INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY

Design industrial machinery for the new possible

Remove barriers to connection with the convergence of design and manufacturing.

Industrial machinery for a better world

Achieve better outcomes for your products, businesses, and the world with intuitive, powerful, and accessible technology that connects every detail of your design and make process.

Autodesk empowers innovators to create smarter, more reliable machinery for their customers.

Connect data, disciplines, and processes

Collaborate with connected data

Easily find the information you need. Connect your colleagues, clients, and supply chain with a single, secure data model. Always know who’s responsible for the next step in your design cycle. Automatically maintain an audit trail of decisions and their impact.

Automate to drive growth

Improve quotation speed and accuracy using your existing CAD models to create sales configurators. Streamline everyday tasks to focus design and engineering time on creating innovative solutions. Automate manufacturing data preparation with BOM, nesting, and CAM in a single environment.

Improve operational efficiency

Bring together design and manufacturing using common CAD models to program CNC machines. Design fixtures and create toolpaths before engineering data is released— any changes automatically update CAM. Efficiently utilize production capacity across multiple machines and sites with standardized NC creation.

Solutions for industrial machinery

Autodesk solutions for industrial machinery and equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

Data and process management

Secure and control your intellectual property. Collaborate with your internal and external colleagues. Manage and track decision-making to automatically maintain your audit trail.

2D and 3D drawing and modelling

Use 2D and 3D side-by-side. Convert 2D drawings into associative 3D models. Make associative 2D drawings from 3D models and share as industry standard DWGs

CAD interoperability

Reference CAD data, and consume updates made by the authoring CAD tool. Seamlessly exchange CAD data from virtually any source while maintaining data integrity.

Mechanical design

Discover professional-grade 2D and 3D CAD for design and engineering, including simulation, tolerance analysis, nesting, CAM, and production work cell design with factory planning.

Tolerance analysis

Improve quality, avoid excessive machining operations, reduce variation, and improve collaboration between engineering and manufacturing, with easy analysis and reporting of component tolerance stack-ups.

Simulation

Predict, validate, and optimize your designs with accurate, trusted analysis - including mechanical (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), plastic injection molding, composite materials, and manufacturing simulations.

Design automation and configuration

Automate repetitive tasks. Capture and reuse engineering knowledge with a custom product configurator. Work more efficiently and create time to focus on  imagination and innovation.

Advanced manufacturing

Make anything you want, however you want to make it. Unlock advanced capabilities for machining, additive manufacturing, generative design, nesting, and fabrication.

Production system & work cell design

Minimize risk and maximize efficiency for production system and work cell design, from point cloud scanning and clash detection to production line simulation and installation sequencing.

Why industrial machinery manufacturers choose Autodesk

Get Inventor + AutoCAD + Autodesk Fusion + more—Professional-grade tools for product development and manufacturing planning.


Professional-grade product design and engineering tools for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation.


Product data management software—available as Vault Basic, Vault Professional, Vault Office


Cloud PLM to enhance workflows and improve collaboration across teams, partners, and suppliers.


Deliver better custom solutions

Custom projects require a close relationship between equipment suppliers, clients, and external partners. But persistent weak spots in these relationships prevent future projects from starting on solid ground.

 

In this report, Forrester Consulting recommends a path forward for equipment suppliers.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What is industrial machinery and equipment?

Industrial machinery is equipment used for processing, production, and distribution in industries such as energy, liquid & gas processing, mining, construction, agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, machine tools, industrial robots, and building services equipment.

What are examples of industrial machinery?

Examples of industrial machinery include:

  • Heavy equipment (e.g. diggers, bulldozers, and tractors)
  • Raw material processing machinery (e.g. furnace, forging, casting extruder)
  • Production line and processing machinery (e.g. injection molds, assembly machines and robots)
  • Material handling equipment (e.g. hand trucks, forklift trucks, conveyors, AGV's and cranes)
  • Building services equipment (e.g. escalators, elevators, generators, and air conditioning)
  • Machine tools (such as a mill, lathe or sheet metal press)

What are the different types of manufacturing equipment?

The different types of manufacturing equipment can be categorized by industry, process, size, or method of operation:

  • By industry: mining, construction, agriculture, manufacturing, process and power, water and waste, food, transport, pharmaceuticals
  • By process: safety, raw material processing, part and component manufacture, surface finishing, assembly, quality and testing, packaging, logistics and maintenance
  • By size: portable (less than 20kg/45lbs), light duty (less than one tonne), medium duty (1 to ten tonnes) and heavy duty (above ten tonnes)
  • By method of operation: manual (hand-operated), semi-automated (CNC) and fully automated (production lines and robots)

What kinds of software are required in the manufacturing industry?

Software is used in the manufacturing industry for design, simulation, data management, process management, project management, inventory and supply chain management, quality and safety management, and the control and monitoring of machinery. 

  • CAD (Computer aided design) is used to design industrial machinery and equipment. 
  • Simulation software is used to analyze and optimize products and processes, while reducing the need for physical prototypes and destructive testing. 
  • CAM (Computer aided manufacturing) is used to turn CAD data into CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) data, to drive production equipment.
  • PDM (Product data management) manages engineering and design data including CAD, simulation and CAM files.
  • PLM (Product lifecycle management) manages the data and processes required to bring the product to production.
  • MES (Manufacturing execution software) is used for production planning, workforce management, and scheduling manufacturing operations. 
  • ERP (Enterprise resource planning) software is used to manage business processes, such as accounting, payroll and procurement.
See more FAQ

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A global leader in the integration of design and manufacturing processes, Autodesk can help you develop the capabilities needed to achieve your goals.