Skip to main content
TrustRadius
SOLIDWORKS

SOLIDWORKS

Overview

What is SOLIDWORKS?

Dassault Systemes offers SOLIDWORKS, a computer-aided design (CAD) system for education and manufacturing supporting 2D or 3D design, electrical design, simulations, and product development with collaboration tools.

Read more
Recent Reviews

SOLIDWORKS Review

7 out of 10
April 08, 2021
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is being used to design skid mounted, pre-piped, water systems - for labs, manufacturing companies, and industrial buildings. …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Video Reviews

1 video

User Review: Efficiency Excels When Robotics Developer Can Depend on Solidworks For Accuracy
05:00
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Solidworks Annual Subscription

1,295

On Premise
per year

Solidworks Standard

3,996

On Premise
per standalone license

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Return to navigation

Product Details

SOLIDWORKS Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Dassault Systemes offers SOLIDWORKS, a computer-aided design (CAD) system for education and manufacturing supporting 2D or 3D design, electrical design, simulations, and product development with collaboration tools.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 5.2.

The most common users of SOLIDWORKS are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(407)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Users of Solidworks have made several recommendations based on their experiences with the software. The most common recommendations include evaluating other products to consider their benefits, especially for CAD software. Users also recommend utilizing Solidworks for 3D design work, highlighting its user-friendly interface and easy learning curve for new users. Additionally, users praise Solidworks for its active community and available support resources, which they recommend taking advantage of. Overall, these recommendations emphasize the importance of exploring different options, leveraging community support, and considering Solidworks for 3D design purposes.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 28)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use SolidWorks for 3D design of mechanical components and assemblies. We sometimes use SolidWorks also for rendering creating the images for out catalogues
  • 3D modeling
  • Manage of large assemblies
  • Quick rendering without much knowledge
  • Further improve the large assemblies management
  • Quite a lot of requirements for the workstation
SolidWorks is perfect for solid modeling of mechanical parts and assemblies, especially if there are not too many surfaces involved in the process
AAKIF SHAIKH | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have started using SOLIDWORKS during my college days, and from the experience I can say that it is the first software that a Mechanical Engineer requires to study for different mechanical components due to it's simple user-interface and placing of all the features in a concise manner that even a fresher can start without any prior experiecne. Using SOLIDWORKS we can make 3D design of parts from 2D, can make orthographic views from 3D model, we can make assembly by combining different parts. SOLIDWORKS also support various types of analysis like Static, Thermal, Flow, Fatigue, Linear, Non-linear, Drop test, Buckling, as well as Mold Simulation. With SOLIDWORKS Design Library, we can also import different standard mechanical components as per our design requirements based on different codes like ANSI, DIN, ISO, BIS, etc. Plus, we can also use the animation wizard of SOLIDWORKS to view the live results of deformation or stress distribution in the parts, hence allows us to study as per real time scenario.
  • Simple Modelling and Assembling of parts
  • Contains large database of materials
  • Design Library to import every important standard parts, hence reducing time in designing the same
  • Allows every simulation, with results as per the real time scenario
  • Animation wizard, to view the deformation and stress occuring in a precise way
  • No need of manual calculation in calculating the weight and inertia of the component, SOLIDWORKS can do the work for you
  • With increase in complexity of the mechanical components, the solving time also increases exponentially.
  • With SOLIDWORKS, I can't do manual meshing by selecting the face of the components, unlike Ansys
  • SOLIDWORKS is a high end software, hence requires system which can support the software.
SOLIDWORKS is the best software for the Mechanical Engineers, who want to design and build real time 3D models and study them in a simple way. With SOLIDWORKS I can make every mechanical components and with the help of material database I can assign different materials to each parts of my model. With the presence of Design Library, SOLIDWORKS becomes the best software in terms of importing of standard components like gears, keys, nuts, bolts, pins, washers, and structural members directly in my design interface. However, there are some drawbacks like high loading time, and increase in solving time with the increase in complexity of the model. Hence, for complex design simulations I prefer Ansys Workbench over SOLIDWORKS.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is being used in engineering department to create solid models for our product, parts and assembly drawings later generates from solid model. Both 3D models and 2D drawings are used by other departments, and some times shared with external supplier. In certain situation, 3D model will be analyzed using SOLIDWORKS add-ons, such as simulation.
  • Design solid model
  • Generate 2D drawing
  • Check parts fitment
  • Sketch can be easier to use by adding more features
  • Rotation by reference would be useful feature to be added
  • Welding simulation would be helpful
SOLIDWORKS is a easy to use 3D modeling software suitable for designing less complex parts and assemblies, creating accurate size solid model using the software gives benefits such as visualize design concept without having to create physical model, which saves time and money. Checking interference ahead of time will also improve design quality.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is used by certain departments. Primarly, it's used by our Technical Applications team in order to perform Injection Molding draf analysis when required, on 3D files provided by customers.
  • While SOLIDWORKS has many features to learn, it is quite easy to start modeling if you're new to software.
  • The UI has always been one of my favorite reasons to use it, as other 3D modeling software provides a more "industrial" feel to the process of CAD modeling.
  • From the administrator side, managing licenses needs some major improvements. They offer 2 ways to manage: 1) per machine 2) online. Both are painful and need some feature development to improve both methods.
As a mechanical engineer, it is one of the best tools to just start modeling and engineering with. The UI tools are intuitive and engineering analysis such Mold Analysis, FEA, are great! Other 3D CAD modeling tools have a longer learning curve to master.

