Last Tuesday, Javelin Technologies held a SolidWorks 2009 Launch Event at the Colossus Movie Theatre in Vaughn. This was a unique opportunity to see SolidWorks 2009 in the big screen and also to connect with other SolidWorks users. Just before the show began the audience was treated to popcorn and pop, courtesy of Javelin. Alex Arevalo and Jeremy Jobin, both from Javelin Technologies, hosted the presentation. The presentation was divided into two halves. The first half covered SolidWorks enhancements, and the second half covered enhancements to SolidWorks Simulation (formerly known as COSMOSWorks).
SolidWorks Enhancements
Alex began by showing us some new functionality in SolidWorks Sketches. One of my favourites is the Stretch Entities command, which allows you to stretch multiple sketch entities as a single group, rather having to modifying one entity at a time. Another helpful enhancement is that you can now specify zero and negative values for sketch dimensions. The audience was also delighted when Alex showed us new commands to automatically create straight and curved slots.
There are also significant improvements to the graphical user interface in SolidWorks 2009, such as dual monitor support. What exactly does this mean? Basically, it means that the Task Pane, the Property Tab and the Command Manager are now, all dockable. So, for instance you can have SolidWorks maximized in one monitor and have the Task Pane docked in the second monitor, thereby saving on screen real estate. Also, a magnifying glass tool has been added, that allows you to make selections without changing the overall view. This is particularly helpful for adding mates to small parts, since you no longer have to be zooming in and out while selecting the faces to mate.
There are also many enhancements to assemblies in SolidWorks 2009. SpeedPack allows you improve assembly performance by creating a simplified representation of an assembly. This is very useful if you need to mate large subassemblies together, but only need to mate a couple faces (i.e. you don’t need all the faces loaded into memory). With SpeedPack you get to select the faces that will be included in operations such as creating mates, thereby decreasing memory usage. Note that SpeedPack simplifies without suppressing. In other words, it does not lose references. Alex asked the audience, “How many times has someone asked you for a BOM of your assembly, and you did not have a drawing and had to create a drawing just because you needed a BOM?”. Well now in SolidWorks 2009 you can create BOM’s and Balloons right in the assembly, and thereby save time.
Here is a performance improvement to SolidWorks 2009 drawings that really impressed the audience: you can now select which drawing sheets you want to load. This is particularly helpful when you want to open a drawing that has many sheets, but you don’t need to load all the sheets at once (e.g. you are only going to work on one or two drawing sheets). This greatly reduces file open times of large assembly drawings.
Another crowd pleaser was the Convert to Sheet Metal command, which allows you to convert a solid block-like part that has not been shelled into a sheet metal part. This is very helpful for converting a simple conceptual design into a sheet metal part; and it is also very useful for converting imported geometry into sheet metal as well. Below is a video that demonstrates this new functionality.
Weldments have been greatly improved in SolidWorks 2009. For example, you can now simultaneously add end caps to multiple faces; while, previously you could only create one end cap at a time (i.e. each cap had to be a separate feature). Also, SolidWorks 2009 allows you to group different segments together into one structural member, thereby automatically trimming them. Previous versions could not group segments, which resulted in more structural member features being created and more manual trimming operations by the user. And finally, an option to automatically add chamfers to gussets has been added as well. For more information, here is an excellent article on SolidWorks 2009 Weldments by Ricky Jordan.
PhotoView 360, which is new in SolidWorks 2009, was created for users who would like to do quick renderings, but do not have the time to learn PhotoWorks. PhotoView has a very simple to use interface, renders very quickly and can create some very realistic renderings. Alex showed us that PhotoView also allows you to multitask, since you can still be working on a scene while it renders in the background. Just to clarify SolidWorks 2009 has two rendering tools: PhotoView 360 and PhotoWorks. So, should you be using PhotoView 360 or PhotoWorks? That depends on your needs. If you require something that is very easy to learn and do not have much time, the choice is PhotoView 360. However, PhotoWorks is a more mature product with more functionality (e.g. PhotoWorks has decals, and PhotoView 360 does not) and would be our choice for challenging rendering projects. Here is a great comparison of PhotoView 360 and PhotoWorks by Rob Rodriguez.
Simulation Enhancements
After the presentation on SolidWorks enhancements we all took a break to talk to other customers and the folks from Javelin. Javelin treated the audience to more popcorn and pop as well as tokens for the arcade at the Colossus theatre.
After the break, Alex and Jeremy covered enhancements to SolidWorks Simulation (formerly known as COSMOSWorks). Here is a list of some of these improvements:
· The new sensors tool warns you if your model has reached a certain limit such as a maximum allowable length, mass, or displacement.
· There are new tabs available for Simulation and Motion studies.
· After running a study you can save the deformed geometry into a new model or configuration (e.g. you can create a deformed configuration for a press fit).
· There is now an Exclude from Analysis option that allows you to exclude certain components from an assembly study without having to suppress them.
· SolidWorks weldments are now automatically recognized as Beam Elements.
· Mesh selection is now automatic (e.g. sheet metal is meshed as shell elements).
· A Compare Results tool has been added to help users compare different studies.
We were very pleased with the presentation and with all the enhancements. It was a pleasure to meet other SolidWorks users, as well. We are looking forward to using SolidWorks 2009 along with SolidWorks Simulation. For more information on What’s New in SolidWorks 2009 please look at this PDF. Finally, a big thanks to Javelin for putting together a good show.
- by Joseph Vera
