SensAble Case Studies & Customer Spotlights

Based in Hong Kong, A-Tech is one of the professional prototype makers in the toy industry and has two main factories in Shinzhen, South China. The General Manager of A-Tech, Mr. Eddie W. H. Kwan, says that the FreeForm system is the most frequently used modeling software within their production pipeline, even though they have many major CAD systems. This is why they currently have installed 15 systems (5 FreeForm Modeling Plus systems and 10 FreeForm® Concept™ systems).

In an era where what is old is new, Black & Decker - HHI and Baldwin set out to create an exclusive line of door hardware that would evoke the artistic beauty and elegance epitomized in France during the 18th century. Their goal was to bring “old world craftsmanship”, including the imperfections inherent in handcrafted design, into the modern machine-age of perfection, precision, and fast time-to-market. When they realized that it would be impossible to produce the products they envisioned using their traditional CAD tools alone, they turned to the FreeForm Modeling Plus system.

When a representative from Aardman visited Synapse at their shop in Watford, England to look at the design of a figurine, he had never seen the FreeForm modeling system before. Still, he sat down at the FreeForm station, and in just seconds he was moving the model of Rocky the rooster around, turning it upside-down, viewing it from all angles, feeling it.

From design iteration to sample making, rapid prototyping and manufacturing, Converse has developed a unique CAD approach to athletic shoe development. FreeForm® helps to keep Converse ahead of the pack with an innovative set of tools unlike anything else on the market.

Creata Promotion recently used the FreeForm ® Modeling™ system as part of a virtual choking gauge test for a series of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys from the most popular animated film of the summer, Finding Nemo. The test enabled Creata to detect potentially dangerous toy designs that could pose as choking hazards to children before physical prototypes were even produced.

Artist Diana Walczak has literally "pushed in a new direction" for Kleiser-Walczak's recently released Corkscrew Hill, a computer generated ride film at Busch Gardens. Highly detailed characters modeled with the FreeForm system were animated and rendered in Maya.

Artists at FormIdeas used the FreeForm Modeling system to create a dimensionally accurate basin to form the underlying structure of the medallion and then import the approved design sketch to complete the refined sculpted piece.

For Yorkshire Moulds UK, the FreeForm Modeling system completely transformed the way they design and manufacture confectionary moulds. YM can now instantly share their digital models electronically via email or the Internet. With this new digital process, YM is able to dramatically shrink the customer approval process, which has had the effect of reducing cycle times yet further.

Chinese Language Version. Hidden inside his brightly decorated coffin, the face of Nesperennub, priest of Karnak, has remained a mystery for thousands of years. The question of what this mummified corpse looked like when it was alive, will no longer be unanswered thanks to Dr Wilkinson and the FreeForm® Modeling PlusTM system.

Hidden inside his brightly decorated coffin, the face of Nesperennub, priest of Karnak, has remained a mystery for thousands of years. The question of what this mummified corpse looked like when it was alive, will no longer be unanswered thanks to Dr Wilkinson and the FreeForm® Modeling PlusTM system.

 Gentle Giant Studios delivers a wide range of design and production services to the toy industry. They recently teamed up with the WWE and reduced development time for a line of action figures by more than 6 weeks. Do you smell what the Rock is cooking?

Gillette industrial designers use the FreeForm system as one of their major tools when defining design intent for overall form, part delineation, and gripping details.

"The FreeForm system took Hasbro’s modeling challenges by the horns, allowing sculptors to work around mechanical data from engineering and within parameters set for packaging. Using the FreeForm Modeling system to create three new dinosaur toys for the new 'Jurassic Park Junior' line allowed Hasbro to explore more design possibilities and streamline collaboration between design, modeling, and engineering."

Industrial reduced their product development time, and gained new business and a competitive time advantage by integrating the FreeForm® Modeling Plus™ system into their design process.

Levolor's industrial design team turned to the FreeForm® Modeling™ system and rapid prototyping technologies to speed the design process for the production of a decorative leaf finial.

"The University Hospital Maastricht identified the need for a method of building prosthetics that reduces development time and production costs and increases patient satisfaction. Read how they turned to the FreeForm Modeling system, in this case for a patient that required a complete ear restoration."

The MEGA BLOKS sculpting team introduced the SensAble FreeForm Modeling Plus system in March 2002.  From the very start, productivity increased and the system proved to very efficient.  FreeForm saved countless hours and was easily integrated into MEGA BLOKS product development.

In 1999, Tokyo-based MIC, a toy model design company, had 6 employees and its revenue represented 10% of the profit of its parent company, Kuwagata. Now, in 2003, Kuwagata’s revenue continues to grow and MIC has more than 30 employees and its share of Kuwugata’s profit is 50%. Masaya Sasano, MIC’s President, says the explanation for such impressive growth lies in their embrace of a new digital workflow, the cornerstone of which is six FreeForm Modeling systems. MIC uses the FreeForm Modeling system as an integral part of many different types of workflows, including original design, reverse engineering, cleaning up of digital scans, and design for manufacture. Using its digital tools, MIC has increased not only the amount of business it is doing, but the types of business it has been able to become involved in. Just recently it has added customized chocolate figures and a scanning and rapid prototyping service bureau on wheels to its business repertoire.

