SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual: Connected for Rapid Product Development

Often, we don’t realize how important it is to be connected to our designs and data during product development, especially during the conceptual design phase.

I had a very interesting conversation recently with a customer who has been using SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual since last year as part of our early-access program. He said that “During conceptual design you never know when an idea will come to you…you can’t prepare for innovation. SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual gives me capability and flexibility to capture my ideas as they come, regardless of where I am. It’s accessible, and really easy to access data any time, from anywhere…”

Not only can he capture ideas and concepts at any time from anywhere, but also those concepts become immediately available and accessible to the people he’s working with. A connected solution like SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual means that his team—and his customers—have the real-time access to the latest project information.

We all know this story. You come to the office early in the morning trying to get ahead, just to learn at the end of the day that you don’t have the latest version of the model your design depends on. Frustration and cost increase exponentially if this is happening to your supplier, or even worse, to your customer. Yes, even if you’re working alone, finding the latest data can be a challenge.

With SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual all of those issues go away. Being connected means that anything you create is stored in the single common location. Being connected means that people working with you will always use the latest information and data. Even if your cat walks by and knocks your first morning coffee all over your computer, your data is safe. Just connect from any other computer and continue working where you left off.

With SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, being connected gives you the opportunity to speed up your product development through concurrent, collaborative co-design. Two or more designers can be working on different parts of the same assembly, at the same time. SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual updates modified components live in your session, ensuring that you’re always working with the latest data.

Being connected means that you can reach out to your communities at any time, and create the posts right from inside your session by easily capturing product images as you continue working on your design – in real time. This also works the other way around; any feedback from community members is immediately delivered back to you, right there inside your SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual session. Of course, the same posts and feedback can always be accessed through a regular Web browser from anywhere in the world, any time you need it – you are connected.

You can also chat with other people at any time from inside your session. And this is not just a generic chat, but chat in context, where product images, orientation and markups are easily communicated and synchronized across multiple sessions.

With SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual you are connected all the time, ensuring that your data is always safe, and always available – from anywhere. You can communicate with all of your stakeholders whether they are in the same office or on the other side of the world, and co-design and collaborate with your design team or customers without ever leaving the SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual interface.