Weldment AutoRotate and translations (+22 improvements)

Last month we introduced Drew version 1.6.

Back then we added portrait versions for standard paper sizes, along with quick access to the settings window.

This month we are making it way quicker to start with Drew.

Version 1.7 can be downloaded now. It also supports SOLIDWORKS-installations in German, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. This is a great start towards supporting all 14 languages that SOLIDWORKS supports.

Get a running start thanks to the Welcome Wizard

You want to get started as quickly as possible when you are trying out new software.

Previous versions of Drew asked to change all kinds of settings. Just at the moment that you don’t really know what these settings actually mean.

That is why we replaced our Style Capture Wizard with the greatly simplified Welcome Wizard.

The new Getting Started

Activating a license is done within a few seconds, whether you start a free trial or already have purchased a license.

Creating Company Styles will also take you less than a minute. Just drag the Sheet Formats that you would like to use to the right and Drew will create Company Styles for you. We just ask you to check if we bundled the Sheet formats correctly and if the names of the Company Styles are correct. That is all you need to do.

Drag a folder or sheet format to the right to create Company Styles

Do you prefer to do a deep dive into the settings? We offer you this option when you finish the wizard.

Four extra languages

SOLIDWORKS can be installed in 14 languages that include French, German, Polish and Korean. Until now Drew was only available in English, but our customers started asking for more languages.

That is why we added support for four languages:

• Brazilian Portuguese
• German
• French
• Spanish

We did not translate the whole user interface yet, but all functionality for creating views that used translations works as well as the English version now.

We will add support for more languages soon, as well as a completely translated user interface.

Weldment views automatic rotation

SOLIDWORKS makes it really easy to build up a frame using standard profiles. Making drawings of these weldments is a pretty boring and tedious job though. That is why Drew can automatically add a sheet with views for each unique weldment body.

I want to say: Go try it for yourself. It feels great to see ten or more sheets with views just appear out of nowhere.

In this version, we extended Drew’s weldment capabilities.

Say you have a weldment that is set at 45 degrees in your model. If you add three standard views to your drawing, like in the left image below, none of the three views is really useful.

In the image on the right, you see the views you get with the latest version of Drew. The rightmost views show the profile of the beam and the other two views showed the sawed out shape: every view is useful now.

Drew searches for the best orientation for your weldment views. Do you use a landscape sheet? Then Drew shows two horizontal beam views and the profile on the right. Views will be oriented vertically when you use a portrait sheet.

Don’t want to use all these software smarts? You can turn them off per Company Style.

Improved support for older Windows installations

Microsoft .NET is a framework (a collection of basic functionality) for Windows and other operating systems. Drew uses .NET so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time.

Previous versions of Drew required Microsoft .NET version 4.7.1.

Some of our users have an older installation of Windows 10 though, and the newest available version is .NET version 4.6.2.

From this version on, Drew only requires .NET 4.6.2. So now it can be used on all PCs with Windows 7, 8 and 10 from the last few years.

Further improvements

The list below shows a few more improvements that we made. Not all of them are visible, but they are there nevertheless.

• When you canceled a new drawing in previous versions, we showed a Drew popup. From now on, Drew uses the standard SOLIDWORKS popup that every user recognizes.
• Company Styles can now contain multiple Sheet Sizes with the same paper size
• When saving the settings file, Drew now backs up the current settings. This allows you to go back manually when you made a mistake.
• Cleaned up the user interface of the Settings and License windows.
• Added quick access buttons for access to the License and Help window.
• Always made weldment and sheet metal buttons visible when the model contains weldment or sheet metal bodies. Previous versions did not show all buttons all the time, which was confusing.

Bug fixes

We and our customers only found two bugs in the last month. We squashed both:

• If the user added a projected view to a Company Style, this was not stored correctly. It does now.
• SOLIDWORKS can ask a user to select a sheet format when adding a sheet. When this was enabled, Drew replaced the sheet format on the current sheet, instead of the new sheet. This now works correctly in all circumstances.

Summary

We added a warmer welcome for new users and improved the user interface for existing users.

Support for four more languages helps us gain more ground all around the world.

We’re making great headway 🙂

Looking forward

For the next version of Drew, we will work on:

• Adding blocks for each weldment sheet that includes relevant info like material, length and profile type
• More options for changing the sheet scale
• An improved method of sharing your settings with your colleagues.