In the realm of aerospace manufacturing, it is no secret that there are very real challenges to finding or changing production methods for any given project. A lot of these struggles can stem from the fact that most of the time, aerospace parts must satisfy multiple different requirements simultaneously. For example, critical parts on a UAV might have to be strong enough to withstand impacts or perform high strength maneuvers while also being light enough to account for the other parts of a payload like batteries or cameras. These same parts might also need to be made of traceable material or ..read more

When creating sketches or designing parts in SOLIDWORKS, you can often fully detail contours you need with basic sketch entities such as lines, arcs, and points. You can add combinations of these basic sketch entities using familiar tools like the rectangle, polygon, and slot tools, among many others. When more organic shapes and curves are necessary, you also have access to the ellipse and spline tools. Using these tools, you can create complex part geometry efficiently, often with just a few clicks.  But what if you need to create a specific type of curve that may be best described by ..read more

Since entering the market in 2013, Markforged has pushed the industry forward with its fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers. With multiple Markforged 3D printers on the market, here’s a breakdown of the Mark Two, Onyx Pro, X7, FX10 and FX20 so you can choose the right printer for your business needs. What Are Markforged 3D Printers? Markforged 3D printers are known for being reliable workhorses that produce extremely strong and durable parts ready for the most demanding applications. These printers have the unique capability of embedding continuous fibers inside plastic parts through a ..read more

How future-proof is your engineering workforce and manufacturing business? Amidst the rapid pace of change due to exponential leaps in technology, it’s not easy to envision what “future-proof” even means. How can you be ready for a future that is increasingly tough to envision? Well, the very existence of unpredictable changes makes it even more imperative for modern engineering and manufacturing companies to become future-oriented. Here’s the catch – it’s no longer only about structured or strategic planning. To prepare your operations and outcomes for what could happen tomorrow, you should f ..read more

In the ever-evolving realm of additive manufacturing, innovation continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Markforged, a renowned name in the industry, has once again raised the bar with its latest industrial 3D printer, the FX10. Representing a leap forward in industrial printing capabilities, the FX10 combines advanced automation, cutting-edge technology and impressive performance to deliver unparalleled results, among other qualities. Here are the top five remarkable strengths of the FX10. 1. Redefined Automation One of the standout features of the FX10 is its enhanced automation ..read more

Regulatory Compliance – What Does It Mean for You? Regulatory compliance is a topic that comes up often in my line of work. Here at Hawk Ridge Systems, we support a wide variety of customers in different industries, and regardless of the products that they provide to the market, they all have some things in common: They want to stay competitive. They want to design the best products possible for their customers. And they all have data to manage. Now, for some organizations, data management might not be the center of interest right now, but I can tell you from experience, it will be at some ..read more

With each new release, SOLIDWORKS brings forth features and enhancements that cater to the evolving needs of its vast user community. Among these, one of the most transformative additions is the Reverse Compatibility Save. This new-ish feature (released in Q3 of 2023) empowers designers to save their designs in formats compatible with older versions of SOLIDWORKS, opening doors (that go like this) to seamless collaboration with partners still using legacy versions. SOLIDWORKS and Reverse Compatibility Let’s start by breaking down what this Reverse Compatibility Save feature is all about. Ess ..read more

You probably heard about changes that are included with SOLIDWORKS CAD products, and there was a lot of talk about “Cloud Services” as a new addition with every license of SOLIDWORKS. And you may have purchased a new license or even upgraded your current subscription to include these cloud services. There’s a lot of functionality to be offered by connecting your SOLIDWORKS CAD tools to 3DEXPERIENCE. If you’ve started pursuing some of these tools that are included, you may have also seen that there are a few simple ways to think about those cloud tools you now have access to. Everything from ..read more

Why We Render 3D Scans 3D scanning of an item has a variety of uses such as reverse engineering and inspection. Another use for scanning manufactured or demo parts is creating realistic renders of objects that look similar to their real-world counterpart quickly but with different lighting and/or coloring. Whether for product display on websites, showing prototypes for customers, or seeing how a product will look with new colors, this can all be done in rendering software like SOLIDWORKS Visualize. Learn more about the different options for SOLIDWORKS Visualize in this article. In this blog ..read more

What is Feature Scope in SOLIDWORKS and How Do You Use It? Feature Scope in SOLIDWORKS gives you the ability to target a feature at individual bodies in a multibody part. Many features come with this option when a multibody part is detected, and it’s useful in both additive and subtractive operations. This option can be used to enhance your design capabilities by creating complex geometry from basic commands. In this example, a paint mixer attachment needs a cutout applied, but to only three of the six fins. A revolved cut will accomplish what we need, but by default will pass through all ..read more