Seemage Inc. this week announced the 4.2 release of its design collaboration platform, which enables a wide range of users to view, mark up, and create content from shared 3D and other CAD files.
Non-CAD users now can combine 3D CAD information with data, such as bills of material (BOMs), from their ERP systems to generate technical illustrations, animations, marketing materials, or service and support documentation. The Seemage system, which is XML-based and CAD architecture-agnostic, gives manufacturing engineers the tools to write manufacturing procedures and assembly/disassembly instructions from digital designs, rather than physical prototypes, explained Chris Williams, Seemage CEO, in an interview with Managing Automation. All the documentation generated in the Seemage 4.2 is automatically updated whenever the digital product definition changes.
The release offers a slew of additional new features. Version 4.2 includes a ProductGrabber that lets manufacturers test product variations by combining saved configurations. A "quick search" function has been extended to all Seemage authoring and viewing tools, including the free Seemage Player. And users can now transfer Seemage-created 2D content directly into Tech Illustrator format to assure compliance with commercial and government standards, such as S1000D, ATA iSPEC2200, and WebCGM 2.0. In addition, the company says, BOM information in Seemage 4.2 dynamically changes based on the active product definition. This tells the product assembler what components have been used, what components are used in the current assembly step, and what components remain to be completed.
The 5-year-old company, based in the United States and France, was formed with the idea of making product design information available to all who need it, when they need it. Its products are used in desktop environments, eliminating the need to invest in server-based technology. Williams said the company competes head-to-head with Right Hemisphere, which recently received financing from SAP Ventures. Seemage grew revenue by 280% last year, Williams said, with a 60% spike from the installed base. Ninety percent of its customers are on the maintenance plan.
AMR Research analyst Jeff Hojlo sees design collaboration as a burgeoning market that is gaining traction as a middle layer between the design engineering desktop and the shop floor, at the same time tying in business processes such as marketing and customer service. He anticipates growth in the market for such products, especially as the definition of PLM extends beyond design and data management to all constituents in the supply chain. "It's about populating designs into other areas of your business," he told Managing Automation.
"Manufacturing is the big opportunity [for Seemage] out of the gate," Hojlo noted, adding that other uses of the product, such as for engineer to order, sales, marketing, and customer service documents, represent potential new revenue streams.
Seemage lists PSA Peugeot Citroen, John Deere, ING Renault F1 Team, and Alcatel Alenia Space among its customers, and lately has been targeting small and mid-size customers. In line with that strategy, Seemage in late May named French CAD and PLM integration company Axemble SA to distribute its products in Europe. At the time of the announcement, Christian Donzel, co-president of Axemble, said, in a prepared statement, "[The Seemage product] will allow us to solve product documentation issues that arise outside of the engineering department and increase the number of people able to leverage the power of 3D."
Pricing depends on the content-creation application selected. The company offers three basic options: Seemage Viz, Seemage Mockup, and Seemage Publisher, ranging from $2,500 to $16,000 per user. Content viewing is free using Seemage Player, and there are no license fees for HTML, PDF, AVI, and other common formats that Seemage can create. The system also includes modules for security, access control, data import and synchronization, and interference checking.