Solidworks 2017 Release boosts design-to-prototype innovation

By Nandita Singh

BENGALURU: In an increasingly complex business world across industries, characterized by disruption from unexpected sources and merging of the physical and virtual worlds, innovation rules. And the new 2017 release of Solidworks promises to further unlock this ability to innovate for large and small enterprises in manufacturing, as well as for enterprising individuals who want to bring their ideas to life and scale in the market.

“Solidworks 2017 simplifies the design and development process with a better user experience, new capabilities for emerging technologies, and improved functionality for seamless collaboration with teams and networks,” said Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO, Solidworks at Dassault Systèmes, in a company statement. His colleague Sanchit Jain, VP of Strategy & Business Development was in Bengaluru to share how the new release can power India’s “Make in India” agenda.

Powered by Dassault Systèmes ’ 3D Experience platform, Solidworks 2017 helps innovators design, validate, collaborate, build and manage their product development processes with integrated applications. The 2017 release features more core power and performance, as well as new capabilities to address paperless manufacturing through the support of Model Based Definition, and printed circuit board (PCB) design. Both new and experienced users can improve productivity with simulation to analyze, solve, visualize and verify functionality of designs, before any prototype is created. New tools unlock any 3D model for better collaboration with vendors and customers, and dynamic product data management (PDM) from concept through to manufacturing allows for stronger support of multi-site and remote teams.

Scene Set for Uberization of Manufacturing

While 'Uberization of Manufacturing' as a trend is yet to pickup in India, it indeed is a huge area of opportunity and some traction on this is already visible as companies begin to embrace virtual reality and the market is beginning to see smart, connected products in various pockets. Besides, 3D printing is becoming more affordable as compared to what it was five years ago and range of materials you can print continues to improve... All this is helping push the cost of failure down, allowing room for more experimentation, thus building innovation capability at a lower cost.

“In software, it is said, fail fast and fail often. Unfortunately, that's not true for hardware, but in Solidworks, one can apply same principles to hardware as well. Solidworks tools allow movement across integrated design process spanning mechanical, electrical, PCB,” said Rohan Shravan, CEO of Notion Ink, and a Solidworks customer. The young CEO of Notion Ink has solved the over heating issue in his company’s 10-inch, 2-in-1 tablet/ netbook product range using Solidworks design tools and functionalities.

Notion Ink, the Bengaluru-based manufacturer of Cain-series tablets, has launched a new 2-in-1 tablet called Able 10, priced at sub-Rs 25K level, available exclusively via Snapdeal. One of the highlights of the tablet is that it is powered by Intel’s Cherry Trail processor, runs on Windows 10 OS and comes with a built-in SIM card slot for 3G connectivity on the go. It is designed on Solidworks and has processing power to run Solidworks as well. Notion Ink products have been in the market since September 2014, and its latest Able 10, 2-in-1 tablet model been in the market for three months now.

What’s new in Solidworks 2017 Release?

Every year, Solidworks actively collates community feedback, publicly announces it and integrates it in its next release. Here are some of the top user-requested features, new capabilities and enhancements included in Solidworks 2017 release:

Innovate by directly addressing PCB design:

Solidworks PCB—Seamlessly synchronize electronic and mechanical design on demand with a combination of electronics design expertise from Altium and ease of use from Solidworks.

User-friendly interface—A unified environment for schematic and layout tools to select the best routing options based on design constraints with Interactive Routing, AutoRoute, Multi-Track, and Differential Pair, locate and select new components for informed decisions with real-time supplier data, and incorporate Solidworks models within the PCB design environment and verify electro-mechanical design intent.

Accelerate the design process with more core power and performance:

Modeling power—Speed up the design process with new tools for Chamfer, Fillet, and Advanced Hole Specification that create multiple variable chamfers in one simple operation, switch any pre-existing Chamfer to a Fillet and vice versa to apply design changes in seconds, capture and access previous hole definitions and apply pre-saved specifications in an instant, and construct stepped holes faster with one operation.

Surfacing—Remove obstacles to creating complex 3D geometry, save time and avoid complex workarounds with new surfacing features such as wrap, drag and drop, emboss, deboss, or 3D Curve.

Magnetic mates—Work with large, challenging assemblies by easily organizing equipment and space, publishing parts and assemblies as assets with appropriate connection points for easy drag and drop mating, and easy repositioning of models.

Validate design insights with simulation:

Simulation static study—Input parameters to automatically make logical decisions.

Stress hot spots—Quickly identify these to investigate a model or setup further simulation and verify results.

Single-click conversion—Instantly convert studies from linear static to non-linear or dynamic.

RealView—Display simulation results to clearly communicate analysis.

Improve collaboration by unlocking new streamlined design workflows &

remove barriers to third party data:

3D Interconnect—Work with both neutral and native CAD data, such as updating part and assembly files as design changes take place with the Update Model feature, directly opening imported files and treating them like Base Parts, or unlocking workflows from various sources to collaborate with customers and vendors.

eDrawings—Visualize all types of product design data for simple and accurate collaboration, from native CAD formats to 3D reality with Google Cardboard. Access product data anywhere with mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices.

Build and manage with data integration, from concept to manufacturing:

Solidworks PDM—Improve the way teams manage and collaborate on design by controlling design data and ensuring access to the right version.  Enhance support for Solidworks MBD (model based definition) with auto-generated 3D PDFs, list native CAD files in the Solidworks PDM Vault check-in structure, and keep track of where they are used and overwrite versions to minimize clutter.

Solidworks MBD—Quickly and accurately communicate critical product information throughout downstream manufacturing operations with features such as basic dimensions and fully automated Polar Dimensioning Schemes, direct referencing of edges, easy creation of intersection geometry between drafted surfaces, and 3D PDF publishing at different accuracy levels for control over file size and quality.

Improving access to solidworks

The 2017 release of Solidworks is available for online subscriptions as well and the technical team at Solidworks is working on how to improve streaming on low latency networks for countries like India, where connectivity can be a challenge. “Our aim is to give our customers flexibilty of technology, business and ease of use,” said Jain.

Jain and his team, has been working on lowering the access barrier for Solidworks. It is available at zero cost to over 100,000 students across India via their colleges and the company has also been running design challenge programs for education segment in the country since 2007 under the leadership of PM Ravikumar, the Sales Director- Solidworks India at Dassault Systemes.

While conventional perpetual license ensures that the customer gets all new updates and releases, Solidworks is also available as term license for defined duration use of three months, six months and a year, pricing for which is available on request.