Bob Saric of Nanometrics Seismological Inc.
Interview with a Scientific Instruments Industry Customer
About Bob Saric
Bob Saric is a Senior Mechanical Engineer with Nanometrics Seismological Inc., a manufacturer of specialty instruments for seismological monitoring based in Kanata, Ontario
Q: Tell me about your company's business and industry position.
A: Business – We’re successful because we have a good team. There are competitors, like in any other business but not so many. We do better and better every year. Bottom line we’re doing well. Industry – Scientific Instruments.
What CAD system did you use before implementing SolidWorks.
We had Autodesk Mechanical Desktop
What were the primary business challenges and technical requirements that led your company to evaluate SolidWorks?
Two reasons, first of all our design requirements required something more powerful than Mechanical Desktop. We got into high end designs that the equipment couldn’t handle or deliver on time. The other reason is that we didn’t really need to evaluate SolidWorks because I worked with it in the past back in 1997. I influenced the company to get more advanced software at the time. There was SolidWorks and Solid Edge. We decided to go with SolidWorks.
How did you find out about SolidWorks?
I was a member of the evaluation team that investigated SolidWorks when I was at another company. We didn’t purchase it at that time.
How did you find our about Javelin?
I’m not sure exactly how that happened. We probably did a search of SolidWorks resellers for this location. We probably had some contacts in the past. Anyways, that was before I joined the company 4 years ago. I’m not quite sure about that.
Did you evaluate any other CAD systems? Which ones?
Yes, SolidWorks and Solid Edge.
Why did your company choose SolidWorks?
SolidWorks proved to be the answer to our design needs and also proved to be more affordable than Catia. Other key elements included: easy migration of AutoCAD files to SolidWorks, user friendly interface, part files supported by Surfcam, wide range of SolidWorks users (industry partners, suppliers, and some customers), and support from Javelin.
Were there one or two product features and related benefits that were most important in your decision to purchase SolidWorks?
Prior to using SolidWorks, I worked at another company and used Solid Edge for many years. The only reason (and we were right about it), was that Solid Edge didn’t have as many users… not only in the Ottawa area, but across a wider geographical base. We were concerned about that down the road. And it’s easier to work when your venders and suppliers use the software as you do. It just simplifies things a lot. And we were right about it. We had a feeling they would all use SolidWorks.
How many SolidWorks licenses do you have?
We own two licenses .
What version of SolidWorks do you have?
We are using SolidWorks Professional.
Do you think that SolidWorks technology is innovative? If so, how? Can you provide any examples of capabilities or functions that you would consider especially innovative?
Innovative? That’s kind of hard to answer. What I believe is, yes they’re innovative. To be were they are, they have had to be innovative. I think SolidWorks, is a little bit behind in this case, primarily Solid Edge. They’re trying to catch up features… in the meantime they developed new ones. Now it’s always a trade off whether it’s better to develop something new that perhaps not every users will use regularly or just to develop something to say we can do it and say perhaps 2% of users will ever use it. What I’ve found in the past few years, in the new revisions where they highlight new features, I have already seen them somewhere else, with Solid Edge. SolidWorks is in catch up mode. They spend a lot of money and energy on marketing products instead of towards innovation. This is only 2%, its personal preference.
Capabilities or functions, that difficult for me to say.
I’ve spent so many years working on different CAD systems, that it’s difficult for me to be over the roof about something. What we really like about SolidWorks is SolidWorks eDrawings. It gives lots of people who don’t have the software installed, a chance to open a file and see it in 3D… especially we work that way with our suppliers, machine shops, we supply them all kinds of files, all of them generated in SolidWorks. So far in the last three years, I don’t remember one single issue or misunderstanding. Basically we go from prototype to production right away…which was unheard of. Solid Edge had something similar to this but it was slow and wasn’t user friendly. SolidWorks eDrawings is really good.
Do you have SolidWorks Simulation? SolidWorks PDM? SolidWorks eDrawings? If so, how does each benefit your product development process?
SolidWorks Simulation – Yes, we do have it. We’re in the kind of business that we are measuring next to nothing. Literally. In some cases even SolidWorks Simulation is not enough. We have scientists and other people who spend the whole day doing calculations. SolidWorks Simulation helps us initially, just to prove to ourselves that we’re on the right track. We found a couple of uses of SolidWorks Simulation that we wanted to buy for that particular problem that we have. And we’re glad that we did. From time to time we are using it. Not everyday. We have what they call inherit knowledge, from product to product, from line to line. That we pretty much know what’s going to happen. But sometimes when we run into brand new designs, we just want to confirm that were not wasting our time and that’s where SolidWorks Simulation comes in handy. I like it and a couple of scientists like it too because of its’ simplicity. There’s always a learning curve and with SolidWorks Simulation it’s shorter than with others.
