SolidWorks 2010 has many improvements and new features that can help engineers and designers create and documents their designs more efficiently.  As is often the case in life, it’s the small things that matter, and small, simple improvements can make a big difference when designing or detailing a design.

SolidWorks seemed to have spent more time this go-around on polishing rough edges and speeding things up.  The themes for this release were user experience, reliability, and performance.

Below I have listed just a few of my favorite improvements in SolidWorks 2010 that I think can help make a big difference in improving users’ workflow:

USER INTERFACE (UI)

Consistency in PropertyManager/Graphics Area Controls

The SolidWorks 2010 PropertyManager has been made more consistent by retaining settings and values in the same commands across SolidWorks sessions and using round numbers for default values.  The control focus in the PropertyManager now transfers automatically to the next input after a selection has been made.

In the graphics area, right-clicking for ok or to advance through multiple PropertyManager controls when required works more consistently.

Mouse Gestures

Along with keyboard shortcuts and the shortcut menu (S-key), mouse gestures is yet another shortcut way to access commonly used commands.  Users can choose to have four or eight shortcuts on the mouse gesture guide, which appears by right-clicking in the graphics area and dragging the mouse to the desired command.  The gestures can be customized independently for any commands in the sketch, part, assembly, and drawing environments.  If desired, the mouse gestures guide can be deactivated by going to Tools|Customize and unchecking the option on the Mouse Gestures tab.

Heads-Up View Toolbar Customization

The heads-up toolbar can now be customized differently based on what environment you are in (modeling or drawing).  You can also choose to simply hide the toolbar.

PARTS

Multibody Part Materials

You can now assign materials to individual bodies in a multibody part.  Now users can model assemblies of say, a library assembly of a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) item, in a multibody part.  The individual body materials are honored in mass properties, drawing section views, and in SolidWorks Simulation.

Display States in Parts

SolidWorks 2010 allows Display States to be used in parts in the same way as assemblies.

Standards in Cosmetic Threads

Now, cosmetic threads can be defined using the standard sizes from the Hole Wizard database (FINALLY!).  There is a new option, Standard, in the Cosmetic Thread PropertyManager that gives users a selection of all available standards to choose from.  I know that this is a small improvement, but it’s one that I know I personally have wished for every time I’ve had to add threads manually.  The information has always been there, there just wasn’t a way to access it.

ASSEMBLIES

Make External Components Virtual

In SolidWorks 2010, external components of an assembly can now be made virtual.  Existing reference to the component is ignored, the component is renamed, and there is no link back to the original external part.  The virtualization can be done at the time of insert or after the component has been inserted into the assembly.  The only use I see for myself for this tool is converting a library assembly into a part.

Assembly Component Instance References

SolidWorks 2010 now allows users to assign different values for each component instance in an assembly.  When component instances have different reference values, they can be shown in a BOM as discrete line items and can be linked to balloon text in drawings.  This enhancement will also help immensely if you use SolidWorks Routing, as previously you needed to uncheck “Update component names when documents are replaced” in the System Options|External References dialogue to avoid issues when components were replaced.

Assembly Visualization

SolidWorks 2010 has a new tool called Assembly Visualization that enables users to display and sort components of an assembly based on custom properties.  In the image to the right, for instance, you can see the mass distribution in the components of the assembly.  This information is critical to have if trying to hit a weight bogey, and this tool helps easily identify the heavier components.  It could also be used to find a cost distribution.  The colored display is reminiscent of the SolidWorks Simulation reports, and can be customized.

Assembly Mirroring

Mirroring components within an assembly has been enhanced in SolidWorks 2010 with the addition of the MirrorComponent feature.  This new feature is added to the FeatureManager to maintain the position of all the mirrored components relative to the seed components.  It is an editable feature, and has the option to just mirror the components about the selected plane or to create opposite-hand versions as derived configurations in the mirrored components.

DRAWINGS/DETAILING

Rapid Dimension Tool

SolidWorks 2010 has a new Rapid Dimension tool that enables users to quickly add evenly-spaced dimensions to drawing views.   A glyph, called the rapid dimension manipulator, appears whenever you have selected an entity to dimension, and allows the user to place the dimension in the correct orientation, even when zoomed in tight on the view.

