New Interface - This may be where the nerd in me shows through but I am always a fool for a new interface on any program. Something that is fresh and new is always exciting for me. However, now that I am in charge of our CAD system it will bring with it many frustrating moments trying to “teach” my fellow employees where things are, why they changed and so on. Hopefully in the end though the benefits will out weigh the frustrating times it will be worth the change. The new interface looks very nice but it will take some time to get used to on my end also. As with any new major change you will have a lot of time invested into finding where things have moved and so on, but I look forward to the challenge. Overall appeal – 8 out of 10

Feature Search – If you look at the picture on the left and you focus in on the top of the feature tree you will notice a filter icon with a search box next to it. This is possibly the best addition that I have seen thus far on the new release. It is a feature search that allows you to search for features inside your tree. Have you ever had it that you opened a large file that was created by someone else in your organization and they did not rename any of the features in the tree and then you need to find 1 extrude in the tree? I have and therefore I wasted a lot of time trying to find what I was looking for. This feature allows you to start searching for specific features whether they were renamed or not using multiples search filters. It will search as deep as the material specified for a part if you searching inside an assembly file. I see this addition being a tremendous benefit to all SolidWorks users, young and old alike. Overall Appeal – 10 out of 10

Swift Instant3D - This seems that it could be an extremely useful tool with 1 possible major drawback, your computer needs to be able to handle it. The instant 3D feature allows you to change features on your part by simply clicking on a handle and dragging it to wherever you would like. You can turn an extrude into a cut extrude simply by dragging it in the opposite direction. I am however worried that with all of the computing power that I am sure this needs (this is an assumption because I have not actually tried it out myself) it will slow down you system more than what this feature is actually worth. I hope that I am wrong with this assumption however. If it works like a normal feature creation would work I think this could rival the feature search tool as the best addition to the software in 2008. Overall Appeal – 7 out of 10

So now that I have given you my review I urge you to go check out some of the other blogs (see above) and see some other opinions on the new version. As a whole I am really excited to get it and start playing around with it. So the wait begins. Until next time, take it easy and enjoy the summer.