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Recently, it has become the norm for product development organizations to adopt and implement multiple CAD systems. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why your company may have become multi-CAD. For example, you might have acquired or been acquired by a company on a different platform. Or you’re a design house that supports both 2D architectural and 3D mechanical work.

However, I have also seen many bad reasons why companies maintain multiple CAD systems. Here are some of the worst:

A new manager demands a switch to their preferred tool.
A product team falls behind schedule, so they scapegoat their existing tool. They displace their current system but have to maintain legacy products in the previous system.
At a previous company, a team subcontracted design work to a company on a different tool and purchased a few seats. My team had to integrate that data into our product and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system. I reminded the team that the subcontractor works for us, not the other way around.
Maintaining a multi-CAD strategy can result in serious negative consequences for product development organizations. Let’s discuss seven of those consequences below.

7 Impacts of CAD Chaos

  1. Increased costs
    Each platform you have requires its own licenses and maintenance. Just like with home streaming services, these costs add up quickly. It’s easy to lose track of how much your company is paying for CAD. Having multiple tools reduces your profit margins…