All in all, if you're not planning to design an entire airplane with large assembly files, then Solidworks is your tool!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is being used in my company for designing parts, modelling of assemblies, and preparing 2D production drawings.
  • Comprehensive standard parts library (such as bearings, fasteners, etc.)
  • Easy to work with (intuitive)
  • Comprehensive and easy to use hole drilling and tapping options
  • The GD&T options could be updated to latest ASME standards
  • PDM interface could be modernized
  • Simulation for static finite element analysis could be expanded to provide more contact options.
SOLIDWORKS is very useful for designing 3D solid parts and modelling designs. It is very easy to use and learn. It includes a comprehensive standard library, and it is widely used among manufacturing companies, which makes transferring files easier.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[SOLIDWORKS] is being used to create 3D models and 2D drawings. We use 3D models to create plastic parts for molding and sheet metal parts for stamping. The 3D model allows us to see how parts in assemblies interact with each other, allowing us to control the fit and feel of the assembly. 2D drawing allow us to communicate with suppliers for tool creation and QA.
Mainly used in the mechanical department
  • Great interface
  • Intuitive menus, tool bars and features
  • Import many file types
  • Large assemblies and complex part are slow to load
  • Limited collaboration ability
  • Needs a powerful PC to run it
[SOLIDWORKS] is well suited to larger teams that work with complicated geometries and assemblies. EPDM integration also allows good file management and structure.
[SOLIDWORKS] is less appropriate for single users that could get similar results from a lower priced product. Also less appropriate for teams that only need the modeling basic features.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SolidWorks as our primary CAD application throughout the organization including both our engineering and production (CNC programing) departments.
  • Top of the line parametric solid modeling
  • Intuitive interface
  • Expansive feature set
  • Excellent handling of both large and small design projects.
  • Fantastic support network
  • Stable and reliable
  • Solidworks is continually improving its product, however, more focus could be put into traditional drawings as opposed to MBD.
  • Crashes can at times happen without warning or symptoms.
  • The newer focus on cloud-based applications is a bit late to the game and needs some work to bring it up to enterprise-class.
I believe SolidWorks to be the best all-around 3D parametric modeling software available on the market for most organizations. The only exception I can think of is you have a deeply entrenched AutoCAD culture, then perhaps Inventor would make an easier transition path into 3D. For brand new small companies that do not have the resources to put behind a full CAD suite, a cloud-based option like 3DExperience or OnShape may offer a solution. Otherwise, I believe that SolidWorks is, and should be, the go-to solution for most 3D CAD needs for most companies regardless of industry.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solidworks is used to review 3D model files by estimating and engineering. Also used in production to create flat patterns from customer-supplied sheet metal model files and create in-house shop drawings to define limited dimension drawings from customers.
  • Review and measure model files.
  • Convert sheetmetal model file to flat patterns.
  • Create in-hose drawings.
  • Export model characteristics more easily.
  • Easily convert surfaces to extrusions.
Solidworks is suited for what we do as a company by being versatile and having functions across multiple departments, also is very user-friendly and there are many users worldwide making it easy to find tips on troubleshooting issues. Pricing is our biggest concern.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is utilized solely by the Engineering Department to evaluate, measure, and flatten customer 3D models so we can turn them into 2D drawings and fabricate the parts on our laser and brake presses. A lot of our customer models are very lackluster and must redraw the parts with SOLIDWORKS to be able to create the 2D prints. We also will use it in conjunction with customer prints to get missing dimensions on the customer-supplied prints to ensure we meet quality requirements.
  • Heal corrupt 3D models.
