Go for the Gold with SolidWorks Software Partners

The upcoming Summer Olympics has inspired me to write a post about the SolidWorks Gold Partner program—and how it can help you deliver some medal-winning performance in your organization.

With more than 50 Gold-certified partners, SolidWorks offers direct access to third-party software solutions that are fully vetted by SolidWorks and represent the highest level of single-window integration.

Using Gold-certified products ensures that all your CAD/CAM software works together using the same design data, and that changes are updated automatically across all applications. The idea is to maximize productivity and improve performance.

For Ford Motor Company, Gold-certified SigmundWorks has proven essential for minimizing costly scrap, redesign and brand damage by controlling dimensional variation in automotive designs. Ford uses the software in fork-in-the-road studies, to determine which of several design concepts are most viable relative to variation, geometric sensitivity and meeting pre-defined quality build objectives.

“SigmundWorks helps us define and understand our build requirements from the outset,” says power user Glenn Reed, a Ford mechanical technical expert based in Dearborn, Michigan. “We understand the downstream impact of each feature, dimension, and tolerance in a design on the cost, complexity of manufacturing and assembly.”

Ford typically runs at least 5,000 SigmundWorks-powered virtual simulated builds on an assembly design, based on all possible combinations of variations within permitted tolerances. SigmundWorks then plots a histogram of the builds, which illustrates the designs that are in and out of spec.

Western Saw is another company benefiting from the SolidWorks Gold Partner program. The proud manufacturer of diamond core saw blades uses Gold-certified CAMWorks to cut 75 percent off its product development cycle, according to Anthony Baratta, chief engineer.

CAMWorks is computer-aided manufacturing software that lets your SolidWorks design create the CNC code that drives prototyping and manufacturing equipment. “With SolidWorks and CAMWorks software, we went from concept to design to iterations to working prototype in six short months with just a single engineer on the project,” Baratta recalls. “We cut a year and a half off the typical development cycle and eliminated the costs associated with outsourcing prototyping to a service bureau.“

For an explanation of features and benefits of each Gold-certified software solution, be sure to watch the short videos in the Partner Product QuickFlix theater.

Lenovo is proud to be a SolidWorks Solution Partner,  which means that all of our ThinkStation workstations and ThinkPad mobile workstations are certified to work with SolidWorks and all the Gold-certified software applications. We enjoy providing performance-enhancing hardware for SolidWorks users.

Let us know about your experiences with SolidWorks Gold Partners and how they’ve helped improve your performance.