TraceParts marks the 10th Anniversary of DesignSpark, the engineering community of RS Components.

Saint-Romain, France, September 17th, 2020 - TraceParts is proud to celebrate 10 years providing support to the DesignSpark engineering platform.

DesignSpark, the go-to design engineering platform created by RS Components, celebrated its 10th anniversary in July 2020. RS Components is a UK-based high service-level distributor with over 1.5 million customers worldwide. DesignSpark was created by RS Components to improve engagement with its large engineering customer base, and is a website that provides users with information, software tools and design aids.

Early in the development of the DesignSpark website, RS Components chose TraceParts to provide 3D models to its customers. By offering 3D models in over 40 CAD formats, TraceParts enabled RS Components to appeal to the broadest audience.

In addition to traditional catalog services, TraceParts was able to expand its offer further to include a high-level, seamless integration with the RS Components e-commerce platform. As a result, customers are able to view and download CAD-native 3D models from within the RS website, alongside other technical and commercial information.

RS Components represented a new challenge for TraceParts. As the very first distributor of electronic components to create a catalog of 3D models, RS Components required additional functionality to represent its products correctly. TraceParts was able to modify its standard catalog design to include this extra information, including original manufacturer name and part number alongside the RS Components stock code. This program continues to be keenly supported by RS Components' suppliers, who understand the benefits of providing 3D CAD models to engineers through their distribution channel.

The RS Components 3D catalog grew quickly, winning a loyal user base. Rapidly exceeding 100,000 downloads, the catalog has grown in popularity and has provided over 3.3 million 3D downloads to date.

Following the success of the 3D CAD program, in 2013 RS Components introduced its free-to-use 3D CAD software called DesignSpark Mechanical. Once again, TraceParts was a key partner in this project, helping to develop 3D models in DesignSpark Mechanical native format (.rsdoc), and making them available across all manufacturer catalogs of www.traceparts.com.

Mike Bray, Vice President of DesignSpark at RS Components, says "TraceParts has been a key partner from the very first days of DesignSpark. The team at TraceParts instantly understood what we were trying to give our customers and provided us with advice and innovative solutions to achieve our marketing goals."

The DesignSpark platform now boasts more than 990,000 registered users and has contributed enormously to RS Components growth. As the platform enters its second decade, TraceParts continues to be part of the DesignSpark story. The RS Components catalog now includes over 135,000 3D models, available in more than 60 native CAD formats. The latest incarnation of DesignSpark Mechanical, version 5, was released earlier in 2020 and has already been adopted by 11,000 users worldwide.

TraceParts congratulates RS Components for its innovative approach to technical marketing, and is proud to be part of this success. For more information on RS Components visit their e-commerce website, or their DesignSpark engineering platform. The RS Components 3D catalog is available for free on the TraceParts CAD-content platform.

About TraceParts

TraceParts is one of the world's leading providers of 3D digital content for engineering. As part of the Trace Group founded in 1990, the company provides powerful web-based solutions, such as CAD part libraries, electronic catalogs and product configurators.

TraceParts offers digital marketing services to help part vendors, 3D printing suppliers, software and computer hardware vendors promote their products and services and generate high-quality B2B sales leads.

The TraceParts portal is available free-of-charge to millions of CAD users worldwide. It provides access to hundreds of supplier catalogs and more than 100 million CAD models and product data-sheets that perfectly meet the specific needs of design, purchasing, manufacturing and maintenance processes and operations.