A C-level perspective on Industry 5.0
Balancing today and tomorrow in digital manufacturing
Multi-CAD consolidation: one design and collaboration environment
Does your company use multiple CAD packages across teams and departments? Is there smooth communication between all CAD product designs? How much time does your team spend importing, converting, and correcting CAD files?
If your company uses multiple CAD programs, managing all product data and models is likely neither an easy nor efficient task, as each system comes with its own complexities.
Today, very few manufacturers operate within a uniform CAD environment. On average, companies use 2.7 CAD systems. Using multiple CAD systems leads to inefficiencies and redundancies, as data often needs to be recreated, conversion issues arise, and design intent can easily be lost.
The key to working with different CAD systems
PTC Creo CAD software is essential for working in multi-CAD environments. With this CAD tool, designers can open 3D models from other CAD systems and edit the geometry directly, saving time and effort. Creo software integrates 2D, 3D, and other legacy systems that generate different formats.
This simplifies meeting quality, design, and product delivery requirements because no data is lost, models don’t need to be recreated, and duplicate work caused by incorrect exports is avoided. This allows you to open all types of CAD files, such as CATIA, Siemens NX, or SolidWorks, without additional CAD licenses, all on one platform: PTC Creo.
Using a single platform reduces the number of CAD systems and associated costs while increasing engineering productivity and IT efficiency. Additionally, it enhances flexibility in product development through seamless collaboration between different CAD systems. It also reduces the need to create and manage interchangeable or neutral file formats.
By integrating data throughout the entire design process, you can deliver products on time and with accuracy.
Multi-CAD in PLM: the ideal combination. Simplifying product development processes.
By combining Multi-CAD with a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system, you can manage and integrate data from multiple CAD solutions within a single PLM system. This integration simplifies and optimizes product development processes. Data from various CAD systems can be accessed through a single interface, where it can be converted and exchanged between different systems without losing information quality. This enhances flexibility and agility in product development, allowing the most suitable CAD system to be used for each design task.
Within PLM, you can track changes and revisions to data from multiple CAD systems, as well as validate and optimize product performance and quality. Collaboration between departments becomes smoother thanks to a shared data source for all product-related information. This reduces error rates and development costs.
All of this improves the quality and reliability of product development by ensuring data consistency and accuracy across different CAD systems. By leveraging the capabilities and features of various CAD systems on a single platform, companies can focus on innovation and achieving a competitive edge.
Implementing a Multi-CAD Strategy with Windchill
PTC’s Windchill PLM can be seamlessly integrated with Creo's multi-CAD platform, allowing you to ensure data integrity and streamline the product development process. For companies dealing with complex product design and manufacturing, a multi-CAD strategy within a PLM system like Windchill is essential to boost productivity, quality, and competitiveness in an increasingly demanding and dynamic market.
Want to learn more about achieving efficient coordination with CAD and PLM? Contact us!