Let’s start with a cool 3D configurator first. Figure 1 shows an example of an OMAX waterjet machine with hundreds of configurations. Please feel free to click on the link and play with various material and component options.

Figure 1. An OMAX Waterjet 3D configurator, powered by SOLIDWORKS Sell.

Now, if you’re wondering how you can build your online 3D configurator in a similar fashion in order to grow web traffic and increase your conversion rate, let’s dive into several practical, yet easy and instant tips and tricks.

At a high level, you can polish up online presentations in four areas: materials, views, environment settings and web page layouts. This article focuses on polishes after you have published CAD models online. If you are interested in how to publish your CAD models for online 3D configurators, this YouTube video list can walk you through the detailed steps.

Polish Your Materials

The first topic is materials. A simple comparison between Figures 2 and 3 illustrates the differences right away.

Figure 2. Waterjet nozzle holder with a realistic black material.

Figure 3. Waterjet nozzle holder with a plain, unrealistic material.

As you can see, the black material in Figure 2 blends better into the waterjet chamber and surrounding components. Furthermore, the sandblast surface finish in Figure 2 gives the holder a much sturdier more industrial feel than the polished white texture in Figure 3. So remember to pay attention to your material selections and their contexts.

In SOLIDWORKS Sell, it’s easy to apply materials. As shown in Figure 4, there are hundreds of materials to choose from out of the box with the software. The library also includes 269 standard SOLIDWORKS CAD materials, which will be respected and carried over automatically when you publish your components from SOLIDWORKS to the online design editor.

Figure 4. SOLIDWORKS Sell material library.

To apply your own realistic textures, you can upload texture images. Figure 5 shows the material editor, with a preview on the top after a texture image in Figure 6 has been added.

Figure 5. Add a texture image to a customized material.

Figure 6. A material texture example.

Now, you may feel the preview in Figure 5 looks too smooth and shiny. To make it look even more realistic as shown in Figure 2, let’s add a normal map (shown in Figure 7) to create the bumpy and sturdy appearance as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 7. A bumpy normal map image.

Figure 8. Add a normal map image to a customized material.

There you go! After several quick clicks, the material brings life to your 3D model right away and helps your product stand out in the marketplace.

Customize Your Views

The next sweet tip is customized views for selected components. For example, the waterjet nozzle is a small but vital part. If you configure the nozzle in the big machine overview as shown in Figure 1, the nozzle changes would become almost unnoticeable. Or you may want to switch alternative geometries of a structure in the back of a product. In this instance, a front view would hide the instant results and confuse your online visitors.

To solve these problems, you can set up customized views for selected components. All you need to do is to zoom into a target—the nozzle in this case—and click on the button “Save Custom View” on the Views fly-out menu, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Add a customized view to the target nozzle.

Refreshing your browser will reflect the latest change. From now on, every time you or your online visitors click on the nozzle group, the 3D viewport will smoothly transition to your customized view by automatically zooming in, zooming out or rotating the model. Of course, you can also adjust or delete a customized view for a component group.

As simple as it is, this technique renders a thoughtful user experience by automatically positioning a specific configuration target to be front and center according to the online visitor’s selection. Customized views make the instant results more visible and appreciable to your audience, which is a much more effective and efficient way to articulate and present your product values. As we all know, value only matters when it is perceived by your audience.

In a similar light, you can also capture a default view for your entire product, as shown in Figure 10. This view essentially depicts a book cover for your configurator, because it delivers the first impression as the default configuration, orientation and zoom, among thousands or even millions of possibilities. When a new user visits your 3D webpage for the first time, they will be greeted with this result. This means it’s essential to remember to manage your audience’s first impression by saving a default view.

Figure 10. Save a default view for the entire product.

Fine-Tune Your Environment Settings

By the way, you may have noticed the floor shadow in Figure 10, which makes the visual very attractive. This type of environment setting can help your models pop out even further. Figure 11 lists the settings to the left and the 3D appearance to the right. in this case, the floor shadow has been intentionally turned off as a comparison.

Clearly, the 3D model in Figure 11 appears dull and unreal. It is amazing to see how much these tiny tweaks can affect the visual appeal. So have fun with the dozens of settings and fine tune your own presentations.

Figure 11. Environment settings to the left and the 3D appearance to the right without the floor shadow.

To make the fine-tuning easier and less overwhelming, SOLIDWORKS Sell provides eight polished presets out of the box per major product categories, such as Accessories, Appliances, Fixtures, Furniture, Jewelry, Structure and Vehicles. You can study these and make copies to optimize your own settings.

Showcase Your Creation with a Polished Webpage Layout

The last topic is about webpage layouts as containers of your 3D configurators. After all the cool polishes, it is time to show off your creation. Of course, you can code html webpages and embed the SOLIDWORKS Sell 3D widgets according your marketing guidelines. The software provides rich APIs for your code to call. To see some examples, this SOLIDWORKS Sell sample page lists several nice webpages.

