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3D CAD Services

Automotive Services

Professional CAD Services for the Automotive Industry

Our car design services range from accurate onsite 3D scanning to several flavors of often Catia 3D CAD services. We can help with your automotive designing processes and free up more time for your research and development.  Take advantage of our experience with automotive designs, fuel cell, and electric designs!

We have years of experience to help you with your automotive product development. We can hop into your project on every stage:

After 32-years, there is little we have not successfully tackled.

With our 3D scanning services, we can guarantee that your  reverse engineering tasks are done right the first time. With precise scans with a tolerance of ±.005” and better, we can create professional mold designs that will comply with all the requirements.

We provide reverse engineering services for the auto industry

We offer sheet metal and surface design services in various native CAD systems.  But most of our design work is in CATIA. With years modeling automotive accessories, electrical systems, battery systems, intelligent cable routing, Digital Mock Up (DMU), simulation, and body parts developed we can guarantee customer satisfaction.

Adding electrical components to your projects has never been easier, with the help of modern software packages like Mentor Graphics Capital we can enrich your automotive assemblies with intelligent electrical information and cable routing.

Our CAE department can help you with calculations and simulations, composite-based materials, static structures and or aerodynamics analysis – you name it!

Common tasks we provide are:

  1. Flat Pattern Design
  2. Mold Design
  3. Quality control
  4. Improved Additive Manufacturing design
  5. Thermal management
  6. Battery design and energy management
  7. Powertrain
  8. Simulation of Energy Storage Systems
  9. HVAC technology in vehicles
  10. Aerodynamic modeling
  11. Stress testing
  12. Generative Design
  13. GD&T Design
  14. Concept modeling
  15. Air Taxi modeling
This is a 96Kv battery pack for a future autonomous electric car: CATIA 3D model with wire harness design.

Currently, we are working on GD & T Geometric Tolerance projects, as they add up across an entire Chassis from edge to edge. Consider this, if you have 100 parts and each has its own set of tolerances across a width of a car, it becomes easy to see how even one part in that chain can conflict with the overall design properties.  Let alone, what part(s) is the major problem!

Incorrect GD&T greatly affects assembly parts connection regions. This could show up as a door not fitting correctly, or sunroof leaking because it doesn’t fit.

One of our current projects is with a well-known autonomous electric car company;  Here we are heavily involved in the batteries, thermal issues, wiring harnesses, and the bus plates to integrate with the existing chassis for electric cars.

Reverse engineered part recreated with Cad Perfect™ accuracy fitted to a CATIA Reference Point System.

Geometric tolerancing is almost a science within itself. We have provided reverse engineering for anything from pistons to full engine blocks and countless components to assure manufacturing is producing within specifications.

Start creating the future of the automotive industry with us.

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FAQ’s

3D Modeling FAQs

How do you bill 3D CAD services tasks?

Per hour. Hourly rate depends on what CAD software used and typically starts at $75 per hour.  In general, to make this process safer for you, we often provide you a fixed not to exceed the cost as well.  That way, you are protected from an open-ended PO. However, the reality is our fees are based on time. In addition, services in say Catia or NX are more expensive than say Solidworks. Or, simulation services are commonly done by real engineers.

What do you need to give me accurate pricing?

First of all, we need to know the target CAD system and whether you have an existing  template, or set of CAD standards for this project.

The main question is the overall complexity. As each part and assembly consists of different features and elements the best way is to provide us with an example.  Again, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you already have a model and need us to improve it or update it in any way we need to know which dimensions and features are critical and which can be modified to achieve your desired result.  Even a before and after example works very well. We started with x, and got to this CAD file.

We can also offer you better options if you provide us with the purpose of your project (demonstration, 3D printing, FEA Simulation, CNC manufacturing, etc.).  This helps us better refine the task.

How do you check your models?

We create 2D drawings from our 3D models for QC purposes. We follow aerospace standards and deliver ±.005” accuracy models for all projects.  All of our QC is done by a different person than the designer. On Catia work, we often use Q-Checker for Airbus.

What is the minimum price for your 3D modeling services?

We have a minimum order fee $150.

3D Scanning FAQs

How much does scanning services cost?

It depends on the complexity of the scanned model and material properties. As, for example, it may be much more complicated to properly scan an object with a reflective surface, than a non-reflective surface. It also depends on three main factors:

  1. the physical size of your part
  2. the required scanning resolution
  3. if industrial CT or metallurgy scanning is needed

Simple quick cell phone photos are worth a thousand words to us. To know for sure you can request a quote. It is of course, free – and treated as if an NDA is already in place.

