It seems only natural that a product designed to help you design products should be, well, well-designed.

Sorry for the tongue-twisting lede. We're talking about Solidworks 2008, released today, which incorporates over 250 user-suggested improvements. And since we users are designers, you know we had some thoughtful ones.

On the outs are esoteric commands and arbitrary placement of tools, on the ins are mouse-manipulable "live cross-sections" and a system that predicts which tools you'll need next, and makes them readily available. Mouse-travel distances are shorter, switching between files is easier, and the "design for manufacturability" feature alerts you when you've sleeplessly drawn something expensive or difficult to manufacture, like no-draft sidewalls or 90-degree milled corners. (Come on, we've all been there.)

The complete list of (rather cool-sounding) features is way too long for this entry, but those of you salivating for the new cut can read about it here.