Sneak Peak at Solid Edge ST4

Siemens PLM Software  used the PLM World user conference to give a finely controlled, sneak peak at its forthcoming Solid Edge ST4 update, hoping the slew of new features would generate a little buzz among engineers and machine designers.

The upgrade, to be officially announced June 15, has an array of new capabilities in the areas of advanced machine design, expanded collaboration, sheet metal simulation along with new drafting functionality-or at least, that’s what Solid Edge execs are talking about for this pre-launch media briefing. What they’re not yet releasing are any details around new Synchronous Technology capabilities in Solid Edge ST4, which was a major focus of the Solid Edge ST3 release and obviously an area where customers want to see some action in terms of continuous work to evolve this key feature set.

In response to some commentary in the blogosphere about the lack of discussion around new Synchronous Technology features portending few enhancements in that area, Siemens PLM Software Director of Solid Edge Development Dan Staples was quick to put such speculation to bed. Without commenting directly on any new features, Staples contended that the company “moved the Synchronous ball forward quite a lot in ST 4 with plenty of enhancements and a strong focus on implementing feedback from users who are using Synchronous on a daily basis.”

So, enough about Synchronous technology for now. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of new capabilities in this area once Siemens is ready to talk in greater detail about the ST4 release in June. For now, here’s a glimpse of what they are talking about-a bunch of features lumped into four categories, which likely take aim at fulfilling user requests and bulking up existing capabilities.