On the other hand, sometimes you may want to compose a quick proof-of-concept before committing to sophisticated web development. As explained in a previous post, you can build a webpage layout similar to playing Lego blocks, with zero coding. Figure 12 captures the layout tool. Particularly, I would like to call your attention to the QR code widget, as indicated by the green arrows.

Figure 12. A quick webpage layout tool.

As the name indicates, a designer can embed a QR code widget in a webpage. This way, you can show off your proud creations on your phones, tablets or computers, and then let your audience quickly scan the code with their phone cameras, load the configurator onto their phones instantly and start playing on their own.

This is a great digital accelerator for your teams, dealers, customers, followers or friends to share your products in fun personal conversations or via social media channels because your audience would not have to type the link address letter by letter. Figure 13 shows the page result on a smart phone screen—you can even scan it right now as you’re reading.

Figure 13. A QR code pops up on a smart phone screen for easier sharing.

To recap: impressions and perception significantly drive web traffic and online sales. Fortunately, there are simple techniques to perfect your online presentations. Please take full advantage of them and share your comments or proud creations.

To learn more about how SOLIDWORKS Sell can help promote your ideas and products with interactive 3D online content, please visit its product page. The best way to learn is to play with live examples featured on a demo site, which includes actual client webpages.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the whitepaper Gain Competitive Advantage with Product Data Management.

About the Author

Oboe Wu is a product management professional with 20 years of experience in engineering and software. He is an advocate of 3D technologies and practical applications.

Hardware Required

The new File>Open in VR functionality has been developed specifically to work with the HTC Vive and HTC Vive Pro headsets. The eDrawings team will eventually develop its viewer to support additional headsets, but for now you’ll need an HTC Vive or HTC VivePro headset (see Figure 1).

In addition to simply owning the HTC Vive headset, you’ll need to get it up and running. This means running any required hardware updates on the headset and confirming that the current configuration of your computer can support the HTC Vive VR experience as shown in Figure 2.

A good way to confirm that everything is configured properly is to log into the Steam VR lobby. This lobby will look like a nice wood-floored room with a sliding glass door leading out to a mountaintop overlook. Once you log into this lobby you can test the tracking of your headset and your controllers. You’ll also see feedback indicating that all the elements of your VR system have a strong connection. In the image above, you can see that the headset, both controllers and both sensors are shown in a solid green fill. This lets you know that everything related to the VR system is up and running properly. You are ready to move on.

FILE>OPEN IN VR….is missing?

The next thing you want to do us jump into eDrawings 2019 and launch the command File>Open in VR.

Upon examining the eDrawings setup, we see that the File>Open in VR command is not present (see Figure 3). This is actually to be expected. Since most users won’t have an HTC Vive headset installed and configured, the eDrawings team decided to exclude the Open in VR functionality from the default setup of eDrawings 2019. So,you simply need to create a new environment variable in Windows 10 to turn on this functionally as shown in Figure 4.

To add this new environment variable on a Windows 10 computer, simply follow these steps:

1. Close eDrawings 2019.
2. Go to the Windows 10 command bar and type “Environment Variable.”
3. Press Enter to open the Advanced tab of the System Properties in Windows 10.

• Click the button at the bottom of the screen for Environment Variables.
• Click the button for New, in the upper section of this box (User Variables).
• Add a new Variable Name by typing the following: ED_RS_ENABLE_VR.
• Add a new Variable Value by typing the following: true.
• Choose OK to add this new Environment Variable.
• Choose OK to close the main Environment Variables window.
• Choose OK to close the remaining System Properties window(s).
• Restart eDrawings 2019.

We now see the File>Open in VR command in eDrawings shown in Figure 6.

Opening Files in VR

After choosing File>Open in VR, you will be presented with a standard Open dialog box. You can browse to any SOLIDWORKS PART or SOLIDWORKS ASSEMBLY files as shown in Figure 7. Note that when you are opening files in VR, you are working with native SOLIDWORKS files, and not eDrawings files (.eprt and .easm).

To ensure the best results, you should open these files in SOLIDWORKS 2019 before opening them in eDrawings VR. You should ensure that all of your models have been properly converted up to the SOLIDWORKS 2019 format and that none of the files contain errors. In addition, you can use this opportunity to ensure that the orientation of the model is ideal for VR. There will be more on this topic a little later in the blog.

Adjusting Settings in the VR environment

The file is now open in eDrawings, but you aren’t yet viewing the file in VR. Before you proceed, you can adjust some settings for the VR environment as shown in Figure 8.

From these settings, you can adjust things like what the sky should look like as shown in Figure 9.

And you can also adjust what the floor of the VR environment looks like as shown in Figure 10.

Last, you can adjust the brightness of your scene. This can be useful if your models look too dark, and you are unable to see certain details as shown in Figure 11.

For your assembly, you can use the settings shown in Figure 11—a daytime sky and a concrete floor.

How Do the Controls Work in VR?

If you click on the button for Controls, you will see a nice guide for how to navigate the eDrawings 2019 VR experience (see Figure 12).

As you can see from Figure 12, once you enter the eDrawings VR experience, you can move around (or Teleport) by pointing to your destination and then pressing the large center button on the controller (button #3). You can pick up and examine parts by squeezing the button on the rear of the controller (button #1). And you have some additional options to move, rotate and scale parts within the VR environment.

