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One benefit of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is that new features are constantly added to the software and platform. So far this year, we’ve had two releases; one in April with "R2021x" and its first Functional Delivery (back in the early versions of SOLIDWORKS we called these Super Service Packs) over the July 4^th weekend. The Functional Deliveries update brought significant improvements for a better user experience. In this article, I list and describe my top 11 favorite features.

So you need threads within your plastic 3D printed part and you are questioning the holding strength of printed or threads, and you should. There are few applications where a 3D printed threaded hole for a piece of conventional hardware will do the trick. It is okay, we don’t need to sugar coat it, 3D printing can do some downright amazing things, but 3D printed threads are not high on the list. How about under sizing the hole and reaming it and tapping a threaded hole? Great question and a great solution in some situations. Depending on how fine the thread pitch is, the end condition of the hole, your available tap sizes and expected pulling force – cut threads might not, well…cut it. Chances are, what you need is a threaded insert.

There are many behind the scenes tools that make a company become and continue to be successful. Much like the more visible people and obvious products, a software running backstage is extremely important and can have significant impacts on a company’s bottom line at best, and its livelihood at worse. If you’re a manufacturing company or one which provides supply chain services, then you have a system in place to serve as the backbone of your business that connects all the various business units. But instead of separate disconnected systems, today’s best in class companies opt for one system that connects all the separate business units, DELMIAWORKS.

In every major release of SOLIDWORKS, there will be countless enhancements and hundreds of pages of release notes. There will always be some key new features and improvements that take the spotlight, but often it’s the little changes that can make a big difference in your workflow and user experience. So, here are a few of the lesser known “hidden gems” that were introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2020.

DELMIAWORKS is a Manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that is designed specifically for the factory setting to streamline the process and gain visibility and control from end-to-end. Some of the top industries including Aerospace, Assembly, Automotive, Food and Beverage and even Packaging are utilizing it to have a single platform to integrate inventory management, procurement, planning, sales, CRM, shipping, production, financing and even business intelligence. Let's take a deeper dive into each industry to see how they take advantage of DELMIAWORKS.

The Stratasys PolyJet 3D printing technology lets you produce high-quality, high-accuracy parts and prototypes at a reduced production cost. Many times, however, your prototypes might need a little hand to help you achieve the desired result. In this blog article, we review some of the processes that can help you create the ideal casting molds for your parts or prototypes, such as Liquid Silicone Rubber Molding (LSR), using the PolyJet technology. We review their differences and which materials are suitable for each of these processes to aid you in getting your ideal end-result.

SOLIDWORKS understands that engineering is a process of constant improvement. Their software reflects this philosophy and every year more and more features are added to improve the user experience. We always cover the major changes in our roll out presentations, but sometimes there are hidden gems that you might not have heard about.  In today’s article, I go over some of those gems from SOLIDWORKS 2019.

As we have seen throughout this series, departments in different areas such as healthcare and fine arts have benefited from 3D printing and have taken advantage of the different 3D printing technologies available. Today, engineering departments are also implementing 3D printing to expand their students' knowledge and prepare them for future jobs in manufacturing. Different universities have implemented rapid prototyping centers or created curricula to offer advanced additive manufacturing degrees or certifications. In today's article, we go over some of these programs.

Do you find yourself creating essentially the same product repeatedly? Have you attempted to “automate” your sales, engineering or manufacturing process to save time and resources? If you've ever dreamt of letting customers configure their own products online, enabling your sales team to generate instantaneous quotes and drawings or even having SOLIDWORKS create all of your manufacturing data automatically at the push of a button – DriveWorks might be the product for you.

As an experienced SOLIDWORKS user, I know sometimes there are frustrating situations throughout my design process. I have found myself making up excuses or justifications when including explode lines to my explored view; have been unable to mate two sets of holes that are not perfectly concentric and have questioned why my assemblies are slow. If like me, you’ve found yourself in any of these situations, then this blog article is for you. I will share with you some of my favorite features from SOLIDWORKS 2018 onward that have helped increase my productivity. These features will allow you to retire your clever workarounds for workflows you might use daily or during specific phases of your projects.

An electrical connector is an electro-mechanical interface device between different electrical circuits. There are thousands of connector types but predominantly they consist of plugs which contain a male pin connection and a jack which has a female socket connection. Connectors can be displayed in different ways in pin-out and schemes, as whole connectors on a single drawing or split across multiple drawings as individual pins. In this blog article, we will discuss how to insert and configure electrical connectors in SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

Working remotely is more common than it used to be. Many companies have implanted this policy throughout a couple of years and designers, engineers and manufacturers are some of the positions that have transitioned into this way of working. In this 3D printing Tech Tip, we go over GrabCAD Workbench and how to use it to coordinate and monitor your printing jobs remotely.