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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Coming up with engineering concepts and designs is one thing. Understanding how that design will perform in real-world conditions is another. Is an assembly component strong enough? At what point will a part break? Could you use a different material to reduce manufacturing costs?

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With the advent of the Internet of Things and everything that comes along with it (including smart products and 3D printers) the way that companies do business and manufacture their products has become increasingly reliant on technology, and by extension, the data that powers and is produced by it. Designers and engineers creating products can leverage tools like 3D CAD and simulation software to create realistic models of their work, but with that comes even more data to manage. Fortunately, tools like SOLIDWORKS Simulation have begun to integrate capabilities that make it easier for users to better connect their CAD and simulation environments.

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SOLIDWORKS Treehouse 2019 delivers some fantastic new capabilities for creating and managing assembly structures. When viewing large assemblies that contain many branches, the new setting to control the display of file images for each node is a great way of maximizing the amount of screen area available.

By using a new toggle on the options dialog box, file images can be hidden or shown giving you more control over how your assemblies are displayed. Traditionally, treehouse has always used the file name to identify each node on the structure. Now in SOLIDWORKS Treehouse 2019, users can use any available custom property as the display name instead.

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In this three-part blog series, we’ve been discussing SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and SOLIDWORKS Inspection and, most importantly, using them together in harmony. In our scenario, our CAD revision control process has had extraordinary success with the use of SOLIDWORKS PDM and now we want that same success for the quality team using SOLIDWORKS Inspection. In part one, we uncovered the capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Inspection as an add-in, as a standalone, and the ins and outs of SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional.

In part two, I introduced the six questions (and answers) for a successful PDM vault implementation and how to change your data management strategy. These are the questions that will ultimately help you meet your data management plan. In this blog, I am going to walk you through that process. Let’s get started.

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SOLIDWORKS 2019 delivers a wealth of innovative new productivity enhancements that let you take advantage of the latest cutting-edge hardware technology. Now, when working on any Windows touch-enabled device, users can use a Microsoft Surface dial to pan, zoom, and rotate a model. Place the dial directly on the screen, press and hold, and the tools appear graphically at your fingertips directly on the digital table.

The dial keeps you completely in touch with your design by providing an exciting and immersive way of interacting with SOLIDWORKS using touch mode. Whether you design complex shapes or simple mechanical parts, SOLIDWORKS gesture sketching provides an innovative approach to capturing rapid-fire design ideas. Now in SOLIDWORKS 2019, your hand sketched shapes can be automatically converted into splines. The resulting shape can be modified just like any other making it even easier to achieve any shape you desire.

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In SOLIDWORKS 2019 the defeature tool has been enhanced enabling users to massively defeature assemblies to remove unnecessary detail or to protect intellectual property. The new silhouette option is now available to help simplify an assembly based on the outlines of components and bodies. Keep reading to learn about all the new defeature tools in SOLIDWORKS 2019.

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I am a firm believer in the value of certifications. I am also unquestionably convinced that a SOLIDWORKS certification makes it easier to convince someone that you are more qualified than a non-certified competitor. What am I getting at? I’m an engineer licensed by the state of Michigan, and even though Michigan doesn’t require a license for an engineer working under an industrial exemption, it gives the assurance that I at least met the minimum requirements of the State of Michigan for obtaining a PE license.

Having a PE license and being a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert made getting hired much easier than it would have been without those qualifications. So if you’re a recent college grad, looking for a first job, or looking for a career change, you likely won’t have much experience. A SOLIDWORKS certification can make all the difference - here’s why.

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Complex shapes are widespread in today’s world and are often produced using industrial design tools or carved to make physical models - they still need to be manufactured. Common workflow to complete the engineering process is to leverage these designs from mesh data or scanned data. SOLIDWORKS 2019 provides several new tools to help leverage this data to create production parts and some handy new part modeling tools that are sure to delight. My example is a handle that originated from mesh data. Let’s take a look at how it was built.

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If you’re a teacher or a student who headed back to school this year, you probably thought you had all of the essentials down: pencils, binders, etc. But if you’re preparing to work in the STEM field, you’ll need more than books and paper to succeed. With STEM degree holders enjoying higher earnings and a growing job market, this popular field requires students to keep pace with new technologies and concepts to be ready in the workforce. Luckily, CAD leaders like SOLIDWORKS are making it easier for educators to prepare their students with special packages like SOLIDWORKS for Educators. Here’s what you need to know about encouraging student success with a solid SOLIDWORKS education.

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When working with assemblies in SOLIDWORKS, it can be easy to accumulate a lot of mates. With the new option to group mates in SOLIDWORKS 2019, users will find it much easier to navigate the mate folder. You can now group mates by status or separate fasteners. When grouped by status, mates are separated into folders. Keep reading to see more assembly features in SOLIDWORKS 2019.

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Welcome to part two of our blog series where we’re discussing the best of SOLIDWORKS 2019. In part one, we gave a little bit of background information regarding the Canada- France - Hawaii telescope which is the backdrop for the SOLIDWORKS 2019 documentation.

Also in part one, we discussed the best of the best enhancements surrounding large design review, treehouse, MBD, CAM, Simulation, and eDrawing among others. Let’s get started.

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