Heatherwick Studio implement CATIA & ST
by Darren Cairns

In the words of Thomas Heatherwick, Heatherwick Studio exists to make unique design projects happen. The studio is recognised worldwide for its work in architecture, sculpture, urban infrastructure and product design. Established in 1994, the business is renowned for its creative and innovative use of engineering materials.

In building for the future, Heatherwick Studio was looking for a design solution that would be a key enabler to allow designers to create any derived shape, assemble parts within large assemblies and validate their interaction. A further requirement of the software was the ability to design within the context of an assembly, which both speeds up the design and improves quality.

Design automation was also a prerequisite, Heatherwick Studio wanted to be able to create their own standard parts and automate the creation of certain design features that prove time consuming to generate.

Heatherwick Studio sometimes find that a shape is so natural in form that to re-design the part does not do justice to the original shape. In these cases there is a need to scan, digitise and re-create within a reverse engineering package.

CATIA was chosen because it addressed all the above requirements and to support the imminent growth of the business and provide the robustness required during this transition, a second phase of the project will include the implementation of SMARTEAM to manage all design and associated office based data.

Intrinsys have a successful working relationship with Heatherwick Studio and are supplying software, training, mentoring, help desk support and outsourced I.T. services. Shortly, Intrinsys will be taking responsibility for upgrading the complete I.T. infrastructure as Heatherwick move to new offices.

“The deployment of CATIA and SMARTEAM will allow the business to support its ongoing workload and deliver the global collaboration needed in the future. Intrinsys have been an important partner and supported us with the implementation, training and software customisation to suit our business needs" says Nader Mokhtari, Heatherwick Studio.

AEC Seminar 2