DriveWorks World 2026 recently wrapped, marking a huge milestone for the design automation community. This year’s event celebrated 25 years of DriveWorks and provided an inside look at what’s coming in the DriveWorks 24 release.
For many mid-market manufacturers, the aftermarket—including parts and services—is often managed on a case-by-case basis. When a part is needed, the goal is simply to find it. When a price is set, it’s done based on standard cost-plus logic. Inventory decisions sit in one place, pricing decisions in another, and the wider commercial impact is hard to see clearly.
RAPID isn't just the biggest additive manufacturing event in North America; it's where manufacturers unveil their latest innovations to the world. As exhibitors at the heart of the event, the GoEngineer team spent the week digging into the latest hardware and software advancements poised to deliver immense value to our customers.
In recent years, due to global supply chain disruptions, the way our customers talk about electronic design has shifted. It’s no longer just about making the circuit work; it’s about making sure the circuit can be built.
In 2026, Canadian manufacturers face tighter margins, higher quality expectations, and ongoing labour shortages, but also a rare opportunity. Quality inspection is becoming a competitive advantage, not just a compliance function, and recent changes to the SR&ED program mean advanced inspection and metrology investments may now qualify for significant government support. Manufacturers that modernize their inspection processes with digital workflows and 3D scanning will be better positioned to reduce risk, move faster, and protect their margins.
Metal 3D printing has streamlined the process, removing the need for tedious, manual brazing. But the very property that makes copper desirable - its high thermal conductivity- adds its own unique challenges, as heat quickly dissipates away from the laser powder bed fusion melt pool, often leading to instability and significant residual stress. BLT (Bright Laser Technologies) addresses these hurdles with its "Full-System Engineering" approach, integrating design, materials, and machinery to produce copper thrust chambers nearly a meter in height.
While learning the “picks and clicks” of CAD is a necessary rite of passage, it has often come at the expense of actual engineering education. Every minute spent troubleshooting a broken mate is a minute lost to discussing design intent, manufacturability, or optimization. With the release of SOLIDWORKS 2026, that paradigm is shifting. By integrating meaningful, practical AI tools directly into the interface, the software is moving from a passive drawing tool to an active design partner. For educators across North America, this means a fundamental shift in the classroom: moving the focus from where to click to how to engineer.
We’ve all been there: you attempt to pattern a feature around a complex curve, and your CAD software suddenly decides "not today." Patterning is often treated as a necessary evil, a finicky tool that seems to break at the slightest hint of a design change. Here are 5 SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE patterning workflows to get you started.