As we are beginning the CAD work for a new product today, I thought I would relay two important insight that are often missed by first timers.  Moving from 2-D to 3-D can be strenuous, so here is some help.

1.  Often 2-D drawings don’t account for requirements like board size, hand size, etc.  It might not be possible to get your napkin drawing into a functional product identical to your sketch.  When you incorporate those into a 3-D CAD, often the style can be altered.  Unfortunately, form follows function (don’t know where that comes from but it is a rule of thumb) and so let the style change but retain its core features.

2. Another very important point of CAD design is to go phase by phase.  As we have never prototyped this part before, we are looking for the first round of testing.  Will the design work?  Will the product be comfortable to use?  Is the sizing correct?  These are a few of the basic questions we would like to answer, or facilitate our client to answer.  However often first timers having heard of design for manufacture (DFM) and perhaps because they are eager to get the product on the shelf get lost here.  Do you need part structural analysis, draft / rib design, snap fit design?  No!  Why invest in making a part production ready, when you don’t really know it will work!  More importantly, the testing will often require changing the design a little.  If you change a dimension, all of the production ready designing needs to be altered as well, costing more and more. If you wait to do make the design production ready until it has passed at least the first round of prototyping, you will save a lot of money, time and head ache.

Just a few hints from your friendly neighborhood invention product development consultants at Flashpoint Development.