In this quick SOLIDWORKS tips and tricks blog, we’re going to take a look at how we draw our lines, the most fundamental shape in SOLIDWORKS. There are two techniques to draw a line: Click-Click and Click-Drag. I’m going to show you the differences between these two methods and how they may save you time, additional clicks, features in your tree, or hair on your head. Let’s get started.

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Inside of SOLIDWORKS, there are some stellar tools to get you started down the road of photorealistic animations and the ability to push those animations over to SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional.

For those new to Visualize, SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional takes the photorealistic rendering of Standard and enhances it in many forms. The one critical to pushing animations from SOLIDWORKS CAD to Visualize is the mere ability to create animations for your models, cameras, appearances, and more.

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Ah, the cube. It’s such a fundamental geometric shape that SOLIDWORKS decided to incorporate it as part of its own logo. It might not be the most exciting shape to create, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? And besides, it doesn’t have to be boring, right? ‘Right’ - on both counts! In this blog post, we’ll go through the most straightforward way of making a cube in SOLIDWORKS. Then, I’ll show you some other ways to make and manipulate cubes. One or two of these ways might seem silly, and that’s OK. The goal is to expose you to different ways of doing the same thing, in an ultimate effort to expand your SOLIDWORKS toolkit. Let’s get started. 

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SOLIDWORKS Network Licenses allow companies to let users share licenses between each other to make better use of the licenses that they own. But sometimes, it can feel a bit like you’re playing tug-of-war.   

Let me introduce you to the SOLIDWORKS Network License options file. Options files allow you to control who can get what licenses and for how long. This allows organizations to ensure licenses are available to the users who need them and the end of the tug-of-war game for your licenses.

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SOLIDWORKS World 2019 kicked off in Dallas, Texas on February 10th to thousands of people from around the world waiting to hear from keynote speakers, attend technical training sessions, and to network with fellow CAD users. In case you weren’t able to make it, here’s a recap of all three general sessions. Let’s take a look.

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When you purchase a seat of SOLIDWORKS, you have the option to add on the subscription service. SOLIDWORKS Subscription Service includes lots of tools and resources to help you get the most out of your software including upgrades to the latest version, customer support, full access to the customer portal, and allows you to participate actively and network in the SOLIDWORKS global community. If you’re still stuck on making a decision, I’ve compiled a list of the top seven tools you’ll get that might sway your decision.

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In the small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin resides Ringbrothers, an automotive restoration company that has propelled itself to one of the top American car builders. The company was founded by brothers, Jim and Mike Ring, who shared a passion, imagination, and innovation for building cars from a very young age. The brother duo and the employees within wear many hats, as the company serves as a collision and repair shop to the community, as well as produces high-quality billet accessories, custom fiberglass, carbon fiber pieces, and custom-built cars.

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One of the most exciting parts of attending SOLIDWORKS World is getting a sneak peek at the next version. During the last general session at SOLIDWORKS World 2019, attendees got to see lots of new updates and enhancements currently being developed for SOLIDWORKS 2020. Here’s a look at what’s to come in next year’s release.

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Large Design Review is a capability that has been available in SOLIDWORKS for several years and is still available in SOLIDWORKS 2019. This capability allows users to open very large assemblies lightening fast giving you the ability to quickly interrogate models or conduct design reviews.

In Large Design Review, users have access to the feature manager and it provides quick view manipulation to rapidly visualize and move around your assembly. The ability to measure distances, cut cross sections,  hide and show components, and do walkthroughs are also valuable tools to interrogate a large assembly.

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Back in the days before computers, designers and engineers had no choice but to do their work on paper. But the way design is done has evolved alongside new technologies, resulting in 3D models and a host of CAD software that makes it easier than ever to produce accurate and complex models that can be translated into real-world solutions.

Despite this, 2D drawings have not completely fallen out of favor, and are oftentimes used within CAD software. This can become a time-consuming and tedious process for designers, who will often have less time for the actual design of the product. Model-based definition (MBD) solutions such as SOLIDWORKS MBD help remedy this problem by publishing directly into 3D data, saving valuable time in manufacturing processes.

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Nearly every year when I teach a course on SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal to students at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I have to field a handful of concerns regarding the SOLIDWORKS design library. The two most common being “my design library is missing,” or SOLIDWORKS is asking “Are you trying to make a derived part” when trying to use forming tools. Admittedly, it’s rather frustrating to try and use a design library when it’s not available or doesn’t work properly.

The issue these students have is always the same and can be remedied with a three-part solution. In this blog, I’ll cover those three steps to enable forming tools when they aren’t available. Let’s get started.

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Regardless if you’re new to SOLIDWORKS or are a power user, learning about new tools or enhancements that allow you to design faster or easier is always a plus. We posted a ton of tutorials and SOLIDWORKS tips and tricks in 2018 on a range of different subjects to help you achieve your design goals. Let’s take a look back on the top 10.

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Happy new year! 2019 is upon us and as we ring in the new year, let’s reflect on the old. Last year was significant for Fisher Unitech, its partners, customers, and staff. 2018 saw significant investment throughout our organization, including a move to our new state-of-the-art Headquarters (which was named one of Michigan’s best places to work). It saw technological advancements in hardware and software from our longtime partners Stratasys, SOLIDWORKS, and Artec (as well as some exciting new partnerships) that will help our customers continue to lead the world in manufacturing innovations. I’d take a few moments to recognize some of our shared achievements of 2018.

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In 1954, Getman Brothers Construction Company entered the mining industry with the design and production of the Scoot-Crete. The small motorized wheelbarrow was used to transport concrete in municipal construction works ranging from parking ramps to roadworks. Perhaps its most famous use was in the effort to connect the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan during the construction of the Mackinac Bridge between 1954 - 1957.

Today, Getman Corporation is headquartered in Bangor, Michigan and a global supplier of mobile equipment to the mining industry, offering customer-specific solutions to underground mines in the production and production support classes of equipment. All Getman equipment is designed with extensive research and development and supported with over sixty years of experience serving the underground mining industry.

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SOLIDWORKS 2019 delivers powerful new productivity enhancements that make documenting your designs even faster. Users can now create a slice section through the model at any location using the new Removed Section view command. Simply select two opposed model edges and a view is created perpendicular to the section line eliminating the need to create any additional construction geometry. Keep reading to learn more about what’s new in SOLIDWORKS Drawings 2019.

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