We build compressors for refrigeration and air conditioning. I have been hesitant to mention Solidworks costing to our VP of engineering. 1) For fear that it would be viewed as a magic costing pill.
2) The amount of setup that would be required to make it actually usable.
Bow useful is it? Is it worth the effort?
Hi Jeff,
It's really down to how much time you would want to invest in it to get a realistic cost estimate. The results you get out of it will only be as good as your input data, Material Cost, Shop rate etc, and how often you would want to monitor this as things change.
It can be a very useful tool for guiding the design, testing different materials/dimension changes, things such as that. But I would be slightly reluctant to use the final results as absolute, more an approximation to suggest the most logical design.
I have included a link below to SolidWorks Help, which gives some suggestions for simplifying the Costing process;
2016 SOLIDWORKS Help - Simplifying Cost Estimates
Hope this helps.
Fin