OREANDA-NEWS. June 04, 2010. GrabCAD, creator of a web library of 3D models and service environment for engineers, has attracted four million kroons (EUR 0.26 mln) in venture capital investment from the Estonian Development Fund and Astrec Baltic.

The telecommunications technology company Astrec Baltic, owner of the Motors24.ee portal, is investing in GrabCAD on the same terms and conditions as the Development Fund, the fund said.

The founders of the GrabCAD environment are Hardi Meybaum and Indrek Narusk.

Meybaum said real orders over one year have proven that it is possible to provide CAD services via the Internet.

Cooperation agreements have already been concluded with Estonian production and engineering companies and talks are underway with Estonian and Scandinavian technical universities who will become the first users of and contributors to the next development phase, he added.

GrabCAD aims to spread across the world the idea of reuse of 3D CAD models.

Engineers spend much of their working time on designing products or components already existing somewhere else in the form of drawings. Making such drawings available to others allows engineers to dedicate more time to creating unique products and components.

GrabCAD's goal is to become in three years the world's leading web environment for CAD engineers.