I am working in the mechanical engineering business since 1985, and since 1989 working with CAD-systems, mostly from AutoDESK but also from other brands. Also I have worked with at least over a dozen different employers and later dozens of clients. So I have seen a lot in the engineering business in the last 35 years.
What I have seen over the years is that most companies have not organized their engineering libraries very well, if ever. Most companies install their CAD system and use it as installed, without ever really creating a library, or organizing it.
When I worked somewhere I did do that on the go, but most engineers are not interested, have no time, take no time, have no facilities to do it, or sometimes are not allowed because of over strict managers.
This all leads to a situation where most engineers spend a good deal of time doing things they don't like, doing a lot of repetitive tasks, typing over information, many times creating the needs of revisions because of typo’s etc.
Also the next people in the process need to translate the parts lists to their procurement system which can be a lot of work.
Probably the bigger companies may have their systems integrated but the smaller companies usually don’t, at least that’s my experience.
My impression is as follows:
- They have no custom made templates (only usually for DWG’s, because you have to) but rarely for parts or assemblies
- They have no batch-print tools
- They have no other batch-export-tools for example to export STEP’s
- They have no pre-assemblies, for example sets of bolts+nuts+washers
- No custom made Content Center, for example bolts with several ways of finishing, several strengths, order numbers added, etc.
- They rarely use iParts or iAssemblies (no time to learn it)
- In short, they hardly use the full potential of the software the company pays for, without realizing it.
Sometimes these companies hire an engineer to set up a system. The problem with this is that the employee has little experience, or has no vision, or the manager’s vision is unfeasible (that happened to me). Hiring an employee for such short-term a task is for most companies not doable anyhow and a big deal. Thus, the engineers keep struggling and the company does not have a streamlined process.
Then you have companies which make a series of niche products, for example pipe hanging systems, or springs, or special fasteners. They usually have a nice website, but their customers cannot download their products as a CAD-model.
So there are now at least 3 category companies:
- Companies with no internal library of CAD-models and other tools
- Companies with no external downloadable CAD-library
- A combination of 1 and 2.