SOLIDWORKS Electrical: Why Software Architecture Matters
When companies choose which software tools to use, the technology and architecture that is used in the applications is often lost to cost, features and functionality. Are the components used to build the application widely used or is there antiquated code that worked years ago but is no longer updated lurking in the application?
There are several technological differentiators that separate SOLIDWORKS Electrical from others electrical design systems on the market. In this post, we’ll take a look under the hood of SOLIDWORKS Electrical to see four ways its architecture positively affects your design workflow.
Database:
SOLIDWORKS Electrical employs MS SQL as its database backbone as does SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard and Professional. This is a stable, widely used database technology that facilitates collaboration, the automation of BOMs, wire lists and reporting.
Organizations utilizing other electrical design applications without solid database backbones often describe these applications as “slowing way down once you get a few thousand records.”
File Formats:
SOLIDWORKS Electrical reads and writes DWG / DXF. You’ll enjoy the automated reporting and documentation. Meetings about reconciling BOM & wire lists will be less frequent and possibly eliminated altogether.
If you collaborate with users of other systems and they don’t want to switch to SOLIDWORKS Electrical, this shouldn’t pose many issues. Symbol libraries can be imported into SOLIDWORKS Electrical. If you are a DraftSight user, we’ve just released a new symbols library with thousands of Electrical symbols that you can also import into SOLIDWORKS Electrical.
Open Architecture & Accessible APIs:
From the beginning, SOLIDWORKS mechanical CAD provided an API with every license sold so users and even our competition could build seamless custom applications. This has ensured SOLIDWORKS users had a choice of the best applications available for their particular need and specialty. SOLIDWORKS Electrical is a prime example of this. Whenever I was asked, “why should we use SOLIDWORKS?” my answer was and still is that “our architecture allows us to play well with others.”
Connection to SOLIDWORKS CAD:
Electrical 2D Schematics is a standalone package and when you are ready to make the leap to integrating your electrical design teams with your mechanical teams, it’s ready to go by ordering SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D.
Mike Buckley
Latest posts by Mike Buckley (see all)
- SOLIDWORKS Electrical: Why Software Architecture Matters - May 25, 2016