In every major release of SOLIDWORKS, there will be countless enhancements and hundreds of pages of release notes. There will always be some key new features and improvements that take the spotlight, but often it’s the little changes that can make a big difference in your workflow and user experience. So, here are a few of the lesser known “hidden gems” that were introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2020.
>> Explore some of the hidden gems in SOLIDWORKS 2019
Repair Missing Fillet Edges
Sometimes, when the feature history of a model is modified, but the resulting geometry is the same, Fillet and Chamfer features lower on the Feature Tree can lose their references to the edges where they need to be applied. Previously, to fix missing fillet edges, the user would have to manually replace each reference, which in some cases could result in re-clicking dozens of red highlighted edges. A time-saving improvement was introduced in 2020 which allows the user to right-click and Repair All Missing References which will identify and re-assign missing references.
Hole Wizard Depth Option
Using the Hole Wizard, holes can be generated which have a conical end to represent the shape carved out by a drill bit. In 2020, there is a new option in the Hole Wizard to specify whether the depth of the hole is measured to the tip of the hole, or to the shoulder of the hole (the edge of the tapered conical region). In the images below, you can see how a 10mm deep hole can produce two different outcomes when defined by the shoulder vs. the tip of the hole.
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Direction for Surface Thicken
If you’ve ever used surface modeling tools as an intermediate step to generate a solid, you’ve probably encountered the Thicken tool. Just like its name suggests, it applies a specified thickness to a surface body. In SOLIDWORKS 2020, the Thicken tool now has a new option to specify the direction for thickening. The direction can be specified by any axis, plane, planar face or surface, linear model edge or linear sketch entity. This update allows the user to have more fine-tuned control in their design intent. The image below shows three identical surface bodies thickened in three different ways.
Translate Feature Names in Tree
A lesser-known feature that was added in SOLIDWORKS 2020 is the option to view translated feature names in the FeatureManager Design Tree. To view Feature Names in another language, right-click on the file name at the top of the Tree > go to Tree Display > Show Translated Feature Name in Tooltip > Select a language. After selecting a language, the translated name of the features will show when the mouse is hovered over a feature. This new capability can improve technical communication for users who speak multiple languages or who work with international vendors/clients.
Alternate Position Views
The Alternate Position View creates a phantom dashed-line overlay of a different configuration of a part. Prior to 2020, this capability was only available for showing different positions of assemblies. But now, multiple configurations of parts can be displayed on top of one another to communicate different variations of the same core model. In the image below, the Alternate Position View was used to show the two variations of the plate.
>> Explore some of the key features released in SOLIDWORKS 2020
These different features are cool to keep handy as they can help you improve your design experience with the software. These are just some of the features in SOLIDWORKS 2020. As every year, our team of Application Engineers put together a list showcasing our top 11 features in SOLIDWORKS 2020 to help you explore them.
Ready to learn more about these features? Read our blog where we provide a summary of each one of these features and guide you through them.
