SOLIDWORKS Reviews

SOLIDWORKS is being used by several areas in our organization. It is mostly used in our engineering department by our mechanical, civil and electrical engineers who are responsible for designing our pieces. We mostly use it for 3D modeling whether they are as easy as a screw or as complex as a car, solid works is the software we rely on most.

As the principal (and only) design engineer at our small startup company, SOLIDWORKS helps me to easily show the other employees exactly what I am thinking as far as designs go. I also use SOLIDWORKS for my mechanical design consulting side business. It helps me experiment with ideas before I take them to the shop for physical prototyping.

Since 2005, I have used SOLIDWORKS. We have used it in the design department of Eyemar Express, with 3D modeling, analysis, simulations, optimizations, production planning and product cost estimation.

SOLIDWORKS was being used to create our engineering production drawings to fabricate large equipment in the wastewater treatment industry. It was used only in the engineering design group. It addressed not having to make hand drawings to pass onto production as well as creating the 3D models of parts that were able to be put together into assemblies. By assembling the rendered parts we could see what spacing to expect and if we had incorrectly modeled any parts prior to actually making them and trying to put them together.

I am using Solidworks for my Ph.D. research. I have used it to make 3D models for various things which I 3D print later on and test in the laboratories at Iowa State University. I have used Solidworks for making 3D models of poles and transmission towers.

We use SOLIDWORKS as our primary modeling software all across our business globally. We also use pdm functions to hold design control over our products for ISO and AS standard workflow practices.

Solidworks is used as our primary design tool for the development of large articulating gangways, powered elevating safety cages, platforms, etc. The parametric capabilities give us a faster design cycle time and more accurate shop floor drawings. Previously, we were using AutoCAD LT and all work was done in 2D with the bill of materials counted by hand & any changes to a single part required a redraw of every instance of that part in a given drawing set.

• 3D layouts of systems.
• Verify equipment fits in the environment, access to other equipment, ergonomics of the system, etc.

[It's] Used by the engineering department. We do not use the majority of the software's features at this company. When I was with another company, we used it to its full potential. This company does not need some of the features it has. Still the best software for the company.

SOLIDWORKS is used in two main avenues. First, we use SOLIDWORKS for rapid prototyping. Typically a model is designed and modeled within 3 hours or less and then sent to the Fab Lab where it is either 3D printed or carved on a CNC machine. These prototyping models are useful for user feedback and other validation tests. The turnaround is quick, so the models are not always 100% accurate...and sometimes key components of the product are left out if the area of focus is testing another part.

The second avenue of use would be the real product development in which the model is prepared for full-fledge manufacturing. The manufacture ready models could be used for injection molded parts, laser jet parts, CNC'd parts, a few other types of manufacturing, or a combination of them. These types of models typically take a day to a few weeks and are sometimes passed between designer and engineer. Depending on the project, it may be necessary to utilize some of SolidWorks internal simulation tools, which help ensure that the product is ready for manufacturing without any foreseeable problems.

I've used SOLIDWORKS for 21 years now, both for in the industry and also for educating others. I've used it for general drafting, complex designing, pre-product testing to review stack ups, minwalls, assembly, and other items. I've used it to start a new product, through the production of the product, and marketing of product through website, brochures, manuals, instruction cards, and renderings and animations to further support those. It is a very useful, versatile, easy to use software to use from start to finish for manufacturing. I also teach all three levels of SOLIDWORKS at the local community college to pass on these skills to others.

SOLIDWORKS is used for most of our engineering and designing needs. Having the ability to model and view our equipment in 3D is invaluable. To be able to see interactions with other equipment or to catch interferences visually provides that value. You can also save out to 2D to share layouts and designs with customers.

SOLIDWORKS is used exclusively by the engineering group in my organization, and we use it in a variety of ways. During product conceptualization phase, we use it to generate models to use for feasibility assessments whether digitally or through 3-D printing for physical assessments. Once designs are finalized, we also use SOLIDWORKS to generate our final specifications and engineering drawings. We also use SOLIDWORKS' file management software as a respository for all of our models and drawings and use it in conjunction with our document control system to control revisions and track document history.

Up until 2007, I used SOLIDWORKS to design industrial equipment in the glass industry. We used it throughout the engineering group (about 10 designers). I used it for R&D including simulation work (FEA and Motion). I currently own a suite of SOLIDWORKS for my personal business (APECS LLC). I use it for small design projects. I currently use Autodesk Inventor in my full-time position with a company in the water treatment industry.

I'm gonna refer mainly to my previous job since now I only use SolidWorks for personal matters. I worked in a product design company so we used SolidWorks as a tool in the projects. It was the main resource to develop the product, from the first stages of creation through to the final product.

SOLIDWORKS was a product we used within our division. The rest of the company used CREO. The program was used for new design and support of redesign. Parts, assemblies and drawings were made using SOLIDWORKS. In addition, SOLIDWORKS was used for FEA.

We design and engineer using the software for consumer products and packaging (vac forms etc).