5 CAD Trends – Shaping the Future of Design and Engineering

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Across industries and sectors, businesses are finding themselves with more to do and fewer resources. The global pandemic has changed design and engineering forever. Successfully getting from design concept to completion requires pivoting and adapting to changes in market and economic conditions, and supply chains. Many small to midsize organizations have turned to cloud-based product development and design technologies to become more agile in several ways.

Design and engineering is entering a new phase—one during which companies compete for business based on the productivity of their people. As a result, companies across multiple industries are expanding their technology investments in areas that empower employees to improve decision-making and achieve greater productivity.

Here are a few of the top CAD trends shaping the future of design and engineering that offer companies ways to remove roadblocks and accelerate productivity:

  1.        Cloud-connected CAD

  2.        Collaborative design

  3.        Rapid development and production

  4.        Improved mobility

  5.        Shift to SaaS

Cloud-connected CAD

The way we work has changed. Design teams often collaborate over great distances and need flexibility to get work done remotely. We have large volumes of drawings to track, making it challenging to find the right file and control revisions. Challenges with securely sharing files, tracking changes, information silos and data bottlenecks make it a struggle to keep everyone on the same page.

Now 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight connects your preferred 2D CAD solution to the cloud for access to new design and data management capabilities. 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight is part of the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio of cloud solutions, bringing all your key stakeholders together onto a single collaborative platform. Once you connect to the platform, you are connected to multiple, purpose-built solutions. 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight is part of the Design/Engineering domain, enabling designers to create and share designs quickly and easily, and allowing key stakeholders to provide feedback throughout the product development process with all the design data stored securely in the cloud.

3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight enables you to manage drawing files and data on the cloud in a collaborative environment connected with DraftSight. Your designs can now be stored online, easily reused, and securely managed. Data cannot be lost or deleted accidentally.

With all the data in the same place, everyone has real-time access to a single source of truth. This helps teams avoid the risk of being out of sync on drawing revisions. The future of design enables designing, editing, and viewing anytime, anywhere, providing real-time access to design information on the cloud.

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Collaborative Design

Collaboration is critical to successful design projects. An increasingly remote and geographically dispersed workforce has made collaboration and shared access to up-to-date information more challenging, and it’s anticipated that more design and engineering work will continue to be done remotely going forward.

Cloud-based technology tools enable organizations to unite multiple disciplines and stakeholders across locations and time zones to work together to accelerate the design process. With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, designers and engineers can move from ideation through delivery in one integrated environment. The built-in collaboration tools provide instant visibility into what your teams are working on and the status on each project.

Companies can eliminate communication silos, making it easy to collaborate with people inside and outside your company, including partners, suppliers, and manufacturers. Engineers and designers can share designs easily, allowing key stakeholders—including non-engineers—to give feedback throughout the product development phase to help reduce downstream delays.

Decisions happen faster when managers and executives participate in design reviews from the earliest stages. On the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, there is no need to install additional plugins to preview 3D and 2D models, which enables non-CAD users to participate in reviews to identify issues earlier in the development process

Rapid Development and Production

Accelerating your design process in a team environment is critical for many companies today. Therefore, eliminating operational and process bottlenecks has become critical for success in both design and engineering, not only to create high-quality products and builds but to get them completed faster.

A recent Tech Clarity, Inc. study showed 33 percent of design and engineering time is spent on non-value-added work. The amount of time you can spend innovating, and designing, and adding value is competing with everyday tasks that offer little value.

The cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform reduces non-value-added activities (meetings, emails, data replication, searching for files) and has workflows for drawing readiness, including signoff and approvals along with the distribution of drawings and access rights. All these powerful tools make it easy to go from concept to design, to production quickly and efficiently.

Improved Mobility

Our phones hold hundreds of thousands of data files. We’ve become accustomed to having all our data accessible, and that expectation of mobility extends to the workplace. Access to CAD data has always been crucial at the work site, but previously that may have been just the files that you thought you needed. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform expands that to having all your data safe, secure, and accessible on the cloud at any time, from any device – even your smartphone.

3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight is part of the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio of cloud solutions, bringing all your key stakeholders together on a single collaborative platform. Once you connect to the platform, you are connected to multiple, purpose-built solutions through your role. 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight is part of the Design/Engineering role, and many apps run solely in a web browser, so you can not only view the data from any device, but you can also create data.

Shift to SaaS

Was your organization left high and dry when other CAD vendors took the flexibility of using a network license away from you? Across CAD software providers, there has been a sweeping transition to subscription individual licenses. Prices have risen and licensing models have changed, increasing the overall cost of CAD for many organizations.

DraftSight helps free up your IT budget for innovation. You’ll be able to expand team access to CAD by being able to purchase more 2D seats with lighter hardware requirements. DraftSight further supports team access to CAD with the option of network licenses.

For CAD users who value a choice in ownership, DraftSight Enterprise and Enterprise Plus offer the flexibility of network licenses. If your organization has multiple CAD users, or multiple sites, you’ll appreciate having options to work efficiently. DraftSight offers the flexibility of network licenses locally, regionally, or globally. Network licenses are designed for easy installation in a network environment and are suitable for large-scale deployment.

With DraftSight, you can increase ROI without sacrificing quality or productivity. Compare DraftSight to other CAD software to find the best solution for your business.

Preparing for the Future

Technology will continue to play a significant role in improving productivity. By prioritizing IT investments that address the CAD trends outlined here, organizations can empower employees to improve decision-making, increase ROI, and achieve greater productivity in 2022 and beyond.

Ready to learn more? Get started with a free 30-day trial of DraftSight.

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DraftSight

Proven DWG-file-based CAD at the best value on the market. DraftSight, brought to you by Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE company, has been trusted by millions of users worldwide. DraftSight provides a familiar, intuitive 2D drafting experience with options for advanced productivity tools, 3D design capabilities, parametric constraints, and flexible licensing options including perpetual licenses and network licenses for organizations with multiple users or sites. DraftSight’s command and file compatibility and support for legacy drawings and data like Dynamic Blocks facilitate a quick transition from AutoCAD with a minimal learning curve. Visit DraftSight.com to learn more.
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