Core77

For those of you that are in the SolidWorks user community, but didn't make it down to New Orleans last week, here's a quick run down of those features, functions and whizz-bangeries that are slated to make it for the next SolidWorks rev -- scheduled for June/July 2008.

The UI seems to be getting a complete overhaul. Much of the concentration on bringing things in-line with Vista as well as some neat new user interaction technology should see you get a much more comfortable working environment. The PropertyManager pages (to the left of the UI currently) are tabbed up a la Firefox, the selection methods have changed as have the context sensitive menus. Selection graphics look nice, with a glow -- and however much this sounds a ridiculous thing to be discussing, it all adds up to a nice working environment.

On the functional side of things, there's new drag and drop functions for those direct editing of geometry and sections, all using some pretty slick methods of interaction -- the new Ruler for gauging such work is going to be invaluable. If you're working on products with cooling issues, then the new FloXpress tool lets you run a quick thermal cooling analysis - with the proviso that you've just got one inlet/one outlet - kinda limiting, but then, its free right?

They also launched SolidWorks Labs for getting new tech out to the eager public.. There's a new 3D presentation tool (called ZoomIn), some FEA related stuff and other bits and bobs for viewing drawings and whatnot.