Virtual parts and online catalogs: engineering services online continue to improve

CADalyst, May, 2004 by Don LaCourse

CALL ME OLD-FASHIONED (or just call me old), but when I was an overworked and underpaid automotive designer, I was proud of my collection of part catalogs. When company representatives came to see me, they didn't leave without parting with a shiny new binder of glossy product pictures, specifications, and dimension tables. Now you can find the biggest and best collections of parts and catalogs this old designer could ask for at your fingertips, all online. They're always up to date with the latest offerings and innovations, with drawings and models ready to download and place in your design.

www.3DPartStream.NET

3DPartStream.NET from SolidWorks Corp. is designed for companies to build dynamic 3D online catalogs (figure 1). The catalogs can contain product information, 3D CAD models, and 2D drawings that users can download in many native formats, including AutoCAD, Inventor, CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, and Unigraphics. You can access many of these catalogs at www.3dcontentcentral.com.

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3DPartStream.NET offers a dynamic model generation engine that represents an entire product family with a single 3D model that you can easily upload and manage on a server. Hosting is included.

When you request a specific product configuration, the parametric CAD engine generates the exact 3D model or 2D drawing on the fly. You can track catalog use statistics on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis, including the number of model views and downloads.

A 3D Content Manager controls complete product families or individual product configurations. You can manage thousands of product configurations with varying dimensions, features, colors, and accessories. You can add, remove, and manage parameter values such as bore size and stroke length.

A wizard helps you establish configuration rules specific to your product line by guiding you through the process of creating the logic behind how customers configure your products. You can incorporate RFQ (request for quotation) capabilities that link to your order management, CRM (customer relationship management), or ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems.

www.Cadsymbols.com

Cadsymbols.com is home base for IMSI's growing online parts collection. Here IMSI has consolidated the CAD parts libraries, such as cadalog.com, that it's acquired in the past year. The site claims to offer more than 8 million mechanical parts. You first specify a part family such as gears, motors, and mold components, then indicate a manufacturer or standard and component type within the family. You can further narrow search results by selecting type and size. Download options include DWG, DXF, IGES, ACIS, and native formats for Inventor, SolidWorks, and Solid Edge. A handy preview image changes to show what you'll be downloading for each option. A one-month subscription is $49.95, and the annual fee is $199.95.

www.GlobalSpec.com

GlobalSpec is a specialized search engine and information resource for engineers (figure 2). Engineers and technical buyers can use GlobalSpec to search for and locate products and services, learn about suppliers, and access comprehensive technical content on standards, patents, specifications, designs, materials, and application notes.

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GlobalSpec crawls and indexes the Web, focusing on engineering-related information. It filters out what you don't want and delivers relevant results in a form it calls the Engineering Web. GlobalSpec also searches what it refers to as the hidden Web--engineering content protected by firewalls, content that requires registration, fee-based content, and dynamically generated content. These include application notes, materials properties, patents, and standards.

www.Kellysearch.com

Kellysearch is a relative newcomer to the U.S. market, but has collected supplier information for manufacturers in the United Kingdom since 1799. You can search by company or product/service, then narrow the results by selecting subcategories. Unfortunately, at this stage in development there's no easy way to tell whether a supplier has CAD drawings available for download.

www.ThomasNet.com

Thomas Industrial Network offers a comprehensive online resource for the manufacturing industry, including detailed product information, company information, and CAD drawings (figure 3).

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ThomasNet.com integrates search technology with Thomas' classification system and editorial expertise. It's a hybrid search engine and online directory. The directory includes details from more than 650,000 distributors, manufacturers, and service companies within 67,000 industrial categories. Industrial suppliers can use the Catalog Navigator to create a detailed searchable product catalog on their own Web sites.

You can search according to technical specifications such as length, width, diameter, and other attributes. Or browse a comprehensive table of contents. You can find, download, and insert CAD drawings for mechanical and electrical parts (PartSpec), plant-design components and systems (PlantSpec), and architectural and building products (CADBlocks). Thomas also offers services such as designing, building, and hosting suppliers' Web sites.