As a Solidworks user, the 3D modeling CAD program comes in handy in mechanical engineering and other design applications. However, knowing the version of the Solidworks program that best suits your needs is important. Consider the features you need the software to have today and in the future to help you build your skills and profession as you pick the Solidworks premium vs professional version that suits you the most.

Solidworks Premium 

Solidworks Premium adds comprehensive simulation analysis, design validation, ECAD/MCAD collaboration, reverse engineering, and improved wire and pipe routing features to Solidworks Professional’s capabilities. Using advanced simulation tools, users may analyze product performance in real-world settings, motion, and forces. Also, tolerance stack-up analysis tools may be utilized throughout the design phase to resolve any possible manufacturability difficulties before production. With the ability to design and record layouts for electrical wiring, pipe, and tubing, you can quickly add printed circuit board data to your 3D model. Solidworks Premium additionally allows you to use 3D scanned data within the program.

In today’s competitive world, getting goods to market swiftly and efficiently without sacrificing quality is more crucial than ever. Solidworks Premium’s extensive automation capabilities help speed up the design-to-manufacturing process at every level, allowing for continuous design optimization and validation while reducing repetitive, time-consuming manual operations.

The integrated 3D CAD technologies in Solidworks Premium help businesses build better products and get them to market faster. 

Solidworks Professional 

Solidworks Professional provides powerful 3D design capabilities, performance, and user-friendliness. Solidworks Professional expands on the features of Solidworks Standard to boost design efficiency with file management tools, improved photo-realistic rendering, automatic cost estimation, design validation, and a parts library. As a result, you have access to all the tools needed to produce complicated surfaces, sheet metal flat patterns, structural welded assemblies, and fully detailed components, assemblies, and production-level drawings.

Creating, developing, producing, and selling a remarkable product requires a significant amount of collaboration. Collaboration and teamwork are at the heart of the design-to-manufacturing process with Solidworks Professional. As concepts flow through each stage of the design-to-manufacturing process, advanced communication, and knowledge transfer capabilities assist in maintaining their integrity and uniformity. 

This leads to increased productivity, accuracy, and quality, fewer mistakes, lower rework costs, and a higher return on investment.

Solidworks Premium Vs Professional

This article aims to compare the features of SolidWorks Premium vs. Professional versions. Solidworks help you create and build items more efficiently. SOLIDWORKS CAD packages span design, simulation, cost estimation, manufacturability checks, CAM, sustainable design, and data management and serves as the foundation for the whole SOLIDWORKS portfolio of product development solutions.

Solidworks Premium vs Professional: Similarities in features and functions

There are lots of features that are available in both versions of Solidworks.  Though the Premium version allows some further utilities and features over the Professional version, this does not always mean you need a Premium version to create your works nicely. However, the Premium version allow freedom with features that boosts the creativity of users. Solidworks Professional and Premium have the photo-realistic rendering and eDrawings Professional, which allows you to transfer SW files to clients or customers who do not have Solidworks and allows them to open, read, extract dimensions, and mark up the file, among other things. In addition, both packages feature a standard components library with rapid access to nuts, bolts, connections, and other items that you can drag and drop into an existing design.

Task Scheduling is also available in Solidworks Premium and Professional. It’s a software tool with SolidWorks premium and professional packages and works to keep your machine running while you’re gone. It allows you to perform resource-intensive tasks (such as batch importing, exporting, and printing) when the computer is idle, allowing you to focus on more creative endeavors.

Also included in both products is tolerance analysis, allowing users to examine measurements and tolerances quickly. Solidworks TolAnalyst software is used to examine its manufacturability before your design is put into production. It checks part and assembly tolerances during design, speeds up the process, saves time and money on the development, and boosts productivity.

Solidworks Premium vs Professional: Differences in features and functions

The FEA capabilities of the Solidworks Premium suite are expanded, allowing you to do static, stress, and motion analysis on assemblies and components. Solidworks Premium also includes a routing capability for tooling and harnesses, CircuitWorks for creating circuit board enclosures, Tool Analyst for calculating size allowances, and a simple interface with eCAD if you also handle electrical point cloud import or PC board design. 

Solidworks Premium also has the edge over SolidWorks Professional in that it allows you to rapidly design and route electrical wiring, pipe, tubing harnessing, cabling, and conduit. Solidworks’ integrated nature allows these systems to be incorporated during the development process, saving time and reducing rework costs while ensuring product assembly efficiency and eventual serviceability. Before beginning the wiring procedure, utilize the electrical routing tools to flatten the harness and determine the precise length necessary. The pipe and tubing tools may also be used to facilitate the design and documentation of routes for various systems and applications.

Surface flattening is not available in Solidworks Professional, although it is available in Solidworks Premium. Advanced surface flattening capabilities in Solidworks Premium makes it easy to build a 2D version of practically any face. 

This is perfect for machining processes that require a 2D DXF. By displaying the deformation map, you may quickly identify high-stress locations and apply relief cuts as needed.

Solidworks Premium also performs time-based motion analysis. A time-based technique solves motion analysis problems for rigid bodies with kinematic and dynamic issues. Solidworks Motion takes the designer beyond the free drag movement offered in a CAD environment to an actual physical computation of an assembly’s forces and movements as it moves under external (external) and internal (internal) loads (motors, springs, and dampers).

Conclusion

Solidworks Premium vs Professional? Which suits you best? The appropriate response is very dependent on what you’re working on and what projects you’re juggling. The one certainty is that working with SolidWorks Professional will enhance your design processes, but working with SolidWorks Premium will provide you access to more advanced and sophisticated capabilities, allowing you to convey your design ideas more effectively and quickly.