Quality is a word that is often confused when it refers to products. It isn’t just reliability or a degree of excellence or fitness for use.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing puts it this way,
The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
ISO-9000 says,
Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
ISO-9000 then defines requirements as a need or expectation.
Does a product have the features I need and work in an excepted manner? In ISO 9000 terms, quality is determined by the comparison of requirements with the inherent characteristics of a product or system. Well, SolidWorks’ march to quality continues with SoildWorks 2010, as previously noted on this blog and other sites. Along with more major changes, there are a ton of minor tweaks to take into account. Here is a short list of more of those items:
- When using the Custom Properties of the Task Pane within an assembly, the custom properties belonging to lightweight components are now viewable. As one might expect, changes to those custom properties cannot be made while the component is lightweighted. Even here, SolidWorks 2010 doesn’t stop the user. If the user edits a value, SolidWorks prompts to resolve the component.
- Normal To command now orients to the nearest global XYZ coordinates if nothing is pre-selected. When applied to a 2D sketch, Normal To aligns the model view to the sketch.
- SolidWorks now lets the user see decals on SolidWorks models without activating PhotoWorks. (Applying decals still requires PhotoWorks.) Use View pulldown>Decals, or Hide/Show Items inthe Heads-up View toolbar then View Decals. There is also a View Decals icon in the View toolbar itself.
