Solutions you CAM afford

The mid-range modelling market was defined in 1995 by the introduction of SolidWorks, closely followed by Solid Edge and Inventor and a small handful of other modelling codes.

The critical characteristic of these developments was a major price drop in feature-based MCAD applications coupled with Windows ease of use. The initial idea was to offer about 80 per cent of the functionality of the higher-cost MCAD systems, such as Pro/ENGINEER, UG and CATIA, for about 20 per cent of the price.

The other key characteristic was the so-called ‘add-on’ applications — or partner products — enabled by the modeller’s API and Windows ‘plug and play’. These applications gave mid-range users integrated multi application CAx systems for the first time, for a fraction of the cost of the then current integrated (high-end) systems.

At the same time there was the beginnings of an ‘affordable’ CAM market, with independent vendors such as Pathtrace, Vero and Licom offering alternative Windows-based solutions to the high end offerings of PTC, UG and IBM/Dassault. These alternatives were brought into sharp focus and given extra impetus by the mid-range modelling market of the mid 1990s.