Xdesign: SOLIDWORKS on the cloud, in any web browser

Yes – it’s coming. A NEW, full design product that runs in a web browser, which equals ZERO install.

It’s called Xdesign and you can sign up to be a part of the May 2016 beta team at xdesign.solidworks.com. 

One of the great things about this product is that it’s going to be more than best-in-class sketching, part modeling, assemblies, etc. SOLIDWORKS is also introducing some great new design tools. I’ll mention 3 of my favorites in this post: Design Guidance, Design Branching and Scribble Sketching.

Design Guidance puts the ‘A’ in Computer-Aided Design (CAD). In the following screenshots, we see Xdesign providing some guidance on how to design a bracket for our mobile camera.

We have some known mounting points and some idea of the loading we want it to withstand. 

We then introduce some obstacles and watch Xdesign create an approximate shape with the blue blocks – out of thin air.

We then use that shape as a guide and perhaps even trace over it to create our final design.

Design Branching allows you to design like a mind map – that is, not sequentially.

In the image below, notice how the design branches out of the initial stage and takes on a new direction. Just click, branch and you are ready to go. All the iterations are maintained and tracked by the system!

Finally, Scribble Sketching is going to be necessary if you want to make a quick design sketch on your tablet.

Using your finger as an input device, a squiggly rectangle becomes a neat and clean proper rectangle, as the system recognizes the shape after you draw it and automatically cleans it up for you.

 Xdesign will include other new features like Super Features and Model-Based Design input as well.

To get the latest news and be part of the beta team, sign up at xdesign.solidworks.com.