We’ve been working with Hawk Ridge Systems for more than 10 years. The capabilities of the SolidWorks software allows us to be efficient and it’s easier to use than wire frame programs. The tech support has also been a benefit to my team.

SolidWorks Products: SolidWorks Professional

SolidWorks 3D Design – Transform your Ideas into Business Results

SolidWorks 3D CAD Design software offers three packages building in functionality and tiered to best suit the needs of your organization. All packages utilize the intuitive SolidWorks user interface to speed your design process and make you instantly productive.

SolidWorks Premium SolidWorks Professional SolidWorks Standard
A no-compromise solution for the engineer who wants it all. SolidWorks Premium combines the capabilities of SolidWorks Professional with powerful simulation and design validation toolsets, as well as advanced wire and pipe routing functionality. You will get designs right the first time with the SolidWorks flagship offering.
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For maximum design productivity, SolidWorks Professional builds on the capabilities of SolidWorks Standard. It introduces data management, photo realistic rendering, and a sophisticated components and parts library. Efficiency and innovation increase with the solution that is used by millions of designers.
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A powerful 3D design solution for rapid creation of parts, assemblies and 2D drawings with minimal training. Application-specific tools for sheet metal, weldments, surfacing, mold tool and die make it easy to deliver best-in-class designs. Unlock the benefits of 3D with SolidWorks Standard.
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SolidWorks 2012
New tools and features to work faster and more productively
Simulation
Automated motion optimization expands design validation
Design Costing
Automated costing integrated with design keeps you on budget
Sustainable Design
Improve environmental impact with powerful, easy-to-use tools
Large Design Review
Get quick access to review and edit massive assemblies
Technical Communication
Create stunning visuals with new 3DVIA Composer™ effects
Drawings
New automated tools to create more detailed drawings faster
Data Management
Optimize development with design reuse and collaboration
Sheet Metal
New tools and precision controls to craft complex designs
   
DriveWorksXpress DriveWorksXpress: DriveWorksXpress is the easy to use, Rules-based Design Automation tool for SolidWorks Engineers, allowing users to create multiple variations of parts, assemblies and drawings quickly and accurately.
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Animation Animation: Explode an assembly. Move interactive parts. Fly around your model. Rotate it to any angle. With SolidWorks Animator you can do it all without being an expert in animation.
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3D Content Central 3D ContentCentral: 3D ContentCentral® is an online service for locating, configuring, and downloading free 3D CAD models of supplier parts, components, and assemblies. By joining the 3D ContentCentral® community, designers and engineers can find, configure, and download supplier certified CAD models of common supplier parts and off-the-shelf components for incorporation in product designs.
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eDrawings Publisher eDrawings Publisher: Collaborate more effectively with everyone involved in product development by using eDrawings™ software, the first email-enabled communication tool that dramatically eases sharing of product design information. Fast, reliable, and convenient, eDrawings files supply accurate representations of 3D models and 2D drawings created with the most widely used CAD systems on the market.
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eDrawings Professional eDrawings Professional: Collaborate more effectively with everyone involved in product development by using eDrawings™ software, the first email-enabled communication tool that dramatically eases sharing of product design information. Fast, reliable, and convenient, eDrawings files supply accurate representations of 3D models and 2D drawings created with the most widely used CAD systems on the market.
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Solidworks Toolbox SolidWorks Toolbox: Here's a simple, affordable way to be more productive every day. It's SolidWorks Toolbox. No more thumbing through parts catalogs to check values and specifications. No more fiddling to make pieces fit into your model. No more stacking one-washer-one-bolt-one-nut at a time.
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PhotoView 360 PhotoView 360: PhotoView 360 allows busy engineers to create highly realistic photorealistic renderings. Use PhotoView 360 to leverage your SolidWorks 3D models for presentations, proposals, or virtual and material studies –before creating any parts. You’ll save time, while eliminating the high costs of prototyping and photography.
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FeatureWorks FeatureWorks: With FeatureWorks®, sharing data between different CAD systems is easy. The first parametric feature recognition software for SolidWorks 3D CAD users, FeatureWorks enables more productive sharing of 3D models between SolidWorks and other CAD systems.
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Solidworks Utilities SolidWorks Utilities: SolidWorks Utilities finds differences between two versions of the same part quickly and easily, and identifies and highlights problematic geometry in a part. It can also find, modify, and suppress features within a model. SolidWorks Utilities features six categories of functionality, along with customized HTML reporting and full-integration with SolidWorks. All of which makes it a significant productivity tool.
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Solidworks Workgroup PDM SolidWorks Workgroup PDM: Control CAD file revisions and manage all project data more efficiently with SolidWorks PDMWorks Workgroup product data management (PDM) software.
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Solidworks Design Checker SolidWorks Design Checker: Streamline your organization's design release process with SolidWorks Design Checker, a productivity tool that automatically identifies elements that may be inconsistent with your organization's design standards. The SolidWorks Design Checker is integrated into the SolidWorks software interface, making it easy for you to spot and fix potential errors before releasing designs.
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Solidworks Task Scheduler SolidWorks Task Scheduler: The SolidWorks Task Scheduler lets you set up tasks to perform at a future time. For example, if you need to perform a resource-intensive task such as rebuilding a large assembly or printing all drawings from a project, you can use SolidWorks Task Scheduler to perform the job at off-peak hours. You can schedule a task to be performed only once or on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. SolidWorks Task Scheduler runs separately from the SolidWorks application.
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  SolidWorks
Premium
SolidWorks
Professional
SolidWorks
Standard

