What is SOLIDWORKS Inspection?
SOLIDWORKS Inspection is a First Article Inspection (FAI) and in-process inspection software that streamlines and automates the creation of ballooned inspection drawings and inspection reports (AS9102, PPAP, etc.).
Simplify the inspection document creation process
Company quality departments are tasked with carrying out the quality inspection process. This often involves the creation of documents such as drawings with balloon callouts, reports for use during inspection, or additional deliverables required with parts.
The manual creation of inspection documents will often take hours using Microsoft Excel and hand-written annotations.
SOLIDWORKS Inspection software automates the manual and tedious process by leveraging existing 2D legacy data such as SOLIDWORKS files, PDFs, and TIFFs. Or capture data using a digital measuring instrument
Overview Demo
Quality Assurance Automation
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Capabilities
SOLIDWORKS Inspection streamlines your inspection processes by automating the creation of balloons on engineering drawings, and the creation of inspection data sheets and reports.
“The instruments we build are used all over the world to protect human life. We are making a difference.”
Tricia Harrison
Manager of Product Development, Measurand
“Because SOLIDWORKS is a full-featured, integrated product development environment, it helps us design very quickly and competitively. It has an extensive range of technologies and tight integration between all of the modules that we use across the entire order lead-time.”
Virgilio Sisti
R&D–Mechanical Designer/CAD Manager, Baltur
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Features
Powerful and intuitive schematic and 3D design tools
A Streamlined Process
SOLIDWORKS Inspection streamlines your inspection processes by automating the creation of balloons on engineering drawings, and the creation of inspection data sheets and reports.
Sequentially numbered balloons are applied automatically to help you keep track of the dimensions and characteristics to inspect. Accurate bubbled prints and inspection sheets are generated in just minutes. With SOLIDWORKS Inspection, companies have reduced the time to create First Article Inspection packages by up to 90 percent.
Optical Character Recognition
In many companies, engineering drawings arrive in PDF or TIFF formats. In these cases SOLIDWORKS Inspection uses optical character recognition (OCR).
SOLIDWORKS Inspection can read and identify the nominal dimension, plus and minus tolerances, and the type of dimension (such as diametric or linear), helping to virtually eliminate manual input and reduce errors.
It works with horizontal and vertical dimensions, split dimensions, notes, hole callouts, finish symbols, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) symbols.
This means you can create your inspection documents regardless of your existing CAD system using the included standalone version of SOLIDWORKS Inspection.
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional & CMM
The SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional version extends the capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Inspection by giving users multiple ways to enter measured values directly into the project to help simplify part inspection.
Each characteristic value can be entered manually, by using a digital caliper, or by importing coordinate measuring machine (CMM) results.
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional provides these additional features:
- Characteristics Measurements Input
- Bonus Tolerance Support
- Digital Measuring Tools Support (Digital Caliper, etc.)
- CMM Data Import (PC-DMIS, Calypso, Faro CAM2, etc.)
- CMM Template Editor
- Automatic Verification
- Colour-Coded Characteristics (Pass, Marginal, Fail)
- Export Measurements
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Packages
Two inspection packages to choose from
Package
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standard
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standard is a First Article and in-process inspection solution that streamlines the creation of inspection documentation. With a standalone application and an embedded SOLIDWORKS add-in, SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standard enables you to leverage legacy data regardless of the file type.
Package
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional extends SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standard capabilities and lets you manually or semi-automatically enter measured values directly into an inspection project. With SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional, you can work directly with 2D/3D CAD data and streamlined workflows.
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Matrix
Compare the different versions of SOLIDWORKS Inspection software
| Feature | Standard | Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Improved and Streamlined Inspection Workflows Leverage the SOLIDWORKS add-in or the dedicated standalone application to create detailed inspection reports regardless of the workflow. | ● | ● |
| PDF/TIFF File Support Extract characteristic information from 2D PDF (included encrypted documents) and TIFF Files. | ● | ● |
| DXF/DWG File Support Create inspection projects directly from native DXF/DWG files. | ● | ● |
| SOLIDWORKS Drawing File Support Quickly balloon and created inspection reports from SOLIDWORKS Drawings. | ● | ● |
| Optical Character Recognition When working with a PDF file or TIFF image, SOLIDWORKS Inspection can leverage Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read and identify the nominal dimension, plus and minus tolerances, and the type of dimension (such as diametric or linear), helping to virtually eliminate manual input and reduce errors. It works with horizontal and vertical dimensions, split dimensions, notes, hole callouts, finish symbols, and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) symbols. | ● | ● |
| Automatic Ballooning Automatically extract and balloon inspection dimensions from 2D and 3D CAD files, and specific PDF documents. | ● | ● |
| Customize Inspection Reports Create and manage the Bill of Characteristics (BOCs), change the ordering, edit the numbering or group/ungroup characteristics. Define tolerance tables to standardize inspection reports and requirements. | ● | ● |
| Ballooned Drawing Appearance Customize the inspection bubble shapes, color, and size. Define presets and apply styles based on parameters such as criticity or inspection method. Adjust balloon's placement. | ● | ● |
| PDF Drawing Comparison and 2D/3D Revision Management Compare drawings, 2D or 3D CAD files’ revisions to quickly identify changes and update quality project. | ● | ● |
| Quality Sampling Plans Effectively plan quality control by defining Acceptance Quality Limit (AQL) and calculating sample size, accept, and reject criteria. | ● | ● |
| Quality Systems Integration Export inspection data to quality systems and databases using CSV or XML output formats. Publish directly to Net-Inspect. | ● | ● |
| File Management SOLIDWORKS Inspection integrates with SOLIDWORKS PDM and enables quality managers to manage project information, control design revisions, deliverables, etc. | ● | ● |
| Inspection Reports Export finished ballooned drawings as PDFs or 3D PDFs (when working with 3D CAD files). Export inspection reports to Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets using standard templates such as AS9102 or Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) forms or customized Excel templates. | ● | ● |
| SOLIDWORKS Part/Assembly File Support Leverage SOLIDWORKS Parts and Assemblies with Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI) to streamline the creation of inspection reports. | ● | |
| 2D/3D CAD File Support Open and extract information from other 2D/3D CAD files to create your inspection reports. | ● | |
| Inspection Measurements Enter measured values for each characteristic directly into an inspection project either manually or by using a digital caliper. Import results from Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). | ● | |
| Graphical Pass/Fail Status Highlight dimensions in green, red, or yellow to easily identify which dimensions are In Tolerance, Out of Tolerance, or Marginally within Tolerance based on the values entered or imported CMM results. | ● |
Looking for a Cloud Alternative?
3DEXPERIENCE Works provides a Safe, Social, Connected, Informed and Structured alternative to SOLIDWORKS Inspection for team leaders, project managers and other professionals who want to manage data on the cloud and collaborate without constraints.
Safe: Customer controlled access. Transparent cloud backup. Encrypted communication protocols. Data always safe-no overwrite, no loss of data.
Social: Integrated structured and unstructured collaboration tools enabling social innovation. Collaborate on product design or engage with your stakeholders early in product development.
Connected: Every user always connected to a single, common database. Access data anywhere, anytime, on any device. Review and markup models.
Informed: Choose from the widget library, Create and share Dashboards. Get the latest information about your product development. Always have access to your latest data.
Structured: Zero overhead data management - store and manage data across collaborative spaces, share information in communities. Find indexed data faster by using tags, custom search, etc.