about SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Products Overview

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PRESS RELEASE

CONCORD, MA - January 20, 1997 - SolidWorks Corporation continues its commitment to the mechanical design world by announcing the third major release of its award-winning Windows-native 3D mechanical design software, SolidWorks 97. SolidWorks 97 features over 175 customer-driven enhancements including enhanced assembly and part modeling, sheet metal design, more than 65 new drafting and detailing capabilities, ease-of-use improvements, and extensions for the Internet.

NEW PRODUCT FEATURES

Part Modeling

New part modeling features include:

• Enhanced lofting capabilities including the ability to create lofts between profiles and to control the loft using guide curves such as sketched curves, edges, projected curves, 3D splines, and helices. The number of profiles are limitless and profiles need not be parallel. This powerful functionality is particularly useful for customers designing and producing stylized products

• The new split line feature is used in conjunction with the new parting line draft option which allows users to create drafts of selected faces around a planar and non-planar parting surface. This is especially useful for customers in the molding industry

• Creation of library features and a library application wizard

Sheet Metal Creation

An important new part modeling feature of SolidWorks 97 is its extended support for sheet metal parts. Designers can create sheet metal parts, including the capability to add bends and reliefs in the flat view and to fold and unfold the model.

Assembly Modeling

SolidWorks 97 offers even more assembly modeling flexibility including preview of mating conditions; enhanced configuration tools for managing large assemblies; component patterning and replacement; and a new join command for constructing a part from selected assembly components into a single part such as a weldment assembly.

Drawings

With more than 65 enhancements in detailing capabilities, users now have added control over drawings. Key features include:

• Creation of partial section views, broken views, and aligned section views

• Insertion or creation of thread representations in drawings

• Weld, surface finish, and datum symbols

• The ability to hide dimension lines and witness lines, and control the length of witness lines

Import/Export

Increased exporting and importing functionality allows users to export and import in SAT format. This makes SolidWorks compatible with any ACIS-based modeler. In addition, enhanced STL exporting allows users to set output to either ASCII or binary format.

Internet

By supporting a variety of Internet technologies SolidWorks 97 makes it easy to share designs within and across engineering organizations. SolidWorks 97 supports VRML format making all SolidWorks models accessible for review by any VRML viewer or compatible Internet browser such as Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. In addition, designs can be saved as embedded links in HTML documents making them easily distributed throughout the global Internet. Remote users, with a click of the mouse and SolidWorks 97 installed, are able to review and modify an HTML-linked SolidWorks design. SolidWorks 97 also adds ActiveX server capability, allowing users to run SolidWorks from within their Internet browser.

SolidWorks and FeatureManager are trademarks of SolidWorks Corporation.
Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright © 1997 SolidWorks Corporation.

Create photo-realistic images of SolidWorks parts and assemblies with PhotoWorks.

Why settle for standard shaded views of your parts and assemblies when creating design proposals? Communicate your design intent with compelling, photo-quality images using PhotoWorks, the photo-realistic rendering engine for SolidWorks. PhotoWorks is seamlessly integrated with SolidWorks, delivering valuable and highly interactive functionality for virtual product prototyping.

Using PhotoWorks with SolidWorks, you can see how your design will appear without having to manufacture expensive mock-ups or prototypes. The wide range of materials available in PhotoWorks enables the creation of photo-realistic images which may be used for design proposal presentations to management, customers and vendors. Additionally, the ease-of-use of PhotoWorks and SolidWorks provides for the most advanced presentation needs without requiring extensive training or additional external product knowledge

PhotoWorks was developed using the SolidWorks Application Programming Interface (API) which allows for applications to be fully integrated into the SolidWorks design environment. The rendering functionality of PhotoWorks is loaded directly from SolidWorks are accessible from a single pull-down menu. PhotoWorks provides immediate photo-quality feedback, resulting in a more efficient and effective design cycle and a quicker time to market.

For more information visit the SolidWorks web site

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