Now we’re getting more into the SolidWorks Premium offerings – Part 4 of my SolidWorks 2008 Preview focuses on the enhancements made to COSMOSWorks Designer.  This is also the last preview that focuses on SolidWorks’ first goal of helping users "Focus on Design, not CAD"…

Bolt Connectors

The first enhancements to COSMOSWorks Designer is Bolt Connectors.  You can now define a bolt connector for a single bolt or for a hole series pattern with a mouse click and all information needed to define the bolt is automatically added.  Bolt connector allows more than two parts to be fastened together, and countersink bolts can be defined.  The connector definition allows for mass properties to be calculated and included in the analysis for more realistic representation.

Design Scenarios

Design Scenarios now allow direct cut-and-paste access to tabular data from programs like MS Excel and Word.  The input window can be resized and parameter values can be automatically filled in using linear, exponential, or uniform data fills.  Coordinate system-dependent output has also been added to the Results Summary.

I don’t do much analysis, but I’m sure that these enhancements to COSMOSWorks Designer will help users to focus more on their designs instead of running the CAD system.

The next part of my preview where we see what SolidWorks has done to help meet their second goal of helping users "Reuse Existing Designs to Save Time".  There are some very interesting improvements in this area, so tune in!

Along with the new large assembly management additions I spoke of in Part 2 of my SolidWorks 2008 Preview, SolidWorks 2008 also features several nifty BOM and drawing enhancements. Drawings have always been one of the things in SolidWorks that gives me fits, so I am really glad to see some really useful enhancements in this area.

Virtual Components

First off, SolidWorks has added a new assembly feature:  virtual components.  This will really come in handy for those of us who have items in their BOMs, such as paint, grease, oil, etc.  Virtual components allows you to create a new component in an assembly without having the file management overhead.  The component is shown in the assembly FeatureManager tree, and shows up in the BOM, but there is no actual part file created.  There is the option to save it out to an actual part file, which is handy, as all parts created in context of the assembly will start out as virtual components.

Bidirectional BOM Editing

I don’t know about you, but a lot of times when designing parts, the part number and description fields (among many others) of my parts and assemblies don’t always get populated.  Then when the BOM is placed on a drawing, there are empty cells where there are missing properties or incorrect entries.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply double click in a particluar cell and type the correct information and have that pushed back into the part or assembly file?  Well, in SolidWorks 2008, that is the way the BOM works with the new bidirectional BOM editing.  You can quickly add properties that are associative in the more natural environment of the BOM table instead of having to switch back to the component file.

On-Screen Table Controls

Tables in drawings can now be manipulated easier and quicker than before with the new drag-and-drop functionality.  This works exactly as you would expect – no more slow funky dialogue to rearrange rows and columns.

Copy Sheets

Finally, you can now copy entire drawings sheets in a drawing or into a separate drawing using most of the standard copy and paste procedures, including right mouse button menus and Ctrl+dragging sheets across tiled windows.  This works with both PropertyManager items as well as sheet tabs.

Switching Sheets

Drawing performance when switching sheets in a drawing is vastly improved over earlier versions.  SolidWorks states "virtually instantaneous" switching to "a previously viewed sheet".  I haven’t done enough testing, but the "previously viewed" caveat leads seems to indicate that the first time you switch sheets in a drawing will still be somewhat slower, but I believe that is to be expected.

Exclude Ribs From Section Views

You can now exclude ribs from sectioning in drawing section views in the same way that assembly components can be excluded.  This allows users to be able to create drawings that more closely adhere to their particular standards.

The BOM enhancements are some of my favorite additions to SolidWorks 2008, and I feel that they will definitely help users work more efficiently.  I know they will definitely save me some time and frustration!

In Part 1 of my SolidWorks 2008 Preview, I talked about the new user interface and some of the new SWIFT technology.  In Part 2, I will focus on the large assembly management tools that SolidWorks has introduced to make working with large assemblies easier.

Quick View/Selective Open

When opening an assembly in SolidWorks 2008, there is a new option called Quick View/Selective Open.  Enabling this option when opening a large assembly allows almost instantaneous viewing of the assembly, and the user selects on the fly what components they wish to work with to simplfy the assembly.  All other components are then hidden and not loaded into memory.  However, all mates are honored so that you can work on an assembly as if everything is loaded.

Here where I work, we use a default blank configuration in our assembly template here so that we can quickly open large assemblies and then unsupress what we want to work on.  With the new Quick View/Selective Open option, this large assembly tip looks to be obsolete now!

Display States

You can also open an assembly by selecting a specific display state.  When using this option, you can decide if hidden components get loaded into memory.  The link between display states and configurations can now be broken, which will turn the display state into a Global Display State.

Search and Filter the FeatureManager

You can now search the FeatureManager tree for features of parts or assembly components.  You can filter your search by any of the following:

• feature type
• feature name
• sketches
• folders
• mates
• user-defined tags

Note the last filter option listed above.  Yes, you can now add tags to any item in the FeatureManager!

Tagging is a very cool concept that lets you easily and quickly add keywords to your sketches, features, etc. that can be searched on to quickly find specific items.  This concept will be familiar to anyone who uses Flickr, del-icio-us, CADJunky, YouTube, or any of the other similar sites that use tags to quickly bookmark items.

