Imass Design Solutions (Imass) has won one of the largest single Scottish education orders for manufacturing design solutions and training to date. The deal involves the supply of 13 autodesk inventor Professional bundles, each including 40 network licences, 30 standalone licences and 50 student licences for secondary schools in Aberdeen. Bill Heeps, the Principal Teacher of Design and Technology at Dyce Academy, Aberdeen and area co-ordinator for the subject, says that one of the reasons Imass was chosen was its local training facilities.

The firm has recently doubled the size of its customer training suites in its Inverurie, Aberdeenshire office - making it one of the leading facilities of its kind in the area.

Inventor was chosen because it is easy and intuitive to use and, as the world's top selling manufacturing design software, it is the 3D solution students are most likely to encounter in the outside world.

'In this area in particular where there are many businesses associated with oil and gas production, CAD engineers are very much in demand.

'Being familiar with the complete solution, rather than an educational cut-down version, will stand students in good stead for the future,' says Heeps.

Also, because Inventor Professional ships with the latest version of AutoCAD, it integrates 2D and 3D capabilities, enabling students to learn traditional drafting methods.

'The Scottish curriculum still requires the teaching of 2D drafting, so this way we have the best of both worlds,' he says.

Heeps adds that a big advantage of standardising on Inventor will be that all relevant teaching staff will have proper training from Imass.

Previously schools were using a variety of different solutions and many teachers had received no formal instruction.

Inventor is now fully installed at the Dyce Academy and Heeps reports that it is already helping students model their designs quicker and more effectively.