CAD Atomic Blog

Whenever a new version of Solid Edge is released, there is always a multitude of new/enhanced features and I’m usually asked by someone what my favorite one is.  You cannot imagine how hard that is to answer when your looking at hundreds of potential favorites in a given release.  Usually though, I find that it is the simple little things that seem to be my favorite. In ST7, I would have to say my favorite new feature is the Quick View Cube. This control sits in the lower right corner of the graphics area and will turn translucent when not in focus of the mouse, however when the mouse is in close proximity it will solidify and the individual control points will become visible.  The Quick View Cubes purpose is to give the user quick access and transitional control to common orthographic and isometric views with a single click of the mouse.  Now this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I have watched many a user rotate a model with either a 3D Connexion device ...

If you are not familiar with the Solid Edge Replace Part command, it is an Assembly based command used to do what the name implies… replace a part or sub-assembly with another part or sub-assembly. In past releases of Solid Edge, the Replace Part command was a solo act that had the ability of replacing a single part or sub-assembly occurrence or all occurrences of that selection with a user specified replacement part or sub-assembly that already existed. With the release of Solid Edge ST5 and subsequent releases, the Replace Part command was actually expanded into 4 different Replace Part commands, each with their own specific capabilities. Replace Part Replace Part is similar to the previous Replace Part command in that it is used to replace a part with one that has already been created, however it was expanded to allow not only the selection of a single occurrence or all occurrences of the selection, but also allows a user to select different parts and/or specified num...

I just want to draw attention to some activity that has been occurring over the past few months with regards to Siemens PLM's Solid Edge. A few months ago a new site was launched by Siemens PLM and was touted as a Community site.  As part of this, there is a subarea that is the Solid Edge Community site.  The site has a Q&A section, Discussion section, Knowledge Base, BLOG, and recently a whole subarea for developers who write custom code using the Solid Edge API. Of special note is the Solid Edge BLOG .  There has been a flurry of "how to" articles written by Matt Lombard.  You may recognize the name as he was an avid Solid Works user as well as the author of the popular SolidWorks Bible series.  Matt has now taken a position with Siemens PLM working for the Solid Edge group and has been authoring material on specific facets of Solid Edge that come with the unique perspective of a new user who previously used SolidWorks.  Ofte...

The date and location for Solid Edge University 2014 has been announced recently and it will be in Atlanta, Georgia on May 12-14, 2014.  The following site link doesn't have any additional information about the up coming event, but it does contain information on last years event as well as has links to all the presentations.  It is definitely worth a look, and if you like what you see, then I would encourage you to attend the 2014 event because there is no doubt that it will be more of the same if not just "more".  Include with that the Solid Edge ST7 launch and it is definitely a must attend event! http://solidedgeu.com/

The Early Bird Discount #2 expires tomorrow 6/7.  It allows you to save $50 on one admission and $100 on three admissions (buy 2 get the 3rd FREE!!!). http://www.solidedgeu.com/ Now if you are dragging your feet or your boss is dragging his and and the decision has not yet been made, don’t worry… As far as conference fees and content go, Solid Edge University is still a bargain at the regular price of $550 considering there are 2 days of content spread over 9 tracks with 3 of those tracks being HANDS ON EXPERIENCES!  Let me repeat:  3 TRACKS OF HANDS ON EXPERIENCES!  If you have ever priced getting training from a VAR, it is many times the admission price of Solid Edge University and does not cover the breadth of topics and/or the niche areas of Solid Edge that will be covered by the Solid Edge University’s Hands on Experiences.  Add to that the additional 6 tracks of content covered by experts including Solid Edge product planners, application engineers, ...

