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How To Open CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER Drawings in SolidWorks

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Today SYCODE released CATIA V4/V5, NX and Pro/ENGINEER 2D drawing file import addins for SolidWorks. Some of you may be wondering why would a SolidWorks user be interested in 2D drawings. The thing is that most large OEMs use a high end MCAD system like CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER. But a majority of their suppliers cannot afford that luxury. And neither do they need all the added functionality. These suppliers mostly use mid range MCAD systems like SolidWorks and are often handed down 2D drawings created from the high end MCAD systems. If these drawings come in DWG or DXF format, well and good. SolidWorks offers all its customers free licenses (three actually) of DWGeditor for every license of SolidWorks. DWGeditor an IntelliCAD variant and it relieves a SolidWorks user from the need of maintaining an expensive AutoCAD seat.

However, if a SolidWorks user receives 2D drawings in the native formats of CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER, then they find themselves in a fix. SolidWorks does not offer any way of opening these native 2D drawings. And that is precisely where the four add-ins that we released today will come in handy. The add-ins are:

These CATIA add-ins are not to be confused with the CATIA addins we released the other day. Those add-ins import CATIA V4 and V5 part and assembly files into SolidWorks. These import 2D drawings, which is emphasized by the “2D” in the product names.

With the release of these SolidWorks add-ins SYCODE can finally offer an answer to the question “How to open CATIA, NX and Pro/ENGINEER drawings in SolidWorks?”