New Bounding Box Tools

SOLIDWORKS 2018 added a handy new feature that allowed users to create a bounding box around a single part. This bounding box would dynamically update so that it always calculated the minimum rectangular prism into which a part could fit. 

In SOLIDWORKS 2019, this functionality has been expanded to enable users to create a bounding box around assemblies and subassemblies. The Bounding Box command can be found under the menu INSERT>REFERENCE GEOMETRY>BOUNDING BOX as shown in Figure 1.

When creating a bounding box for an assembly, you will see a property manager that is similar to the one you use when you are creating a bounding box for a single part. You will also see some new options, such as whether the bounding box should include hidden components, envelope components, or surface bodies, as shown in Figure 1.

Once the bounding box has been added to the assembly, you will see that four new fields have been added to the custom properties of the assembly as shown in Figure 2. 

These custom properties can be used for things like annotations and notes, and can also be shown on a drawing title block. Since these notes dynamically update, this can be a great way to keep track of the overall size of the assembly.

Bounding boxes can exist at the part level, the subassembly level, or the top level of an assembly. As you can see in Figure 3, each of these levels will utilize a different color to represent the bounding box.

One of the nicest elements of utilizing a bounding box is the ease with which you can add dimensions to a drawing, representing the overall size of your assembly (see Figure 4).

As you can see in Figure 4, you can easily select and dimension the overall size of this assembly, without needing to struggle through the process of selecting the desired points, edges or faces of the model. Selecting the lines from the bounding box makes this task simple and straightforward. 

Auto-Lock Rotation Mate for Toolbox Parts

Our example assembly is looking pretty good, but we need to add a few hex bolts and washers as shown in Figure 5.

A common workflow to follow in this scenario involves the following:

1. Turn on SOLIDWORKS Toolbox Add-In.

2. Drag and drop the washer into the desired location.

Note that the washer is positioned but is still constrained (since it can rotate) as shown in Figure 6.

After the washers were dragged into our assembly from the Toolbox Library, they were positioned in the desired location, but each washer is still free to rotate. You can see the result of this in Figure 6, where the parts named “flat washer type a narrow_ai” are shown in the tree with a minus(-) sign next to them. You can also see that the concentric mate is not utilizing the option for “Lock Rotation,” since the icon next to the mate (the double circle icon) is not filled in solid. 

Normally at this point in the process, if you wanted to fully constrain the washers, you would have to find the concentric mate related to the washer and right-click your mouse on this mate to choose Lockrotation. Doing so will fill in the circle icon solid and will fully constrain the washer. 

The team at SOLIDOWORKS recognized that users were performing this same step—over and over again—every time they added new Toolbox hardware to their assemblies. To help users save time, SOLIDWORKS 2019 has a new option to eliminate this step, by allowing users to automatically lock the rotation of newly inserted Toolbox components as shown in Figure 7.

You can start this process by going into your System Options and selecting the category for Hole Wizard/Toolbox as shown in Figure 7. You can then select the checkbox for “Lock rotation of new concentric mates to Toolbox components,” which is shown in the figure.

Now, let’s return to our example assembly, and this time we will add two new washers and two new hex bolts.

After adding four new pieces of hardware (two washers and two hex bolts), the software displays the feedback shown in Figure 8. Our components in the assembly tree no longer show the minus (-) sign next to their names. This indicates that these components are fully constrained. You can also see that the four new concentric mates have the double circle icon filled in, indicating that the option for “lock rotation” has been enabled for these mates automatically, thanks to this great new option in SOLIDWORKS 2019.

Circular Pattern Enhancements

Back in SOLIDWORKS 2017, the circular feature pattern (used in parts) was updated to include some great functionality, including bidirectional circular patterns and the option to create a symmetric circular pattern from a center instance. Users who often work on assemblies will be happy to know that these same enhancements are now available for the assembly of circular patterns in SOLIDWORKS 2019.

Figure 9 shows a common challenge in assembly modeling—we need to have a circular pattern of components, but we also need the pattern to go in two different directions, since our seed components are centered in the pattern. In previous versions of SOLIDWORKS, this challenge would have required two separate circular pattern features. 