  • Feature recognition is invaluable to correcting corrupt models.
  • Drawing 3D models made easy.
  • Some 3D models are completely impossible to repair via feature works and healing. Understanding all the different 3D modeling software and convincing customers to set standards for all models drawn by employees would be ideal even though it is outside of SOLIDWORKS control, some people that model parts are plain and simply not suited or managed properly to ensure the end customer has the ability to work with their model.
A phenomenal product that is invaluable to any company that works with 3D models, especially sheet metal fabrication and stamping production facilities. I have not found anywhere that SOLIDWORKS was inappropriate for what I was working with.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are an OEM so we do not design our own products. We use SOLIDWORKS to open our customer's files, and it has a wide variety of supported 3D files it can open. This is very useful since we cannot control what file types our customers create, but we need to be able to open and convert everything to use within MasterCAM and design tooling for these parts.
  • Opens many file types.
  • Easy to convert into 2D DWG files.
  • Fast 3D rendering for complex assemblies.
  • Save DWG 2D files in inches or metric easily, defaults to metric and has to be manually converted to inches
  • When using the sketch feature, the ability to disable ALL references. If I don't know the exact shape and I want to draw/adapt my design, it harshly interprets the references which have no value to me. The easiest exact is to think about when you have a Microsoft Word document that has a lot of formatting, photos, tabs, etc. If you accidentally hit the "enter" key, you can explode the formatting and everything goes crazy. SW does this to me, I just want to "doodle" my sketches, edit/delete/etc and not be bound by arbitrary references.
  • For the sketch feature, ability to use a DraftSight plugin of some sort. I'm super fast in DS, if I could draw using the commands in SW then I would probably never open DS again and convert to SW full time. Currently, I only use SW as a way to convert 3D files so I can build everything in DraftSight.
Specifically for me at my company, the only people that need SOLIDWORKS are in my team. So there wouldn't be a need for anyone else to be recommended the product or eDrawings would satisfy anything else my department would need. If a peer from another company asked me, I would certainly recommend the software as it is simple and everyone across multiple industries uses it as the standard.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SOLIDWORKS to model our product from individual components up to full assemblies and how they will fit in with our customer's product, especially when we have to design bracketry for installation. As our customers provide us with the models of their vehicles, we can see that our signs will fit and line up with mounting positions and viewing apertures.
  • Visualisation
  • Clash detection
  • Easy modification
  • Resource hungry
  • Time consuming to load models
  • Fault correction is difficult
The ease of creating drawings from the 3D models makes this a powerful tool. As assemblies get more complex, it is simple to create sub assemblies, partial exploded views, and cutaways on the drawing to aid production and ensure that information and concepts are clearly communicated. This makes the design and realization process so much more effective and efficient.
Tracy Burton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is used as our primary 3D rendering software for design and development. It is used by our engineering department only and suits our needs perfectly fine.
  • SOLIDWORKS offers solid support through 3rd party vendors. I've yet to find a time where I wasn't able to find a satisfactory answer for an issue I was having.
  • Stable releases with continuing improvements in the software.
  • Communication with us on a yearly basis to see how the software is working for us and what improvements we would like to see.
  • SOLIDWORKS is extremely particular is what video cards and versions of Windows they will support. It seems as though they are looking for reasons to not have to support their software.
  • Missing functionality would be the stress analysis portion that requires additional licenses. Aside from that, everything is pretty good with it.
Per the words of one of our designers,"Its one of the most complete pieces software I've used in my 30 years."
May 04, 2020

