CAD File Management and PDM

This is the fourth article in our series on selecting the right engineering platform. In the first article, How to...

Across the previous four articles in this series, I made a case that can sound almost philosophical. A Part Number...

The five hard problems engineering and manufacturing teams face in 2026, and what it actually takes to solve them. Engineering...

Sheet metal design has a manufacturing reality that solid parts do not. The 3D model is only the beginning. Before...

A practical guide to working folders, Smart Sync, design structure, locking, revisions, and conversational commands inside SOLIDWORKS Introduction: Why PDM...

Earlier this week, I previewed CAD File Agent for SOLIDWORKS. If you missed that, check these two articles: Why did...

A new kind of experience for engineers who never wanted a PDM system in the first place We Started with...

When I left Autodesk, I had a strong gut feeling about where the industry was headed. CAD vendors, I believed,...

Engineering work starts with files. CAD assemblies, parts, drawings and other related design files are the foundation of product development....

There is a moment in every engineering company when Excel stops being a helpful tool and becomes the bottleneck. At...

A SolidWorks model is essential. A BOM is essential. Drawings, PDFs, STEP files, and DXFs are essential too. Many teams...

In the previous article, I wrote that engineering teams usually do not lose control because CAD design is wrong. The...