The automated, ultrasonic railroad-wheel testing station was built by Fraunhofer TEG in Germany using SolidWorks. The packaging study includes colorful models and line drawings, making it easy to recognize pneumatic and electric components, along with actuators and extruded structural beams.
Solid-modeling software has been commercially available for almost 30 years, yet only about 25% of the engineering community uses it. That's puzzling because solid modeling is the best way to automate the creation of 2D production drawings and it allows an unprecedented degree of PC-based design visualization, trouble-shooting, and modification. New-product-development time frames can be dramatically compressed, costs and scrap reduced, and to boot, designers have more fun. So why has the migration taken so long?