SOLIDWORKS Enhancement Vote
It must be very easy being a SOLIDWORKS Product Development Manager nowadays. The users are pretty much doing your job. 
It is that time of the year again, when all SOLIDWORKS users are invited to vote for the Top 10 Enhancement Ideas to be revealed next month at the SOLIDWORKS World 2015 conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
This year the SOLIDWORKS Community was very busy brainstorming and submitting ideas for improving our beloved CAD software. There were almost 1000 ideas submitted and, even more impressive, most of them have many comments and suggestions for clarifying the scope and the implementation workflow.
Some users took the time to read and vote on all 972 ideas and even added comments, but I know that most people are too busy to do that. So I narrowed down the list to only 20 ideas I believe would have a big impact in our productivity when using the core functionality of SOLIDWORKS. I am sure my colleagues who love Simulation or EPDM will list their own suggestions in the following days.
All ideas are linked to the voting page, so just login to my.solidworks.com and click on each of them in order to vote.
Note: I kept the original spelling used by the authors of these ideas.
1. Display the exact item being cause of the error
Can you imagine how much time we will save during troubleshooting if the item causing the error would be clearly highlighted in the graphic area?
2. Selecting inner loops on a selected face
This is huge! At this time if you want to select all the holes in a face for Convert or Offset Entities you have to work hard.
Richard Laflamme and I found a few workarounds for speeding this process (to be demonstrated at SolidWorks World next month during the 12 Different Ways to Create Inter-Part Relations in SOLIDWORKS 2015 presentation - 10:30 AM on February 11th), but adding this functionality would be so much faster and more elegant.
3. Use CUDA or OpenCL for computationally intensive tasks
We have very powerful videocards but SOLIDWORKS uses a tiny fraction of their power. Let’s unleash their potential.
4. Variable Pull direction draft
This is self explanatory and would save a lot of time when creating complex surfaces.
For a bi-directional pattern that has the seed in the center, this will reduce the number of features in half. Great idea, Deepak!
6. Patterns should be able to use normal to planes for directions
Another great time saver for patterns. Eliminate the need to create auxiliary geometry for providing directions.
7. Untrim surface – keep untrimmed portion separate
This is a great idea that would save about 5 features!
8. Automatically Reattach Dangling Dimensions
Another great time saver. Let the software propose the best way to re-attach dimensions and have the user confirm or infirm that.
9. Get the same options when you select mutiple dimensions as when you select a single dimension
Just a great time saver.
10. Unknit surfaces; separate surfaces at edges
I wanted this functionality from the moment I started playing with surfaces and imported geometry.
11. Ability to choose Angle/Distance dimension with Smart Dimension tool
Read the comments, it makes a lot of sense.
12. Need “Motion Envelope” to show volume occupied by bodies/components when moving between positions
We already have this functionality in SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual. A lot of us would welcome its implementation in SOLIDWORKS!
13. Option for Exploded View to auto-create route lines
This is a no-brainer that can be implemented very easy (I assume).
14. Preselecting a slot face should default to a Slot mate
That would save us so much time!
Great time saver and also would make the software more intuitive (beginners have difficulties discovering the current workflow)
16. Optimized spline with minimum max-curvature
If you work with splines, you would love this idea!
17. link Gage value to custom property
So many of my customers are asking for this functionality!!!
18. Add feature dimension(s) to Move/Copy Bodies command
At this time we cannot configure the distance that a body would move. The fix should be simple and I am sure SOLIDWORKS will listen to you!
19. Update Graphics Driver During Version Upgrade
Applications Engineers and IT specialists would cheer and applaud if this will get implemented. Please vote for this idea!
20. Ability to save only the Speedpak configuration
This is one of the most helpful ideas for collaboration between companies I have ever seen. Not only you can protect intellectual property this way, but your customer would still have all the relevant data needed to integrate your components in their assemblies.
Please Vote and encourage your colleagues to read and vote!
The bottom line is: SOLIDWORKS listens to you! Tell SOLIDWORKS what you want!
The post 20 SOLIDWORKS Enhancement Ideas to Vote for! (in case you are too busy to read all 972 submissions) appeared first on SolidWorks Tech Tips, Videos & Tutorials from Javelin.