Siemens Digital Industries Software has released version 2022 of its Solid Edge software, which includes enhancements such as: automation capabilities for rule-based embedded design, improved capabilities for using point cloud data, meshes, or data imported from other software without the need for transcoding, new tools for machining with 2.5-axis mills, and finally, ultra-efficient functions for immediate fluid dynamics simulation.
Solid Edge, part of Siemens' Xcelerator product portfolio, is an intuitive product development platform designed to speed up all aspects of product creation, including 3D design, simulation, visualisation, manufacturing and project management.
Below is a summary of the main new features in Solid Edge 2022.
The new Solid Edge Configurator for embedded designs now includes rule-based automation and allows products to be quickly customised based on design parameters and rules, enabling both significant time savings and the capture and reuse of intellectual property within intelligent models.
Solid Edge Classic, Foundation and Premium versions now include 2.5 axis CAM Pro milling control functions for customers with a maintenance contract. These fully integrated features maintain full association with design data and allow automatic generation of tool movements, along with simulation of the milling operation, to facilitate the creation of fully optimised operations.
New CAD Direct capabilities allow data to be inserted with third-party formats without the need for transcoding and still maintain associativity. Solid Edge 2022 continues to integrate Siemens' advanced convergent modeling technology, which allows users to combine b-rep and mesh geometry within the same model, again without conversion, increasing the usefulness of mesh data and reducing product modeling time. In addition, it is now possible to use point cloud type data directly within Solid Edge, in full colour depth, for visualisation purposes. This is particularly useful, for example, when retrofitting factories or plants, as it allows project equipment to be placed in the context of point clouds.
Solid Edge 2022 is available through Xcelerator as a Service, a service that provides access to Siemens' next-generation cloud-based collaboration solution, which includes Xcelerator Share, an application that adds design-oriented functionality to the Solid Edge collection (such as 3D/2D CAD design visualisation and markup), features to support augmented reality, and secure data sharing with project-level profiling.
Assembly modeling is always a critical aspect of projects, and Solid Edge version 2022 contains the third consecutive release of functional enhancements related to this topic. The new assembly preview mode reduces the amount of data to load, while the multi-body assembly modeling mode provides a new environment dedicated to modeling internal components within the context of an assembly file. In addition, to assist in the frequent need to locate particular 'hard-to-find' components, the new component search tool provides users with intuitive search modes featuring auto-complete filters and suggested values.
Finally, Solid Edge 2022 also introduces Simcenter Flomaster software for Solid Edge, which includes simplified functionality for analysing thermal and fluid flows within pipelines. Extracting system-wide models from 3D models greatly reduces preparation time by up to 90%. The tool's built-in wizards help new users to quickly achieve the desired results, while keeping even the most advanced and complex features, such as the simulation of fast dynamic events or pressure peaks, accessible to experienced users.
Comments
"We've beenworking alongside our customers, listening to their feedback, and based on that experience we've designed Solid Edge 2022 in a way that helps them grow their businesses," said John Miller, senior vice president of Mainstream Engineering at Siemens. "The innovations introduced in Solid Edge 2022 ensure further enhanced support of modern product development and manufacturing processes, with the goal of enabling our user community to accomplish more with the resources they have available, as well as enabling new ways of working that foster the growth of innovation in the enterprise."
