{"id":3510,"date":"2015-09-25T09:24:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T08:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3510"},"modified":"2015-11-03T14:51:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T14:51:06","slug":"gems-from-the-solidworks-2016-launch-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/09\/gems-from-the-solidworks-2016-launch-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Gems from the SOLIDWORKS 2016 Launch Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today users, executives and engineers gathered to watch as SOLIDWORKS 2016<\/a> was unveiled during a live event at the Edward Kennedy Institute in Boston. The annual release is the culmination of months of user feedback, development and research into emerging technologies poised to influence the future of design and engineering.<\/p>\n

With more than 200 enhancements and new features, SOLIDWORKS 2016 offers many upgrades. We\u2019ll take some time in this post to cover a few you need to know.<\/p>\n

CEO Gian Paolo Bassi began the day by providing his SOLIDWORKS roadmap. Touching on the company\u2019s history of bringing CAD to every engineer, Bassi discussed the influence felt by increased computing power and the ubiquitous nature of connected devices. These two converging factors are working in tandem, enabling SOLIDWORKS to take its next leap: becoming a connected platform that empowers how products are designed.<\/p>\n

\"Bassi_preso\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To demonstrate this connectivity, Bassi turned to a Chromebook and connected to a new platform: SOLIDWORKS Online. Bassi navigated to MySolidWorks, registered for a product trial, and began to work in SOLIDWORKS CAD via his online account. Building on its tradition of bringing CAD to every engineer, SOLIDWORKS now plans to bring CAD to every engineer\u2026everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"SOLIDWORKS<\/a><\/p>\n

Senior Director of Product Management, Kishore Boyalakuntla, later discussed an important new visualization application that will be offered in SOLIDWORKS 2016. SOLIDWORKS Visualize, formerly Bunkspeed, renders amazing, photorealistic images from your CAD designs. Its ease of use means marketing and other downstream departments can handle rendering on their own \u2013 allowing you to more time to focus on design.<\/p>\n

Just as SOLIDWORKS democratized CAD software, SOLIDWORKS Visualize is striving to democratize visualization. This democratization enables designers, creatives, engineers and content creators to have an enhanced 3D decision-making experience in a fast, easy, fun way. Hey \u2013 you deserve some fun. There\u2019s little as exciting as seeing your hard work transformed into a cool piece of marketing collateral (trust me, I know).<\/p>\n

\"Bunkcar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A big theme of SOLIDWORKS 2016 is letting you focus on design as opposed to CAD software. The new user interface (UI) is the most noticeable example. It\u2019s notable to discuss that the UI was created to better integrate with Windows 10 features, however Boyalakuntla also pointed out that viewing the old UI in 4K was not as sharp as he would like to see \u2013 making an upgrade visually necessary.<\/p>\n

Since SOLIDWORKS isn\u2019t just about a pretty face, the top gem found in the new UI is the ability to do more with fewer mouse clicks. As Director of Product Introduction Kurt Anliker pointed out, \u201cwe obsess about mouse clicks.\u201d During his presentation, Boyalakuntla presented an interesting graphic comparing mouse gestures and clicks by a design expert in SOLIDWORKS 2015 vs. SOLIDWORKS 2016:<\/p>\n

\"mousetravel.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just when you thought there was no time to spare, SOLIDWORKS 2016 found another minute and a half. Where did this time come from? Anliker credits it to \u201ca relentless focus on user experience.\u201d He also found that users are already saving 20 percent more time with the new UI, which on the whole amounts to one day out of a five-day work week. Think of it as lowering the percentage of time you have to work over the weekend.<\/p>\n

SOLIDWORKS 2016 is also inspired by creating a connected design ecosystem. This determines that changes in EPDM will update in CAD or optimization in Simulation will be reflected in the CAD model. However, this ecosystem also extends to downstream departments and to outside manufacturing. In a connected world, design is connected to everything.<\/p>\n

Lou Feinstein, product manager of high technology, Internet of Things, and mechatronics products, demonstrated how this ecosystem concept works during his presentation on the mechatronic\/connected ecosystem from the design and validation phases to data management and documentation and finally downstream collaboration and manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\"connectedecosystems.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Digging further down, Feinstein provided an overview of the optimal high-tech engineering ecosystem for ideal product design. The below image provides an impressive look at the moving pieces working in concert. After looking at the image, I feel like synchronized product design deserves its own Olympic event. #Rio2016<\/p>\n

\"coordengteams.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Senior Product Manager Craig Therrien went on to discuss moving from the engineering to manufacturing ecosystem. Yup, I bet you didn\u2019t know that this field has more ecosystems than David Attenborough has researched. Again, when you\u2019re focused on the project of the day, you might not think of the areas influenced by your work. Taking a step back can be eye-opening, but SOLIDWORKS 2016 is capable of managing all of these disparate pieces.<\/p>\n

\"mfgecosystems.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The final highlight from the SOLIDWORKS 2016 launch event came from presenting users Skully, StrongArm <\/strong>and Rethink Robotics<\/strong>. All three companies are very different; however they\u2019ve all used their engineering skills to make great design happen.<\/p>\n

A perfect example of a device for the connected world, Skully<\/a> took a motorcycle helmet and supercharged it with augmented reality. Helmets have been around since humans started throwing things at each other. After listening to motorcyclists, Skully recognized that the time was right for a smart helmet that essentially takes the bells and whistles from a fully loaded sedan and places them in a heads up display on your helmet visor.<\/p>\n