In the age of environmental awareness, designing sustainable products has become a cornerstone of responsible engineering. From reducing waste to facilitating recycling and improving energy efficiency, the decisions made during the design phase significantly impact a product’s environmental footprint. SOLIDWORKS addresses these challenges with its robust Sustainability tools, enabling designers and engineers to integrate eco-conscious practices seamlessly into their workflows.

This article explores some of the stand-out features of the SOLIDWORKS Sustainability toolkit, demonstrating how they empower users to design with sustainability in mind and contribute to a greener future.

Why Does Sustainable Design Matter?

Sustainable design focuses on minimizing the negative environmental impact of products throughout their lifecycle—from material selection to end-of-life disposal. It prioritizes resource efficiency, waste reduction, energy conservation, and recyclability.

Key Principles of Sustainable Design

• Material Efficiency: Choosing eco-friendly, renewable, or recyclable materials.
• Energy Efficiency: Reducing energy usage during manufacturing and product operation.
• Waste Reduction: Designing products with minimal material waste during production.
• End-of-Life Planning: Facilitating recycling, reusing, or repurposing of products.

SOLIDWORKS Sustainability tools are built to help engineers and designers embed eco-conscious practices directly into their design workflows. They go beyond theoretical concepts, offering practical, data-driven features that turn sustainability goals into tangible design actions.

Overview of SOLIDWORKS Sustainability Tools

SOLIDWORKS offers two primary tools for sustainability analysis:

• SustainabilityXpress: Integrated into the core SOLIDWORKS package, this tool provides a basic assessment of part documents, offering insights into the environmental impact of design choices.
• SOLIDWORKS Sustainability: Available in SOLIDWORKS Premium and Ultimate editions, this advanced tool extends functionality to include assemblies, configuration-specific analyses, and comprehensive reporting.

Get Actionable Insights

SOLIDWORKS Sustainability tools provide real-time feedback on critical environmental metrics, such as carbon footprint, energy consumption, air acidification, and water eutrophication. This data gives designers a clear picture of how their material choices, manufacturing processes, and design modifications affect the environment.

For example, a designer working on a product can immediately see how switching from virgin aluminum to recycled aluminum reduces the overall carbon footprint, helping them choose the most sustainable option without compromising performance.

Empower Informed Decision-Making

The integration of lifecycle assessment data ensures that you can consider the entire lifecycle of their product, from material sourcing and manufacturing to end-of-life disposal. This holistic view allows for smarter decisions that prioritize sustainability at every stage.

Tools like Material Comparison and Find Similar Materials make it easy to identify eco-friendly alternatives to traditional materials, enabling users to strike a balance between environmental responsibility and engineering requirements.

Stay Aligned with Established Design Principles

By focusing on material efficiency, recyclability, energy conservation, and durability, these tools directly support key principles of sustainable design. They encourage practices like lightweighting (using topology optimization) and modular design (facilitating disassembly and repair), which reduce resource consumption and extend product lifespan.

Experience Intuitive Usability and Integration

SOLIDWORKS Sustainability tools are integrated into your familiar SOLIDWORKS environment, making assessments an intuitive part of your design process rather than a separate, time-consuming step. This seamless integration ensures that even small design teams can incorporate sustainability into their workflows without requiring extensive training or additional software.

By providing immediate, meaningful feedback and enabling easy exploration of sustainable design alternatives, SOLIDWORKS Sustainability tools empower users to innovate while reducing environmental impacts, turning sustainable design from a lofty goal into an everyday reality.

Key Features of SOLIDWORKS Sustainability

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Integration

At the heart of SOLIDWORKS Sustainability lies its ability to perform lifecycle assessments. This feature evaluates the environmental impact of a product from raw material extraction to disposal, enabling designers to consider every phase of the product’s existence.

Key Metrics Assessed:

• Carbon Footprint: Total greenhouse gas emissions.
• Energy Consumption: Energy required during the product lifecycle.
• Air Acidification: Impact of emissions contributing to acid rain.
• Water Eutrophication: Nutrient pollution affecting water bodies.

The LCA feature provides real-time feedback, empowering users to adjust their designs to minimize negative environmental effects.

Material Selection and Analysis

Material choice is critical in determining a product’s sustainability. SOLIDWORKS Sustainability integrates a robust material database, allowing users to evaluate the environmental performance of different materials.

Features:

• Material Comparison: Assess the environmental impact of materials based on criteria like recyclability, carbon footprint, and energy usage.
• Find Similar Materials: Identify alternative materials with similar mechanical properties but lower environmental impact.
• Eco-Friendly Materials: Explore options for recycled or renewable materials.

Example: Switching from traditional plastic to a bioplastic alternative could significantly lower a product’s environmental footprint without sacrificing functionality.

Environmental Impact Dashboard

The Environmental Impact Dashboard provides real-time visualization of sustainability metrics. This interactive interface allows users to monitor the effects of their design choices and adjust parameters as needed.

