Upgrade from 2D to 3D Data in After-Sales: Too Expensive to Be True?

What is the difference between 2D and 3D data?

Engineers and designers in manufacturing companies have long benefited from the convenience that 3D CAD data offers them for their work. In contrast to 2D data, 3D data opens up many more perspectives on plants, machines, equipment and individual parts. 3D visualizations are thus much closer to reality than their two-dimensional predecessors.

Beyond departmental boundaries, however, 3D visualization is rarely used in industry. After all, what do your marketing department, your sales staff or even your customers get out of images in three-dimensional format? Quite a lot!

How other departments benefit from multidimensional visualizations

Anyone working with 3D data outside of design can more quickly and easily identify what device or part is in the image.

Machine builders can use these features, for example

• to make it easier for their customers to order spare parts in the company's own spare parts store,
• to save service technicians a lot of time when searching for the right spare part when visiting the customer's site,
• to give colleagues in marketing and sales tangible insights into their own products and thus create an even better basis for communication.

How do companies use 3D data outside of design?

Industrial companies that already create 3D data in CAD systems and use it in design are therefore sitting on a valuable treasure trove of data. This has the potential to simplify work in other departments and, above all, to help sales leverage new revenue potential.

Why do most machine and plant manufacturers not take advantage of these opportunities and only grant other departments access to derived 2D drawings? There are three main reasons for this:

1. The companies fear that expensive additional licenses for the CAD system are necessary for the use of 3D CAD data in other departments.
2. In times of a shortage of skilled workers, every employee hour is precious - so machine and plant manufacturers do not want to waste time on training on how to use the CAD system.
3. Companies fear that 3D data could quickly fall into the wrong hands and be used by competitors.

The good news: companies don't have to invest in new licenses or fear high training costs and security gaps if they want to make their 3D visualizations from the design department accessible to other departments.

3D data for all: How to make the transfer effortless

Existing 3D data from CAD systems can easily be made available to other internal departments or customers: To do this, they are simply transferred to a digital spare parts catalog or to the technical documentation. This creates a digital 3D spare parts catalog that presents 3D CAD files in a user-friendly way and makes them interactively usable on various end devices.

The transfer is automated or, if desired, manual if certain changes are to be made before the 3D models can be used outside the design process. For example, it is possible to configure which information is to be displayed for which department and at what level of detail.

In this way, internal departments and customers have defined access to 3D visualizations and are able to use them for their own purposes - and without needing access to expensive CAD systems or training. Compared to 2D data, 3D data in spare parts catalogs conveys even more information, is intuitive to use and even invites users to interact with it.