Odoo Integration with Solidworks

Saving Money & Time in Product Engineering

This article will go through some of what must be considered when looking at integrating Odoo's product lifecycle management (PLM) with Solidworks for efficiency and control over and management of Solidworks documents.

CustomTools PDM and ERP Connector

If you use CustomTools for Solidworks or are interested in using it for batch processsing, document management or many of the other features available. To get the Odoo connector, one must purchase an ERP Connector license. It is the only version that offers a connection to Odoo. It is currently priced at 3000 Euro for a one-time license fee. They offer support for 200 Euro per year as well. That is quite reasonable given that you get the full version of CustomTools for Solidworks in addition to the connector.

Custom Connector - Get it Done Your Way

Your situation may require that you write a custom integration or maybe you're not using Odoo but another ERP. Writing a custom connector can be time-consuming and costly. However, for some, it can be very rewarding to design and develop the connector that your business really can use instead of trying to fit your business into a one-size-fits-all, pre-existing connector. Writing a custom module for integrating Solidworks with Odoo may make more sense as your company probably has requirements beyond what CustomTools for Solidworks can do. If you need sheet metal tools, better reporting, file management or any other feature CustomTools offers, you may want to look at CustomTools Professional because it enables Solidworks to receive requests and to post back data. Of course, your development team will need to write the code to connect the two systems. Some things to consider regarding security:

1. Should I use a secure tunnel (IPSec)?
A secure tunnel is a great way to prevent most attacks on your data. If your competition is fierce and your competitors are ruthless, your IP is not secure unless you have some way to keep most eyes off of the data you are passing back between Solidworks and Odoo or any other ERP/MRO/MRP software.
2. Is my Odoo secure?
Have I taken the necessary steps to secure my Odoo server? Do I have a proper SSL? Is my server secure? I have taken steps to make sure that I have a really good fail-over plan that is realistic and readily executable?