SolidWorks 2010 Debuts

Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. next week will release an upgrade of its flagship SolidWorks 3D design software. The company is touting sustainability tools and new simulation capabilities as key additions among 200 new features, 90% of them prompted by user feedback. The 2010 software is said to provide designers with mechanical design, validation, data management, and communication tools in one package. In response to users’ need to shrink design cycle times and costs, SolidWorks has focused on improving ease of use, functionality, and collaboration, officials said. The Sustainability Xpress module helps users understand the environmental implications of their design choices, said Fielder Hiss, III, vice president of product management at SolidWorks, in a recent interview with Managing Automation. To accomplish this, the company has partnered with PE International, a Germany-based consultancy that provides a sustainability database showing the environmental impact of materials, processes, and manufacturing locations. A dashboard displays in real time the carbon footprint, energy consumption, and effects on air and water of various factors associated with the product over its lifecycle. Those factors include how materials or parts are produced, where they are sourced, how they are manufactured and used, and how they must be finally disposed of. Using a new “find similar material” function, designers can also search the database by mechanical properties to find materials that would fit a given design. They can then compare the environmental impacts of those alternatives, the company said, so that they can make informed choices. In addition, the software enables users to generate customized reports based on the sustainability data for use in formal presentations. For assembly and machine design tasks, SolidWorks has enhanced the software’s simulation capabilities. An event-based simulation tool in its Professional and Premium 2010 versions shows how parts in motion work within a design. This capability arises from partnerships with National Instruments, with its LabView graphical programming tool, and Rockwell, with its programmable logic controllers, Hiss and Product Manager Jeremy Regnerus said. The detailed simulation look-and-feel improves upon earlier versions’ animation to show the effects of time- or event-based triggers. For example, simulated actions can be triggered by the completion of a previous task or the activation of a motion sensor. This capability enables performance checks earlier in the design process and eliminates the need for physical machines in checking performance. SolidWorks 2010 also includes an enhanced user interface that allows designers to use mouse gestures as customizable shortcuts to execute commands. Also, Data Migration and Direct Editing tabs in the CommandManager tool provide quick access to functions needed for importing or repairing and editing data. “We put a huge focus on the small things that customers want and need. With a million users,” Hiss said, “we were able to do extensive customer research and discovery so we know what they’re asking for and what problems they’re trying to solve.” He added that the upgrade ensures that the software “is working in more predictable ways.” Among the other enhancements are:

• BOM and table enhancements in Drawings, as well as a Dimension Palette for properties and formats.
• Assembly visualization tools.
• In Enterprise PDM, faster starts for pilot and production projects; a centralized Toolbox database to be shared across locations managed by Enterprise PDM; and security functions from managing users and groups, folders, transition permissions centralized in a single dialog box.
• Suppliers and users can publish models of their products directly to 3D ContentCentral and to their company websites; Supplier Services offers global access and local presence with the “Suppliers by Region” section on 3D ContentCentral.
• Web-based help and tutorials.