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Mechanical Technology — October 2015
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Computer-aided engineering
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M
ECAD Systems has origins
going back to 1985, when
Megkon Systems was es-
tablished as a provider of
finite element analysis (FEA) services
through a product called NISA, which
was the very first FEA package to run
on personal computers (PCs). “We
did consulting work on the use of this
software and soon became a reseller,”
Pereira begins.
The company took on sole South
African distribution rights to MasterCAM
in 1992 and changed its name to MECAD
Systems the following year. “We also took
on a dealership for the early 2D draught-
ing and direct solid modelling package,
CAD Key (now KeyCreator), which was
one of the first PC-based design packages
to incorporate 3D capabilities.
“Then, in 1995, the first release of
SolidWorks emerged and we immediately
saw the potential and became a local
Adding value: from CAD design
to manufacturing efficiency
MECAD Systems – the original developer of SigmaNest, a material optimisation
package for CNC plate and pipe cutting systems, is a South African company
originally established to support analysis and manufacturing software. Today,
SigmaNest is a SolidWorks Gold Partner.
MechTech
talks to Robert Pereira,
product manager for DS SolidWorks.
reseller,” Pereira tells
MechTech
.
The development of SolidWorks began
in 1993, when a Massachusetts Institute
of Technology graduate, Jon Hirschtick,
put together a team of high-end CAD
systems’ developers to create a powerful
and cost effective package that would run
on the Microsoft Windows platform. “Up
to that time, there were two branches
of CAD software. At the high-end, there
were large and expensive programs
such as CATIA, IDEAS, Unigraphics and
Computervision’s CADDS, which all ran
on UNIX-based mainframe computers.
“On the other branch, you had the
low-end CAD packages that ran on the
DOS-based PCs, such as AutoCAD and
CAD Key. Jon Hirschtick’s idea was to
create a mainstream CAD package that
would be powerful, less costly and did
not depend on expensive mainframe
hardware platforms,” Pereira explains.
The first release of SolidWorks
emerged in 1995, and according to
Pereira: “This was the first parametric
CAD package to be developed to run spe-
cifically on the Windows platform. Almost
all other PC-based design software pack-
ages were ported across to Windows from
the DOS or UNIX platforms, which cre-
ated some awkwardness with respect to
functionality in Windows,” he suggests.
For the first two years, the company
released two version updates per year,
followed by a new release every year
since. “And MECAD in South Africa
has been involved from the very first
releases,” Pereira relates.
In 1997, Dassault Systems (DS),
the CATIA developer, decided to buy
SolidWorks and to push the program
aggressively into the broader market-
place. “SolidWorks had already run out
of growing space and needed a bigger
partner, while DS hadn’t yet acquired a
lower-end product to supplement CATIA.
I think DS paid around US$310-million
for the company, a bargain considering
what it is worth today,” he says.
Dassault Systems immediately began
to foster partnerships and to acquire soft-
ware add-ins to supplement the central
package. “SolidWorks has established a
large collection of solution partners with
programs to suite every conceivable de-
sign and analysis requirement. At the pin-
nacle of this idea are the Gold Partners,
which offer fully integrated software that
runs inside the SolidWorks environment.
“MasterCAM is a key example of a
SolidWorks Gold Partner. The interface
is very close to that of SolidWorks, its
annual release dates are always ‘in-sync’
and 100% compatible, and MasterCAM
is translated into the same seven or eight
key languages adopted by SolidWorks.
Globally, there are some 700 Gold part-
ners such as these,” Pereira says.
He further cites the development of
SolidWorks Simulation, which includes
Johannesburg-based equipment manufacturer Osborn is a specialist OEM of crushing and screening equip-
ment for mining, quarrying and road construction.