With this major new upgrade, SolidWorks continues to make sophisticated CAD and 3-D modeling functionality available to the broader design chain beyond its traditional base of hardcore CAD jockeys.
The SolidWorks 2008 upgrade delivers more than 250 enhancements, among them interface improvements and additions to the SolidWorks Intelligent Feature Technology (SWIFT), all designed to foster productivity among engineers and CAD users along with reducing the overhead of learning CAD. The new SWIFT Instant3D capabilities, for instance, let users perform expert 3-D CAD operations by dragging and selecting pieces of a design while new visualization functions enable users to drag handles to select areas of a design for real-time editing. The 2008 release does away with a lot of the standard dialogs, input fields and esoteric commands common to CAD packages, instead enabling users to select faces and drag them to on-screen rules to determine exact values.
To promote reuse among engineers, SolidWorks 2008 has more powerful search functions for locating SolidWorks or DWG files on the network in the PDMWorks PDM system or out on the Web. There is also a preponderance of features intended to bridge the gap between designers and manufacturing personnel, the goal being to reduce lead times on delivering products. One such capability, DFMXpress, is a validation tool that identifies geometry that's overly expensive or difficult to manufacture, helping development teams rule out flawed designs much earlier in the process. New simulation capabilities delivered through the COSMOSWorks Design Insight module help engineers identify areas in a design that are over-engineered as part of an effort to reduce materials costs.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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