Modeling is the art of taking an idea in your head and actually creating it. Well, not actually creating it, but virtually creating it inside of SOLIDWORKS. Going from abstract concept to virtual prototype is a critical step in making any idea a reality. With SOLIDWORKS 2022, this step is made easier with the addition of some amazing modeling enhancements. Now it’s easier than ever to make your design in SOLIDWORKS so you can go from concept to reality faster than ever before. Here are our favorite modeling enhancements to SOLIDWORKS 2022.
It’s 2022, Start in SOLIDWORKS Not on a Napkin
Forget about making sketches on napkins. When you start a design, where do you begin?
Start in SOLIDWORKS.
SOLIDWORKS 2022 is the culmination of decades of focused efforts in creating a tool that is so easy to use that it’s a no-brainer to start your designing directly in SOLIDWORKS. With the addition of 3DEXPERIENCE ideation tools, you can use your tablet or touch screen device to sketch and immediately turn it into model geometry. Take a look at what I was able to easily do on my iPad using the new 3DSketch tool on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
This is all done from within a web browser and with 3DSketch. I snaped a pic of the phone stand and I was immediately sketching geometry around it. Ask yourself, “Why aren’t I using the 3DEXPERIENCE tools yet?” With SOLIDWORKS 2022, it’s crazy not to take advantage of these tools. Many of them are included with your existing license of SOLIDWORKS.
Stud Wizard
The Stud Wizard is one of SOLIDWORKS 2022’s can’t-miss features. After years of user requests, the external threaded stud feature has finally made its way into the software. It’s like the Hole Wizard, but different. It’s similar to the Thread feature from SOLIDWORKS 2016, but better.
The Hole Wizard has been a core feature since the beginning with SOLIDWORKS 1995 and it hasn’t changed much in these 26 years. SOLIDWORKS 2016 gave us the external thread feature, but it was painful to use.
Now, in just a few clicks you can easily create lightweight threads on cylinders as well as on a flat surface. First, pick a starting entity and then build your threaded feature through a series of menus and lists that guide you through the process of creating the feature, complete with thread callouts ready to be automatically added to your 2D drawings.
Here we have an example of threads created using the new Stud Wizard and the same thread cut using the Thread feature introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2016. As you can see, based on the performance evaluation of the example part, the Stud Wizard creates the same thread in about a quarter of the time.
It’s not just easy to create threads using the Stud Wizard; these features are also lightweight and easy to work with. There’s a lot to love about the new Stud Wizard in SOLIDWORKS 2022.
Hole Wizard Slots
Anything called a wizard in SOLIDWORKS should have magical powers, save time and be easy to use. The Stud Wizard is the latest and greatest of these wizards, but there’s always room for improvement to some of the classic wizards, too. Like I mentioned above, the Hole Wizard has been making it easy to add cutouts to your geometry since day one with SOLIDWORKS 1995. The ability to easily add slots was added to SOLIDWORKS 2014 and now in SOLIDWORKS 2022, adding slots through the Hole Wizard is easier than ever.
With SOLIDWORKS 2022, you can easily dimension and position slots using the Hole Wizard. From within the Hole Wizard, you can choose to define the slot length dimension either from arc center to arc center or from arc tangent to arc tangent. When placing the slots, you can now use the tab key to quickly rotate the slots 90 degrees. These additional tools will save additional time.
Hybrid Modeling
Hybrid Modeling in SOLIDWORKS 2022 is not unlike a hybrid car with its seamless combination of two engines. Now you can create a hybrid solid or surface body that includes both standard and mesh geometry. As 3D printers accelerate their march towards ubiquity, the new Hybrid Modeling capability is a welcome addition to the SOLIDWORKS modeling workflow.
In this day and age, it’s common to work with mesh files, especially STL files. Now, with the ability to combine these geometry types into the same body you won’t be slowed down by a vendor or supplier that sends you a mesh model instead of a solid model.
No more intermediate bodies and Boolean operations. SOLIDWORKS 2022 lets you work with mesh BREP geometry just like you would any solid or surface geometry. Previously, you could not combine mesh BREP and standard SOLIDWORKS BREP geometries in a single body. You won’t have to think twice about it. Just add features such as fillets, chamfers, extrudes, cuts and more as you would any solid or surface model. With SOLIDWORKS 2022, there’s not much that can slow you down so you can get your designs out the door faster.
Sketch Patterns
If you really want to save time when modeling, you’ll need to do as little as possible. Let SOLIDWORKS do the work for you. Patterns and mirrors are a great way to cut down on your modeling time. With SOLIDWORKS 2022, the sketch pattern tool has been dramatically improved to make it easier than ever to create patterns of your geometry.
Now the direction reference used for linear sketch patterns can come from within the same sketch as the entities you wish to pattern. What are already powerful tools are just getting easier as their workflows are perfected with every release of software. Previously, if the direction entity was in the same sketch, it would become part of the entities to pattern rather than simply provide a direction. This wasn’t just a slight hiccup in the design workflow. These are obstacles that get in the way of you creating your geometry. By removing obstacles like these you can focus on your design instead of operating the software.
The Best Modeling Improvement: Improved Coordinate System
The improved coordinate system is the winner of the best modeling enhancement to SOLIDWORKS 2022. It’s so good I had to mention it twice (It is also listed in What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2022: User Experience Improvements).
You can leverage coordinate system entities such as planes and axis for geometry creation. In the video above, see how a sketch can be created directly from the XY plane of a custom coordinate system. With SOLIDWORKS 2022, there’s more tools and enhanced functionality but somehow there’s less to think about and less to get between you and your designs.
When you’re modeling you have two opposing factors at play: your creativity and your ability to operate the software. The less you focus on the software the more you focus on creating geometry. With SOLIDWORKS 2022 it’s clear that you can all but stop thinking about the software and focus entirely on turning your concept into a reality.
Learn about all the new SOLIDWORKS 2022 enhancements with the ebook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.