With the tightly integrated software ecosystem for manufacturing, the journey from idea to market-ready product is becoming significantly faster with less costly obstacles.
It is often a long trip from the first conceptual ideas until the finished product is ready to conquer the market and generate revenues and earnings. One of the major hurdles is that many companies today use different software solutions that do not -speak the same language’ and can’t present data in a comprehensible way.
This costs time and is resource-intensive, resulting in costly misunderstandings between engineering and production departments. Often the staff in the production department has difficulties interpreting the 2D drawings they receive from engineering. Often the 2D drawings do not match the 3D objects that have to be to be produced, or the drawings are misinterpreted making it unnecessarily difficult to use them as the basis for production. In addition to these obstacles, production often has to assemble in-house produced or purchased parts that do not fit together properly.
By using integrated software solutions that speak the same ‘language’, possible bottlenecks, errors and waste are avoided with the streamlined data exchange between the different applications. This helps to remove the gap of common understanding between the company’s departments.
3D understanding across the enterprise ensures significant manufacturing gains
SOLIDWORKS manufacturing ecosystem is a holistic system of seamlessly integrated applications that removes the barriers between the different departments, which participates in the development and manufacturing of a new product. The manufacturing ecosystem includes more than 60 software solutions from SOLIDWORKS and its Gold Partners, which cover all possible aspects of product development and production processes. All applications are integrated into the familiar 3D CAD environment, thereby reducing the cost of education and training in the various software packages significantly.
The integration means that teams from the business development and production departments can work together in parallel courses on the same project without having to import and export data, which means a significant reduction in time-to-market.
3D models ensure dynamic production processes
The SOLIDWORKS manufacturing ecosystem is constantly developing with more solutions to address the challenges of manufacturers. Among the newest solutions is SOLIDWORKS MBD (Model-Based Definition). The software makes it possible get faster from the engineering to the production phase by creating 3D drawings and define, organize and publish manufacturing specifications directly in 3D parts and assembly structures. It removes the ambiguity and streamlines the manufacturing process ensuring fewer errors and faster production processes.
A number of partners have chosen to integrate MBD closely with their applications. An example is CAMworks who is using data from MBD in its CAM-software to automatically make decisions about which manufacturing operations to choose, creating an intelligent model-based manufacturing solution. Another partner, Origin, that develops inspection software Checkmate, is using model data from MBD for automated programming of CMM’s (Coordinate Measuring Machines), which shortens programming time from hours to minutes and reduces the potential for human error significantly.
Better inspections and higher quality
Inspection and quality control can be streamlined through SOLIDWORKS Inspection. The software uses existing 2D data as SOLIDWORKS drawings and PDF files to automate the creation of inspection documents and thereby improve the processes around quality control. Combined with the author system SOLIDWORKS Composer, it is possible to create precise and easily understandable interactive inspection and control documents.
Deliver photorealistic images and video content to marketing
SOLIDWORKS Visualization software provides a suite of tools that combine industry-leading rendering capabilities with design-oriented features and workflows that enable easy and fast creation of visual content for designers, engineers, marketing, and other content creators. Import SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Alias®, Rhino®, SketchUp® and many other CAD formats to create compelling scenes and ultimately the most realistic content possible. You can easily improve internal design, engineering, and sales reviews to help make more educated final decisions. You will be able to deliver photorealistic imagery and content to marketing much earlier to help promote the newest products online.
Measure your costs before manufacturing
With SOLIDWORKS Costing, designers and manufacturers can automatically estimate manufacturing costs directly from 3D models, which helps the development department make design decisions in real-time based on cost analysis and helps management to ensure that product costs keep to their budgets.
The above-mentioned applications are just a FEW of the software solutions that are part of of the comprehensive software ecosystem for manufacturing.
For more information about the possibilities and benefits and how to produce high-quality products better, faster and more cost-effectively contact PLM Group. We are always are able to help your company to select and implement exactly the solutions that can help to produce better products in the most efficient way.
Let us help you to explore the benefits of the design-to-manufacturing ecosystem!
Contact us for a partnership dialogue
Silva Lill
CMO, PLM Group