Jumping into VR Mode

Now that your headset is configured and working, your model is loaded, and you understand the controls, you’re ready to examine your model in VR. You’ll start by clicking the button for Play as shown in Figure 13.

After you press Play, you can put on your headset and begin experiencing your model in virtual reality (see Figure 14).

Starting Position in VR

Your starting position in eDrawings VR will be determined by the location of the Origin in your original SOLIDWORKS model. Because of this, it is often beneficial to create a simple assembly with the model in the desired position for the VR experience. You can see in Figure 14 that you have created an assembly with one single component (the subassembly of the truck) and that this component has been positioned to provide the desired starting position in VR as shown in Figure 15.

Teleporting in VR

In Figure 15, you can see that each of our controllers will have a “laser” coming off of it in VR. One laser is green, while the other is blue. You will primarily use the controller with the blue laser in eDrawings VR. If you point this blue laser to a desired location and press button 3, you will be teleported to that location (see Figure 16).

In Figure 16, you can see that we pointed the blue laser to the ground, near the rear of the truck, and then pressed button 3, which teleported us to the rear of the truck, allowing us to examine what the truck might look like to a car that is following behind it.

Moving Parts in VR

Next, you can point at the rear door of the truck and hold down button 1 to drag this part away from the assembly. This will enable you to get a look at what’s going on inside of the truck model. If you let go of button 1, the door will return to its original location. If you press button 3 while holding down button 1, the door will remain out in space. This will allow you to teleport inside of the truck (see Figure 18).

A Few Final Things to Examine

Now that the rear door of the truck has been removed, you can point the blue laser inside of the truck and then press button 3 to teleport inside. You can take a look at the aesthetics and navigation of the truck’s interior. It looks like some of these boxes may be blocking the side doors.

Lastly, you can teleport back outside of the truck to get a feel for how the other side of the truck will look (see Figure 19).

Since you can walk around (or teleport around) the truck, you can decide on the most appealing size, position and color for your logos.

Conclusion

One of the hottest trends in engineering is working with your models in XR—or extended reality. By examining your models in virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality, you can give your design teams and your customers new and exciting ways to experience your products. 

It really doesn’t get much easier to experience your models in VR than by using the new File>Open in VR command in eDrawings 2019. Your SOLIDWORKS native Part and Assembly files can be opened and examined in a true 1:1 scale in virtual reality. You can teleport around the models, move components away from one another, and get a true feel for the aesthetics and functionality of your designs—like never before.

About the Author

Toby Schnaars is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert from Philadelphia, Pa. He has been working with SOLIDWORKS software since 1998 and has been providing training, technical support, and tips and tricks since 2001.

Neri Oxman has a radical vision for the future of design and engineering.

Design by Algorithm, Design by Life

Oxman’s lab, the Mediated Matter group at MIT’s Media Lab, is aimed at taking the world of design from a place where products aren’t assembled from smaller components, but rather grown, much in the same way that nature produces complex “products.”

But why?

Oxman believes that the Industrial Revolution’s assembly line model has become outmoded. The pollution it produces from unrecyclable materials, energy waste and more isn’t sustainable, so a new mode for manufacturing and design is required.

Central to Oxman’s idea is the notion that manufacturing should use solutions already developed in nature, like the production of melanin to protect from UV radiation, to improve production design.

But melanin is a complex chemical, created by an even more complex set of biological reactions, and manufacturing melanin today is an expensive task ($315/g, according to Oxman) not suited for modern modes of production.

So the solution to this problem is to build biological systems into materials by means of genetic engineering. Oxman calls this process “parametric chemistry,” and it’s one of the most intriguing aspects of her work.

Essentially, parametric chemistry is a method of carefully placing select chemistry within a product’s material where its chemical potential can be leveraged to affect the way a material behaves. In the case of a melanin-impregnated material, melanin would be grafted to a material in select locations so that when the material is acted on by UV radiation, the material could respond by producing a protective pigment that resists the damage of UV rays.

But how will these new biologically driven material designs be produced? Contemporary manufacturing methods can’t produce the type of radical design that Oxman envisions. A new method of manufacturing will have to be developed. And that brings us to…

Additive Manufacturing, a Crucial Element of Oxman’s Idea

For years, Oxman has been working closely with 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys to create methods for building biologically active materials via additive manufacturing. Amazingly, her work with additive manufacturing has been met with some great success.

Through the use of additive manufacturing, Oxman and her MIT team have been able to build biopolymer materials made from chitin and other naturally manufactured bits with substances like melanin to create “living materials” that respond to their environment.

A 3D-printed sample of a material built using parametric chemistry. This sample includes reactive melanin that will darken as it comes into contact with damaging UV rays.

