Solidworks unveils 2008 version

Easwar Nair

NEW ORLEANS: Solidworks Corporation, the Concord, MA-based CAD tools vendor unveiled the next version of its product suite SolidWorks 2008 and announced its commercial availability July 2007 onwards.

Addressing the growing market of advanced 3D mechanical designers including new ones who crossover from 2D designs, Solidworks 2008 boasts new features with improved usability, reduced design overhead and better design validation capabilities.

The company added 125,000 new users in 2006 taking its overall user base to over 600,000 users worldwide.

The lower end of the mechanical design market is agog about new possibilities using 3D CAD tools. Over 3500 engineers attended SolidWorks World 2007 at New Orleans, La.; the city that is ringing back into action after the hurricane last year. Solidworks’ sweet spot is the mid-tier 3D CAD market comprising designers and manufacturers of finished products or sub-assemblies.

As proof of its ability to further innovation in design engineering, the company showcased some of its unique customers who used Solidworks tools to design innovative products. This included products like SawStop, a saw machine that cuts wood but stops when the finger is about to touch the blade; AED, an emergency device that revives the cardiac function; and MooBella, a fresh ice-cream machine.

The new version provides far superior design analysis, the company claims. Said John McEleney, CEO, Solidworks, “ Analysis is in the throes of change. Earlier we used to overdesign because there was no penalty but now we need design efficiency at the user level”. Contrasting the Solidworks’ approach to design analysis with those from PLM vendors, McEleney said that the individual designer has to be empowered with basic design analysis like the ‘spellcheck’ feature in word processing. He added, “ It is not about the overall analysis capability and sophistication available in the system but about how you include basic analysis early on in the design process”. Solidworks products work only on the Wintel platform and are one of the first applications available on Windows Vista.

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