Easy to learn

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our company designs and manufactures mechanical batteries for energy storage. SOLIDWORKS is primarily used by the design teams. They use it to design components and assemblies, make engineering drawings, and conduct finite element analyses (FEA). I work in the manufacturing department, and we use SOLIDWORKS to design equipment, fixtures, gauges, or other custom tools for the manufacturing process.
  • I have been using the Weldments feature recently, and I was surprised by how easy it is to make a weldment using a simple 3D sketch.
  • Our product contains over 200 components, and many of them have lots of details in them. SOLIDWORKS loads and runs smoothly.
  • There are extensive online forums to help you build whatever you need to. It is very useful.
  • Getting the right parameters set when doing an FEA is always challenging for me. Attaching conditions to a face, for example, covers it with little arrows. On complex assemblies, I can't tell what is even selected.
  • The license management software could use an update in UI. It seems like some tabs are unnecessary and it is not immediately clear what is and isn't checked out.
SOLIDWORKS has become the industry standard from what I can tell from the tech jobs I have worked at. It is pretty easy to get acquainted with and has lots of functionality. Since it is so widely used, you can easily solve all of your problems with a simple Google search.
Sean Nutley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SOLIDWORKS for designing mechanical components, building assemblies of those components, stress testing new and existing designs as well as rendering images for Sales and Marketing. The 3D models we create are used to create 2D drawings for manufacturing or machining shops. We also send our models to consultants looking for a layout or part files can be sent out to program CNC machinery.
  • Creating models in steps that are easily modified later
  • Assembling part files and keeping them organized
  • Drawings need some flexibility on creating annotations in a certain way
  • Sometimes there are unexplained crashes
SOLIDWORKS is a very easy to learn software and is very versatile in use with other programs. There are many features within that are suited to any industry and are all easily learn-able. The amount of export options is very handy for whatever the manufacturer needs. There really isn't a situation/industry where SOLIDWORKS would not be useful.
December 17, 2019

3D CAD design software

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have a FabLab in the school, and we use SOLIDWORKS to design our products, and then we prototype the 3D model in the 3D printer.
  • 3D modeling for mechanical designs.
  • SOLIDWORKS has an excellent photorealistic rendering that helps you so much to see how your final product will be.
  • Interface: I think they should make a friendlier interface to look more sophisticated. This is not a con; actually, it’s just an improvement.
SOLIDWORKS is very appropriate for mechanical designs, but not for architectural designs. For the architectural design, you should use AutoCAD.
Cory Puuri | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
EAA offers it for free to EAA members but we also use SOLIDWORKS in our Aircraft Maintenance area to draw parts for FAA approval of replacement owner-manufactured parts. The product is a powerful tool from sketch to manufacturing. Even with all this power, it is pretty straightforward to learn how to use it.
  • Makes changes fast. It adapts the assembly to part modifications and then saves the changes back to the part models.
  • Interface checking and analysis are simple yet effective.
  • Parts and template lists are quick and easy to generate.
  • CAM is only 2.5 axis.
  • The import of scanned objects should require less work.
  • Adding features could be more intuitive. Tube trims and weldments take too much tinkering.
SOLIDWORKS does well with complex parts and assemblies. It also works well with iterative development processes and analysis. If you plan to share the assembly with multiple people for manufacturing purposes, I wouldn’t use any other product. Their manufacturing network is extensive.