The reason that additive manufacturing is so critical to Oxman’s vision for design is that it gives engineers the ability to create complex materials that aren’t chemically homogenous by building a form layer by layer. This layer-by-layer approach makes it possible for designers to engineer their materials to have distinct qualities throughout their structure, something that’s seen frequently in nature. The process works like this: A 3D printer is loaded with a base material, say chitin and other substances, as well as a melanin-producing biomaterial. As the print begins, the chitin cocktail is laid down layer by layer as instructed by the engineer who built the material. Once the printer reaches a place in the material that requires melanin, the printer switches materials and adds the melanin where it’s needed. What’s more, the printer is not only creating a new material, but it’s also creating the form of whatever product is being built, making it an interesting analog for the way that biological structures are formed.

Unfortunately, this same process can’t be done as precisely with modern mass manufacturing technologies, so Oxman’s team has embraced additive manufacturing as the most viable means for experimental materials and product design. Given her team’s success with additive manufacturing, Oxman posits an idea that should begin being considered by engineering and design teams that want to stay at the forefront of innovation.

Additive manufacturing will be crucial to the development of biologically inspired material design made possible by parametric chemistry.

The Relevance of Oxman’sWork

While additive manufacturing, let alone parametric chemistry, is still a fledgling field, it’s become increasingly clear that advances in its mass manufacturing performance and additive manufacturing material libraries are occurring at an accelerated rate. The same can also be said for computational design, where generative algorithms are pushing innovation to nearly unimaginable extremes. However, these technologies have not yet reached maturity.

And there’s the rub.

Oxman’s work exists in place where both of these technologies have already reached maturity. That’s too say, Oxman’s work is both futurist and aspirational and is relevant to today’s engineers because it points the way to a possible design future. But before that future arrives, a number of issues have to be resolved.

One question that remains with Oxman’s work is the hidden conceit that bioinspired, computational design can offer limitless and unique solutions to design challenges. While the constraints of a design challenge vary from project to project, and nature seems to have an ingenious solution for every design challenge, one has to wonder if a standard computational design tool kit of algorithms will lead to a proliferation of biologically inspired, yet nearly identical, products that cease to be unique in appearance and function.

The answer may be “no,” provided the engineers in charge are sophisticated programmers who can retool an already established algorithm, or build one from scratch. Maybe the answer remains “no” if engineering teams engaged in this type of avant-garde design attempt to employ AI to create new models for design optimization.

But since that future hasn’t arrived, another question still lingers for me: Will this radical vision for design be transformed into a mass-manufacturing paradigm that eventually wears the wonder from these unique forms? Will additive manufacturing really make short-run, unique and bespoke products a viable means of putting products in a customer’s hands? Can nature provide a more sustainable mode for producing complex goods?

The answer to these questions are still unknown, but from all appearances, it seems that Oxman is at a critical nexus for answering these questions. What’s more, her insights into design may be propelling engineering towards an exciting new future.

If you’re not a SOLIDWORKS user, do you know where you can go to discover more about the software? Or to try it out? Or to connect with a reseller?

As it turns out, all of these questions have the same answer: MySolidWorks.

The landing page for MySolidWorks. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

Accessible from the URL MySolidWorks.com, MySolidWorks is much more than a website, according to Andreas Kulik, director of Product Portfolio & Business Development for SOLIDWORKS under its parent company ‎Dassault Systèmes.

“For our users, it has become the hub to stream SOLIDWORKS, learn more, get answers, prepare for certification, and much more,” he said. “It is well integrated with our SOLIDWORKS desktop products to make it easier for our users to discover content and stay connected with the SOLIDWORKS community.”

MySolidWorks Is for Anyone

One of the best features of MySolidWorks is the online product trial—a full version of SOLIDWORKS Professional that current or prospective users can run for free—streamed through their browser. The only requirement is that users have a SOLIDWORKS account, a barrier that takes all of 20 seconds to overcome.

Once prospective users sign up for an account, they can access the browser-based SOLIDWORKS trial for a total of two hours over two days. During this trial period, they can discover and evaluate SOLIDWORKS as much as they’d like to get a feel for whether it’s the right solution for them. If two hours isn’t enough time for prospective users to make this determination, they can extend the trial for an additional two hours. And if that’s still not enough time, prospective users have the option of contacting a reseller and getting seven days of unimpeded access to the software.

For current SOLIDWORKS users, the trial provides an opportunity to evaluate other SOLIDWORKS products and the latest version of the software.

The trial provides a great way for users to experience SOLIDWORKS firsthand without the hassle of downloading software or requesting reseller demos. As Kulik puts it: “The idea is to remove barriers for individuals and companies looking to experience the best CAD solution on the market.”

I tested out the online trial for an hour or so, running through one of the integrated SOLIDWORKS tutorials, and the experience met all my expectations. I did occasionally have to refresh MySolidWorks when it failed to bring up the trial version of the software, but this minor problem might have been caused by a spotty Internet connection on my end. According to Kulik, user satisfaction levels with the browser trial are quite high overall. That said, the issue of potential browser instability leads him to believe that “there will always be a case for desktop CAD.”

