Driveworks

[J-C]

Does anyone here have experience with the full Driveworks product (not express)?

Any idea of the cost of the different licenses?

Does it have an API for additional customization beyonds its current capabilities?

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[josephv]

Hi Jason,

Good day, I have used the DriveWorks Engineer.

Unfortunately, I don't have price information on the different licenses. I would recommend contacting DriveWorks to find a local reseller for this info:

http://www.driveworks.co.uk/resellers.html

My understanding is that DriveWorks does not have its' own API but it can launch macros and communicate with several different databases and applications (.EXE executable).

Question, is there a particular capability that you are looking for that is not available with DriveWorks?


cheers,

 

[J-C]

Actually I don't know exactly what its capable of other than what I've seen in the express version. The regular version looks like it does a lot more.

Just feeling it out before I decide to contact a reseller for a demo.

We currently manually program our products in a mainframe database and it gets very complicated. Most drawings are setup with variables (A, B. C, etc..) and a printout of the calculated variables for a job are supplied with the drawing. The Solidworks model is not calculated in the process and many of the drawings are Autocad or even old hand drawings.

So I've been tasked with seeing if SolidWorks can be used to do this but it sounds like we will need something like Driveworks for a front end.

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[josephv]

Hi Jason,

Here is an idea...

Some resellers offer DriveWorks University sessions where you can learn about the product and automate some of your models. It is a very practical way to learn what the software can do.

What I like about DriveWorks is its' ability to use lookup tables. This is very powerful and it allows one to create different combinations and permutations of one's product. There is no need for long nested if statements thanks to lookup tables.

good luck,

 

[J-C]

Thanks.

Do you know if Driveworks will work with assemblies that are Top-down (in-context). Someone on the Solidworks forums mentioned that it does not.....or rather it does not maintain the in-context links.

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[JMirisola]

Jason,
I sent an email off to my contact at DriveWorks about that. I'm hoping to hear from her soon...

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[josephv]

DriveWorks does work with top down (external references) or bottom up (without external references).

However, from a best practices point of view it is better to create models that do not have: external references, configurations, design tables and equations....
and let DriveWorks do all the work (all the math).