CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
30 November 2005
Product News
SolidWorks Signs 1,000th Partner as it Continues to Integrate Key Tools that Help Engineers Design Better Products Faster
SolidWorks Corporation announced that it has signed the 1,000th company to join the SolidWorks Solution Partner Program. The largest market opportunity and the best partnership program are why more partners have integrated their solutions with SolidWorks® 3D mechanical design software than any other 3D CAD software on the market. This comprehensive menu of engineering applications ensures engineers working in SolidWorks have all of the tools they need on their desktop to be more creative and productive.
SolidWorks' partner program is a boon to engineers working under tight deadlines. This is especially true for U.K.-based motorcycle component manufacturer Oberon Engineering, Ltd., which wanted to streamline its development operations. The company chose an integrated solution featuring SolidWorks software and solution partner SolidCAM's computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software to avoid forcing its engineers to learn several different CAD and CAM software interfaces.
"We needed a streamlined system that made every stage from product design through manufacturing fast and easy, and we didn't want to have to deploy and learn five new applications to achieve that goal," said Oberon Managing Director Steve Evans. "The integration between SolidWorks and SolidCAM gives us one interface through which we have comprehensive design and manufacturing capabilities, saving us a lot of time and effort."
In 10 years, the SolidWorks Partner Program has grown dramatically. With more than 452,000 users around the world, SolidWorks software presents a goldmine of opportunities to potential partners. Additionally, SolidWorks doesn't charge vendors for the partnership, unlike other CAD software providers. Instead, it encourages them to develop helpful tools that will work with SolidWorks software-even offering them an on-site development lab to create new products and test their integration with SolidWorks.
"We have integrated DriveWorks design automation/engineer-to-order software with SolidWorks because it represents the largest market opportunity for us," said DriveWorks Vice President of Marketing Maria Sarkar. "SolidWorks has more users than any other 3D CAD software in the industry, and having mouse-click access to DriveWorks directly in their design window will help customers accelerate product development, while letting us tap the fastest growing market for 3D design software. Moreover, SolidWorks lowered the barriers to partnership that its competitors impose, making it easy to integrate our two products so that engineers have the best tools available to them."
SolidWorks Certified Gold Products are fully integrated with SolidWorks software and provide users with instant access to partner applications within the SolidWorks window. Certified CAM and Solution Partner products offer a variety of integration methods with SolidWorks software, including direct import of native SolidWorks files, the SolidWorks application programming interface (API), and established industry standard file formats.
"We decided early on that we would develop the best all-around 3D mechanical design software on the market and partner with experts in a broad range of engineering fields that fit nicely with our products," said SolidWorks Solutions Partner Program Manager Brian Houle. "To grow that program, we knew we would have to make it easy and enticing for companies to work with us. Our success is borne out by this milestone."
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