Interview with Oleg Zykov, CEO of C3D Labs

Recently Sanjay Gangal interviewed Oleg Zykov, CEO of C3D Labs at MCADCafe headquarters.

SG: Tell us about C3D Labs, when did the company get started?

OZ: C3D is a part of Ascon Group – a large CAD and PDM developer based in Russia. We're celebrating 30 years in the market as a software component provider. Initially, it was a company that developed 2D CAD software, but in 1995 our founders made a decision to develop 3D software, as well. The 3D software is based on our own kernel so, our 3D product is more than 20 years old and continuing to mature. Six years ago, a separate company, C3D Labs, was established to develop and to promote the kernel outside of Ascon Group to independent software vendors that encompass many vertical industries.

SG: Since C3D Labs develops a Geometric Kernel, do you sell the Geometric Kernels which become part of other vendor's software systems?

OZ: Basically, we don't call it a geometric modeling kernel, because it's much more than that. We call it the C3D-2 kit. It's a complete solution for engineering software developers. It consists of a modeling kernel, parametric constraint solver, visualization engine, and data exchange model. So, as you can see, it’s much more comprehensive than just a geometric modeling kernel.

SG: Six years ago, when you broke off or you separated from Ascon and became an independent company, what was the thought process behind making it a separate company, and what were some of the challenges you faced?

OZ: The main idea was that if Ascon can develop the successful software based on C3D, why not to bring this kernel to the other companies. Each customer brings new requirements, new requests to our product and make it better for our company also for our internal development.

We are CAD developers, just like our customers. At C3D Labs, we continuously enhance our geometric modeling techniques, optimizing our software, and promote our special customer-centric approach to projects. When it comes to licensing our C3D components, we offer flexible terms that take into account each customer’s unique business models. After the sale, we go further by providing consulting support to all software developers who work with our C3D kernel.

So, that's why we decided to do it. And, of course, it was not easy to make a separate kernel/software developers kit as a product for other companies. It was a lot of things having to do with the API and the documentation.

SG: Also, marketing and sales of independent kernel must have been a challenge.

OZ: Yes, it's absolutely a different marketing and sales challenge for the end-user product. We made the first steps inside Russia and after two years working on the commercial market, we started branching out to work worldwide.

SG: What are all your solutions today and what makes them unique and differentiated?

OZ: First of all, we are only one who provides the complete solution with all necessary modules for engineering software developers — modeler, solver, converter, and visualization tool. The second very important thing, that we provide is very fast support for our customers. We don't want to be just a solution supplier we want to be a partner to every customer. For example, we upload a new version of our kernel every two to three weeks, so we try to be very, very fast working with our customers – that's the second thing. And, the third thing is that we are very flexible in license terms; we try to understand the business model of each customer and propose the best terms for our customers.

SG: What is going to be new for your company in this year, 2019 and coming years?

OZ: The new thing that we want to launch in a few months – it's a C3D Mesh2Brep Module. It's an innovative solution that converts the polygonal models to boundary representation. It's unique to the market and it will help our customers to work with data coming from 3D scanners or coming from the STL models.

SG: What do you do when you're not working? What are some your outside interests?

OZ: My main point of interest is motor sports, I like Formula 1 very much. I try to go to a Grand Prix race, and not only Formula 1. For example, last year here in US, I was at Long beach Grand Prix of Indy car. I actually like all types of motor sport.

SG: And you do go-karting also?

OZ: Not very often, but yes, sometimes I go do the go-karting here and one of the Russian tracks in Moscow.

SG: Getting back to your company, what is the best way for people to find out more about C3D Labs?

OZ: You can go to our website, c3dlabs.com and find out more information about our many solutions.

Tags: C3DLabs, Geometric Kernel

Category: Interview

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