Are there specific tools and capabilities that are especially beneficial? If so, how?
Everything is beneficial. I can’t really highlight a single tool or a single feature. I think what counts is the package. It’s hard for me to think at this moment about something specific. I think it’s everything. You know sometimes we have a hard time explaining to a third party what we are all about. The thing is one single feature in any software wouldn’t do much for us. That’s why we evaluated the package and use it as a package.
How much has SolidWorks reduced your product design process, for example, “from four months to three weeks,” or “50%.”
We’re talking about three to five times faster speed then before. In some cases, with the old software, we were not able to do it at all. And you know sometimes it’s not about speed, but accuracy and the quality. Time is money. I would be comfortable to say, at least three to five times faster then where we were just time wise. But accuracy, stability and quality …it’s huge. In the past, with the old software it was not capable of handling the things we were designing. We spent way too much time on something we were designing. With SolidWorks you can accomplish it with a couple of clicks. In order of magnitude (used several times).
Time wise, a project that would have taken a month and a half using the old software, with SolidWorks, literally, it would take two weeks. And that’s not an exaggeration. But the real benefit is the review process. Speed. It’s self-articulating software. I know well in advance exactly what I’m going to accomplish in what time. So when my manager asks me how much time it’s going to take, I can be very accurate. And with the old software, we spent more time recovering files then actually designing.
How much money you have saved in your product development process with SolidWorks on a particular project or as an overall by percentage? Are you savings related to producing fewer prototypes or less scrap and rework?
It’s hard to put a money count to it. It really is. We’re not a big company, 90 people, but we’re a very efficient company. We easily spend more than a million dollars on machining every year, just on machine parts. That’s where mechanical design software can actually shine. Design speed is now three to five times faster. It’s difficult for me to put a money value on it. I would be really uncomfortable to say how much money is saved. I know how many headaches it saved. And products get to market in no time. It’s really difficult for me to explain that.
How have SolidWorks design capabilities improved the quality of your products? Have you been able to reduce the number of design errors, and if so, by how much?
No doubt there. That’s why I said with the interaction with the software, you know exactly what you’ll get. And very often we send our machine shops, our venders just native SolidWorks files. So basically what I have, they have. The co-operation between the vendor and me as the designer is a one way road. Very accurate. With SolidWorks, it’s 100% accurate. I don’t even have to check it. You can fully trust the software.
Have product innovations enabled by SolidWorks increased your company’s market share or gross sales? If so, could you indicate or estimate the increases?
In our business, it’s not so much a problem to come to market. The problem is to sustain that market. If you are in a position to buy seismological centres from any company and you want to buy the best, you have to wait for two years. With us, we are within 2% of the best. In fact it’s arguable, some information says we are the best. Seismological centres are a mechanical device.
Using SolidWorks as a tool, we are able to design the right product. We can get it to the market and sustain the market pretty much indefinitely. And that wasn’t the case last year or the year before. Good software design capabilities allow you to explore things that usually you wouldn’t. What was impossible or improbable we go ahead and try. Last year we can in a very short time we can exercise so many different options because the software allows you to do that.
Was the transition to SolidWorks smooth? (If moving from 2D to 3D) Were there any capabilities in SolidWorks such as file translation and other built-in tools for preserving and reusing legacy 2D data?
Mechanical Desktop isn’t exactly 3D…more like 2.5D. I’ve been in companies where that transition wasn’t so easy. It takes time, but in this case it was almost a seamless transition. So seamless that our superiors didn’t even notice when we switched software. There were a couple of reasons for that. There’s two designers were using it here. I was already pretty familiar with SolidWorks so proficient within a week. Old legacy files are no issue.
Did Javelin make a significant contribution in terms of training, support and implementation services?
They make well organized presentations of the new version of SolidWorks every year. We never skip these events because there is always lots of information. We didn’t need much CAD training because we already knew it. We also call them when we need CAD related information.
What’s different about Javelin as a company from other companies in the CAD marketplace?
Javelin Technologies is really the first I personally got engaged with. My experience with Javelin is quite positive. They are there when you need them…support and everything else. It could always be better, but I’m not criticizing. On a scale from 1 to 5, I would say a solid 4.
How does SolidWorks help your engineers design better products?
The versatility of the software, easy to use, the speed and above all the software is trustworthy. I know exactly what I am going to get. I don’t even have to check. Files can easily be converted and you can open native files from other software. We had a couple of native files from Solid Edge in the past. SolidWorks had no problem opening and handling it. That was a nice surprise. This is a much appreciated function.
