Industry Viewpoint: 6 Solvable Problems with CAD Software for Product Design

Guangzhou, China: June 11, 2014—ZWSOFT, a leading supplier of CAD solutions for the global MCAD and AEC industries, have announced the results of in-depth industrye research with 4 major product design and manufacturing company customers, based on issues and problems that they have experienced while using CAD software. Six main issues were introduced by these companies, all of which were addressed with a switch to ZWCAD+.

Strong Compatibility

Strong compatibility was the first problem that was suggested by all of the firms, which included metal manufacturers and lighting and switchboard manufacturers from China, Thailand and Korea. With the vast number of CAD and other specialist software available, as well as the high levels of collaboration that is involved with product design and manufacturing, the firms wanted strong compatibility to allow users to open and edit drawings from a variety of different origins, in one design environment. ZWCAD+ offers compatibility with all mainstream CAD software, meaning users can open files from clients and collaborators without the risk of changes or time consuming conversions.

Cost Efficiency

Cost effectiveness was another major issue with our interviewees. With the growing prices of AutoCAD as the market leader, and the high price sensitivity of the market, firms are looking for alternative CAD software that may offer a more competitive pricing structure. At around 20% of the price of an AutoCAD license and a cost efficient and customizable upgrade policy, ZWCAD+ can offer huge savings for any firm.

Advanced Features

Lack of features has always been an issue in CAD software, but our respondents suggested that customizable features were also now important. Users wanted to make the UI more suited to their particular work, and ensure that their most used features are the most easily accessible, thereby becoming more efficient and saving money and time. The innovative features that are offered by ZWCAD+, such as Associative Dimensions and Dynamic Block reduces the need for re-working, while the brand new SmartSeries allows for highly customizable commands and annotation.

Efficient User Interface

The layout of the UI was brought up by a number of our interviewees. With most CAD users learning on AutoCAD, a significantly different layout would cause confusion and result in significant re-learning costs when moving to a cheaper or more efficient alternative. This idea has been raised by firms as a major worry when considering switching CAD software. Having switched to ZWCAD+, however, the respondents found that there were no relearning costs due to similarities with the AutoCAD layout, while the customizable features allowed them to make their most used commands easily available to improve efficiency.

Stable and Fast Design Environment

The stability and speed of the design environment was indicated as an important factor by one of the firms that were interviewed. They felt that as their design complexity had grown, as had their file sizes, causing hardware problems and slowing down their computers. Since the idea of replacing their hardware was too expensive to entertain, they wanted software with improved memory management in order to work on larger designs with a reduced impact on computer performance. ZWCAD+’s new Memory Management technology allows users to open large drawings over 100MB with 50% less memory usage, meaning faster speeds and no need to update hardware.

Data Recovery

The final point that was introduced by the respondents was data recovery features. The complex nature of many product design and manufacturing processes can often lead to mistakes which are hard and time consuming to repair. The firms believed that the ability to efficiently manage changes made to their design would save time and money when these inevitable mistakes occur. ZWCAD+ offers the Data Recovery Manager which allows users to return so specific times in their design process, making it easier to identify and repair any problems.

It is an unavoidable fact that designing and manufacturing products requires a lot of work, however some CAD software presents unnecessary additional challenges. With ZWCAD+, these challenges have been addressed through innovative features and a focus on the end user.

About ZWSOFT

ZWCAD Software Co., Ltd., is an international CAD software provider through its network of over 150 partners in 80+ countries and regions.  The flagship products of ZWSOFT include ZWCAD+, the CAD solution developed by its wholly owned subsidiary company, ZWCAD DESIGN, and ZW3D CAD/CAM software.