After beginning a circular component pattern in a SOLIDWORKS 2019 assembly, we now have a new option called “Direction 2” as shown in Figure 10. By selecting this option, we can create the circular component pattern of the hex bolt and washer in both directions using a single command. This is a nice time saver that will help keep our tree organized, which will make it easier to update things in the event of future changes to the project. 

Conclusion

Users who frequently work with assemblies will be happy to see some of the great new tools that have been added to SOLIDWORKS 2019. The ability to create a bounding box around an assembly enables users to quickly keep track of the minimum envelope an assembly will fit into. The option to automatically lock the rotation of the concentric mate created when adding a Toolbox part can save lots of time, since we often insert hundreds of Toolbox parts into a single assembly. And the new assembly circular pattern option that enables users to create a pattern in two directions will save users time because they no longer need to have an additional circular pattern feature in the tree.

Once you get SOLIDWORKS 2019 installed, be sure to check out the HELP>WHATS NEW menu to see all the great new enhancements in the software. 

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.

As shown in Figure 1, the goal is to create a chamfer in the middle of the edge, but not to have this chamfer extend out beyond this central location. 

Prior to SOLIDWORKS 2019, you would need to perform a time-consuming work-around to achieve this.

Method 1—Creating a Partial Chamfer Using a Cut Sweep

In pre-2019 versions of SOLIDWORKS, one approach would be to create a cut sweep feature along the desired section of the edge as shown in Figure 2.

As you can see in Figure 2, creating a “partial chamfer” by generating a cut sweep would require several features. You would have to create a new 3D sketch representing the path of the cut sweep, a new plane at the end of this path, and a new 2D sketch representing the profile of the cut sweep (see Figure 3).

Unfortunately, attempting to create this cut sweep would produce an error, indicating that the feature could not be created. This generally meant a lot of time would have to be spent troubleshooting the sweep path and profile to get the desired results. 

Method 2—Performing a Split Body Command

Another technique that was commonly used before SOLIDWORKS 2019 was the “Split-Chamfer-Combine” method that is shown in Figure 4. 

To prepare for the split command, you would create a 3D sketch along the section of the edge where you would like to add the chamfer. You would then create two new planes, one at each end point of this 3D sketch. You would then use these planes to perform a split body command, which would split the model into three separate solid bodies as can be seen in Figure 5.

Now that the model has been split into three separate solid bodies, a chamfer can be added (see Figure 6). 

Since the model is split, the chamfer will only be applied to one of the bodies, as is shown in Figure 6. Before SOLIDWORKS 2019, once this chamfer was added, a user would finish up by combining these three bodies back into one single solid body (see Figure 7).

After performing a combine command, the model is back to one single body, and there is now a partial edge chamfer.

Saving Time with SOLIDWORKS 2019

In the two examples above, you can see that while it was indeed possible to add a chamfer to only a subsection of an edge prior to SOLIDWORKS 2019, it also meant using some sort of work-around.  And these work-around generally required a lot of time, as well as some in-depth knowledge of SOLIDWORKS software and modeling techniques. In SOLIDWORKS 2019, these work-arounds are a thing of the past, and adding a chamfer (or fillet) to the partial edge of a model is as simple as click-drag-click.

Let’s start with the model in its original state—no sweep cuts, no splits, no chamfer (see Figure 8).

Next, let’s begin the chamfer feature command.

After beginning the chamfer command, you must choose the option for OFFSET FACE. If you do not choose this option, you will not see the option for “Partial Edge Parameters.”

After selecting the desired edge for the chamfer and choosing the chamfer type OFFSET FACE, you can select the option for “Partial Edge Parameters” as shown in Figure 10. You can then simply drag and drop the purple node to indicate where you would like the chamfer to begin. Last, you can drag the green node to indicate where you would like the chamfer to end.

After pressing the green checkmark, you will see that your partial edge chamfer has been successfully created. 

Partial Fillet

By following these same steps, you can also create a partial edge fillet as shown in Figure 12.

The process for creating a partial edge fillet in SOLIDWORKS 2019 follows the same workflow as the process for creating a partial edge chamfer. You can simply begin the fillet command, then select the option for “Partial Edge Parameters.” After this is selected, you can drag and drop the purple and green nodes to indicate where you would like the fillet to begin and end (see Figure 13).

