GrabCAD

GrabCAD, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: SSYS
Industry	Mechanical Engineering
Founded	Cambridge, Massachusetts (2009)
Founder	Hardi Meybaum (CEO / mechanical engineer)
Headquarters	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Key people	Jon Stevenson (VP of Technology) Rob Stevens (VP of Sales and Business Development) Armen Zildjian (VP of Sales)
Products	See "Products and Solutions"
Number of employees	55 (2013)
Website	grabcad.com

GrabCAD, Inc. is a Cambridge, Massachusetts based startup that has created a cloud-based PDM solution that helps engineering teams manage, view and share CAD files.

History

Founding

GrabCAD was founded in Estonia in 2009 by current CEO, Hardi Meybaum, and Indrek Narusk ^[1] as a marketplace to connect engineers with CAD-related jobs. GrabCAD evolved into a community for engineers to share CAD models and moved its HQ to Cambridge, MA in 2011. In 2013, GrabCAD released Workbench, a cloud-based product data management (PDM) solution. Workbench is used by companies big and small to support the design of physical products of all sorts - from basic screws to jet engine brackets at GE,^[2] to robotics that zap germs.^[3] According to the company site, GrabCAD was founded with the goal of bringing together all the tools engineers need to manage and share CAD files into one easy to use platform.^[4]

Acquisition

On September 16, 2014 GrabCAD was acquired by Stratasys.^[5] Stratasys Ltd. is a manufacturer of 3D printers and 3D production systems for office-based rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing solutions. Engineers use Stratasys systems to model complex geometries in a wide range of thermoplastic materials.

Products and Solutions

Community

GrabCAD began as a Community where engineers could upload and download models from a free CAD library. Today, the Community consists of over 1,600,000 users and is nearing 570,000 ^[6] open source models. The Community also offers a range of challenges with prizes, from Ultimaker's "3D Printer Toy Design Challenge" ^[7] to GE's "Jet Engine Bracket Challenge",^[8] as well as pro bono challenges like ModVic's "Steampunk Wheelchair" and the "Eyes to Hear" Challenge.^[9] There is also a large and growing number of engineering tutorials available on the Community site.

Workbench

In April 2013, GrabCAD released Workbench,^[10] a cloud-based PDM solution that helps engineering teams manage, share, and view CAD files. The idea behind Workbench is to replace costly and complex product data management (PDM) solutions that engineering teams often use when versions and revisions become hard to track.^[11] Workbench allows multiple engineers to work on the same files at the same time without overwriting each other's work. Workbench also lets engineers share files externally and with non-CAD users, without having to set up or maintain a server.

Workbench is hosted on Amazon's S3 secure server cloud architecture, and has a range of useful features ^[12] including:

• Viewing of all major CAD file formats
• File locking
• Desktop app that sync files directly from local folders, as well as SolidWorks ^[13]
• 3D model compare tool
• Bill of materials management
• Revision management
• Partner spaces

Workbench users can easily view 3D models, as well as markup, explode, measure and pin comments - all directly in the browser.^[14]

Toolbox

Toolbox was released June 2013, which enables Workbench users to access third-party CAD applications that run on GrabCAD's platform.^[15] Currently there are four apps available from Keyshot, Autodesk, IronCAD and Solid Edge, but GrabCAD is focused on drawing in new CAD application developers to grow Toolbox's usefulness to engineers.

References