Automate Inspection Processes and Reports

Dassault Systèmes has announced the availability of SolidWorks Inspection, its new software for First Article Inspection (FAI) and in-process inspection. First demonstrated to the public at SolidWorks World 2014 in January, SolidWorks Inspection is intended to simplify the compilation of data for design and manufacturing reports required by numerous industries and considered critical for organizations facing stringent requirements and safety regulations, such as aerospace and defense, energy, process and utilities, life sciences and transportation and mobility. SolidWorks Inspection is offered as a standalone application for most CAD systems or as an integrated add-in for the SolidWorks suite of 3D CAD software.

SolidWorks Inspection image courtesy of Dassault Systèmes.

SolidWorks Inspection, reports Dassault, automates the creation of inspection documents such as FAI reports, inspection reports and ballooned drawing inspection reports while ensuring accuracy. With it, companies can quickly re-use existing design data and content to create accurate inspection reports, such as AS91002 aerospace quality management or automotive PPAP (production part approval process) forms, which, according to Dassault, can help accelerate the time to regulatory approval. Additionally, using SolidWorks Inspection enables quality inspectors to identify problematic parts or manufacturing processes easily, according to Dassault.

SolidWorks Inspection image courtesy of Dassault Systèmes.

SolidWorks Inspection provides automatic ways to enter values directly into an inspection report. For example, when working with a PDF or TIFF drawing, SolidWorks Inspection can instruct an OCR (optical character recognition) reader to read and identify the nominal dimension, plus and minus tolerances as well as the type of dimension, such as diametric or linear. This capability, says Dassault, can virtually eliminate manual input and reduce data entry errors.

SolidWorks Inspection works with horizontal and vertical dimensions, split dimensions, notes, hole callouts, finish symbols and GD&T (geometric dimensioning and tolerancing) symbols. It supports user-defined inspection methods and processes, selective recapture, multi-page drawings and multiple drawings per project. Users can compare drawing revisions, edit templates and export to XML files to a quality system. Its user-customizable report formats allows for the creation of industry standard inspection reports and ballooned drawings in just a few clicks, says Dassault.

SolidWorks Inspection image courtesy of Dassault Systèmes.

Both integrated and standalone versions of SolidWorks Inspection are offered in Standard and Professional editions. SolidWorks Inspection Professional extends the standard application’s capabilities by providing users multiple ways to enter measured values directly into the project, which can help simplify part inspection. Each characteristic value can be entered manually, by using a digital caliper, or by importing CMM (coordinate measuring machine) results from such inspection and metrology applications as CALYPSO, Faro CAM2 and PC-DMIS. Other features of the Professional version include a CMM template editor, automatic verification and color-coded characteristics (pass, marginal, fail).

“SolidWorks Inspection simplifies the compilation of data while ensuring accuracy,” said Bertrand Sicot, CEO, SolidWorks, Dassault Systèmes, in a press statement. “It enables our users to put 100% of their focus on the valuable function of design.”

SolidWorks Inspection is available through the company’s reseller partners. For complete details, visit Dassault Systèmes.

Download the SolidWorks Inspection data sheet.

See a features comparison of SolidWorks Inspection Standard and Professional.

Watch the on-demand webinar “Streamline Your Quality Control with SolidWorks Inspection in 22 Minutes.”

Request a demonstration of SolidWorks Inspection.

See why DE‘s Editors selected SolidWorks Inspection as their Pick of the Week.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.