Industrial software for digital design is a mainstay of industrial software and the foundation for intelligent manufacturing; however, a large gap exists between relevant domestic industries and the international frontier. Therefore, it is urgent to improve these software to support China's manufacturing sector to enter the international advanced ranks. This study explores the significance of the industrial software for digital design, reviews the development status of industrial software in China and abroad, and analyzes the challenges faced by related industries in China. Key breakthrough directions are summarized, including seamless integration of structural computer-aided design/computer-aided engineering software and optimization software; design, analysis, and optimization integrated software driven by geometric features; simulation calculation and analysis featuring multi-body, multi-state, and multi-physical field coupling; cloudification and customization of industrial software; and heterogeneous parallel computing supported by algorithm strategies. Furthermore, we propose the following suggestions: (1) sorting out subdivided areas and formulating targeted industry support policies, (2) encouraging software enterprises to draw on each other's strengths and formulating unified domestic standards, (3) providing targeted support for small- and medium-sized enterprises to expand their customer market, (4) improving personnel training programs to gather high-end research staff, and (5) strengthening basic research and exploiting the advantages of domestic innovation market.