Conclusion

Creating a chamfer or fillet that runs along the subsection of an edge can be a frustrating and time-consuming challenge. Before 2019, SOLIDWORKS users had to come up with some type of work-around. Sometimes users created a cut-sweep to represent the partial chamfer or fillet. Other times users would split their solid body into multiple bodies, so that they could achieve the desired result.

SOLIDWORKS 2019 has added a terrific enhancement to the chamfer and fillet commands—enabling users to easily specify an edge they want to modify, and then drag and drop points to indicate where they would like their fillet or chamfer to begin and end along the selected edge. This capability will save users time and frustration, as well as allow them to get their products to the manufacturing and marketing teams faster than ever 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.

3D Texture

The first tool we’ll be discussing is the 3D Texture tool. When using this tool, you will start with a 2D image file. This image file should be black and white, with a grayscale range of colors used to indicate peaks, valleys and depth (see Figure 2).

In Figure 2, you can see that we created a simple box-shaped part. We then went into our SOLIDWORKS Appearance Task Pane (on the right side of the figure) and went into the category for MISCELLANEOUS > 3D TEXTURES. We selected the texture named “Knurled Bump 10” and added this texture to the face of our box-shaped model.

You’ll notice that the entire image is colored black, white and gray. When we choose to convert this 2D image into a 3D texture, SOLIDWORKS will interpret this image based on the grayscale of the colors. Black will represent the lowest point of the 3D texture, white will represent the highest point of the 3D texture, and there will be a gradient from high to low, based on the grayscale of the 2D image. 

Image Mapping

Next, we need to create the appropriate size for our image map. In this case, we will be generating 3D knurls, so we need to make the knurls a little smaller (see Figure 3).

By choosing to Edit Appearance on that face, we were able to decrease the overall size of the image map, giving us the representation of more, smaller knurls.

Applying a 3D Texture

Now that we have a 2D texture on our model, we can convert this 2D texture into a 3D texture that can be used for 3D printing (see Figure 4).

As shown in Figure 4, we start by expanding our feature tree folder for Solid Bodies. We then right-click on our solid body and choose 3D Texture. This launches a command that will convert our existing solid body into a new 3D Texture body (see Figure 5).

After launching the 3D Texture command, you will be presented with the dialog box shown in Figure 5. I like to choose the default commands to get started, and then set the Texture Offset Distance to 0.25in, just to see how things will look (see Figure 6).

In Figure 6, you can see that I started out by ticking the checkbox for any surfaces that have a black and white 2D texture applied. I then went down to Texture Offset Distance and specified a texture height of 0.25in. 

Here are some other options that you might experiment with:

WHITE up– BLACK down—This controls whether the white areas of your 2D image represent the peaks, or whether black areas of your 2D image represent the peaks.

Texture Refinement—This controls how smooth the final result will look. This is a good setting to increase once you have tested all your other options. Increasing this will create a significant increase in the processing time of your 3D texture feature. Be patient with your computer as this could take a while.

Maximum Element Size—This controls how smooth the transition is from your 3D texture back into the original model. If the boundary of your texture image is all black, and black represents the valley of your 3D texture, then this option won’t really come into play (since the transition back to the original model will be 0). However, in most 3D texture applications, you will need to adjust this value to get the best possible results (see Figure 7).

After adjusting these two options (Texture Refinement and Maximum Element Size) to get better results from our 3D Texture feature, our mesh size is so small that our model appears black (in the preview shown in Figure 7). We can expect a longer processing time to complete this feature, since the mesh is so dense. The completed feature is shown in Figure 8.

After clicking OK and allowing our computer to process this new 3D texture, the result is shown in Figure 8. Notice that we chose to turn off Edges in Shaded Mode. This allows us to get a better feel for what the 3D-printed model will look like.

Working with Your Own Custom Images

Now that we understand the basics of working with a 3D texture, we can begin experimenting with our own custom 3D textures. In this blog, we shared some great tips and tricks for working with a company logo. Utilizing 3D textures could be another way to get a company logo onto your 3D-printed part (see Figure 9).

