Finnish Baltic Yachts was founded in 1973 on a radical philosophy: to create boats that incorporated the very latest thinking in yacht design and new technology. In short, they design and build boats that are faster, stronger, and lighter. They utilize high-tech materials and are constantly pioneering new construction techniques. Combining the latest carbon fiber engineering with top build quality from their skilled Finnish workforce, Baltic Yachts has multiple prize-winning yachts designed and built according to a standard that is second to none.

How has Baltic maintained this amazing track record over the years? Part of the answer is their switch to IronCAD — a critical decision made almost 20 years ago.

Baltic 175 Pink Gin – The making of a silver giant

The Move to IronCAD

Baltic’s design team had been using 2D CAD since 1988, but their yacht designs were just too intricate to visualize and test in 2D. They required a new system for modeling complex parts and assemblies. In the beginning of 2000, they started their search for 3D software. Based on a referral from a colleague who had seen IRONCAD at an exhibition, they tested IronCAD and found it outperformed all other competitors.

IronCAD’s Impact on Baltic

Since implementing IRONCAD, Baltic has won new business with their yacht designs that would not have been possible with their old 2D system. Baltic Yachts isn’t about building copies of yachts that already exist, rather each one of their yacht designs is unique. The principles of faster, stronger, and lighter govern everything at Baltic but they also emphasize flexibility and make everything custom to meet customer demand.

Committed to custom, Baltic designers have found IRONCAD’s Innovative Design feature essential for conceptual modeling. Innovative Design delivers real flexibility by allowing users to directly manipulate the parts independent of history and constraints while maintaining feature design information. By combining IRONCAD’s Innovative Design environment with the platform’s capacity to accommodate a more conventional history-based, structured design environment, Baltic can choose, at an individual part level, which process is most appropriate for a particular yacht design, allowing Baltic engineers to design the way they want.

IRONCAD also:

• Delivers a range of tools that allow Baltic to keep its customers closely involved by including photorealistic renderings, 3D/2D PDFs, web publishing of models, and a standalone 3D viewer, all standard in the core product.
• Provides the ability to stringently test design data, allowing Baltic to reduce unnecessary prototypes and ultimately costs for a project. In today’s economic climate, this is more critical than ever before.
• Allows Baltic users to build rigid, feature-dependent parts with embedded design intent, delivering more control over future changes.

To experience these differences for yourself, download a free 30-day trial of the IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite, which includes the flagship IRONCAD product.