Benefits:

• View metrics like carbon footprint and energy usage at a glance.
• Experiment with design modifications to reduce environmental impact.
• Generate detailed reports for presentations or compliance documentation.

Example: A packaging engineer could use the dashboard to refine the shape of a container, reducing material waste while maintaining structural integrity.

End-of-Life Analysis

Designing with the product’s end-of-life in mind is essential for sustainability. SOLIDWORKS Sustainability helps users consider disassembly, recycling, and reusability options.

Features:

• Assess recyclability of materials used.
• Simulate disassembly processes to identify areas for improvement.
• Design modular components for easier upgrades or repairs.

Example: A consumer electronics company can design a modular smartphone with replaceable components, ensuring longevity and easier recycling.

Simulation for Optimization

Efficient designs often require fewer resources and materials. SOLIDWORKS Simulation tools integrate seamlessly with Sustainability, helping you optimize your designs for minimal material usage and maximum durability.

Features:

• Topology Optimization: Reduce weight and material usage while maintaining strength.
• Stress Analysis: Ensure durability without overengineering components.
• Thermal and Flow Analysis: Optimize designs for energy efficiency in operation.

Example: An automotive designer could use topology optimization to create lightweight vehicle parts, improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions.

Sustainability in a Circular Economy

Sustainability doesn’t end with the product’s lifecycle—it extends into a circular economy, where materials are continuously reused and recycled. SOLIDWORKS Sustainability supports circular design principles with tools that enable:

• Modular Design: Simplify repair and upgrades by creating replaceable modules.
• Disassembly Simulation: Ensure products can be disassembled efficiently for recycling.
• Lifecycle Evaluation: Optimize the entire lifecycle for minimal waste and energy use.

Example: Designing appliances with easily replaceable parts ensures a longer product lifespan and less electronic waste.

Business Benefits of Sustainable Design

Adopting sustainable practices isn’t just good for the environment—it’s also a sound business strategy. Companies that integrate sustainability into their designs can:

• Reduce Costs: Minimize material waste and energy usage during production.
• Enhance Brand Reputation: Appeal to eco-conscious consumers and stakeholders.
• Stay Ahead of Regulations: Meet or exceed environmental standards and certifications.
• Drive Innovation: Explore new materials, processes, and design methodologies.

Final Thoughts

Designing for a greener future and balancing technological innovation with environmental protection often feel like trying to hit moving targets. But, SOLIDWORKS Sustainability tools empower engineers and designers to tackle environmental challenges head-on, to more efficiently deliver products that align with eco-friendly values. By leveraging features like lifecycle assessments, material analysis, and topology optimization, you can create innovative designs that minimize waste, conserve resources, and facilitate recycling.

Ready to design for a greener future? Explore SOLIDWORKS Sustainability tools today and see how they can help you achieve your sustainability goals. Contact SolidXperts for expert guidance, training, and support to get started.

Together, let’s build a more sustainable tomorrow!

Every year, SOLIDWORKS pushes the boundaries of innovation to meet the evolving needs of the design community. With SOLIDWORKS 2025, designers and engineers gain access to a robust set of tools that enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and improve design accuracy. These updates aren’t just about incremental changes—they’re about transforming how you work, connect, and innovate.

Let’s dive into what’s new and how these updates can elevate your design process.

#1 Enhanced Collaboration and Data Management

In today’s fast-paced design world, collaboration and efficient data management are key. SOLIDWORKS 2025 introduces new features to streamline teamwork and accelerate innovation.

Access to 3DSwym from the MySession Task Pane

Easily connect with industry peers through SOLIDWORKS online communities in 3DSwym, now accessible directly from the MySession panel. This seamless integration enables real-time collaboration and knowledge sharing without leaving your design environment.

Real-Time Notifications

Stay informed with real-time notifications that ensure you’re always working on the latest file versions. Whether you’re accessing files saved to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform or tracking updates made by collaborators, notifications alert you to changes and allow you to reload the latest data or review outdated components.

Flexible Data Management Options

A new feature in 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS lets you save your data in SOLIDWORKS PDM or other systems, giving you the flexibility to use the data management solution that best suits your needs.

#2 Advanced Part Modeling Flexibility

SOLIDWORKS 2025 empowers you to design faster and more efficiently with new part modeling capabilities.

Chamfer Selection Toolbar

The Chamfer command now includes a Selection Toolbar to automate edge selections. With options like outer edges, inner edges, and edges along extrusions, you can significantly speed up your workflow by avoiding manual edge selection.

Variable Fillet Chain

Achieve smoother transitions with the new Continuous Edge Blend option for variable fillets, enabling seamless blends across complex geometries.

Sheet Metal Bend Notch

Sheet metal design sees a boost with the ability to add customizable bend notches directly on the flat pattern bend lines. This enhancement improves manufacturability and simplifies the design-to-production process.

#3 Boosted Performance

Performance enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2025 are designed to save you time, especially when working with large assemblies.

