![Andrew M.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Andrew M.")
AM

Andrew M.

Mechanical Designer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/12/2015

"Solidworks will more than likely do (mechanically) what you need it to"

4.5/5

What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?

Ease of use and learning. Resources and amenability to self-training.

Basic versatility. Solidworks may not be the best for a particular mechanical design need, but you can probably figure it out and get it made with Solidworks.

3D sketching tools- You can establish reference points or model geometry with a 3D sketch, using many alignment tools geometric relationships, dimensions and splines. This can be done at the part, assembly and in assembly context levels.

The sheet metal tools are versatile, effective and not hard to get started with.

The live associative BOM. You can design an assembly with empty or placeholder descriptions and properties and push them to the part/assembly properties by entering them from the Bill of Materials in a drawing. This has it's dangers, but you have been warned.

Configurations: Not all 3D CAD packages (Inventor, to name one) (or CAD standards) allow trivial use of configurations to show/hide/suppress parts or features or to ease the design process, assembly management and variation of relevant dimensions. It can be pretty useful for the design and drawing processes.

Double click to edit a feature- it's really easy to access and change part parameters by double clicking on a parts surface. No poking around the feature tree for a sketch. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?

Solidworks is most stable working with all needed files on a local hard drive. If you have any files on remote drives, you will eventually have problems between nuisance popup boxes to lost work (between saves), nuisance crashes to corrupt work (ouch!).

Solidworks PDM and EPDM workgroup softwares mitigate but do not eliminate these problems Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:

Good or better for almost anything mechanical (mechanical design and drafting. Niche or specialty needs may be better met by other programs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?

Design of mechanical components, assemblies and systems Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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 ![SOLIDWORKS](https://play.vidyard.com/xYqZqpJwpDjpHctCkQDztk.jpg "SOLIDWORKS")

Rating Updated (1/28/2021)
Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite

See what 631 reviewers think of SOLIDWORKS

4.5 out of 5 · Verified reviews from real users

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