SOLIDWORKS PDM AI Assistant Sizing and Value Calculator
Small CAD teams do not need a data centre. This calculator shows what a private AI assistant on a SOLIDWORKS PDM vault needs in GPU and index terms, and whether time saved justifies it.
Your numbers
A 24 to 48 GB workstation or server GPU, depreciated.
Your results
Planning estimate for small teams. Measure throughput and time saved in a pilot before committing to hardware.
Payback months by minutes saved per question
Sweeps Minutes saved per question from 1 to 15, holding your other inputs fixed.
Small-team pilot outline
Optional: a one-page outline for a two-week pilot on a PDM vault.
Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.
How to use it
Put in your named users and the share who use the assistant each day. Questions per user are higher in small teams because the tool replaces vault searches and file opening. The chart sweeps minutes saved per question to show how sensitive payback is to that single number.
Formulas and assumptions
Daily questions are users times active share times questions per user. Peak concurrency assumes a quarter of the day's questions in the busiest hour at about 20 seconds each. GPUs are the larger of the model floor and the throughput requirement at 25 tokens per second per stream. The index assumes two chunks per page at about 6 KB.
Reading the result
For most small teams one GPU is enough, so the cost is flat and payback depends on minutes saved and integration effort. If payback exceeds two years, consider simple deterministic search over data cards first, which needs no GPU, and add a language model only for document questions.
Common mistakes
Sizing for named users rather than concurrent ones, assuming the vault holds only text when most files are CAD binaries that produce no text, and forgetting the one-off effort of cleaning data card variables.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will one GPU be enough?
For tens of users and a 14B to 32B class model, often yes. Check memory for model weights plus context, and add a second GPU only if you need failover or heavier models.
Why count pages if most files are CAD?
Only text-bearing files, such as PDFs, Office documents and exported drawings, add chunks. Enter only those documents, not the total file count of the vault.
How reliable is minutes saved?
It is the least certain input. Time two or three realistic tasks with and without the assistant and use a conservative average.
Are SQL Server licences included?
No. The AI layer does not require extra SQL Server licences by design, but check your own licensing for any reporting replica you add.
Netray can check these figures against your vault and propose a small pilot. The calculator works independently.
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