It is too complicated to learn for simple sketches where precision is not important. For example, I was drawing a stepstool that would fold and it was faster to sketch it out on paper.
July 17, 2019

SOLIDWORKS Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is used across out whole organization. It is used for design, FEA, rendering, and visualization purposes. In the design group, we use it to create, edit, and share parts and assemblies across a wide range of applications, including consumer goods, machinery, devices, etc.
  • The collaborative work environment is a cool and useful feature where groups of people can work on the same model at the same time, and SOLIDWORKS ensures that you don't overwrite each other's work.
  • The ease and amount of customization options are very useful for creating a personalized and intuitive user interface, whether SOLIDWORKS is your native CAD package or not.
  • It is very easy to quickly edit a model you have already created. The software allows sketch and feature editing without having to take the time to actually enter the sketch/feature environment.
  • The use of configurations and configurations-specific dimensions in the same sketch is very useful for creating different forms of the same part
  • SOLIDWORKS gets very slow when using large assemblies, parts with many features, and sketches with many fully-defined entities.
  • Saving can become extremely slow when there are STL files inserted into your part file. Has taken up to 10 minutes to save one part file. However, using the Save As option and giving the same part a new name will reduce save time by 10x. Seems to be some room for improvement here.
  • When using the loft command without guide curves, there are two orbs that can be moved to determine how the profile twists from one face of the loft to the other(s). However, you cannot constrain these points and they can change position in different configurations. These points should be able to be constrained.
SOLIDWORKS is well suited for creating fully-define, parametric parts. SOLIDWORKS makes it easy to quickly edit your parts, which can be done on the fly during meetings. It is well suited for a collaborative environment, as well as for creating complex, working assemblies. SOLIDWORKS is less appropriate for complex surface modeling and non-parametric applications.
Benjamin Reilly | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solidworks is used for all design and verification of fixtures, tooling, brackets, and components in a production plant. Solidworks is our primary 3D CAD package for the development of tools.
  • Solidworks has simple modeling and sketching.
  • Solidworks has good conversion to drawings.
  • Solidworks has adequate assembly control and mates.
  • Solidworks could improve on collaboration tools.
  • Solidworks needs to fix bugs before releasing features.
  • Solidworks is a resource hog, and the resource monitor is constantly going off.
  • Solidworks could have better assembly controls.
Solidworks is a reasonable 3D CAD program, just under Inventor in my book, and above the "free" or other cloud-based services. It is easier than Creo.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We design and engineer using the software for consumer products and packaging (vac forms etc).
  • File Organization
  • Hot Key Programming
  • Rendering through Visualizer
  • The user interface can look very busy sometimes compared to Inventor
  • There are annual updates and sometimes the redesign of the interface is difficult to get used to
  • Very expensive and you have to be on a subscription
I can't begin to explain the amount of clarity this software brings to my company. Everything is modeling to scale with detailed production drawings and I use the same file to produce stunning renderings and animations.
Christopher Schaefer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SOLIDWORKS is our mainstay computer-aided design software package and is utilized by all of our office locations across the globe for Gardner Denver Medical. It replaced other leading 2D and 3D CAD platforms many years ago; complimentary add-in packages from DS-SOLIDWORKS have been added over the years and are part of our day-to-day engineering work. Being the number one PC-based 3D solid modeling CAD package on the market, we use SOLIDWORKS, Simulation, Enterprise PDM (product data management), Inspection, and Composer to create, edit, manage, and document our engineering designs. We rely upon SOLIDWORKS' ability to open other CAD formats in our relationships with vendors and customers alike. And we lean upon our reseller's expertise to aid us throughout each year. Personnel outside of engineering takes advantage of eDrawings as a means of communicating 3D collateral. SOLIDWORKS has been, for the most part, easy to deploy and maintain and predictable with regards to cost of ownership.
  • Having built themselves as the premier desktop CAD package, SOLIDWORKS has tools for almost every design-related.
  • Learning SOLIDWORKS is very straightforward and there exists a large body of free tutorials and on-line help forums.
  • SOLIDWORKS' partner program means having access to world-class software applications that run native within SOLIDWORKS.
  • The FEA and CFD tools (Simulation) are best-in-class in-CAD analysis softwares and have helped shape that particular landscape since their adoption inside SOLIDWORKS.
  • The reseller channel may, perhaps, be the greatest strength of SOLIDWORKS. It means guaranteed help/support, access to updates, a a vibrant user community.
