Solidworks in Design and Assembly

SolidWorks is a 3D mechanical CAD (computer-aided design) program that runs on Microsoft Windows and is being developed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.,. SolidWorks is currently used by over 1.3 million engineers and designers at more than 130,000 companies worldwide. FY2009 revenue for SolidWorks, was 366 million dollars.

3D Mechanical Design Applications

SolidWorks Standard
SolidWorks Professional
SolidWorks Premium provides a suite of product development tools mechanical design, design verification, data management, and communication tools. SolidWorks Premium includes all of the capabilities of SolidWorks Professional as well as routing and analysis tools, including SolidWorks Routing, SolidWorks Simulation, and SolidWorks Motion.
SolidWorks Education Edition Provides the same design functionality but is configured and packaged for engineering and industrial design students.

Design Validation Tools

SolidWorks Simulation is a design validation tool that shows engineers how their designs will behave as physical objects.
SolidWorks Motion is a virtual prototyping tool that provides motion simulation capabilities to ensure designs function properly.
SolidWorks Flow Simulation is a tool that tests fluid-flow simulation and thermal analysis so designers can conduct tests on virtual prototypes.
SolidWorks Simulation Premium is a design validation tool that caters to designers without engineering background.
SolidWorks Sustainability is a product that measures the environmental impact of designs while they are modeled in SolidWorks.

Product Data Management Tools

SolidWorks Workgroup PDM is a PDM tool that allows SolidWorks users operating in teams of 10 members or less to work on designs concurrently. With SolidWorks PDM Workgroup, designers can search, revise, and vault CAD data while maintaining an accurate design history.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM

Design Communication and Collaboration Tools

eDrawings Professional An e-mail-enabled communication tool for reviewing 2D and 3D product design data across the extended product development team. eDrawings generates accurate representations of DWGgateway is a free data translation tool that enables any AutoCAD software user to open and edit any DWG file, regardless of the version of AutoCAD it was made in.
SolidWorks Viewer is a free plug-in for viewing SolidWorks parts, assemblies, and drawings.

CAD Productivity Tools

SolidWorks Toolbox is a library of parts that uses "Smart Part" Technology to automatically select fasteners and assemble them in the desired sequence.
SolidWorks Utilities is software that lets designers find differences between two versions of the same part, or locate, modify, and suppress features within a model.
FeatureWorks is feature recognition software that lets designers make changes to static geometric data, increasing the value of translated files. With FeatureWorks, designers can preserve or introduce new design intent when bringing 3D models created in other software into the SolidWorks environment.

Specialty Design Tools

SolidWorks Routing
MoldflowXpress is a mold design validation tool that was built into a solid modeling environment. It enables mold designers to quickly and easily validate whether a plastic injection-molded part can be filled.
SolidWorks MoldBase is a catalog of standard mold base assemblies and components. The package enables designers to generate a completely assembled mold base.
Print3D is a 3D printing feature that allows users to convert their 3D CAD model to an .STL file and then have it sent to specialty manufacturers for quote. The .STL files can be used to generate an instant binding quoted using the Quickquote technology.
DriveWorks Xpress DriveWorksXpress is the easy to use, Rules-based Design Automation tool for SolidWorks Engineers.
Create multiple variations of parts, assemblies and drawings quickly and accurately.

Roles of Engineers in Manufacturing

Many engineers have as their function the designing of the products.The product is brought into reality through the processing or fabrication of materials.

Design Engineer should know what the design is to accomplish what assumption can be made, what service environment of product must withstand what appearance the final product is to have.

To meet  these requirements  the material(s) to be used must be selected and specified. In most cases to utilize the material, and to enable the product to have the desired form, the designer knows that the certain manufacturing process will have to be employed. In many cases the selection of material may dictate the what the manufacturing process must be used or the utilization of the process effectively and economically, certain dimensional size can dictate the process. Design for manufacturing uses the knowledge of manufacturing process,  and so the design and manufacturing engineers should work together to integrate design and manufacturing activities.

Manufacturing Engineers select and coordinate specific process and equipments to be used, Or supervise and manage their use. These engineers must have a broad knowledge about manufacturing process so that desired operation can be done effectively and efficiently without overloading or damaging the machines and without adversely affecting the materials being processed.

Industrial Engineers /Manufacturing Engineers are responsible for the design layout of the factories. They must take into account the inter relationship of design and the properties of the materials.

Material Engineers devote their major efforts to developing new and better materials. They too concerned with how these materials can be processed and with the effects that the processing will have on the properties of the materials. Although their role may be quit different, it is apparent that a large proportion of engineers must concern themselves with the interrelationships of the material and manufacturing process.