Someone new approaches you at a party. They ask: “So, what do you do?”

The answer is never as easy as it feels like it should be, right?

For many of us, this is probably the case. I consider myself included. If I were to tell you I’m an “Industry Process Consultant,” I’d be really surprised if any party-goer could guess what my role here truly entails.

Well, this isn’t a party – it’s a tech blog post! And for the purposes of this technical article, let’s go with the simplified explanation of what you’re about to see: SOLIDWORKS CAD and CAE presentations by tech people who work here. 🙂

SOLIDWORKS LIVE Design is a YouTube-based livestream program we run here, showcasing the best tips, tricks, and how-to’s from both SOLIDWORKS users and employees here at Dassault Systèmes. Within this blog article, you’ll get a snapshot of 6 of our most recent episodes for your viewing pleasure.

1) The Designer’s Guide to the SOLIDWORKS API

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1bzeO5eU8c

In this episode, we truly explore the ‘when, where, and why’ of the SOLIDWORKS API. If you’re wholly unfamiliar, an API is an Application Programming Interface. From the SOLIDWORKS standpoint, it’s code that points to libraries that allows you to script and program actions that leverage SOLIDWORKS operations in the interest of automation, generally. If you’ve ever thought, “Is learning to code with the SOLIDWORKS API worth my while? What might that look like?”, this episode is for you!

2) The Art of Watchmaking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0IoX7xkFdk

Some episodes of SOLIDWORKS LIVE Design are entirely based on software instruction. Some of based entirely on showcasing how one of us moved through a project. Some are both. Within this episode, Andrew Gross shows off the gear systems within his watch in a way that any mechanically-minded user will find appealing and informative.

3) My Top 10 Favorite SOLIDWORKS Enhancements

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicUE7zeFEo

Disclosure: I work on the Digital Technical Sales and Marketing team for 3DEXPERIENCE Works (which includes, you guessed it, SOLIDWORKS!). We are in charge of the software introduction materials for SOLIDWORKS. If you’ve ever watched “What’s New” videos, that was us! Mark Peterson has been around for several “What’s New” seasons. This must-watch episode showcases 10 of his favorite enhancements from recent releases.

4) Simulation-Based 3D Design

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6001OP_pATY

How do the pros use modern FEA tools to inform their designs and design changes? Using real world examples (actually, you probably have one in your pocket: a smartphone), Peter and Shreyas look at how 3DEXPERIENCE Works Simulation software can help SOLIDWORKS users (designing within SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD or an xApp like xDesign in a browser) test their solid models under various conditions.

5) How to Manufacture Parts in 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG7BGkBJhKg

Additive and subtractive experts Chris MacBain and Noah Zeiff (also of the Digital Technical Sales and Marketing team) conduct a very fun exercise: offering many examples of parts and their use cases and asking/answering the question of whether ‘additive’ or ‘subtractive’ would be the appropriate technology, given the physical and business use cases. If you have 30-40 minutes and want to have some fun while testing your know-how in this area, this is a great episode to watch!

6) Multibody Modeling in SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E0KgyQez-w

Due to the file sets in use here, we teased the episode as being about multibody ‘remodeling.’ Brian Zias tackles home remodeling challenges in this episode, with an instructive eye towards educating the audience on multibody part modeling techniques that stem beyond weldments into many different types of use cases.

Be sure to subscribe to our SOLIDWORKS YouTube channel for more livestream content and check out www.live.solidworks.com for more information on previous and upcoming streams.

SOLIDWORKS

Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. offers complete 3D software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. SolidWorks products are easy to learn and use, and work together to help you design products better, faster, and more cost-effectively. The SolidWorks focus on ease-of-use allows more engineers, designers and other technology professionals than ever before to take advantage of 3D in bringing their designs to life.