It should not be very hard for the big CAD software companies to figure out that most users put stability and bug fixes as their biggest enhancement request. And it no secrets either that the CAD companies are very PR driven and rather want to Wow the crowed with new futuristic tech and make the CAD geeks high with words such as cloud, speech recognition and 72” touch screens. I think these functions are many maintenance payments away from my desk, so instead I rather want to point the attention to a couple of my favorite 2010 drawing enhancements. These functions will never Wow the crowed, but as you are stitching you drawing together you might just find they take you a step closer to Happyland.
Styling with palette
The dimension palette is a nifty feature that not really came as a surprise. Whomever at Solidworks came up with the “S”key function could not be far from slicing this idea on the table. The “Style”Star” in upper right corner of the palette is very handy. Saving your previous dimension settings in the background for you to quickly access. But before jumping up and down in happiness over the dimension palette, take a look at Jason Raak post “dimension-palette-fiasco” If you are a Solidworks user I do recommend you check out his blog on a regular basis, Wonderful Solidworks info.
Cleanup help
I am not afraid to admit that I find it very helpful when the CAD software can assist me organizing my dimensions. Automatically readjusting dimension spacing when I realize that my drawing is over dimensioned and is in need of some delete and cleanup. What can I say, Happiness :-).
~This feature can be toggled on and off in the System Options~
Border inside the note
Being able to add borders to part of a note can not count much against justifying the maintenance cost, but if you have to import notes from a text file you will be able to quickly spice it up to look like something worth hanging on the wall.
A pretty simple task, highlight the portion of the text and select the drop down “Border” in the right hand side menu.
Conclusion A couple of new drawing enhancements added to Solidworks 2010 that for sure won’t keep you awake at night in excitement, but might get your next drawing done keeping the mood high.