Five Things You Should Know About 3D CAD Software

You may be spending most of your time making design changes instead of creating new designs. But with the right 3D CAD software, you can solve this problem – and quite a few others.

If you ’re a design engineer working in a “typical ” manufacturing company,you may be spending 60%to 80 %of your time updating and optimizing old designs,or making changes for ECOs, instead of creating new designs. Industry-wide studies and PTC surveys confirm this startling fact.
With such a significant portion of your day devoted to design changes,you need a 3D CAD system that simplifies and speeds the change process.
But this is just one of many challenges design engineers can solve by using more advanced 3D CAD software.Here are five essential characteristics of a best-in-class 3D CAD system and how it will enable you to focus on what you do best:design great products.

1. “Easy to use ” doesn’t have to mean “dumbed down ”

It used to be that “easy ” CAD software meant functionally-limited CAD software.But today ’s CAD software offers functionality far beyond what many thought possible 10 or 20 years ago.Making today ’s 3D CAD software easy to use, yet functionality-rich, is a challenge that few CAD software vendors can accomplish. But the best software will feature both familiar command conventions for new users, and thin menu structures for seasoned power users who want to work fast.

Solution:Easy and Powerful
Your 3D CAD software should give you “deep ” functionality that is simple to access and manage. For example,the software should let you design weldments – welded joints – into your model, and then automatically add the weldment information to your design documentation and down-stream structural analysis.

2. 3D CAD Designs should be both robust and portable

Today ’s intelligent CAD soft ware should make it easier – not harder – to reuse designs.It does this by capturing information about the model as you work,and then using that information to make reuse easier.It should simplify the process of accessing older design data with newer versions of the software.

Solution:Robust, Yet Portable Designs
Look for CAD soft ware that lets you capture information about brackets,fasteners,or other component interfaces that you’ve designed into your assembly,and then offers them to you in subsequent projects with similar components and assemblies.More advanced CAD soft ware lets you write annotations directly onto your 3D model, therefore making your design intent clear to future users of your model, even though they ’re using newer versions of the software.

to be continued....