Computer aided design is the backbone of designing products and machinery. It used to design 3-D mechanical products. It was developed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., a subsidiary of Dassault Systems. SolidWorks is currently used by over 2 million engineers and designers at more than 165,000 companies worldwide.The average revenue for SolidWorks is about 483 million dollars. it was released in 1993 by Jon Hhirtchisk at M.I.T.and has sold over 1.5 million licenses world wide since. It is dubbed the most popular C.A.D. (computer aided designing) software in the world. It is so popular that it has been installed onto every computer at Penn State and a requirement for all aspiring engineers to know.
At first, i thought it was frankly a pain to operate this software but by the end of the semester i realized that it isn’t all that bad. It’s relatively easy to operate and the variety of features it has is great. My dad uses Auto-cad in his industry and he said that Solidworks was actually great and much better and began installing it everywhere in his engineering department! It’s got really cool features like the :
- SolidWorks Simulation is a design validation tool that shows engineers how their designs will behave as physical objects.
- SolidWorks Motion is a virtual prototyping tool that provides motion simulation capabilities to ensure designs function properly.
- SolidWorks Flow Simulation is a tool that tests internal and external fluid-flow simulation and thermal analysis so designers can conduct tests on virtual prototypes.
- SolidWorks Simulation Premium is a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) design validation tool that can handle some multiphysics simulations as well as nonlinear materials.
- SolidWorks Sustainability is a product that measures the environmental impact of designs while they are modeled in SolidWorks
I actually had the chance to use the motion feature for the class project in my Engineering Design class. Our project was to design a go-kart through the course of the semester with the help of 6 lessons, which we learned through the pre-installed tutorials. Pre Installed tutorials, they are literally lifesavers. Solidworks 2014 comes with 100’s of tutorials from the basics to the most advanced procedures on Solidworks so that everyone can learn them.
The motion feature allows users to test their designs in motion. You can test the strength by ramming your go-kart into the wall; personally I think that’s pretty cool cause AutoCad does not have any of these animation features. We also got the opportunity to use Solidworks for the final Solidworks project. I redesigned my grandfather’s table back home, you can read up more about it on my portfolio site: sites.google.com/krish241195 . Another really great feature Solidworks has to offer is the vast variety of material selections. you can use anything for your products from Glass to Gold to Plastic to Wood! As far as my knowledge goes not many other major designing softwares allow users the opportunity of material selections
Although the only issue I have with this software is that is Windows based. I would advise them to expand into the MacBook market sooner than rather than later as it is a great opportunity in this era of engineering design.
Solidworks has recently just launched the newest updated version , simply called Solidworks 14
Solidworks 2014 has the following specs;
Faster system response and automated processes keep you focused on design
Accurate visualizations
Improved user interface and simplified process steps help you get work done faster
Powerful new features and time-saving shortcuts increase design output
The estimated cost for Solidworks 2014 is about $90.
Below are a few more designs created using Solidworks (not by me though)
Bibliography:
- http://www.solidworks.com
- http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.static/sw2013info.html
- Pictures: google.come
