While it might not be the most exciting development in the CAD world, Scott Sweeney says Reuse is the most important.

"Did you know that people still spend 20 to 30 percent of their time fixing CAD models? What a waste," the vice president of marketing for Kubotek USA says.

And it's not because people are bad at CAD modeling, Scott says. It's often because the most popular CAD modelers make reuse of CAD models so difficult.

"The dirty little secret is that many CAD operators will find it easier and faster to start from scratch than to reuse their own or someone else's CAD model," he adds.

To help solve the problem, Kubotek offers KeyCreator Direct CAD, which allows users to edit any CAD model, no matter what system it was created in, no matter how it was created. It's the perfect solution for most applications, especially for job shops and contract manufacturers.

We recently checked in with Scott to learn more about Kubotek and get his take on what's new and interesting in the CAD world. Here's what he had to say:

Tell us about Kubotek 3D ... what products and services do you offer?

We develop and sell the best CAD software and CAD Querying tools for Job Shops and Contract Manufacturers.

We have three specific product lines:

• 3D Direct CAD - KeyCreator Direct CAD, CAD Validation
• Comparison software Kubotek Validation Tool and ECO Manager
• CAD viewing software - Kubotek Spectrum Viewer and KeyMarkUp CAD viewer and mark up

What sets Kubotek 3D apart from other CAD software?

I am going to speak about KeyCreator Direct CAD - our flagship software:

• Simpicity - KeyCreator is a direct modeler. This is the simplest and fastest way to generate or edit a CAD model. There is no history tree to rebuild, give you errors or crash. Changes can be made to the model regardless of how the model was constructed, or the order of construction, or what software it was authored in. Most CAD software simply cannot do this.
• Cost - our software costs one-third to one-half the price of competitive CAD software, and this is also true of our maintenance agreement costs.

• Querying tools - KeyCreator has unparrelled querying tools, including the capability to view features' dimensions on the fly, superior visualization tools and unique comparison technology that graphically shows -- with colors -- the differences between two versions of a CAD model, including its product manufacturing information or geometric dimensions and tolerance information.

What CAD innovations are your customers most excited about today?

Three things. First, we just integrated into our base package our full comparison technology. This technology allows for easy and quick graphical comparison of two CAD models. This was available at an extra charge in the past, but we felt that it was so powerful that we wanted all of our customers to have this option available in the base package. So it is now included in KeyCreator 2015, which has been shipping since October.

Our customers are loving our integrated analysis system, KeyCreator analysis. It's a full multi-physics simulation system fully integrated into our Direct CAD system. You never leave the software, so there's no exporting files. Update the CAD and the simulation can easily be rerun over and over to get to your optimal design.

They also like our fully integrated two and three axis CAM system. This is a very inexpensive solution for what machine shops do most - milling. We just recently added two axis wire EDM.

What are customers' biggest complaints or frustrations?

One of the biggest complaint is that managers oftentimes dictate the wrong CAD software for their people to use. Without a clear understanding of which CAD is best for the work they are doing, managers can unknowingly reduce productivity and effectiveness of their organization. "One size fits all" is not true for CAD software. CAD software that is good for design of certain products or for OEMs may be a very poor choice for manufacturers. Managers should listen to and understand the requirements of their people when choosing CAD tools.

We meet CAD users at trade shows, they come to our website and they speak with us on the phone. We are hearing a growing sense of frustration with some large CAD companies that are forcing them to work with their intellectual property in ways that they are not comfortable. Autodesk recently announced that they will no longer be upgrading customers from one version to another. They must either become subscription customers or pay in full for a new license if they let their subscription expire. Other companies are moving their customers' data into their cloud, which in essence locks them into their world and becomes a larger barrier to interoperability with other people's CAD data.

What's your favorite CAD hardware? What do you like about it?

Any modern Windows-based system with plenty of memory runs our software just fine. Be sure to have a professional graphics card too.

What types of monitors do you think are the most useful for CAD designers?

Whatever monitor or monitors you like. Most are usually a dual monitor set-up to be able to see and work on different parts of the model simultaneously.

What do you think are some must-have CAD accessories for designers?

We love the 3D Connexion 3D mouse. It allows you to drive the model with two hands and easily model in 3D space.

How often do you think CAD workstations should be updated?

If they start to bog the use down, they should be replaced. If they keep working at a good speed, no problem. We see all age workstations in our customer's shops. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

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