Following on from my post regarding the Siemens PLM announcement of Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology I wanted to create a series of informative posts that try to illustrate the differences between working in traditional Solid Edge (or any other history based CAD application) and Synchronous based Solid Edge.

This post will show how to create a basic part model and will illustrate how, in Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology the 2D sketching and 3D commands have been unified into one single environment.. The easiest way to try and convey these differences is via a screen recording of a model being created in the two different environments and pointing out the obvious differences along the way.

Traditional History Based Part

The first video you are going to see below is of a simple model being constructed in the Traditional ‘history based’ Solid Edge environment. Here we will see that we need to use specific commands in order to generate the geometry. For example the extrusion command needs to be used in order to add material whereas the cutout command needs to be used in order to remove material.

Then in order to make any kind of edit to the part the underlying sketch or profile must be modified. If dimensions are required to drive the geometry these too must be applied to the 2D profile geometry. Any edits to the model will force the history to be re-computed. This is OK on a simple part but would cause a considerable delay on a more complex part. Take a look at the video below to see this in action

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Synchronous Technology Based Part

Now lets compare the traditional method with how we can construct and edit a part model in Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology. Here we will see that the 2D sketching and 3D feature commands have all been combined into a single environment. Once sketches have been created the regions they form can be simply selected and then pushed or pulled in order to construct the model without accessing any 3D commands. If the region is pulled away from the model it will add material but if it is pushed into the model it will remove material.

Synchronous Technology comes into its own when you start modifying a part. Selecting faces activates the new Steering Wheel which then allows the easy manipulation of the geometry. Whilst doing this – Live Rules handle the changes in any surrounding geometry. If dimensional control is required, PMI dimensions can be added directly to the 3D geometry. There is no need to dimension the original profile that constructed the geometry. The key here too is that any changes that are made do not invoke a re-compute of the models history since the changes are being handled locally. This means that edits can be achieved very fast.

We will be delving into other areas such as the Steering Wheel, Editing and Live Rules in future posts. For now though, please take a look at the video below to see Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology creating the same part.

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