SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Unverferth Manufacturing Company has utilized Autodesk's Inventor software to develop and tweak equipment for low-impact farming, increasing the products it brings out while reducing its need for physical prototypes.

The company has been named the April Autodesk Inventor of the Month for its use of the software to create farm tools for conservation tillage, a method of tilling that disturbs as little surface soil as possible to minimize the carbon dioxide emitted when soil is dug up.

The Inventor design software has helped Unverferth create and test equipment without having to build physical prototypes as well as craft equipment based on different environmental conditions. Unverferth engineers have been able to build digital prototypes of soil tillers and components, specify ranges of motions and simulate how they would work in the real world.

The company has been able to increase the amount of new designs brought to market by 50 percent while reducing the amount of prototypes it builds by 75 percent.

"Using Inventor to create a single 3D digital model that can be leveraged throughout the entire product development lifecycle has been extremely beneficial for us," said Steve Hilvers, project engineer at Unverferth. "We can use digital prototypes to virtually explore a new product or customize an existing product, without having to expend time and money on physical prototypes. As a result, we're making better, more complex products than ever -- products we'd never have dreamed of designing a few years ago, that will have a positive impact on the future of farming."