InStep
Newbie
Hi folks,
I have a somewhat strange question that I am seeking help with. This is a kind of 'Field of Dreams'- type of situation:
My company (it could be considered "Indie", mostly doing consulting and various small engineering projects) has for some years been working in the field with individuals and SMBs and often encountered Mesh style files being supplied as a starting point for further work or as reference files for use in designs (think MCAD from ECAD with connectors and similar).
As probably anyone here is aware of, having only a STL file or similar is not a good place to start from, especially for CAM/CAE or just making 'small' changes.
So, over the years we developed a number of processes and minor tools to deal with this. Some of the higher end tools (looking at Geomagic & Netfabb) have been out of reach as no project could justify the steep price (and on the low end FreeCAD just doesn't cut it)... so like anyone with more time than money, we started to work on the problem from the software development side and eventually came out with software that could help with the process of converting meshes (STL/OBJ but also FEA meshes and point clouds) to CAD neutral (STEP), plus some things that no other software can do.
Here's the problem: as we ended up putting a ton of time into this, we felt we should take it sufficiently far/further and create an application that can be considered consumer grade (as opposed to just code/scripts/etc), publish it and charge for it (and the inevitable support questions). We have refined it over the course of several years and now, we have a stable and functional application... but very few users. This has not turned into a 'if you build it, they will come' situation and I am starting to question whether it was a smart decision to go down this path. The initial market/Google research I did found that there are a few hundred to low thousands of searches for this and similar capability and an early Google Ad did indeed result in a few thousand clicks, but very few conversions (might also be related to timing/what's going on)
Beyond just an open question for feedback & ideas, I am mostly curious if people here frequently evaluate and test new software, how you go about that, where you search/find it, if there are things that immediately push you away (or pull you in) and what kinds of cost you consider reasonable for tools that help you with your work (if it saves you an hour ~ a day, what is the $ value to you?). The market isn't a CAD competitor, but rather a tool that is useful next to your usual CAD application.
Any thoughts, comments, questions are welcome.
P.S. I have specifically not linked the software/website, as I don't want to necessarily make this post about that or make it appear like an advertisment... if sufficient people ask for it though, I have no problem linking it later; the same goes for anyone wanting to try it, you can always direct message me.
I have a somewhat strange question that I am seeking help with. This is a kind of 'Field of Dreams'- type of situation:
My company (it could be considered "Indie", mostly doing consulting and various small engineering projects) has for some years been working in the field with individuals and SMBs and often encountered Mesh style files being supplied as a starting point for further work or as reference files for use in designs (think MCAD from ECAD with connectors and similar).
As probably anyone here is aware of, having only a STL file or similar is not a good place to start from, especially for CAM/CAE or just making 'small' changes.
So, over the years we developed a number of processes and minor tools to deal with this. Some of the higher end tools (looking at Geomagic & Netfabb) have been out of reach as no project could justify the steep price (and on the low end FreeCAD just doesn't cut it)... so like anyone with more time than money, we started to work on the problem from the software development side and eventually came out with software that could help with the process of converting meshes (STL/OBJ but also FEA meshes and point clouds) to CAD neutral (STEP), plus some things that no other software can do.
Here's the problem: as we ended up putting a ton of time into this, we felt we should take it sufficiently far/further and create an application that can be considered consumer grade (as opposed to just code/scripts/etc), publish it and charge for it (and the inevitable support questions). We have refined it over the course of several years and now, we have a stable and functional application... but very few users. This has not turned into a 'if you build it, they will come' situation and I am starting to question whether it was a smart decision to go down this path. The initial market/Google research I did found that there are a few hundred to low thousands of searches for this and similar capability and an early Google Ad did indeed result in a few thousand clicks, but very few conversions (might also be related to timing/what's going on)
Beyond just an open question for feedback & ideas, I am mostly curious if people here frequently evaluate and test new software, how you go about that, where you search/find it, if there are things that immediately push you away (or pull you in) and what kinds of cost you consider reasonable for tools that help you with your work (if it saves you an hour ~ a day, what is the $ value to you?). The market isn't a CAD competitor, but rather a tool that is useful next to your usual CAD application.
Any thoughts, comments, questions are welcome.
P.S. I have specifically not linked the software/website, as I don't want to necessarily make this post about that or make it appear like an advertisment... if sufficient people ask for it though, I have no problem linking it later; the same goes for anyone wanting to try it, you can always direct message me.