Costing 2015 introduces some great enhancements to support a much wider range of manufacturing methods.
The first new method supported is for weldments. In this structure we have both sheet metal and
weldment components. When we launch costing, we now have additional categories for the types of
bodies supported. It shows the weldments broken out separate from the sheet metal components, and
then the gussets under shown under general bodies. Costing for cosmetic welds is also supported for a
comprehensive manufacturing cost.
What is really powerful about this is that weldments can be costed based on either an available stock
length or on a per unit length cost method. This can greatly help in minimizing wastage of materials
based on the lengths needed for the design. The costs update immediately to reflect the change in the
method. Any manufacturing or machining operations such as trims, cutouts, or holes on the weldments
are accounted for as well.
Metal cast components are now supported in 2015, with the ability to account for aspects such as mold
cost, cycle time and the amount of waste material as part of the manufacturing process. This helps in
being able to consolidate all of your manufacturing cost items within the SolidWorks environment. You
can easily evaluate the product cost change with production volume for distributing costs such as the
mold over the entire production run.
A very important update comes when trying to account for machining operations applied to cast
components. You are able to specify a stock body for machining instead of the default block shape, and
use either a configuration within the part or an external file to define the cast shape. If costing
information is stored with the stock body, it is used as a base cost and any machining operations are
applied on top of that. So you have far more accurate cost analysis for cast and machined components.
Plastic components are also supporting in SOLIDWORKS Costing 2015. 3D Printed parts can be costed
using 3D Printer data stored in the templates. In this example of a desk cable organizer, SolidWorks
costing goes through and calculated the 3D printed cost of each part individually. The template provides
several settings to tailor cost to specific 3D printers. Looking at just the slot center part, we can see the
3D printing options. The part can be oriented in the 3D printing volume using a plane selection to ensure
the most efficient printing. You are able to toggle between different 3D printers or different printer
configurations to evaluate not only the print time but cost associated with generating the parts. The
amount of infill that is done during printing can also be evaluated to look at the impact on print time
and cost. All of this is rolled up for the mutibody part to account for the cost of everything.
Similar to the support for cast metal components, plastic injected parts are now supported. Aspects
such as the runner system, cycle time, mold cost, and waste material.
So in Costing 2015, it is very easy to get a handle on manufacturing costs upfront and get a greater
understanding of how changes impact costs.