eDrawings for iPad from 3DS SolidWorks ( #edrawingsforipad )

Overview

The official name of the new app is eDrawings for iPad from 3DS SolidWorks.  This initial release is a great app with a lot of potential.  For the first time, you can inexpensively open and view native SolidWorks files directly on a mobile device.

The app provides many of the familiar and fun functions from the eDrawings family.  It is useful to quickly and conveniently communicate 3D CAD files to locations and environments were PCs and printed drawings just aren’t practical.  It also provides an great method to view SolidWorks files for customers that do not use SolidWorks, from the shop floor to a corporation’s CEO.

User Experience

When the app is started, you are presented with a menu of models and drawings.  There is an area of sample models and an area for your files, called “User Files”.

The sample files provide good cases to try out eDrawings for iPad functionality.  The User Files area lists any files which you have added to the iPad to view in eDrawings.

When you open a supported 3D file, you can rotate, pan, zoom in and out, zoom fit, zoom home (last view when file that was saved).  Similar to other eDrawings applications, the eDrawings for iPad app can Play a model by transitioning between different views of the model.

Assemblies

For assemblies, you can highlight individual parts from the Components tree.

Configurations are also supported. Selecting a particular configuration from the Configuration tree will immediately display it within the graphics area.  It is very easy to switch between configurations.

Assembly explosions are viewable from the Explode Assembly button.  Individual configurations can also be separately exploded.

Highlighting parts from the Components tree is also available when viewing the assembly as an explosion.  This makes it very easy to identify parts in the graphics area when browsing through an assembly.

Just as with the desktop computer, larger files consume more device resources.  If you wish to view a large assembly, you may wish to close background processes if your iPad resources are stretched thin.

                                                            

Disclaimer – Though this article was not reviewed by SolidWorks, nor its parent company Dassault Systemes nor any other entity, the author of this article is an employee of Dassault Systemes and is internally familiar with eDrawings for iPad.  As such, this article should not be understood as being from an uninvolved and neutral third party.