In addition, if you delete a dimension, SolidWorks 2010 can be set to automatically readjust the remaining dimensions to eliminate any gaps that may be created.  This setting is a document property.

Parametric Quantities on Balloons

You can now add parametric quantities to balloons in the industry-standard way as shown in the image to the right.  No more having to manually add a note, and then group it with the balloon, and having to remember to update the quantity if it changes!  The quantity can be shown to the right, left, top, or bottom of the balloon.

Annotation Attachments

New handles have been added to annotations, such as Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) and surface finish symbols, that make it easier to attach and detach annotations to other annotations and dimension witness lines.

Drawing Center Mark Improvements

SolidWorks 2010 will now add a gap between center marks and dimension witness lines, whether the holes were dimensioned before adding the center mark, or dimensioning a hole with a center mark already placed.  Previously, you would have to add the center mark and then dimension to that instead of the hole to have the witness lines show the gap.  By dimensioning to the hole, the center mark can be deleted without leaving the dimension dangling.

Dimension Palette

SolidWorks 2010 now has a new heads-up dimension palette that appears whenever you insert a new dimension or select an existing dimension.  It lets the user access most of the formatting options available in the Dimension PropertyManager without having to mouse over to the side of the screen.

Notes Improvements

In SolidWorks 2010, borders can now be added to selected portions of notes.  This should make referencing flag notes and the like easier to format.  In addition, you can now drag notes into other notes, and they will be appended to the end of the note.  In the case of numbered drawing notes, the dragged note will take on the next sequential number.

GENERAL/OTHER

Reference Planes

SolidWorks 2010 allows creation of more types of reference planes, such as mid-plane (FINALLY!).  The interface has changed somewhat and may take a little getting used to.  New users should have no trouble picking it up, but old-timers may have a little trouble with it, as you don’t get the various plane options until something is selected.  After a selection is made, it then shows the available plane options and attempts to choose the option best-suited to what has been selected.  At first, I was kind of turned off by the new interface, but after using it for a while, it grew on me and I found it quite intuitive and it generally seemed to select the plane option I was after.

Online Help

Starting with SolidWorks 2010, the Help file system is now hosted online.  Now, the help files can be updated on an as-need basis instead of waiting for a service pack.  It should also help with localization.  And expect more resources to be available in the future.  For systems that cannot be connected to the Internet, the standalone files will still be delivered during installation.

Multibody Sheet Metal Parts

SolidWorks 2010 adds functionality to sheet metal parts by adding multibody support.  Now, you can have sheet metal and weldment parts in one file!

You can also perform sheet metal operations on two separate bodies and combine them by adding an edge flange between them (provided, of course, that both bodies have the same thickness).  In addition, you can now use the Mirror Part command on sheet metal parts.

Find Similar Material

I have posted previously about the new SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress and Sustainability products, and the Find Similar Material tool included with it looks to have real potential.  Even if you aren’t interested in designing green with sustainability in mind, this tool can still come in handy.  Every version of SolidWorks comes with SustainabilityXpress, so check it out!

SUMMARY

Of course, this isn’t a complete list.  It’s just the new features and improvements that impressed me the most and the ones that I think will help me become more proficient in my work.

To see more of what’s new in SolidWorks 2010, you can access the What’s New in SolidWorks Version 2010 document at Ricky Jordan’s What’s New Guides repository.

Some images courtesy of SolidWorks and the What’s New in SolidWorks Version 2010 document.

If you haven’t already heard, SolidWorks graciously hosted some of the bloggers at SolidWorks Headquarters in Concord a couple of weeks ago.  The main purpose of the event was to give us, as SolidWorks users in our day jobs, a guided hands-on tour through the new upcoming 2010 release.  And after the morass that was the SolidWorks 2009 Hands-On press event in Barcelona last year, they thought it more prudent to do a hands-on event just for the bloggers.

Now there has been a lot of flak thrown around because not much can be said of the upcoming version, since it is still under Beta wraps.  We didn’t have to sign NDA’s; but as far as I know, all of the bloggers that attended are signed up for Beta, and as such, bound by the accompanying NDA.

