PacifiCAD Inc., a 27-year-old Spokane reseller and servicer of design software for the architectural, engineering, construction, and manufacturing industries, says it’s launching a new offering that it expects will boost its presence in the manufacturing sector.

The company says it has been named the newest Value Added Reseller for French-based Dassault Systemes’ Solidworks software products to the Pacific Northwest, encompassing Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.

The Value Added Reseller label means “we’re not like a retail store—we have the technical staff to be able to support” clients that use the software, including by providing training and other technical expertise, says Bill Inman, PacifiCAD’s Seattle-based president.

Of the company’s new partnership with Dassault, Inman says, “It’s a huge deal for us. The reason why is Solidworks. They’ve got the lion’s share of the (computer-aided design) market when it comes to manufacturing. The customer base for us just went up exponentially.”

He says Solidworks has an outstanding reputation, in particular, for 3-D modeling, adding, “That’s the future. What makes them the market leader is their intuitive interface. Anyone can pick it up and start modeling quickly.”

PacifiCAD’s customers include architects, engineers, infrastructure designers, construction companies, and local and state governments, among others.

Inman says, “Our business model is focused on our customers’ success. This can only be achieved by helping our customers to develop improved and efficient workflows for bringing their projects to market faster and with fewer mistakes that ever before, and we believe Solidworks offers one of the most productive platforms for product development available anywhere in the world.”

The Spokane company currently derives about 80 percent of its revenue from the products and services it provides to architectural, engineering, and construction, or AEC, clients and about 20 percent from manufacturing clients. However, with the new software offering, Inman says, “We expect that to grow very quickly to a 50-50 split.”

PacifiCAD has added four new employees in recent weeks who will be dedicated to Solidworks, and has installed the software in all of its training facilities and is updating its website to include and support the new offering, he says.

The company employs about 30 people, including 15 here. Its headquarters occupy the top, or third, floor of Steam Plant Square, at 823 Railroad, and it also operates offices in Seattle, Boise, and Bozeman, Mont.

PacifiCAD says it’s the first new partner Dassault has taken on in 10 years. The Spokane company was a Solidworks software reseller for several years in the 1990s, but Autodesk Inc., which makes a competing software that PacifiCAD also was using, forced it to discontinue that relationship, Inman says.

PacifiCAD recently sold its Autodesk manufacturing and plant assets to Springfield, Mo.-based D3 Technologies, as the Journal reported in its Sept. 22 issue. Those assets consisted mostly of PacifiCAD’s customer base that uses the Autodesk manufacturing and plant design software. PacifiCAD continues to own and operate a larger Autodesk architectural, engineering, and construction software sales and service business segment and other software products.