Solid.Edge.ST8.MP08.Update
Solid Edge ST8 has been available for a little while, but I wanted to touch the high points a bit after having attended Solid Edge University 2015 recently. ST8 was not a big release in terms of new tools, but consistent with the company dedication to its users, the release comes with numerous user requests fulfillment, and a few twists making it a great release overall.
Dan Staples, Vice President of Mainstream Engineering at Siemens PLM joined by Craig Ruchti, Global Technical Business Team, presented the enhancements this year at Solid Edge University 2015, noting the software enhancements were divided among three captions:
Uniquely Powerful
Access Unleashed
User Experience
Note: Craig performed the entire ST8 demonstration from a Microsoft Surface 4 Pro.
Solid Edge ST8: Design Intent
That’s the phrase for “kiss Live Rules interface goodbye”. Live Rules are the maintained geometric relationships within the synchronous modeling environment, were conditions such as parallelism and concentricity are maintained during the editing process. That synchronous functionality is still there, but the big panel type UI has been discarded, in favor of a streamlined Design Intent dialog.
Solid Edge ST8 Design Intent by Siemens PLM
The reason for doing so was to aid new adoption of the software. New users often felt that the learning curve of using the old UI was too steep. Personally, I feel that there was nothing wrong with the old UI, you simply need to get used to it. Not only did the old UI tell you what was actively going on, it told you what wasn’t, and offered immediate access to turning these constraints on and off.
The new UI is however substantially cleaner; a sharper, more straightforward appearance. Rather than using a panel/icon approach as in the past, the expanding dialog is easy to read immediately for new users. The greatest benefit there is the clean sharp look, and that the dialog tells you only what is relevant to the current activity. The Hotkeys for adding and removing relationships are still present in interface.
Matt Lombard notes that the old “Live Rules” interface is still available through the Advanced Options at the lower side of the Design Intent dialog. Matt’s Design Intent post on Siemens PLM Community
Solid Edge ST8: Like Me Pattern Recognition in Synchronous
ST8 Synchronous can now recognize patterns of almost anything, rectangular and circular, including random geometries. In one demonstration, they imported a geared lever, wherein the gear tooth pattern was discovered automatically. One feature I thought was interesting was that not only was the pattern found, but also the gear teeth that would have been suppressed by the presence of the lever.
Product:Solid edge ST8,MP08 Update
Lanaguage:english
Platform:Win7/WIN8
Size:1CD