--- title: Centro Reviews meta_title: 'Centro Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 12 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Centro works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 3.9 review_count: 12 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-05-05' parent_category: name: CAD & PLM url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad-plm --- # Centro Reviews **Vendor:** Actify **Category:** [Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/product-lifecycle-management-plm) **Average Rating:** 3.9/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 12 ## About Centro Actify’s Centro solution is an Enterprise Information Handling system that has been developed for manufacturers to integrate their line-of-business systems, including ERP, CRM, CAD data and more. Centro provides a unified platform where all product and engineering data becomes available for the wider enterprise. This results in an accelerated design cycle thanks to the rapid access to data and enhanced collaboration. Centro provides its users with unique business insights to speed up and enhance decision making. Centro provides not just a single platform for all engineering and design data but gives you a deeper insight into your product data through interactive charts and predictive analytics. It gives you all the tools that you need to effortlessly and effectively manage your product data. Centro reveals data and trends that you didn’t even know was there. It gives you insight not just into product data but provides visibility on other users’ activity to boost collaboration. You can pick and choose the modules and functionalities you need from Centro to work with a solution that is tailor-made for your own needs, depending on your size and unique processes. ## Centro Reviews ### 1. Centro provides automation between new and legacy systems **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Georgi M. | Project Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 17, 2019 **What do you like best about Centro?** I like the ease of use, intuitive interface, helpful tips and customer support. **What do you dislike about Centro?** Speed of customer support is not that great, suggestions and improvement proposals by users are not give any priority or not being taken into consideration at all. **Recommendations to others considering Centro:** Improve support response time. **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Centro helps me to integrate different data systems into a single platform. The ease of system interface access and reporting functionality is great. ### 2. Centro helps us to more quickly use CAD Data **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeffrey S. | CAD System Administrator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** The software has the ability to watch folders on our network drive, convert various CAD formats, and add the files to a user-friendly database. The web UI enables the user to view CAD assemblies in an organized and accessible manor. It includes a viewer that can rotate, zoom and explode assemblies, a BOM compare tool, and a method of managing users, permissions, and all the various projects that we are working on. **What do you dislike about Centro?** The software relies on an ArangoDB database technology, which I was previously unfamiliar with. According to Actify, ArangoDB is a graph database which adds power to the software beyond what a traditional database could do. Actify recently added support for ArangoDB running on Windows, so that should make it more accessible to inexperienced administrators such as myself. Rather than calling this a "dislike" I would call it a learning opportunity for those who are interested in alternative database technologies. **Recommendations to others considering Centro:** I highly recommend Actify for their creative solutions, and their excellent support personnel. If your company designs 3D mechanical parts in various CAD systems, but doesn't need a full-blown enterprise PDM system, and if you want to make your CAD files more available to your non-CAD personnel, Centro will be an excellent option. I recommend you give them a call and schedule a demo. **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have three main goals for Centro. A) Easy conversion CAD data from a variety of native formats to various neutral CAD file types, or Spinfire CAD visualization software. B) Make our CAD data more accessable to all of our engineering and manufacturing personnel by using the Centro Catalog and Web Viewer. C) 3D Search of CAD files, helping us to access knowledge of similar parts we have built previously. Of those three objectives, the easiest for us to realize was quick and automated file conversion using the Centro "Pipelines" and the built-in converters. Currently we are working on adapting the Centro Catalog to our own processes, and that is turning out to be somewhat of a challenge. Our particular issue is the relatively un-structured nature of our existing processes, which have evolved over many years. Centro is very flexible, however, so we are trying to configure it to meet our own needs, and they have skilled technicians who are assisting us. Our third objective, 3D search, will be easy to achieve once we have populated our Centro Catalog with a certain quantity of CAD files. ### 3. Global Enterprise PDM Lite **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** Best thing about Centro is it's ability to create browser-based CAD assemblies that can be viewed in a browser using SpinfireWeb. These CAD assemblies are now accessible to all of our engineering and manufacturing centers across the globe. Centro is also wonderful at 3D shape-searching where it can find duplicate and similar parts with just a few clicks. There is tremendous amount of cost-savings potential with this feature. Once you are trained in creating pipelines using the "Quick publisher", creating Catalog Part assemblies is a breeze. It is IT-heavy in global enterprise installations, so training will get a little thick. Overall, once you master pipelining, you'll want to import all of your data. **What do you dislike about Centro?