The online version of SOLIDWORKS 2018 allows current and prospective users to sample the software hassle free. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

MySolidWorks for SOLIDWORKS Users

Billed as “Your place for all things SOLIDWORKS,” MySolidWorks is exactly that, with a variety of services designed for current and prospective users alike. There’s SOLIDWORKS news; access to millions of CAD models; extensive educational materials, learning paths, and SOLIDWORKS eCourses; active user forums; access to documentation and technical support; a global manufacturing network; reseller content; and the browser-based SOLIDWORKS product trial for both SOLIDWORKS users and CAD beginners to test-drive the software, without having to download and install it.

There are four versions of MySolidWorks:

• MySolidWorks—which is the entry version that’s free for anyone who creates a SOLIDWORKS account
• MySolidWorks for Students—which offers access to additional training content and more,and is available to anyone with a student license of SOLIDWORKS
• MySolidWorks Standard—which provides training content, access to the Knowledge base, and Software Performance Reports (SPRs), and is free for users who have an active SOLIDWORKS subscription
• MySolidWorks Professional—which is available on a subscription basis for $360 per year per user and unlocks over 1,000 product tutorials, SOLIDWORKS certification prep courses, and much more

Here’s a breakdown of the differences between the four versions of MySolidWorks:

Differences between the four versions of MySolidWorks. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

You may have noticed that the SOLIDWORKS eCourses are not specifically included with any of the MySolidWorks offerings. Rather, these courses are available for purchase from your SOLIDWORKS reseller.“eCourses are interactive online training courses that include everything from the SOLIDWORKS instructor-led training manual in a self-paced eLearning format. They’re a great way to get the content out to users.”There are currently 13 eCourses available, ranging in length from 5 hours (“SOLIDWORKS File Management”) to 19.5 hours (“SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation”).

Your Place for All Things SOLIDWORKS

Since the introduction of MySolidWorks, the reception from SOLIDWORKS users has been very positive. Take it from Dan Herzberg, project engineer at Jenike & Johanson, Inc.

“I've been using MySolidWorks since the very beginning, when it was launched in 2013 or so,” Herzberg said.“Back then, there was so much SOLIDWORKS information spread across so many platforms—tech blogs, user blogs, user forum posts, YouTube videos, Knowledge Base solutions—it was tedious to find answers to my specific problems. MySolidWorks compiles all that information in one place, so a simple search almost always gets me the answer I’m looking for, which is still one of the greatest features of MySolidWorks.”

A simple search on MySolidWorks.com. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

And the platform only continues to improve, according to Herzberg. “Since then, SOLIDWORKS has added new features like file storage, links to manufacturers, and online product tutorial videos for almost any topic you can think of. I'll sometimes use these videos to get introduced to a tool I've never used before, or just brush up on my skills during downtime.”

Whether you’re a seasoned SOLIDWORKS pro or a CAD novice trying to decide which software to buy, MySolidWorks has something to offer you. MySolidWorks is an ambitious project helping users be more productive by connecting them with relevant SOLIDWORKS content and services—anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

In that respect, MySolidWorks really does live up to its promise: it’s your place for all things SOLIDWORKS.

About the Author

Michael Alba is a lead contributor of the IoT section for ENGINEERING.com. Michael has a degree in engineering physics from the University of Alberta. He has also conducted research in wireless beamforming and Doppler radar.

Create multi-distance chamfers in a single command. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

Chamfer Updates Reduce Features, Design Times

To kick off the release, SOLIDWORKS has improved its Chamfer tool by adding many of the powerful features that you find in the Fillet tool. One of the most important additions to the Chamfer toolset is the new Look tool that gives users the ability to create multi-distance chamfers in a single operation. All a user has to do is select an edge, click the corresponding parameter dialog and key in the desired distance.

With the ability to set multiple chamfers in a single command, designers can cut the number of features in their feature tree all the way down to one. Not only does that make future interrogation of a design much easier, but it can also make it importing a part into a simulation software or geometry conversion tool much easier and less computationally intensive.

Beyond multi-distance chamfers, 2017 also includes a tool to make creating variable chamfers quick and easy. To create a variable chamfer users can simple select two face sets and the edges of a component, define a hold line and then hit “Okay.” With this new tool, the amount of work that was previously required to create the same feature can be tossed to the wayside. Variable chamfers are now simple to create.

Need a Fillet Where That Chamfer Used to Be?

Another powerful addition to this SOLIDWORKS update is the ability to change any chamfer to a fillet and vice versa. With this tool, any round or edge can be converted by defining a few variables.

Now, at face value, that might not seem like a huge improvement. However, if you’ve ever had to go back through a feature tree, change a fillet to a chamfer and watch many of the subsequent features crash, you know that this kind of quick and easy substitution can be a huge time-saver.

As an aside, whenever possible, save chamfers and fillets for the final features in a design. By doing so you can save a lot of headaches down the line, and it’s just sound modeling practice. That being said, it’s great that 2017 now has an escape hatch for those who are stuck toggling between chamfers and fillets.

Advanced Hole Enhancements

Complex holes can be created using a single command. They can also be saved for later use. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

The Advance Hole tool up close. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

Another useful new modeling features in 2017, the engineers at Dassault Systèmes have added a powerful new tool for creating complex, multi-diameter holes.