Within the last few weeks, Siemens PLM opened a new ‘Community” site for several products including Solid Edge. Unlike their previous discussion groups which for the most part where closed to everyone except customers who were current on their annual maintenance, the Community site is open to all.  Anyone can read the site, and by registering, you can also post to the site. Check out the Solid Edge Community here: http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge/ct-p/solid-edge

As you may know, Solid Edge University 2013 is coming up in about 3 weeks ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ) and that the official announcement about Solid Edge ST6 will come on day 1 of that event (June 25th).  Dan Staples, director Solid Edge Development will provide the Solid Edge ST6 keynote. Well, I have a couple of early treats for you about ST6 that I can share!  Please keep in mind that these are no more than a tiny teaser of ST6, and as a BETA tester I can assure you there is so much more… There has been this rumor going around that ST6 would put some focus on surfacing.  Well, here are two new tools that should convince you it’s more than just a rumor… Reflective Plane  - The typical use case of symmetric molded parts is to model one half and mirror the body of the second half when complete… But how do you know what the whole part looks like prior to being finished with the part?  The answer is the Reflective Plane. It allows display of the second half...

You have 2 more weeks to get the early bird discount #2 of $500 for 1 admission or $1000 for 3 admissions for Solid Edge University 2013... After that the regular price of $550 and $1100 respectively kicks in.  Either way you will get your moneys worth.and then some with 9 tracks of sessions.  Details can be found here:  http://www.solidedgeu.com Design Better.  Solid Edge University.

Solid Edge ST6 is not publicly available yet, but will be in the next few months.  No doubt the big announcement will be made at Solid Edge University 2013 at the end of June ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ). While it is still under the cover of secrecy, I thought we might have some fun and see how creative you are with trying to guess what might be in ST6 when it releases.  Submit a comment as to your best guess, but be respectful or your comment won’t see the light of day. I’m sure that when ST6 releases, whatever is in it will help us all Design Better!

Solid Edge ST5 has a couple of offers that allow you to use it for free. If you are a commercial user, there is a 45 day trial ( http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/free-solid-edge.shtml ) that gives you full featured access in a time limited fashion and it’s intended purpose is for evaluation towards a purchase.  If this is something you are interested in, don’t hesitate to talk to a reseller and if you are a current SolidWorks user, there are some trade-in deals at this time that seem pretty good ( https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/campaigns/solid-edge-promo/index.cfm? ) If you are a student, there is a student version ( https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/goplm/arc/se-academic/solid-edge-student.cfm? ) that gives you full featured access with one exception… All files saved in this version are marked as being authored in a student version and cannot be opened in a commercial version and the drawings have a water m...

I’m sure you have all heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none”.  I think of this phrase when some entity tries to serve too many purposes that it really doesn’t focus too well on any of them. This happened a few years ago with UGS in regards to the Solid Edge annual international user group meeting.  Due to what I imagine was a concern with costs and economy of scale, someone decided that the independent Solid Edge Summit should be wrapped into the annual PLM World event with all the other UGS products.  What happened is we lost that Solid Edge only focus and it became watered down and generalized. Needless to say, it was giant flop, and in just a few years Solid Edge had lost most of it’s annual conference attendees. Under the new management of Karsten Newbury, he and his team decided in 2011 to hold a Solid Edge only international event and it was a big success! Because it was such a hit, it was repeated in 2012… And it was an even bigger success!  S...

PDM is known as a necessary evil in most engineering worlds.  Why it’s labeled “evil”, I’ll explain in a bit.  It’s necessary because of 2 reasons: Engineering and related disciplines create a huge amount of data and that data is related to parts which are related to a product structure and that may also be related to tooling and equipment.  PDM excels at storing all this data securely and managing the relationships between it and the changes that happen to it. The use of 3D compound document design systems pretty much require PDM after a couple years of use with more than a half dozen authors.  Compound document design systems build assemblies from parts and subassemblies that are all independent files.  When you open an assembly, the design system actually must find and open each and every component file that makes up that assembly, so on an assembly comprised of 350 unique components, your opening 350 files.  Couple this with cross assembly use of com...

Siemens PLM will formally announce Solid Edge ST3 on October 13th.  There are a number of events being held across North America starting on that day and through the month of December in a variety of cities.  2 of them are Siemens PLM hosted “National” events which the agenda shows will have a little more content in them, and the rest are Partner hosted events.  If interested in attending one of these events, you can sign up on the Register link at the following page: http://am.siemensplmevents.com/?elqPURLPage=4232 Now seeing that we have around 2-1/2 weeks before the formal announcement and there has been much speculation about what’s new with ST3 in regards to Synchronous Technology, I thought it would be interesting to invite your comments about what you think is new with Synchronous Technology in ST3.  Ground rules are that you must be polite and on topic.  This BLOG is mine and is not bound by your right to free speech, therefore comments are moderated an...

