Arkance Systems CZ s.r.o.

Autodesk Platform Services Certified Partner Arkance Systems CZ (formerly known as CAD Studio) is the leading supplier of custom CAD, BIM (Building Information Modeling), and geographic information system (GIS) software and services throughout Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. Customers use Arkance Systems’ CAD products for computer-aided design and construction, including design of buildings, civil engineering projects, and engineering products of all scales. With Arkance Systems’ GIS products, customers manage utility networks, buildings, and corporate complexes. The company’s offerings also include data management with links to enterprise business systems. Founded in 1991, Arkance Systems CZ is an Autodesk Platinum Partner, Autodesk Training Center, Autodesk Developer Network member, and Autodesk Consulting Services partner.

Challenge

Today’s increasing demand for product customization represents a substantial shift from mass manufacturing to manufacturing for a market of one. Manufacturing companies face imminent pressure to provide vast arrays of singularly specific products, components, and machines. Customers expect to easily customize their orders with full confidence that the goods they are choosing fit their needs. Plus, they want their products to be cost effective, simple to order, and quick to deliver. 

Typical 2D, paper-based ordering processes often fall short in the ability to provide rapid, flexible configuration. Time is wasted on inefficient communications, errors result in costly component remodeling, order processes are delayed, and product prices are incorrectly estimated. Manufacturers are increasingly turning to 3D models in attempts to refine and expedite the custom ordering process, but the creation of basic 3D models is time consuming in itself. In addition, it’s difficult to provide universal access to the models.

How Arkance solved it with APS

In response to this problem, Arkance Systems has developed the CS Configurator, which uses the power of Autodesk Platform Services to help customers offer flexible, accurate, 3D product configuration. The product has the added advantage of having both desktop and online variants, making it accessible not only to designers, but also to end customers who have no technical knowledge.

Arkance Systems’ CS Configurator uses the Model Derivative API to extract model data—supporting more than 70 different file input formats—from customers’ CAD software and bring it into Autodesk Platform Services. The Design Automation API is used to export formats and generate outputs. And the APS Viewer communicates natively with the Model Derivative API to extract model data and render models in 3D interactive models that are viewable on all web browsers.

With CS Configurator, Arkance Systems customers can choose to sell through sellers and dealers, or they can sell directly to end users. End users can access easy-to-navigate 3D models of their desired products on any web browser and configure them with a few clicks, with no need for design knowledge or software downloads. The 3D model generates accurate and immediate quotations in response to each configuration, providing comprehensive information and insight into the costs of each configuration’s unique composition. 

Customers receive product documentation, and are able to download the 3D model of the selected configuration. Plus, CS Configurator automatically generates and delivers emails containing information on configurations to users. The whole process results in massive time savings by reducing almost entirely the back-and-forth communication between end customer, designer, and manufacturer—as well as eliminating time-consuming and costly component remodeling that previously occurred due to errors.

Autodesk Platform Services highlights include the following: 

• Converts 70-plus formats into viewable, interactive, 3D, web-based configurable models.
• Frees up time for designers to concentrate on product development, not 3D modeling.
• Empowers manufacturers to sell directly and easily to end customers.

APIs and Services

Design Automation API for Inventor

Model Derivative API

Viewer