ZWCAD and Windchill Integration: PLM and Design, Two in One

GUANGZHOU, China: January 24, 2018 – Recently, Windchill PLM system from PTC has been successfully integrated with ZWCAD with the professional solution provided by AMC Bridge, which is also a strategic partner of ZWCAD, to satisfy the needs of users who are using and want to use ZWCAD and Windchill at the same time.

Technology Giant’s Dilemma

A technology giant from manufacturing industry which designs and manufactures connectivity and sensor products for harsh environments, is one of those users. Having chosen ZWCAD to support its 2D drawings recently, it also employed Windchill to manage its extensive product design process, to help it better serve its clients from a variety of industries such as automotive, industrial equipment, data communication systems, aerospace, defense, medical, oil and gas, consumer electronics, energy and subsea communications, etc.

However, ZWCAD, the highly efficient software to support 2D drawings, was not connected with Windchill, the company’s primary PLM tool, resulting in inefficiencies in the whole design workflow. Therefore, the integration of ZWCAD and Windchill was in urgent need in order to maximize the potential of ZWCAD and make the company’s design work flow fluent and efficient.

Two in one

To realize this integration, firstly, AMC Bridge figured out the solution for the integration based on their previous investigation, and then the development platform was processed using Windchill Workgroup Manager and ZWCAD APIs, whose powerful compatibility made the development even easier. After that, the porting was conducted to establish a bi-directional connection between ZWCAD and Windchill PLM system, which was done at ease since they only needed to modify a little in ZWCAD. Finally, the integration was accomplished and named as “Windchill Workgroup Manager Adapter for ZWCAD”, assisting the client’s engineers to better design and manage their drawings in ZWCAD in the following ways:

Manage ZWCAD data efficiently throughout its lifecycle

- Minimize learning cost thanks to ZWCAD’s familiar interface and main functions:

Figure 1. The interface of WWGM Adaptor for ZWCAD

- Open .dwg files and store in PTC Windchill directly in ZWCAD:

Figure 2. Open new .dwg file in WWGM Adaptor for ZWCAD

- Save drawings and their references in ZWCAD directly to PTC Windchill, and upload .dwg files from ZWCAD to the PTC Windchill database using background processes:

Figure 3. Save .dwg file from ZWCAD to Windchill Workspace

- Perform key PTC Windchill operations such as Revise, Check-In and Check-Out directly in ZWCAD environment:

Figure 4. Check-In .dwg file in Windchill Workspace

- Manage the conducted events conveniently in the Event Manager:

Figure 5. Manage events in Event Manager

- Personalize and simplify the interaction between ZWCAD and PTC Windchill with a comprehensive set of preferences.

- Notify ZWCAD users regarding any relevant PTC Windchill issues via pop-up messaging system.

The integration of PTC Windchill PLM system with ZWCAD and the seamless collaboration between them allow the above and other functions for process management to perform well when conducting design work in ZWCAD, lowering the risk of failures while improving the engineers’ productivity. In a word, efficient design and manufacturing process is promised to the company by WWGM Adaptor for ZWCAD.

About AMC Bridge

As one of the most important strategic partners of ZWCAD, AMC Bridge is a leading provider of software development services in the areas of computer aided design, engineering, manufacturing and construction. Since 1999 they have been delivering solutions for CAD, CAE, CAM, PDM, BIM and PLM applications. For over fifteen years they have participated in the development of commercial software products and custom solutions for the engineering markets based on the variety of platforms from desktop and web to mobile and clouds.

About ZWSOFT

ZWSOFT (ZWCAD Software Co., Ltd.) is a world renowned CAD/CAM solutions provider. With a reputation as a committed and reliable provider of CAD/CAM software to the AEC and MCAD industries, ZWSOFT has created design software products that have continuously satisfied the needs of 2D and 3D drafters. With 20 years' experience in CAD industry, our products and service are proven by over 550,000 clients across 80 countries, including US, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, etc.