In previous versions of the software, if a designer needed to create a hole that had multiple diameters they’d have to create multiple features, or a complex revolve cut, to achieve their desired result. Well, in SOLIDWORKS 2017, users can create multiple diameter hollows within a single hole command.

Armed with a new fly-out pane, the Advanced Hole tool puts several types of hole definitions (tapped, counterbore, counter sunk, etc.) at a designer’s fingertips. Regardless of how many transitions a hole needs to undergo during its path, designers can add additional steps to the hole definition, changing the way the hole will be bored through their design. Regardless of whether a hole needs to taper or expand, the Advanced Hole tool can make that happen.

Though simplifying hole creation is valuable, the most powerful aspect of the Advanced Hole feature is its ability to save time. Because this new tool can group all of the diameters of an advanced hole into a single feature, that feature can then be saved as a “favorite” in the Advanced Hole fly-out so that it can be called out later in the design process.

If complex holes need to be repeated in a design, all a user has to do is call upon one of their tried and true favorites.

My Takeaway from SOLIDWORKS 2017

The latest edition of SOLIDWORKS has some great new features and most of the changes are refinements suggested by users. This alone points to the fact that SOLIDWORKS is a refined CAD package and the company realizes that it needs to continue to improve with every release.

However, relying strictly on incremental improvements is not good enough. While it’s important for a company like DS to address what its users need—after all, users are the best at road-testing a piece of software and delivering keen insight—it isn’t necessarily enough just to answer requests for enhancements.

It takes more than that to do something innovative. Software development teams should be taking a visionary approach to CAD modeling, imagining new paradigms and creating a deeper view of the future.

To that end, DS has been looking at the entire design-to-manufacturing process and how it can be improved. The company is focused on providing tools not just for design, but for what DS calls the entire design-to-manufacturing ecosystem.

For example, take a look at the new 3D Interconnect tool in SOLIDWORKS 2017. It allows users to use native CAD data from other 3D CAD systems directly inside SOLIDWORKS, meaning it's possible to build an assembly or make a mold from parts and components from various CAD systems. Previously, these files had to be converted, but because they can stay in their native format, updates made to non-SOLIDWORKS parts will be automatically updated in SOLIDWORKS.

It's also worth noting that the software is committed to MBD, which is useful for users who are moving away from 2D CAD drawings. Product design doesn't end with 2D drawings anymore, so design software needs to be much more than a tool for creating geometry. It needs to allow integration with all aspects of design and manufacturing. MBD, which has its own set of enhancements for 2017, enables users to make design changes late in the product development cycle and have those changes ripple through to manufacturing. This will help free designers up to make continuous improvements on a design right up to the last minute. Design and manufacturing tools need to be more integrated, more flexible and faster to incorporate these changes.

The bulk of the improvements in 2017 are loaded into improvements in simulation, drawing, PCB design and much more. With those improvements, Dassault Systèmes is building out an end-to-end product design tool. And who can blame the company? End-to-end CAD software is the future and 2017 is making good strides at being the be-all-end-all for product designers and manufacturers.

I do hope, however, that as new tools like virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) begin to grow in popularity, they aren’t ignored. Adding that type of user interface and feature control could be groundbreaking for the design industry. We’ve seen the start of this integration with the introduction of VR in eDrawings this year, but hopefully we’ll begin to see the big names in CAD like Dassault addressing this emerging wave of technology in the more complex modeling stages in future releases.

About the Author

Kyle Maxey is a mechanical designer and writer from Austin, TX. He earned a degree in Film at Bard College and has since studied Mechanical and Architectural drafting at Austin Community College. As a designer Kyle has had vast experience with CAD software and rapid prototyping. One day he dreams of becoming a toy designer.

As a CAD manager, I am always excited about new releases. What features or enhancements will be added, which ones will be improved and how can they add value to what we are doing in terms of accuracy, ease of use and increased efficiency?

SOLIDWORKS is one of the main CAD solid-modeling software packages we utilize at our drafting and design firm Advanced Technical Services in Lincoln, Nebr. SOLIDWORKS definitely provides our CAD design technicians with the tools and functionality needed to create 3D models of everything from simple parts to complex assemblies containing multiple parts and weldments. Modeling is only the first half of our workflow, however. Those modeled parts, weldments and assemblies still need to be manufactured, built, assembled, etc.

The manufacturers, builders and assemblers that will be doing that work all need to have instructions to do so. What parts get holes, slots and bends? What are the sizes and locations of those features? What gets welded and what size and type of welds are used? What are the dimensional tolerances, materials and finishes, etc.? All this information is detailed and called out on drawings. The quicker my team can provide accurate and informative drawings, the quicker our client can have a finished product. So let’s look at some of the new enhancements with regards to drawings in SOLIDWORKS 2017.

Section Views

You can now emphasize or bold the outline of section parts. This adds clarity to the section view, allowing you to communicate the internal workings of a part more clearly—no more squinting to see where there are hollow spaces, edges and material at any given section plane.

