National Instruments headquartered in Austin offers LabVIEW, a systems engineering software platform and toolkit.
$407
per year
SOLIDWORKS
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Dassault Systemes offers SOLIDWORKS, a computer-aided design (CAD) system for education and manufacturing supporting 2D or 3D design, electrical design, simulations, and product development with collaboration tools.
$1,295
per year
Pricing
National Instruments LabVIEW
SOLIDWORKS
Editions & Modules
LabView Base
$407
per year
LabView Full
3,206
per year
LabView Professional
5,344
per year
Solidworks Annual Subscription
1,295
per year
Solidworks Standard
3,996
per standalone license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LabVIEW
SOLIDWORKS
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
National Instruments LabVIEW
SOLIDWORKS
Features
National Instruments LabVIEW
SOLIDWORKS
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
Most of the time, I am using LabVIEW to develop automated controls for lab-scale and pilot-scale systems. LabVIEW is great for its graphical programming interface, which is easy to learn and understand. The program also has a lot of built-in VIs to perform different complicated I/O, data processing, controls, and graphing tasks which are extremely useful and convenient to use. My only problem with LabVIEW is how hard it is to clean up and debug the program, due to its being a graphical interface. It is hard to search for specific variables when debugging, and some of the online debugging features don't function well in real-time.
As a mechanical engineer, it is one of the best tools to just start modeling and engineering with. The UI tools are intuitive and engineering analysis such Mold Analysis, FEA, are great! Other 3D CAD modeling tools have a longer learning curve to master. All in all, if you're not planning to design an entire airplane with large assembly files, then Solidworks is your tool!
The collaborative work environment is a cool and useful feature where groups of people can work on the same model at the same time, and SOLIDWORKS ensures that you don't overwrite each other's work.
The ease and amount of customization options are very useful for creating a personalized and intuitive user interface, whether SOLIDWORKS is your native CAD package or not.
It is very easy to quickly edit a model you have already created. The software allows sketch and feature editing without having to take the time to actually enter the sketch/feature environment.
The use of configurations and configurations-specific dimensions in the same sketch is very useful for creating different forms of the same part
To date, the baked in surfacing tools lack power compared to dedicated surfacing software.
In a similar vein, the core modeling kernel is not owned by SOLIDWORKS themselves and so there exists limitations with regards to implementing certain modeling/math.
SOLIDWORKS is playing catchup to other online vendors of CAD (notable OnShape); instead of being the once leader, they are being forced to compare themselves. This, however, may work to their advantage and in turn allow them to produce a better on-line CAD tool.
I have been using SOLIDWORKS for around 12 years as of writing this review, so have learned where most things are and how they work. When first starting out it was quite daunting, but the interface is well laid out with like functions near each other which made finding new functions relatively easy.
We have an unusual arrangement. We don’t pay for support, but we’re partnered with a VAR for second-tier support.
I work with other users if I have questions but when we’ve had to ask the VAR, they always have answers. It appears that all of the VARs have access to a support platform from DS SOLIDWORKS that helps them answer most questions.
We have used MatLab's data acquisition toolbox in the past which was not too bad either, especially if you prefer the text-based programming format. The only problem with that was that the library of compatible data acquisition hardware was somewhat limited and if your hardware is not from one of the more popular brands like NI there is a good possibility that you won't be able to use it with your MatLab script. LAstly, the amount of supporting material (tutorials, etc.) is very limited as it is not a very popular tool
Onshape is a direct competitor. It has great entry level pricing and it is easy to access with no installation required. Being a web based app there is sometime some lag being based in NZ. Management also have concerns over where the data is stored on the cloud. With SW we can control where it is stored
We are able to save money by writing our own programs instead of outsourcing.
We recently bought a new force test stand and we are able to use LabVIEW to write a program that fits our needs exactly instead of making due with what came with the stand.
When our customers ask us to do data acquisition, we know that we can always make a solution.
Hard to answer directly. Given our customer's needs, we absolutely have to have SW to open their file types.
Given the relatively limited use we need at our company, it would be useful to have a cheaper option that was more stripped down but still had some capabilities. Something in-between SW and eDrawings, for example. SW is very capable and expensive, eDrawings is free and super limited. Would be nice to have a middle option.
