DS SolidWorks Corporation today unveiled SolidWorks 2011, the latest release of the most popular 3D CAD software on the market. There are many new features to talk about, but today I’m going to hit the highlights of what is coming.

Theme

Every release has a theme and this one is no different. Along with improving Performance and Reliability (which is and should be a focus of every release), here are the major themes.

• Design Faster and more Efficiently
• Enhanced Support for Manufacturing
• Improved Collaboration and Visualization

This release included over 200 enhancements, many of which were customer driven.

Weldments

The biggest addition to Weldments is the introduction of a lightweight Weld Bead command which can be invoked in both Parts AND Assemblies! The functions of the command are the same for both environments. The resultant Weld Bead is NOT a solid body (only graphical representation), so it is generated VERY fast. Below are some capability highlights:

• Weld Annotations are automatically generated with the Weld Bead
• Can weld around complex intersections
• Can weld around gaps between tubes
• Can do Intermittent and Staggered weld beads
• Instant 3D handles available on screen to adjust bead length
• Can change weld bead types through the auto-generated Annotation
• Smart Selection Tool allows for RAPID intersection selection and bead production
• Weld Tables automatically generated in SolidWorks Drawings
• Caterpillar and End Treatment tools to show Weld Beads in Drawings
• Separate Weight Calculation tool for the Weld Beads

Drawings

• Drawing views now support the display of component colors as line color display
• New Algorithm to place model item dimensions in a much more orderly fashion
• Ability to Auto Arrange existing dimensions through multiple selection
• Spacing thumbwheel can be used to control the gap between dimensions when using Auto Arrange
• Hole Table: Can delete rows, renumber tags & show dual dimensions
• Rotate View command in Drawings now

Curves

Curves can now be used to create reference planes. You can also reuse Curves for multiple features. The Helix command now supports this as well. Height and revolution have been added to the Helix command along with on screen fly-outs for all the parameters of the feature.

Sheet Metal

• You can now pattern or mirror Tab features
• The outline size of the sheet metal “blank” is now automatically generated as part of the Flat Pattern command.
• Bend Calculation equations are now supported

Grid System

This is a new feature that allows users to rapidly create a network of sketch features for Weldment framework generation. This is an interesting topic that we will cover in more detail on this site later.

FeatureWorks

• Can combine fillets and chamfers during auto-generation. (This is NICE)
• Now supports the recognition of Draft features
• Recognizes revolved features better
• Boss-Sweep and Cut-Sweep added to the list of supported features.

Routing

• Introduction of the Routing Library Manager (can be opened without the SolidWorks application running)
• Better support for the Routing component wizard
• Tag Schema Manager for P&ID diagrams
• Piping and Tubing Database can control ALL Piping & Tubing properties
• Will pick Piping Flange size based on a component outside of the route.
• Can create individual weld gaps on piping components
• Enhanced convert guidelines
• Dimensions added to piping routing sketch will automatically dimension to the outside of the pipe
• RMB Move fitting with triad. (Will allow users to rotate and move the routing part while staying linked to any attached routes.

Defeature

This tool allows you to convert an assembly to automatically create a “dumbed down” model with many less components and features. This is common for parts that you want to share but not include any internal or sometimes external detail. It also has the ability to preserve mates between parts when creating a new file. The new file is an Assembly with virtual component parts.

Appearances & Rendering

• Fully integrated Photoview 360 into SolidWorks
• Can adjust all aspects of Appearance data
• Decals have been made part of the SolidWorks Standard package
• Display Manager now added as a 4th FeatureManager Tab. It houses all of the Lights, Scenes, Cameras, and Walkthrough features.
• Can work in SolidWorks while renderings are being processed.

Miscellaneous

• Better utilization of memory which allows you to stay in SolidWorks a lot longer without having to reboot the application
• The measure tool can now be used while creating or editing a feature.
• You can now “configure” global variables, scale factors, and thread callouts
• Improved Parting Surface command in Mold Tools – Better control of how the surfaces are generated
• Equations now support suppression of a component based on condition statements
• All new UI for the Admin Image Editor along with many new options
• Can add Sustainability data to the Assembly Visualization tool.

OK…that is the Quick List. I’ll get some more screenshots rolled into this post tomorrow.

Stay tuned….more to come!

DISCLAIMER:  DS SolidWorks Corp paid for my travel, accommodations, and some meals for the SolidWorks 2011 Blogger Press Event.

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Part of our activities at SolidWorks today included a tour of Jeremy Luchini’s Let’s Go Design studios.  We got to see the set where all the episodes are filmed.  Jeremy has some pretty awesome “props” in there which are products that were all designed in SolidWorks.  After checking out the studio, Jeremy took us out back to his Fabrication shop where he is building the “Ultimate CAD Chair” featured on his latest episodes.  We were given an exclusive first look at the chair, which is still being built.  Let me tell you, this thing was AWESOME!  I can’t wait to see the finished product at SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio.  Below are some images I snapped along with a YouTube video of the studio and fab shop.