Silhouette Defeature Method

Simplify parts for faster processing while maintaining associations with the parent part using the Silhouette Defeature Method.

SpeedPak Configuration at Assembly Level

Create SpeedPak configurations at the top assembly level without modifying subassemblies, offering more flexibility in simplifying large designs.

Faster Assembly Mass Calculations

Previously calculated mass properties for parts and bodies are reused to speed up mass property calculations for assemblies, saving valuable time.

#4 Accelerated Assembly Modeling

SOLIDWORKS 2025 brings new features to improve assembly design and manufacturability.

Copy Assembly Components with Mates

Preserve design intent while accelerating assembly creation by copying components along with their advanced and mechanical mates.

Surface Body Interference Detection

Interference checks now support surfaces, allowing you to detect issues between solid parts and surface bodies or between multiple surfaces, making it easier to validate imported geometry.

Interference Detection in Large Design Review Mode

Speed up interference checks in Large Design Review Mode (LDR), allowing you to work more efficiently with large assemblies.

#5 Improved Detailing of Drawings

Drawing enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2025 focus on reducing manual work and enforcing company standards.

Multi-Approval Stamps

Streamline the drawing approval process with multi-level approval stamps. Tasks and notifications can now be assigned for review, with automatic time stamps showing approval status directly on the drawing.

BOM Quantity Override for Detailed Cut Lists

Gain flexibility in how quantities are displayed in the BOM table. Structural member quantities can now be shown as QUANTITY or LENGTH x QUANTITY, offering more detailed insights.

#6 Flexible 3D Dimensioning and Tolerancing

Eliminate the need for disconnected 2D drawings with enhanced 3D dimensioning and tolerancing capabilities.

DimXpert Dimensions from Sketches

Automatically define model-based dimensions using intelligence built into sketches, speeding up the creation of fully defined models.

Drafted Feature Dimensions

Document drafted features more easily with the new DimXpert capabilities.

STEP 242 Export Controls

Communicate PMI data more effectively downstream with improved STEP 242 export options, offering greater flexibility and control.

#7 Improved Harness Board Drawings

Accelerate the creation of manufacturing documentation with the ability to create improved harness board drawings.

Improved Organization

Improve the organization and positioning of tables and balloons on flattened drawings with refined auto-placement of tables, dimensions, balloons, and formats.

Auto Placement

Speed up harness board creation with auto placement of tables, balloons and more.

Automatic Updates

Automatically update the electrical harness documentation after design changes.

#8 Streamlined ECAD/MCAD Collaboration

SOLIDWORKS 2025 makes it easier than ever to collaborate on electrical and mechanical designs.

Expanded CircuitWorks Capabilities

Now available to all SOLIDWORKS users, CircuitWorks allows you to import internal and external copper features like traces and vias using IDX files. Accessing copper geometry directly in SOLIDWORKS improves accuracy for thermal, structural, and electromagnetic analyses.

#9 Immersive Rendering Benefits

Take advantage of real-time, interactive ray tracing with the latest GPU advancements for rendering.

Visualize Photorealistic Rendering via API

Automate rendering workflows using SOLIDWORKS Visualize and the SOLIDWORKS API, enabling photorealistic renderings with minimal effort.

Fast Mode Rendering with DSPBR Engine

Experience real-time rendering with Dassault Systèmes’ Physically Based Rendering (DSPBR) engine, leveraging the Vulkan API for unmatched visual performance.

#10 User Experience Enhancements

Sometimes, it’s the small changes that make the biggest difference. SOLIDWORKS 2025 introduces usability improvements to boost productivity:

• Reattach Broken Sketch Relations: Quickly resolve issues caused by missing references in sketches.
• Copy Cut List Properties: Simplify workflows by copying cut list properties across specific items or entire models.
• Improved Selection Breadcrumbs: Navigate complex assemblies faster with clearer selection hierarchies in LDR mode.

The Value of Cloud-Based Solutions

Both SOLIDWORKS PDM and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform offer cloud-based options, enabling remote teams to collaborate seamlessly. By supporting mobile access and reducing the need for physical servers, cloud integration enhances team members’ ability to access the most current design data.

Comparing Costs

For smaller organizations, SOLIDWORKS PDM is a cost-effective solution, offering basic data management features that integrate with SOLIDWORKS. PLM requires a higher initial investment but pays off with lifecycle management of product data across departments, improving long-term productivity.

Wrapping Up: Choosing the Right Solution

Choosing between SOLIDWORKS PDM vs. PLM on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform depends on your organization’s specific needs. For CAD-centric teams, PDM provides a robust data management system. For teams needing product lifecycle management solutions that encompass every phase of the product development process, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is an ideal solution.

Ready to Get Started?

SOLIDWORKS 2025 is packed with tools and enhancements to make your design process faster, smarter, and more collaborative. For a quick reference, download the enhancement flyer here and explore more demo videos on the official SOLIDWORKS webpage.

Don’t wait—get ready to elevate your designs with SOLIDWORKS 2025!