What's new in the SolidWorks Education Edition 2007 - 2008?
 
SolidWorks
 

The SolidWorks Education Edition for the 2007-2008 academic year has now been shipped to all eligible institutions.

This product is based on the SolidWorks 2007 commercial release which brings a number of enhancements that enable engineers to focus on product design, not on design tools. This enables customers to develop better and more innovative products. In Schools, Colleges and Universities this enables students to spend more time learning product design and less learning how to use the software.
 
Highlights of the enhancements in SolidWorks 2007 include:
 

SWIFT™ Technology
SolidWorks Intelligent Feature Technology helps streamline the creation and editing of 3D CAD models – bringing the power of 3D CAD without the complexity. FilletXpert, DraftXpert, SketchXpert, DimXpert, and MateXpert are all new capabilities that enable the designer to focus on product design while streamlining 3D CAD.

Innovative SWIFT technology streamlines creation of 3D models and help prevent design problems, particularly in the areas of filleting, applying draft to parts, mating parts into assemblies and dimensioning drawings.

Sketch Blocks
Help bring 2D sketches in SolidWorks to life by including traction relations, belt entities, and Relation Path – all methods to enable 2D sketches to be animated before taking them to the 3rd dimension.

 

  
Swift technology
 

Assembly and Part modelling
Belt/chain features, Rack & Pinion and other Gear Mates streamline design of complex assemblies, while surfacing enhancements and ScanTo3D integration with Next Engine® Desktop 3D scanners speed the design of complex parts.

Advanced assembly modelling capabilities in SolidWorks 2007 include design of belt and chain drives that enable linked assembly motion (see right).

  SolidWorks Belt and Chain features
     

New surfacing functionality that speeds the design of complex shapes (see right).

Enhancements to fully integrated COSMOS design analysis tools
Structural, kinematic and flow analysis tools are highly integrated with SolidWorks design tools. Analysis capability is now expanded to include the unique drop-test analysis, weldment analysis, along with even a design optimization capability included in the introductory COSMOSXpress™ tool.

Drawing enhancements
Many improvements help streamline drawing creation so more time can be spent on design and engineering and less on documentation and drawing creation. SolidWorks Design Checker is now enhanced to help ensure drawings meet standards set by companies (or the school).

   SolidWorks surfacing
 
Expanded capabilities and additional changes
 
New in this release, the SolidWorks Education Edition now combines SolidWorks Office Premium with an expanded range of analysis tools, COSMOSWorks® Advanced Professional and COSMOSFloWorks™ P.E. These advanced products include non-linear analysis, design-optimization functionality, more sophisticated fluid flow analysis and other advanced features. This enables design analysis from the introductory level for secondary school students through graduate school candidates working toward advanced degrees.
 

There are exciting new aspects of this Education Edition release including:
  • The SolidWorks Education Edition (2007-2008) will be delivered on a single DVD
  • The Vista version will be available in conjunction with the full release of the commercial version of SolidWorks 2007 on Vista – this version will be supplied by TechSoft for distribution to Education customers upon request when it is available.
  • SolidWorks and COSMOS standalone licenses will now use the same licensing method – a new technique based on product activation technology (to learn more please visit:www.solidworks.com/productactivation)
  • SolidWorks and COSMOS EDU Curriculum, previously supplied on DVD, will now be available from inside the product (under SolidWorks Content in the Design Library) to streamline delivery to students (requires internet access).
  • Resources such as teaching exercises with answer keys and materials to complement the student design projects included inside the Education Edition will be available to Educators using SolidWorks Customer Portal (login creation required) – visit www.solidworks.com/curriculum for more information.
  • The Education Edition is also equipped with a separate DWGeditor CD to make it easy for non-SolidWorks users in other departments of the school for tasks such as civil, architectural, or electrical design (3:1 license ratio applies).
 
Overall, the SolidWorks Education (2007-2008) brings significant advances in both value and capability for students to learn how to design better products earlier in their education. Many of the enhancements enable educators and students to spend more time with engineering and product design education and less time learning how to use 3D CAD.