That’s one BIG Gantry system!

Me in the CAD Chair!

This is me trying to figure out how I’m going to get this into my office! 

Here is a YouTube video showing the tour

DISCLAIMER:  DS SolidWorks Corp paid for my travel, accommodations, and some meals for the SolidWorks 2011 Blogger Press Event.

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At the SolidWorks Blogger Press Event today in Concord, MA, we were shown a screenshot of the upcoming DraftSight version for MAC.  DraftSight for MAC will be available as a FREE download here in a couple of weeks over on the DraftSight page.  I should have a high resolution image for this tomorrow sometime, but in the meantime, here is a sample image that shows the interface.

There is lots more to report on the SolidWorks 2011 front, but it will have to wait till 8am EST tomorrow morning.  That is when the NDA on SolidWorks 2011 will be lifted.

Stay tuned…lots more to come!!

DISCLAIMER:  DS SolidWorks Corp paid for my travel, accommodations, and some meals for the SolidWorks 2011 Blogger Press Event.

UPDATED:  9/1/2010 – A better screenshot of the interface has been loaded.  You can click on the image above for fully detailed view!

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The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has brought the Inventing Merit Badge out of a long retirement and SolidWorks has agreed to provide a FREE copy of the SolidWorks Student Design Kit to any scout pursuing the Badge.

The “new” Badge is a result of a partnership between the BSA and the Lemelson-MIT program.  Scouts are required to interview inventors, research topics related to new product development, and create a working prototype of their own invention.

SolidWorks has setup a page that includes links to the Badge Requirements and a video tutorial to help students learn SolidWorks.  You can click on the image below to go to that page.  You can find more details on the SolidWorks Blog and in the Press Release issued last week.

As a parent with a Boy in Scouts, I applaud SolidWorks and the BSA for providing this opportunity for the Scouts.  I think providing 3D CAD software like SolidWorks will enhance the experience as each scout carries out their badge requirements.

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Dassault Systemes today announced the introduction of DraftSight, a 2D CAD tool that is available for download for FREE at DraftSight.com.  Last week I was contacted by a PR agency and was asked if I would like to see the product first hand and review some of the details of the program.  I jumped at the chance and even got to test drive a pre-beta version of the software to see for myself what it was all about.  Below are the highlights of what is being offered.

• FREE download version to anyone who wants it
• Increased performance over many 2D packages
• API Extension and Direct Technical Support can be purchased as Add-Ons
• If you print or save, a one-time e-mail submission is required for the Free version.
• Online DraftSight Community using the new DS SWYM platform
• Commercial version bundles API & Tech Support sold as FlexLM license by all DS Reseller Channels
• Will offer both MAC & LINUX versions later this year

The Basics

The product is little over 40 megabytes when downloaded.  Installation literally takes less than a minute.  The interface is VERY Clean.  The look and feel is very “modern” which is refreshing when compared to the IntelliCAD based SolidWorks 2DEditor (DWGeditor).  It also contains some enhancements which do make this product unique.  Below is a screenshot of the default screen you see when you start the program.

Although I don’t use 2D tools very much at all any more, I was still able to find my way around the product since it is VERY much like AutoCAD.  One of the features I immediately noticed is that DraftSight contains a Polar snap setting, which was always missing in DWGeditor.  The layers interface is very clean and appears to have all the major tools and features necessary.  Below is a screenshot that shows all the details.

One of the unique features of this tool is the Enhanced Command Window which features colors for options as you enter geometry creation commands.  This makes the options standout and will allow the user to identify the options available much faster.

Basic Block Commands are also available.  The example I created included a gradient shaded hatch.  All of the placement options will look very familiar to most 2D users.

If you Save or Print a file in DraftSight, you’ll be prompted to Activate the software.  All you have to provide is an e-mail address.  (THAT’S IT!)  You have 30 days to provide this e-mail address.  After that you will have to provide it in order to continue using the product.

DraftSight also has a mouse gesture wheel feature that functions very much like its counterpart in SolidWorks 2010.

Performance is key and according to Aaron Kelley, Senior Director of DraftSight, users should see a significant performance increase when compared to SolidWorks 2DEditor.  Of course I had to test this for myself and I must say the results were very positive.  A 19 megabyte test file (cannot show the content on the screen…sorry!) loaded in about half the time it took to open the file in SolidWorks 2DEditor.  This product is being lauched as a Beta.  This is pretty common these days with many software companies…after all…Gmail was labeled “Beta” for quite some time.

Commercial Licensing

All Dassault Systemes reseller channels will be selling a Commercial version that includes the API access and Technical Support for $250 per year per license.  It is a standard FlexLM setup that will allow multiple users to access the available licenses on the server.

