Why your PARTcommunity is Like “The Sons of Anarchy” – Online CAD Portal

How your online CAD catalog can reach new customers by joining a motorcycle gang.

I was driving down the road the other day, in some gorgeous southern Ohio weather. My windows are down and the wind is blowing. Life is good. I needed to change lanes, so I took a look at my mirrors. The coast is clear, so I began to slowly move over. Next thing I know, I’m getting honked at by a motorcyclist who felt I wasn’t giving him the right of way. In my defense, he was cruising in my blind spot in a very quiet bike.  I didn’t see or hear him at all.

A few days later I’m going down another country road when I see a mass of black and chrome cruise up behind me from the horizon. It sounded like thunder and there was no missing it. There must have been 30 bikes riding two abreast in formation down the highway. Then it occurred to me, they don’t ride in a “motorcycle gang” to scare or intimidate people. These bikers ride in a motorcycle gang to BE SEEN!

When industrial manufacturers work with CADENAS PARTsolutions, they don’t just get a cool catalog of parts on their site. As an additional service to all of our participating manufacturers, their parts are featured in more than 50 PARTcommunities (online CAD portal) worldwide, as well as the CADENAS PARTsolutions mobile app. Engineers love these PARTcommunities because they are a one-stop shop for all of the parts they may need. This gives manufacturers high visibility and exposure to clients who they may have never reached. Now, just like the Sons of Anarchy you’re rollin’ with a posse.

What exactly is a PARTcommunity Online CAD portal?

A PARTcomminuty, or online CAD portal, is an online resource where millions of engineers go to source parts and get new design ideas. In 2012, CADENAS PARTsolutions had more than 73 million downloads from online portals and PARTcommunities.

Featuring content from more than 500 manufacturers, PARTcommunities are normally associated with a magazine, an industry or a specific CAD system. The CAD models are professionally designed and certified by the manufacturer. No “user submitted content” or “crowdsourcing,” PARTcommunity models are certified current and accurate by the component manufacturer.

Engineers log in with their name and email address which gives them access to millions of downloadable CAD models. Since the engineer provided their contact info, the manufacturers can then contact to follow up with promotions or offers.

RADAR Industrial, one of the largest magazine publishers in Brazil, offers downloadable CAD models to their readers via a system powered by CADENAS PARTsolutions. Similarly, CAD software manufacturers like Autodesk, IronCAD, Siemens and PTC utilize the PARTcommunities to provide tailored content to their users.

Since the original parts have been authored in the PARTsolutions software, all of the content provided is native to the intended CAD platform. Additionally, the models have the crucial part number and META data built-in. So, when a downloaded part is specified into a project, the complete META data is pulled onto the BOM, saving the purchasing department a ton of work. Now the procurement agent just pulls the info on the spec’d part form the BOM and places the order with their preferred vendor.

With online PARTcommunities, CADENAS PARTsolutions has enabled manufacturers to easily reach new industries or clients on another continent. By “ganging-up” manufacturers are able to increase their online profile, becoming much more visible to a greater audience.