Company Opts to Migrate to thinkdesign From High-end Catia System

Due to 3-D Functionality, Ease of Use, Compatibility & Affordability

SANTA CLARA, California - June 28, 2001 - Mechanical design software upstart think3 today announced that The Pfaltzgraff Co. (York, PA.) has selected think3's single-environment 3-D solid and surface modeling software, thinkdesign for aiding in the design and documentation of its popular line of tabletop products, including dinnerware, glassware and flatware.

The Pfaltzgraff Co. is the oldest pottery maker in the United States, having grown from a modest-size shop that once produced salt-glazed stoneware in the early 1800s to become today's leading domestic manufacturer and marketer of casual dinnerware and accessories for the home. With the goal of becoming a worldwide tabletop supplier, Pfaltzgraff is currently introducing its brand to countries beyond the United States. A critical element of the company's success will lie in its ability to design and produce high quality, aesthetically appealing products faster than ever to meet consumer demand in a highly competitive market place.

Pfaltzgraff selected thinkdesign due to a combination of advanced 3-D functionality, ease of use, compatibility and affordability, according to Pfaltzgraff Engineering Manager Mike Kohorst. Within less than 5 months of implementation, the company has produced its first product using tools designed entirely in thinkdesign - part of the Naturewood Serenity line of dinnerware, slated for worldwide introduction later this year. By the end of the year, Pfaltzgraff has plans to standardize on thinkdesign as its 3-D CAD system of choice for all tool design and engineering - after more than 15 years of running a Catia-based CAD operation.

Kohorst says the company's primary goal in the short term is to meet or beat the product introduction timelines set up for its Catia operation, which average 3 1/3 to 4 months. "If we can achieve the same results or beat them using thinkdesign - and our early experience tells me we absolutely can - we 'll significantly lower our costs, with lots of upside. In fact, I'd go toe to toe with any CAD user on the advantages of thinkdesign because it's just that obvious. Longer term, we intend to set aggressive metrics for reduced tooling development time for highly sculpted and embossed products."

Company Opts to Migrate from Costly, High-end CAD System to thinkdesign

Since 1986, Pfaltzgraff engineers have used Catia for 3-D design and CNC (computer numerical control) programming to design molds and dies for mass production of ceramic products at manufacturing plants located in the U.S. and abroad. And, Pfaltzgraff product designers have employed a traditional approach to conceptualizing and designing new products using conventional tools (e.g., pencil and paper, pen and ink, and paintbrush).

"What prompted us to consider thinkdesign was not a lack of functionality in Catia, but economics," explains Kohorst. "It's an expensive system when you take into account the annual software maintenance fees, maintenance of the RS6000 hardware it runs on, and training for new users - a process that's measured in years. Although Catia is extremely powerful, it's also extremely obtuse. Back in 1986, it was the only product around that could meet the stringent modeling requirements we had for sculpted designs, as well as machining. That's how we ended up using the same software used by the Boeing, Chrysler and Martin-Marietta, companies with much bigger budgets than we have.

"Ever since then, we've considered other options, since the inherent cost of learning and using the system has always been a concern. Until thinkdesign, we'd never really found a solution with the level of functionality to meet our demand for sophisticated modeling that was also easy to learn and use, and affordable. For many of the same reasons, this year we also intend to explore computer-aided manufacturing software alternatives for CNC programming."

Kohorst admits being skeptical when he first heard about thinkdesign from think3. "I predicted that the demo CD would be like so many others I've seen, just a canned slide show. When I found out the sales rep was sending me a demo CD of the full-blown product, I thought, 'Well, that's a step up, but I'm sure when I get it I'll put it through its paces and quickly determine it's not for us.' That was my attitude.

"Once I plugged in the CD, I was blown away. I discovered very quickly that thinkdesign offered equivalent power, but with a more intuitive U/I, easy education, and lower costs - an unbeatable combination. It had a level of functionality I didn't think could exist on a desktop PC. To my knowledge, thinkdesign is the first package to completely put together a hybrid of surfacing and solids in a single design environment that's easy to work with to produce surfaces of predictable quality, which is absolutely essential for manufacturing.

"It also came with some interesting self-paced educational tutorials, which I considered a huge step, given how painful and expensive training on Catia had always been for us. The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy video game made things even more interesting. The availability of a reliable Catia translator was another critical factor. And the subscription pricing was phenomenal. That's when I realized thinkdesign could be the system for us."

Immediate Success on First Project: New "Naturewood Serenity" Soup/Cereal Bowl

In January of this year, Pfaltzgraff engineers began using thinkdesign for mold, tool and die design. Within two months, the first tooling components began to hit the production floor and within five months the first products developed completely in thinkdesign came out of the kiln. The Naturewood Serenity line is Pfaltzgraff's latest entry in the casual dinnerware market and a follow up to the highly successful Naturewood line.

"The ease of use and intuitiveness of the software made the design process very simple and fast," notes Kohorst. "Because of the sculptural nature of the dragonfly on this shape, it wasn't even on our schedule for this line. The modeling and documentation went so smoothly that we were able to absorb the project without effecting the rest of the schedule."

