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The amount of design and engineering related data created today, in what could be considered Engineering 3.0, is staggering enough, but as companies move into the realm of Engineering 4.0, the amount of resulting data will explode.\u00a0Thus the need to efficiently organize, store, and retrieve this data so it can be leveraged will be of utmost importance.<\/p>\n
A brief history on\u00a0Engineering design tools<\/a>\u00a0is in order here. Engineering 1.0 started a long time ago when people started making diagrams to communicate design ideas up until the digital age when computers arrived on the scene. This brought about applications running on main frame computers to run analysis programs and 2D drafting. Engineering 2.0 was mainly relegated to large corporations that could afford these systems. Then in the 90\u2019s the information age hits with easy access to data via the internet and low cost powerful 3D CAD applications running on personal computers, this gave birth to Engineering 3.0. Engineering 4.0<\/a> is considered to the age of automation and connected devices (Internet of Things<\/strong>).<\/p>\n Small companies running traditional file-based design tools still create a ton of data and use shared network locations and local user hard drives to store it.\u00a0\u00a0 One might think this method is basically free as no extra data management software is being used, but it is still data management and it is not free.\u00a0 Users need to remember and use manual processes to find data, create versions, restrict file access, and gain approvals for their work.\u00a0 This all takes extra effort and is error prone and inconsistent and thus has costs associated with it. The common errors include:<\/p>\n There is even talk today of systems with \u201cinvisible data management,\u201d which isn\u2019t exactly true.\u00a0 Just like the scientific theory that you can\u2019t observe something without changing it, you can\u2019t manage data without some user overhead.\u00a0 Don\u2019t misunderstand; it should be the goal of any data management system<\/a>, or any application for that matter, to reduce the amount of mental overhead a user needs to devote to it, but getting to the point where it is completely non-existent is right around 0 degrees Kelvin or travelling at the speed of light.<\/p>\n We at DS SOLIDWORKS are committed to helping our users be more efficient in their roles as engineers and designers and are going to include high-powered data management capabilities with every license of SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD.\u00a0 The new product will keep the amount of mental overhead to a minimum because it will be integrated into Windows Explorer and use familiar everyday commands.\u00a0 This will help customers leverage their Engineering 3.0 systems and better prepare them for Engineering 4.0.<\/p>\n Originally posted by Kurt Lundstedt\u00a0in the SOLIDWORKS Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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