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Reid Offers New 3D CAD Viewer to Customers

Product News Wednesday, February 9, 2011: Reid Supply Company

Muskegon, Michigan, February 9, 2011 – Computer aided design is essential in advancing the manufacturing and engineering fields. Now Reid Supply Company offers a 3D CAD viewer of drawings of industrial products in their extensive CAD library to help users see their part before downloading it.

Now when draftsmen, technicians and engineers visit ReidSupply.com they can very easily see the CAD parts they may want to incorporate into their machine designs with just a few clicks of a mouse. According to Greg Palmer, the company’s marketing director, this will speed up machine design time.

“Ultimately, this technological advancement will help improve the manufacturing industry itself,” says Palmer. “A feasibility study, experimental design, or a change order could be conducted much faster with this viewer saving time and money for our customers.”

To access the viewer, visitors to the site navigate to the item level view of the product that they are interested in. There, they will have the choice to view or download the free image, if it is available. The company says that more than 90% of their cataloged industrial parts have CAD drawings available.

Computer Aided Design, better known as CAD, has effectively transformed the drafting department into an accessible resource for engineers and construction companies in general. CAD drawings that can be completed by a single individual have offered new opportunities like never before. With the communication revolution and the internet, a CAD library of electronic files supplanted the pencil and T square.

The Reid CAD drawings are used in 3D and 2D modeling of industrial products, free standing structures, and complicated working systems and work flow processes. Structural drafting and structural design and analysis can all be done through real-to-life CAD drawings with the individual parts being viewed on the new viewer before even purchasing them.

Another amazing feature of CAD drawings is document management and product lifecycle management. A CAD library, like offered at ReidSupply.com, functions as an extremely well-maintained record of the design process and changes to work orders. As a product moves from concept to prototype to finished product, a CAD library documents all the vital specifications. When it comes time to reuse or reissue old design elements, they are all easily called forward again.

Engineers of all types will use the Reid Supply 3D CAD viewer to see parts for drawings as a process to create conceptual designs and corresponding scheduling and process control in the manufacturing step of industrial products. Draftsmen, technicians and engineers will find common ground in planning machines and visualizing different objects in a virtual space that can be translated to a physical layout.

“Draftsmen, technicians and engineers are finding the new viewer handy, plus students are also coming to the site to learn about CAD,” says Palmer. “We strongly encourage any educator who needs his or her students to better understand CAD to visit our website and play around with the 3D CAD viewer.”

Computer aided design has been essential in advancing the machine and engineering fields. From CAD drawings of industrial products to an extensive CAD library filled with accumulated knowledge, ReidSupply.com offers CAD professionals another way to save money and visualize their inventions.


About Reid Supply Company

Reid Supply Company is a Michigan-based industrial supply company known in the manufacturing and construction community for over 60 years. They stock standard as well as hard-to-find products for manufacturers and general consumers worldwide including Manufacturing; CAD and Engineering; Transportation Construction; Food Processing; Packaging; Oil, Gas and Alternative Energy; Government; Aerospace; and Medical.

Reid’s product offering features these color-coded categories:
·  Knobs, Handles and Hand Wheels
·  Clamps and Workholding
·  Tooling Components
·  Fasteners and Hardware
·  Leveling Devices and Vibration Control
·  Material Handling
·  Bearings and Power Transmission
·  Metalworking
·  Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO)
·  Pneumatics and Hydraulics
·  Structural Systems
·  Safety
·  Apparel and Footwear
·  Packaging and Shipping Supplies


ReidSupply.com offers all of the company’s products, plus free CAD drawings on more than 90% of their catalogued parts. The website also offers an extensive knowledge base that includes online industrial tools and calculators as well as an informative and entertaining monthly e-newsletter.

For more information about Reid Supply Company call 800-253-0421 or go online at ReidSupply.com.