GoEngineer Blog

Each year, the development team at SOLIDWORKS 2026 introduces new enhancements to improve ease of use and performance in the software. This includes the many add-ins. This article explores what's new in SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2026. Key updates include improved performance in the fill, pack, and cool analysis, a new unfilled volume plot, assigning vent boundary conditions to edges, solver updates for thermoset materials, and continued material database updates.

When working with features, it is important to keep in mind how CAMWorks operates. The Automatic Feature Recognition (AFR) is mostly looking at volumes of material that are being eliminated. It does so by looking at the edges and faces and how they relate to each other. The kind of feature determines how the tool will behave during cutting. For example, if it sees a volume surrounded by only a circular wall, CAMWorks will call it a hole or a circular pocket, depending on the settings. If a volume has walls all around, it is a pocket. If some walls are missing, it is a slot, with the missing walls called Open Air Edges. This blog will cover using a pocket versus an open pocket without sketches, and when to use which.

In September 2025, BYD’s Yangwang U9X supercar shattered expectations, setting a world top-speed record for production vehicles at 308.33 mph and clocking a blistering 6:59.157 lap time at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. It’s an incredible feat of electric propulsion, but the unsung hero of this achievement isn’t just the motor; it’s the frame holding it all together. The U9X’s success was built on a foundation of metal additive manufacturing provided by Bright Laser Technologies (BLT), proving that 3D printing is no longer just for prototyping; it is a production-grade powerhouse. 

Revision control is a key reason companies adopt data management systems like PDM/PLM. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform makes it easy (sometimes too easy) to access older file revisions. A common question is, "How can I view only the latest revision without the clutter?" In this blog, we’ll explore three ways to filter search results and focus on the most current version.

The handling of large assemblies can be a huge source of frustration and slowdown for design teams. This is because many popular CAD and PLM tools simply choke on huge or complex models. But you can reclaim that lost productivity (and quality of life) by using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for cloud-based PLM and CAD management. Though based on high-performance CATIA and ENOVIA technology, these benefits are available to users of desktop SOLIDWORKS, CATIA, Inventor, Creo, NX, and more, through CAD program extensions that save your CAD to the cloud.

Here is a rundown of some of the SOLIDWORKS 2026 enhancements in the area of collaboration and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Working with large assemblies can be challenging. Oftentimes, the only way to have the total context of a design is to open all the parts you don’t need to work on, just the parts you do need.

When adding a local vault view to SOLIDWORKS PDM, users may run into a security measure known as Attach Access Permission. Effectively, this is meant to make it harder for users who do not have permission to create a local vault view and gain access to potentially sensitive vault data. This permission becomes more important when users from outside of the organization are invited to interact with files through the vault. When a PDM Archive Server is created, the server is prepopulated with a user and group permissions for Administration and attach access. We’ll discuss the default settings as well as how to change them below.  

This article explains how to add and use non-CAD documents on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, covering everything from adding files to Collaborative Spaces to converting those files upon release. Let’s get file-ing in 3DEXPERIENCE!

With the SOLIDWORKS Flex feature, you can create some very complex designs - without much effort. It can be used for various applications, including concept development, mechanical design, industrial design, stamping dies, molds, and more. The Flex feature can change either a single body or a multibody part, and includes 4 different flex types: Bending, Twisting, Tapering, and Stretching. Consider the baluster component of the spiral staircase below. We can take a simple square design and, with the aid of the Flex feature, create a more aesthetic look.