Case Study: Outdoor Technologies achieves 66% faster design cycles and 4x throughput with SolidWorks

Streamlining vinyl fencing and decking development with SolidWorks software

Outdoor Technologies, a manufacturer of vinyl fencing, decking, and railing, needed to move beyond 2D CAD and improve product visualization and productivity. The company found Autodesk Inventor unable to handle complex extrusion-die geometries (lofts and sweeps), and experienced crashes and poor handling of files, configurations, BOMs, and assemblies. After evaluating options, Outdoor Technologies selected SolidWorks 3D CAD software to address these challenges.

Using SolidWorks (including its configuration/design-table capability and eDrawings), Outdoor Technologies was able to model complex lofts and sweeps, automate assembly operations and BOMs, and create entire product families from a single file. The switch to SolidWorks reduced design cycles by 66%, cut design time to about one-third, increased throughput fourfold, accelerated extrusion tooling development, and improved customer and internal communication via eDrawings.

Outdoor Technologies

Stan Hathorn

Engineering & Technical Manager