Software streamlines digital catalogue creation

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 28, 2005

Seidenader Mechanical Engineering has published its new spare parts catalogue in CD form - featuring 3D MCAD models as technical illustrations - using XVL ultracompression and application technology.

Seidenader Mechanical Engineering has published its new spare parts catalogue in CD form - featuring 3D MCAD models as technical illustrations - made possible by Lattice3D's XVL ultracompression and application technology.

German-based Seidenader, a machinery manufacturer for the pharmaceutical industry, assembled the 3000-part electronic catalogue in just six working days.

Seidenader's staff uploaded price lists together with the company's existing stock of engineering models into a template catalogue software provided by Catalogcreator, which is integrated with XVL.

The template organised the spare-part information into hyperlinked pages and compressed the 3D data, which can reduce the 3D file size to less than 1% of the original CAD document.

Seidenader unveiled its new electronic catalogues at the 2005 Interpack Conference in Dusseldorf to enthusiastic customer response.

Customers found that searching for and ordering new Seidenader parts was noticeably easier through the CD-ROM, and also enjoyed the unique benefit of viewing the XVL models in three-dimensional detail.

Managing Director of IT at Seidenader, Benno Macherhammer, was "incredulous" about the speed of XVL publishing compared with traditional methods.

"The standard answer was to invest an enormous amount of time converting our existing 3D data into 2D technical illustrations for catalogue use".

"But that simply did not make sense to us".

After discovering Catalogcreator and its XVL technology, Seidenader could directly import the company's engineering data into the catalogue as parts identifiers, thereby entirely eliminating the time and effort of conversion.

Lattice3D is the leader in 3D publishing and communications and is making 3D Everywhere a reality in manufacturing, defense and transportation.

3D CAD models and designs can be used directly in print and online user and employee manuals, parts lists, maintenance instructions, assembly instructions, and catalogues.

Lattice 3D's XVL technology allows companies to save time and money through the immediate reuse of 3D data.

"The overwhelmingly positive response from Seidenader's customers and the low-cost, rapid production of the catalogue well illustrate how efficiently XVL can be applied to process improvement for both the vendor and the customer", remarked Lattice3D CEO Alex Garcia-Tobar.

"We welcome Seidenader as a customer and congratulate Catalogcreator on their success".

Catalogcreator operates as a template catalogue for any type of mechanical product, and can easily streamline the creation of digital parts catalogues for online and CD use.

The product integrates XVL format files and allows the immediate use of complex 3D data to be used in published documents.