About this Book




Introduction

This book highlights and helps you learn the new functionality in the SolidWorks®
2008 software. It introduces concepts and provides step-by-step examples for
many of the new functions.
This book does not cover all details of the new functions in this software release.
For complete coverage, refer to the SolidWorks Help.

Intended Audience
This book is for experienced users of the SolidWorks software and assumes that
you have a good working knowledge of an earlier release. If you are new to the
software, you should read the Quick Start guide, complete the SolidWorks Tutorials
lessons, and then contact your reseller for information about SolidWorks training
classes.

Additional Resources
Interactive What’s New is another resource where you can learn about the new
functionality of the SolidWorks software. Click next to new menu items and the
title of new and changed PropertyManagers to read what is new about the
command. A help topic appears with the text from this manual.

Late Changes
This book might not include all of the enhancements in the SolidWorks 2008
software. Late changes are documented in SolidWorks Release Notes.










SolidWorks 2008 What’s New










xii





Using This Book

Example Files
Use this book with the example part, assembly, and drawing files provided. The
example files are placed in the \samples\whatsnew folder. Because
some of the example files are used with more than one example, they are installed
as read-only to help you avoid overwriting them.
New in SolidWorks 2008: Some procedures are provided in
separate tutorial-like files called Hands-on Examples. If a
section of the this book has a related Hands-on Example, a
hyperlink is provided so you can click to access it.

Conventions Used in this Book


Convention
Bold

Italic






Blue Underlined





















SolidWorks 2008 What’s New


Meaning
Any SolidWorks tool, menu item, or
example file
Refers to books and other documents, or
emphasizes text
Tip

References SolidWorks Help

Hyperlinks to SolidWorks Help or a Hands-
on Example



































xiii





Converting Older SolidWorks Files to SolidWorks 2008
Opening a SolidWorks document from an earlier release might take extra time. After
the file is opened and saved, subsequent opening time returns to normal.
You can use the SolidWorks Conversion Wizard to automatically convert all of your
SolidWorks files from an earlier version to the SolidWorks 2008 format. To access
the Conversion Wizard, click Windows Start, then All Programs, SolidWorks 2008,
SolidWorks Tools, Conversion Wizard.
Two report files are created in the conversion folder:
• Conversion Wizard Done.txt contains a list of files that converted.
• Conversion Wizard Failed.txt contains a list of files that did not convert.

After you convert files to SolidWorks 2008, you cannot open
them in older SolidWorks versions.


































SolidWorks 2008 What’s New


































xiv





1

U s e r I n t e r f a c e





This chapter describes enhancements to the user interface in the following areas:
 Menu Bar
 CommandManager
 FeatureManager® Design Tree
 Tags
 Heads-up View Tools
 Context Toolbars
 Shortcut Toolbars
 Recent Document Browser
 Open Document Browser
 Task Pane
 Flyout Tool Buttons
 Control of Message Display
 Design Clipart
















SolidWorks 2008 What’s New
















1-1


Chapter 1 User Interface

Menu Bar

The SolidWorks 2008 user interface has been redesigned to make maximum use of
space. In addition to the title of the current document, a new Menu Bar contains a
subset of tools from the Standard toolbar, the SolidWorks menus, the SolidWorks
Search oval, and a flyout menu of Help options.

Menu Bar Toolbar
In the default view of the Menu bar, only the toolbar buttons are visible.



You can customize this toolbar in the same way that you customize toolbars in
earlier versions of SolidWorks.
See Customize Commands in the help.

Menu Bar Menus
By default, menus are hidden. To display them, move the mouse over or click the
SolidWorks logo.



To keep the menus visible, pin the menus open.
All menu items are now shown by default. You can customize menus to hide
options you do not use.
See Customize Menus in the help.

SolidWorks Search and Help
The SolidWorks Search oval is now located on the right side of the Menu Bar, along
with a flyout menu of Help options.





The SolidWorks Search tool includes graphics (when available) of the items found
during the search. Search results are shown in the Search view of the Task
Pane. As with Toolbox items, the search items can be dragged into the graphics
area to add to your model. The search results can include items from 3D
ContentCentral® supplier catalogs.



SolidWorks 2008 What’s New



1-2


Chapter 1 User Interface

CommandManager

The CommandManager, when displayed, is always docked above the graphics
area.
Tabs below the left side of the CommandManager let you change the display of
commands: these replace the control area buttons from previous SolidWorks
versions. The tabs that are displayed by default depend on the type of document
open and the work flow customization you have selected.








Customizing the CommandManager
You can customize CommandManager tabs by:
• Adding custom tabs and tool buttons
• Changing tool button labels
• Displaying or hiding tabs
See CommandManager in the help.

Activating SolidWorks Office Add-ins
If you have SolidWorks Office, SolidWorks Office Professional, or SolidWorks Office
Premium, the Office Products tab appears on the CommandManager.
Use the SolidWorks Office flyout to activate SolidWorks Office add-ins installed on
your computer and display their most frequently used commands.

FeatureManager Design Tree

New commands let you control what is displayed in the FeatureManager design
tree.
You can:
• Show or Hide FeatureManager items
• Filter the FeatureManager design tree
In addition, new FeatureManager design tree icons distinguish between variants of
features. For example, mates now have separate icons to denote what type they
are. See Mate Icons in the FeatureManager Design Tree on page 6-9.