Challenge

Improve ability to realistically visualize design concepts in 3D to communicate with clients more effectively, eliminate the cost of making presentation prototypes, and pursue new business opportunities with non-technical clients.

Solution

Add SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional software to the company’s existing SOLIDWORKS Standard design, SOLIDWORKS Professional design, and SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis software implementation.

Results

  • Shortened design process by 30 percent
  • Reduced design-through-manufacturing process by 10 percent
  • Improved ability to communicate concepts to clients
  • Eliminated need to make presentation prototypes

EM Dynamics is a leading Canadian product development consultancy and contract manufacturer. With more than 40 years of experience, the company works with clients from around the world to design, engineer, manufacture, and integrate mechanical products and equipment. From its 80,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Toronto, EM Dynamics provides customers with a range of specialized product development capabilities, including high-precision sheet-metal design and fabrication, CNC machining, assembly, testing, and supply chain management.

The consultancy is committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology to provide clients with a high level of design, engineering, process control, and manufacturing support. This is why EM Dynamics standardized on the SOLIDWORKS® 3D product development environment more than a decade ago, according to Mechanical Engineer Sohaib Siddiqui.

“Our focus is on design, engineering, and manufacturing versus what it takes to use a particular tool,” Siddiqui says. “SOLIDWORKS is not only easy to use, which is why it’s been our only CAD system for the past 15 years, it also provides integrated sheet-metal design and simulation tools, which makes developing products and making refinements faster and easier.”

Although EM Dynamics has relied on SOLIDWORKS design and engineering solutions—including SOLIDWORKS Standard design, SOLIDWORKS Professionaldesign, and SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis software—the product development consultancy/contract manufacturer used third-party rendering tools to create photorealistic renderings of proposed design concepts.

“When SOLIDWORKS Visualize rendering capabilities were added to SOLIDWORKS Professional software, we saw the application at a seminar put on by Javelin Technologies, our SOLIDWORKS reseller, began playing around with it, and found it extremely useful,” Siddiqui explains. “Management loved the renderings that we produced with SOLIDWORKS Visualize and asked if there was anything better. That’s when we purchased SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional. We knew we had to have it.”

BRINGING DESIGN CONCEPTS TO LIFE WITH VISUALIZE PROFESSIONAL


Using   SOLIDWORKS   Visualize   Professional   software,   EM   Dynamics   can   quickly   transform   design   concepts   into   compelling  photorealistic  images  that  are  indistinguishable  from   high-end   photography.   In   the   past,   the   company   typically  produced  physical  prototypes  to  present  “life-like”  design   concepts   to   clients.   With   SOLIDWORKS   Visualize   Professional,   EM   Dynamics   has   eliminated   the   need   to   produce presentation prototypes.

“The  addition  of  SOLIDWORKS  Visualize  Professional  has  given us a lot more creative freedom,” Siddiqui stresses. “Our clients challenge our creativity to produce innovative product designs.  We  need  to  be  able  to  communicate  our  creativity  to  the  customer.  Before  we  had  SOLIDWORKS  Visualize  Professional,  we  often  had  to  create  physical  prototypes  for  customers  to  understand  the  concept.  Now,  we  can  communicate our ideas more effectively, while simultaneously saving time and money.”

“The combination of SOLIDWORKS design and SOLIDWORKS Visualize software speeds up the process because whenever we need to make a change in SOLIDWORKS, the changes get transferred over to Visualize automatically. This allows us to reach final designs that everyone can agree on faster, resulting in a roughly 10 percent reduction in the entire design-through-manufacturing process.”

Sohaib Siddiqui
Mechanical EngineerEM

SAVING TIME WHILE WOWING CLIENTS

Since implementing SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional software, EM Dynamics has been able to shorten the design process by 30 percent because photorealistic renderings enable the company to secure customer approval more quickly while “wowing” customers at the same time. For example, the company recently developed a new private lounge for King & Bay, a high-end Toronto-based bespoke custom-tailored clothier. Touted as “Toronto’s Finest Curated Custom Clothing Experience,” the new lounge at Brookfield Place in the heart of Toronto’s financial district is where customers seeking quality menswear meet with King & Bay Master Clothiers for selections and fittings.

“On the King & Bay private lounge, the customer was upgrading to a much larger space, so we wanted to do something big,” Siddiqui recalls. “The combination of SOLIDWORKS design and SOLIDWORKS Visualize software speeds up the process because whenever we need to make a change in SOLIDWORKS, the changes get transferred over to Visualize automatically. This allows us to reach final designs that everyone can agree on faster, resulting in a roughly 10 percent reduction in the entire design-through-manufacturing process.”

OPENING UP NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

With the ability to quickly create realistic design concepts with SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional software, new business opportunities have opened up for EM Dynamics. “While the majority of what we render doesn’t get made, the rendering speed and power of SOLIDWORKS Visualize software helps us win the projects that do,” Siddiqui says.“We don’t just do one design concept but at least 10 possibilities for most projects,” Siddiqui adds. “Because we have rendering power, we quickly create at least 10 fully realized concepts, which give us a lot more opportunity to win the business.”