Part and Assembly Modeling

3D Solid Modeling yes yes yes
Large assembly design capabilities yes yes yes
Advanced surfacing yes yes yes
Sheet metal yes yes yes
Weldments yes yes yes
Mold Design yes yes yes
Read PCB data as 3D parts yes yes yes
Direct model modification yes yes yes
Full ECAD-MCAD data exchange yes    
Piping/tubing Design yes    
Electrical Cable/Harness design yes    

2D Drawings

Automatic Drawing View Creation yes yes yes
Automatic Drawing View Updates yes yes yes
Dimensioning yes yes yes
Annotation yes yes yes
Bills of Materials, cut lists yes yes yes
Automatic hole tables, weld tables, and pipe bending data yes yes yes
International standards support yes yes yes
Drawing Control (compare) yes yes yes
Standards Checking yes yes  
Flattened harness drawings yes    

Design reuse and Automation

SolidWorks Search yes yes yes
Design Automation yes yes yes
Configurations yes yes yes
Design Library yes yes yes
3D Models from Suppliers yes yes yes
Smart Components and Smart Fasteners yes yes yes
Standard Component Library yes yes  
Task Scheduler yes yes  

Animations and Renderings

Assembly animation yes yes yes
Walk-through/fly through animations yes yes yes
Photorealistic rendering yes yes  

Design Validation and Simulation

Collision and Interference Detection yes yes yes
Hole Alignment checks yes yes yes
Check manufacturability yes yes yes
Fluid flow simulation yes yes yes
Sustainability yes yes yes
Draft and undercut analysis yes yes yes
Tolerance stack-up analysis yes    
Kinematic motion simulation yes    
Structural validation yes    

Collaborate and Share

Import/export yes yes yes
3D for rapid prototyping yes yes yes
Utilize 2D DWG/DXF data yes yes yes
Protect design information while sharing yes yes yes
eDrawings yes yes yes
eDrawings Professional yes yes  
Feature recognition yes yes  
Data Vaulting and revision control yes yes  
Import scanned data yes    

Datasheets

What's New in SolidWorks 2012
Discover what's new in SolidWorks 2012 and learn how you can improve your 3D CAD designs.
SolidWorks Premium 2012 Brochure
Built around our 3d cad software, SolidWorks® Premium provides a complete suite of built-in simulation, routing, and presentation tools. you’ll also have our highest level of support anytime you need it.
SolidWorks 2012 Datasheet
SolidWorks® Premium 2012 improves productivity and innovation with ease of use, powerful functionality, and world-class support in one package. Cut design time, improve collaboration across your entire team, and reduce manufacturing costs.

