Innova's SolidWorks Blogspot

SolidWorks reaches near and far - even into the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

British ski cross contender Sarah Sauvey competed using ski's designed by SolidWorks customer Kneissl Tirol.

Kneissl Tirol are another great example of the productivity benefits using SolidWorks and Simulation can release - in their case, 50% reduction in development time for their new ski products.

You can watch one of Sarah's qualification runs here

One of the recent buzz topics at this years SolidWorks World, was cloud computing. For those of you new to the phrase, it would allow you to run a piece of software 'on the cloud' rather than having it installed on your pc. So SolidWorks could be installed on a server somewhere in the world, and you operate it over the internet.

There are many benefits to this kind of system, the obvious one is that you could run SolidWorks on a low spec laptop rather than a high end CAD workstation.

Of course, this is still just an idea as far as SolidWorks is concerned, and will only ever be an option. But cloud computing is real at the moment - think of Hotmail, Facebook etc where your data is all held on a server and you just access it over the internet.

An exciting technology we will no doubt see more of in coming years.

There's some great stuff including recognising objects placed on the surface, hand gestures used to sketch shapes, creating extrusions 'by hand' and even playing air hockey (for fun of course).

How many years it takes before we see this technology incorporated into mainstream software is anyones guess, but with the popularity of Apples iPhone (which is very similar), it may be sooner than we think..?

Each year, in the lead up to SolidWorks World 2010, customers have the chance to log their Top 10 enhancement requests.

This forms a 'wish list' that the developers try to address when they work on the next release of SolidWorks.

Here's what you asked for this year:

10. Simplify Video Card Requirements
9. Exploded Views for Weldments
8. Option to Dangle Children Instead of Deleting
7. Graphical Map of References
6. Allow More Types of Assembly Features
5. Better Utilize Processor Cores
4. On the Fly Equations in Dialog boxes
3. File Compatibility Between Versions
2. Increase Stability
1. SolidWorks Should Cleanly Uninstall Itself

Are any of these in your Top 10?

SolidWorks is a great design tool (we already know that!). But are you aware of it's ability to perform thermal analysis of your parts and assemblies?

Do you need to know how hot your products will get?
Do you have temperature sensitive components you need to protect?
How will your parts perform in their ambient conditions?

I recorded a short webcast on this subject, which you can view here.

I hope it grabs your interest. If so, please contact me to discuss your requirements further

alan@innova-systems.co.uk
01223 200699

SolidWorks recently asked customers to participate in a satisfactory survey, rating the quality of technical support provided by their reseller.

The results have just been announced at this years SolidWorks World event in Anaheim. At Innova Systems, we were extremely proud to hear we ranked number one from over 100 resellers in Northern Europe!

This is great news for us and our customers, ensuring you will always receive the highest level of support from us.

Alan

SolidWorks is used in innovative technologies in all walks of life. I noticed Innova customer Plastic Logic featured in a technology article on MSN today. Plastic Logic are using SolidWorks to keep them at the forefront of developing 'electronic paper'. It's an interesting new technology that will no doubt be big in years to come.

Alan