Factory Five turns to ATI FireGL to accelerate next generation automotive design

Founded in 1995, Factory Five Racing builds and ships affordable custom car kits to customers around the world. Many Factory Five automobiles are used in competitive racing circuits, and the company is widely recognized for its innovative designs among component car kit enthusiasts around the world. In fact, the Massachusetts-based company claims to be the world’s largest seller of replica cars. In just the past year, Factory Five shipped nearly 800 units, while its latest design, the GTM Supercar, has sold more than 100 units – big numbers in the car kit business. To accelerate its design work, Factory Five’s engineers turned to HP workstations with ATI FireGL™ graphics accelerators when running SolidWorks® 3D CAD software. Factory Five lead engineer Jesper Ingerslev calls the hardware combination the ideal platform for the company’s next generation of automotive design. “We see clear advantages to using HP workstations with ATI FireGL and SolidWorks,” Ingerslev says. “The result is a faster, better, more precise design. We can then take the design and feed it to our plasma cutter for flawless prototype cuts. The whole process is quicker and more efficient.” Speeding up the design cycle Before turning to HP Workstations with ATI FireGL accelerators, Factory Five engineers’ systems couldn’t keep pace with their complex, three-dimensional computer designs. Major advances in three dimensional CAD have necessitated increasing hardware performance. Today, Factory Five’s HP xw4400 Workstations are outfitted with the high performance ATI FireGL V7200 with 256MB.

As Ingerslev notes, “ATI FireGL workstation graphics are capable of delivering the power to manage SolidWorks software and other applications. “It’s pretty remarkable to go from a previous generation of graphics to the performance of the ATI FireGL V7200,” he comments. “We use SolidWorks software for all aspects of design and we’re pretty innovativein our approach, so it’s safe to say that we push performance to the limit. ATI FireGL graphics are fast, dependable, and handle applications extremely well,” Ingerslev added.

SolidWorks solution partner marketing manager Nick Iwaskow introduced Factory Five’s engineering team to HP workstations with ATI FireGL during an onsite visit earlier this year. “To maintain its status as one of the top innovators in kit design, Factory Five can’t settle for working with basic workstations,” Iwaskow notes. “They need robust solutions, and we’re always looking for ways to help them improve their system performance. Factory Five is a unique customer, the kind that demonstrates in very real terms its innovative use of computer hardware and software,” Iwaskow notes. “Their cars clearly show how superior technology can help engineers and designers in their work.” Iwaskow delivered the workstations to Factory Five, where they are currently being used to drive new designs. “We see great synergy between the HP hardware, ATI FireGL graphics, and SolidWorks software,” he notes. “Smaller businesses like Factory Five have found that running SolidWorks software on HP workstations with ATI FireGL graphics helps move their business forward.”

Delivering results
SolidWorks engineers are currently using the new workstations on various prototype designs. One of these designs will emerge as the company’s newest kit. “By using HP workstations with ATI FireGL graphics, we can render an image, back up the data and make it viewable faster than before,” Ingerslev says. “The hardware drives the software extremely well, without interruption. The whole process is definitely quicker. Another nice feature is that there aren’t any hiccups or slowdowns while loading a three-dimensional image.” As the company’s engineers become more familiar with the HP xw4400, Factory Five anticipates shorter design and prototype cycles, meaning faster time to market for new designs. At the same time, Ingerslev foresees an extended life for the workstations, based on their robust performance. “The way they power applications and perform so well under every situation, we anticipate using these workstations day in and day out,” he says. “I don’t see a need to upgrade for quite some time. I’m eager to complete our next new design, just to see how well it’s received by our customers.”