SOLIDWORKS Support Monthly News – May 2014

Welcome to this new edition of the SOLIDWORKS Support Monthly News, coauthored by members of the SOLIDWORKS Technical Support teams worldwide.

SOLIDWORKS 2015 Beta – looking back 10 years ago

While we’re all waiting for the beginning of this year’s Beta program (around the end of June) to discover and test all the new features in version 2015, let’s take a look back at what shook the world of SOLIDWORKS ten years ago. It is really amusing to see how what we now take for granted once made the big headlines in the What’s New pages of the documentation!

Excerpts from version 2004:

SOLIDWORKS

  • Move and Rotate Components Move a component by dragging it in the graphics area without opening a PropertyManager or dialog box.
  • Weldment Design Tools are introduced including Trim and Extend Structural Members and Weldment Cut List
  • SolidWorks Task Scheduler
  • CommandManager was introduced in replacement of toolbars (See those stylish icons!)
    CommandManager 2004
  • Lightweight Sub-assemblies and Drawings (could you imagine working with large designs without it?)
  • Bill of Materials  now generates a bill of materials that lists the quantities for each configuration of a part or assembly in a single tabulated BOM.
  • Hole Tables measure the positions of selected holes from a specified origin datum.

COSMOSWorks (the original name of SOLIDWORKS Simulation)

  •  COSMOSWorks 2004 is released simultaneously with SolidWorks 2004. (Previously, it used to be released a few weeks afterwards).
  • The Material dialog box has been modified to allow using materials assigned to a part or assembly components in SolidWorks
    Screen capture
  • Connectors are added! 4 types available: Rigid, Spring, Pin, elastic support (No Bolt connector just yet: you have to wait for version 2005!)
  • The solvers now supports multi-processors
  • Maintaining Component Order. In earlier releases, assembly components appeared in a random order in the Solids folder of the simulation Manager tree. In this release, components appear in an alphabetical order.

COSMOSFloWorks (the original name of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation)

  •  You can now export results from COSMOSFloWorks to COSMOSWorks studies.
  • Global Rotating reference frame (For rotating regions, you have to wait for a few more versions)
  • The Heat transfer in solids only option was added to specify a heat transfer analysis without any defined fluid.
  • You can save cut plots, surface plots or isosurfaces in VRML format. (You know how useful it is still today! Smiling smiley)

 

Service Pack News

Service Pack 3.0 of version 2014 has been released. It adds some usability improvements on top of fixing issues and increasing performance. Install it to improve your experience working with SOLIDWORKS. Here is a short list of such enhancements:

SOLIDWORKS Simulation

  • SPR 414704: In the Probe Results PropertyManager, it is now possible to copy the Summary table to paste it somewhere.
  • SPR 418235: When listing elements, you can now get the list of nodes associated with each elemet
    Screen capture
  • SPR 523114: It is now possible to drag and drop a Remote Mass into linear dynamic studies.
  • SPR 584819: It is now possible to apply Initial conditions (velocity for instance) to bodies in nonlinear dynamic studies with 2D Simplification
  • SPR 594321: Number of plies and total thickness is now available in the Details dialog box of Composite shells.
  • SPR 715416: The .OUT file now contains mass information of composites when gravity is defined.
  • SPR 733523: It is now possible to enter a value larger than 1E8 for Moment in Remote Load
  • SPR 761912: Response graphs are now available in nonlinear studies for all element values, allowing response graphs for strains (among other result types)

SOLIDWORKS

  • SPR 614107: You can now use equal signs (=) in comment cells for the equations row.

 Spotlight on features – Cut-Extrude Through All – Both directions in SOLIDWORKS  2014

In previous versions users had to click through-all in Direction 1, check Direction 2 and finally select through all again. In version 2014, we have simplified the number of selections. We have added a Through All – Both directions option. This will automatically check Direction 2 and sets its end condition to Through All.

PM part

This option works in parts and with assembly features.

Spotlight on features – Editing plot properties directly from color legend in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2014

In SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2014, it is possible to edit a plot directly from the color legends, either using left click or right click.

For instance:

  • A left click on the legend’s minimum or maximum values opens a toolbar which lets you directly enter a replacement value or reset to the global min or max respectively. You can also toggle on or off the min or max annotation respectively.
  • A right click on the legend opens a context-sensitive menu which lets you change the result component and other properties.

See the animation below.

Editing plot properties directly from color legend
From Solution ID:  S-065997.

Noteworthy Solutions from the SOLIDWORKS Knowledge Base

SOLIDWORKS Inspection icon What is SOLIDWORKS Inspection?
SOLIDWORKS Inspection is a First Article Inspection (FAI) and in-process inspection software that streamlines the creation of inspection documentation- This simple and intuitive product simplifies and automates the creation process of ballooned inspection drawings and inspection reports (AS9102, PPAP, etc…).
SOLIDWORKS Inspection consists of a stand-alone application and a SOLIDWORKS add-in that enables users to leverage their legacy data regardless of whether they are SOLIDWORKS files, PDFs or TIFFs.
SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional extends SOLIDWORKS Inspection capabilities by providing users with multiple ways to enter measured values directly into an inspection project. Each characteristic’s value can be entered by manually typing them in, using a digital caliper or importing CMM results.
From Solution Id: S-065229.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection icon How is SOLIDWORKS Inspection Installed?
SolidWorks Inspection, like SOLIDWORKS Electrical, is a fully integrated SOLIDWORKS product that will use the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager, license manager and activation.
The first release, which is supported with SOLIDWORKS 2014 SP 3.0, will be available for download from the SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal. The installation procedure is given in Solution Id: S-065228.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection icon When installing SOLIDWORKS Inspection, an error message is received: “We did not find a valid version of Microsoft Excel on the system. Install Microsoft Excel in order to continue.” What could be the problem?
This error message will be seen when the user has installed Microsoft® Office 365 or Office Click-to-Run products. These versions of Office software are not tested and supported for use with SOLIDWORKS.
Please see http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html for further information regarding supported combinations of Microsoft Office software and SOLIDWORKS.
From Solution ID: S-065891

icon - SW Registry based workaround for slow performance switching to Messages/Errors/Warnings in SOLIDWORKS 2014 System Options.
Some users are currently experiencing slow performance when accessing the Messages/Errors/Warnings section of SOLIDWORKS 2014 System Options having upgraded from a previous version of SOLIDWORKS.
A proposed workaround is to apply a special registry key to remove existing entries in this option pane i.e. items that the user has chosen ‘not to display again’. Please note this applies only to the SOLIDWORKS 2014 Key. Previous versions of SOLIDWORKS are unaffected.  Follow the procedure in Solution ID:  S-065771.

Icon - EPDM Is SQL Server 2012 shipped with Enterprise PDM 2014 and how does a user get the license for the SQL Server 2012?
Current Enterprise PDM versions are bundled with a run-time restricted edition of SQL 2008 R2 Standard Edition.  Enterprise PDM 2014 will continue to be bundled with SQL 2008 R2 and this is what the customer should use unless they have their own licence for SQL 2012.  This may change in future versions but the current version is SQL 2008 R2.
Although Enterprise PDM 2013 and newer versions are officially supported on SQL 2012, we do not offer SQL 2012 licenses.  If they obtain SQL server from another source, they need to purchase valid SQL 2012 client access licenses themselves.
From Solution ID: S-065422

Originally posted by Julien Boissat in the SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog

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