As Promised, here is my 3 rd post on Solid Edge ST3’s customer driven enhancements. This time, the topic is Piping, Framing, and Weld enhancements. Let’s start with Frames. Frames are made up of 3 items for each frame member: The sketch defining the path, the cross section defining the shape, and the resulting member as a solid model. With ST3, some work was done with the cross sections to add additional attachment points which are used to attach the cross sections to the paths. In addition to the prior default of the geometry Range Box showing the 8 points defining the rectangular extents boundary around the shape and the center point, you can now define the cross section’s path attachment point by using key points (end/mid/center/etc.) on the cross section’s defining sketch (including reference elements) or the cross section’s area centroid. In addition to the new locating methods, cross sections are now associative to the members that they have defined (so changes to the cross ...

As promised, I'm back with some additional information about the upcoming release of Solid Edge ST3 (later this year).  This post will hit on some of the customer driven enhancements in the Part, Sheet Metal, and Assembly design environments.  As a reminder, this is in no way a complete list of enhancements in these areas. New to ST3 Sheet Metal is the Etch feature.  It allows text or other sketch elements to be created on sheet metal faces which will then be transformed with the model when flattened.  When the Flat Pattern is saved to DXF, text is translated to a "stick" font engraving ready! New Closed Corner types have been added to Sheet Metal such as U & V shaped, Square and Mitred. Tabs and PMI can now be added to the flattened Sheet Metal model and they will not display in the folded model.  This flattened model can then be saved to JT. Interpart relations are now shown in Part & Sheet Metal Pathfinder allow...

The Siemens PLM Connection event is over.  Given the change of date and venue due to the flooding of the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, it was a great success.  There were many excellent presentations and "hands-on" training sessions for Solid Edge (including mine) , and even though a formal announcement of the upcoming ST3 is some time away, we got a sneak peak of several new customer driven enhancements as well as some hint of: A "bridge" to help existing users better adopt Synchronous Technology Simulation enhancements PDM enhancements 1000's of customer enhancements from modeling to the user interface Over the next few weeks, I'd like to cover some of the items presented around the customer driven enhancements, but please keep in mind there are still a whole lot of items that will not be presented until the official Solid Edge ST3 launch later in the year. For this post, I would like to cover the User Interface enhancements. You now have...

I just got back from Las Vegas. Aside from the terrible air travel problems which resulted from freezing rain in Iowa when I left, to dense fog in Chicago on my return, it was a good trip. It was one of those "kill 2 birds with one stone" trips where I was able to accomplish a couple goals. The main reason for traveling to Las Vegas was to attend a PLM World board meeting. It was held at the Rio where our 2011 and 2012 Connection events will be held. It also coincided with the International Builders Show held at the convention center of which Pella is an exhibitor. I spent one day walking the builders show, seeing an amazing variety of products. One thing that really sparked my interest was an architectural CAD software product that could interface with a engineered structural wood software product resulting in plumbing and HVAC penetrations being pre-cut in the engineered wood products at the factory. Now the cool thing about this is, the cuts are made efficiently and...

Siemens PLM just released MP2 for Solid Edge ST2 on Friday January 8th. This patch includes many updates as well as fixes for user reported issues. It can be found here (webkey acct needed): http://ftp.ugs.com/solid_edge/ST2/ For those unfamiliar with what Maintenance Patches (MP) are, they are software updates that vendors of most applications deliver on a regular basis or "as needed" to resolve issues with the application or enhance the application. They are typically installed on top of a major version of an application, and are generally version specific. In the case of Solid Edge ST2, you would need to run the MP for that particular version once ST2 has already been installed. MPs are typically "all inclusive" meaning that installing the latest MP includes the content of all earlier MPs (MP2 included MP1 updates as well as MP2 updates). If running Solid Edge along with Insight Server or Embedded Client, you will need to also install the same version of MP for t...