A regular versus a bolded section view. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

Detail, Crop and Broken Views

To help clarify and differentiate detail, crop and broken views, SOLIDWORKS 2017 gives you the ability to show their outlines as jagged. The intensity of the shape can be altered as well to suit your needs. This can really help to lessen confusion on the manufacturing shop floor as to what the view is trying to communicate and how it is different from other views on the drawing. It also helps to differentiate the outline of the detail from the actual edge of the part.

A detail view with jagged edges. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

Multisheet Property Edits

For quite some time in SOLIDWORKS, users have been able to make changes to a drawing’s properties by utilizing the right-click menu. However, making changes to multiple drawings meant you had to repeat that process for each sheet you wanted to change. SOLIDWORKS 2017 has enhanced this feature by allowing you to make changes to properties such as scale, projection type, format and size to multiple sheets all at once. You just select the sheets you want to make the changes to within the dialog box and hit “Apply Changes.” A huge time-saver!

Mirror View

You can now produce a parametrically mirrored drawing without having to create the actual 3D part for the mirror. Just copy an existing drawing and use the Mirror View feature to select the parent view. The subsequent mirrored views are then created, including all the annotations and dimensions.

BOM Tables

In SOLIDWORKS 2017, you can now lock bill of materials (BOM) tables at the template level. They’ll remain locked when placed in a drawing. This will go a long way in helping to maintain consistency in your drawing sets by controlling things such as column widths and row heights that now can’t be changed by individual users creating different drawings within the set.

Another great feature regarding the BOM tables is that notes can directly reference data within any BOM cell(s). Clicking the specified BOM table cell while creating the note allows you to reference data such as part number, description, quantity, etc. This is a very handy feature to help call special attention to important data.

An example of a BOM table locked in a drawing. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

These new and improved drawing features within SOLIDWORKS 2017 will definitely help users create clear and concise drawing sets more efficiently, quickly and accurately. These features will also help keep drawings consistent across the drawing set when multiple users are involved.

Another thing worth noting is that term licensing is now available in SOLIDWORKS 2017 in addition to the current perpetual license option. This is huge for SOLIDWORKS customers with smaller budgets as it gives them the option of scaling up or down based upon their project workload and needs. Term licenses have lower upfront costs due to the absence of included maintenance and are available in quarterly or annual options. SOLIDWORKS 2017 subscription customers will also have access to online services through the MySolidWorks portal.

SOLIDWORKS is available in three different platforms:

• SOLIDWORKS Standard is the basic entry-level platform that allows you to create parts, assemblies and 2D drawings. There are specific tools for sheet metal, weldments, surfacing and mold tool and die.
• SOLIDWORKS Professional adds to the standard platform with file management tools, advanced photorealistic rendering, automated cost estimation, eDrawings Professional collaboration capabilities, automated design and drawing checking, as well as a sophisticated components and parts library.
• SOLIDWORKS Premium adds powerful simulation and design validation to the capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Professional, as well as ECAD/MCAD collaboration, reverse engineering and advanced wire and pipe routing functionality.

About the Author

Well, it’s a Hollywood myth that things work in just that order. In reality, it's more like: Roll sound. Roll camera. Marker! Set. Action!

In this article I will be focusing on SOLIDWORKS Composer, a tool that is SOLIDWORKS’ solution for technical communication. But first, let’s examine technical communication.

Technical Communication

As a deliverable, technical communication is defined by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) as “a factual communication, usually about products or services.” Technical communication is a field of study that focuses on technical or specialized topics, and communicates, if you will, by using technology or providing how-to instructions.

Figure 1. View of SOLIDWORKS Composer interactive parts lists, with hotspots and a simple linear explosion. (Image courtesy of the author.)

In general, technical communication describes or depicts a product form, product operation, product identification or product maintenance. Because of the many different forms of technical communication, there are various types of content/media created within an organization. Ideally, you want a tool that that leverages the same data—a single source—so that everyone is on the same page.

Should Technical Communication Be a Concern?

Is technical communication part of the critical path for product development? You bet!

For most organizations that provide a product to customers, technical communication is part of the manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM)—a customer deliverable, called an owner’s manual or installation directions or a maintenance document. You could find all three in the MBOM, or they could be combined into a single document.

Organizations may have a design completed, the product manufactured and sitting in inventory waiting for an owner’s manual or a combined document such as an installation, operation and maintenance document (IOM).

If you are missing any of these documents, you introduce the risks of missing delivery dates, which may:

• Incur penalties
• Mean paying for inventory storage
• Leave your inventory sitting in production areas, increasing the risk of product damage or employee safety

These situations affect the bottom line. So, yes, technical communication pieces are part of the critical path for product development and should be a concern to any manufacturer. Beyond the need to have technical communications, creating them can be a competitive advantage if you can quickly create, author, publish and deliver them.

Figure 2. View of SOLIDWORKS Composer user interface, showing different saved views, properties area, graphics area, animation timeline and workshop settings. (Image courtesy of the author.)

What are the SOLIDWORKS Composer Products?