To get the company logo shown in Figure 9 onto our model, we would start by creating a new custom appearance in our SOLIDWORKS library. We would then add this custom appearance to the face of our model (see Figure 10).

Now that we have the company logo added to our model as a black and white texture, we can convert our solid model into 3D mesh model (see Figure 11).

By following the steps from earlier in this article, we were able to quickly create a 3D texture from our 2D company logo. Of course, we could increase the quality of our texture refinement to further increase the quality of our 3D texture.

3D Texture Final Steps

It’s important to recognize that the file you will end up with is a Graphics Body and not a traditional Solid Body (see Figure 12).

Once you convert the Solid Body to a Graphics Body, you can no longer use traditional tools like Cut-Extrude and Fillet. Most often, the next step is to send this Graphics Body to your 3D printer as shown in Figure 13.

Since you can’t use traditional Solid Body features on your GraphicsBody, you should always try to save the 3D Texture feature until the end of the modeling process.

The SOLIDWORKS Slicing Tool

In the previous section of this article, we discussed the idea of a Graphics Body and how traditional tools like Cut-Extrude and Fillet won’t work on a Graphics Body. This has been a long-standing limitation in SOLIDWORKS, and it is most commonly encountered when users attempt to share STL files. 

In Figure 14, you can see that when an STL file is imported into SOLIDWORKS a Graphics Body is created. SOLIDWORKS 2019 has incorporated the Slicing tool to help in these scenarios.

We begin using the Slicing tool by opening a Graphics Body file (like an STL) and then choosing INSERT>SLICING (see Figure 15).

The Slicing tool will create a series of planes along the imported Graphics Body. From these planes, a series of sketches will be generated at the intersection of the Graphics Body and the planes (see Figure 16).

In Figure 16, you can see that we are able to use the sketches from the Slicing tool to create solid geometry in our model. In the case of the rear airplane fin, we used our sketches from the Slicing tool to create a Loft feature (see Figure 17).

Since the model has now been converted into a Solid Body, we can create additional features like cut extrudes and fillets. Without the new Slicing tool, this STL import would have been much more difficult to work with.

Conclusion

SOLIDWORKS 2019 has added two awesome new tools to help users work with 3D Graphics Bodies. The 3D Texture tool allows users to generate a 3D Graphics Body simply by taking a 2D texture and applying depth to the texture. This can be a huge time-saver for things like creating complex surface texturing or adding 3D company logos. 

The second tool is the Slicing tool. When working with imported Graphics Bodies like STLs, users can take advantage of this new tool. The Slicing tool allows users to generate a series of sketch profiles based on the imported Graphics Body. These sketches can then be swept or lofted together, leaving the user with a Solid Body that they can then edit and modify.

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.

Such users stretch the limits of what software can do. Hitting a road-block has a strange effect. Instead of discouraging them, it motivates them to:

• Find a brilliant workaround
• Write a macro to get the job done
• Start an online brainstorming session with their peers
• Submit Enhancement Requests to the developer

The most passionate users are very vocal. They want to have their voice heard by the software vendor and use any means available to make sure of that.

The most successful CAD companies welcome this feedback. For example, SOLIDWORKS built a whole environment for nurturing the collaboration between end-users and software developers, including:

• Forum with over 50,000 members
• Vibrant user group network
• Enhancement Request section in the Customer Portal
• Annual World Conference

SOLIDWORKS took one extra step. It offered the most vocal power-users a job: product definition manager.

Have you ever wondered who comes up with the ideas for all the new features? Even more, who designs the interface that seems to equip users with superpowers?

For SOLIDWORKS, this is the responsibility of the Product Definition team.For each area—sketch, part modeling, assemblies, drawings, rendering, CAM, PDM—there is a project definition manager (PDM) who is continuously working on improving the software:

• Adding new tools or features
• Adding new functionality to existing tools
• Improving the performance of the existing tools
• Streamlining the user interactions with the interface

A good product definition manager is first and foremost a power user. Many of the current PDMs started as passionate end-users, who pushed the software to the limits and sometimes beyond them.

Morphing from an end-user to a PDM in not easy. As an end-user, you are concerned with improving your own experience. When you encounter a limitation that makes doing your job difficult or time-consuming, you simply want that limitation removed without having to consider if anyone else needs that or how implementing your ideas might impact other users.

