SOLIDWORKS: A complete solution for the development process

Designers and engineers alike are almost certainly going to be familiar with the established capabilities and benefits of SOLIDWORKS. What gets often overlooked however, are the additional packages within the SOLIDWORKS family of products which enable users to further streamline their design and development process beyond the product design level.

Not only do these packages help to set SOLIDWORKS apart from the competition, to the user it ensures access to the same best-in-class solutions for all their product design and development needs.

This is but one of the many reasons why SOLIDWORKS should be the CAD software of choice for your next project. From electrical design through to design data management, such packages can help to ensure you meet your deadlines.

We’ve taken a look at SOLIDWORKS Electrical in a previous article, so let’s see what the other additional packages have to offer.

Product Data Management

Accurately keeping track of the countless iterations and revisions which inadvertently occur within a design cycle of a product can easily prove to be a complex task for any user. Add to the mix the need to ensure approvals and drawing releases are issued in a timely manner and the possibilities for human error almost becomes inevitable.

Product Data Management solutions from SOLIDWORKS are able to improve how teams manage and collaborate across a project throughout development, while keeping data management under control. There are two different packages available, each tailored to a specific audience.

PDM Professional

A fully-featured data management solution, PDM Professional enables companies and engineering teams to efficiently manage their engineering design data, allowing them to easily access and repurpose files and work collaboratively at multiple locations.

The powerful search capabilities of PDM Professional also allows any user within the organization to have access to the correct version of the correct file every time.

PDM Standard

Designed for smaller workgroup environments, located in one single geographical location, PDM Standard enables SOLIDWORKS users to easily manage CAD and associated non-CAD files. If required, this version can also be updated to PDM Professional. PDM Standard is included with SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium.

Technical Communication

Given the importance of technical communication, accompanying packages for SOLIDWORKS will prove quite useful. Below, we’ll take a look at two of the most capable technical communications offerings.

SOLIDWORKS MBD

MBD, or Model Based Definition, is a package for SOLIDWORKS that is focused on integrated drawingless manufacturing. What this means is that this package can guide the manufacturing process directly using 3D models, instead of needing to use 2D drawings. In turn, this can help to streamline production, reduce cycle time and cut down on the number of errors.

It should certainly be considered for those organisations looking to drastically reduce or even completely eliminate operational setbacks during the manufacturing process caused by inherent limitations resulting from traditional 2D drawings.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection

Inspection documents are often essential throughout a project, and SOLIDWORKS Inspection assists an engineering organization to streamline the creation of inspection documents by taking advantage of existing 2D legacy data. What’s more, Inspection can utilise 2D data from SOLIDWORKS files, PDFs or even TIFFS.

Additional features include the ability to record inspection measurements, create ballooned engineering drawings and then export the finished drawings as PDFs.

Get in touch with SOLIDWORKS today

SOLIDWORKS is a fully-featured piece of CAD software with applications in nearly every industry. To learn more about how it could be applicable to your next project, as well as the various optional packages available, contact SOLIDWORKS today or take a free trial.