SOLIDWORKS Professional

SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software provides libraries of prebuilt 3D CAD models and other CAD data that help accelerate the design process, save time and development costs, and increase productivity.

CAD Library Overview

SOLIDWORKS CAD library provides a place for every designer and engineer to easily access, locate, download, save, and share commonly reused CAD data.

The ability to share the information needed to make thousands of parts and components for your designs—from screws and bolts, to washers and bearings, and more—reduces redundancies, mistakes, and inconsistencies. It also eliminates duplication, and helps your company standardize its CAD data. Using SOLIDWORKS CAD, you can easily share components and CAD data with other designers companywide.

SOLIDWORKS provides the following CAD libraries and functionality:

• Over one million pre-built, standard machine components, such as screws, nuts, washers, and pins are included with SOLIDWORKS Toolbox

• Millions of 3D CAD models and other CAD data online directly from certified suppliers and other CAD users at 3D ContentCentral.com

• Libraries for sheet metal forming tools including ribs, flanges, lances, louvers, and embossed shapes

• Libraries for sheet metal punch tools, including tombstone, T-slot, star, triangles, D-cutouts, and many others

• Libraries for detailing drawings including annotations, symbols, and blocks

• Libraries of components for Routing of Electrical and Piping/Tubing Systems that include piping, tubing, electrical, conduit, and mounting hardware

• Smart Components and Smart Fasteners technology that provides automatic assembly of fasteners and component subassemblies

• Libraries of prebuilt features ready to add to your part models, including linear patterns, fluid power connection ports, keyways, retaining ring grooves and slots

• Library content management with SolidWorks File Management

Save time and development costs, avoid redesigns, and increase productivity by continuously checking your designs against cost targets with automated manufacturing cost estimation tools fully integrated with SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software.

Manufacturing Cost Estimation and Quoting Overview

SOLIDWORKS automatic cost estimation tools are fully integrated with 3D CAD, enabling designers and engineers to continuously check their designs against cost targets. Easily monitor manufacturing costs as you design, thereby, avoiding costly redesigns and production delays later on. Manufacturers can also utilize SOLIDWORKS cost estimation tools to automate their quoting process.

Cost estimation and quoting capabilities include:

• Automatic Manufacturing Cost Estimation and Quoting/Design for Cost —Assess manufacturing cost for sheet metal and machined parts in real time as you design, with automatic updates every time the design is changed

• Customizable Manufacturing Settings —Customize costing inputs based on company and regional conditions

• Design optimization for cost, function, and environmental impact —Change your design, remove material, or change material based on the results generated by simulation tools included with SolidWorks 3D CAD software

Speed product development by using a variety of SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD tools designed to help make users more productive.

Specific functionality includes:

• Thickness Analysis—Determines thin and thick regions of a part and the thickness of a part within a specified range of values.

• Compare Geometry—Identifies geometric differences between two versions of the same part. This utility identifies unique and modified faces in both parts, and computes the common volume of the two parts (or assemblies) and the volume of material added and material removed.

• Compare Documents—Compares the properties of two SOLIDWORKS documents (including two configurations of the same model). You can compare two documents of the same type or of different types. This utility identifies differences in file properties, document properties, and so on.

• Compare Features—Identifies differences in solid features between two versions of the same part to find unique and modified features in both versions.

• Compare BOMs—Compares bill of material (BOM) tables from two SOLIDWORKS assembly or drawing documents, listing missing columns and rows, extra columns and rows, and failed rows.

• Feature Paint—Copies feature parameters (such as depth, size, and so on) from one feature to others that you select.

• Find and Replace Annotations—Finds and replaces text in a variety of annotations for part, assembly, and drawing documents.

• Find/Modify—Finds a set of features in a part that satisfy specified parameter conditions and edits them in a batch mode.

• Geometry Analysis—Identifies geometric entities in a part that could cause a problem in other applications (such as, finite element modeling or computer aided machining). This utility identifies the following categories of geometric entities: sliver faces, small faces, short edges, knife (sharp) edges and vertices, and discontinuous edges and faces.

• Symmetry Check- Checks automatically for geometric symmetry in parts and assemblies about a plane and identifies symmetrical, asymmetrical, and unique faces. Automatic Symmetry Check reduces a part to its smallest repeatable symmetrical body—especially useful when running analyses using simulation software.

• Power Select—Selects all the entities in a part (edges, loops, faces, or features) that meet defined criteria, which can be specified for edge convexity, edge angle, face color, feature color, feature type, feature name, and surface type.

• Report Manager—Manages reports generated by the Geometry Analysis, Compare Geometry, Compare Features, Compare Documents, Compare BOMs, Symmetry Check, and Thickness Analysis utilities.

• Simplify—Creates simplified configurations of a part or assembly to perform analysis.

• Compare designs to company standards —Checks models or drawings to company standards to ensure consistent design and documentation.

Establish design standards and easily check drawings (or models) with SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software to create uniform designs and documentation, which speeds up product development, saves time, and increases productivity.

