It was that time of year again when hundreds of Solid Edge users congregate to discuss software developments, share ideas, network and learn things they may otherwise not. I’m talking about Solid Edge University 2015, held in Cincinnati. Amongst the presentations was our very own Managing Director Mark Parry. Mark presented the work we have done using Solid Edge to reverse engineer a DAX 427, also known as a Shelby Cobra.
Another golden nugget of information that was easily digested by the audience was the sneak peak at some of the latest Solid Edge software enhancements in ST9. Below are just some of the improvements that will be included. They are not the most important, but have been completed or are most reasonably expected to be included in ST9.
SolidWorks Drawing Migration
Enhancements have been made on an already capable tool to include families of assemblies, family of parts, materials, hole data etc. Solid Edge drawings will now also be fully associative to the 3D model, so that the drawing views update on model changes and dimensions automatically connect to the DV and update.
You can quickly transition active design projects without recreating drawings to save you time and effort.
Tools
Revision Manager – There has been a complete user interface redesign. Directly manage file properties in the table, and common workflows have been streamlined.
Solid Edge Pack-n-Go – Collaborate easily with project files copied quickly, copy from multiple folders to a new folder location, zip and send to a customer of a supplier, and include drawings, simulation results and linked Office documents e.g. Excel tables.
Teamcenter Integration
All Teamcenter commands have been placed on a single Command Ribbon tab, giving direct and easy access to common commands.
A docking pane will show your Teamcenter session connection information to better inform you of critical details regarding your Teamcenter connection.
The ability to open multiple revisions will facilitate design reviews and enable you to compare multiple versions.
Drawings
A Tolerance Table to display class fit tolerances on a drawing; list dimensions by active sheet, drawing view or user selection. All dimension types that have class fit tolerances are supported. This enhancement will make the communication and review of all critical tolerances easier.
A hole callout with counts automatically inlcudes the count of holes in a callout annotation. It will intelligently count like holes based on hole conditions, thus eliminating manual counting and risk of incorrect counts.
Assembly
An Assembly Relationship Manager is your place to see and edit all Assembly Relationships. Filters and selections can be used to focus in on relationships of interest, users can also use Relationship Repair to easily fix problem relations.
A Variable Table enhancement will help to organise the list through variable grouping and sorting. There will also be ‘IF – THEN’ support for conditional calculations.
Sheet Metal Modelling
A warning will be given when plates clash in flat pattern and there will be easier identification of invalid (non-manufacturable) SM parts.
Orientate sheet metal with easy positioning to suit your process, use move and rotate commands and reorientate to align with sheet grain.
Part Modelling
A Solid Sweep function will enable you to sweep a solid along a path to generate cutouts or protrusion; this mimics the movement of cutting tools along a path. Model barrel cams and maximal keep-out volumes.
A Spiral Curve function lets you create complex parameter-driven spiral curves, as well as create torsional springs.
Sketch and Layout
Create or place blocks in Assembly and Part sketches, use Block for Assembly layout and use in Part for feature positioning.
You will be able to insert text boxes in order to annotate Assembly and Part sketches. The DXF/DWG import into Sketch or geometry copied from Draft retains the text boxes.
User Interface
A customisation and preferences manager will enable you to customise your settings to any machine by packaging them up as a file. CAD administration can then distribute these to a team to create consistency.
There will be support for high resolution monitors with the Solid Edge UI controls scaling naturally with display resolution.
A tabbed documents UI will give direct access for switching between active documents, as well as a useful menu of window management commands.