Create documentation for manufacturing and after-sales support

Smart and powerful just like your work

We believe that the reuse of existing 3D engineering and product data is the best way to produce intelligent and high-quality technical documentation. And we believe that the development and update of a classical document database cost companies a lot of energy and effort.

We can do better.

Meet RapidAuthor, Cortona3D authoring suite for creating:

• 3D interactive parts catalogs
• 3D interactive manuals
• 3D interactive job cards
• 3D interactive training courses

Reuse existing resources

RapidAuthor tools enable organizations to reuse existing CAD data, associated Bill of Materials, 2D illustrations, PLM data, and other assets for technical authoring to generate lightweight, interactive 3D publications.

RapidAuthor becomes a single reconciled data source where you can centrally manage all of the resources for faster production and update of technical publications.

We used to manually import, edit, redraw and page-reference many iterations of engineering drawings, parts lists, and instructions from many sources. These formerly took two writers and several illustrators two years to complete. What we once redrew and re-described, we now import and link. The result is substantial cost savings.

Leading manufacturer of aircraft engines and components

Accelerate your workflow and go to market faster

Manufacturing companies often face delays in shipping or supporting products due to the time-consuming nature of traditional authoring processes. Technical publications teams are required to manually create text, recreate illustrations, take digital photographs, or develop flash animations. These processes become even more challenging when producing documentation in multiple languages and formats. As product volume and complexity increase, delays in product launch due to unfinished technical documentation can occur.

But, with RapidAuthor, you can speed up your workflow and get to market faster. Technical authors can use existing CAD data for authoring, saving time and effort, and generating future updates and revisions more efficiently. Some of the benefits include:

• Automatic generation of DPL tables for parts catalogs, callouts, and hotspots from existing CAD data
• One-click automatic generation of 2D graphics from 3D models
• Automatic generation of relevant text using Simplified Technical English based on the 3D model and chosen action
• Automatic creation of procedure structure based on the existing manual
• Automatic creation of an assembly procedure from an existing disassembly procedure and vice versa
• Semi-automatic updating of documentation based on changes to the main 3D files or PLM data
• Reuse of content components and elimination of cut-and-paste practices

With RapidAuthor, you can automate a significant amount of work and simplify the technical publication process, allowing you to get to market faster.

Immediately, we cut authoring from eight hours per page down to one hour. Cortona 3D gives us a unified authoring space where we import UGS Teamcenter or other CAD graphic sources and Excel parts lists. We give parts and assemblies interactive 3D capabilities and can crosslink any item to any other item. We enable users to filter by model, service bulletins, and user codes to enhance search and ease of use. The tool also supplies digital output in SGML, HTML, and XML.

Leading manufacturer of aircraft engines and components

• Support for over 15 CAD formats, including NX, CATIA, SolidWorks, Creo, AutoCAD, Inventor, and more
• Simplified imported CAD data to protect company intellectual property and allow for free distribution of technical publications
• Compliance with industry standards such as S1000D, DITA, and ATA
• Localized user interface with options for English, German, French, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese
• Easy to use and intuitive interface with no CAD or 3D experience required
• Single authoring environment to work with 2D graphics, 3D animations, and text in one tool

For more information about the solution:

Publishing process →

Integration capabilities →

RapidAuthor →

Case studies →