The SOLIDWORKS Costing tool (available in SOLIDWORKS Professional and SOLIDWORKS Premium) has templates that serve as starting points, saved with your customized preferences for calculating manufacturing costs. Templates are the heart of what drives the values displayed within your interface. In this blog, we’ll explore creating the templates that include the procedures and specifications you use to manufacture parts.
SOLIDWORKS Costing Templates:
Each part has unique characteristics and therefore SOLIDWORKS provides three default costing templates.
- Machining (Machined/Casted/Plastic Parts: .sldctm)
- Multibody (Weldments/Assemblies: .sldctc)
- SheetMetal (SheetMetal: .sldcts)
/1.png "template SLDCTM file")
To find where costing templates are stored, look under SOLIDWORKS Options > File Locations > Costing Templates.
/2.png "Location/Costing Templates")
Defaults
Next, navigate to Costing Options > Defaults to define the default values that will help streamline your costing process. The image below highlights where to find these settings.
/3.png "Costing Options")
Template Overrides
Need to override a default? Under the costing options, you can select Template Overrides to bypass the template settings.
/16.png "Template Overrides: Costing")
Accessing the SOLIDWORKS Template Editor
To access the Costing Template Editor, click Costing from the Evaluate tab on your toolbar. Next, in the Costing Task Pane, select Launch Template Editor. Click New and select the template you want to launch (Sheet metal, Mulibody/Assembly).
/4.png "Evaluate/Template Editor")
Here are some examples of the variables each template has available to customize in the template editor:
/5.png "Customize Sheet Metal")
/6.png "Customize Machining")
/7.png "Customize Main")
Before launching a new template, remember you have the option to choose an existing template that already contains preferences.
PRO TIP: Ever notice the Save As Limited Access Copy option in the template editor? This feature can be used to send a file to a customer without giving them acess to see the detailed cost parameters. Just remember that once saved in this mode, the template can’t be edited. To update it, you would have to save another one and delete the old copy.
/8.png "Save As Limited Access Copy")
Read our next blog on editing templates in SOLIDWORKS Costing >>
