To speed up designs, SOLIDWORKS Electrical has extremely customizable Project Configurations. Project templates make use of these configurations to ensure that the right design settings are in place so you can jump into designing. Configurations are powerful, ranging from multiple languages to text setting for specific symbol attributes. Multiple project templates can be configured for unique design demands and can be selected when the new project is created.

The components inside of a SOLIDWORKS Electrical project are fully associated. This means that any properties applied to a component propagate to the Bill of Materials, Single Line symbols, schematic symbols, and even the 3D SOLIDWORKS models. The beauty of a fully associated design is that changes can be done once, and all other symbols and models will reflect these changes. There’s no need to manually go through every page and make changes. SOLIDWORKS Electrical facilitates quick and accurate design changes.

It’s easy to get accurate wire and cable lengths by harnessing the power of the SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D add-in. After creating the schematic design, the 3D Electrical add-in can be used to insert the 3D models into a SOLIDWORKS assembly of the project. The add-in provides an Electrical Component Manager which shows a list of every component in the project. It's easy to insert the components by simply right-clicking and inserting the SOLIDWORKS model that’s associated with the component. Once the necessary components have been included in the SOLIDWORKS assembly, routing cables, harnesses, and wires are only a click of the button. All wires are routed with accurate thickness, bend radius, and color directly based on the schematic project.

With SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D, designers and engineers can seamlessly integrate electrical schematic design data from SOLIDWORKS Electrical within the 3D model of a machine or other product. This real-time, bidirectional tool enables improved collaboration between electrical and mechanical designers and allows for placement or removal of electrical components in the 3D CAD model. The ability to design across both 2D and 3D helps ensure component fit, optimize wire lengths and routing paths, and eliminate the need for excess costly physical prototyping.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D brings advanced SOLIDWORKS routing technology to your 2D and 3D designs. This automation simplifies the auto-routing process for wires, cables, and harnesses in the 3D CAD model. Auto-routing is able to follow route paths and obey segregation rules like separating high voltage power from sensitive control/data signals, giving you time back in your design process.

 SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D addresses the needs of multi-user and cross disciplinary projects with a synchronized design environment bridging both electrical and mechanical teams. This synchronization allows for the implementation of schematically-defined electrical systems into a SOLIDWORKS Design model. Multiple electrical and mechanical engineers can work on the same project simultaneously and in real-time using SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D’s advanced database technology with its collaborative, multi-user environment. 

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D is equipped to handle a range of design planning cases, including both electrical harness and embedded electrical system design planning. SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D creates a virtual “design-in-place” electrical system development environment that provides auto-routing of a schematically-defined electrical harness in a SOLIDWORKS Design model, which simplifies harness development while eliminating errors.

With this virtual harness, SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D can produce detailed assembly drawings using the built-in drawing tools. These drawing creation tools include capabilities to create flattened manufacturing drawings and form boards (also called nail boards or pin boards) including ballooned assemblies, cut lists, and associated BOM documentation. Regardless of use case, SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D creates a new technology paradigm, incorporating purpose-built design tools for schematically-driven embedded electrical subsystem development and improved ECAD/MCAD integration.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D provides a design environment enhanced for electrical 3D cabinet design via the integration of SOLIDWORKS Design and SOLIDWORKS Electrical technologies. This cohesive environment is enhanced with SOLIDWORKS automation and is synchronized with an existing 3D CAD design in real-time without the need to import a new electrical connection file/from-to list with each revision.

Integrating the 2D and 3D design elements at this stage of the design process also allows you to precisely layout each component of a harness or cabinet, flatten all components to one cohesive blueprint for fabrication, and provide the fabrication team with a perfectly fitting harness, enabling verification that there’s no interference within the design including strain relief for cabinet doors and/or service loops.