Creating a light fixture raises questions for any first time designer who’s good at what they do. Aesthetic questions, like shape and material; where and how the fixture will be used; and the control systems and sensors that manage the fixture are all relevant factors.

On top of these design and usage questions, you have to consider installation and maintenance costs and usability. You need to think about how to change burnt out bulbs, the type of bulbs the fixture will use, power settings, and even government regulations (like the Americans with Disabilities Act).

Generation Brands, a US-based company with 5 major brands under its belt, has lights that fall into just about every category. With such an extensive library, they rely on PTC Creo’s flexibility to help design their products

With a ribbon-like interface, context menus, and other intuitive features, PTC Creo is pleasantly easy to learn and use regularly. The design process is much faster, compared to Generation’s experience with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0.

PTC Creo Parametric’s powerful CAD capabilities, like the PTC Creo Flexible Modeling Extension (FMX) and Interactive Surface Design Extension (ISDX), aid their engineers in scaling design environments to suit their specific needs. This also allows them to avoid purchasing additional tools they don’t need and won’t use.

Ahmed Kansara, PTC Admin at Generation Brands, is quick to mention how painless adopting the new technology was. “We just hired a few new people with SolidWorks background and they were able to get up and running quickly.”

The ultimate goal of adopting PTC Creo was to decrease the time-to-market for Generation’s products. They’ve been able to accomplish this through numerous time-saving options, like the expedient late-stage changes made possible through FMX. This allows them to bring direct modeling design to the parametric environment, making it easy to modify geometry without worrying about original design intent.

PTC Creo also helps Generation ensure that they don’t sacrifice style for speed. By creating surfaces using ISDX, their engineers can work with technical and freeform capabilities simultaneously. This ensures that software-based technical issues don’t limit surface design.

Since making the transition from Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 to PTC Creo, Generation has accomplished the following:

  • 20% decrease in project completion time thanks to PTC features and functionalities
  • 20% more efficient late-stage design changes thanks to PTC Creo FMX

Thanks to this new technology, Generation’s latest products are keeping brands like Feiss, Sea Gull, Monte Carlo, Tech Lighting, and LBL Lighting at the top of their game.

Interested in learning more about PTC Creo and its 3D CAD capabilities? NxRev offers a variety of seminars, tutorials, and customer service to help users get the most out of the PTC suite. Give us a call at 408-986-0200 to find out more.