L.A. designers turn to computers to create and test their products.

A large number of Los Angeles companies are benefiting from the continuing development of computer aided design (CAD) -- a breakthrough technology revolutionizing the way virtually every product is designed and manufactured.

CAD software has replaced the slow, inaccurate process of designing products by hand. It offers engineers and designers the opportunity to create and test products quickly, accurately and inexpensively.

Originally priced at several hundred thousand dollars per work station, CAD used to be an esoteric novelty too expensive for most companies. The development of personal computers in 1982 changed all that, bringing the price of the software down to a few thousand dollars per station.

According to Richard Nedbal, executive vice president of CAD Solutions Software, a 12-year-old San Jose firm which writes CAD software, AutoCAD automated mechanical design software from Sausalito-based Autodesk currently has more than a million users.

"A wide range of industries use CAD," Nedbal said. "I've seen PCs with CAD software running looms, cutting shoe leather and designing fishing rods and reels. Almost all motorcycles are designed on CAD. In fact, I can't think of anything in the world that isn't being designed on CAD, except for sculpted or craft-type items."

There are three major markets for CAD: mechanical manufacturing, electronics and architecture/engineering/construction. Mechanical manufacturers, companies use machinery to create products, use CAD 10 times as much as either of the other two user industries.

At architectural, engineering and construction firms, computers with CAD programs are used to design buildings and other structures. In electronics, CAD is used to design and create integrated circuits and printed circuit boards.

One big advantage of CAD, according to Nedbal, is that it eliminates errors. "In designing something with parts which fit together, someone used to have to calculate whether they would actually meet and match," he explained. CAD can do that well in advance.

A second major benefit of CAD is the ability for users to simulate actual production. Companies can avoid spending money on prototypes by simulating prototypes on their computer with CAD. A third advantage of CAD is the ease with which modifications can be made on the computer screen.

One of the most successful CAD firms is Parametric Technology Corp. of Waltham, Mass. According to John McGinnis, sales manager at Parametric's Los Angeles district office, companywide revenues rose from $164 million in fiscal 1993 to about $250 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1994.

"We have had tremendous growth for the seven years since we introduced our software and have become the world leader," McGinnis reported.

Parametric sells mechanical CAD software called ProEngineer to aerospace, electronics packaging, automotive, heavy equipment, medical and furniture companies. The software is "modularized" into 30 different modules so a number of applications can be added to the base ProEngineer model to address various tasks, such as piping, composites design, mold design or manufacturing. The retail price for the base software program is $9,500, but its most popular applications package retails for $18,000.

"ProEngineer is the greatest success story in the mechanical CAD marketplace because our unique technology has turned the whole market upside down," McGinnis boasted.

One distinctive feature of ProEngineer software is that a change made anywhere in the design process is automatically reflected everywhere else: on the drawing, on the assembly, and even on the manufacturing tool path required to machine the part.

"Only a fraction of world engineers currently use CAD tools, and I would guess that fewer than 20 percent use a powerful 3-D system like ProEngineer," McGinnis estimated.

Another hot CAD firm with a popular product is Rasna of San Jose. Its product, Mechanica, allows engineers to "optimize" products on the computer by making decisions that can reduce the product's weight, cost and complexity while adding performance and ease of manufacturing, according to Rob Yates, Rasna's West Coast regional manager.

"We created this software to allow engineers to ensure that stress, frequency or displacement limits are not exceeded by the object being created," Yates explained. "Instead of spending a lot of money to make a hard prototype, you can make a 'virtual prototype' in the computer, test it there and come up with an optimum solution."

Hewlett-Packard Co. has installed $1 million worth of Mechanica products to its operations worldwide, according to an article in the April 18, 1994 issue of Industry Week, a national business publication. Rasna's CAD products are used by some 5,000 people at 1,200 customer sites in 31 countries, Yates said. The product has been on the market for four years, during which time Rasna has enjoyed compounded annual growth of more than 80 percent.

"CAD in general is probably growing about 10 percent a year," Yates estimated. "We and Parametric are growing faster because we have unique technology and no serious competitors."

An El Segundo-based CAD software company that is also reporting increasing sales is BOBCAD Controls. It produces its own inexpensive CAD software ($995 vs. $2,000 to $15,000 for competing products) that can be used on a client's PC.

"Creating the machining code needed to cut a complicated 3-D mechanical part can take hours. But CAD software does it quickly," said Sales and Marketing Director Krishna Vaidya. "Because our software is very user-friendly, you don't have to be a computer genius to work with it."

Meanwhile, a Valencia-based industrial design company, 3D Systems, has created a breakthrough technology called "stereolithography." With it, a company can use a three-dimensional CAD model, a laser and special liquid paste to create a solid plastic prototype part in hours -- vs. the weeks normally required to create a machine part.

"The applications of stereolithography will probably revolutionize manufacturing, and this wouldn't be possible without CAD," said Terry Slavin, 3D Systems' investor relations manager. "We adapt CAD software so it can drive our machine."

Slavin claims 3D Systems' clients have reduced their design, tooling and manufacturing costs by 30 to 80 percent. Chrysler Corp. estimates it saves $3 million to $5 million a year using the new technology, he asserted. In Los Angeles, there is a wide range of applications; McDonnell-Douglas Co. used stereolithography to create the flight controls for the MD-90 aircraft, and Mattel Inc. used it to design its new Top Speed Pipejammers toy.

The apparatus, which sells for $100,000 to $500,000, is used by more than half the Fortune 500, and at some 450 installations around the world.

The company posted sales of $19.9 million in the first half of 1994, up from $14.4 million for the first half of 1993, said Slavin.

"The technology has gone very mainstream because companies have realized that, by accelerating their product development cycle, they can get to market faster and save money in the process," he concluded.