This past weekend, Dassault Systemes upgraded the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform for all users to the 2023x version. Here, I want to talk about some of the newest features you should be excited about, as well as what to expect now that we have a new major release. 3DEXPERIENCE 2023x Enhancements The first question you’ll be asking me is “What’s New?” The most important thing to know is that this is the first release of 2023. With that, there aren’t a significant number of functional enhancements. Instead, the focus is mostly on updating the data model and preparing the Platform for future functional de ..read more

I had a customer receive an error that SOLIDWORKS failed to obtain a computer identifier when launching the tool. This message will appear because SOLIDWORKS License Service (Flexnet) cannot resolve the unique computer ID that is generated. It also may have just stopped running. This is a problem when you’re getting a license but it’s not the end of the world. In fact, it’s an easy fix. So, let’s get started. How to Fix SOLIDWORKS Failing to Identify a Computer Identifier The first thing you’ll need to do is to navigate to your Windows Services. Click the Microsoft Start button (lower lefthan ..read more

There are many new enhancements to electrical wire routing in SOLIDWORKS 2023, which is available in SOLIDWORKS Premium. Here, let’s take a look at some of my top enhancements to SOLIDWORKS Routing 2023. As always, if you’d like to follow along with a video, you can watch that below: Harness Bundle Enhancements Now, when you are editing a route, just select any portion of it, and the electrical attributes will display the length and outer diameter of the harness bundle. Additionally, SOLIDWORKS Routing more accurately calculates your bundles and accounts for any unused cores.   As a bon ..read more

The official launch of SOLIDWORKS 2023 is fast approaching!  Do you plan on being an early adopter, installing the new version as soon as possible?  Have you read through the What’s New documentation for SOLIDWORKS 2023 and decided there are new features and functionality you cannot live without? I am looking forward to the software release date for several of the included enhancements, including what will be in SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023.  If you’d prefer to watch, I’ve created a video with this info as well: SOLIDWORKS Plastics Materials Database – Material Grades I posed this ..read more

SOLIDWORKS 2023 brings some nifty updates to eDrawings. Here are the top 4.  You can also watch this content on our YouTube channel: eDrawings Support for More Non-SOLIDWORKS Files First, the most significant update is to eDrawings’s support for non-SOLIDWORKS file types, which has not changed since 2019. Users will take advantage of updates to supported versions of ACIS, Inventor, CATIA V4, CATIA V5, CATIA V6/3DEXPERIENCE, Creo, JT, NX, Parasolid, Solid Edge, and STEP files. After all, what good is a file viewer if the only files it can open are from the pre-pandemic era? Display Model ..read more

Welcome to SOLIDWORKS 2023! In this newest release, you’ll find that SOLIDWORKS MBD has also been updated with several enhancements. As always, SOLIDWORKS spends all year looking through your suggestions to improve their products and incorporates the best ones into the latest release. Let’s take a look at some of my top enhancements to SOLIDWORKS MBD in 2023. If you want to follow along in video format, check out the video below. Improved 3D PDF Dimensions and Annotations One of my favorite enhancements is the improvement in the display of our dimensions and other annotations. These are now v ..read more

SOLIDWORKS 2023 Top Enhancements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation It’s that exciting time of the year again! This October, we get to show the public what’s new not only SOLIDWORKS 2023 CAD, but also SOLIDWORKS 2023 Simulation! Every year, SOLIDWORKS gives us new enhancements and tools to improve the performance, usability, and more of SOLIDWORKS Simulation. We review all the great customer feedback, and the developers at SOLIDWORKS use that information to improve SOLIDWORKS with each release. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest new enhancements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023. You ..read more

SOLIDWORKS Composer is the easiest, fastest, and most robust way to create your technical documentation. There are a couple of updates in the 2023 release that will have every Composer user eager to use SOLIDWORKS Composer 2023.  If you’d prefer, you can also get this content in video format: SOLIDWORKS Composer 2023 Web Help First, the help documentation received a MASSIVE upgrade. In prior releases, you could access Composer’s help documentation via a locally installed htm file. To access the help file, you use Internet Explorer and Java 8. Alternatively, load an Internet Explorer exte ..read more

SOLIDWORKS CAM in 2023 continues to impress with next-generation, cutting-edge functionality, and workflow enhancements.  In this article (or the video embedded below if you’d prefer that), I cover what’s new in this year’s release: Barrel Tools With advances in 5-axis milling, barrel cutters are making a huge comeback! SOLIDWORKS CAM 2023 will support the addition of barrel cutters in Standard, Conical Tangent, Tapered, Lens or Advanced profiles. Due to the large contact radius, Barrel Mills allows for a very smooth surface finish while reducing the cutting time by large margins, 90% i ..read more

SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2023 brings several new enhancements to help you create renderings of your products faster and easier than ever before.  If you’d prefer, you can watch this content in video format: Import Settings in SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2023 Have you ever been confused with the import options when opening SOLIDWORKS Part and Assemblies? The part grouping options have now been simplified to only two choices. First is Component/Part/Body, which uses the native hierarchy of your SOLIDWORKS documents for full animation flexibility. The second option is Appearance. This groups all part ..read more