Some averages:

  • The typical 3D scan is somewhere around $200-400 per part.
  • Tomographic (CT) scanning is $600-900 per part.

Because so much of our business is Aerospace related, our scanning – and the completed CAD file HAS to be within ±.005” anywhere on that part, we never use consumer-grade scanners. The scanners we use start at $25,000 and go up to $700,000 (CT) per scanner.

At any given time, we have in excess of $ 5 million just in scanning hardware we use. In addition, a hidden factor of scanning on any system is the assembly and clean up of any scan. The rule of thumb is a 2-1 ratio. So even with our experienced scanning staff, if we spend one-hour scanning; we will then spend an additional two hours of clean up and assembly before our CAD group gets the Point Cloud file to simulate or reverse engineer.

What is the Point Cloud/Mesh/3D Scan?

A point cloud is thousands if not millions of data points located in space by X, Y, Z coordinates. Images of this nature are often captured with Faro Focus or Artec scanners that specialize in large-area scanning.  Most likely you obtain building and territory plans in this file format.

A polygon mesh is a set of triangles located in the same manner. These scans are obtained with Artec, Creaform, Enscan and other handheld scanners. Parts and reverse engineering device scans are usually polygon meshes.

What types of scanners do you use?
  • Faro Arm – Very good for most parts, fast and accurate
  • Turntable scanners – high accuracy, high detail, fast scanning. Great for smaller parts.
  • Portable handheld – may be favorable for some larger parts – if not a tripod-mounted scanner.
  • Long Range – these mount on a tripod, and are intended to scan buildings, plants, and other larger sized projects.
  • Industrial CT scanners – incredibly expensive, but they offer two main benefits – the ability to inside an object (think of a void in a solid object), and their accuracy.  At this level, we are often in the ±.001” – ±.002” range, and often used in metrology scanning.

Which scanner models do you use?
How accurate is 3D scanning?

The scanners we use are as accurate as the industry offers – from anybody at any cost. We use Faro and Artec 3D scanners, in addition to Faro CMM type arms, including the Surveyor tables. Depending on what scanner we use:

  • CT scanners – 4 to 400µm/voxel resolution
  • Artec Portable scanners high accuracy (0.03 – 0.05mm)
  • Artec Portable scanners high resolution (up to 0.15mm)
  • Our CyberGage 360 – generates highly precise full 360 degrees automated scan with accuracy NIST traceable to approximately 7 microns
  • The CyberGage 360 has a system repeatability of ±.005mm.
Do you support CT scanning?

Yes with both the DeskTom and EasyTom CT scanners.  They both support metrology grade Computed Tomography (CT) inspection.  This provides nondestructive, 3D Scanning of Internal and External Geometries.  We use the Volume Graphics VGStudio Max high-end industrial CT software for the demanding of CT applications.

Can your scanners find voids in materials?

Yes. This is one of CT scanners’ major points – to see into objects. This is the best solution for nondestructive quality control.

How good are your 3D CT scanners?
  • 4 to 400µm/voxel resolution
  • Full inspection of large size samples
  • Modular and micro-resolution capability
  • 6 motion axis

What is the minimum price for your scanning services?

For 3D scanning services our minimum order fee is $120.

Can you scan the internals of my parts?

Depending on the situation we can offer you dissecting your part for scanning purposes or use CT if applicable.

Reverse Engineering FAQs

What is the average price for Reverse Engineering?

It all depends on the part’s complexity, size and structure.

What do you guys need to provide me with accurate pricing?

We need to know whether you need your parts to be scanned by us. Or many times we can work with 3D scans provided by third-party companies.  The quality of the scan is everything in our business. Anyway, we strongly advise you to use us for both the scanning and the CAD conversion aspects.  That way, we can control the quality. Sometimes we receive poor quality scans which make it impossible to create truly Cad Perfect™ models for you.  By all means, send us a couple of even cell phone photos, and the rough size of the object.  Most of the time, this will provide us enough information to provide a real bid.

The price depends on the part complexity, size, as well as the target file parametres. We need to know whether you need full parametric models, and your desired accuracy. If you tell us the purpose of reverse-engineered models, we can often provide you with possible solutions. The target CAD software may change the price as well. This includes sophisticated Workstation add-on products such as Composites, Catia electrical wiring, mold design, and others.

What is the quality of reverse-engineered parts?

We can provide ±.005” aerospace quality for every model. CT scanned parts can have even higher precision up to ±.001”.