Alignex Blog

Are your modeling abilities a cut above the rest? Every year at SOLIDWORKS World design engineers from around the country test their skills and compete during a live Model Mania Contest. In 2015, Alignex customer Nick Vande Waerdt from Kooima won 1st place at SOLIDWORKS World. 

This year at our Minneapolis , we thought we’d have a little competition of our own!

SOLIDWORKS Simulation speeds up the process to find creative breakthroughs for your products, giving you greater insight to your design and improving productivity. With the newest release of SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2017, users not only have access to new tools with enhanced usability, but also have access to those virtual analysis tools with a quarterly or annual licensing option.

With more core power and performance, and new capabilities for emerging technologies, it’s never been easier to design and create with SOLIDWORKS. Here is just one of our favorite new additions in SOLIDWORKS 2017.

Have you been thinking about upgrading your Windows operating system but putting it off? Well, you better hurry because time is running out to get it for free. If you’re a Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 customer, be sure to complete your upgrade before the offer expires on July 29, 2016.

Your best SOLIDWORKS resource is just a click away.

So, you’re using SOLIDWORKS but not taking advantage of MySolidWorks? If so, you’re really missing out on one of the best free resources that SOLIDWORKS has to offer. From free training and online storage to easy access to a full manufacturers network and comprehensive user forum, MySolidWorks can really become one of a designer’s best tools.

At SOLIDWORKS World 2016 last month, the SOLIDWORKS Education team launched a new way get kids interested in STEM - SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids.

For anyone who has struggled to select the correct face of a component while mating, there is a new feature to help. Whether we’re trying to find the face on the assembly or the component to mate, there is a new Component Preview Window in SOLIDWORKS that was noted as one of the top new features in SOLIDWORKS 2016. It can aid in tricky mating situations such as odd angle insertions or just out-of-view geometry. This can be used with any component in an assembly or subassembly.

In SOLIDWORKS 2016, there are some useful new features to help in moving and placing parts. For instance, selecting all identical components at once can help for a configuration change or utilizing automatic transparency for mating. These allow for a more seamless workflow. But what if you want to copy multiple components at once and retain their mates? This year in SOLIDWORKS 2016, they have furthered the copy functionality to include mates between multiple components on copy and paste.

Just a reminder, Windows 10 Home and Windows To Go editions are not supported operating systems for SOLIDWORKS.

Since the release of SOLIDWORKS 2016, there have been a lot of questions surrounding hardware requirements, optimal RAM, video cards and more. To ensure you are always working with a SOLIDWORKS supported and optimized system, use these tips from the Alignex technical staff. Though these recommendations are a good starting point for spec’ing out a SOLIDWORKS machine, it is always a good idea to conduct your own hardware/software tests before purchasing any workstation, computer hardware or video card for SOLIDWORKS.