** Unfortunately, latency/lag is horrendous on cross-continental distributed architecture installations. Add the overhead of crossing the Atlantic, PLUS any WAN overhead you may encounter, and the product is virtually unusable. We are considering breaking up the Arango database into two separate installations (one in North America and one in Germany) to help us with latency. Until that happens, only our North American users are using Centro. Also, there is very little fault-tolerance with pipelines. If you are pipelining an assembly, there is no way to know if there are any inconsistencies with the assembly (broken links, assembly trying to access components stored on a directory inaccessible to Centro service account, etc.) until after the pipeline errors out. Then you are left with a Project with dozens of decoupled components and a broken top level assembly. Furthermore, pipeline error handling is basically useless to even the highest level administrators since the error codes and error messages are very cryptic. It is almost impossible to troubleshoot an error without pulling in Actify developers to help us trouble shoot the issue. Error messages need to be simplified so that we (the customers) can self-help our issues. Right now that's impossible. Document management isn't a built-in feature in Centro. As a matter-of-fact, Centro is a CAD solution and not really made for structured document management. All of our engineering documents are currently organized in a Windows folder-based structure. Centro does not offer folder-based organization for document management. You have to upload documents into a Catalog Part (that was originally developed to store CAD assemblies and components) and organize them by Tags or Categories one-by-one. This is extremely time-consuming if you just uploaded 100 engineering documents and now you have to throw Tags on each document or individually categorize them. Our work-around was to create a fake/empty CAD assembly that mimics our folder structure and pipeline that assembly without uploading native CAD. This gives us collapsible "folder-like" Catalog Parts where users can upload their engineering documents. It's not perfect by any means, but it's something that is familiar (folders and sub-folders) to end users. Centro really needs a better way at handling engineering documents. System pipeline needs some customization. Right now it is hard-coded to run only one concurrent job. It needs prioritization and the ability to tweak timeout settings, and how many concurrent jobs it can run. We have that ability on all our other pipelines. Why don't we have same options in System pipeline? A usage case for this is if a user decides that they need to create a STEP conversion from the drop down menu. That conversion won't start until all other System pipeline jobs are completed. Some other minor dislikes: 1) CAD attributes (metadata) being stripped during a simple check-out/check-in, 2) No way to use assembly resource manager to add/remove components of an assembly (the only way to do this is force a pipeline update from watch directory), 3) CAD-to-CAD converters not working properly in previous releases, and 4) Unsatisfactory quality-assurance testing with Centro revisions (in a production environment we were down for a few days until fixes were implemented) **Recommendations to others considering Centro:** Be aware of cascading updates on very large assemblies with multiple sub-assemblies. If designers are using check-out/check-in functionality and checking-in multiple bottom layer components, every sub-assembly up the tree will initiate a cascading update for thumbnails, SpinfireWeb and Spinfire Ultimate files. Depending on complexity of assembly, the Spinfire Ultimate files can become very large the higher up the navigation tree you go. You can consume a large amount of disk space without even knowing it. Furthermore, cascading updates utilize the System Pipeline which is currently hard-coded to only run one concurrent job at a time. Large assemblies can bog down System Pipelines. We decided to turn off all Spinfire Ultimate (ACT3D) conversions and only create thumbnails and Spinfire Web conversions. Also note: the "Generate..." option in the resource menu will automatically set the conversions to cascade whenever there is a change. For instance, if you want to create a STEP conversion, you need to select "Generate..." and select the STEP conversion box. From that point forward, that conversion will always be updated with a new version any time the native file changes. These versions can add up and consume disk space. If creating a one-time STEP conversion and don't need that STEP conversion to update every single time there is a change to the assembly, make sure to go back into the "Generate..." menu, and uncheck the STEP conversion. Also make sure that any assemblies you decide to pipeline are linked 100% to the top level assembly. There are many ways to do this. In Catia you can put everything in design mode and use save management to link all the components properly. You also have the option to use the "Send to..." command that will save the top level product and components to a different directory such as a Centro Watch Directory. In NX, you can use the clone tool to do the same thing. If you have components saved on different