SOLIDWORKS Composer is a tool that provides a competitive advantage. Composer is a standalone software application that allows an organization to extend the value of their 3D data. Leveraging 3D data can enable a company to quickly create many different forms of technical communication pieces early on in the product lifecycle.

SOLIDWORKS Composer was previously branded as 3DVIA Composer. Parent company Dassault Systèmes has taken the 3DVIA Composer product and rebranded it under the more recognizable product lines—SOLIDWORKS and CATIA. SOLIDWORKS Composer and CATIA Composer each have their own branded authoring tool and player, but essentially, they are identical products.

Similar to the SOLIDWORKS CAD suite, Composer offers three levels of functionality. To complete the product suite and the nature of the authored content, a “player” utility is included.

SOLIDWORKS Composer Player is the free version. This is the player (or viewer) that you or your customer will use to view some of the communication pieces you create.

SOLIDWORKS Composer is the main authoring tool. It allows you to generate all the different types of technical pieces you may need for your organization or customers, and includes the translation and authoring tools.

SOLIDWORKS Composer Sync is a maintenance tool that allows you to control the update of all the different elements of the Composer data. This includes meta-data changes, geometry, BOMs and manufacturing information. All of this is done on the desktop, usually through batch mode processes.

SOLIDWORKS Composer Enterprise Sync is everything that Composer Sync offers, plus the ability to control and execute command line functions. It is primarily used for integrated systems like content management.

It’s All About Your Actors and Scenes

Actors are the primary element used by Composer. When data is translated and brought into Composer, it becomes an actor. If you create trace lines inside an exploded view, the trace lines are actors. Imported 3D data used as tools for showing maintenance and repair processes are actors—think about a hammer, screwdriver or ratchet. Image files that aid in showing the condition of components, like wear on a shaft, are actors. You can even create “dummy” actors that represent items that are part of the product, but may not have any physical representation, such as grease, glue, solder and even paint.

Actors read the scripts and do what they are told. They can spin or move about, change color and disappear, in accordance with the script you design to communicate to others.

How Actors are Used to Communicate

After directing the actor as to what to do and where to be, it is time to start recording. For most companies, this would start with simple static images. These images could be as complex as product-rendered images with transparent shells to show off the internal components or simple black and white images of exploded assemblies used for part identification.

Figure 3. Examples of different types of images for technical communication pieces. (Image courtesy of the author.)

While actors are very important to a product, the setting and the camera angles are just as important as well. Once your actors are in place and your cameras are set, it’s time to take the shot for posterity. For Composer, the frozen point in time is a view. Views are similar to the movie frames of film; play them one after the other and you get action. Pause the film and you get to look at a single frame. Views and actors make your action.

This is where the animation timeline comes in. Take your views with actors in one place and then drop the second view with the actors into a different position. Hit the play button and you get action. The view zooms in. Rotate the view and your actors step three paces apart—just like doing a linear explosion of a shaft assembly.

DVD, Streaming or Theater?

Choosing your media type is just as simple as deciding how you are going to watch a movie. You could either purchase the DVD, watch it at a movie theater or stream it to your computer or tablet device. SOLIDWORKS Composer provides many different media types for publishing. You can choose to create your static images and output to HTML, a vector file or even to a 3D PDF. Composer quickly takes your 3D geometry and leverages many different outputs to increase the value of your design data and reduce your overall development timeline.

Extend Your Use of 3D Data

By leveraging your data, you can quickly create various types of 2D images ranging from hidden line removal (HLR) to rendered images. (See Figure 1.) These images can be used across the enterprise to communicate your product and product benefits in basic forms, from print-like manuals and installation documents to much more advanced interactive part lists, or even interactive electronic technical manuals, known as IETMs.

Interactive parts lists work by viewing the overall product and drilling down/stepping down through different layers of the model. You select an area of the machine—which is a hotspot—and it takes you down into that subsystem. You can burrow down through the layers until you reach the level and parts you are looking for. Then you can quickly identify the part number and other information (which is stored as metadata) to order a replacement part.

Figure 4. Examples of SOLIDWORKS Composer PDF output. This shows the product structure, saved views for quick access, the ability to rotate and move (interact) with the model and part identification. (Image courtesy of the author.)

IETMs can be generated to teach your maintenance crew how to properly disassemble, replace and reassemble assemblies without any prior knowledge. This allows you to reduce the amount of training your maintenance team may need by providing just-in-time training capabilities via a laptop or portable tablet (and soon to be available in augmented reality, if the winds of change continue blowing in the current direction).

Animations with hotspots can be created to provide product training to a sales force. New product introductions or product highlights can quickly be communicated with animations using fly-through concepts and animations to show the product in action.

When it comes to technical communication, your imagination is the limit—not the software! Look to SOLIDWORKS Composer to meet your current and future technical communication needs.

CUT! That’s a take, everyone.

About the Author

Ryan McVay has nearly 25 years of computer-aided design experience in many different roles, including user, abuser, instructor (public college and corporate), software sales, technical support and customer advocate. McVay is currently responsible for the design, continued operation and development of an engineering-to-order system along with CAD, PDM and hardware administration responsibilities.