- Douglas Adams
The Alibre Design CAD program allowed me to experiment with my product design in many ways. It had terrific 3D visual representation, so I could make countless theoretical improvements to the product before committing to spending any more money.
A feature of the CAD system that was useful was one that showed me the mass of each part of my product relative to specific materials I could use. Using the mass of a given designed piece, and factoring in the material cost of that material, I was able to do a rough material cost estimate of my product.
Important to mention at this point is how much, and how little, the material cost has to do with the final product manufacturing cost. I will go into it in a lot greater detail in Chapter 11, but decisions about how you make your mold can have a marked effect on the price of your final production pieces.
A disadvantage of being a novice is that complex designs are more challenging, which is obvious of course. An advantage of being a novice is that you have to design everything in a simple way. You see, a clever chap might have designed lots of cool complexity into the product, but my design ended up being so darn simple, it would reduce the entire design to a level that a child could understand.
- The design simplicity resulting from my complete ignorance of CAD had its advantages.
To postpone making any further investment, I used my wife’s laptop to do this early design work. It took about eight weeks of evening and weekend work to come up with a reasonable design. It was still primitive and far from anything that would work if it were manufactured. It was neither detailed nor practicable enough to begin writing a patent application against, but it was believable enough to convince someone the product idea might have a future.
From the beginning, I was keen on a honeycomb for several reasons. (a) It promised an ideal materials-to-function ratio for a net-type structure, (b) it was aesthetically pleasing with its natural form and (c) no one in the market space had anything like it, making it more likely that it could be patented and I could protect my investment.
Figure 3 – the first design (theoretical)
Figure 4 – the first try at honeycomb assembly (theoretical)
Having a clear idea in my mind of the problem I wanted to solve helped me stay focused as I struggled with the concepts of CAD. The first vaguely believable results looked simple indeed, but it was clear to me later there were significant weaknesses that would have doomed the product if it was not developed a lot further. There were also significant mold creation challenges that had to be addressed. I didn’t know it at the time of course, but that’s what happens when you don’t have a clue what you’re doing. That was not too big a problem at this stage, because I still didn’t have to commit to making molds or making any other large investment.
I still had not spent much money. I had a clear, believable concept and the beginnings of a design direction that so far did not rule out the possibility of making my product a reality.
Before you spend a penny more, your own designs should be convincing enough for your spouse and other people to get excited about it. If they find it easy to pick holes in it, then stick to Chapter 7 until such support is forthcoming. Getting your spouse, in particular, on board is critical to managing your stress and energy levels through to the, dare I say it, bitter end. For me, I considered my wife a one-person board of directors. I had to show progress at each stage before moving to the next and her cold, numerate eye would keep my feet on the ground.
So here you are. You have spent probably less than a thousand dollars so far. You can still back out easily having invested so little hard cash and not yet having given up your day job. (I hope you did not give up your day job yet). There is no point in rushing into making a big decision before you need to.
We humans do the strangest things. We decide prematurely because we often prefer certainty to uncertainty, even if that certainty unnecessarily forecloses opportunities.
Do not commit to the next step until it makes sense to do so.
- Do not spend any more money and do not move to the next stage until your design is convincing.
Cost of this stage: $0. Costs so far: $800
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