Likelihood to Recommend I would recommend DriveWorks to a college if they have similar needs to those I am personally experiencing at my university. Above all, I would not recommend it if the user needs to allow simultaneous access to a very high number of users (as is my case) since the software does not give this possibility. On the contrary, I would recommend it if a colleague needs to use software that works in the background and generates stand-alone models and prints for time reasons.
Read full review For design automation for SOLIDWORKS, I feel Tacton Design Automation is the best solution out there. It's simple to develop and implement for the design/engineering department. But can be implemented within the sales team as well with Tacton CPQ. When a company has products that are modular and/or have many sizing updates, this is where Tacton excels. If you have products that are completely customized, then Tacton or even design automation isn't the best suited for that.
Read full review Pros Integration with other systems. Ease of use. Automation potential. Program UI. Read full review Tacton has a non-linear solver, meaning it can solve lots of equations without them being is a particular order. This enables the software to be incredibly flexible. Tacton has a great interface to set up configurators for people to use. No knowledge of programming languages is required. The configurator uses equations similar to Excel equations to control what the users options are. Tacton has the ability to easily add lists of data like product lists, beam or pipe sizes that because available for user selections or for calculations. The Tacton configurator also automatically builds the user interface as you set up user inputs making it much easier to set up then competitor software. Read full review Cons In some cases, the exchange of documentation between different users is not so automatic. Some operations still have to be done manually. All the variables and design parameters introduced by the user are not always visible and can be analyzed simultaneously. Sometimes changing the parameters related to the characteristics of the products is not so easy. DriveWorks allows access to a limited number of users at the same time. This issue sometimes makes the use of the software difficult for many of our students. Read full review Layout mode is probably the most lacking aspect of the software (within Tacon Design Automation Engineer). Something so powerful as having modular parts should be more heavily supported. Although, I've heard Tacton is focusing on updating this with better functionality. The constraint editor does not display complex/lengthy constraints very well. I end up using Excel to visually break out in cells the different aspects of the constraint. Read full review Alternatives Considered DriveWorks is similar to some of its competitors but there are areas where it excels in comparison. For example, DriveWorks has an easier integration with other systems in terms of automation. However, some of its competitors have an easier learning curve than opposed to DriveWorks. If a skilled user has knowledge of DriveWorks then it will not be an issue.
Read full review Drive Works is the main competitor for the TactonWorks module of Tacton. We actually discovered DriveWorks and purchased it before we discovered Tacton and started to use it. Once we discovered Tacton we liked it so much better we dropped using DriveWorks and switched to Tacton. I think you could accomplish what you need to in DriveWorks, but it is easier to setup in Tacton and Tacton has alot of features that really can make your product configurators nice
Read full review Return on Investment DriveWorks helped us to increase the efficiency of our work thanks to the possibility to work remotely. The easy-to-understand graphical interface has allowed us to increase the interaction between our students. The impossibility of having many active users during the same session forced us to work at different times with multiple workgroups. Read full review Time to produce submittals went from 1-2 weeks down to a couple of days. Then, once approved, normally to produce the fabrication drawings (70+ unique parts) it would take from 4-6 weeks. We can get it down to as little as a few days. Read full review ScreenShots