What’s New in SOLIDWORKS ECAD Solutions 2025

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The SOLIDWORKS 2025 release drops soon in November, and I wanted to share a sneak peek of what’s new in the SOLIDWORKS Electrical solutions. From import of electrical content, enhanced drawing functionality, new terminal and terminal strip documentation, generation of 3D electrical harness routing, improved ECAD-MCAD collaboration and ability to save electrical product structure, this release is loaded with new enhancements that will benefit the electrical design process!

This blog covers enhancements for SOLIDWORKS Electrical (SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic and SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D), along with the cloud-connected Electrical Schematic Designer and CircuitWorks.

Here’s a glimpse of what’s new in Electrical solutions:

Save Product Structure – get a full view of your overall product design.

This one is specific to Electrical Schematic Designer, our cloud-connected solution that connects to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

You can now save electrical product structure along with the electrical project and electrical component data to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Now, for those using only the schematic (2D only) it can save the electrical product structure so it can be combined with product structure from the 3D mechanical design that includes mechanical parts such as pumps, tanks, frames, etc., as part of the product structure – all on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Save electrical and mechanical product structure to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to enable a unified BOM for the design.

 

Now with the option to combine electrical product structure with the mechanical product structure, design changes can automatically update the overall BOM for the design. This eliminates the need for error-prone manual efforts to combine outputs from different electrical and mechanical design tools each time a design change is made.

Other members of the design team can then view the design’s overall product structure on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform using other tools on the platform, including the Product Structure Explorer app, Relations app and more.

Add Distributed Terminal Functionality – improve design accuracy with precise symbol-to-terminal mapping.

The distribute terminal tool enhancement lets you link symbols to specific circuits and pins, simplifying the depiction of complex terminal arrangements in electrical schematics. It offers an intuitive interface for dynamic circuit and pin selection, ensures precise symbol-to-terminal mapping, and improves design accuracy.

You can use this tool to change the association between a symbol connection point and a component circuit terminal. This tool is available only if the component is a terminal type.

Enhance electrical design flexibility with the Distributed Terminals functionality.

 

New Tool to Import New Electrical Content – speed up importing new and existing electrical content.

Import existing or new electrical content with full details using a Microsoft® Excel-based template, customizable for different electrical classification types. For example, you can import circuit and terminal information for parts, and cable core information for cables.

Using this enhanced template method provides a flexible way to import manufacturer’s part information into your library as you can include cable core and component terminal information in the import.

Build or expand electrical libraries by importing component and wire/cable information using customizable Excel-based templates.

 

The following two enhancements apply only to SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D:

Prevent Loops When Routing Harnesses with Splices – speed up 3D harness route creation.

Position all splices on the bundle centerline to simplify the creation of the segments while maintaining connection logic in the bundle.

Create electrical harnesses with splices faster with simpler splice placement options.

 

Create Improved Harness Board Drawings from 3D Routes –improve the organization and positioning of tables and balloons on flattened drawings.

Automatically update the electrical harness documentation after making design changes with refined auto-placement of tables, dimensions, balloons, and formats.

Document a harness board drawing faster with improved placement of tables, balloons and annotations.

 

Enhanced 3D Drawing Layout Capabilities – create a 2D drawing from a 3D representation.

Leverage the new dynamic drawing and schematic annotation capabilities to speed up the creation of documentation.

Use when designing electrical control panels or harnesses to link drawing component views to the corresponding symbols in the original schematic.

Speed design creation and design changes that involve symbols using views from 3D models by linking symbols to the model view.

 

Create Terminal Strip Drawings With Connections Using Wires and Cables – improve design flexibility.

Display destination information for both wires and cables for terminal strip drawings with the ability to add user data and customize details about wire termination types in your electrical designs.

Gain electrical design flexibility when using terminal strips with new connection options using either wires or cables.

 

ECAD-MCAD COLLABORATION FOR PCB DESIGN USING CIRCUITWORKS

ECAD-MCAD collaboration involving custom PCBs has been improved for electrical and mechanical designers with the following CircuitWorks enhancements. For starters, CircuitWorks, an add-in to SOLIDWORKS, enables two-way collaboration in the design process and is now available to all SOLIDWORKS users. In addition, communication between design collaborators has been improved for circuit board-related changes and modifications can be initiated by either the MCAD or ECAD designer and then models can easily be passed back and forth to review changes.

Use CircuitWorks to import ECAD data to build SOLIDWORKS PCB models.

 

The following updates have also been added to CircuitWorks:

Copper Trace Support for ECAD/MCAD in SOLIDWORKS – enable more accurate analysis with access to detailed copper trace information in the PCB.

CircuitWorks now processes copper trace data from ECAD to SOLIDWORKS, resulting in an accurate materials stack-up in the printed circuit board. Using CircuitWorks you can now import internal and external copper features including vias, traces, and shapes to SOLIDWORKS using IDX files.

Easily access, view and leverage copper trace information in the SOLIDWORKS PCB model.

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ECAD-MCAD Support on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform – collaborate on ECAD and MCAD designs on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Exchange ECAD IDX data on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and share a common PCB component library on the platform.

Speed collaboration using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to share libraries, files and designs.

 

That’s a glimpse of what’s new. Keep this flyer handy for a quick resource guide and watch the video below to see these enhancements in action.

Also, did you know that when you have a cloud-connected solution such as Electrical Schematic Designer or 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, software enhancements become available throughout the year in functional delivery releases? Yes, you don’t have to wait for November! Ask your local reseller for more details. To see what else is new in SOLIDWORKS 2025 solutions visit: https://www.solidworks.com/product/whats-new.

 

 

Eric Leafquist

Eric Leafquist

Eric Leafquist is a Senior Product Manager at SOLIDWORKS involved with electrical and routed systems, along with other areas of the product. Prior to joining SOLIDWORKS, he held various positions in electro-mechanical product design and engineering in the chemical process industry. In his free time, he enjoys cycling on his Trek road bike (designed with SOLIDWORKS) for cancer research fundraising events.