As a PDM, you suddenly have access to the big picture. Any initiative for improving software functionality has to survive a rigorous process that involves:

• Clearly identifying the need
• Quantifying and qualifying the value for the end-users
• Estimating the percentage of users who would benefit from it
• Estimating the impact on existing functionality (everyone hates regressions!)
• Defining an optimal user workflow
• Performing QA testing

Since, after joining SOLIDWORKS, PDMs have reduced opportunities to perform active design work, they need to find ways to keep up to date with how end-users work. To find a new idea for enhancing the software, they get their inspiration from five sources:

1. Their own vast experience of using the software as power-users
2. On-site visits at companies who use SOLIDWORKS
3. Actively monitoring the SOLIDWORKS forum
4. The Enhancement Requests Database
5. SOLIDWORKS World Top 10 Ideas list

Out of all these five options, the most straight-forward is the last. Every October, SOLIDWORKS users with active subscription are encouraged to submit their ideas to a section of the forum dedicated to collecting them.

Figure 1– SOLIDWORKS World 2019 Top Ten List

The concept is brilliant and effective. This is how it works

• Submit ideas from October to mid December
• Vote and comment on ideas from mid December to end of January
• The Top 10 Ideas will be revealed at SOLIDWORKS World in February

The advantages are evident for all stakeholders:

• Ideas come directly from end-users
• The most popular ones are debated to the last detail by both end-users and PDMs
• It is clear what type of users would benefit from implementing them
• The number of votes offers a good estimate of how many users like each idea
• Generates a large collection of ideas for the PD team (500 to 1,000 new ideas each year)

While only the top 10 ideas are presented at SOLIDWORKS World, all ideas will be taken in consideration by the PD team.

Let’s take the SOLIDWORKS World 2014 Top 10 ideas as a case study:

1. Equal spacing options for linear patterns
2. Rename components from the Feature Manager Tree
3. Draw line from midpoint
4. ESC should always return control to the UI
5. Unlimited Undo/Redo
6. Redefine angular dimensions after they have been placed
7. Redefine a filler to a chamfer from within the same command (and vice versa)
8. List quantity of identical holes in a hole callout
9. Provide a Purge Data command to reduce file size
10. Auto-hide assembly components while mating new components

Nine of these ideas have been fully or partially (4 and 9) implemented since then:

• 1, 3 and 6 in 2014
• 9 and 10 in 2015
• 2, 4, 7 and 8 in 2016

From 155 Top 10 ideas recorded between 2001 and 2016—only 5 ideas were listed in 2004—89 were implemented by 2017.

Figure 2– Top 10 Ideas Implemented between 2001 and 2016. (Image courtesy of“SOLIDWORKS World 2018 Top Ten Enhancement List” presentation by Bruce Holway.)

Software Stability and Performance

As is true for most software applications, it is no wonder that some of the most popular ideas tend to focus on software performance and stability. Two prominent SOLIDWORKS Forum users, Rick Becker and Dennis Dohogne, pointed out that increased performance and stability should always be at the top of the ideas list, every year. Having these two ideas (One and Two) always at the top of list, would leave only eight spots available for the ideas focused on new functionality.

The Product Definition team heard them loud and clear. They even invited Becker and Dohogne to the SOLIDWORKS Headquarters in Waltham, Mass., to spend a whole day with the PD team and brainstorm the best ways to achieve that.

The solution they came up with is simple and elegant.

Starting last year, before voting on individual ideas, all users are asked to express their opinion on how the PD team should allocate its resources (see Figure 6):

• Increase stability
• Improve functionality
• Faster performance

Last year, 680 users voted to allocate the research and development resources as per the chart in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – “One and Two” voting at SWW2018

A Look at SOLIDWORKS World 2019 Top Ten List

If you have never accessed the SOLIDWORKS Forum, follow these steps, in order to get access to the Top Ten List:

1. Go to solidworks.com
2. Select the Customer Portal

Figure 4 - You can also go directly to https://customerportal.solidworks.com

3. Select Create a SOLIDWORKS ID

Figure 5

4. Input your email address, then copy and paste your SOLIDWORKS Serial Number
5. Input the rest of your personal information
6. Validate your email address

At this point, if you are a subscription customer, you should have access to the Top 10 Ideas portal.

