February's Top Five Blog Posts

February has come and gone, but the snow remains in frosty Winterfell Waltham. Much like the snow, our blog posts continue to persist and since you may have missed some content in a flurry of SOLIDWORKS World 2015 posts, we wanted to highlight a handful of February’s top posts for your viewing pleasure – including what’s new for future editions of SOLIDWORKS, cardinal rules for designing injection molded plastic parts, SOLIDWORKS Industrial Designer, a history of engineering design tools and a video of Adaptive Corporation’s Handy Scan 3D in action.

SOLIDWORKS World What’s New

Each year at SOLIDWORKS World, the Portfolio Introduction Team at SOLIDWORKS puts together both a highly informative and humorous skit to preview their favorite new features being developed for future editions of SOLIDWORKS. While this post does not have footage of David Pattern Borer examining engineers in their natural habitat, this post does have a 30-item list detailing what’s coming to 3D CAD software near you.

SOLIDWORKS Industrial Designer: Simplify industrial design and expand innovation for your business advantage

Introducing SOLIDWORKS Industrial Designer (SWID) – a new CAD environment aimed at simplifying the process of conceptual industrial design. More than just a CAD tool, SWID delivers a collaborative design environment that enables design teams, customers, and suppliers to communicate, work together, and develop products whenever they want and wherever they are located. Read the post to learn how SWID will both simplify and amplify your industrial design process.

The History of Engineering Design Tools: Engineering 4.0

Starting in January, SOLIDWORKS Senior Director of Product Management Rich Allen revisited the four great stages of engineering design tools that have transpired over the last 250 years. The series covered four posts starting with Engineering 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. This post focuses on the emerging phase called Engineering 4.0, which extends design data to downstream departments in the right format at the right time; resulting in a more efficient product development process.

The Cardinal Rules of Designing Injection Molded Plastic Parts

Plastic design expert and SOLIDWORKS Senior Product Portfolio Manager Peter Rucinski shares the four cardinal rules of designing injection molded plastic parts. From uniform wall thickness and abrupt transitions to rib design guidelines‚ these rules will enable you to identify defects during the earliest stages of design‚ eliminating costly rework‚ improving quality and accelerating time to market.

Adaptive Corporation’s HandySCAN 3D in Action at SOLIDWORKS World 2015

SOLIDWORKS World 2015 featured more than 100 partners and customers inside of the Partner Pavilion. One of the cool technologies featured was Adaptive Corporation’s mobile scanner for reverse engineering.

Stay tuned in March as we’ll share tips for getting the most out of MySolidWorks, EPDM best practices and an amazing user story about killing cancer with proton therapy. If you missed it, March also included a post on how car tires are tested to get you home despite rain, snow, sleet or hail.