|
Orange
Country Choppers speeds reverse-engineering with DezignWorks software. Orange
County Choppers has garnered worldwide praise and recognition for their custom
motorcycles. Established as a business in 1999, the shop grew out of Orange County
Ironworks, a steel fabrication enterprise founded nearly 30 years ago by custom-chopper
builder and rider Paul Teutul Sr. OCC jumped on the custom-bike scene at Daytona
Biketoberfest 1999 with "True Blue," a classic chopper built in the
basement of Paul Sr.'s house.  Since
then, the company has continued to design and manufacture high-end customized
choppers, specializing in theme bikes. American Chopper is a reality television
program that chronicles the company's latest creations. The program can be viewed
on the Discovery Channel at 10 PM EST. Orange Country Choppers is currently in
the process of creating their own product line.
Recently,
SolidWorks Express spoke with Jason Pohl, an artist/designer at OCC about the
company's use of DezignWorks and SolidWorks® software. What
process did your company use to complete reverse-engineering tasks prior to using
DezignWorks?
"Previous to using DezignWorks, we relied on a drafting
board, calipers and a ruler."  What
challenge led you to consider/choose DezignWorks?
"We needed to to accelerate
our CNC parts line."
What
type of digitizing devices are you using with DezignWorks?
"We're using
Faro rocks — we have two of them." Using
DezignWorks insures that all geometric elements are parametric, fully editable,
and conform to the feature-based intelligence of SolidWorks software. What is
the benefit of this capability?
" It allows us to rapidly capture vital
data that we could not capture with our existing process. We' can then parametrically
change the cosmetic values of the part. With DezignWorks and SolidWorks fully
integrated with one another, we're able to use assembly capabilities of SolidWorks
to generate data for the shop floor." Why
is it important to be able to conduct real-time reverse engineering on multiple
parts and assemblies?
"The fabricators will come to us with paper templates
or existing parts. We now have the ability to digitize these parts and cut them
out much faster and more accurately than with our previous method."  Why
is it a benefit that DezignWorks is fully integrated into the SolidWorks property
manager?
"By being integrated into the SolidWorks property manager gives
us constant feedback about the digitizing process. Probe movement as well as location
and depths for cuts and extrudes. By using the locked plane or locked surface,
wizard planes and surfaces are visible."
How
much faster is your design process with DezignWorks?
"200 mph or super
fast." Does
using DezignWorks allow your company to accept jobs that it could not accept prior
to using DezignWorks? Please explain. "With
DezignWorks, we now have unlimited capabilities. We can reproduce any part accurately
and do it fast." You
can learn more about DezignWorks at: www.DezignWorks.net
| 
Our
own in-house account engineers conduct the courses. The curriculum is presented
hands-on, with state-of-the-art hardware in a classroom style setting. Each
student receives a set of approved course materials and a certificate of completion. Enrollment
is limited so that each student receives individualized instruction. Class
times are from 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM. 
EdgeCAM 12 release
is here!
