The History of CDS

CDS – A Brief History

While working as a contract Designer in the late 1990s, Jim (the owner) received notice his current contract was being terminated due to the contract house requesting a much higher billing rate upon contract renewal.

Understandably, the client was rather upset, not only at the much higher rates but that he was now losing most of his design group. The contractors were not in line for an increase, by the way, these new rates were all going back to the contract house.

Jim approached the Engineering manager and offered to stay on at a lower billing rate than the current contract. Once all hurdles were cleared, Jim was able to retain all the designers for the client.

In 1999, CDS and its mission to offer Design Services, at times 1/3rd the rate of the big contract houses, was born.

In 2001 CDS had to change gears as the design software of choice was being discontinued. In order to stay on with the above client, CDS needed to switch from CADDS5i to Autodesk’s Inventor and train the rest of the Design group on making the transfer.

CDS was growing and opened offices in Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Connecticut. By this time, CDS was offering not only Drafting and Design Services for large and small manufacturers but also custom handmade plastic prototype models.

In 2003, Jim took on a long-term contract in WA state, before the end of his 2nd day, the client offered to buy out the contract and bring Jim on as a direct employee. CDS was put on hold for the next 8 years until the client relocated out of state.

In 2011 CDS was back open and once again, provided affordable CAD services.

In 2014, to provide better services for our clients, Jim became a Certified Professional on Autodesk Inventor as well as an Autodesk Certified Instructor. Due to his assistance of users and knowledge of the Inventor application in the user community, Jim was awarded the honor of Autodesk Expert Elite status and has retained this rating since.

2020 we saw COVID-19 take its toll on the workforce and CDS was no exception. We were forced to close our doors until the economy began to recover.

2022 CDS reopens and is once again offering its services of Drafting & Design, legacy File Transfers, CAD application Installation Assistance, Training, On-Call CAD Support, and 3D Printing. All at a fraction of what a reseller or big contract house will charge.

Contact us for your next project, whether it’s a new doghouse or the new Mars Rover, we can help.