The July 2022 Update is Here – What’s Hot in the SOLIDWORKS Browser-based Design Roles
Good news! The latest 3DEXPERIENCE® Works release of browser-based design roles, R2022x FD03, is here and it’s full of productivity enhancements to help you do your job better and faster.
Not to boast, but I think we’ve outdone ourselves on this one, but it’s because of you all, the end users who tell us what you need that helps make these enhancements possible. Did your request make the list this round?
Let’s take a look at what we’ve done in 3D Creator, 3D Sculptor, 3D Mold Creator, Manufacturing Definition Creator, 3D Structure Creator and 3D SheetMetal Creator roles in this release.
User Experience
Welcome App – Get up to speed faster on your roles and launch them faster.
If you haven’t checked out the new Welcome app in 3D Creator added in April, you should. The Welcome app provides resources for the roles you have, such as video overviews and access to SOLIDWORKS® online communities right from the app. For instance, the Learning Center features quick video tutorials, tips for getting started and access to in-depth learning tutorials. It also has Sample Content, such as a model of an engine block that you can drag and drop to your interface to check out the modeling features.
In the latest iteration of the Welcome app we’ve included role descriptions that tell you about its app with a video on how to use it. Maybe there’s a role and its primary app that you haven’t tried yet that you own and are ready to give it a whirl. This feature will help you get started quickly.
You can also launch another role, such as 3D Sculptor, right from the Welcome app, in addition to opening your collaboration and management apps, such as 3DPlay, Bookmark Editor and others.
What’s nice about the Welcome app is it’s personalized to the roles you own so you only see relevant information for those. So not only can you learn about your roles, but you can quickly switch between them using new shortcuts in a single location.
NEW Design Manager Feedback – improve your assembly modeling efficiency with better Design Manager feedback and error warnings.
When designing assemblies its critical to ensure your design is performing and functioning as intended. To help you stay in sync with your assembly, the Design Manager will display a red icon next to any components that have errors, and you can click on the icon to view the errors. For example, you may have a mate error you need to address. This new feature will help you identify and understand exactly what the issues is for quick and easy assembly fixes.
Reuse Sketches – imagine the time savings here!
We’ve revamped the insert sketch workflow enabling you to reuse standard or frequently used sketch shapes from any existing model.
Reduce design time and reuse standard or frequently used sketch shapes from any existing model using this new insert sketch workflow. You’ll also notice improved snapping and robot manipulators when you are positioning sketches.
NEW Gravity Rotation – stay focused on your model and improve viewing options.
With the new gravity rotation option, you can put your product on a pedestal, so to speak. View your model with realistic rotation as if it was sitting right in front of you on. This a great option when making videos for marketing and was a big request from architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) professionals.
You can find this option in the Common Preferences dialog box under Rotation.
Part & Assembly Design
NEW Variable Fillet options – save time on creating complex filets.
There’s a new feature in the Filet command so you can easily create varying filets for edges, vertexes, and more with an intuitive user experience that provides next level flexibility.
NEW Loft Selection Manager – get a grip on your selections with more control.
Increase your control and precision of lofted geometry with the new Loft Selection Manager. The Loft Selection dialog box now includes options for creating groups of sketch segments. Easily select a particular part of a sketch, instead of it selecting the entire section.
More Dimension Constraints for Sketch Patterns – you’re in control with more constraint options.
Improve your productivity and automatically define your sketch pattern segments with new external and spacing dimension options.
NEW Material Customization – save time analyzing your designs.
Design with accuracy, and ensure your model has the correct mass. You can now customize your material properties to drive design guidance and downstream processes such as simulation.
NEW Flip Mate Alignment Shortcut – save time by flipping a mate alignment straight from the Design Manager.
Getting assembly mates correct is easier than ever with this new shortcut to flip an alignment. Say you have a screw and it’s backwards it just takes a quick toggle to flip it. All you have to do is right click the mate in the Design Manager and hit the Flip Mate Alignment icon and it will flip the direction.
Freeform Design
NEW Selection Accelerators – speed up your selections so you can easily shape the sub-d mesh.
You’ll now have access to several new selection accelerators from the context toolbar and by using shift select.
If you need to select a group of tangent edges or faces you can use the Select Tangency accelerator on the context toolbar. If you need to select edges around the face of a box or quad ball, there’s a Corner Loop accelerator that lets you shift select two edges on either side of a corner to select the entire loop. And for creased edges we’ve added the Select Crease accelerator on the context toolbar so you can select connected creased edges. Also, shift select will now follow along creased edges.
NEW Scale the Primitive with Bounding Box Option – eliminate size ambiguity by scaling by specific dimensions.
