The Top 5 3D CAD Features in Solid Edge 2020

The 2020 release of Siemens mainstream 3D CAD tool release expands and improves a wide range of its capabilities, featuring various improvements the company says will enable small and medium-sized manufacturing companies to speed up product development and manufacturing processes.

Visualize and validate your ideas with next-generation technology, from augmented reality to model-based definition.

Updated feature:

• Achieve substantial performance gains (up to 10 times faster workflows) with new high-performance mode and automatic activation as assembly size grows
• Build complex 3D sheet metal models more easily using enhanced lofted flanges and unique bend bulge relief capabilities in a 3D CAD environment
• Provide new photorealistic rendering with Key shot 8.1 integration, which supports customer requests for cutaways
• Simplify data migration of 3D models and 2D drawings from other industry software, including SolidWorks, PTC Creo Elements Direct, PTC Creo Parametric (or Pro/ENGINEER), Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD, into Solid Edge.

Put your designs in motion with simulation tools that are built for designers but are powerful enough for analysts:

Updated feature:

• Simulate all aspects of mechanism motion. With new motion simulation functionality, understand the true dynamic function of a design before producing or assembling physical hardware
• Simulate the vibration level of a structure during product operation with harmonic response analysis to ensure designs will successfully overcome resonance and other dynamics effects
• Rapidly interpret and understand model behavior with comprehensive graphical postprocessing tools.

Assembly performance is something that is focused on in every release by every vendor involved in mechanical design. Why?

The simple answer is to drive users even further as soon as these systems catch up with how hard their users are driving them.

Siemens ‘ team has developed a new, high-performance large assembly mode set of tools for the release of Solid Edge 2020 that will apply best practices depending on your part count.

Such best practices concentrate on both display (such as shading, tessellation of models) and interaction (selection highlight glow), hidden edge display, and turn off those that most impact efficiency. A few tweaks have also been made on how the system handles Pathfinder’s assembly structure browser, dragging and dropping components. Solid Edge’s assembly structure browser. It’s an easy way to add multiples of the same component, but sometimes the process will encounter a little delay, allowing unnecessary duplicates to be added to the system.

The last update related to assembly is not related to the creation or editing of assemblies, but rather to the quest for components within complex assemblies.

The existing query selection tools have been enhanced to enable you to use any of the metadata associated with your data as a search basis, such as name, keyword, material, creator, etc.

The latest release of Solid Edge allows you to analyze the geometry of a sheet metal part in Solid Edge, and accurately estimate the cost to manufacture it.

Updated feature:

• Our new Design for Cost docking pane allows Solid Edge users to analyze a sheet metal part and determine the manufacturing operations required to create it.
• Valuable statistics such as the number of bends, cuts, and stamps display in the docking pane. All the user must do is enter the approximate cost per manufacturing operation, and the total is calculated automatically. If modifications are required, the user can easily modify the geometry of the part to get an updated cost estimate.
• That data can then be easily printed as a report or exported in another format.

The final update we will cover is to add a new 3D model visualization method to the Solid Edge Portal.

If you’re not familiar with the portal, Siemens is offering a free-to-use collaborative project system.

Updated feature:

• Communicate design intent in its intended physical environment
• Free, easy access to next-generation visualization
• Assists in design collaboration
• Secure sharing
• Extending AR to other augmented, virtual and mixed-reality experiences
• Creating the AR

PROLIM is the authorized SIEMENS PLM Channel partner to sell and service Solid Edge, offering clients with end-to-end, consistent solutions from inception to implementation.

To learn more about enhancement to Solid Edge 2020, contact us at PROLIM.com. Alternatively, leave your thoughts in the comment section.