is certain: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Take Arbortext and Isodraw, for example: a single vendor solution, for documentation content management and publishing (Arbortext) and for technical illustration creation (Isodraw). Whether or not Arbortext is great at managing and publishing content, all of its potential benefits are lost by Isodraw's inferior ability to quickly create and update content from 3D CAD data. Being inefficient, outdated, and neither easy nor fun to use, the content creation tool is the weakest link.

Content management systems all have their nuances, but as it relates to workflow and vaulting, they all offer very similar benefits. In this context, content creation is king, and our customers keep telling us that 3DVIA Composer is the king of kings. And once they have maximized the initial benefits from a desktop-oriented (i.e.: non-integrated) implementation, they also tell us that 3DVIA Composer is exceptionally easy to integrate into their systems. And their logic is clear: begin by implementing an outstanding system at the desktop and make your users exceptionally happy and productive without a massive process disruption. Then integrate from the desktop back into the servers, based on how the users want to work.

Imagine that: a system that the users like and one that makes IT people happy by offering a natural, phased progression of capabilities that doesn't need to be force-fit into the environment. Now that's like having the chicken and the egg at the same time.

Newsflash: 3DVIA Composer has been added to the breakout session grid at COE!

Chris Williams, the General Manager of 3DVIA Enterprise, will host an in-depth session titled Revolutionizing Design Communication: Creating Product Information with 3DVIA Composer. This presentation and discussion will begin on Tuesday, April 29 at 4:30 pm, as part of the “COE Briefing Center #1” track, in the Australia 3 room. This news is so late-breaking that the COE website has not yet been updated with this information.
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You may recall the Dewoitine D520 example that Laurent BEAUVAIS had created in 3DVIA Composer. Mr. BEAUVAIS had done a fantastic job of creating all of the views needed to show how to assemble the model plane -- and this podcast episode will show you how easy it is to reuse those views and build an animation from them.

3DVIA Composer is all about giving you many ways to reuse and leverage your content, so that you can get your job done more quickly than ever before.

 

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We have said this many times: visualization is not enough; viewing 3D geometry does not add any value to anybody, whatsoever!

That may sound like a provocative statement, but this humorous anecdote from clientcopia.com is a great example that not only is visualization not enough, it can be downright confusing.

Humor aside, it is not enough to simply look at a model on the screen, you need to learn something about that model. That model needs to tell you a story. So what matters most is context. When you can add additional product information to support the geometry, and can convey what should be done with that part and the ones around it, then you can tell a story and you can provide real value. The challenge is not so much about creating the story – because everybody has a story to tell – the challenge is having a way to tell a great story. You need a tool that is simple enough so anybody can create the context, in a very short amount of time, keep it up to date as the product information changes, and deliver that story in a variety of compelling ways.

3DVIA Composer is the superior way to use your 3D CAD data to tell great stories and to keep them up to date. That way, the next time your client looks over your shoulder, instead of being the subject for funny blog post, with 3DVIA Composer your client would simply say, “I get it.”

You've heard us rant about the exceptional qualities of 3DVIA Composer, and how we make better reuse of CAD data than other competitive products such as Isodraw. I've shown 3DVIA Composer to people hundreds of times, and I never grow tired of the look of amazement on peoples' faces when they see what we can do. But what really amazes me is how quickly our customers can go from purchasing our product to being productive and generating positive returns: it's a tribute to our architecture and ease of use.

It's why we win benchmark after benchmark, why customers continually choose 3DVIA Composer over other products, and why customers actually turn off those products in favor of 3DVIA Composer.

But don't take it from me... take it directly from one of our newest customers, Miller Formless. When I heard that they recently purchased 3DVIA Composer to replace Isodraw, I wanted to learn more. This mid-week Podcast is the unedited conversation I had with their VP of Manufacturing and Engineering, Jim Szamlewski. This call was not rehearsed; I had no idea what Jim would say about 3DVIA Composer. My initial plan was to pull some sound bites and quotes from the call, but there are so many good points made by Jim -- and in the interests of bringing you truly authentic content -- here is the full 9 minutes of audio. [Editor's note in the interests of full disclosure: there are 3 edits to clean up audio not related to this particular conversation]

What may surprise you most about this conversation is the enthusiam of the customer only 2 weeks after installing the software, and how the users actually enjoy using it. Imagine your employees using a product that makes them exceptionally efficient, and one that they actually like to use: what would that do for your productivity?

Not only are we faster, easier to use, and more flexible, but our users are passionate about our product. Talk about the ultimate knock out punch to the competition.

 

 Podcast Video [9:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (696)

 

 Online Video [9:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (256)