Collaborating on CAD design is essential to effective product development. Facilitating the team to work together increases checkpoints, provides unbiased feedback and reviews, and adds complementary expertise to optimize the final production part.
Whatever the application, CAD files are essential to product design and development but sharing CAD is not always straightforward. In this article, we explain the pros and cons of native vs. neutral CAD formats, when to use 2D vs. 3D files, and what happens when you export CAD to a PDF or TIFF file.
Greg Smyth, a former Group Manager at Tesla turned Career Pivot Coach at Career Pivot Accelerator, has significant experience managing supply chains for large-scale projects in the automotive and energy industries. On episode 1 of Peer Check, he sat down with host and CoLab CEO Adam Keating to talk about lessons learned along the way.
Going from initial brainstorms to finished design isn’t a straight line for engineering projects. The design cycle is inherently iterative, and more complexity in the design only leads to more complexity in the process. The more complex the design process, the more chances there are for the project timeline to get longer and longer. So when you’re responsible for hitting the mark on deadlines, schedules, and budgets—you want to take advantage of every single efficiency that will keep your design cycles moving along as fast as possible.
While 2D drawings and documents haven’t disappeared completely yet, the move toward model-based methods of working is picking up serious steam. And just like the shift from drafting tables to CAD programs, this evolution is impacting the skills that are essential for mechanical engineers. So in September 2021, CoLab Software’s Mark Morreale and Action Engineering’s Jennifer Herron sat down for a live chat about skill development for the model-based world.
If your team is still (or once again) trying to phase out paper-based work, you might be trying to figure out how to help everyone get on board with a new digital process. This post offers suggestions for guiding your team through a process change, like going paperless or adopting a new digital tool, so you can get the buy-in you need to get everyone aligned on the same page.
CAD is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating physical products. While you may already understand that the Bill of Materials (BOM) plays an important role in product development, it’s worth taking time to consider where this critical item fits within your existing processes. After all, even with flawless design data, if your BOM isn’t right—your product won’t be, either.
From Model-Based Definition (MBD) to the full-on Model-Based Enterprise (MBE), the engineering world has been steadily heading in this direction for years. The technology is starting to catch up to the vision, and we’re seeing industry leaders gaining the organizational capacity to make big shifts to the way their product development happens.
This post looks at the evolution of collaboration in mechanical design and engineering—from the changes that have already taken place in recent decades to insights on what’s next in the coming years.
Getting input on a design from multiple collaborators and stakeholders can be challenging on its own. Just to get it done, it takes a lot of admin work, organization, email tag, meeting requests, and all that other fun stuff. But “just getting it done” is only half the battle—the quality of the input matters, too.
While new tech solutions and modernized processes are changing the game for many teams, there are still plenty of face-palm-able moments that most engineers will be familiar with. So we’ve rounded up this list of highly-dreaded phrases that we hope will give you a little laugh and a little validation to know: you’re not alone.
There’s been talk about “going paperless” for decades. The conversation has, of course, evolved over time—but what’s really at the root of the discussion? Putting buzzwords aside, what do all these paperless initiatives mean when it comes to engineering drawings?
The idea that any engineering team today can work with one single CAD system and one single CAD system only? It’s basically a pipe dream. Maybe internally, your team can get by using the same CAD software across the company—but as soon as you start involving people outside your organization, the need for effective multi-CAD collaboration is clear.
Now that the initial remote work scramble has cooled off and the global vaccine rollout is moving ahead, more and more businesses are looking beyond the immediate once again. Instead of being forced to make reactive choices, we’ve learned from the rapid shift to remote work and we’re getting back to strategic, proactive decision-making. So this seems like an apt time to consider the pros and cons of collaborating on mechanical design using Microsoft Teams.
Despite the evolution of design and manufacturing in the past few decades, design review remains an archaic process compared to the advanced CAD and PLM tools that surround it. If your organization wants the benefits of efficient, reliable design review and real-time collaboration, start here.
Why is it so challenging for engineering design teams to find simple ways to collaborate virtually? It’s a complicated question, but our team talks to engineers about this on a daily basis. Here are three broad themes we consistently hear from design teams trying to solve their digital collaboration challenges.
One year after a global pandemic forced businesses everywhere to change, what have we learned? Find out what engineering managers can take away from 2020 so their teams can work better, smarter, and more collaboratively.
In 2018, CoLab approached the Johnson Controls Chillers team with a question. What is your biggest pain point in product development? The answer: Communication. Together, CoLab and JCI committed to solving it.
Despite the evolution of design and manufacturing in the past few decades, design review remains an archaic process compared to the advanced CAD and PLM tools that surround it. If your organization wants the benefits of efficient, reliable design review and real-time collaboration, start here.
This article is part of CoLab's new State of Engineering Collaboration Series which will interview a diverse mix of mechanical engineering professionals and industry thought leaders with a goal of better understanding the day to day challenges engineers face and to keep a pulse on the trends that will shape the profession in the years ahead. The following is an interview we recently had with Alison Olechowski , Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto.
This article is part of CoLab's new State of Engineering Collaboration Series which will interview a diverse mix of mechanical engineering professionals and industry thought leaders with a goal of better understanding the day to day challenges engineers face and to keep a pulse on the trends that will shape the profession in the years ahead. The following is an interview we recently had with Robert Hurlston, co-founder of Fidelis Engineering Associates.
This article is part of CoLab's new State of Engineering Collaboration Series which will interview a diverse mix of mechanical engineering professionals and industry thought leaders with a goal of better understanding the day to day challenges engineers face and to keep a pulse on the trends that will shape the profession in the years ahead. The following is an interview we recently had with Matt Bailey, Vice President, Mechanical Engineering at Design 1st.
This article is part of CoLab's new State of Engineering Collaboration Series which will interview a diverse mix of mechanical engineering professionals and industry thought leaders with a goal of better understanding the day to day challenges engineers face and to keep a pulse on the trends that will shape the profession in the years ahead.
This article is part of CoLab's new State of Engineering Collaboration Series which will interview a diverse mix of mechanical engineering professionals and industry thought leaders with a goal of better understanding the day to day challenges engineers face and to keep a pulse on the trends that will shape the profession in the years ahead.
James is a Mechanical Engineer/CAD Specialist with 10 years of general engineering experience and is currently one of 3,300 SolidWorks users worldwide with CSWE expert level certification from Dassault Systemes. He’s been working with local, domestic, and international clients for the past 4 and a half years as a freelance engineer.
After speaking to hundreds of engineers, designers and managers this year, we’ve compiled the top 7 problems in the engineering design review process and brief insights into solutions for you to implement today.
This October, CoLab hosted a webinar demonstrating the state of design review in 2020, and where we’re headed into the future. Hosted by CoLab CEO Adam Keating, Adam & the audience discussed key priorities for 2021 including improving overall efficiency, shortening review cycles, reducing change orders and enabling better supply-chain collaboration.
Has your design team been feeling overwhelmed? Maybe it's finally time to find that new hire that could save your team some stress. We're here to help with some advice for finding that next SolidWorks Star for your team.
.svg)
