CAD software Solidworks 2024: Design quickly, intelligently, and collaboratively

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With Solidworks 2024, the new version of the portfolio for 3D design and engineering applications, Dassault Systèmes aims to further simplify the development of innovative products. Andreas Spieler, CRE Industry Consultant Director EuroCentral at Dassault Systèmes, explains how this is achieved and also presents his top 3 features.

The product development process is challenging: In line with the increasing demands of customers, it's necessary to develop products with ever greater functionality, whose production and operation consume as little energy and material as possible. At the same time, development and production costs should decrease. Added to this are networking, digitalization, and high demands on collaboration.

With the current 2024 version of Solidworks, Dassault Systèmes aims to continue supporting its users by integrating new functions and extensions of existing solutions that were implemented based on the desires of the user community – for example, for smarter and faster collaboration with teams and partners. Indeed, as Andreas Spieler, CRE Industry Consultant Director EuroCentral at Dassault Systèmes, explains, the current biggest challenge lies in the price and competitive pressure in the market: "Often, companies have to keep up with cheaper competing products while at the same time customizing their offerings and bringing innovative products to the market in order to meet their customers' requirements."

With the new versions of Solidworks, we always pursue the goal of further simplifying the work of users.

Andreas Spieler, CRE Industry Consultant Director EuroCentral at Dassault Systems

Another challenge Spieler sees is the continuous development of technologies used in design, construction, and manufacturing – artificial intelligence being at the forefront. For this, on one hand, qualified workers are desperately needed in every industry; on the other hand, the continuous further education of employees is essential.

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The three most important features for the designer

Software that efficiently supports the user in these challenges is therefore indispensable. For Spieler, the following three new features in Solidworks 2024 are crucial:

• An important new feature in Solidworks 2024 is the ability to create multi-body parts. This involves converting an entire assembly into a separate, single multi-body part that is linked to the parent assembly. Subsequent platform applications also support this feature, so that replication processes such as material removal for the multi-body part can be carried out. The advantages over version 2023 include associativity and the ability to select what is transferred into the multi-body part, for example, surface bodies, axes, planes, coordinate systems, and very importantly: also the material.

• Solidworks files are now also backward compatible and can be saved as Solidworks 2023 or Solidworks 2022 files. Most importantly: The documents are fully functional. Thanks to this compatibility with earlier versions, users can share files with others who are using older Solidworks versions, significantly expanding the possibilities for collaboration.

• Furthermore, the Defeature rule sets are worth highlighting. These are a series of rules to simplify the components in a model. Designers can specify criteria for component selection, defeature method, and a defeature orientation. Application examples include rule sets to simplify Toolbox parts or replace complex parts with a silhouette representation. These guidelines can also be saved and applied to other models.

Further innovations in Solidworks 2024: AI, cloud services, and simulation

Generative AI tools became mainstream in 2023. Like every technological advance, this development has its pros and cons. But Spieler is confident, "AI-supported design tools will improve our way of working, no question". Therefore, AI is also integrated into Dassault Systèmes' solutions: The next generation of Solidworks Cloud includes the Design Assistant function. "Based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, the assistant makes suggestions to automate repetitive tasks. With each use of certain tools, such as parametric design, sheet metal design, and structural design, the AI learns and provides more accurate recommendations the next time," explains Spieler.

Within the 3D Creator design role in the 3D Experience Works portfolio, three sub-functions of the Design Assistant are to be highlighted:

• The Mate Helper allows you to automatically insert multiple referenced copies of components into the assembly by recognizing and suggesting positions for replication.

• With Smart Mate, the connections are automatically assigned by the system as a component is moved into the corresponding position.

• The Selection Helper enables predictions and suggestions on which model elements should be selected and modified in the next step of the work.

The trend towards the use of cloud solutions is clearly noticeable in the world of engineering. It starts with simple data exchange and goes up to a complete PLM solution. Dassault Systèmes responds to this among other things with the cloud services of the 3D Experience platform, which not only allows companies to securely visually share data but also provides a holistic real-time view of their business processes and the entire ecosystem, as Spieler explains. "As a company and innovation platform, it connects all stakeholders, product and project information, as well as solutions in a single, collaborative environment. It acts as a central point of information, thereby optimizing processes for cross-departmental collaboration," Spieler continues. Especially advantageous is the unique scalability of the 3D Experience platform, which opens up new opportunities for companies from young startups to large firms in the development of innovative products.

The requirements for products, their quality, and associated services are constantly increasing, innovations are expected more quickly, and processes are becoming more complex due to global collaboration. And the later problems are identified in the product development process, the higher the effort and cost of making changes. Therefore, the goal must be to test and optimize the product as early and as thoroughly as possible before manufacturing physical prototypes. Fortunately, there is simulation. In Solidworks 2024, it plays a significant role, as Spieler says: "With the new versions of Solidworks, we always aim to further simplify the work of our users. That's why we integrate various performance improvements into our well-known Solidworks simulation solutions through Solidworks 2024."

As part of the new workflows for optimized working, there is, for example, an automation for the calculation of battery cells. Additionally, the cloud postprocessor has been improved, which significantly reduces the time to display results – even for comprehensive simulations. There is also an efficiency increase in thermal simulations through extended possibilities for meshing the boundary layer elements in flow simulations. In the long list of improvements, according to Spieler, electromagnetic simulation also stands out, made possible by high cloud computing power and GPU acceleration.