  • To date, the baked in surfacing tools lack power compared to dedicated surfacing software.
  • In a similar vein, the core modeling kernel is not owned by SOLIDWORKS themselves and so there exists limitations with regards to implementing certain modeling/math.
  • SOLIDWORKS is playing catchup to other online vendors of CAD (notable Onshape); instead of being the once leader, they are being forced to compare themselves. This, however, may work to their advantage and in turn allow them to produce a better on-line CAD tool.
Generally speaking, SOLIDWORKS is still the number one desktop CAD tool. If, however, one wishes for limited 3D modeling capabilities and does not want to pay for commercial 3D solid modeling, then other tools are available that may or may not be as "good" as SOLIDWORKS from an ease-of-use and modeling power standpoint. SOLIDWORKS' in-CAD simulation tools defined what in-CAD simulation should be, period. Other solvers and software companies have only followed suit. So if you're looking for affordable FEA or CFD AND CAD, then SOLIDWORKS is best-fitted.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • For starters, it is easy to learn compared to other solid modeling software platforms. SolidWorks has great learning tools and an easy to follow interface.
  • The Weldment design environment is very robust and flexible.
  • Working with model configurations is much easier to manage than other software platforms.
  • FeatureWorks makes easy work of importing CAD geometry from other modeling packages. It recognizes the features and provides a feature-based model, unlike other programs that simply allow you to import block geometry without access to the model base features.
  • More flexible options for renting or leasing the software.
  • Provide small firms with older versions of the software with credits toward software upgrades. The current system penalizes those who have chosen not to upgrade over time. Many small firms can't afford to do so as often.
SOLIDWORKS is well suited for general design environments. It may be limited in situations where more advanced modeling is required, such as complex surfacing modeling. I do not engage in that type of design work so I can't speak for its limitations.
Alan Tillman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • Creates detailed renderings of parts.
  • Production drawings can be made from renderings.
  • Assemblies allow you to see if all the pieces fit together prior to production.
  • We were not using a CNC for any parts now, but I do remember back in school we had to use AutoCAD for the CNC we had at school. I don't know if that was a SOLIDWORKS or a CNC issue, and I would assume this has been done in the last 5 years, but if not, that integration would really be my only complaint.
In engineering design and manufacturing it was a great tool to create drawings and test assemblies prior to fabrication. It was very useful in that application. In the past, it was not useful for parts that needed to be put through the CNC, but that was years ago so it may have changed since I had that issue.
Manuel Aguilar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • The GUI of SOLIDWORKS is extremely comfortable, every tool is arranged in a way that makes the workspace a well-organized place, and makes the learning process (which tends to be complex) a bit simpler.
  • Moving from 3D to 2D models is extremely easy with this software and this makes the modeling process more streamlined.
  • It is universally used so we have never encountered compatibility issues between the models we create and the software used by our clients.
  • This software is extremely demanding, our high-end PCs tend to suffer and lag when this software is being used with pdf readers or other software.
  • This is not an easy to use software, it has a steep learning curve and since it counts with a vast amount of tools it can sometimes feel overwhelming.
  • This software is really expensive.
SOLIDWORKS is well suited for every 2D or 3D modeling scenario. We tend to use it when we design pieces or parts or when creating complete multi-component machines. This software is oriented for designing, so if you want to consider or study the life cycle of the part you are designing you should definitely complement this software with other products such as CATIA.
Aaron Jackson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
  • Very user friendly
  • Easy and quick to sketch simple designs
  • Very powerful software for FEA and CFD
  • Basically universal software used by our customers as well.
  • Cost for new users, which they seem to be addressing
  • Not many other issues I can think of.
Very common in multiple industries, easy to learn and use.
January 25, 2019

Review of SOLIDWORKS

Jonathan Kweder, Ph.D. | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • Interface is easy to use
  • Software updates are readily communicated, and installed with limited to no bugging in the system
  • Easy to roll out to a global user group with a centralized shared license server
  • Memory usage when exporting form one format to another, specifically high resolution renderings and .stl files for additive manufacturing
  • More standard file format capabilities both to import and export in the basic licensing plans
  • Easier interfacing and more adaptive feature recognition to reverse engineering software and scanning devices
Not an appropriate tool for use in designing a landscape or a home, but very useful in mechanical component design and multi-component assemblies, large or small.
Return to navigation