CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
9 June 2004
Product News
SolidWorks 2005 Delivers New Features to Make Design Engineers Faster, More Accurate, and More Productive
SolidWorks Corporation announced the newest version of its flagship software. SolidWorks 2005 includes more than 250 customer-requested features and enhancements that help machine designers, mold designers, consumer product designers, and others become faster, more accurate, and more productive as they bring their innovations to market. These enhancements make SolidWorks 2005 the most expansive product in its market and the only one to encompass 3D design, analysis, product data management, collaboration, and injection-molded plastic part validation software in a single offering. Key improvements include:
• An extensive design library for machine designers;
• The first mold design validation tool built into a solid modeling environment;
• Enhanced loft features for consumer product designers;
• Application-specific user interfaces;
• An embedded editor for AutoCAD® files; and
• A timesaving Task Pane on the SolidWorks desktop.
"SolidWorks 2005 makes significant advances in the area of advanced modeling," said Mark Biasotti, CAD discipline lead at IDEO, an award-winning Palo Alto, Calif., design firm. "Designers doing complex part design should find this an important release. SolidWorks has made many enhancements to the loft feature, making it an even more powerful and general-purpose surfacing tool. A new smart selection will help reduce the amount of reference features that are needed to create geometry. This, coupled with the enhancements in surface features, should reduce the complexity of the model by 30 percent or more. Also, many of us in the consumer products sector that design injected-molded rubber parts will appreciate the new Flex feature. We can create the part in its molded state, yet can use this feature to 'flex' it by bending, stretching, or twisting the part in its 'used' state. For the kind of work that I do, this is one of the most significant releases I've seen."
Specific improvements for a variety of design roles
SolidWorks 2005 includes significant new features specifically for machine designers, mold designers, and consumer product designers.
Machine Design
New for SolidWorks machine designers is a library that aggregates, in a convenient on-screen window, hundreds of pre-designed parts that machine designers use most. These include ports, seal grooves and rings, and slots consistent with Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) specifications; parts that users have created themselves; 2D annotations and blocks; parts from the SolidWorks 3D ContentCentral(SM) service repository; and parts consistent with the authoritative Machinery's Handbook. Users can drag commonly used features from the library directly into their designs rather than searching for files or redesigning them from scratch. New weldment features automatically generate cut lists, dictate mitred/angled cuts, and for the first time enable the quick creation of curved segments. No software presents users with such a broad range of reusable parts nor makes them more easily accessible than SolidWorks.
Mold Design
Building on the momentum of mainstream analysis software and the success of the COSMOSXpressT embedded analysis product, SolidWorks 2005 now includes MoldflowXpress, a new feature for mold designers. The first mold design validation tool built into a solid modeling environment, MoldflowXpress enables mold designers to validate whether a plastic injection-molded part can be filled. The software breaks down traditional communication barriers between product designers and mold makers, saving time, eliminating errors, and fostering collaboration. No other mechanical design software includes this functionality. SolidWorks 2005 also offers a new side core feature for mold designers that automatically creates all side core and lifter geometry necessary to extract finished parts from molds.
Consumer Product Design
SolidWorks 2005 brings high-end consumer product design capabilities into the mainstream 3D CAD market, enabling designers to make more attractive, functional products more quickly and affordably. These new features automate the design of companion parts, ultra-sleek curves, and bodies that are bent, stretched, twisted, or tapered. An industry-first Indent feature lets users automatically form a recess in a specified part based on a tool body. For example, SolidWorks 2005 can automatically design the base for an electric toothbrush using the toothbrush body for reference. The user need not specify additional inputs. Enhanced loft features automate the design of smooth, sleek, stylized surfaces to generate products with high consumer appeal. A new Flex feature lets users bend, stretch, twist, or taper solid bodies at any point or region in any direction, enabling dramatic changes to geometry in fewer steps.
Enhancements for all users
SolidWorks 2005 incorporates a myriad of new ease-of-use, productivity, and system management features that span all areas of 3D mechanical design.
System Enhancements
A new Task Pane collects all files, folders, and content in a single window on the SolidWorks 2005 interface, enabling users to work efficiently without the frustration of hunting for the resources they need. Users can find, open, drag, and drop files without leaving the SolidWorks interface and can view a list of all files currently loaded into their SolidWorks session. Other usability upgrades include a patent-pending Select Other feature that quickly peels away model faces to uncover interior parts.
New productivity features include an Auto-Dimensioning feature that automatically adds chain, ordinate, or baseline dimensions to all entities in a drawing view, letting users work faster than ever. A new DrawCompare tool highlights changes to any two drawings similar to the way Microsoft Word tracks changes in documents. New multi-user tools manage version control so users can cooperate as intended rather than waste time clarifying offline who did what when to which file. The new Design Binder also supports multiple users, letting them insert text or voice comments, files, and links into a SolidWorks file to track design intent and progress.
System Management
SolidWorks 2005 includes a number of enhancements for easier administration and improved performance. SolidWorks 2005 now includes the SolidWorks Rx tool, which helps users optimize their hardware and operating system environment for maximum performance. And for the first time, SolidWorks 2005 permits users to borrow network licenses even when disconnected from the network, enabling users to work in SolidWorks any time and anywhere they have their laptop.
SolidWorks 2005 also provides two new ways to modify the user interface for enhanced productivity. A new Application-Specific User Interface presents users with functionality specific to their industry segment, e.g., consumer, machine, sheet metal, mold design, etc. The Copy Settings Wizard lets administrators provide consistent, custom sets of toolbars, menus, and icons to all of their SolidWorks users. By presenting users with the tools that apply directly to their design tasks, SolidWorks has streamlined the user interface while increasing designer productivity.
Data Management
PDMWorks® product data management software, embedded in SolidWorks Office Professional, now includes a Copy Project feature that lets users copy all the documents from an existing project into a new one. PDMWorks also includes a simplified interface that enables authorized users to access documents in the vault without special commands.
Integrated Analysis
Further building on the success of mainstream design analysis software, a new Displacement Value feature in COSMOSXpress automatically provides users with precise measurements for the movement of any object that displaces, shifts, or bends during design.
AutoCAD Users
SolidWorks 2005 includes the DWGEditorT tool, giving users the ability to edit 2D DWG files in their native format in an AutoCAD-like interface. The tool is ideal for design engineers who use 3D design software but need to periodically maintain legacy 2D designs. Other functionality added to help 2D users embrace 3D includes snaps, crossing select, repeat, trim, mirror, circle, and line features that help Autodesk users very quickly become proficient in SolidWorks software. Likewise, SolidWorks 2005 automatically creates associative part files and drawing files from Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop® files a user imports, including assemblies and assembly drawings. Changes made to one file will automatically be reflected in the other.
Availability
SolidWorks 2005 will be available in midsummer for purchase in 12 languages worldwide. It is available in three configurations: SolidWorks 2005 (the core modeling software in the company's 3D design product suites), SolidWorks Office, and SolidWorks Office Professional.
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