SolidWorks 2018 features an integrated, end-to-end solution for the design-to-manufacturing process that enables businesses of any size to rethink how components and products are made. Powered by Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience platform, SolidWorks 2018 supports a complete design through manufacturing strategy with solutions that simplify the interactions between disciplines across the product development workflow.

“Lots of designs involve welding plate and sheet-metal parts, and most people use ‘tab and slot’ techniques for self-fixturing the parts for welding,” says Edson Gebo, owner, Digital Detail & Design. “The new tab and slot feature saves a lot of time versus having to create these features manually, which helps get designs to the shop faster.”
With SolidWorks 2018, teams can collaborate concurrently to more rapidly and cost-efficiently design a product or part, validate its function and manufacturability, manage its data and related processes, streamline and automate its manufacturing, and inspect it. Any changes in design or manufacturing are fast and easy to manage, and automatically flow to all related models, programs, drawings and documentation, thanks to intellectual property embedded early on in the design process.
A key feature in the latest version of SolidWorks is SolidWorks CAM, a new application that provides rules-based machining with knowledge capture to allow for the automation of manufacturing programming. Designers and engineers can gain a greater understanding of how their designs are made, make more informed decisions, and quickly create prototype parts and manufacture in-house to control quality, cost and delivery. This application also enables teams to execute new build-to-order strategies with custom parts that are automatically designed and programmed in seconds rather than hours.
For further information www.solidworks.co.uk