Leading Professional MCAD Program Just Got Better: SOLIDWORKS 2022

SOLIDWORKS 2022. The most popular professional MCAD program continues to get better, faster.

The most anticipated event all year for a SOLIDWORKS user is the unveiling of the new release. This happens every year, like clockwork. Usually, we attend the unveiling at Dassault Systèmes North America headquarters to give the next version our undivided attention, but this year we watch from the comfort of our office. Thanks, COVID.

However, there’s a lot to be said for the virtual events we have all been forced into. There are no airports, little schedule upheaval, less cost for event producers and no cost for attendees. From an office command center, it is far easier to take notes – and I am loving pausing and repeating the presentation. It’s a bit awkward to do that at a live media event.

Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of SOLIDWORKS, introduces “the best SOLIDWORKS yet” at the 2022 Launch event with “many enhancements you can’t live without.”

It seems to make no difference to Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of SOLIDWORKS, who seems equally at home in front of a camera as he is on stage at a live event -- though I’m sure he misses the applause some of the enhancements would be sure to elicit from a live audience of users.

For 15 minutes straight, we are treated to one enhancement of SOLIDWORKS after another in rapid succession. Only with frequent pausing were we able to record them and list them below. The same done at a live event would have had many of the enhancements sailing overhead, barely registering and unrecorded -- a crime against the developers who have worked diligently to create them.

We’ll list them here.

For creating parts, you can leverage a mesh body to create solid geometry. The Parasolid engine used by many solid modelers has been increasing its capabilities with meshes, expanding beyond b-rep geometry, and SOLIDWORKS appears to be tapping into those enhancements. The slicing tool lets you slice a mesh into sections at wherever you select a point.

You can now vary the length of chamfers and fillets, electing to modify only part of an edge. The interface is cool, letting you see where the full chamfer or fillet would appear, then allowing you to drag the beginning or end along the length of the edge.

You can modify individual instances in a component pattern. For example, if a hole along a bolt circle needs to move, you can now move it.

You can create an edge flange that originates from nonplanar faces. This flange that wraps around the edges of a part along 3 axes was created all at once.

Making picture frames? With a full-flush miter, you can trim offset or differently sized parts intersecting at a miter joint in one step so that inside and outside edges of the frame are flush.

You can select a color for your parts from anywhere on your screen, on any window, not just the palette available in the SOLIDWORKS window. Your eyedropper (color picker) is now free to move about your screens.

Equations are supported in custom properties.

You can model textures by using images.

For assemblies, SOLIDWORKS 2022 now automatically adds explode lines.

In large design review, you now have access to reference planes.

You can define mates with the Quick Mates context toolbar.

SOLIDWORKS 2022, you now have access to configurations in large design review.

You can organize mates by status or separate fasteners.

You can lock rotation on all components simultaneously.

A silhouette defeaturing command should save you time on large assemblies – and protect your IP.

Silhouette defeaturing now lets you save representations as configurations in the same assembly.

Flexible parts are available for modeling elastic components, like bellows, springs, etc.

The time it takes to open large assemblies has improved with SOLIDWORKS 2022, and there is more information (progress and diagnostics) are provided during the opening.

User experience has been enhanced, per SOLIDWORKS. You can now select up to 12 customizable mouse gestures.

Recent documents can be filtered for text in the part name.

You can now quickly display parent/child relationships.

When you customize the UI, you can now search among available commands. The search goes beyond command names, finding matches in the command description.

Not to be forgotten are drawings, which SOLIDWORKS users continue to be stuck with, regardless of a future that promises to be paper free.

Making BOMs much more visual. You can export bills of materials to Excel and include image previews.

A better BOM has quickly generated images, generated from SOLIDWORKS 2022.

Chain dimensions crated along the left of the drawing with each mouse click.

You can now create section views using axes on cylindrical shapes.

You can use lines of perspective on a photograph or other image to get the proper perspective on a model you are adding to the scene.

The Pack and Go capability, which makes portable all the parts of an assembly, now has a progress bar.

Hard to find a command, given all the commands available in SOLIDWORKS? You now have a command search field in the shortcut menu.

Dumb geometry no more. You can add features to geometry not created in SOLIDWORKS, including meshes, using more of the hybrid modeling that Parasolid has added.

Tables allow for easier creation and management of configuration.

If those fish look just a little too similar, it’s because Visualize now lets you add patterns, AKA arrays.

“Massive” drawings now open in seconds, regardless of size, says SOLIDWORKS. Also, panning and zooming is faster for large drawings.

Phew! We rest, though we are far from done. A look at What’s New reveals more enhancements and more detail about them, a list a mile long. We will plow through more of it with a series of article on EngineersRule.com, going deeper into what our expert users consider the most significant and useful enhancements.

We are only 15 minutes into a 2 hour-long reveal. There is quite a bit more to follow. Already we are impressed by the amount of enhancements Dassault Systèmes has been able to make on what is arguably a mature CAD program -- and one that enjoys a comfortable lead over its competition. SOLIDWORKS could have addressed only pain points, the necessary fixes, picked off low-hanging fruit from a tall tree of user requests, pretended its annual update was major, even skipped an update altogether, all without giving up its lead. But they did nothing of the sort. To their credit, they have kept improving, finding ways to increase the product’s usability, filling in whatever gaps that develop either from competition or technological advances, giving their users little reason to look elsewhere. Even users that grumble of a big program getting unwieldy, models too often failing to rebuild, a toolbox that overflows, etc., have to concede that a program in which they are invested continues to improve and is something to stick with. Furthermore, they can recommend it to others with a clear conscience, knowing the few reservations they have are minor -- all things considered.

We have become accustomed to large scale flagship product reveals by the Big Four of CAD to be opportunities to promote themselves, sell their vision, sell more product – and that still may happen. The day is young. But so far, this introduction to SOLIDWORKS 2022, with a long lead-in of improvements has been a joy to users. Will this product/user-first approach carry forward to the annual user meeting (3DEXPERIENCE World, February 6-9, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia -- COVID-willing)?

The SOLIDWORKS 2022 reveal bodes ill for the competition. SOLIDWORKS' relentless refinement must be frustrating for its competition. Every gain they make is noticed by keenly observant competitive analysis at SOLIDWORKS, which acts to fill in the product gap and announces it with the next release. There’s no time to catch one’s breath, much less pull ahead. With SOLIDWORKS 2022, the competition’s plans to capture market share are delayed by yet another year. Time to dust off the official statements about coexistence to be read once again.