I am very impressed from using the large assembly management tools that SolidWorks has implemented in 2008, and they are some of my favorite enhancements in SolidWorks 2008 (along with some of the new drawing features – more on that later!).  I know that they will all come in handy here where I work, as we are starting to have some issues dealing with very large assemblies.  They will definitely make my job a little easier!

One of the first major changes users are going to notice is that the UI has had a major overhaul.  They have reduced the number of mouse clicks required by adding customizable pop-up toolbars to access most functions.  The Command Manager layout has also changed:  tabs are now used for accessing the different task Toolbars.  I know some people have mixed feelings on these changes.  Personally, I like it – once you get used to the changes.  And I also use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so some of the UI changes don’t affect my workflow as much.  Hopefully, you will be able to customize the entire UI to suite your tastes.

Also a major change in the UI is the capability of modeling in a more realistic environment, using real-time materials, lighting, reflections, and shadows.  The new RealView engine provides these capabilities, along with the ability to use pre-made scenes to approximate realistic enviroments.  This can be a nice option to have when one is staring at a computer monitor all day, but if you have an older system, a video card upgrade will probably be in order to take full advantage of RealView.

Although I actually like most of the changes to the UI, I can see it causing a few issues, especially with users who are generally adamant about change.  I’m sure I will get several questions and complaints from my users here when we roll out SolidWorks 2008.  Although with time, I’m sure most will grow to love the new interface.

SolidWorks has also added more functionality into the SWIFT suite.  One enhancement that looks interesting is the new Instant3D capability, which enables users to easily create and modify geometry by dragging most features and dimensions in real time.  When dragging one of the drag handles that appears when a face/egde/dimension is clicked on, a ruler pops up to give you dynamic dimensional feedback with snaps.  Click here to see a demonstration of Instant3D in action.

There is also an extension to Instant3D, Live Section, which is similar to the existing SolidWorks dynamic Section View.  The difference in Live Section is that one can drag section profile edges in order to change the design intent while in the command.

Another SWIFT updated technology is the SketchXpert.  It now displays dimensions and relations to be deleted with a strikethrough and cycling through different solutions is faster.

DimXpert has been updated to work with parts.  Now, users can apply automatic geometric dimensions and tolerances according to the ASME Y14.41-2003 3D specification.  These dimensions and tolerances can then be automatically placed in the 2D drawing and manipulated like any other annotation.  DimXpert will show you if your model is fully-, over-, or under-constrained by highlighting the model in green, red, or yellow, respectively.  Click here to see a demonstration of the new functionality in DimXpert.

The AssemblyXpert will analyze your assemblies and make suggestions to help improve performance.  In some cases, users can have SolidWorks make the changes for them.

FilletXpert has been updated with Corner Alternatives and Edge Selection.  The Corner Alternatives option will present users with different types of corner blends possible and make the necessary changes to the feature order in order to obtain the selected blend.  The Edge Selection option will allow for easy and intuitive edge group selection for the Fillet command.

I personally am excited about the additions to DimXpert and FilletXpert.  I know that I will defintely put them to use in my work.

SolidWorks SWIFT technologies does seem to help users focus more on their design and less on the CAD system.  SWIFT also seems to level the playing field, so to speak, between power users and new/casual users.  Some folks think that this is a "dumbing down" of modeling.  In a way, it is; I only hope that it doesn’t discourage the use of good fundamental modeling practices.

Check back soon for Part 2 of my SolidWorks 2008 Preview.  It will focus on more of the new and updated tools to help you "Focus on Design, not CAD", including tools to help with large assemblies, and drawing and analysis enhancements.

Today, SolidWorks officially announced SolidWorks 2008.  The press release echoes the three goals they commited to on the last day of SolidWorks World 2007:

…the new SolidWorks 2008 release will let [customers and prospects]:

• Focus on Design, not CAD
• Reuse Existing Designs to Save Time
• Improve Your Designs

From playing around with the beta and an early preview, it seems like they are definitely on track to meeting their goals.  SolidWorks Office Premium has over 250 customer-driven enhancements.  They have added several new features and improved existing features to help users more efficiently and effectively use SolidWorks to create their models and drawings.

To enable users to focus more time on their design, and less on trying to figure out how to do things in SolidWorks, they have added some very interesting user interface changes, expanded on their SWIFT functionality, and added new functionality.  SolidWorks 2008 is currently in Beta 3 as of this writing, and I have heard talk of an additional Beta 4 cycle before release.

SolidWorks has compiled a list of the Top 10 enhancements to SolidWorks Office Premium:

1. Streamlined UI and RealView
2. SWIFT Instant3D
3. SWIFT DimXpert
4. Design Clipart
5. Large Assembly Management Tools
6. DriveWorksXpress
7. COSMOSWorks Design Intent
8. DFMXpress
9. MotionManager
10. TolAnalyst

The next several posts will cover some of these featured changes that SolidWorks has implemented in order to meet their three goals of helping users create better designs and reducing the time to market.  Several of the features have my mouth watering in anticipation, while others (namely the UI changes) almost give me pause from a CAD administrator’s view when considering how soon to roll it out after release.

But agree with it or not, SolidWorks is forging ahead with their vision of CAD.  The future should be interesting!