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It is that time again. The 2006 release date is right around the corner. I think that you will see that the SolidWorks development team has put a lot of thought into how the UI works and the ease of use of the new features. SolidWorks again boasts over 200 enhancements to the office professional product.
The 2006 top ten list was harder than that if 2005. You will notice that a couple of my picks are groups of tools. I think that all of these merit a mention. Here, in no particular order, are my picks for the top ten enhancements in SolidWorks 2006.
 The new 3d sketch functions in 2006 take the ease and flexibility of working in a 3D sketch to the next level. 3d sketch entities now include circle, arcs and squares on the sketch toolbar. The relations options were also boosted up and now include the midpoint relationship, and relations can bee added to the new sketch entities including tangent, concentric, and equal. While you’re in there trying out the new tools check out the sketch planes tool. It will enable you to isolate 2D sketch plane without ever leaving your 3D sketch. While the constraints associated with the 3d sketch tools in 2005 were easily worked around with a little bit of experience, I think the new functionality exceeds everything that users had asked for.
 The new sketch blocks function in 2006 is outstanding. I know that it will change the way that I layout my working assemblies. It will allow you to create blocks that represent components 2 dimensionally check their relationships with one another and then move them to into a assembly and create parts from them. All without missing a beat, and keeping the parametric relationship back to the original. This may very well be my favorite enhancement.
 Hole wizard interface
My first glimpse of the new hole wizard interface and I was hooked. I had put in an enhancement request for this one a while back, and was glad to see that it made it into the release. No more huge pop up box in the way, moving it from corner to corner as I added relationships to sketch points for my hole to be. The new hole wizard interface is exactly what I expected. It puts all of the features that SolidWorks users are used to working with right into the property manager, a interface that SolidWorks users are already accustomed to.
In the SolidWorks 2005 release we received spline tools that made working with splines much easier. The spline handles, offset tools, and the ability to constrain to curvature were huge. The additions to 2006 are no different. Control polygons allow us to make minute changes and find the perfect curve shape that we are looking for. And the ability to dimension the tangency angle and the tangency magnitude means that once I find that perfect shape that it will stay put.
- Mates in multi body parts
Positioning solid bodies in part files has never been easier. The new mate tools makes this quick and easy. We already use mate tools in he assembly file, and now we duplicate that interface to move and orientate the bodies that comprise a multi body part. They work exactly the same even when it comes to editing.
 Smart components
The new smart components feature is amazing. A little time up front, and your library features come to life. Changing sizes (per your specifications), adding related components, and building mounting features after being inserted. This brings library parts to the next level. I can only imagine what this is going to do to parts on 3D content central. This is going to be awesome.
- Sheet metal notes and tables
 The 2006 sheet metal environment got a face-lift, adding new features and enhancing the old. The most notable changes are the addition of bend notes and gauge tables. The 2006 bend notes can be optionally added to a drawing, showing bend direction, angle and bend radius. Sheet metal gauge tables allow you to layout specific criteria about materials that you are using, gauges that can be used, and viable bend radii. Not to mention the enhancements to the rip command, the edge flange tool, and the new and improved closed corners.
This has to bee one the enhancements that I have been waiting for through the last couple of releases. I use spell check on everything, and now I can use it on my SolidWorks documents as well. What is even better is the fact the I can use my existing dictionaries from other applications.
We now also have the ability to use the new text-in-a-box function. It allows you to use word wrapping based on a control box. This will make several function much easier. Imagine those notes that are linked to a custom property. If the property gets too long in 2005 the text may run off the page, but if has a control box it will automatically wrap to the next line, and your text will stay put.
- Display states, appearance callouts, and the display pane
2006 introduces a cha nge in the way that we are able to look at our assemblies. Display states allow us to save different views of our assembly model. The display pane allows us to quickly change and configure the display of components in any display state. In 2005 we had the options hide/show and suppress/unsuppress. 2006 takes that a step further and allows us to change the display state of each individual component. The means that I can have the outer components of my assembly set to hidden lines removed and all of the internal components sets to shaded with edges. This will allow us to work on internal components and still see the space constraints of the outer parts. Of course one display state just wouldn’t be enough, SolidWorks 2006 lets us save as many of these as we want, letting us simplify the assembly and show only the area or components that wee need to see.
Appearance callout work in the part file. One of the problems that this solves is an issue that I see come up time and again in the tech support area. Is the color that I am seeing on the part attached to the entire part, just that feature, or just that face. Appearance callouts pops up a small box with a leader to the selected face showing what color or texture is applied to the part, feature, and face that you have selected. It doesn’t get much easier than that, click on the face that you are unsure about, and SolidWorks tells you every color and texture on the part and what it is applied to.
The 3D drawing views in 2006 is a tool that I think will be used by advance SolidWorks users and beginners alike. The tool allows you to take any 2D drawing view and rotate it. Not only can you rotate it, but also use tools such as hide/show, and add user defined views. It allows for quick and easy selection of models edges that are hard to see or select.
My honorable mention for this release is the design checker
Insures structure and standards in drawing documents as well as company standards in part and assembly documents. This tool incorporates 34 different checks for my drawing document. Everything from standards, to text size, even the ability to check for the presence of custom properties.
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