Community Aspect

One of the interesting aspects of this product is the Community approach.  The DraftSight Community is an area setup within the new Dassault Systemes SWYM online Community.  (SWYM stands for See What You Mean)  The hope is that the user Community will provide lots of feedback on the product which will drive future enhancements.  It was stressed that this product WILL be enhanced and will always offer a FREE version.  I’ll cover more about SWYM in a future post as it is just now being launched along with this product.

Technology

The technology behind this product is NOT IntelliCAD.  It is based on ARES which is a newly launched platform from German based Grabert CAD solutions.  Later this year a MAC & LINUX versions of this product will be available which follows in line with product announcements already made by Grabert.  I did ask about the future of SolidWorks 2DEditor and was told that announcements regarding that product will be made later down the road.

Industry Effects

The fact that such a comprehensive 2D tool is now being offered for FREE is without a doubt a groundbreaking action within the CAD Industry.  Although it may not have the Bells and Whistles of some of the other 2D CAD packages, it offers an amazing amount of functionality for virtually no cost to the user.  So perhaps Dassault will need to add “2D for Everyone” as a slogan to go along with their “3D for Everyone” mission statement.  What will the other CAD vendors say?  Well, I’m sure we’ll hear all about how DraftSight lacks this feature and that feature, but the bottom line is this package is not trying to be the ultimate 2D package.  It offers basic 2D functionality at no cost to the user.  Pretty impressive.

Conclusions

So far, I am really impressed with this product.  The interesting test will be putting it through its paces in the hands of the user.  After more folks (along with myself) have kicked the tires of the Beta version of the product, I’ll post the results here on the site.

Stay tuned….much more to come!

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Well, its that time of the year again folks.  SolidWorks 2011 Beta appears to be just a few weeks away.  No official dates have been given, but according to the SolidWorks Customer Portal site, the first Beta will be released  in “early July”.

The Beta Contest Details can be found HERE where you’ll see individual competitions for SolidWorks 2011, Enterprise PDM 2011, & Simulation 2011.  In addition SolidWorks will feature a “Star of the Week” prize which I believe is new for this year.  SolidWorks will also feature Part Modeling, Assembly Modeling, EPDM API, and PhotoView 360 2011 competitions.

The prizes for this year’s contest are looking pretty nice for the folks that have a little extra time on their hands.  The Overall Beta Winner will get a $1000 Visa Gift Card!  You can see all the details HERE.

As with every year, SolidWorks reveals SOME of the enhancements at SolidWorks World.  My SolidWorks 2011 Sneak Peek post has a list of the enhancements that we already know about.

Beta testing is FREE to all customers with current subscription contracts.  Access to the Site will be through the Customer Portal.

Stay tuned….there will be more news of “new” programs later this week. 

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In many companies with more traditional number systems in place, the drawing number and “part number” are shared.  The difference between the instances are often “dash” numbers added to the end of the unique identifying number.  For example, a drawing number would be 200345 and the part number for the item detailed in the drawing is 200345-001.  To add another flavor to the mix, variants of the part itself are often detailed on the same drawing.  200345-001 might represent the part with a blue paint applied and 200345-003 might represent a green painted part.  This no doubt can be handy in that changes to either part can be quickly made through a single drawing.  This makes a lot of sense when you have “families” of parts that are similar and the design of these parts are tied together.

When you take traditional approaches such as this and introduce the data into a PLM system, this is where things can get interesting.  The process I mentioned above has been in use in various forms at the company I work for for many years.  Currently I am working on defining how our SolidWorks data will be stored in our soon to be implemented PLM system.  SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (EPDM) will also play a role in this process, but will mainly be used as the MCAD data vault whose sole responsibility is to track the versions of the CAD data only.  One of the things I am interested to know from some of you our there is how you are doing this.  Our current train of thought would be to name the SolidWorks model (part or assembly) by the unique identifying number.  Examples would be 200345.sldprt and 200345.slddrw.  The variants (if used) would then be stored as configurations inside the Part or Assembly model.

