Why Organic Workflow for 3D Modeling?

Our sales department is often asked, “Why should Ashlar-Vellum 3D modeling software, such as Cobalt™, Xenon™ or Argon™, when other CAD companies have a US $99.00 special promotion for their entry-level package? Granted you run natively on both Mac and Windows, but in this economy why don’t you offer a similar pricing structure?”

The answer is in how valuable productivity is to you and the way you want to work within your 3D modeling environment. Let us explain.

The business model of many other CAD companies is built on tow pillars:

  1. Being as much of a clone of Solidworks as possible.
  2. Low prices on entry level software and strong upgrade sales efforts into their higher priced offerings.

Neither one has any bearing a customer’s productivity.

The Ashlar-Vellum business model is built on providing an alternative approach. Our Organic Workflow™ empowers our customers to change the game and achieve spectacular results.

For about 70% of the 3D end-user population, the traditional 2D extruder workflow found in Solidworks, Alibre, Inventor, Solidedge, Pro-E, and Unigraphics meets their needs. If your personal workflow fits this paradigm, consider one of these.

For about 30% of the 3D end-user population, the 2D extruder workflow found in Solidworks, Alibre et al. wastes between 10% and 90% of their time compared to Ashlar-Vellum’s Organic Workflow.

Depending on your work methods and desires, the Ashlar-Vellum Organic Workflow is more appealing and the difference in your results is dramatic.

The following anecdote was related to Robert Bou, president of Ashlar-Vellum on two separate accounts by both Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, and by Jeff Ray, president of SolidWorks. In the words of Burt Rutan, whose company owns both Cobalt and Solidworks, when speaking candidly to Jeff Ray on the golf course several years ago, “If we’d used Solidworks on the Spaceship One project, the entire project would have taken twice as long and cost three times as much.”

The value of Ashlar-Vellum software is not in the price of our products compared to the price of our competitors, but rather in the results our users achieve with the freedom we grant them to work the way they want.

Like Apple Computer, we realize that we can’t deliver the necessary user experience with simply an also-ran product. We provide an innovative and much more productive way to work, and for certain users it’s worth the investment.