SOLIDWORKS Page 3

When working across multiple projects and teams, keeping up with the latest file version or revision can be a hassle. With SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard and SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, you can maintain versions and revisions through your PDM vault and track the updates made to your projects. This article goes over the differences between revisions and versions and how to access them.

While corporations focus on product innovation, they also need to consider their products' environmental impact and the product development process. Sustainability helps to balance modernization, improve our quality of life and protect our planet and environment for our future generations. For businesses to thrive, sustainability can no longer be delegated to an individual or a special team. Sustainability is an integral strategy secured throughout the entire corporate strategy.

SOLIDWORKS gives users the freedom to design anything they can imagine. From heavy machinery, to bicycles and even abstract art. When it comes to producing those designs in the real world, however, our imaginations can sometimes run a little too wild and create something that is costly to manufacture. Fortunately, SOLIDWORKS has built-in tools that can help evaluate the manufacturability of your designs. DFMXpress is one of those tools. DFM stands for “Design for Manufacture.” It allows users to check for manufacturing parameters on parts that will be milled and/or drilled, turned with mill drill, formed from sheet metal or injection molded. In this article, we look at the top five features you already have in DFMXpress.

Online product configurators and Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) tools are increasing in popularity due to their ability to help you provide a customized experience to your clients, which helps you stay in front of your competitors and elevate your customer engagement in a cost-effective way. With an online product configurator, your customers will be able to develop and see 3D previews of their products and get pricing information, all while your back end runs smoothly. In this article, we look at how DriveWorks can help your team provide the best experience for your customers. We show you some of the product’s features and how they are beneficial for your clients and most importantly, your business.

The eDrawings software serves as a communication tool designed to share 3D drawings and 3D models across various teams. The software creates a highly compressed version of these files that are easy to share. Most people know of eDrawings as a standalone tool for viewing SOLIDWORKS files for individuals who do not have SOLIDWORKS. That was true and still is, but incremental improvements have been introduced in the last several iterations that will enhance your experience with the software. There are different versions of the software, including eDrawings Viewer which you can download for free, and eDrawings Professional which is integrates with SOLIDWORKS software products. In this article, we go over some of the most relevant features in the software.

According to Murphy's Law, file corruption will occur shortly before a deadline. Nobody wants to redo work they've already done with the clock bearing down on them. Regardless of what caused a file to become corrupt (random network glitches, bad geometry imported from other CAD formats, power fluctuations, improper shutdowns, sunspots, ancient curses) SOLIDWORKS provides some powerful tools to help us find and fix problems. If an assembly won't open the problem is most likely an individual component of that assembly. To fix it, first we must figure out which one it is. Or just let SOLIDWORKS do it for you!

As engineers, we’re tasked to handle many aspects of the product development process. Feasibility, design concepts, design reviews and documentation to name a few. With a mature product, we often find ourselves fielding requests from customers for custom designs and, when receiving multiple requests, per day it can be difficult to keep up with demand. When a new request comes in, you’re probably copying an existing design and related drawings, then spending hours or even days updating the design to meet the customer need. If this sounds like you, then you probably wish there was a way to help automate some of these mundane tasks. Well, I’m happy to tell you there is, DriveWorks Solo.

TriMech’s Project Engineering Group (PEG) provides different design services across various industries. One of the common requests we get from our clients is the creation of 2D or 3D files of existing products which can be accomplished through reversed engineering. Some of the reverse engineering services we have provided include drawings that are ready for mass production with appropriate GD&T applied or a fully featured CAD model to be utilized in the design process and more! In this article, we look at three ways in which PEG can support your projects using 3D scanning for reverse engineering.

While switching 3D software platforms may seem like a daunting task, sticking with an existing platform for sake of ease can cost a company time, money and important resources. If you’ve recently thought about switching platforms, think it may make sense for your company in the future or are not completely satisfied with your current workflow, join us as we take a look at the top 5 reasons to make the switch to SOLIDWORKS.

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.

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.