What's New Solidworks 2014 - Part

Slots

There are many part modeling enhancements that I like, but there is only one that I have to mention simply because I mentioned it in assembly - slots.

I know many designers who under-utilize the power of slots.  Many think that slots are a lazy designers way of getting out of doing a proper tolerance analysis.  I look at slots as a way to control tolerancing - as a way to open up tolerances and to relieve the stack-up in a predefined manner thereby decreasing the cost of the part.

Slots, when properly designed can hold a tight tolerance in one direction while allowing the manufacturing tolerance stack-up to be accommodated in another direction without the need for shims or matched machining.  It by no means relieves the designer of a proper tolerance stack-up analysis.

So when I see MCAD tools like Solidworks 2014 make generating slots easier (and utilizing them in the assembly environment), I know that my job as a machine designer is going to be easier and quicker.  That's a real return on investment in design software.

Increased Performance

Thanks to Matthew West and the Solidworks Blog for images and video.