directories that Centro cannot access, you may end up with a top level assembly with broken links to its components. Biggest thing we learned: sharing components with the exact same name between two different OEMs can be disastrous. For instance, JLR and Ford often use the same Teamcenter part names since JLR was once owned by Ford. The original beauty of Centro was the ability to use the "where used" function to see all of the assemblies that used a specific component. This is perfect for VA/VE, cost reduction opportunities and many other benefits. The underlying problem with this is the idiosyncrasies with native CAD software and versions that OEMs use. If two different OEMs use the same part but different versions of CAD, there is a chance that a designer using a higher level of native CAD will overwrite the lower level of CAD. The other OEM designer will not be able to open that file to make any changes to it. We had to solve this issue by adding OEM-specific prefixes in our pipelines. We lose "where used" functionality but we keep our native CAD consistent with the OEM native CAD software version. Some functionality is there for us though: the Duplicates tab. This then will show us duplicate parts and the CatalogID prefix shows us the OEM. Lastly, beware global implementations that use the distributed architecture model where there is one Arango database linked to multiple Pipeline Host/Pipeline Managers. There is a show-stopping latency issue when logging into a European Pipeline Host that access a North American Arango database. This setup is unbearable to use in Europe to the point that end users will not use it due to the lag. We are considering splitting up our Arango databases so there is one for all of Europe installations and one for North American installations. This option breaks up any aspect of global searching and sharing between continents, but it will improve user adoption. Additional note update: System RAM seems to be the largest bottleneck and most critical aspect of the Pipeline Host server. There is a balancing act between the amount of cores and available RAM. We ran some tests that saturated the CPU cores by running multiple pipelines with six concurrent jobs per pipeline. What we found is that once available RAM is saturated, the system will start writing data to swapfile. Once this happens, when Pipeline Host is accessing very large assemblies in order to process SpinfireWeb, ACT3D and thumbnail conversions, they will probably timeout. Due to the volume of pipelines that we have always running, we are considering standalone server with 500GB of RAM and 32 cores. Our workaround now is to limit the concurrent jobs per pipeline to three, as well as limit how many pipelines we run. We continue to monitor system resources and make sure that our RAM usage never exceeds 75% utilization. Lessons learned: avoid oversaturating system RAM to the point where Pipeline Host is moving enormous amounts of data to swapfile. **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Global CAD sharing, feature model template library, fastener library, design work flow ### 4. Manage product data during the development process of a product in the automotive industry **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 20, 2019 **What do you like best about Centro?** Visual Interface and CAD viewer. Link between BOM and CAD. **What do you dislike about Centro?** A bit slow when I tried the online viewer and difficult to load a big assembly **Recommendations to others considering Centro:** Good tool for product data management **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Problem solving. Looking into product data and accelerate the solving process. ### 5. account manager **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Romain M. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** The 3D viewer that opens very quickly, Pipeline is efficient and quick. Overall using this app makes it easier on my computer. I can also access centro anywhere on other computers. **What do you dislike about Centro?** the heaviness of the project folder loading time when too many folders are in it **Recommendations to others considering Centro:** I recommend using Centro in your organization from the start. This tool becomes really powerful after you have uploaded a large quantity of data. It has never been that easy to find a needle in a haystack **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** time efficiency, file orgnization, cost savings ### 6. The program runs very quick, easy to upload documents, this was an easy platform to learn! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** I like being able to look at the data/ quote information all in one place as well as store all of my quote information. **What do you dislike about Centro?** I am still getting use to the check in/ check out feature. This takes some getting used to when updating quotes. **Recommendations to others considering Centro:** I would highly recommend this product. I would also recommend training so that users are familiar on how to do everything. I am eager to learn more about this program and continuing using it in the future! **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** So far the biggest benefit has been able to pull quotes up easily to access information. I also can reference past quotes of similar parts to pull information. ### 7. We use SpinFire for CAD viewing, and Centro/Insight for APQP Dashboard Gate Review tracking. **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** It's web-based, accessible to any authorized user, and is pretty easy to use once trained and comfortable. **What do you dislike about Centro?