DWGEditor? 2D Editor? DraftSight? Are you confused?

Let’s start with the basics.

What is DWGeditor?
DWGeditor has been around for about 6 years. DWGeditor functionality enables you to edit and create native DWG files in a familiar user interface, so that you don’t have to maintain a seat of AutoCAD when choosing to use SolidWorks as your primary 3D design software tool.

DWGeditor uses native DWG files. It is compatible with AutoCAD file versions 2.5 to the latest release. DWGeditor has a familiar user interface for AutoCAD users. It is provided and maintained as part of SolidWorks design software. SolidWorks customers receive 3 licenses of DWGeditor for every license of SolidWorks on subscription support.

What is 2D Editor?
Starting with SolidWorks 2010 SP3, DWGeditor has been re-packaged and is now titled SolidWorks 2D Editor.

I’m pleased to announce DS SolidWorks Corporation is performing a customer satisfaction survey again in 2010. The results of this survey are extremely important to us.

As always, Symmetry Solutions encourges your feedback and welcomes ways we can improve your customer experience. At any time feel free to contact us and please, before completing the survey, if there is anything you can not enter as a positive experience contact us so we may try to help you.

DS SolidWorks Corp has again commissioned NetReflector, an independent marketing firm to conduct the survey via email. For the second straight year I am able to provide a URL in case you missed the email (probably due to spam filters).

Survey URL: http://vp-nri.com/take?i=159476&h=MEf8rKEK5hUKG1a0gFkVhA

When using the meta-properties in 3DVIA that are coming from the Custom Properties in SolidWorks files, be aware how 3DVIA deals with capitalization of the property names.

While SolidWorks and Windows Explorer don’t see the difference between DESCRIPTION, Description, and description (as long as they are all spelled the same), 3DVIA see these as three different properties. Therefore if your BOM only lists DESCRIPTION and some of the actors have one of the other two variations of the word, that cell in the BOM will be blank.  So it is important to verify that the Custom Properties are consistent.

One frequent request that comes across my desk, is how to perform a clean uninstallation of SolidWorks.  SolidWorks installs too many locations on a user’s local disk drive.  When a user uninstalls SolidWorks, a lot of these folders are retained on the system and you can end up with unnecessary or duplicate folders.  Also, at times a SolidWorks installation can become corrupt and it may be necessary to completely wipe SolidWorks from the systems registry and start fresh.

SolidWorks 2010 will be the last release to include PhotoWorks. PhotoView 360 will be its replacement and the photorealistic solution for SolidWorks software.

So what is PhotoView 360?

Product Description
PhotoView 360 makes the creation of stunning photorealistic images as simple as a single mouse click. It establishes SolidWorks as the leader in rendering technology. PhotoView 360 comes as part of SolidWorks Premium, SolidWorks Professional or SolidWorks Office.

Positioning
PhotoView 360 is a new photorealistic rendering application for users who need to quickly create stunning images with as little as a single mouse click.

Technology Overview
The PhotoView 360 renderer is a fast standalone ray‐tracer that uses High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI) for photorealistic lighting. It is highly scalable on multi‐core systems, delivering nearly linear speedups as more processors are added. It supports full associativity with SolidWorks in the areas of assembly instancing, and the accurate transfer of RealView appearances.  PhotoView 360 was first released as part of SolidWorks 2009 SP1.

To view a gallery of rendered images, go to http://www.solidworksgallery.com/