Solid performer

"In addition to refinements throughout, SolidWorks 2011's new CAD and PDM capabilities will enable our engineering groups to intelligently tackle new challenges in the design of our products and production systems," says Janine Essex, global product line manager for the SolidWorks application at Robert Bosch LLC, a leading global technology and services company. “We're expecting measurable, improved, and enhanced productivity throughout our customer base.”

“There are big changes,” adds Robert Teele, lead mechanical designer for Nuvera Fuel Cells, a clean energy products company in Billerica, Massachusetts. “Our production and marketing departments, for example, are eager to use the new walkthrough animation capability to explore our equipment designs and our custom onsite installations with customers.”

Work faster and smarter

With a focus on getting new products to market rapidly, SolidWorks 2011 includes a number of new enhancements including:
New drawing detailing functions in SolidWorks CAD software eliminate the time and effort of manual dimensioning. Users can automatically align, stagger, or centre dimensions in a single click without any overlap.

New 2D simplification helps speed up parts analysis. Users simply select an intersecting plane and apply the loads and restraints to perform static, nonlinear, pressure vessel, and thermal studies. SolidWorks simulation instantly calculates the results and displays them on the full 3D model.

A new menu bar in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM product data management software speeds access to key designs. The menu bar, which integrates into Windows Explorer, combines the simplicity of Windows with the benefits of an enterprise data strategy for improved collaboration, control, and reuse of valuable design information.

All SolidWorks 2011 products are said to improve speed and reliability by using memory more efficiently when working with large designs and during prolonged work sessions.

Deepen communication and collaboration

The better key stakeholders grasp intent and direction of a design from the start, the smoother the journey to the finished product. New in SolidWorks 2011 is the ability to more easily create compelling photorealistic renderings in PhotoView 360. It is now fully integrated into SolidWorks CAD software, creating a single, unified environment for design and rendering.

For an immersive experience, SolidWorks users can lead their customers through designs using new Walk-Through capabilities. Users can easily navigate their design visions via their mouse or an onscreen console and no preset paths are required.

SolidWorks customers can also work more closely with partners by sending them detailed designs – but not too detailed! The new Defeature tool facilitates the removal of unnecessary detail or sensitive intellectual property before sharing.

For improved communication beyond the design team, 3DVIA Composer technical communication software, introduces a dynamic, interactive, ‘storyboard' capability that helps customers deliver process instructions through interactive images. Users can create a step by step linked narrative for recipients, such as a colleague in manufacturing, a prospect considering a big contract, or a consumer actually using the product. Users simply drag and drop views to create interactive procedures that are clear and effective. Magnetic lines are another innovative feature that increases productivity by neatly organising content with minimal clicks.

Engage with manufacturing

Active communication between design and manufacturing helps ensure that teams can actually build the products they conceive and that organisations minimise costly delays, scrap, and rework.

For example SolidWorks 2011 includes new features that automate weld placement and documentation. Users select and visualise weld bead paths with the Smart Weld tool, and they specify weld type and prepare joints with enhanced fillet and groove features. SolidWorks automatically compiles data on weld counts, length, and type in new weld tables, enabling detailed breakdowns for cost analysis and bidding. Users can apply new visible weld gaps to fitting to fitting, pipe to pipe, and fitting to pipe connections to ensure successful welds.

Designers will catch sheetmetal errors early with new bend calculation tables that let them quickly calculate the developed length of parts and the new integration of SolidWorks Design Checker into SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software helps streamline the release of designs to manufacturing.

Creation of pipe, tube, and conduit runs – especially when supports and hangers are involved – is simpler with new routing capabilities. Users can now trace existing geometry, such as a steel beam or wall segment, to guide the route path. SolidWorks associates the outside diameter (not the centreline) of the pipe/tube/cable/conduit with the geometry.

“We're deeply committed to providing a design experience that is both intuitive and powerful, and SolidWorks 2011 embodies that commitment,” concludes Austin O'Malley, executive vice president of research and development for DS SolidWorks. “In addition to improving design productivity, we've made communication of designs more effective, maximising intellectual property value and shortening product delivery times.”

SolidWorks
www.solidworkslaunch.com