Felix Baumgartner’s world-beating skydive, Baxter the robot and the Pebble smart watch might not seem like they all belong in the same sentence, but they do; all used SolidWorks’ simulation programs on the way to success.
SolidWorks World 2013, an annual conference held by the CAD company, began in earnest today, with the above examples all featuring to illustrate the usefulness of the SolidWorks’ solutions.
Parent company Dassault Systemes’ 3D Experience Platform was put at the centre of SW’s plans for the future.
Dassault’s CEO and president Bernard Charles said, “Today, we are announcing the new application for SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual. This is the first SolidWorks application developed on top of the 3D Experience Platform.”
The company later tweeted that, “SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual is complementary to SolidWorks. When your concept is done, import to SolidWorks for detail design.”
Projects are saved to the cloud, and users won’t suffer lost work due to crashes occurring before data has been saved.
The project is data-driven and aims to cut down on wasted time by engaging stakeholders and designers through sharing concepts in a private online community. It is also instinctive and learns from previous changes made, as well as simulate early concepts and suggest possible errors in design.
“This will allow users to evolve your concepts from layouts to 3D geometry to parts and assemblies without ever considering the structure," explained Fielder Hiss, vice president of product marketing and products management at DW SolidWorks.
“This is a natural way to do concept design. You think about an organisation, when you’re further along then you’re actually more organised and you know how you want to structure things.”
SolidWorks CEO Bertrand Sicot invited users to join a test of the new application in May, and says October is the target for a general release.
SolidWorks World is in its 15th year, and some 4,500 are in attendance this year, with over 100 solution partners making the trip.
Manufacturers' Monthly is attending the event courtesy of Dassault Systemes
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