Sunrise Power, based in Peterborough, ON., were able to dramatically reduce their design time from two days to two hours for larger scale projects with SOLIDWORKS and the DriveWorks Design Automation Tool — created by Javelin specifically for Sunrise Power.
About Sunrise Power
Ontario’s premier solar power equipment manufacturer, designer and distributer. Product line includes solar panels, flat and pitched roof racking systems, ground racking systems as well as inverters. Exclusive Canadian manufacturer for Solectria Renewables grid-tie PV inverters and SolarDock Ballast PV Racking Systems. Commercial, industrial and residential customers across Ontario include Home Depot, IKEA, Loblaw’s, DC Solar, Carmanah, AMP Solar, Capital Solar, Power Stream, Evergreen, as well as individual homeowners.
Goals
- Replace AutoCAD LT®
- Implement a 3D CAD program to quickly design durable, quality products in order to compete in a highly competitive industry
- Also Implement a CAD system capable of generating accurate Bill of Materials
- Improve communication, presentation and marketing capabilities to ultimately increase sales
Solution
- Replaced AutoCAD LT® with SOLIDWORKS®
- Implemented SOLIDWORKS due to software’s functionality, speed, stability, ease of use and price
- Purchased two licenses of SOLIDWORKS Premium and SOLIDWORKS Professional
“With SOLIDWORKS, our customers actually see a 3D version of their building including panels, parts, and a full Bill of Material. If we need to start manufacturing right away, everything is there and ready to be detailed. In my experience, SOLIDWORKS is not only much more impressive to a customer, but it’s so much quicker than anything out there. It combines both sales and manufacturing, which saves a lot of steps. In an aggressive industry like ours, SOLIDWORKS gives us a competitive edge.”
— Chris White, Design and Technical Manager, Sunrise Power
Results
- Efficiently handled large assemblies (for example, unit for buildings approximately 100,000 square feet)
- DriveWorks facilitated simpler, more accurate quotes and costing (regardless of design changes, within 5% of final design outcome)
- Allowed customers to quickly take accurate quotes to market
- Required limited CAD skills to operate Design Automation Tool, allowing designer to focus on other projects
- Also required one hour setup time per project vs. one to two days, resulting in faster turn around and ability to meet tight project deadlines
- Produced 99.9% error free designs
- Generated automated, accurate Bill of Materials resulting in precise product packaging and eliminated on-site calls for missing products
- Improved product design and quality with software’s Interference and Collision Detection Capabilities due to software’s ability to analyze both building interferences as well as shading of buildings (specifically for solar arrays)
- Also eliminated additional on-site customer installation modifications & charges
- Substantially reduced time spent analyzing meshes with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Finite Element Analysis tool (included in SOLIDWORKS Premium)
- Improved customer communication using 3D Viewer in eDrawings (included in SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium Packages)
- Also eliminated travel costs and time with eDrawings
- Rendered models and facilitated quick design iterations using Photorealistic Renderings (SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium)
- Also produced realistic manuals as well as automated self-help guides
- Ability to go to market and compete with confidence