3D ContentCentral 2010 helps manufacturers follow their customers around the web

The 3D ContentCentral® (3DCC)world got bigger today – or smaller, depending on your perspective. We’ve made some changes that extend 3DCC suppliers’ reach and help them pull customers in closer. Bigger world? Smaller world? Whatever. The point is to help component manufacturers bring in more business.

We’ve added new content syndication features to 3D ContentCentral 2010 that enable suppliers to post 3D catalogs of configurable models anywhere on the Web where customers might go to look for parts and products. So the CAD data previously only available on 3DContentCentral.com can now be found directly on supplier sites, partner sites, affiliate sites – anywhere there’s a chance of making a sale.

Companies could do a pretty close approximation of all this before, but it would cost a mint. They would have had to hire a publisher to re-format SolidWorks CAD files for Web distribution, strip out proprietary content, then put them in catalog format with rules and restrictions governing how they can be modified and customized. 3D ContentCentral 2010 consolidates those functions in a self-service format in the SolidWorks interface, eliminating the cost and hassle of working with an outside publisher.

User enhancements include:
• Revamped search results displays that show model images more prominently, help users instantly see whether a model is configurable, and sort results by supplier-provided models and user library models;
• Gallery view search that arranges results as a series of image previews that users can scroll through, select for closer inspection, and review metadata;
• SolidWorks feature search function that enables users to search models for specific SolidWorks features– blends or protrusions, for example;
• Improved 2D content download for incorporating 2D drawings into designs; and
• A real-time activity display that shows on a world map what some 3D ContentCentral users are browsing, uploading and downloading.