SOLIDWORKS 2016 Feature Review

In just under two weeks, Dassault Systèmes is set to debut SOLIDWORKS 2016. Following is a preview of some key new features.

In our first profile of SOLIDWORKS 2016, we’re going to focus on the tool changes and improvements included in the release. According to Dassault, SOLIDWORKS 2016 is focused on speeding up the design process by making tools even more powerful and effective. But just what does that mean, and did Dassault hit their mark?

Improved Sweeps

Across design disciplines, sweeps are used in powerful ways. With a sweep you can create fluid and consistent geometry that can be both aesthetic and functional. In SOLIDWORKS 2016, the familiar sweep command has been upgraded to include an option that automates the creation of circular profiles.

To create a circular profile, designers only need to sketch, a sweep profile and enter the sweep command. Once in the sweep dialog, options to either sketch a profile or use a circular profile can be selected to drive the sweep geometry. To finalize the command, users simply enter the dimension of the circular sweep and then click okay. Sweep propagated.

While the option for an automated circular profile makes a number of operations (like cutting holes or making springs) much easier, SOLIDWORKS has also rethought how the sweep tool works. In 2016, sweep profiles can be sketched anywhere along the length of a guide (in the past, they had to be placed at a sweep’s end point). With this new option, users are given a new level of convenience for creating sweeps as well as the option to sweep (or sweep cut) forward, behind the profile sketch or across the entire guide path. That type of bi-direction control can be a powerful option depending on your design intent.

New Fillet Options

Whether you’d admit it or not, aesthetics are increasingly becoming a driver for product design. Today, consumers are more sophisticated and have a more mature sense of what they like to see in product packaging.

Because of the customer’s heightened awareness, designers are reacting by creating geometries that not only meet mechanical design requirements but complement the product’s overall form as well.

Though SOLIDWORKS has been working to make freeform modeling, surfacing and organic shaping a more useful part of their modeling paradigm, one of the most useful tools for making a product attractive has always been the lowly fillet. Knowing that, SOLIDWORKS has made a few excellent improvements to that critical tool.

In 2016, fillet command now has the ability to build smooth blend with a “curvature continuous” option. By choosing the continuous option, designers can blend sharp edges around a part with a smoothness that would have taken considerable time to otherwise create. Beyond smoothing combative features into smooth unions, SOLIDWORKS can also use the curvature option to turn end caps into perfectly smooth features in a few clicks. Most importantly, though, is the fact that the curvature continuous selection is available for all edge fillet types, including asymmetric and variable options.

Simply put, SOLIDWORKS’s curvature continuous option makes creating aesthetically pleasing features easier to create.

Automated Thread Creation

Finally, SOLIDWORKS’s most promising new feature might be its new automated thread creation tool. While cutting a thread in CAD might be only cosmetic if you’re going to be milling a part or using traditional manufacturing, it can be pretty useful when you are 3D printing a prototype.

With those instances in mind, SOLIDWORKS has built a thread creation tool to cut threads in any round feature that you can model.

Once a feature’s been selected, all a design needs to do is select the thread tool, define the run of the thread by selecting a starting and concluding edge and then choose the number threads required. Creating either an external or internal thread is as simple as checking an option box.

But what if a design requires a custom thread size? Well, 2016 makes that simple as well. Using the thread tool, custom thread offsets, angles and depths can be created. Once built, those custom threads can be patterned and then built into a reference library to be reused at the click of a button.

Though it may seem that SOLIDWORKS has only added a handful of new tools to its 2016 package, those tools bring exceptional value to Dassault’s market-leading mainstream software. With these new tools, SOLIDWORKS has met its commitment to making product design faster and easier. In fact, in my opinion, a few of 2016’s features actually set up the package for even greater integration with manufacturing and prototyping technology. Having a CAD package that makes moving from the virtual to the real world easier is a major advantage for any company.