Whether you work with sheet metal design, visualization, data management, or fabrication, there’s a world of applications available to complement and extend the functionality of Autodesk software. But how can you know if an app will deliver the best results?

That’s where the new Autodesk Certified Apps program comes into play. Applications from Autodesk software partners that gain the coveted Autodesk Certified logo demonstrate the highest level of quality, compatibility and integration with Autodesk software.

The new program, which kicked off this month, highlights Autodesk Certified Apps for Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Vault products.  But this is just the beginning.  Over time, other products and services from Autodesk may join the Autodesk Certified Apps family.

To illustrate how the combination of an Autodesk Certified App with Autodesk Inventor or Autodesk Vault can help meet real-world business objectives, consider the results seen by Fluke Corporation and Elastec/American Marine.

Fluke Corporation, the global leader in manufacturer of electronic test equipment, recently migrated from their PTC Pro/INTRALINK 3.4 system (no longer supported by PTC which they use to manage their Pro/ENGINEER data) to Autodesk Vault Professional. Their challenge was to achieve this migration without impacting the design and engineering operations.

Using an Autodesk Certified App from Nexxtsoft called nxMigrator for Pro/INTRALINK, Fluke migrated one server to a replicated global server environment involving 45 seats and 60GB of engineering data, while saving more than $200K in maintenance costs.  Fluke now uses Autodesk Vault Professional to manage its Pro/ENGINEER data.

“I don’t worry on my drive home that some patch to our web browsing environment will prevent a drafter from checking in their drawings. We’ve got a data management system for Pro/ENGINEER that just WORKS,” says Barry Schaeffer, CAD Manager at Fluke.

As the leading manufacturer of oil spill and environmental equipment, Elastec/American Marine is also an innovator, recently winning the X PRIZE challenge for designing the most effective oil recovery device. To continually innovate and respond quickly to customer change requests, Elastec/American Marine needs to be as flexible as a job shop that can respond quickly to customization requests.

Elastec/American Marine uses Autodesk Inventor and an Autodesk Certified App called FAB Professional from Striker Systems to create a streamlined workflow from 3D part models to nested 2D sheet metal files for CNC production.  The integration allows the company to create prototypes quickly, cut job times from days and hours to minutes, and streamline outsourcing.

Elastec/American Marine uses Autodesk Inventor and an Autodesk Certified App called FAB Professional from Striker Systems to create a streamlined workflow from 3D part models to nested 2D sheet metal files for CNC production

“With Inventor and Striker Systems, you can nest a week’s worth of work in a matter of an hour,” says Jeff Elliot, Design Engineer for Elastec/American Marine

In a
special podcast for In the Fold, Peter Vinh, Sr. Product Manager at Autodesk, highlights the new program and describes the steps needed for an application to gain certification:

Peter Vinh Podcast

Click here to see a current list of Autodesk Certified apps. This list will be growing over time as we add more Autodesk Certified apps so check back frequently.