CAD Standards Checking (Design Checker) and Drawing Comparison Overview

Use SOLIDWORKS to establish design standards, and then check drawings (or models) against them as you design to ensure consistent and complete drawing outputs.

With SOLIDWORKS you can:

• Verify designs against company standards

• Automatically correct nonconforming design and drafting issues

• Build Checks—Set up and save specific design and drafting checks

• Use Check Active Document—Run the check to validate your document (drawing or model) against the requirement

• Use Check Against Existing File—Validate the active document against design checks created from existing files

• Learn Checks Wizard—Retrieve design checks based on attributes from an existing SolidWorks part, assembly, or drawing document

• Check specifically for fonts, dimension arrows, units, and other documentation details

• Compare your drawing to past results from reviews of other drawings

Use powerful eDrawings® software to increase collaboration, accelerate your design process, and increase productivity by easily viewing SOLIDWORKS 3D models and 2D drawings in an email-ready format.

eDrawings File Viewing and Publishing Overview

SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD tools include the powerful eDrawings collaboration tool which enables you to view both 3D models and 2D drawings in a unique email-ready format. When used with SOLIDWORKS drawings, the eDrawings viewer provides insight into the design using unique 3D animation between 2D views.

eDrawings functionality includes the ability to:

• View SOLIDWORKS, DWG™/DXF™, 3DXML, ProEngineer®, STL, CALS, or eDrawings files

• View native SOLIDWORKS files

• View animations of SOLIDWORKS models

• Zoom, pan, rotate, section, and virtually disassemble

• Measure, mark up, comment, stamp, re-order views

• Create lightweight, email-friendly file sizes for most designs

• Password Protect Intellectual Property in eDrawings

• eDrawings® for iPad® app—View, share, and collaborate from anywhere with the easy-to-use, email-enabled software trusted by engineers and non-CAD users worldwide

Check your design and verify manufacturability of your product early in the development process using SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, saving time and development costs, improving productivity, and accelerating your time-to-market.

Design for Manufacturability Overview

To ensure your product can be manufactured, SOLIDWORKS provides 3D tools to review your design early in the development process. It is much easier and less costly to correct issues found during the design stage than correcting them during manufacturing planning, or after your design is in production.

SOLIDWORKS capabilities to check for manufacturability include:

• DFMXpress —Compare your design to standardized manufacturing rules to assess if your design can be produced

• Compare parts and drawings for changes —Automatically compare designs to instantly understand differences

• CAD Check for Parts and Tooling —Quickly understand if your parts can be easily removed from mold, cast, or form tooling

• Sheet metal bending and flat pattern —Easily assess if your sheet metal parts can be developed from flat stock

Accelerate design, save time and development costs, and increase productivity by converting CAD data into a format that meets your design needs using SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software.

CAD Import and Export Overview

SOLIDWORKS provides more than 30 translators to convert incoming CAD data into SolidWorks 3D CAD format or to export SOLIDWORKS data to other CAD products.

• Import and export in multiple data formats:

• Also available:

  • Optional CATIA V5 Import

  • Import and export ECAD formats: IDF, ProStep* (IDX), PADS* (ASC)

  • Import and export AEC formats: IFC formats

Quickly and easily create sophisticated photorealistic renderings and animations inside SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD with PhotoView 360. You can make powerful images and presentations, saving time, increasing productivity, and accelerating time-to-market.

PhotoView 360 Overview

Generating high quality, life-like images and animations is a critical capability that can be used to enhance proposals, presentations, and submissions. People want to see 3D models as they would appear in real life, using specific colors and materials, in a specific environment or setting. They also want to interact, to maneuver around and through the design to gain perspectives impossible in 2D.

SOLIDWORKS PhotoView 360 tools enable you to create photorealistic renderings and animations right from the 3D CAD model, including:

• Apply Appearances—Adjust elements of your model including color, texture, and illumination

• Apply Scenes—Set and control the background and surroundings

• Decals—For labeling, branding, stickers, instrument faces, etc.

• Integrated Preview—View your output in a preview window before fully rendering

• Rendering Options—Control output image resolution, animation frame rates, etc.

• Final Renderer—Generate detailed output after your preview

• Rendering Scheduler—Set up your rendering to run during off-hours

• Rendering templates—Save rendering settings for later use to ensure consistent output

SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM in SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software helps individuals and small workgroups manage project data, control their design revisions, and control access to files, accelerating the design process and increasing productivity.

SOLIDWORKS File Management Overview

As designs become more complex, or as additional people become involved in a project, a tool for managing your CAD files becomes important. SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM provides CAD file management for individual users and small workgroups to manage project data, control design revisions, and control access to files. Features include:

• SOLIDWORKS file vaulting

• Secure Check-in and Check-out of files

• User and Group access rights

• Automated revision control

For more advanced PDM capabilities like multiple sites, product release workflow control, and access by large number of users see SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM .