Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order: Your Customers May Now Design Their Own Products

Mass customization -- the use of configurable product definitions to allow buyers to specify their own requirements -- has been a dream for many manufacturers for quite some time. Imagine being able to offer a website where car buyers can specify the bumper, hood, tire, engine, and even sticker they want to create a product that fits their own tastes and preferences. It's not that difficult to offer such a function through a series of drop-down menus on a web page, of course. But can you provide instant visual feedback and spit out a new quote every time the customer changes something? That's the market Autodesk is now going after with Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order.

Inventor Engineer-to-Order is the new name for what used to be called Autodesk Intent. According to Autodesk, you can use the software to "automates the order and bid process right at the point of sale by providing easy-to-use tools for capturing business and engineering rules. The new browser-based access is powered by Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order Server, as well as new templates and modules that can significantly reduce the time it takes to develop and maintain Engineer-to-Order applications."

Inventor Engineer-to-Order software integrates with Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD. The software lets you capture business and engineering rules, then deploy a configuration interface over the web. Your customers may specify desired parameters (for example, specifying height, width, length, and number of rollers to order a conveyer segment). The software automatically generates a 3D preview of the customized product in real time, along with an updated quote. Customers may also choose to view 2D drawings of the configured product.

Buzz Kross, Autodesk's senior VP of Design Lifecycle and Simulation Product Group, noted, “The underlying challenges faced by manufacturers of configurable products are very similar across industries. Whether they’re making conveyor belts, water boilers, or cabinets and furniture, manufacturers can produce custom designs in less time -- and with better results -- by using Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order.”

For example of web-deployed configuration, visit the link here, provided by Autodesk.