Milestones on the Path to Standardizing on thinkdesign

Already, Pfaltzgraff is achieving its short-term objective to meet or beat product introduction timelines originally set for the Catia operation. Although the company is only in the early stages of implementation of thinkdesign, according to Kohorst, it's apparent that the system has the potential to have a significant long-term impact on design productivity, reducing product development cycles and streamlining communications between departments.

For instance, for the first time ever, a modeler in the product design department at Pfaltzgraff is using CAD software to model design concepts, rather than relying only on traditional artist's tools to communicate design intent to engineering.

"That's a big breakthrough for us," says Kohorst. "Eventually, our hope is that the product design group will begin delivering complete digital models to engineering. That way, we'll eliminate some of the ambiguity involved with handing over 2D drawings that leave it up to a bunch of engineers to try to achieve the aesthetic nuance of their designs. Although there will always be some need for conventional methods of conceptual design and tooling for highly sculptural products, Christmas ornaments for instance, our goal is to automate as much as possible using advanced CAD/CAM software."

Kohorst also sees great potential for the company once it implements advanced features in thinkdesign 6.0, including: Global Shape Modeling, which allows for precise (even parametric) control over model geometry of any type (solid models, surfaces, wireframe or imported geometry) for creation and modification of objects; and Smart Objects, which makes it easy for designers and engineers to capture, reuse and share pre-defined and customer-defined intelligent design elements and concepts (profiles, solids and shapes) of literally any level of complexity, at any point during the design process.

"Global shape modeling is a radical new function that will give our conceptual design team the ability to explore many different design alternatives quickly, enhancing their freedom and creativity early in the design process," explains Kohorst. "It will also allow us to make design changes late in the design cycle, if needed, while ensuring that we adhere to rigid design criteria for tooling development. The ability to pull and bend surfaces while maintaining adjacent tangency is the kind of functionality that has the potential of saving weeks of design time.

Smart Objects will also play a role in drastically improving team productivity at Pfaltzgraff. "This will be one of our biggest long term benefits with thinkdesign," says Kohorst. "It's hard to even calculate the impact it will have, making information readily available for sharing in such a friendly, intuitive and visual way. That will mean we can pluck a standard component out of the library, and plug in a few parameters or profile, or whatever is pertinent to that component. This is a vast improvement over the cumbersome and error prone 2-D documentation process we 've used in the past."

Ease of learning and ease of use will continue to be the fundamental success factors for Pfaltzgraff in its migration to thinkdesign in the coming months, Kohorst notes. "I'm confident that the momentum will continue because it's so obvious that certain aspects of what we do are so much more easily accomplished in thinkdesign than Catia. I've already reached the point that when I sit down to model something or design a tool I dread the thought of having to do it in Catia. That goes directly to ease of use. That 's truly an amazing thing for me, given all of the years I invested in Catia.

"Over the years, engineers and designers have weathered the CATIA learning curve and gone on to become successful and productive users, proudly wearing their CATIA credentials like badge of courage," he adds. "I was one of them. As you can imagine, I too was a little reluctant to give up CATIA. Once I realized that we could truly get everything we needed and more, the idea of Pfalzgraff migrating to thinkdesign became my mission."

About The Pfaltzgraff Company

Five generations of family ownership and management have led The Pfaltzgraff Co. to become America's leading manufacturer and marketer of casual dinnerware and accessories for the home. As the oldest pottery maker in the United States, The Pfaltzgraff Co. grew from a modest-size shop that once produced salt-glazed stoneware in the early 1800s to a large manufacturer that offers a full range of products and styles today.

The Pfaltzgraff family of German immigrant potters began their company in 1811 in York, Pennsylvania, which is still the company's headquarters. The Pfaltzgraff Co. has a long-standing tradition of excellence in craftsmanship, quality, and service. A commitment to being responsive to customer needs has enabled the company to prosper for nearly 200 years. Currently, Pfaltzgraff is successfully introducing its brand to countries beyond the United States with a goal of becoming a worldwide tabletop supplier.

http://www.pfaltzgraff.com

About think3

think3 is a privately held mechanical computer aided design (MCAD) company on a mission to revolutionize the $9 billion CAD software industry by bringing powerful, flexible, affordable "mass 3-D" design software to every engineer's desktop.

think3 software is used to design everyday physical objects, everything from Alessi boutique home accessories, adidas sports shoes, Buell Motorcycle Company (a division of Harley Davidson) sports bikes, and Candy/Hoover vacuum cleaner motors to Dinan custom BMW engine parts, Pininfarina automotive and public transportation products, Pfaltzgraff dinnerware and accessories, and Tycos Tool & Die molds for exterior automotive parts (e.g., fenders, bumpers), among others.

think3 is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with engineering centered in Bologna, Italy and supported by R&D teams in Bangalore, India, Boston, Massachusetts, Marseilles, France, Pesaro, Italy, and Salt Lake City, Utah. think3 products are sold through a worldwide network of distributors and VARs, and online at.

http://www.think3.com 

 

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