Estonian start-up GrabCAD plans to attract if not all, then at least the lion’s share of the world’s engineers to Estonia. This may sound rather utopian, but it’s not entirely impossible.

The company, set up by two young technology specialists and entrepreneurs – Indrek Narusk and Hardi Meybaum – is developing an all-in-one online environment, which the engineers, designers and design artists of the future will find difficult to manage without. It will be both a necessary tool and a key professional discussion space for them.

The enthusiastic founders of GrabCAD want to use their engineering network to eliminate several bottlenecks, as these cause problems for just over seven million of the world’s engineering graduates every day (according to UNESCO figures).

For example, although many companies offer various CAD (Computer-Aided Design) services and products, you would be hard-pressed to find one that offers both of these on a wider scale, rather than limiting itself to one specific production technology (e.g. manufacturing only sheet metal products or utilising only one CAD tool).

The second problem facing engineers today is that they waste between a third and a half of their time designing products and components that someone has already designed – i.e. these drawings already exist. If all these drawings were to be available in a single library, engineers would have more time to spend on developing unique products and components.

Routine task

Thirdly, many engineers and other creatives don’t have the computer programmes they need to prepare drawings. Drawings are also considered too much of a routine task and people think it is not worth wasting precious time on them.

The goal of GrabCAD is to unite millions of engineers and production companies, ensuring that there is always someone available with the necessary resources to complete an order.

And, last but not least, once an engineer has finished a drawing, he or she may spend a great deal of time and energy finding a company that can manufacture the product according to the spec of that drawing and under the appropriate conditions.

GrabCAD will be offering three services, one of which is almost ready. The web order service for CAD drawings was launched last year.

Freehand sketch turns into 3D drawing

The way this service works is very simple – you make a freehand sketch on paper and then scan it into your computer. Then you go to the website GrabCAD.com, upload the sketch, describe what you want, receive a price quote, and then place your order with just a couple of mouse clicks. Your 2D or 3D drawing will be sent to you within three business days, along with an invoice.

What’s also good about this service is that it supports a range of CAD software packages, allowing files to be converted between different CAD formats, etc. A full package (a drawing in electronic format, a 3D model and a design) costs 55 EUR, each individual service ordered costs 25 EUR.

Customers who have placed CAD orders with the company have particularly valued the convenience of placing an order, the speed of completion and the reasonable price. At present, the customer base is growing without any advertising; until now, all orders have come from outside Estonia, from places like Asia and the USA.

Meybaum says: “We’ve received orders from fathers in America, for example, who are under pressure due to the economic decline. They keep inventing all sorts of weird things. One guy sketched a trailer for a quad bike on paper; another drew a picture of his own house.”

“We cannot complete every single order, though,” adds Narusk. “For example, one Asian customer uploaded a picture of a Ford Scorpio engine and then drew an arbitrary arrow somewhere, indicating that he wanted “that component there”.”

Much more to come

However, preparing drawings is just one small element of the services the company has planned.

Currently, all orders are completed with our own resources, whereas in the future GrabCAD wants to offer the option of sub-contracting CAD projects. This would mean that users could share projects among one another – one customer would place an order, then another customer would complete it – and this kind of communication would take place around the clock.

As users would also rate each project, this would create a ranking of the best performers. Those offering better quality would get more orders.

The total volume of CAD sub-contracts is estimated to increase by 10 percent a year.

In the future, the online environment will also include a library of engineering designs where users will be able to share their designs with each other. There is no point in modelling something that has already been modelled by someone else. “For example, you might invent a new kind of bicycle frame. Instead of designing a saddle and handlebars to go with it, you could just select them from a CAD library, saving time in the process. There are at least a million saddle designs in the world already!” says Narusk.

In the far future, this library could even be included as a set to go with CAD software packages.

In the third and final development stage of GrabCAD, a kind of procurement environment would be added to the entire set of services. This would allow engineers to find manufacturers. Having invented a bicycle frame, you could create a tender invitation for it with a single mouse click. Manufacturers would offer their prices, delivery times and other conditions, and the engineer could easily compare them and select the best partner.

Engineers are vain

One of the key factors in the success of GrabCAD will be communication between engineers, i.e. the principle of a social network. “Engineers are very vain people as well, but unlike users of Facebook or Orkut, they would upload pictures not of themselves, but of their inventions,” says Meybaum.

The company has set itself some very ambitious goals. They anticipate 30,000 CAD orders per month and 300,000 active users as early as 2012. By then, the library of engineering designs should already contain 50 million files! And the company should be making a good profit by then.

What would their competitors say about this? Meybaum and Narusk believe that there are no direct competitors with such a complete approach.

Although some companies offer a CAD service, like Pro Draw or Design Presentation, placing orders with them is an inconvenient and time-consuming process. There are also some CAD file libraries, such as 3D Content Central, but this one is focused on machines and tools and is based on a single type of CAD software. There are also separate procurement environments – e.g. MFG – but these don’t have an engineering community.

Meybaum and Narusk do anticipate some risks for this undertaking which are worth mentioning.

The undertaking has to involve engineering agencies and schools, because users add value to the environment. How can this be guaranteed?

There is also the issue of potential liability with GrabCAD. Meybaum explains: “Supposing an engineer from Boeing or Ferrari were to steal the drawings for some new component and upload it via our service? Or what if someone uploads a component for a bridge and the bridge later collapses? How do we avoid liability then?”

The credibility of the environment presents a separate risk all by itself. If GrabCAD gets swamped by DIY inventors uploading makeshift contraptions, then professional engineers would probably steer well clear of it.
But not to worry, Meybaum and Narusk tell us – everything has been taken into account. At the moment, they are actively seeking risk capital for the grand plans they have for GrabCAD.

Who are Hardi Meybaum and Indrek Narusk?

Hardi Meybaum (27) and Indrek Narusk (27) are graduates of the Tallinn University of Technology (product development faculty). Hardi also has a Master’s degree in production technologies, incidentally.

In 2007 they established Futeq, a research and development company involved in product development, design and engineering. Its main customers are companies that have no engineering and manufacturing resources of their own, but still need those services. Projects have varied widely, from simple sprockets to complex check-in kiosks. The company determines the customer’s needs, conducts the engineering work and, if necessary, then finds manufacturers too.

Futeq developed into GrabCAD, and joined the Estonian Development Fund, which helps businesses to grow, in 2009.

Meybaum works more on the business management and IT side of the company.

Narusk’s specialist fields are technical services management, engineering and preparing drawings. He has seven years’ experience at various production companies, and also founded the bicycle company Velonia.