Category: News

SolidWorks 2011 Performance and Reliability

SolidWorks 2011 promises to have better performance and reliability in a few areas.  This is a topic that sometimes is not well represented in the What’s New file that are included with SolidWorks products.  However, the improvements are still very important.

Memory management

One area of improvement is better memory management.  Previous versions tend to eat up more memory as a SolidWorks session remains open and active in Windows.  Though this tendency is not completely gone, SolidWorks 2011 is reported to be better at releasing memory when closing or suppressing parts and files.  According to Jeremy Regnerus of SolidWorks Corp, users should be able to keep SolidWorks 2011 open longer and with more stability than previous versions.  Generally speaking, SolidWorks seems to have taken major strides in stability over the past couple of years. 

Better performance logs

To to a better job of tracking issues when they do arise (such as crashes), performance logs will now be more comprehensive to give SolidWorks support better information to determine the cause of the problem.

Simulation

Regnerus also brags about improvements to SolidWorks Simulation performance.  He stated that users should see a 20% faster solve time with 15 to 20% fewer number of equations.  Additionally, multicore CPU use will allow Simulation to run single simulations much faster.

SolidWorks 2011 Launch website

The countdown is over.  The SolidWorks 2011 launch website is now up and running.  It’s a bit fancy.  Even though it may take a couple of minutes load, it’s worth a look to see much of what’s coming for the next version of SolidWorks.  It’s not going to show you every improvement in SolidWorks 2011, but it covers the What’s New extremely well.

SolidWorks 2011 official launch

SolidWorks 2011 launch is now official.  The funny thing about launches is that this doesn’t necessarily mean the product will ship right away.  That comes later.  For this launch, SolidWorks Corp invited a panel of bloggers and journalist to their headquarters in Concord, MA yesterday and today to get a first hand look at SolidWorks 2011.  As a matter of disclosure, my accommodations, travel and most meals for this event are covered by SolidWorks Corp.  No one has made any requests regarding article creation nor content in connection with this event.  Some material (such as images and basic information) was derived from the SolidWorks 2011 What’s New (beta) file.  The content of this article is solely of my discretion.

As with each year, there are a number of enhancements in SolidWorks 2011.  Here are a few, briefly covered.  More detailed articles will follow over the coming month.

Assemblies

Chamfer and weldOne area of note is that SolidWorks now supports fillet and chamfer features within an assembly.  Though these new features can be useful by themselves, their is another feature enhancement that helps set a theme.  Fillet welds will no longer be necessary as components within an assembly.  Instead, simplified weld beads is a new feature that is a simple representation of a weld contained within the assembly itself.  These additions and changes will give users more abilities in adding welds and weld specifications to assemblies and drawings.

Design Checker

Design Checker is one of those functions that has a more stealthy existence in SolidWorks.  Well, maybe not stealthy, but under-utilized.  It is a function that sees incremental improvement each year, but without much fanfare.  In the past, I’ve been a little critical of this function’s lack of functionality.  SolidWorks 2011 has eight enhancements for Design Checker.  The enhancement that I feel is most important is the ability to create standard files (.swstd) from existing SolidWorks file formats.  This is step beyond the Learn Checks Wizard currently available.  This allows the user to create a new set of check rules based on an existing file.

Drawings

Scale on viewFor some reason, SolidWorks never had an automatic way to add a scale label to orthogonal views.  There is a macro (that I helped create) which gives the user a non-dynamic method to add scale.  The limitation of this macro is that if the scale of the view changes, the macro must be re-run.  SolidWorks 2011 now gives the user the ability to add a true scale label to orthogonal views.

The macro may still be of use if there is a need to add pre-established labels to drawing views.  For example, if view is pictorial or isometric, the macro provides a quick way to add that label.

ASME drawing standard

ASME Y14.5 2009I’m not really sure why SolidWorks still calls ASME by the other name ANSI.  The switchover to ASME happened like 20 years ago.  Either way, SolidWorks 2011 claims that it now “supports some of the requirements of ASME Y14.5-2009”.

One of the important areas of support is geometric tolerance symbols.  ASME Y14.5-2009 expanded the role of the ALL OVER modifier to a Profile feature control frame.  With this expansion comes a new symbol (the double circle leader).  Also included are the new Independency symbol (encircled I, which declares an except to Rule #1) and the Continuous Feature symbol (oddly boxed CF, which applies Rule #1 more broadly).

Parts and Features

More end conditions are now available with the Revolve feature: Up to Vertex, Up to Surface, and Offset from Surface.  These can be specified separately in each direction (clockwise and counter-clockwise) of the revolve.  These new end conditions are available in Revolved Boss/Base, Revolved Cut and Revolved Surface.  This allows for better control and more flexibility in the use of Revolve features.

New Revolve end conditions

More enhancements available

These are just a few of the enhancements available in SolidWorks 2011.  The What’s New file for SolidWorks 2011 has a fairly impressive list.  However, none of the improvements this year seem monumental.  I am impressed to see minor improvements continue on the Workgroup PDM product.  There are improvements to Sheet Metal functionality, Motion Studies, and a new Walk-through function to expore or create a video of 3D geometry in large scale designs.  More details will be discussed on later dates.

The launch of SolidWorks 2011 is only days away

SolidWorks 2011 launchThe launch of SolidWorks 2011 is only days away.  SolidWorks Corp even made this countdown website to celebrate the impending release.  It isn’t obvious what will happen when the countdown is done.  An unwrapping of some sort?

As per the new tradition (starting last year), SolidWorks Corp will launch the new version of SolidWorks from their headquarters in Concord, MA.  The official release date was a little confused last year.  However, this year it’s quite obvious (just count up from the countdown).

One enhancement that didn’t make it into SolidWorks 2011 is discussed on the SolidWorks Forum.  That enhancement would have been a Feature/Model Lock or Freeze.  According to Mark Gibson of SolidWorks,

Unfortunately, we have determined that even with the limitations discussed earlier, we’re not going to be able to deliver the Freeze functionality for SolidWorks 2011 due to quality concerns.

That sucks! However, it is wise to avoid adding functionality before it is ready for use.

I cannot discuss enhancements actually included in the 2011 version yet.  However, expect plenty of articles after the release date for both SolidWorks and Enterprise PDM.

News: SolidWorks Job Network is back!

SolidWorks Job NetWork

“Where can I find SolidWorks specific job listings?”

There was a time when one of the only answers to that question was SolidWorks Job NetWork.  Many companies have posted jobs on this site over the years.  But for whatever reason, it vanished.  It has now returned!  There are already a few new postings listed.  It’s worth a look, and hopefully employers will begin to catch-on to this valuable resource!