7. Go to https://forum.solidworks.com/community/solidworks-world-2019-top-ten-list
8. Vote on how the PDteam should allocate the R&D resources

Figure 6 - Move the sliders, then save your vote.

9. Select Content
10. There are 714 ideas submitted this year. Reading all of them requires several hours. To quickly find the ideas that are relevant to you, use the handy filters as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 - Filter the ideas to find the ones relevant to you.

Once you find an idea you like, open it to get access to voting and commenting. Example:

Figure 8 - Vote and comment

Equally important to voting is explaining why you voted a certain way. The more information you provide, the easier is for the PD team to customize the new functionality to serve your needs.

For example, the idea shown in Figure 8 has 19 comments. Other ideas generated long and heated discussions with more than 100 comments.

For users of large assemblies and drawings, here is a short-list of relevant ideas:

1. Multicore Workflow for Large Assemblies and Drawings
2. Ability to unload and load the body data for the component of an assembly
3. Allow any drawing to be loaded with or without the model (user control)
4. Allow preserved bodies in a SpeedPak to be used for Interference Detection or Collision Detection
5. Add more entity filters (F5): Component, Feature, Cut List Item, Origin, Coordinate System
6. SW Assembly Visualization - Add Option For More Columns
7. Ability to isolate components again while being in isolate mode (isolate after isolate) without having to cancel the first isolate command
8. Manage Display States (especially Hide/Show) with Tables
9. Make graphic triangles visible in parts / assemblies

At the time of writing this article, these are the top 10 ideas for SWW2019:

Figure 9 - Current Top 10 List as of January 27th, 2019

You still have time to vote on them.

Tell SOLIDWORKS what you want and why you need it! It is the easiest way to make your voice heard by the PD team.

About the Author

As an Elite AE and Process Improvement Consultant, working for Javelin Technologies, Alin Vargatu is a Problem Hunter and Solver, and an avid contributor to the SOLIDWORKS Community. He has presented 22 times at SOLIDWORKS World and tens of times at SWUG meetings organized by four different user groups in Canada and one in the United States. Alin is also very active on SOLIDWORKS forums, especially on the Surfacing, Mold Design, Sheet Metal, Assembly Modeling and Weldments sub-fora. His blog and YouTube channel are well known in the SOLIDWORKS Community.

1. New TRIM option in sketch mode

Have you ever been in a sketch and wanted to do a trim, but also wanted to leave the trimmed lines behind, as construction geometry?

Figure 1. My goal is to trim this line, but I want to leave it behind as construction geometry.

In Figure 1, we can see a scenario that comes up fairly often. In 2018 we would have to perform a split command, split this line in two places, turn the middle section into construction, and then assign coincident relationships to the two endpoints. That’s a lot of work!

In SOLIDWORKS 2019, using the new trim options, we can get to the same goal with a simple swipe of the mouse.

Figure 2. The new trim option to KEEP TRIMMED ENTITIES AS CONSTRUCTION GEOMETRY.

In Figure 2, we can see the new options found in the trim command.  Once we enable the option to KEEP TRIMMED ENTITIES AS CONSTRUCTION GEOMETRY we can simply perform a power trim across the desired section of our sketch.

Figure 3. The sketch, after doing a power trim using the new 2019 option.

In Figure 3, we can see that our sketch has given us the desired results, and instead of deleting the trimmed section of the line, we have simply converted it to construction geometry. Nice!

2. Better control over Intersection Splines

For many releases, we have been able to grab the intersection of two faces to generate a spline. Let’s say we have planar surfacing running through the center of a skateboard deck, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The brown planar surface is running through the center of the skateboard deck.

We could utilize the command TOOLS>SKETCH TOOLS>INTERSECTION CURVE to grab the intersection of the surface and one (or more) of the faces of the skateboard deck.

Figure 5. The red sketch represents the INTERSECTON CURVE of the face of the skateboard and the planar surface.

In Figure 5, we can see what the intersection of the planar surface and the lower face of the skateboard might look like (shown in red).