White Papers

White Paper: 4 Tips for Successfully Implementing Your CAD System
Congratulations! You have just purchased new 3D CAD software that promises to help your engineers design innovative products faster and with fewer errors. The steps outlined in this paper should help your company realize the benefits of your new toolset.
White Paper: 9 Criteria for Choosing a 3D CAD System
In the discrete manufacturing industries, between one-third and one-half of the CAD systems in use today are 3D. The rest are used for 2D computer-aided drafting.1 Although some tasks will always be done more efficiently with 2D CAD, these figures suggest many organizations have yet to employ 3D methods. The good news for potential second-half adopters is that they can benefit from the wisdom and experience of engineers who have been using 3D methods for 10 or 20 years. The following is a compilation of nine criteria that users of 2D CAD should consider when shopping for their first 3D system.
White Paper: Bridging the Worlds of 2D and 3D CAD Design
In this paper, we highlight the advantages of designing with SolidWorks® 3D CAD software as well as explaining how to leverage your existing 2D CAD data once you have decided to go 3D.
White Paper: Proven Strategies to Fuel Your Design Team
Continuous improvement separates great companies from mediocre ones. Innovative products, efficient manufacturing, and an energized staff are attributes of a company constantly looking at itself and asking, “How can we do this better?”
White Paper: Squeeze Time and Money Out of Production Using Design for Manufacturability
Product design does not occur in a vacuum and has a significant impact on manufacturing. In fact, 3D design carries even greater potential for streamlining production processes, especially when you take advantage of Design for Manufacturability tools and applications. With these technologies, you can avoid the manufacturing delays, cost overruns, and shop-floor retrofits that work against your company’s success and competitive position.
White Paper: SolidWorks Software Swift Technology
While most designers understand how powerful the capabilities of 3D CAD software can be, many of these same users may have felt they were forced to spend a significant amount of time mastering the system to recognize the inherent benefits. SWIFT™ is just one of the things that lets any SolidWorks® software user realize the benefits of 3D CAD without having to learn complicated techniques. In other words, SWIFT lets you focus less on the CAD tool and more on your design.
White Paper: Using Design Automation to Reduce Costs, Increase Profitability
By implementing design automation, engineer-to-order manufacturers can complete days of custom engineering in just minutes. Design automation also expedites and simplifies the creation of SolidWorks® software models, drawings, quote documents, manufacturing data—virtually any requirement of the custom sales process.
White Paper: Recharge Electronics and High-Tech Product Development With SolidWorks Software
The increasingly rapid pace of technology development—with an abundance of electronic products and new technologies hitting the global market at an unprecedented rate—creates many challenges for manufacturers. To succeed in this competitive environment, developing innovative products more quickly, more cost-effectively, and at higher levels of quality has become more important than ever. With integrated SolidWorks® software solutions, you can refine, consolidate, and improve your development processes—and deliver new technology applications and innovative electronic products faster than the competition.
White Paper: 9 Criteria for Choosing a 3D CAD System
In the discrete manufacturing industries, between one-third and one-half of the CAD systems in use today are 3D. The rest are used for 2D computer-aided drafting. Although some tasks will always be done more efficiently with 2D CAD, these figures suggest many organizations have yet to employ 3D methods.
White Paper: How SolidWorks Software Speeds Consumer Product Design
SolidWorks® Premium bridges the gap between industrial design and engineering by providing powerful surfacing capabilities, the ability to easily import geometry from dedicated industrial design tools, and the industry’s top mechanical engineering environment—all rolled into one package. In this paper, you will learn how SolidWorks software provides a complete modeling environment for taking designs from concept to manufacturing.
Implementation Guide: Modeling in 3D with SolidWorks
SolidWorks® helps you move through the design cycle smarter. We live in a 3D world, so by designing in a 3D environment, your team can create real solutions faster, more accurately, and more creatively.
Implementation Guide: Sketching with SolidWorks
SolidWorks® helps you move through the design cycle clearer. With intuitive sketching tools, your team can automatically dimension their sketches as they draw, for more accurate designs.
Implementation Guide: Navigating the SolidWorks User Interface
SolidWorks® helps you move through the design cycle easily. With a customizable user interface, each team member team can create their own convenient and efficient SolidWorks environment.
Technical Paper: Best Practices for Data Migration Success
Although switching to 3D CAD software dramatically improves business performance, the investment raises questions about how to handle legacy data. How much, if any, should be converted to 3D models? When do you convert it? Which data do you convert? How can you avoid errors? What has proven successful for other companies?

