department shift to solidworks advice 3

[Tstover]

I don't know if this is an appropriate thread for this forum but I can't really think of a better group to ask. My company uses autocad for the most part and has 2 seats of solid works. I'm trying to get them to upgrade all seats to solidworks and have to write a proposal consisting of cost benefits to the plant manager for approval. We will need around 8 more seats which equals a lot of money plus training cost. Has anyone done this before? My manager is on board it's just the cost vs value I have to sale the "plant manager" (none engineer) on like getting future products to market faster. I'm also putting together a photoworks presentation for marketing and catalog benefit. If anyone has can give some good advice?

 

[sldwkmin]

Your VAR should be able to help you with an ROI and different case studies to support you. I would start with them.

Cole M
CSWP, CSWST, CSWI, CPDM
SW06
SW07
IBM T42p, 2g proc., 1g RAM,ATI Mobility Fire GL T2
HP XW4100, 3g proc., 3g RAM, Nvidia Quadro 980 XGL
HP XW4300, 3.4g proc, 2.5g RAM, ATI Fire GL 3100

 

[Tstover]

Thanks, for the imput. I've contacted them already and there helping. I just want to collect all that I can.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Try this;

http://solidworks.com/pages/programs/ROIcalculator/index.html

Also, some of these may help;

http://www.javelin-tech.com/main/products/going_3d.htm

SW07-SP3

 

[MadMango]

Have a read through some of the FAQs for this group, especially faq559-838.

One of the biggest benefits is reduced time to make changes, but you will not see these reductions quickly untill your product data has been fully converted to SW format. Do you have ENC/ECO processes at your company now? If so you may be able to conduct time studies to get an average time for how long it takes to make a change.

Having two seats is a good start, and you could expand the seats slowly over time. I assume you have two users now. I would send them to classes first if they haven't been yet, then they could serve as trainers for the rest of the group. They know your products and culture, and their learning experiences can go a long way towards training the others in a manner that makes sense to them.

We were able to shave 3-6 months off of our development time, and reduce the need to make prototypes by about half. Our products range from 600-1000 components. Being primarily sheet metal manufacturers, we wee able to improve the rejection rate of parts by about 20% once we determined the correct k-factor that approximated our tooling and processes.

A little Haiku for you:

AutoDesk gray skies
Parametric is the way
SolidWorks sunshine

Good luck.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[dgowans]

Depending on what you think of your VAR you might want to enlist their help with the cost justification/ROI. They make their living by selling the stuff so they should be able to help. If they can't, it's probably time to look for a new VAR......

 

[ShaggyPE]

One selling point I always think of when comparing solidworks to autocad (specifically 2D autocad) is the greater ability to see interactions of components within an assembly. This results in parts that fit into their surroundings better and assemblies that have fewer interference issues. If you are currently having issues like these with your products, more seats of SW would probably help.

-Shaggy

 

[ctopher]

The idea of maintaining to systems and the labor cost/time of translating files should be enough to switch to one.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 3.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 03-26-07)

 

[J-C]

What kind of products do you develop?

There's lots of benefits like Photorendering your products, Animations, eDrawings, can better see if parts fit, CNC from the model, sheetmetal unfolding, FEA, Motion, etc.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
UG NX4.01.0 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2 on WinXP SP2

 

[Tstover]

My company manufactures gas welding equipment like regulators and torches. I haven't even taken into account the cnc factor. What all is involved in solidworks outputting cnc commands. We have large davenports and wikmans.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Some CNC programs can read native SolidWorks files.


SW07-SP3

 

[Theophilus]

3D output to lots of formats (IGES is common for mold-makers and perhaps NC machinery, STL for rapid prototyping [in fact, I've got several projects out now with parts ready today and tomorrow--well worth taking advantage of this technology]). Also, these exported formats are stable--not junky output--I don't have problems with customers or vendors who cannot read my exported files--but I commonly find surface knit problems when importing files exported by other applications (junky?).

In assembly environments, consider the huge likelihood of error reduction in a true 3D environment. There's no such thing as updating individual views--there's only one model per part--if you change it, it's updated. This saves time and probability a view may have omitted edits.

Depending on the nature of your design, you should see a significant reduction of time per design. So tally up what the users' salaries are and see how well SolidWorks pays for itself.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[Remingtonsteel]

Regarding your 29 Mar 07 13:29 post in this thread: Solidworks does not output CNC code. CAD/CAM go hand-in-hand but are two distinctly different disciplines in that CAD addresses the 2 and 3D design functions as well as blueprinting and CAM addresses the manufacturing aspects of the designed products, including, but not limited to the CNC requirements. Solidworks is a CAD software and CAMWorks is a SolidWorks® Certified Gold Product (separate software package) used to create the CNC code. I have used Autocad from V11 though Mechanical Desktop and Inventor as well as Unigraphics, UGII and NX, Pro-Engineer and Wildfire and can say without hesitation that Solidworks is hands down the best 3D modeling solution I've used to date. I use Esprit for generating the CNC code but it doesn’t matter which CNC program your company uses to code the machines to cut your regulators and torches, it will work at least as well, if not better, using Solidworks models. Key ingredients include ease of use and product integration, the reduced time it takes to accurately create the model and the mere fact that Solidworks can read and output all of the various popular file types including Autocad DXF, DWG and IGES files. Here’s where the rubber meets the road: Ask any full time Solidworks user when he/she last opened Autocad or better yet survey the two Solidworks users on critical points such as software preference, ease of use, accuracy and projected scalability. These folks are less likely to be objective and will favor the tool that best suits the task. If you find a way to put a dollar value on that, selling the software to your management will be made easy.

If it’s not too much to ask, I would really like to see your photoworks presentation for marketing and catalog benefit.

Marc

 

[matherjd]

Your biggest expense (in more ways than $)is going to be to convert all of the AutoCAD users over to parametric 3D modeling.
You might also investigate Autodesk Inventor as it includes AutoCAD(and MDT and AutoCAD Mechanical)for free to help during the transition phase.

Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Certified SolidWorks Professional

 

[J-C]

They already have Autocad.....the only benefit would be getting the newer version I guess.

IMO, best to drop Autocad and just start modeling everything.....or they will always use Autocad as a crutch and have an excuse to not learn using a 3d modeler.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
UG NX4.01.0 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1 on WinXP SP2

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If someone has Inventor, why would they need AutoCAD, MDT and AutoCAD Mechanical??? Is Inventor that bad.


SW07-SP3.1
SW06-SP5.1