Computer Aided Design (CAD)

CAD is a crucial element of any build project. CAD is the basis that underpins manufacturing, guiding it with accurate calculations and measurements to ensure every component is manufactured and made and fits the build perfectly. We apply our CAD expertise to an array of materials including fibreboard, fluted card, wood, metal, and plastic that will go on to create show-stopping:
• Exhibition stands
• Retail displays
• Brand activations
• Signage

Our experts takes the vision and concept from our designers and converts it into a structural masterpiece. They configure how components need to overlay or interlock to build the intended design, with measurements and tolerances provided for every piece.

As an essential cog to our print and build machine, we apply a range of software that each have unique applications and advantages. For cardboard engineering, we apply:
• KASEMAKE - A CAD application designed specifically for POS displays. It enables designers to produce 3D virtual samples and can be folded to as act as prototypes.
• Rhino 3D – This tool can create, edit, analyse, render, animate and translate surfaces and solids.
• Artios CAD – This software supports 3D structural designs by integrating seamlessly with our design and print software to quickly develop cardboard retail displays.
For all other materials, we utilise SOLIDWORKS® 3D CAD, which is a powerful 3D modelling tool that supports out-of-the-box ideation with an intuitive solution. It enables complex design modelling, assembling, and easily transfers component designs so they’re production-ready.

In our move to embrace more sustainable materials in our build projects, cardboard engineering has become a significant service at Imageco. Our engineers can take flat sheets of cardboard and transform them into bespoke 3D structures, ranging from entire exhibition stands to giant retail POS displays. Often for projects we receive briefs from clients that are artistic renders of an intended design, we take those visuals and size guidelines and transfer them into working production drawings using our designated CAD software, so they are ready to go into production and build. The cut areas are identified at the CAD artwork stage where instructions are added (e.g., v groove, score, through-cut). So, when the designs are passed to our Zünd cutter, the machine understands how to cut each component to deliver the complex structure.

We approach each of our projects with sustainability in mind, through the materials we use, the efficient production we apply, and how we consider the full lifecycle of our creations. CAD modelling is a powerful tool that helps us to enhance the sustainable credentials of our print projects, by considering sustainable design from the outset. You can prototype designs and explore how they can be improved before production begins. For example, our engineers look for ways to reduce waste by nesting up parts of sheets or reducing the size of certain components so we can decrease the sheet size, leading to less material waste.

Our clients approach us with the most weird and wonderful ideas, and it’s our amazing job to make them a reality. Whilst it’s a joy to take on these projects, they don’t come without their challenges. We want to create 3D build projects that blow people away, not blow away, so they have to be structurally sound and functional. CAD design enables us to test structural feasibility before moving into build. We can share technical and exploded drawings of said design, alongside detailed elements including material weight, measurements, and notes on fixtures to ensure they are viable.