You can look at https://www.solidreporter.com/en/

Deepak Gupta
SOLIDWORKS Champion and Expert
SW 2022 SP0.0, 2021 SP5.1 and 2020 SP5.0
Boxer's SOLIDWORKS Blog

I've always thought that any kind of program that tracks my time "working" on a particular drawing, or model would be disastrous to my career...
I often have 30 different models or drawings open at any given time...
I may even have something on my screen, but I could be out on the shop floor dealing with something.
I spend time on McMaster Carr and other sites looking for components...
I spend time on the phone with our customers, and our vendors discussing projects.
I spend time brainstorming on the white board with coworkers on how to do a new project...
Maybe "drafters" spend more time actually drafting in Solidworks, and on one project at a time, but all of the jobs I've had as an engineer, my time varies widely on how much time I'm actually working on a file that is open in Soldiworks.
Maybe 2-3 days each week I'm able to really focus my efforts and work on one job continuously...

David
Connect with me on LinkedIn. http://lnkd.in/fY7-QK
Quote: "If it ain't broke, I must not've fixed it good enough"

Most tracking software that are not cloud based, will be able to determine if you are idle in SW and if so then it usually doesn't count that as time against you. If you have network licenses there a ways of tracking within there (Coding in the network license manager), but you really need a 3rd party software to determine the information you are getting back. I used to use JTB Flex report to track users, usage and usage times. https://www.jtbworld.com/jtb-flexreport

But with standalone licenses you will need something like solid reporter... hopefully their software notices when the license is not being used for X amount of time and does not record that time. Which is worth asking.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Mechanical Engineer
Ciholas
https://www.ciholas.com/

Quote:

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

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Long ago I had a user come to me - they had created a new drawing, printed it ink-on-mylar, and the following morning could not locate the file. They thought there was some secret place the software stored them.

I took a look in all the usual locations, no luck. Then, since the software create a journal of all the commands I looked for that. In it I found the full day's worth of work, including plotting. Not one save command. At the end was "Do you want to save?" The recorded answer was "No."

So I trimmed away the plotting part and the exiting part part and re-ran it. It took less than 45 minutes to recreate the drawing from the journal.

It exemplifies that a large amount of creative work isn't the manipulation of the interface but is taken up by deciding what is best to do and that is something a time-tracker will do badly, particularly one that cannot tell if you are working out a sketch on a napkin, looking up information in a catalog, asking for clarification. The trend to micromanage like this rewards users who fill the time with useless zooming and scrolling and other activities that don't help.

I have used numerous programs to track project hours, not for parts/assy/dwgs.
I had one Director that tried to do this, he lasted maybe 1.5 years. We all spent more time trying to track hours for every little detail than doing the actual work.

ctopher, CSWP
SolidWorks '19
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