In more traditional systems, a revision to the Drawing would be considered a revision to the part.  When you organize  your data simply from a CAD standpoint there are many situations where this would make sense.  A “side effect” of this though is that if you have variants for the model (i.e. 200345-001 & 200345-003), BOTH variants are often considered “revised” even if the change to the Drawing only effects one variant and not the other.  This is where the PLM system can add some capability in that it has the ability to track revisions of items, yet treat the CAD data as “reference” data used to build or manufacture a part.  Essentially, it can track the part itself and the CAD data for the part SEPARATELY.  In our example noted above, the PLM system can have separate entries for the variants (200345-001 & 200345-003).  If a change is made to 200345-003 (lets just say a color change in the paint) that doesn’t effect the 200345-001, then the CAD data (200345.sldprt and 200345.slddrw) would be revised with CAD revisions synced for both model and drawing.  The revision to the items (separately stored) in PLM does not have to be incremented for the part that did not change.  (200345-001 would still be at the original revision).  The upside to this is that handling the disposition of any parts in production or on the shelf is much easier in that you don’t have to make unnecessary revisions to components that have NOT changed.  The downside to this is that if someone picks up a drawing and sees a “Revision A” on the drawing, they can no longer assume that each variant (200345-001 & 200345-003) in the form of a final “part” is at the same revision.  In this case, the documentation has been revised but only one of the the two items in PLM have received a revision as a result to changes in the documentation.  Notation CAN however be put on the drawing to indicate this, but the biggest difference is that the PLM system will have to be the controlling authority on revisions of the component itself.   This is can be a big change for anyone that touches a component during the manufacturing process.  The biggest hurdle often is training people to separate items or “parts” from the documentation used to create them.  CAD data whether it is a 3D model or a drawing is still documentation used to create the final item.

So…after this long winded explanation…I get to one of the points of this post.  I’d like to hear how some of you have dealt with this when taking your data from the CAD/PDM world into the PLM world.  In particular, are you using configurations for part variations or do you treat variants as separate part files?  I’ve read where some companies get rid of variants altogether when using PLM.  (Personally, I think we would be giving up a lot of flexibility if we did this.)  I’ve even seen scenarios where CAD data is stored as a completely separate unique number altogether.  (Although it may sound foreign to some, I can see how this could work.)

So now…I turn it over to you.  I’d like to hear some of your experiences in this area if you have the time to share it.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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You can now show Sketch Pictures inserted in models on the Drawing!  Below you’ll see a quick example I made of a picture frame.  With the help of Realview and a nice rendering made in Photoview 360, it’s pretty easy to quickly make something that is visually appealing.  The problem with an example like this is that when you take that model to a Drawing, the centerpiece (the Sketch Picture) was in the past lost.

In SolidWorks 2010, the Sketch Picture automatically comes into the Drawing and is shown in all views where the image is visible.

If you go ahead and turn on the Shaded views, you can show the full appearance in the Drawing!

Although this example is a bit “out of the norm”, this new feature might just allow you to document your designs in certain area with greater detail.  The application of it is up to you!

Lots of new stuff coming…until then….stay tuned!

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Sometimes when testing newer versions of Software you discover some “unreported” enhancements that really can be a time saver.  That type of enhancement is the source of this post, but first we’ll take an overall look at the enhancements to Tables in SolidWorks 2010.

As reported in my SolidWorks 2010 Enhancements Highlight article, all Tables in SolidWorks 2010 now behave VERY similarly to Microsoft Excel.  You can now use the Tab key and arrow keys to quickly switch between cells during data entry.  In previous versions, you had to double-click EACH CELL to make a modification.  This could make entering data in any type of table a painfully slow experience.  Below is a link to a video that highlights the Excel behavior in tables.

Last week I got a question from one of our users concerning tables.  He was working on a cable drawing that contained a couple of “custom” tables that were produced in Microsoft Excel.  The tables were pasted into SolidWorks which utilizes standard Windows OLE (Object Linking/Embedding) to display the Excel information inside the SolidWorks Window.  In previous versions, we stored the Microsoft Excel document inside the Design Binder of the Drawing document.  The user noted that when opening a Design Binder document in SolidWorks 2010, the default behavior was now set to open Microsoft Excel WITHIN the SolidWorks Window which is similar to the behavior you see when you create or edit a Design Table.

As we were discussing the table behavior, a thought popped into my head.  I wonder if I can import the Excel data into a SolidWorks General Table?  Having the Table in SolidWorks will allow for easier table editing and more precise font and cell sizing options since OLE isn’t in use.

This table was HUGE.  About 5 columns wide and 49 rows tall.  As a test, I created a General Table that matched the column and row count.  I then editing the Excel table to where I could access the data directly in Excel.  I copied all the cells to the clipboard.  After exiting the Excel interface, I tried pasting the data from the clipboard to the new General Table I just created.  It worked!  All the Font sizes and type were perfectly preserved.

So with this little trick…it won’t take very long for users to convert OLE type Excel tables to General Tables!  There are lots of documented features to export tables, but nothing is shown for importing table information from a spreadsheet.  Below is a link to a video that shows off the Excel Import trick.

The new table behavior is a welcome change and this little import trick really completes it.

Stay tuned….more to come!

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If you are active in the CAD world and haven’t heard of Al Dean and Develop3D, then you are seriously missing out.

Al does a great job of looking at the MCAD Industry as a whole and his latest article lays out what I think is a spot on prediction of the future of SolidWorks.  This is a must read for all SolidWorks users!

SolidWorks World 2010 – Next generation picture starts to clear

Stay tuned…more to come!

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