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cadalyst labs review
Parts and analysis take center stage in the latest version of 3D modeler.
SolidWorks 2003 is proof positive that CAD products can work out of the box as advertised. After setting the standard for midrange CAD in 1995, SolidWorks, now in its 11 th release, continues to raise the bar and keep the competition hopping. Three packages are available in the SolidWorks 2003 family: SolidWorks 2003 is the core modeling software. SolidWorks 2003 Office (the subject of this review) contains the modeler, plus eDrawings Professional for e-mail-enabled design communication; 3D Instant Website for publishing on the Web; PhotoWorks for photorealistic rendering; SolidWorks Animator for animating models; SolidWorks Toolbox, a library of standard components; FeatureWorks, a tool for recognizing features; and SolidWorks Utilities, tools for enhancing productivity.
SolidWorks 2003 Office Professional provides all the offerings in Office, plus PDMWorks, a product data management tool.
Although this review focuses on SolidWorks 2003 Office, my conclusion discusses which of the three packages might be best for you.
INNOVATION HERE
SolidWorks 2003 Office has too many new and enhanced capabilities to detail in this review, so I'll concentrate on its most innovative aspects.
While most vendors (including SolidWorks) concentrated on assemblies and attendant performance in the past several releases, SolidWorks 2003 gives a lot of attention to parts. I like this because the design approach I take, called bottom-up design, is very parts oriented: Once I have a completed design in my mind's eye, I create and mate individual parts into subassemblies and assemblies.
SolidWorks 2003's two major enhancements to part design-the ability to handle multibody parts and the FeatureManager design tree-- complement each other, Multibody parts are simply parts that contain multiple solid bodies. The bodies can be joined or not joined, but they behave as one entity. When you create multiple solid bodies in a single part, the FeatureManager design tree displays a folder named Solid Bodies, which indicates the number of bodies it contains. Support for multibody parts includes bridging, which lets you create portions of design that you know about, just to get something down, and then add connecting geometry later. Bridging is especially useful when you know specifics about parts of a design but not necessarily how they are...