Although we have had the ability to generate a spline using commands like INTERSECTION CURVE, CONVERT ENTITIES or OFFSET ENTITIES for many releases, it was very difficult to work with this spline after it had been generated. Even when we deleted the sketch relationships on these splines, they remained rigid and difficult to manipulate.

SOLIDWORKS 2019 solves this challenge by implementing the use of control polygons onto these converted splines. After utilizing the INTERSECTION CURVE command, we can examine the spline, and we see that it has a sketch relationship.

Figure 6. The resultant spline from the INTERSECTION CURVE command with a sketch relationship circled in red.

Next, we are going to delete this sketch relationship.

Figure 7. Select the sketch relationship and press delete.

In previous versions of SOLIDWORKS, even after deleting this relationship, the spline would remain rigid and difficult to edit.

Figure 8. Click the right mouse button on the spline and choose SHOW CONTROL POLYGONS.

 In SOLIDWORKS 2019, we can click the right mouse button on the spline and choose SHOW CONTROL POLYGONS, as shown in figure 8. This great new enhancement generates a series of grip handles we can use to modify the spline.

Figure 9. Select and drag one of these control polygon grips to manipulate the spline.

Thanks to this great new feature, resizing the spline is simply a matter of dragging and dropping these polygon grips.

3. Tab and Slot command now has “Mickey Mouse Ears”

The Tab and Slot command was added to the software in SOLIDWORKS 2018.

Figure 10. A model being setup for TAB and SLOT

With the TAB and SLOT command, we can take two bodies and, with a single command, add a series of tabs to one body and a series of slots to a second body.

Figure 11. The same model, after adding the TAB and SLOT command.

This command is a huge time saver for users who are working a lot with manufactured parts that need to be fitted together for welding, as they can now fit these parts together without the need for a fixture.

However, many users were asking for additional options in the corners of the SLOTS, and SOLIDWORKS 2019 delivers these options!

Figure 12. New options for the slot corners in a TAB and SLOT command.

In SOLIDWORKS 2019, users can now choose to utilize sharp corners, rounded corners, or chamfered corners in the slots.

Figure 13. The slot with the “Slot Circular Corner” option.

Or users could chose my favorite option – the “Slot Circular Corner” option—which is sometimes referred to as “Mickey Mouse Ears” in the manufacturing world.  J

4. Partial Chamfer/Fillet

One of the most requested enhancements to the SOLIDWORKS software has been added in SOLIDWORKS 2019. Typically when we create a chamfer or fillet, we have to utilize the entire edge of a model.

Figure 14. Adding a chamfer to a model and needing to select the entire edge of the model.

SOLIDWORKS 2019 has introduced the new option for PARTIAL FILLET or PARTIAL CHAMFER edge selection.

Figure 15.  The fillet/chamfer options for Partial Edge Parameters

By using this option, users can now either enter an offset value or simply drag and drop a note to define the start and end location for their chamfer or fillet.

Figure 16. Choosing to only to add a chamfer to a section of the edge, rather than to the entire edge.

This amazing enhancement can save users lots of time. In previous versions of the software, a common workaround to accomplish a partial chamfer was to either create a complex sweep cut, or to split the model into two bodies and perform the chamfer on only one of the bodies, then re-combine the bodies back together. SOLIDWORKS 2019 can save users a lot of work with this great new partial chamfer/fillet option.

5. Multi-Body Part Interference

SOLIDWORKS has had assembly interference detection for a long time, and several years ago SOLIDWORKS added options to detect interference between bodies within a multi-body part within an assembly. This means that if you have a multi-body part in your assembly, you could check interference between the bodies of this part file. However, you could only do this in an assembly mode. This means that, if you’re like me and you do a lot of multi-body part design, and you want to check interferences between the bodies of your one single part file, you still had to take a moment and add this one single multi-body part to an assembly. Then, and only then, you could run an interference detection.

Figure 17. A single part file with multiple bodies, and the interference detection command showing on the Evaluate toolbar.

I am happy to announce that, in SOLIDWORKS 2019, we can save time by jumping right into the interference detection command while in part mode. As you can see in Figure 17, we are working in part mode on a multi-body part, and the Interference Detection tool is available on the Evaluate toolbar.

