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With every release of SOLIDWORKS, we see the addition of hundreds of new features and enhancements – both big and small. It’s not always the incredible new feature or tool that makes the most significant impact on our daily design experience; sometimes it’s the little improvements that have the biggest impact. SOLIDWORKS 2020 has enhanced the surfacing capabilities, and although it’s a small improvement – it’s one of my personal favorites.
>> Download our Complete Guide to Getting Users Ready for SOLIDWORKS 2020
The Surface Offset Tool in SOLIDWORKS
When using the Surface Offset Command in SOLIDWORKS 2020, faces that can’t be offset the desired amount are automatically identified and highlighted in the tree. I can think of hundreds of times where this would have saved me hours of work, and I know the same can be said by most designers who have ever used surfacing tools.
In the past, we would be given no indication of which face was causing the problem. Most times, it could be any one of a hundred surfaces, so identifying the problem surface was no trivial task. This small improvement to the Surface Offset Command will save countless frustrating hours of design work. You can now view and remove the failing faces to build the remaining geometry all within the Surface Offset Command, so you can save time creating complex geometry.
In addition to the Surface Offset Command, SOLIDWORKS 2020 also brings improvements to the Thicken Command as well. You now have the option to thicken the surface equally in both directions.
Watch our video below to learn more about the Surface Offset Command.
Once you get your hands on these improvements, you’ll agree these are some of the most useful and impactful enhancements to the latest release of SOLIDWORKS
Do you want to learn more about the SOLIDWORKS 2020 enhancements and updates? See our entire blog series for complete details and videos.