Number one formula for AP Racing

. The company had been experiencing product data exchange problems when customers and suppliers replaced, updated or improved their CAD/CAM systems. For AP Racing and its 21 CAD engineers, Theorem’s Catia/Solidworks bi-directional CADverter provided the ideal solution to translating data between dissimilar systems. “Previously, we had used IGES to convert design data between different CAD systems,” explained Richard Bonsor, AP Racing’s CAD administrator. “But this wasted much effort, time and cost, particularly when working with Catia files. “Many Catia files had to be sent out for re-modelling before we could use them on our Solidworks system. At one stage we were sending files to India to re-model and having to wait weeks for their return, often with misinterpreted data which meant further re-work… CADverter brings us significant savings because of its ability to convert all forms of complex geometry, thus eliminating the need to re-create missing data.” Theorem’s CADverter converts the incoming data into Parasolid which is the kernel of Solidworks. AP Racing then uses Solidworks to design the component, which is converted back to Catia by CADverter for emailing back to the customer. And Theorem’s latest release, CADverter 6.1 enables the file size to be reduced by up to a third of its original size. AP Racing’s engineering director Nick Mennell commented: “The ability to reduce the file size is a real bonus for us as it enables us to overcome the 10Mb barrier in e-mailing files. This attribute allows us more options to optimise our service to customers.” DP Pointers * AP Racing is saving valuable time by using a Catia-Solidworks CAD translator from Theorem Solutions * Previously, the company had been using IGES and sending files over to India to be re-worked and translated which was taking up to 2 weeks * The latest release of the software reduces file size by a third allowing the company to e-mail files back to the client