SolidWorks Office Professional

CADalyst, Dec, 2004

SolidWorks Corp.

Price: $5,495

(includes modeling program)

800.693.9000

www.solidworks.com

We typically think of SolidWorks as a capable and sophisticated solid modeling application, but it's also easy to produce electronic eDrawings (EASM) files from within SolidWorks 2005, from the full eDrawings application, or from the eDrawings Publisher when using other CAD applications (and SolidWorks versions) that support this add-on. EASM files are compact and aren't limited in size or resolution. The eDrawing file format lets users send 3D data without including confidential design information. Such files can be watermarked, with support for digital signatures available from SolidWorks partners.

Several variants of SolidWorks are available--for this roundup we looked at SolidWorks Office Professional, which includes SolidWorks 3D mechanical design software, a full range of design communication and CAD productivity tools, and PDMWorks--a PDM (product data management) solution that is easy to set up and use and is uniquely adapted to the requirements of SolidWorks workgroups.

Users can download three free viewers. The SolidWorks Viewer is used to send designs for client review by e-mail or place designs on the Web for clients to open and review. SolidWorks Explorer manages relationships when copying or renaming SolidWorks files, performs a where-used search, and searches for SolidWorks files on criteria such as configurations and properties. eDrawings is used to view, print, and review all types of eDrawings files. For our discussion, the eDrawings viewer is most relevant.

The eDrawings Publisher is a free download for publishing eDrawings directly from SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Inventor, Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA V5, and Unigraphics/NX software. eDrawings Professional (a time-limited trial version is available) creates review-enabled eDrawing files that an unlimited number of recipients can mark up to provide feedback on product designs. A software development kit is available for customizing eDrawings software to meet the specific needs of your organization.

With our test suite, SolidWorks handled the SolidWorks assemblies without difficulties, as we'd expect. Opening both AutoCAD drawings proved to be problematic. They opened only partially, with a number of components missing. We attempted to use the eDrawings Publisher for AutoCAD 2005, but discovered that at present the eDrawings Publisher for AutoCAD is compatible only with AutoCAD 2004 and earlier versions.

The Explode Assembly drawing (11MB) converted to a 266KB EASM file in about 4 seconds, and the SeaScooter Assembly (65MB) produced a 1.41MB EASM file in 22 seconds. As noted, conversions of the AutoCAD drawings were incomplete. N

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