SUMMARY
SolidWorks® Premium CAD software provides the advanced capabilities you need to design better products–from design, automation, and simulation to validation, collaboration, and data management–all in one comprehensive package.
Introduction
Most product developers know that implementing modern computer-aided design (CAD) tools not only improves productivity, but also helps achieve their goals of accelerating time-to-market, shortening design cycles, reducing development costs, and improving product quality. From the earliest application of 2D design tools to the growing use of 3D solid modeling systems, CAD technology has made a dramatic impact on product development, improving efficiency, quality, and innovation. Along with the greater productivity that CAD automation provides, product development organizations face a whole new set of challenges. These include managing, controlling, and sharing the incredible influx in the volume and diversity of product design data that engineers now create through the use of better and more automated design tools.
Designing products in the digital age demands an easy-to-use, efficient, and cost-effective product data management (PDM) solution. This PDM system not only must support the creation and control of increasing amounts of diverse types of 3D product design data, but also must foster collaboration across design teams and with external partners. An effective PDM system does more than simply fulfill the role that documentation management systems played in the past. It also represents a critically important next step for maximizing the productivity benefits of CAD automation across product development stages and throughout the extended enterprise.
In the old days, when designers created 2D engineering drawings of product designs on drafting tables, managing product design data was a fairly straightforward process of collecting, cataloging, and safeguarding paper drawings in storage cabinets. Most manufacturers devised systems for organizing and controlling engineering drawings for documentation, design reuse, and collaborative purposes, generally by categorizing drawings by number. Larger companies even had formal “drawing cages,” which a documentation manager or an administrator would staff and operate. These paper document management systems typically used request cards, or sign-out sheets, along with a paper index system to keep track of a drawing’s physical location as well as its status regarding revisions, errors, release for production, and approvals.
 Download full white paper
|
