2013 was a huge year for GrabCAD. The number of community members exploded, we had record-breaking Challenge participation, added great talent to our team and released GrabCAD Workbench.
Community Hit 1 Million Members
The GrabCAD Community has grown in an amazing way, from 380K users to 1M members (in case you missed the graph, check it out here). But now there are also more than 360,000 CAD projects uploaded which have been downloaded more than 20M times. That means that thanks to the amazing worldwide GrabCAD Community of engineers, an astounding 10,000 man years of work has been saved. Being a part of this value is an unbelievable feeling.
Design Challenges Proved Open Engineering is Here to Stay
Engineers (and companies) are no longer limited by their location or specialty. In the GE Jet Engine Bracket Challenge, we received a record-breaking 665 entries. The finalists were talented professionals from many disciplines and countries. The winner was able to reduce the weight of the design by 84% - a reduction that shocked even GE engineers. The success of the Challenge was one of the most buzzed about crowdsourcing stories of the year and like GrabCAD, GE remains heavily invested in open engineering for 2014.
GrabCAD Workbench Redefined CAD Management and Sharing
In June we launched GrabCAD Workbench to let engineers manage the same CAD files at the same time, even if collaborators are working from different locations. By using a more efficient CAD collaboration tool like Workbench, our users are able to deliver products faster.
The existing CAD collaboration solutions in the manufacturing space required spending $4,000+ per seat and locked users into sticking with it no matter what. We offer a low monthly pricing option that can be canceled at any time you aren’t happy. This type of model is normal in pretty much every other industry.
We think the manufacturing industry needs to change and we’re proud to join the ranks of other companies that are embracing the “Manufacturing Revolution” like Autodesk with the 360 products, MakerBot with desktop 3D printing and Dragon Innovation with hardware crowdfunding.
GrabCAD uses the SaaS model of delivery because the customer truly wins. We have to earn your business each and every day with improvements to the product and service experience. And that work is paying off. We already have close to 20,000 companies who love using GrabCAD Workbench to design their next generation products. We’re receiving very encouraging feedback on our support and the speed at which we are introducing new functionalities (often daily).
GrabCAD in 2014
In 2014 we are more committed than ever to grow and support our amazing community and provide tools in Workbench to help companies build and design better products. I believe we are only just about to really get going and this will be a huge year for GrabCAD and the Manufacturing industry as a whole.
