Committed to improving the quality of life for people operating in extremely rugged and dangerous condi¬tions, Weatherhaven designs and manufactures portable shelter systems for organizations as diverse as NATO, scores of governments and armed forces, and hundreds of resort, exploration, scientific, and geographic research companies. Weatherhaven shelters have supported earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, military campaigns in Afghanistan, scientific expeditions in Antarctica, and peacekeeping missions in the Sahara desert. In addition, the United Nations has used them for every deployment since 1990.

Weatherhaven relies on Autodesk® Inventor® software to innovate and rapidly deliver shelters that meet the challenging requirements of its customers, and it uses Autodesk® Vault software to reuse designs and manage iterations and revisions. Thanks to the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping, the Canada-based company is able to realize a 100 percent ROI within a short time frame, more quickly produce safer products with improved transportability, and transition from manufacturing to a full product development firm.

Weatherhaven's shelters are configured to order. They can include everything from portable sleepers, field kitchens, showers, and laundry rooms to gym¬nasiums, vehicle repair facilities, and field hospitals. Given the wide range of specifications and the urgent need for shelters precipitated by natural disasters, health epidemics, and military engage¬ments, Weatherhaven adapts its products to make sure they are easily assembled, disassembled and transported, while occupying a very small environ¬mental footprint.

"We keep very little inventory, and orders need fulfilling as soon as possible," says Ray Castelli, CEO of Weatherhaven. "For example, when the Haiti earthquake hit, we were the first to send 140 field hospitals to assist civilian agencies in dealing with the aftermath. It's critical that our shelters help teams hit the ground running."

Weatherhaven not only must configure and manu¬facture systems rapidly, but also design its systems to be mobile, re-deployable, and lightweight so they can be broken down, moved, and reassembled with ease when an operation shifts locations. But the design challenges don't stop there. In recent years, the design team has been tasked with innovating completely new products, helping to transform Weatherhaven from a manufacturer to a product development company.

A longtime AutoCAD® user, Weatherhaven now relies on Autodesk Inventor to create digital prototypes of all its products, both new and configured to order. Thanks to Inventor, it's easier to find problems earlier in the design process—well before manufacturing. "With a digital prototype, we can see how systems will work together," explains Ryan Savenkoff, design engineer at Weatherhaven. "We can even drop digital models from our sup-pliers into our assemblies and then check for interferences. With Autodesk Inventor and Digital Prototyping, we have much more confidence in our designs and know they'll be manufactured the way we intend. Digital Prototyping has significantly cut down the time for product development from concept to manufacturing."

"Knowing that the components will work together seamlessly is a real time-saver," agrees Graham Thompson, design technician at Weatherhaven. "It cuts down on rework tremendously."

In addition, Weatherhaven now builds fewer physical prototypes, relying more heavily on Digital Prototyping to put designs through their paces. "Our physical prototypes can cost up to $100,000 USD to build," says Thompson. "Autodesk Inventor has already paid for itself—and then some."

Lighter, More Mobile Designs
Meeting one of its primary design challenges—making lighter, more mobile shelters to facilitate trans-portability—is now a much easier task. "Autodesk Inventor automatically calculates the weight of various parts and assemblies as we design," explains Savenkoff. "The lighter it is, the more cost-effective it is. In fact, we can pick up a shelter from a desert location and have it re-deployed to Antarctica two weeks later."

Using the integrated finite element analysis (FEA) feature in Autodesk Inventor software, Weatherhaven can predict stress and deflection. Engineers can help ensure they are meeting safety requirements as they optimize the design to lower the overall assembly weight.

Tackling New Challenges
Digital Prototyping solidified its value to Weatherhaven when the company partnered with DEW Engineering to win a highly competitive con¬tract with the Canadian military to replace an aging fleet of military trucks with complex container-based shelters. Built on traditional truck bodies, the shel¬ters ultimately will serve as kitchens, dentist offices, showers, washrooms, medical centers, and more.

The Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) project challenged Weatherhaven's team to design something totally new—and on a very tight timeline. "It was a completely new kind of project for us," says Castelli. "We had to meet very exacting specifica¬tions—and wouldn't have been able to do it without Autodesk Inventor."

Savenkoff points to the tools integrated into Inventor software, particularly the sheet metal tool, as critical to making the MSVS project a success. "All the useful tools in Inventor helped us move through the design very quickly," says Savenkoff. "For instance, with the sheet metal tool, you don't have to spend time calculating bend radiuses. You just pick a material, style, and the length of flanges and that's it. It's clear Autodesk has thought a great deal about how people work and how to save them time."

Within 12 months of being awarded the contract, Weatherhaven had a MSVS prototype designed, engineered, and tested. "We'd never done anything that fast before, and certainly nothing of that com¬plexity," remarks Castelli.

Even though Weatherhaven dedicates only a hand¬ful of engineers to researching and developing completely new products, the company already has made huge strides transforming into a product development company—and Autodesk Inventor software has played a significant role. Castelli says, "Autodesk Inventor software gives our engineers the ability to build comprehensive digital prototypes to test out a range of new products. We don't have our good ideas languishing on the drawing board anymore. With Digital Prototyping, we're bringing them to life."

In addition, Weatherhaven is using Digital Prototyping software from Autodesk to save time during the design phase—and to deploy its shelters to their rugged destinations more quickly. The result: satisfied customers and a solid reputation with governments and billion-dollar companies around the globe. "We're a $100 million USD com¬pany with an engineering department that has fewer than 10 people, yet we're competing with billion-dollar companies," says Castelli. "With help from Inventor software, we're servicing some of the most sophisticated and exacting customers in the world. It definitely gives us a competitive advantage."