Figure 18.  A single part file with multiple bodies, and the interference detection results.

This is a nice little gem in 2019, and it saves us that extra little step of needing to create a new assembly.

6. Save Animations directly to MP4

Another little gem in SOLIDWORKS 2019, but one that I really appreciate, is the ability to create an animation and save it in some new file formats, including .MP4, .MKV and .FLV.

Figure 19. New file types available for animation output.

I love making animations in SOLIDWORKS, but this often involves a time-consuming additional step of post=processing the output AVI into a more universal format like MP4. With the new enhancement, I can skip this post-processing step. SOLIDWORKS 2019 makes it much easier to take my output animations and share them immediately with my customers.

7. New tools for working with Exploded Views

SOLIDWORKS 2019 has added some cool new functionality to the Exploded View command.

Figure 20. An exploded view in SOLIDWORKS 2019.

First, in Figure 21, we see that, when examining an exploded view in the Configuration Manager of SOLIDWORKS 2019, we now have a new Rollback Bar.

Figure 21. The new Rollback Bar in the Configuration Manager of SOLIDWORKS 2019.

Using this rollback bar, we can roll backwards and forwards through the steps of an exploded view. This is a great way to convey ideas to the team, during a design review meeting.

Next, we’ll take a look at the exploded view property manager by doing a right mouse button on the exploded view and choosing EDIT FEATURE.

Figure 22. The step forward and step backwards button in the exploded view property manager.

As we can see in Figure 22, we also have the rollback bar in the exploded view property manager, but we also have two new buttons which allow us to STEP FORWARD or STEP BACKWARDS in the exploded view process.

Figure 23. We press the STEP FORWARD button a few times to go down to Explode Step5.

In Figure 23, we can see that the rollback bar is between Explode Step5 and Explode Step6.  Another enhancement to SOLIDWORKS 2019 can be seen when we need to inject a new exploded view step here. We can simply roll the bar between Step5 and Step6, and then add our new exploded view step by dragging and dropping components in the graphics area.

Figure 24. Injecting a new exploded step between two existing steps.

The new options added to SOLIDWORKS 2019 facilitate a much more intuitive workflow when creating and modifying exploded views.

8.  Edrawings Free now has the Measure command

SolidWorks has made the excellent announcement that all of the functionality previously found in Edrawings Professional 2018 has been migrated into the free version of Edrawings 2019.

Figure 25. Edrawings Free now includes the Measure command.

In previous versions of Edrawings, the measure command was only available to Edrawings Professional users. I’m happy to see that the measure tool is now available for all files, and for all versions of Edrawings (even the free Edrawings viewer).

9.  Drawings has added the Open Progress dialog box

One of my favorite enhancements to SOLIDWORKS 2018 was the new Open Progress dialog box found in assemblies. This terrific feedback let you know how long the assembly was taking to open, which parts the assembly was accessing during open, and how long the assembly took to open during the previous session.

Figure 26. The Open Progress dialog box for a drawing.

This is all important and useful feedback, and as we can see in Figure 26, SOLIDWORKS 2019 has added this great functionality to drawings, so that we can see this same great feedback whenever we open a larger drawing file.

10. Enhanced Graphics Performance

And my final (and most significant) enhancement to SOLIDWORKS 2019 has to be the addition of the new ENHANCED GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE option.

Figure 27. The option for Enhanced Graphics Performance in SOLIDWORKS 2019

This option is truly revolutionary in the sense that it can make assemblies perform 5x, 10x, 20x or even greater than they did in SOLIDWORKS 2018.  The reason for this amazing boost to performance has been detailed in previous articles on engineering.com including:

20 to 30 Times faster Graphics response with SOLIDWORKS 2019’s New Graphics Engine

Graphics Cards for the Latest CAD Release

So, I will simply say this: If you have a card that supports this functionality, and you work with larger assemblies, you should defiantly give this option a try.  I have, and I am already seeing amazing improvements.

Conclusion

SOLIDWORKS 2019 continues to deliver jaw dropping enhancements to the software.  This list is only 10 of the hundreds of great enhancements added to this release, and you can read all about some of the other enhancements by booting up the SOLIDWORKS 2019 software and choosing Help>What’s New> PDF.

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.