GoEngineer Blog

The SOLIDWORKS Measure tool is one of the most popular tools among SOLIDWORKS users, however, prior to SOLIDWORKS 2019, it could not be used while other tools were active - frustrating. That limitation in the program has now been fixed allowing users to turn the Measure tool on or off while other tools are still in use or can be edited while using a different tool. This new Measure tool capability is available in part, assembly, and drawing SOLIDWORKS file types. 

 

With the release of SOLIDWORKS 2020 and the introduction of ‘Detailing Mode’, the below scenario (loading an entire assembly…) is no longer the case. Detailing mode is useful if you need to make minor edits to drawings of large assemblies. Or, if you need to make edits to drawings with many sheets, configurations, or resource-intensive views.

If only I could have had access to Silhouette Entities at the beginning of my SOLIDWORKS career. With Silhouette Entities, the job I mention below would have taken a fraction of the time.

When using a single-extrusion 3D printer, it can be helpful to better define edges for post-print painting. Before I 3D print a CAD model, I look for dividing edges or boundaries for painting different colored surfaces. In SOLIDWORKS, Offset Surface can quickly be used with the Thicken command to raise a surface. You do not have to be a Surfacing expert to use this technique.

New in SOLIDWORKS 2020 you can create Alternate Position Drawing Views of Parts. Before you could only create Alternate Positions Views of Assembly Components, usually to show range of motion. Now you can use different part configurations and overlay views, that will show in phantom lines, in a single drawing view.

Some of my favorite enhancements each year are the small ones. The ones that maybe don’t exactly allow you to do something you couldn’t do previously. Instead, they allow you to stop using a workaround to accomplish the same thing. Along those lines in SOLIDWORKS 2020 you can now save a copy of a part or assembly with only a subset of configurations.

Introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2015 Selection Sets was a great time saving feature that enables a user to grab multiple entities in a model or drawing and save those selections so you can return to at any time quickly. In SOLIDWORKS 2020 they have been enhanced to be even more beneficial.

With SOLIDWORKS 2020 Chain Dimensions, they have added another way to improve productivity when creating drawings. Chain dimensioning is when each dimension is placed directly adjacent to the next dimension without any gaps between the dimensions as shown below.

In SOLIDWORKS 2020, you can expect many great improvements to multiple areas of the installation experience. The SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager now uses parallel threading, which is a fancy way of saying you’ll experience faster downloads of SOLIDWORKS software.