Solid­Works con­tains an exten­si­ve pro­gramming inter­face, cal­led API for short. app­li­ca­ti­on pro­gramming inter­face). This allows the CAD soft­ware to be adap­ted and expan­ded accord­ing to indi­vi­du­al needs. Recur­ring tasks can be digi­tal­ly auto­ma­ted almost without restric­tion. In many com­pa­nies, howe­ver, this opti­on is hard­ly used. This is a pity, becau­se in addi­ti­on to enor­mous time and cost savings, it brings with it com­ple­te­ly new pos­si­bi­li­ties for one’s own company. 

The fol­lowing video about the pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor My Glas­ses shows the enor­mous pos­si­bi­li­ties of sys­tem extensions.

With the pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor My Glas­ses you can design your indi­vi­du­al glas­ses. In addi­ti­on, it is pos­si­ble to adjust the size and posi­ti­on of the glas­ses to the 3D scan of a human head. The 3D scans used here were crea­ted using the Pho­to­gram­me­try crea­ted and ser­ve as cus­to­mer data for the pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor. The pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor My Glas­ses is imple­men­ted as an add-in for the Solid­Works CAD sys­tem. Add-Ins allow the exten­si­on of alrea­dy exis­ting soft­ware with addi­tio­nal func­tio­n­a­li­ties. To deve­lop an add-in, the exis­ting soft­ware needs a App­li­ca­ti­on Pro­gramming Inter­face, API for short. The advan­ta­ge of using an add-in as the basis for deve­lo­ping a pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor is that the exis­ting func­tions of the main app­li­ca­ti­on can be used. In the add-in its­elf, only the func­tions that are not avail­ab­le in the main app­li­ca­ti­on need to be deve­lo­ped. This can signi­fi­cant­ly redu­ce deve­lo­p­ment time and cos­ts com­pa­red to deve­lo­ping a stan­da­lo­ne application.

The pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor My Glas­ses shows the many advan­ta­ges of an add-in. The­se include:

  • Users of the add-in do not need to learn how to ope­ra­te a new application.
  • Using the add-in is immedia­te­ly fami­li­ar, as the main app­li­ca­ti­on is alrea­dy known. Only a few new func­tions have been added. Thus, the user does not feel over­whel­med or con­fron­ted with a new application.
  • The add-in can be acti­va­ted and deac­ti­va­ted in the CAD sys­tem as requi­red. The gra­phi­cal user inter­face the­re­fo­re con­tains only tho­se ele­ments that are cur­r­ent­ly required.
  • Con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on and cus­to­miz­a­ti­on of the pro­duct can be easi­ly done by exten­ding and using the gra­phi­cal user inter­face of the main application.
  • Exis­ting CAD data can be used and does not need to be expor­ted and pro­ces­sed for a new application.
  • Indi­vi­du­al cus­to­mer data and drawings can be saved auto­ma­ti­cal­ly, if desi­red also in the alrea­dy exis­ting pro­duct data manage­ment (PDM) system.
  • Recur­ring tasks can be ful­ly auto­ma­ted in the fami­li­ar application.
  • In addi­ti­on, the data can be expor­ted to various neu­tral data for­mats. For this pur­po­se, the exis­ting export func­tions of the main app­li­ca­ti­on can be used.
  • Many other func­tions, such as sen­ding data by e‑mail, e.g. to the cus­to­mer and pro­duc­tion, can be easi­ly imple­men­ted in the add-in.

For more infor­ma­ti­on con­ta­ct us, we are loo­king for­ward to your inquiry!

Whether macro, add-in or stand-alone software, our solution ensures your success!

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