Besides the hands-on, there was also a lunch meeting with CEO Jeff Ray, a meeting with SolidWorks founder Jon Hirschtick, a presentation on SolidWorks Sustainability by Rick Chin and Jeremy Regenerus, and Director of Worldwide Education Markets Marie Planchard.  The visit was also a chance to allow us to ask questions of various members of the design team.  And SolidWorks also treated us to dinner and a few laps at F1 Boston (those were the fastest track carts I’ve ever drove!).

Since not much of SolidWorks 2010 can be talked about, except what has already been revealed, I though that I would post about the notes I took about some interesting stuff that wasn’t under NDA.

SOLIDWORKS SUSTAINABILITY

Rick joined us on the phone for a quick run-down of SolidWorks Sustainability.  I have already posted an interview with Rick on this, so I’ll just mention again that even if you do not care about sustainable design, this tool can still come in handy if only because of the Find Similar Material tool included.

SOLIDWORKS LABS

Bob Miner stood in for William Doll and talked to us about SolidWorks Labs.  (I also have an interview with Bill posted, if you haven’t seen it.)  This was mostly a Q&A session.  The question I had was if Treehouse was ever going to be able to open existing files (alluding to information I received from Bill at SolidWorks World 2009), and the response we got was “No comment…”, albeit with a grin…

EDUCATION

Marie Planchard met with us and talked about the education initiatives at SolidWorks.  To see someone as passionate as her about reaching out to young people of all ages is invigorating!  The goal is to get them involved early on in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

SolidWorks has lots of resources available to both educators and students.  Information on SolidWorks education and curriculum, as well as how to buy software can be found here.  There are also several resources available to educators, as well as the SolidWorks Teacher Blog, that can help one in teaching SolidWorks.  (If you are a parent, you should definitely check out the Teacher Blog!  There are lot’s of neat things to do with your kids and SolidWorks!)

LUNCH WITH JEFF RAY

We broke for lunch and met with SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray.  Jeff fielded questions covering a wide variety of subjects from everyone.

One topic was what effect the current economic downturn was having on the company.  Jeff said that SolidWorks was taking the chance to evaluate their processes and make changes if needed, and that they were continuing to plan and innovate for the future.

When I broached the question of subscription; if SolidWorks was looking at making any changes based on the discussion that has occurred in the recent past in various places online; Jeff replied that they had no plans to change the way subscriptions work and no tiered pricing, but instead were focusing on adding more value for subscription customers.  I asked about breaking support out of the subscription, and was told that SolidWorks has implemented a new scoring system for VAR support.  He mentioned that several VAR’s were unhappy about this (natch), but that it was something that needed to be done to address customer satisfaction.

TALKING WITH JON HIRSCHTICK

After lunch, we had a short meeting with Jon Hirschtick and he talked about some of the things that had piqued his interest since he spoke at SolidWorks World.  His top 5 interests were:

• Hosted Computing (SaaS)
• Hardware Devices
• Video Game Technology
• Open Source Technology
• 3D Printing

He has since been looking into green technology, online backup, and solidstate drives.  He has also been researching collaboration and some things to look at in rearchitecting SolidWorks.  He spoke of a “middle ground” in collaboration using generic tools that are not incorporated into SolidWorks (such as Vuuch and SolidJott).  He also surmised that GoToMeeting will be used much more due to the economy and travel costs.

Jon also mentioned that he has been looking into projector technology and display sizes and suggested a book, The Visual Display of Qualitative Information by Edward R. Tufte.  And lastly, he has been looking into digital security and digital rights management (DRM).

USER EXPERIENCE

Several members of the User Experience Group met with us and explained the purpose of this important group and some of the changes that had recently taken place.  This seems to be a growing group, as they have rolled in the documentation and language groups.  The User Experience Group handles all user-facing interfaces from R&D.  Having one group for oversight on these multiple interfaces will hopefully streamline the development of SolidWorks.

Jim “Wilkie” Wilkinson, User Group Experience Director, talked about their design process consisting of discovery and research, conceptual design, and then final design.

