SolidWorks 99

The company, a leading provider of affordable, easy-to-use 3D CAD software for the mainstream design-centric market, offers SolidWorks 99, the newest release of the company's Windows-native 3D mechanical design software. With more than 150 major customer-driven enhancements and innovations, the software provides engineers with powerful functionality, unprecedented ease-of-use, and a simple, comprehensive migration path from 2D to 3D software. It offers major enhancements in the areas of modeling, assembly design, detailing, visual communication, ease-of-use, data sharing, piping, and sheet metal.

Part Modeling
The company continues to add powerful part modeling capabilities to easily handle the toughest modeling jobs. These enhancements include:

• Dynamic editing of features and sketches- with this editing feature, users can simply click on a swept surface or extruded boss and reshape it in real time. With dynamic editing, all shapes immediately update, so there is no need to roll back in the design history to implement changes.
• A 3D sketcher- The company has extended the concept of a parametric 2D sketcher and developed a unique, powerful 3D sketcher. Creating 3D sketches has never been easier. Th 3D sketcher can be used to create pipes, tubes, and wires, as well as free-form shapes like lofts and sweeps. Because of its familiar commands, the 3D sketcher will also help 2D users make an easier, more natural transition to a 3D environment.
• Easier generation of parting surfaces in molds- engineers can now simply pick and extrude parting lines to create surfaces.

Detailing
The software provides the detailing tools necessary to generate complete, production level engineering drawings that meet international standards, including ANSI, BS, DIN, ISO, JIS, and GOST. Users can create fully associative drawings automatically from 3D models, including views, dimensions, and rotations. The model, drawing view, and assembly update automatically, so that when a modification is made to the drawing, it also appears in the model. Key detailing enhancements and innovations include:

• Full support for setting layers, colors and line fonts.
• The SolidWorks PropertyManager- a new graphical user interface that enables easy editing of properties contained in drawings and sketch entities. This capability can also be used in assemblies to manage SmartMates, Collision Detection, and dynamic assembly motion.
• Automatic creation of tabulated drawings- with this feature, users can now document multiple configurations and families of parts to create drawings more quickly and easily than ever before.
• Customizable Bills of Materials (BOM)- engineers now have the capabilities to automatically generate, organize, and customize data within the BOM, including sorting, editing item numbers, and splitting tables into multiple sections.
• The AutoCAD Comman Line Emulator- recognizes frequently used AutoCAD commands within SolidWorks, allowing engineers to make an easy transition from 2D to 3D CAD.

Assembly Design and Management Tools
Managing the assembly process intuitively from within the assembly gives the software's users a key advantage. Its assembly design allows users to reference surrounding geometry. There is no need to export parameters or build equations. The relationships between parts in an assembly update automatically, making changes easy. Assembly enhancements include:

• Real-Time Collision Detection- a dynamic, analytical interference detection system that enables engineers to quickly spot and remedy design problems with moving parts. Users simply click on a component, drag it, and see the entire assembly move. If any of the parts collide as the assembly moves, real-time Collision Detection will notify the user by sound, or by "freezing" the assembly's movement.
• Assembly Structure Editing- allows users to easily customize the organization of assembly components. Engineers simply click on components in the FeatureManager design tree. These components can then be dragged from one subassembly to another. This includes promoting and demoting components through subassemblies "on-the-fly."
• Enhanced snap-to-fit SmartMates- building on this exciting innovation first introduced in SolidWorks 98Plus, the SmartMates feature automatically captures assembly-mating relationships. The user simply drags a component into the assembly view, which automatically shows it snapping into position. While the SmartMate determines likely placement and propagates changes, the user has complete control. SmartMates also enables users to drag and drop parts from the Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, and the Feature Palette window.

Sheetmetal Design
The software offers sheetmetal design capabilities that allows users to easily create designs in 3D or in the flat. Instead of developing expensive prototypes or guessing what the product might look like from a flat pattern or even top, front, and side views, users can view sheetmetal parts in 3D. Users can reduce design and production time by automatically calculating bend radii, flattening 3D designs for production, and automatically dimensioning drawings. Enhancements include:

• The ability to unroll conical sheetmetal parts.
• New rip-edge capabilities that allow users to easily convert boxes and other 3D shapes into sheetmetal parts.
• Improved bend relief, multiple tabs per bend, cuts across sharp bends, and hems.

Data Exchange
The software provides engineers with translation tools that make it easy to exchange data with other CAD software packages. Built-in translation tools include: DXF, DWG, IGES, Parasolid, SAT (ACIS), STEP, VDAFS, (VDA), VRML, and STL. New translation tools include:

• Suface healing- enables users to run sophisticated diagnoses on imported files automatically, indentify problems, and remove or replace surfaces.
• Extend capabilities for DXF and DWG imports, including support for colors, line fonts, and layers.

SolidWorks Piping
SolidWorks Piping is a new, powerful 3D solid piping design software application and fittings library for mainstream CAD users. The piping capabilities extend the innovative 3D sketch, assembly layout, routing, tubing, and wiring functionality provided in the software. The SolidWorks Piping application is designed to specifically address the unique requirements of users who have demanding piping needs on a daily basis. Key functionality includes:

• Associative, in-context, 3D routing of fabricated pipes- this feature provides users with powerful top-down assembly design capabilities. Users can now create pipe routes in the context of an assembly and reference existing components.
• A fitting library that provides drag-and-drop support for elbows, flanges, reducers, and other common parts, as well as automatic elbow creation and insertion. With the fitting library, users simply drag common piping parts into assemblies, rather than spending hours creating new ones from scratch. By utilizing the powerful configuration capabilities of SolidWorks, the library includes over 1700 unique parts. Users can also create and save their own fittings to the library.
• Automatic fitting selection filter- allows engineers to minimize design errors. After dragging the desired fitting from the Feature Palette window, the filter automatically provides only appropriately sized fittings. The user can the select the correct fitting based on additional design criteria such as pressure requirements.
• Fully associative properties that automatically update all assembly and piping features after edits have been implemented.

SolidWorks Corporation, 300 Baker Ave., Concord, MA 01742. Tel: 978-371-5000. Fax: 978-371-7303.