** We tried using Centro for CAD Data control... check-in / check-out control, and we have struggled for some time to get it to work. Seems strange, as Centro is made for this kind of thing. I think in some ways, we have created some of our own issues, trying to connect Insight and Centro. Actify team is now working with other companies (bigger) maybe we can benefit from their resources. **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am very disappointed with the Teams inability to solve our CAD Data control issues. This was the main purpose of the project. I think some secondary benefit has come out of this development relationship, but the main goal has not been achieved. ### 8. Centro **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** Centro makes it easy to organize and catalog 3D data. It has made a significant improvement in efficiency and organization. The 3D search function makes it easy to call up previous parts for reference and comparison, and Spinfire Web opens quickly and operates nearly lag-free. It has been a valuable tool in creating a more intuitive workflow in our department. **What do you dislike about Centro?** Some file formats are not fully supported by the Spinfire Web client, and there are some features missing from SFW in the 7.4 release. **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data management and workflow optimization. ### 9. Easy to learn and User friendly **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michelle M. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** I like the speed with which it opens data **What do you dislike about Centro?** I have not found anything yet...at first I did not like not being able to see an entire file name...when long...but love that I can give any file a nick name **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** it saves time over our last system ### 10. Director of engineering **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Greg V. | Director of Engineering, Automotive, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** How simple the system is for an average computer user to understand. Also like the one page report and the ability to push the BOM into PLEX **What do you dislike about Centro?** The method CAD files are stored as history **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** BOM push into PLEX ### 11. Centro Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Plastics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** I like the display of the product in spinfire view. Easy to identify my project. **What do you dislike about Centro?** At this point I haven't found anything I dislike **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Part review ### 12. Packaging Engineer **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Packaging and Containers | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Centro?** It allows me to see all information on one browser as opposed to having multiple files or tabs open. **What do you dislike about Centro?** The 3D part data display is a bit confusing initially. **What problems is Centro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Packaging problems. Much more user friendly then other programs. ## Centro Discussions - [Who is your typical customer?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/centro-customers-7077c157-8bc9-4761-b822-c224e418ba61) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How many users do you have?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/centro-customers) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How much does it cost?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/price-52106fa1-bf08-4908-a9f7-84c08de1c34d) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What integrations can Centro offer?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/integrations-1bb75347-c143-457d-8a32-bb20feb23fa1) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How long does it take to deploy Centro?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/deployment-f22ee3b5-66a2-4f33-a80e-ef66c3979d98) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Centro pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/actify-centro/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-30+09%3A09%3A47+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=e4ac3cfe-1952-4e07-b5c8-71a3404c42e6&secure%5Btoken%5D=c764de620f944bbca5a0a856dba995ad9336ede11dc9015dcda4be52cde1dbbf&format=llm_user) ## Centro Features **Metadata** - Repository - Taxonomy - Types **New Product Introduction** - Ideation - Time-to-market - Cost estimating - Product approval **Data Management** - Version Control - Alignment - Workflows - Lifecycle **CAD** - CAD Models - CAD Options - Conversion **Collaboration** - Supplier alignment - Communication - Development - Document Management **Generative AI** - AI Text Summarization - AI Image-to-Text **Product Data Management** - Product Metadata - Data Quality - Version Control **Bill of Materials** - BOM management - Multi-level BOM - BOM Types - BOM visualization **Engineering Change Management** - ECR Workflows - Change Management - ECO Management **Simulation** - Virtual Testing - Analysis - Optimization **Analytics** - Reporting - Costing - Product Intelligence **Quality management** - Quality planning - Traceability - Compliance **Integration** - PIM - Maintenance **Generative AI** - AI Text Summarization - AI Image-to-Text ## Top Centro Alternatives - [Teamcenter](https://www.g2.com/products/teamcenter/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (1,113 reviews) - [Arena PLM & QMS](https://www.g2.com/products/arena-plm-qms/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (432 reviews) - [OpenBOM](https://www.g2.com/products/openbom/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (786 reviews)