SOLIDWORKS 2019 Sneak Peek – Top Eight Features

SOLIDWORKS 2019 will allow for handwritten markup. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS).

Even though we’ve barely begun 2018, it’s time to get psyched for 2019. Attendees of last week’s SOLIDWORKS World 2018 got a preview of some of the features to come in SOLIDWORKS 2019, and many of these features caused the Los Angeles crowd to break out in spontaneous applause.

But before we peek at eight of the best features of the new release, keep in mind that the 2019 preview was just that: a preview. Dassault Systèmes (the owner of SOLIDWORKS) is not guaranteeing all these features will work exactly as shown, or even that they will make it into the final release (expected this Fall). Between now and then, it will be up to the developers to work out all of the kinks and the beta users to make sure they have done so.

1. 3D Texturize Body

The new software will allow users to quickly add 3D textures to existing solids. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

This feature promises to be a huge boon in showing products as they appear in real life, such as a grip on a handle. It creates an offset mesh body from an existing solid, with controls to refine the size and texture.

2. Topology Study and Mesh Slicing

Create sketch slices of your mesh body at regular intervals in the upcoming edition of the software. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

The upcoming edition of the software will do a shape optimization after you input stress, factor of safety, and frequency constraints. You can also use the new mesh slicing feature to create sketches from the resulting mesh body and maintain references.

3. Group Mates by Status

The new software lets users group mates by status. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

Your list of mates will be a little easier to manage in the next version of the software, as you can now group mates by their status. You’ll be able to group errors as well as suppressed, inactive, solved, and over-defined mates together.

4. Partial Chamfer/Fillet

Make space for conflicting parts with the partial chamfer/fillet tool. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

You’ll enjoy that chamfers and fillets can be partially applied to an edge. How often have you needed to provide clearance to prevent an interference in just one area? You’ll be able to adjust the distance, percentage, reference, and drag handle offsets.

5. eDrawings VR Support

(Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

SOLIDWORKS 2019 will add virtual reality support for the eDrawing viewer, allowing users to view models in VR. This, paired with the recent announcement of SOLIDWORKS’ partnership with AR company Meta, suggests that company is fully onboard the AR/VR train and will likely continue to explore this domain.

6. SOLIDWORKS Visualize Denoiser

Example of a scene with and without the new Denoiser. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

SOLIDWORKS Visualize will incorporate NVIDIA’s AI-based Optix “denoising” technology to rapidly provide photorealistic renderings. How does it work? After a ray tracing program lets the light have a few bounces, partially rendering the scene, the artificial intelligence of Optix takes over, inferring where the rendering is heading and quickly finishing the job. SOLIDWORKS claims this will give a 10x boost in rendering performance. They might be being conservative. NVIDIA’s denoising AI is damn quick! It’s time to check if your computer has the NVIDIA GPUs to take advantage of the denoising.

7. Assembly Defeaturing

The new software gives users the ability to defeature their assemblies. The full featured assembly is on the left, with the defeatured version on the right. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

While a new release typically adds features, SOLIDWORKS 2019 takes them away. Users will have the capability of defeaturing assemblies, preserving the shape and essence of an assembly while hiding irrelevant or sensitive details. Users will have control over how much defeaturing is done. SOLIDWORKS suggests that this capability will be very useful for general arrangement drawings and protecting intellectual property. This will also be welcome to analysts, who laboriously scrub inconsequential details from parts because they produce too fine a mesh around them and bog down their analyses.

8. On the Surface

Sketching a slot with the Surface Pen. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

For those who prefer taking notes by hand (or just like the freedom to doodle), the next generation of the software will allow users to markup their models with handwritten notes, which will be saved with the model.

SOLIDWORKS 2019 will allow for 3D markups with handwritten notes. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

The software will include support for the Microsoft Surface Dial. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)

If you’re a fan of touch and stylus interaction, the next version of the software will bring some exciting possibilities to Microsoft Surface users. Firstly, there’ll be new support for the Surface Dial, which will allow users to pan, zoom, rotate, and quickly switch between common actions.

Surface Pen users will also be able to get the most out of their styli, as the software will automatically convert from hand-drawn sketches to useable features. From the preview, we know users will be able to sketch splines and slots that will be recognized and converted automatically.

Sketching a spline with the Surface Pen in SOLIDWORKS 2019. (Image courtesy of SOLIDWORKS.)