Every year, on the third day of SOLIDWORKS World, I can’t keep up. My fingers,
my camera, my phone – they all fail as I furiously try to capture the sneak
peek at the next release’s enhancements and new features. Invariably I miss a
few, get blurry photos, and only manage to fire off one or two tweets to the
Twittersphere before the show is over and
Bertrand is telling us
all when and where to join him for the next SOLIDWORKS World.
These misses are likely because I’m turning to someone like our SOLIDWORKS
Product Manager, Todd Domke, for the inside scoop on why we all should be
excited. (Other than the fact that the SOLIDWORKS Product Management team
has dressed up like Batman and they’re all making more
CAD-POW
puns than when the Marketing team at the Ridge gets a little punchy, of
course. Because
CADMAN and Rib-in, you guys.)
When
Beta
rolls around, I’m usually poking the engineers with sticks and trying to get
them to tell me if any of their
SOLIDWORKS World
hopes and dreams have come to fruition (more often than not, they have). The
Friday after Labor Day, you can find me pinned to
my Twitter
feed to see what the bloggers and press have to say. And finally, when
SOLIDWORKS goes live with their Launch site, some lucky engineer finds me
lingering at their door or hunting them on instant messenger, wanting to know
all the things they dig in the newest release of SOLIDWORKS.
2015
is no different.
My victim this year was Todd Domke, our aforementioned SOLIDWORKS Product
Manager. Todd is a staple in our Southern California offices, and a familiar
face to many of our customers who’ve attended previous Launch events. As the
Product Manager for SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, every year Todd works closely with the
Launch presenters to develop an overview that covers as many enhancements as
possible. I still find it really incredible that all of these enhancements are
driven by customer requests – hundreds of updates and improvements so that
everyday users can do their jobs better and faster.
It turns out that Todd is the most excited about three things: Variable
Patterns, SOLIDWORKS Model Based Definition (MBD), and new costing tools.
Variable Patterns
Complex patterns, faster and with less effort
This improvement translates to all kinds of parts design. In the past,
creating complex patterns could be laborious. There were a lot of clicks,
a lot of extra work and additional sketching. Those days are gone. As Todd
says, “Variable Pattern tables add flexibility to your design, so you that
you can make complex patterns faster, and with less effort. Now, they’re
just as easy as any other type of pattern.”
SOLIDWORKS Model Based Definition (MBD)
The design environment of the future
“I’m a big believer in the paperless design environment, and I’m thrilled
to see SOLIDWORKS taking the lead and looking towards the future,” Todd
told me. SWMBD standardizes output and gives you control to customize
templates while maintaining your organization’s standards. Because you
bypass traditional 2D processes and communicate clearly to the
manufacturer with 3D output, MBD helps to eliminate potential problems.
New Costing Features
Design for cost upfront and avoid rework
When I asked Todd about Costing, his first response was “Weldments –
amazing. Costing was made for this!” It’s not just weldments. New in 2015,
there is also support for cast metal components, plastic injection
molding, and 3D Printing. “Now, you can spend less time doing bidding and
more time designing.”
As Todd and I wrapped up our conversation, he said, “I think I might say this
every year, but I really, really mean it this time: this is the best release
I’ve seen in a long time. From the general enhancements that everyone can
enjoy to the industry-specific functionality to overall performance
improvements, there’s something in this release to satisfy the spectrum of
SOLIDWORKS users.”
But don’t take it from me and Todd – come
see SOLIDWORKS 2015 in action at one of our SOLIDWORKS 2015 Launch
events, or visit the
SOLIDWORKS 2015 site
to explore these and even more new features.
Watch this space and
our YouTube
for more in-depth technical reviews and how-tos on the 23rd release
of SOLIDWORKS, and follow us on Twitter for the latest SOLIDWORKS 2015 news:
@Hawk_Ridge_Sys
or look for #SW2015 or #SW2015Launch.
SOLIDWORKS 2015 Launch events are sponsored by HP | Intel.
>> Learn more about HP solutions for SOLIDWORKS