Introduction to SolidWorks

Introduction to SolidWorks (5 days)
This is a course to teach the basic fundamentals of using SolidWorks. The course is run over 2 weeks; 2 days the first week, 3 days the second week. Basic solid modeling concepts are covered in the first week. The second week covers 2D drawings, assemblies, Sheet Metal, and advanced modeling techniques. File management, user resources, and exporting information are also covered.

Advanced SolidWorks Topics

Advanced Modeling (2 days)
This course teaches complex solid and surface modeling techniques. It is a two day class designed to help users who routinely create intricate models. Surfaces, multi bodies, and specialized features not covered in the Introduction to SolidWorks course are covered in detail in this class.
Advanced Assemblies (1 day)
This course teaches users how to make better and more efficient SolidWorks assemblies faster. Using mating tools to quickly put together a model and how to design for complex motion. Assembly configurations and large assembly management help you navigate assemblies more quickly and efficiently.
Advanced Detailing (1 day)
This course covers creating detailed technical drawings using SolidWorks. Import and set up of a title block and template. Preparing a model for easier annotating, using DimXpert and Auto-dimension tools are shown. Complex assembly motion, tabulated drawings, and creating hole charts are also covered.
Advanced Sheet Metal (1 day)
This course covers sheet metal design and detailing. Learn how to create forming tools from scratch. Create a detailed 2D drawing showing flat and bent states. How to import and export sheet metal files. Also covered is modeling sheet metal within an assembly and multi body sheet metal files.
Electrical Routing (1 day)
This course teaches how to use the Routing component included in SolidWorks Premium to create electrical wires, cables, and wire harnesses. Creating libraries of connectors, wires, and clips is covered. Also how to create peg-board layouts and detailed drawings of harnesses complete with wire cut lengths and a schedule of all connectors, and pin connections is demonstrated.
Mold Design (1 day)
This course teaches several mold making techniques, using automatic and manual processes to develop cavity and core components. Using analysis tools to develop optimal parting lines, while checking for draft and undercuts in your geometry. How to import and repair information coming from other 3D platforms. Also covered is creating complex multi-core molds with multiple parting directions.
Piping and Tubing (1 day)
This course teaches how to use the Routing component included in SolidWorks Premium to create pipes, as well as rigid and flexible tubing. Learn how to use libraries of flanges, tees, valves and reducers to flesh out a fluid route. Also covered is making detailed drawings with a list of components needed to run a route.
Weldments (1 day)
This course covers how to quickly create welded structures out of extruded members and plate components. Automatically generating cut lists and creating plan views of items. Weld beads, gussets and end caps are also covered. We also show how to work with structural pipes and tubes to create a weldment.
Import and Inspection (1 day)
This course is specialized for users that only need to import geometry from other 3D platforms and then produce detailed drawings from them. Auto-Dimension and DimXpert tools are covered in depth.
CircuitWorks (1/2 day)
This is a course to teach the basic fundamentals of using the CircuitWorks add-in included with SolidWorks Premium. This allows ECAD systems and SolidWorks to communicate through this translator. PADs and IDF files can be converted to 3D models to allow mechanical engineers to incorporate PCB boards and components into their SolidWorks designs.
SolidWorks API (2 days)
The API Fundamentals course is designed to familiarize users with SolidWorks’ API (Application Programming Interface). The API can be use to customize and automate tasks in SolidWorks. It can also be use to integrate SolidWorks with other programs such as MRP/ERP systems and CAM systems. Understanding and utilizing the API can greatly enhance your SolidWorks experience, and save you time and money.
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