4 Practical Reasons You Need CAD Data Management Software

The next generation of engineering companies have a significant challenge ahead. Teams are spread apart, even across different time zones. Competition is increasing with firms around the globe. Customers demand better products faster. How can engineering teams choose a strategy that helps them overcome these challenges and deliver on the expectations of their customers?

What should a team that is not satisfied with their current approach do? Like Newton’s First Law of Motion which states, “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.”(NASA), the only way to change your trajectory, is to change something! Adjust your process, change your team’s strategy, or invest in the right tools. For example, an engineering team could invest in a CAD data management software to improve their design process.

A CAD data management software could help engineering teams in the following ways:

Benefits of CAD Data Management Software

1. Better teamwork through better organization.

Work better as a team with organized information and easier collaboration. For example:

• Templates for better organization: A CAD Data Management software can help your team stay organized. Everyone might have their own ideas of how to organize their product information and work processes. In some cases, it doesn’t matter how great the process is, what matters more is that everyone is using a consistent process. Consistency will then bring clarity and structure to the design work.
• Permission control: A simple way to control who can do what with files is to control access. The manufacturing team doesn’t always need the ability to edit the designs. The whole company doesn’t need to view everything. Being able to control who can do what can help keep files secure and organized. CAD files should have controlled access considering the critical information stored in product designs.
• Design Status: Identifying CAD files with status and comments to easily provide file updates keeps everyone on the same page. Comments about status changes and design updates don’t need to be scattered across systems. Keeping that information in one place helps teams stay on track.

2. Increase productivity through automation.

Time to market is critical for engineering teams in competitive product markets. Increasing productivity in designs can help teams speed up the product creation process and improve time to market. A CAD data management software can help teams automate tasks such as:

• Creating part numbers: Creating part numbers in standardized formats and best practices.
• Letting the team know about changes: automatic notifications to let teams know about changes.
• Receiving feedback on designs: improve the design review process by making it easier to share, review, and comment on designs.
• Version control: No more naming files filename_v3, or my favorite Automatically create a version when you check it out and check it in.
• Revision control: Control revisions with built in revision naming conventions and workflows to assist in the release of designs.
• Search: We spend a lot of time simply looking for the right information. Automating and speeding up this process can save us time that we can use on designing.

3. File accessibility through web-based solutions.

In today’s remote world where you can work with a team across cities and across time zones, keeping communication efficient is key. How can you provide updates without needing to jump on a call? By having information accessible from anywhere and updating status in real time. Web-based cad data management solutions allow teams to share information easily without the challenges of connecting to a VPN. Your team can stay on track, know who is working on what, and easily provide updates in one place.

4. Decision clarity with information at your fingertips.

Making decisions is easier with more information. CAD data management software can give you information to help you make decisions about the design process. This can then give you clarity to make the right decisions for your team. For example:

• Keeping everything in one place: Do you have all the information you need to make the correct decisions? Having all the files and information in one place can help you track the status and understand how you got to where you are today.
• Information outside of the actual design file: With a configurable CAD data management solution, you can add additional information that is key to your process. For example, you could add tags to identify a product’s customer, supplier, cost, or area.

Strategy for the next generation of building. How does CAD data management software fit in?

How does CAD data management software fit into a winning strategy? Companies need to make more information available so they can use their data to make better decisions and stay digital. Storing your information all in one place is the first step.

Storing information in one place includes having a CAD data management solution to allow you to keep all your design files and data in one place.

Develop a strategy to better organize your files and process. Having the system is only the first step, having a good process is the key to bringing the most value and impact to the team. The CAD data management system is only a tool to facilitate easier organization and design workflows.

Use information from your CAD data management software to give you a data driven decision analysis.

Conclusion

Engineering teams need to remain competitive and take advantage of tools that can help their workflow. This can help engineers stay on track with tasks and improve their time to market. CAD Data management software can help them stay organized, increase productivity, and make better decisions with information at their fingertips.

To learn more about CAD data management solutions, get a demo with an expert and see a CAD data management software live with a product tour of Vistapoint PDM.