Why sketching is the foundation in Solidworks - Business Case Study

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a product design analyst at a manufacturing company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a report showing how sketching in SolidWorks impacts the efficiency and accuracy of product design projects.

📊 Data: You have data on design projects including time spent on sketching, number of design errors found later, and overall project completion time.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a dashboard that visualizes the relationship between sketching time and design accuracy, highlighting why sketching is the foundation of good design.

Sample Data

Project ID	Sketching Time (hours)	Design Errors Found	Total Project Time (hours)
P001	5	2	40
P002	3	5	45
P003	6	1	38
P004	2	7	50
P005	4	3	42
P006	7	1	37
P007	3	6	48
P008	5	2	39

1

Step 1: Import the project data into your BI tool.

Load the table with columns: Project ID, Sketching Time (hours), Design Errors Found, Total Project Time (hours).

Expected Result

Data table with 8 projects loaded correctly.

2

Step 2: Create a calculated measure for average design errors per project.

Average Errors = AVERAGE('Table'[Design Errors Found])

Expected Result

Average Errors measure returns 3.375.

3

Step 3: Create a scatter plot with Sketching Time on X-axis and Design Errors Found on Y-axis.

Configure scatter plot: X = Sketching Time (hours), Y = Design Errors Found, Points = Project ID.

Expected Result

Scatter plot shows that projects with more sketching time tend to have fewer design errors.

4

Step 4: Add a trendline to the scatter plot to show correlation.

Enable linear trendline in scatter plot settings.

Expected Result

Trendline slopes downward, indicating negative correlation between sketching time and errors.

5

Step 5: Create a bar chart showing average total project time grouped by sketching time buckets (e.g., 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 hours).

Create buckets: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 hours; then calculate average Total Project Time for each bucket.

Expected Result

Bar chart shows projects with more sketching time have slightly lower total project time.

6

Step 6: Add descriptive text explaining that more sketching reduces errors and can shorten project time.

Add text box: 'Projects with more sketching time have fewer design errors and tend to complete faster, showing why sketching is the foundation of good design.'

Expected Result

Dashboard includes clear explanation linking sketching to better outcomes.

Final Result

Sketching Time (hours) vs Design Errors Found

  8 |     
  7 | *  *
  6 |   * 
  5 |     
  4 |     
  3 |   * *
  2 | *   *
  1 |     * *
    +-------------------
      2  3  4  5  6  7

Bar Chart: Average Total Project Time by Sketching Time Bucket

  50 |       
  48 | *     
  46 |       
  44 |       
  42 |   *   
  40 |       
  38 |     * 
    +-------------------
      2-3 4-5 6-7

Text: More sketching time reduces errors and shortens project time.

✓Projects with higher sketching time have fewer design errors.

✓More sketching time correlates with slightly shorter total project time.

✓Sketching is essential to reduce mistakes and improve design efficiency.

Bonus Challenge

Create a calculated measure that predicts design errors based on sketching time using linear regression.

Show Hint

Use DAX functions like LINEST or create a formula to estimate errors = intercept + slope * sketching time.