think3 & Toyota Caelum Ink New Reseller To Bring Design Software to the Desktop
12 July 2000
think3 & Toyota Caelum Ink New Reseller Agreement to Bring Powerful, Affordable, Easy-To-Learn "Mass 3-D" Design Software to the Desktop
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Mechanical design upstart think3(tm) and Toyota Caelum Inc. (TCI) (Nagoya, Japan) today announced they have inked a new, expanded reseller partnership agreement aimed at bringing powerful, affordable, easy-to-learn "mass 3-D" design software to the desktop. TCI - one of the world's leading value-added resellers (VARs) of mechanical computer aided design (MCAD) products and services - will continue to market, distribute and support think3's 3-D design software products in Japan through sales and technical offices in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Toyota City over the next two years.Today's news marks the expansion of a successful partnership between the companies that started in 1997 and has resulted in adoption of think3 products by hundreds of leading companies in a variety of markets, including automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics, furniture, medical equipment and sporting goods. Among the companies' top customers are: Tokuda Kougyo (automotive/aerospace), KS Engineering (automotive), Kobayashi Ironworks (automotive), Fukuda Denshi (medical equipment), CTI (automotive), Nisshin (automotive), Matsushita Sangyo Kiki (electronics), Matsushita Seiko (electronics) and Mizuno (sporting goods).
"Over the past three years, TCI has built a strong distribution network for think3 products in Japan, leveraging their vast experience in mechanical design and keen understanding of our target customers," says Joe Costello, think3 Chairman and CEO. "We're delighted to have such a solid foundation for taking our partnership to the next level over the next couple of years. We're confident that TCI will play an instrumental role in helping us fulfill our mission to bring robust yet affordable mass 3-D software that's easy to learn and use to the designer's desktop in Japan."
Adds TCI President and CEO Hiromi Araki, "We're quite pleased with the results of our think3 partnership to date and impressed with the inventive approach think3 has taken on all fronts to bring a 3-D product to market with mass appeal. We believe TCI has a phenomenal opportunity, together with think3, to bring the benefits of 3-D design to a largely untapped market in Japan of designers still working in 2-D. We look forward to our mutual success in capitalizing on that opportunity."
Japan Market Primed for a 3-D Revolution, Says Daratech
Daratech President Charles Foundyller says, "The stature of TCI in the Japanese market combined with its process knowledge, and the unique interoperability of complex surface and solids design capabilities that think3 offers, has created a winning combination for TCI's customers and created an opportunity for think3 to benefit from the accelerated deployment of 3D design CAD throughout manufacturing in Japan. Indeed, TCI's first-hand knowledge of manufacturing is responsible for the elegant integration into think3 of process-ready applications such as mold and die design packages that TCI has been offering clients with such success."
TCI & think3: A Winning Strategy for "Mass 3-D"
To make thinkdesign accessible and affordable to the masses, TCI and think3 introduced a new pricing model in April 2000 that's tailored to the Japanese market. The 1-year or 5-year subscription model, with no up-front licensing fees, gives customers the flexibility to purchase seats at a fraction of typical industry pricing and to scale the number of seats according to fluctuating project needs and economic conditions.
And to ensure that designers ramp up quickly - and have fun doing it - think3 has taken an inventive approach to education and training with "The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy" 3-D video game-based learning software - now localized and available to customers in Japan.
think3 software is used to design everyday physical objects, everything from Alessi boutique home accessories, adidas-Salomon sports shoes and Buell Motorcycle Company (a division of Harley Davidson) sports bikes, to Tycos Tool & Die molds for exterior automotive parts, Candy/Hoover vacuum cleaner motors, and Dinan custom BMW engine parts. think3 customers - and designers everywhere - are capitalizing on growing consumer demand for highly stylized, aesthetically appealing products in nearly every industry imaginable.
think3 Provides Total Sales Cycle Support to TCI Team
think3 is providing the TCI team with total sales cycle support, including innovative marketing and promotional programs; localization of thinkcare customer support tools, such as the Knowledge Base; localization of thinkdesign products and training tools, such as the company's 3-D video game-based learning software, "The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy"; and collaboration regarding product enhancements and future product development efforts.
About Toyota Caelum
Toyota Caelum (TCI) was created in 1985 as a department of the Toyota Motor Corporation for system support of their suppliers. In 1993, TCI became an independent subsidiary that develops, sells and maintains service of CAD/CAM, CAE and CAT design systems for Toyota and its supplier base around the world.
With the introduction of think3's thinkdesign software to TCI's product line up, TCI expanded its sales activities to include not only automotive and supplier-related industries, but all other industries with MCAD needs in Japan. To that end, TCI leverages a direct sales force, as well as over 100 dealers and sub-dealers throughout Japan.
About think3
think3 is a privately held mechanical design upstart company that produces software for designing common, everyday physical objects, ranging from home appliances, children's safety products, engines and automotive body parts to boutique home accessories and custom cars, to name a few.
Upstart think3 established a unique market position in March 1999 with the debut of thinkdesign, the first mechanical computer aided design (MCAD) product to offer the power of parametric solids, advanced surfacing, wireframe and 2-D drafting to every designer - not just an elite few - on the desktop, all within a single environment.
With the company's flagship3-D design software package - thinkdesign - customers get the benefit of powerful surface modeling and shape design features on par with popular industrial design packages (e.g., Alias from Alias/Wavefront and Rhino from Robert McNeel & Associates and Velum from Ashlar), but as part of a single environment, solid and surface modeling system. They also get comparable power to high-end 3-D mechanical design software packages from companies like Dassault Systems, Parametric Technology Corp., Structural Dynamics Research Corp. and Unigraphics at a fraction of the price - and at a comparable cost to traditional low-end 2-D packages such as AutoCAD from Autodesk.
think3 is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with engineering centered in Bologna, Italy and supported by R&D teams in Bangalore, India, Boston, Massachusetts, Marseilles, France, Pesaro, Italy, and Salt Lake City, Utah. think3 products are sold through a worldwide network of distributors and VARs. Among think3's top customers are adidas, Alessi, Buell Motorcycle Company (a division of Harley-Davidson), Candy/Hoover, Dinan, Matsushita Seiko, Mercedes, Nisshin, Perception Kayak, Peugeot Citroen Automobile (PSA), Tokuda Kougyo, and Tycos Tool & Die.