Autodesk integrates supplier and technical content into Inventor CAD environment

CAD vendor Autodesk Inc. has partnered with a couple of well-known engineering information providers as part its plan to connect the 3D design process with supplier information and procurement activities.

Autodesk is teaming up with GlobalSpec Inc. to include on-demand access to GlobalSpec’s online product and information services directly from Autodesk Design Review 2008, its free DWF viewing and markup tool for sharing and collaborating on designs with team members who don’t use and aren’t trained in CAD software such as Inventor.

Extended team members such as purchasing agents or quality engineers can launch an Internet search of GlobalSpec content from within Autodesk Design Review 2008, allowing them to leverage the Inventor CAD data captured by the DWF technology to locate suppliers and research parts without leaving the design itself, officials said. GlobalSpec offers domain expert search engine technology as well as a broad selection of Web-based content and 55 product-centric e-newsletters to help engineering team members locate products and services and learn about suppliers. The company’s search technology allows users to search by specification more than 166 million parts in 2.1 million product families from more than 21,000 supplier catalogs.

Late last year, Autodesk announced a similar relationship with ThomasNet, an online venue used by industrial buyers to find and research suppliers.