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CAD Drawing Solutions: PartSpec, PlantSpec and CAD Blocks

The Internet has had a powerful impact on companies with set or semi-custom product lines that require viewable CAD drawings in order to be specified or sold. Thomas’s CAD Solutions facilitate performance excellence by providing detailed product searching and configurations of CAD Drawings ‘on the fly’, with simple, direct insertion capabilities:

• PartSpec – used to find mechanical and electrical parts.
• PlantSpec –used to select plant-design components and systems.
• CADBlocks –used to find architectural and building products”

These CAD Content product solutions place our client’s drawings in front of quality decision makers who are otherwise very difficult to reach and/or meet with.  This is accomplished by:

1. Distributing controlled circulation CD-ROM’s and DVD’s to design engineers. PartSpec’s 2004 CD-Rom Distribution was (delete  to) 75,000 engineers and designers;PlantSpec’s 2004 CD-Rom Distribution was (delete to) 40,000 engineers and designers
2. CADRegister.com  -- the Internet site where design professionals, engineers, and architects can download millions of component drawings from leading manufacturers, in a variety of industry-standard formats;
3. CAD Content is available to over 30 million users on the ThomasNet.com industrial internet directory/search engine hybrid.
4. Our clients receive a “Gold Master” CD-ROM that allows all of their CAD Drawings to be found on one disk, which they can use as  front line sales tools, marketing or advertising tools for direct mailers or hand outs at trade shows. They can be used with distributor programs to increase product awareness and ease of finding the right drawings, or with any other type of off line initiative designed to bring in new business.  No other company or technology available enables a client’s CAD drawings to be on one CD-ROM – some of our current client’s didn’t think it was possible because of the (delete thousands or hundreds of) thousands of drawing possibilities.  We are able to accomplish this ( delete ability) through a patented software program that configures the drawings based on the selection options chosen by the specifying decision-maker. 

In addition to driving quality traffic from specifiers who don’t take phone calls or sales visits, these content solutions can help convert quality traffic that is routed to a client’s website by seamlessly integrating their CAD configuration abilities into their website. 

In addition to tapping into controlled distribution, our client’s CAD drawings are also available to the millions of users on ThomasNet.com and the users of CADRegister.com’s targeted design engineering audiences.   Two additional market shares of users who are core prospects for our clients are the visitors to our client’s website and those to whom they send or distribute their Gold Master Copies.  Many companies use the Gold Master CD-ROM of their product drawings as hand outs at trade shows, for front line sales tools, for turnkey distributor solutions, and various types of direct-mail or other marketing efforts.

There are many other benefits of the CAD Solutions, in addition to placing the drawings in front of our prospects hard-to-reach target audience.  Engineers and other specifying decision-makers use these products because they are tools that make their jobs faster and easier.  For example, unlike most CAD Drawing programs, our CAD solutions are compatible with every CAD software program, including Catis, Unigraphics, Solidworks, Solid-Edge and Ideas. These CAD solutions have the ability to present the drawings in any scale needed and they have  2D or 3D capability.  In addition, downloadable CAD Drawings improve quality by reducing errors; engineers value this option because the manufacturer’s exact measurements are embedded into the drawing itself.

These products also save significant time because the engineer or specifier does not have to wait for drawings to be created or sent. Anyone who is familiar with the designing process knows that the first design is never the last drawing and redesigning is often necessary because of changes in the product. Our CAD solutions save the designer’s criteria, so that if they need to make a change they can simply go back to the particular point in their decision-making process regarding our client’s product line, make adjustments,  and quickly grab and insert the new drawings. 

On top of all these remarkable features, our CAD solutions update the bill of materials by “spec-ing” in our clients as the supplier if their drawings are used. 

Some examples of industry leaders who rely on PartSpec or PlantSpec for CAD Drawings and how many CD Copies some of these companies requested this year are:

• Boeing 1,250 subscribers,
• ExxonMobil 171
• Hewlett-Packard (340)
• Honeywell (526)
• Alcoa (303)
• Northrup-Grumman (468)
• Lucent (129)
• TRW (515)
• Kraft (187)
• Caterpillar (308)
• Lockheed (1,253)
• Ford (619)
• Motorola (303)
• Delphi (648)
• Chrysler (177)
• Corning (448)
• 3M (331)
• Dupont (299)
• Kodak (246)
• Xerox (114)
• Government direct to NASA – 488
• U. S. Air Force  – 93
• And many other Federal, State and Local departments.

Other major corporate players who are included in the Controlled CAD circulation are Alcoa, Amoco Corp., Amtrak, AT & T, Black & Decker Mfg. Co., Coca Cola USA, John Deere, Parker Hannifin, Johnson & Johnson, Phillip Morris USA, Skil Corp., Borg-Warner Automotive, Corning, General Motors, IBM and Xerox, and many others.

These entities receive CD-ROM’s of our CAD Content solutions for the sole reason that they employ decision-makers who have requested these tools to simplify their jobs.   If you are interested in having your drawings spec’d-in by companies such as these, we can help you accomplish this strategic business issue.

CAD Blocks are distributed to over 60,000 decision-makers for building products and materials, such as architects, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, CAD design management, designers, construction management, project owners, consultants, and engineering management.  It covers the AEC Market.  The users endorse this product because it is a tool that helps them easily prepare their construction documents.  It is used from planning to design, through bidding and construction.  This product, just like PartSpec and PlantSpec, is key to getting in front of decision-makers  who have proven elusive using other methods.

Another solid benefit making these products a cost-efficient turnkey solution is their ability to save a client’s in-house design engineers a significant amount of time and effort  by reducing the number of drawings they must produce.

In conclusion, a quote from one of our client’s:

"PlantSpec has made it easier for engineers to access our CAD drawings, and that makes it easier for them to specify our company. Engineers love it and we're being specified. We're winning proposals and doing it cost effectively.”  

Jeff Hurst, Hurst Boiler Co. Inc.

The CAD Titles provide libraries of CAD drawings used by a wide variety of technical buyers and engineers in many online and offline formats.  They are a direct line to our client’s prime target prospects who otherwise are nearly impossible to get in front of.According to research, 80% of products that are specified are eventually purchased. As development cycles continue to shrink, the challenge for technical buyers is to move products from the drawing board to the prototype phase faster and at a lower cost. The traditional specifying process requires engineers to search and locate drawings and then redraw them if they are in an improper format. Our CAD Solutions help increase the productivity of Engineers,  Architects and other key designing and specifying personnel, eliminate the necessity for redrawing and automatically update and spec- in our client’s products and company to the drawings and Bill of Materials, which dramatically increases our client’s odds of being specified and then purchased.