ATV AOK After CAD-Driven Corrections

1820. That's not a year-though it might have been a great one.

It's the number of parts in the final assembly of the new Renegade ATV (all-terrain vehicle) from Wilderness ATV. And, in the design process for that new vehicle, engineers modified the parts many times.

The Renegade is Wilderness' latest entry into the ATV market they created more than a decade ago. According to the company, it is a high-end ATV that can carry multiple passengers and cross any terrain under harsh weather conditions.

In the design process, engineers had to handle large assemblies and make their design changes quickly. "We also wanted to leverage freeform shapes to create modern styling," says Don Law, project engineer at Wilderness. They used SolidWorks CAD software.

The team ran collision-detection and interference checking on all subassemblies to reduce design errors by 20 percent. They also used configurations to add accessories such as plows, blowers, winches, mowers, and brush cutters. "We cut our development costs by 25 percent," Law says.

They also faced the challenge of making the ATV look good. That was a primary challenge, says Law. "The software helped a tremendous amount on the body design, and we manufactured everything from the solid model," Law asserts.

Using the software, Law says, netted the company a 35-percent cut in time to design the product.