The SolidWorks Geek

Early last week SolidWorks rolled out their 19^th release of the world’s most popular 3D mechanical design software, SolidWorks 2011. Last month I was lucky enough to be treated to a firsthand look of this year’s release when SolidWorks flew me to Concord for their annual press event and I am excited to finally share with you some of my favorite things about SolidWorks 2011.

You would think that after 19 versions there wouldn’t be anything to get excited about with SolidWorks but there are actually over 200 enhancements to the core SolidWorks program and other areas such as Enterprise PDM, PhotoView 360, SolidWorks Simulation and more. In addition to the new enhancements, the performance, stability and memory usage has been refined to improve your overall modeling experience.

There far too many enhancements for me to cover today but I want to highlight some of my favorites. Hopefully now that my extended vacation is over I will have a chance to cover more of these and other enhancements in detail. Until then, if you haven’t already done so, make sure you download SolidWorks 2011 and find out for yourself why I am so excited of this package.

Save As and File Properties Buttons

Sometimes it is the littlest things that can have a big impact on your daily use of SolidWorks. For me it is the availability of two new buttons for the Standard Toolbar, Save As and File Properties. These are two commands I use a lot in my day job and being as lazy as I am it is extremely useful to have these two buttons available with a single click rather than a couple of extra clicks digging through menus. To add the buttons, click Tools -> Customize -> Command and add the buttons to the Standard Toolbar.

New Ways to Search for Help

If you are reading this, you more than likely already know about the wealth of knowledge that is available for free online. Among the blogs, knowledgebase and the SolidWorks forums, many common and even obscure issues can be resolved without the need to call your VAR. Unfortunately I have met hundreds of users that are completely unaware of these resources. For that reason, I was excited to see the inclusion of some of these resources in the SolidWorks Search. In addition to being able to search for files in the search field in the Standard Toolbar, you can now search in SolidWorks Help, the knowledgebase and the user forums for all things SolidWorks.

Conditional Statements in Equations

I suck at math. Growing up as a child of technology I have been spoiled by computers and calculators and it has had an effect on my computational skills. I am sad to say that I am actually guilty of counting on my fingers and toes even at the ripe age of 35. That is why I love equations in SolidWorks. Equations save me from the embarrassment of getting a figure wrong when I am working on complex components and they have proven to be a very valuable took in my arsenal. That is why I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I heard that conditional statements were going to be supported in equations.

Granted, the conditional statements in equations are not at the level of a programming language but it is still a good start. In equations, the iif function can be used to suppress or unsuppress features in components based on an expression using the syntax iif(expression, truepart, falsepart). Hopefully at a later date I will be able to cover this topic in more detail. I feel like the iif function is too awesome of a function to really do it justice in this article.

Share Variables among Models

Another enhancement to equations is something I have been wanting for as long as I have been using them: the ability to share variables and equations among models. Very often equations and variables that you use on one part can also needed on other parts either within the same assembly or in completely independent parts. Before 2011 there was no way to share variables or results of equations among the various models which could result in values not being properly updated on all required models as a design changes.  With this release that is no longer an issue since now you can create a single text file that contains equations and variables that can be referenced by multiple documents in SolidWorks in the Equations dialog box.

Walk-Throughs

Every once in a while there is a new feature introduced by SolidWorks that you never knew you needed. Since my day job usually only includes the design of smaller parts, I never needed the ability to do a walk-through. But as luck would have it, about the same time I learned about the new ability to create videos of 3D walk-throughs in SolidWorks 2011 I had a request to create such a thing for a project I was working on. For most of us who design parts we will never really need to use this function but if you create plant layouts or something of the like, you can explore the site in SolidWorks from the view of a person walking through. Using the Add Walk Through function available in the Lights and Cameras section you can define motion constraints, camera heights and other parameters to create a virtual simulation that can then be recorded to a movie file to share with others outside of the SolidWorks environment. This can come in handy for presentations or when you just want to show a potential client what is expected when your design becomes a reality.

Decals Available in SolidWorks Standard

Prior to this release Decals in models were only available to users of PhotoWorks. Decals are image files that can be placed on models to represent things such as logos, stickers, or other artwork that maybe applied to a finished component. If you were not a PhotoWorks user, your model may not be able to truly represent what a finished part may look like and sometimes that could lead to confusion. Now the ability to add decals to parts is available to all users of SolidWorks in the DisplayManager by clicking View Decals.

…But Wait There is More…

As you can imagine this list is not even close to being complete and I am currently working on more items I want you to get excited about. More coming soon! I promise.