ORDERFOX.com uses Autodesk Forge to Increase Efficiency in Conducting Business

Here are two problems:

• Let's say you're a CNC manufacturer that is searching for new CNC jobs on short notice because you have excess capacity. On the other hand, suppose you are a CNC manufacturer that wants to outsource jobs because you are at capacity, or a machine has broken down. What do you do?

• Perhaps you're someone with a design who wants to have it made. You want to find qualified suppliers locally or globally with long-term, reliable partnerships in mind. You want to make your tendering processes simple, efficient, quick, and accurate. What do you do?

If only there was a way to bring these two groups together and solve both problems in one fell swoop?

ORDERFOX AG, headquartered in Ruggell, Principality of Liechtenstein, launched ORDERFOX.com to provide a global platform for companies within the industrial sector to manage digital change actively to overcome the challenges of digitalization and Industry 4.0. ORDERFOX.com connects CNC manufacturers, buyers, and their support industries to reduce transaction costs and time to market. ORDERFOX.com is 100% free.

Autodesk Forge is our application program interface (API) platform and supporting materials (sample code, manuals) as well as a community of developers who uses those APIs. Although Forge is intended for our customers and 3^rd party developers to be able to use our web services, we use Forge for our development of the cloud-based services that we offer. You can leverage Forge in the same ways that we do.

Forge is defined by 7 groups of APIs:

• Authentication
• Design Automation API
• Reality Capture API
• Data Management API
• Model Derivative API
• Viewer
• Webhooks API

Using the Autodesk Forge Model Derivative API and Forge Viewer, ORDERFOX AG developed a process to make visualization and procurement easier.

By integrating the Viewer as part of their process, ORDERFOX.com provided their members with a more efficient way to conduct daily business. The Viewer gives ORDERFOX.com members the ability to view and process potential business opportunities without additional software installed. Anyone who uploads computer-aided design data to "advertise a job" can now have it converted directly into a 3D model within the Autodesk cloud, and then viewable on ORDERFOX.com. Metadata associated with the design can also be securely embedded with the Viewer in more than 60 formats, while the data can be used and retrieved directly within the user's browser, without having to install any additional software. Manufacturers and customers can see the designs in 3D.

Also, as a benefit for existing and new users of Autodesk Fusion 360, Autodesk Inventor, and Autodesk AutoCAD, they will be able to access all of the features of the ORDERFOX.com platform within the software. This is possible via ORDERFOX.com plug-ins. With the plug-ins, users of Fusion 360, Inventor, and AutoCAD can interact, research, and advertise CNC jobs directly on ORDERFOX.com with just a few clicks, finding the right resources or production partners. All advertised jobs are displayed with the respective status: active, draft, or completed, and the user can edit and publish the advertised jobs directly from Fusion 360, Inventor, and AutoCAD.

Autodesk has always been an automation company, and today more than ever that means helping people make more things, better things, with less; more and better in terms of increasing efficiency, performance, quality, and innovation; less in terms of time, resources, and negative impacts (e.g., social, environmental). Autodesk Forge is an integral part of our automation plans, and ORDERFOX.com is a perfect example of automating the visualization and procurement process.