CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
16 August 2004
Implementation Investments
Olympus Corporation Builds Award-Winning Microscopes With CoCreate's 3D CAD Software
CoCreate Software, Inc. announced that the Olympus Corporation ( http://www.olympus.com/ ) has chosen CoCreate's OneSpace Designer as their 3D design environment for developing stereo microscopes. The company deployed both OneSpace Designer Modeling for 3D design and Model Manager for design data management to support their development process from concept to mass production.
Olympus decided to move to 3D design for the development of a new series of microscopes and conducted trials using history-based 3D CAD products. But the history-based tools failed to meet the company's needs. This was, in part, because the microscope design often shares components and leverages existing designs from other products, so effective reuse of data was essential to design efficiency. However, Olympus designers found they could not easily change history-based models and were restricted whenever they needed to make changes to a design to fit their project's needs.
Olympus concluded that history-based 3D CAD software products were incompatible with the company's design environment.
The company then turned to CoCreate's 3D CAD tool, Designer Modeling, which is based on dynamic modeling technology. Dynamic modeling makes design as simple as working with a piece of clay, so one can easily change designs with no need to know how they were created. With it, Olympus easily reused and edited models from other projects, providing the team with the flexibility and freedom in 3D design they were looking for. After a series of benchmark tests, Olympus chose CoCreate's product as their 3D solution.
In October 2003 Olympus released the SZX7/SZ6 stereo microscope which has been well received by the market, earning high praise for performance, features and comfort. The microscope's distinguished design won the 2003 Good Design Award by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization for design excellence, functionality and operability. It also received the red dot design award 2004, one of the largest design competitions worldwide.
Stereo microscopes are used in the medical, biological, and industrial fields to observe relatively large samples. The demand for Olympus' microscope is especially great for examining semiconductors and liquid crystal boards during the inspection process and in the manufacturing and assembly of precision instruments.
Please visit the following URL to find more information on Olympus Corporation's success in using OneSpace Designer: http://www.cocreate.com/docs/SS_Olympus_ENG.pdf
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