You can now use the new Scale by Bounding Box option to scale a sub-d primitive for more precise dimensions when inserting the primitive into a design.
This is a helpful option when you are designing a component to fit in a specific space in your design. It’s also helpful when you’re inserting a primitive to start a design in an empty design environment. You can set the bounding box dimensions for your primitive so you know your model scale is correct right from the start.
NEW Access xDesign Commands from the xShape Action Bar – save time and access more tools without switching apps.
3D Creator and 3D Sculptor go together like bread and butter, so if you’re using one, you’re likely using the other. If you have both roles, you can now access all the 3D Creator xDesign commands right from the action bar in 3D Sculptor.
MBD & Drawings
NEW Create a Bill of Materials – define your assemblies with clarity and provide critical assembly information.
You may be saying “finally,” but you asked, and we’ve delivered. In the latest release you can provide more valuable information with your 3D definition and 2D drawings using the ability to create and include a bill of materials (BOM). Your BOM is always up to date with the latest information using a direct link to ENOVIA properties.
Customize your BOM tables using familiar table editing functionality and provide a wide range of linked assembly properties, such as part quantities, revisions, part numbers, etc.
New Change the Sheet Color – visualize your drawings with clarity.
Sometimes it’s the little things like this that make a big difference. You can now change your sheet color display when working with 2D drawings. Make your product stand out from the background so you can visualize it better and reduce eye strain with the ability to use softer sheet colors rather than staring at a bright white sheet all day.
NEW Sheet Templates – improve drawing consistency and save time.
Create and reuse custom sheet templates for drawing standardization. Save time detailing drawings and improve drawing consistency with custom saved sheet formats.
Dimension Placement with Intelligent Snapping and Flip Shortcut – place dimensions more accurately.
Easily place dimensions to define your model properly using intelligent workflows to snap annotations to frequent plane orientations.
There’s also a new shortcut to flip the annotation plane.
Sheet Metal Design
Recognize Anything – utilize new intuitive convert to sheet metal workflows to streamline complex component creation.
We’ve revamped our Recognize command with two new options, including solid and surface options, to easily create complex sheet metal shapes and reduce the need for complex design workflows. In addition to the existing “thin” option, you now have the ability to convert solid bodies and surfaces with automatically generated flat patterns for manufacturing that no longer require shelled or uniform thickness geometry.
Structure Design
NEW Mange Custom Structure Sections – organize and manage your structure sections by selecting a Collaborative Space for storage.
To make structure and frame design structure section profiles more manageable we’ve added the ability to assign a Collaborative Space when you create a structure profile. For example, you can create a Collaborative Space for custom profiles that are accessible to everybody in your organization, for a specific design team or for your own personal use.
3DEXPERIENCE platform administrators can control access and add and remove content from these collaborative spaces. This gives you the ability to easily manage your organization’s structure profiles and reduces the possibility of people using the wrong profiles.
NEW Automatic Corner Trimming – create structure systems faster.
Talk about cutting edge, technology. Speed up your design time with the ability to turn on Automatic Corner Trims in the Member Creation dialog box. This feature automatically trims members during member creation, so you don’t have to do this after you create the members.
Mold Design
Automatically Merge Inside Corners During Parting Surface Creation – save time with improved handling of self-intersections of surfaces.
We’ve improved the way inside corners are handled when creating a parting surface for your mold designs. Self-intersections are automatically merged to create a smoother, more continuous surface.
This enhancement not only speeds up parting surface creation but makes your molds easier to manufacture.
Enhanced Mold Assembly and Component Creation – speed up your mold assembly creation with just one click.
There’s a new command in the Assembly toolbar that enables you to create an entire mold assembly from sets, in just one button click. You can also customize the mold assembly and component names as well as select the Collaborative Space you want to save it in.
You’ll find that this new feature really streamlines your workflow of going from a mold with bodies to creating an assembly with solid mold components.
Caption: The new Create Assembly from Sets command streamlines the process of making an assembly and mold components.
See all these great enhancements in action in the video below.
Whoop there it is!
We hope you like what we’ve done so far this year, and remember since you can leverage built-in data management and collaboration capabilities on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, your entire organization can benefit.
Thoughts? Share them in the Comment section.
If you’re interested in learning about more about SOLIDWORKS roles visit https://www.solidworks.com/3dexperience-works.
And don’t miss this deal on roles available in the SOLIDWORKS Cloud offer: SOLIDWORKS.com/cloud.
If you’ve missed other updates this year you can see what we’ve done in the following blogs:
What’s New 3DEXPERIENCE Works Design 2022: February Update
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