The concept design phase of product development impacts product innovation, time to market and associated project costs, but it can also have a big effect on your overall product development business, according a free buyer’s guide written by analyst Chad Jackson of Lifecycle Insights.
The freely available document, which is entitled “A Buyer’s Guide to Concept Design Solutions,” offers tips on how to choose the right concept design tools; tips on how to choose the right vendor; tips for working with downstream engineering; and additional advice for getting more out of the software.
Among other things, any concept design tool worth buying will be good at capturing and maturing concepts, according to Jackson. “That’s because concepts progress from quick and dirty representations to very high fidelity and detailed ones,” the report reads.
Some of the functionality to look for in concept design tools includes 2D Sketching, 2D Modeling, 3D Direct Modeling, and 3D Parametric Feature-Based Modeling.
“But it’s not all about the capabilities to capture and mature concept designs,” the report reads. “Interoperability within the concept design phase is critically important.”
Questions to consider when selecting a concept design solution include: Can this solution use any existing 2D or 3D design data to create new or revised concepts? And does it offer interoperability between 2D Sketching, 2D Modeling, and 3D Modeling?
“For the concept design cycle, having the range of the four modeling capabilities to support the progression of a concept design is important,” Jackson writes. “But interoperability between these modeling approaches provides an opportunity to eliminate the recreation of design data within the concept design cycle.”
Here’s a brief video that talks about how PTC Creo allows users to create freeform concept designs:
Download a free copy of Chad Jackson’s concept design buyer’s guide today.
