SOLIDWORKS SOFTWARE

Solidworks Software

Solidworks Software

History of the Product

• Solidworks is founded in 1993 by Jon Hirschtick.

• Headquarters are in Concord, Massachusetts.

• Acquired by Dassault Systems S.A. in 1997.

• SolidWorks has offices worldwide and distributes its products through a network of resellers selling in 100 countries.

• 2001 John McEleney became new CEO of the company.

SolidWorks' mission is to deliver the power of 3D to everybody in design and manufacturing. At the beginning the good software were very expensive, around $20,000 a piece. With SolidWorks, the price range lowered a lot. A seat cost around $4000 plus a maintenance fee of $1300 a year. Alos this software does not require heavy duty super computer. It can run on a regular PC.

Product Description

The SolidWorks core product includes modeling, assembly, and drawing creation. It includes tools for 3D modelling, sheetmetal, weldments, and limited freeform surfacing. It can import numerous file types from other 2D and 3D CAD programs.

Analysis Tools - a product family of 3D analytical and engineering simulation applications that are integrated with SolidWorks software named COSMOS. There are 3 main modules:

COSMOSWorks - an analysis application for virtual testing of parts and assemblies,

COSMOSMotion - a virtual prototyping application that simulates a design's mechanical operation.

COSMOSFloWorks - an application that allows designers to perform flow analysis without expertise in fluid simulation.

Parts are modelled following a feature-based approach. A sketch must be created first in order to define the primary geometry of the part. Drawings can be created either from parts or assemblies.

They are drawn automatically, just by clicking on the window that contains the part or assembly to draw.

Pros:

• Provides intuitive and straightforward 3D CAD tools alowing to focus on product design, not software.

• Price located in the mid range performance software.

• Accepts many different types of files.

• First 3D CAD software available in a native Windows environment.

Cons:

• Need a background in manufacturing to avoid mistakes.

• Complexes design hard to create (use of a 3D scanner).

New Trend in CAD Software: Solidworks

Ever since the earliest CAD systems were conceived, the Holy Grail for software developers, vendors, and users alike has been the single building model—a software representation of a building project that integrates all design data for all design disciplines. However, until now, slow processor speeds and memory limitations of computer hardware curbed software's capabilities to provide such an application. In the past, architects, landscape architects, and engineers have settled for 2D drafting software that delivered digital equivalents of paper drawings but did little to aid coordination of drawings within or across disciplines. But this past year, several leading software developers announced releases or plan to release multidiscipline design tools that address the long-standing coordination challenges for the A/E industry.

This trend toward automatic, electronic coordination of data from all the building disciplines has been in the making for some time. In the late 1990s, improved hardware speed and performance coupled with lower prices supported the development of intelligent 3D design software, sometimes called object CAD or parametric modeling, which simplifies the coordination of 2D drawing views within a ...