The Dos and Don'ts of Comparing CAD Systems

There are many reasons why a company may be looking to acquire a new CAD system, such as costs, capabilities, and innovation investment. However, finding the right CAD system for your product development team can be a minefield. Where do you even start?

The number of systems on the market today makes it impractical to test every single one, so narrowing down your choices based on specific criteria is a good place to start.

Once you’ve made a shortlist, you’ll then need to conduct a more in-depth review before making your final choice. Design software is complex, so it can be a long, drawn-out process.

However, it doesn't have to be if you focus on what’s truly important to your business.

Look Beyond Features & Evaluate Architecture

More CAD features usually equate to higher costs, but it’s not a linear relationship. Once you reach a certain level, there's a sharp increase in price for only a moderate increase in capability. You could easily pay 50% more for only 10% extra functionality.

Many of the CAD platforms on the market today are architecturally similar at their core – file-based, locally installed, with PDM bolted on.

The more important distinction for modern engineering teams is cloud-native vs. cloud-hybrid vs. desktop. These architectural differences determine how collaboration, version control, and data security actually work day to day. And no feature checklist captures that.

Compared to many other business systems, design software is an order of magnitude more complex. It’s also an order of magnitude more expensive. One reason why companies are switching from their current vendor is the cost itself, but there is also the lack of perceived development in the product they are paying for.

Desktop vs. Cloud-Hybrid vs. Cloud-Native CAD

Not all CAD vendors that advertise “cloud” capabilities are offering the same thing. The distinction matters because it determines what engineering teams will and won't be able to do once the evaluation is over.

READ: 17 Features That Define Cloud-Native CAD

The Total Cost of Ownership Question: Licensing Options

There are two types of software licensing available: Upfront license costs followed by annual maintenance fees, and the subscription-based cloud delivery option.

The traditional upfront license cost and annual maintenance fee are flawed in many ways. The maintenance fee is payable in advance, so it costs you the license fee plus the maintenance fee from day one.

For legacy on-premise CAD and server-installed PDM software, the total cost of ownership is considerably higher than cloud-based design and data management solutions. Workstation-class computers, racks of servers, and other IT overhead costs increase the necessary level of investment required to get up and running.

A complete total cost ownership comparison should cover: license fees, annual maintenance, hardware and workstation costs, IT administration time, PDM server setup and maintenance, upgrade costs, and lost productivity from crashes and file management overhead. Cloud-native CAD eliminates most of these line items by design.

Things to Consider Beyond CAD Features

Many of the CAD systems on the market today have been around for decades and, to a certain degree, they all work in a similar way and are similar in their capabilities.

This makes selection even harder, so you should avoid focusing purely on CAD features.

Data created by CAD is used throughout your company and beyond, so investigate the suitability of any system for your design teams, your company, and your extended enterprise, especially if they are spread across multiple locations.

File-based CAD systems make it difficult for teams to share data and work on the same projects even with a dedicated data management system. PDM software is often not included and must be purchased separately.

Other key questions to ask when conducting your research:

1. Does the platform include release management and approval workflows?
2. Do you need data reports and business analytics?
3. From a logistics standpoint, what kind of hardware is required and how easy is it to deploy a fully-configured system to a new user?
4. If you don't have a dedicated IT team, how much work is involved in ongoing maintenance for workstations, servers, software downloads, installs, service packs, and upgrades?
5. Does the platform give non-CAD users (managers, suppliers, manufacturing partners) access to design data without requiring a full license?
6. Is the platform cloud-native (database-driven, no files) or cloud-hybrid (files stored remotely but still file-based)? Ask directly and look for a clear answer.

Product Trials and Pilot Projects

Once you’ve done initial research and asked all the questions, it’s time to try out the CAD platform for yourself. A product trial, like Onshape’s Discovery Program, plus a pilot project is your opportunity to put the system through its paces to see how it performs in your environment. Understanding how a new system will impact your business is far more important than simply checking off a laundry list of CAD features.

Implementing a new CAD and PDM system takes time and resources, so it’s important to get it right. Here is a list of Dos and Don'ts that you should consider before any evaluation:

Comparing CAD System Dos and Don’ts

DO

• Plan ahead and dedicate the time to review the product in-depth. It may not be possible to test everything, but don’t be tempted to just focus on the problem that prompted you to look for alternative solutions in the first place. You may find a system that addresses your immediate needs, but you should spend more time investigating how the system can be used to improve your entire design process.
• Choose a small, but typical, design project to test how the system performs in your environment. A live or upcoming project is best – replicating an existing project often compels you to replicate the same steps as before, which may not reveal any gains in efficiency.
• Assign more than one person to the evaluation. Not only does this help reduce the time burden and provide a valuable second opinion, but it also helps you test how the system fares when working in teams. If you are a manager asking someone else to conduct the review, make sure you choose somebody who is willing and is able to be objective.
• Involve colleagues outside of engineering. Your end-to-end design process includes many people outside of the design department. Getting their input on potential process improvements is vital.
• Review training materials. No matter how experienced you are, the only way to get the most out of a new system is to take training, whether that be classroom training or self-paced video training. This takes extra time, of course, but it’s essential if you are to do your evaluation justice.
• Record and review your progress with the vendor at predefined intervals and ask for help if you need it. Keeping a list of questions and issues and reviewing them with the vendor gives them the opportunity to demonstrate how a particular task is performed.
• Ask for a walkthrough of the data migration story specifically (clean-sheet, 50/50, or full migration). Understanding your path forward with legacy data is as important as the CAD features themselves.

DON'T

• Focus purely on CAD features. Conducting an apples-to-apples comparison is not always the best way. More features does not necessarily make a system better. Focus on every aspect of your design process to see how it may impact your entire business.
• Assume the system can or can’t do something. If you’ve used another system before, it’s very easy to assume that all systems work the same way. They don’t. Use the review with the vendor to address any concerns you may have.
• Focus too heavily on legacy data. Importing and reusing data from your old system and from external suppliers is important, but it shouldn’t be your sole consideration. You won’t find any system that can import parts and keep the feature tree intact, so if you need to modify legacy data, investigate the new system’s direct editing tools. Learn about the best strategies for data migration.
• Accept “cloud” at face value. Ask specifically whether the platform is cloud-native (no files, database-driven) or cloud-hybrid (files stored remotely). The answer determines what collaboration and version control will actually look like in production.

Start with Onshape

So, where should you start? Onshape’s Discovery Program makes it easy to explore cloud-native CAD and PDM today.

(This blog was originally published September 19, 2019.)