Case Study: SECOA, Inc. achieves 50% faster design cycles and reduced development costs with SolidWorks

Innovating stage and performing arts equipment design with SolidWorks software

SECOA, Inc., a U.S. manufacturer of stage rigging and performing-arts equipment, needed to move beyond 2D CAD to handle increasingly complex designs—casting and extrusion-die development, finite element analysis (FEA), and CAM-based manufacturing. After dissatisfaction with Autodesk Inventor and its support, SECOA benchmarked and selected SolidWorks, including the SolidWorks Simulation analysis upgrade, to address these specialized design, validation, and manufacturing challenges.

By adopting SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation, SECOA cut design cycles by 50%, substantially reduced development costs, and improved product quality and innovation. The integrated SolidWorks modeler and FEA workflow let engineers validate aluminum supports for a removable stage (including a 14,000‑lb forklift load) without repetitive prototype testing, sped up vendor collaboration on castings and sheet‑metal, streamlined product configurations, and enhanced visualization for faster production and marketing.

Secoa, Inc

Edward Oliver

Special Projects Engineer