WNC – SWUG November 10 2011 Meeting
Brian Sims from the Atlanta TPM office drove all the way to Arden to do a presentation of What’s New In SolidWorks 2012.
Here are just a few of the things he told us about…as usual I got so caught up in his presentation that I stopped taking notes and just listened. PLEASE use the comments to add any additional features that impressed you.
CTRL-A – now works in SolidWorks like it does in other Windows applications. It selects all components in an assembly file.
In a part file CTRL-A behaves differently as it combines a selection filter with the select all. In other words select an edge and then CTRL-A and all the edges are selected. Select a face and then CTRL-A and all faces are selected. This was the first time I had heard of this, pretty cool.
On the command bar at the bottom of the screen is a Unit Switcher button. No more digging through all the options screens to get to this. I like it!
Ambient occlusion is now one of the display settings. It attempts to add realistic shadows that include how the light would ‘flow’ around objects. Sorry but that is the only way I could come up with to describe this effect in words. The results are a bit too dark for Brian’s taste I from what I saw I would agree. Playing around with the light sources should improve this.
You can now keep and change the ‘cap’ color when making section views. Brian showed us an example where he did 2 sections each with an unique cap color. This makes it easier to visualize the sections, another great idea IMHO.
The search box now allows you to search for SolidWorks commands. When it finds the command you can invoke it from the search results or watch a nifty animation of the necessary picks to get to the command.
The ‘R’ key which bring up the recent documents has some new functionality. For one thing you see more of your recent documents. You can ‘pin’ a document so that it remains in the list and you can open the containing folder of a recent document in explorer.
The equations editor box has been given a complete facelift. It looks like it will be a lot easier to build equations as it allows you to take measurements while in the equation editor and apply them to the equation. It also has a built in equation re-order that attempts to fix problems in your design. I was also impressed with this.
Well this is where my notes ended. If you have been to one of the 2012 rollouts then you have seen it all anyway.
I speak for the membership of the WNC/Asheville SolidWorks Usergroup when I say thanks to Brian for going out of his way ( a long way) to come and present for us last night.
On a side note, Wes the pizza was excellent what is the name of the place you got it from?
Next meeting January 12th . Have a great holiday season everyone and I’m not afraid to say it,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Brian Sims from the Atlanta TPM office drove all the way to Arden to do a presentation of What’s New In SolidWorks 2012.
Here are just a few of the things he told us about…as usual I got so caught up in his presentation that I stopped taking notes and just listened. PLEASE use the comments to add any additional features that impressed you.
CTRL-A – now works in SolidWorks like it does in other Windows applications. It selects all components in an assembly file.
In a part file CTRL-A behaves differently as it combines a selection filter with the select all. In other words select an edge and then CTRL-A and all the edges are selected. Select a face and then CTRL-A and all faces are selected. This was the first time I had heard of this, pretty cool.
On the command bar at the bottom of the screen is a Unit Switcher button. No more digging through all the options screens to get to this. I like it!
Ambient occlusion is now one of the display settings. It attempts to add realistic shadows that include how the light would ‘flow’ around objects. Sorry but that is the only way I could come up with to describe this effect in words. The results are a bit too dark for Brian’s taste I from what I saw I would agree. Playing around with the light sources should improve this.
You can now keep and change the ‘cap’ color when making section views. Brian showed us an example where he did 2 sections each with an unique cap color. This makes it easier to visualize the sections, another great idea IMHO.
The search box now allows you to search for SolidWorks commands. When it finds the command you can invoke it from the search results or watch a nifty animation of the necessary picks to get to the command.
The ‘R’ key which bring up the recent documents has some new functionality. For one thing you see more of your recent documents. You can ‘pin’ a document so that it remains in the list and you can open the containing folder of a recent document in explorer.
The equations editor box has been given a complete facelift. It looks like it will be a lot easier to build equations as it allows you to take measurements while in the equation editor and apply them to the equation. It also has a built in equation re-order that attempts to fix problems in your design. I was also impressed with this.
Well this is where my notes ended. If you have been to one of the 2012 rollouts then you have seen it all anyway.
I speak for the membership of the WNC/Asheville SolidWorks Usergroup when I say thanks to Brian for going out of his way ( a long way) to come and present for us last night.
On a side note, Wes the pizza was excellent what is the name of the place you got it from?
Next meeting January 12th . Have a great holiday season everyone and I’m not afraid to say it,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!