Combining superior sculpting skills with the touch-based FreeForm® modeling system, Alaska-based Master Sculptor Oluf W. Hartvigson creates toys and collectibles for blue-chip clients such as Mattel/Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Creata Promotion, and Sideshow Toy. Hartvigson's current line of collectibles includes figures from Star Trek® and Lord of the Rings® as well as Monty Python® and James Bond® movies.

Pankhurst Design Development, based in the United Kingdom, is one of Europe's foremost product innovation consultancies. The industrial designers at PDD create products for clients in sectors such as consumer products, IT/telecommunications, medicine, high-technology, and packaging. Recognizing and understanding the potential of FreeForm Modeling in their business, PDD invested in FreeForm Modeling to increase the effectiveness of their designs. "For ten years, PDD has pioneered the use of digital media within product design," said Graham Lacy, Head of Technical Design. "Yet we have always needed to combine form creation with defined constraints. With FreeForm v4, we finally have a system that pursues both efficiently."

"PDR and Morriston Hospital are developing more efficient and less costly methods for producing cranioplasty plates using the FreeForm system. Working together, the team researched using the FreeForm Modeling system to produce a prosthetic plate for a craniofacial patient. "

In Europe, geobra Brandstätter is well-known for its Playmobil plastic figures and animals for all kinds of creative worlds such as farm-life, city-life, dinosaurs, and prehistoric eras with dinosaurs. Additionally, they are known for their remote-controlled boats and cross-country vehicles. This leading toy manufacturer has been working with the SensAble FreeForm® Modeling Plus™ system since the beginning of 2001. The enthusiasm of the industrial designers and the extensive use of the modeling software led to the purchase of a second system at the end of 2002. Since then the company has added a new system yearly for a total of four FreeForm® Modeling Plus™ systems to date. The department of design development creates up to 80 new pieces from the combination of new designs and nearly 10.000 archived pieces every year.

It takes you eighty hours to sculpt a model. Your client approves but now you need a production version that is exactly 7% larger than the original. You could start sculpting from scratch...or you could do what RJ Studios did.

Increasing competition between education institutions in Japan for students is forcing schools to reevaluate their curriculum. In an effort to build a more compelling curriculum, the Shonan Institute of Technology recruited professors and lecturers with significant industrial experience from recognizable companies. Professor Seiji Wadda, a former lead consumer designer at the Mitsubishi Electric Design Center, found success in developing a compelling curriculum with the addition of the FreeForm system. Previous approaches taken to bring 3D concepts to the classroom were met with lukewarm reception by the students. Upon introducing the FreeForm system to his classroom the students enthusiastically embraced learning 3D design concepts and quickly learned how to intuitively create 3D models.

C. Behrens Formen & Design GmbH is a company based in Germany that specializes in the manufacturing of moulds and aluminum-lasts for the shoe industry. Behrens created a safety sole for the ladies shoe, “VENEZIA”, using a combination of digital technologies including the FreeForm Modeling Plus system and Rhino.

When Professor William “Rocky” Sapp first saw the FreeForm Modeling system and experienced being able to touch and sculpt with digital clay just like real clay, he knew the systems would provide an effective and innovative way to teach figure sculpting to his students. Now, with 126 students having completed the figure sculpting course, the school is exploring new ways to leverage the FreeForm Modeling Plus systems in the sculpture program and numerous other programs in the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

The automotive seating and interiors industry has seen tremendous changes both in the global size of its business and the increasing responsibility for design, production and integration of seating and car interiors. This paper discusses non-contact digitising, reverse engineering tools and 3D touch modelling systems.

The 3D Medical Applications Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, located in Washington, DC is the only one of its kind to serve DOD and VA hospitals countrywide. They create custom models and implants needed due to injury and disease-related problems. The center’s director is Dr. Stephen Rouse, a retired military dentist and the Senior Medical Engineer, Dr. Erge Edgu-Fry, is an atomic physicist by training. With the FreeForm system in their workflow, Dr. Rouse and Dr. Edgu-Fry estimate that it will take 2-5 hours per part, which is a significant time-savings over their existing method which can take 2 days or more to produce a hand-modeled implant.

Model Supervisor and Senior Illustrator Zack Petroc explains how he uses the FreeForm® Modeling™ system to help create "World of Tomorrow," a feature film set in 1939 that stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie.

ClayTools dramatically sped up Kyle Houchens workflow, improved model quality and detail, and, significantly boosted his bottom line. Read how SensAble and ClayTools have revolutionized the way Kyle Houchens works, and given him a significant competitive advantage.