3D CONTENTCENTRAL

Lastly, we had a quick overview of the new 3D ContentCentral. There are many new features, including working with suppliers to enable publishing to their own site and supplier services enabling self-servicing of the content software.

We were told that through their research, they discovered:

• users want more supplier content
• suppliers want engineers to use their models
• suppliers want to publish their own content

SUMMARY

I think that there was some interesting and useful information shared in this meeting, and hopefully I was able to convey some of it to you.  It is difficult being able to hear and see things, yet unable to write about them.  But if you haven’t been able to participate in the Beta and are just Jones’ing for a SolidWorks 2010 fix, I suspect you haven’t long to wait until information starts flowing in the next week or so…

Images courtesy Gabi and Jason.

In the interest of full disclosure, SolidWorks provided me with airfare, lodging, food, entertainment, and some swag.

If you are interested in participating in SolidWorks usability testing, check out the post on the SolidWorks Blog for details.  They are looking for folks from all skill levels to do exploratory, free-form usability test on development builds of SolidWorks.

Most of the time, the tests are done online, and you will get to see possible new functionality and have input on the direction of the software!  Sign-up is free and all you have to do to sign up is fill out a short survey.

Image courtesy chabster.

If you haven’t noticed, people are different.  They have different tastes in clothing, food, and music.  You say tomato, I say ‘mater.

So it follows that designers will have different modeling methodologies.  Sometimes, even circumstances or desired design intent dictate how you model something.

Take for instance this simple part with an o-ring groove in it:

I had a new SolidWorks user approach me a while back with the question, “How do I create something like this?”

I responded by showing them several different methods to achieve the same result.

One approach would be to do a Cut Revolve:

Another method (and what I believe a lot of folks would do) would be to offset a plane from the end and sketch the profile to cut:

Then, simply do a Cut Extrusion:

 
I’m not really a fan of this method, unless your design intent requires the plane for something else (i.e., aligning the o-ring), as I try to have as clean a Feature Manager as possible.  Sometimes, work geometry can clutter up things…

Another option, which is similar to the last yet may be unfamiliar to you, eliminates the creation of an offset work plane.  You simply create the sketch on the existing end face and then do a Cut Extrude, offsetting the start of the cut.

All of the above methods yield the same result, albeit with varying features and number of features:

Of course, there are multiple other ways that this could be accomplished, perhaps some better than these.  The o-ring groove could even have simply been modeled in the original sketch, although that may not be considered a “best practice” by some…

All of this is to say that there isn’t really a right and wrong way to model.  But sometimes one method is better than the other – and that is your call to make.

(Download SolidWorks 2009 file here.)

The free Xpress version of the Sage add-in mentioned at the Wednesday General Session of SolidWorks World 2009 is now available at SolidWorks Labs.

The add-in enables users to perform an environmental impact study of designs by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).  The LCA considers all aspects of a products life cycle from drawing board to end-of-life.

The Environmental Dashboard enables tracking of four data points: Carbon Footprint, Total Energy Consumed, Effect on Air, and Effect on Water.  As changes are made to the design, the user can see the potential environment impacts in real-time.

SustainabilityXpress includes a Find Similar Material tool that will enable users to quickly find a similar materials from the built-in SolidWorks material library and see the results.  There is also a publishing feature than enables users to create customized reports to document the LCA.

SolidWorks 2009 is required to run SustainabilityXpress.  I am disappointed that only 32-bit is supported (as of this writing).

I am intrigued by this tool, and am all for lessening the environmental impact of designs.  In my industry, with quick turn-around times sometimes required, the mantra is often, “When in doubt, make it stout!”  I am curious to see if this tool will help.

Do you think that this tool will have a significant impact on your designs?  Will you use it to try to design “greener”?  Let us know in the comments!

UPDATE: SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress allows analysis of parts only.  The full Sustainability add-in will be required to analyze assemblies and compare configurations.  The full product will also work with the new Assembly Visualization tool.  The full SolidWorks Sustainability product will not be included in a SolidWorks bundle; it will be sold separately at a price to be announced later this summer.

Last edited on 06/24/2009 @ 2:28PM CDT.