Siemens boosts collaboration and performance with Solid Edge 2023

Siemens Digital Industries Software announced the latest release of Solid Edge software for product design, engineering and manufacturing, bringing a new streamlined user experience, greater interoperability with the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio and greater capability and collaboration across many industry workflows.

“Alongside our work to bring innovative technology and capability to each release of Solid Edge, covering everything from 3D design through advanced CAM and into technical publications, it’s key that we also evolve how we make these capabilities available to our community,” said John Miller, Senior Vice President, Mainstream Engineering Software, Siemens. “We’re now introducing new licensing options designed to better meet the changing business needs of small and medium-sized manufacturers, providing greater flexibility, more value and, with Xcelerator Share, greater collaboration and speed.”

Solid Edge’s new look and feel brings a modern update to include more intuitive ways of working, greater personalization options and improved modeling workflows. Updates to the geometry definition tools in Solid Edge include synchronous technology applied to traditional ordered history-based parts and parts created using convergent modeling (using generative design or from 3D scans) can be used in simulations without the need for additional conversion.

Siemens Xcelerator portfolio

Solid Edge 2023 also unlocks the power of design data while future-proofing customers’ work – data from Solid Edge can be transferred between other solutions in the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, including NX Mechatronics Concept Designer (MCD) and Process Simulate. Solid Edge 2023 also leverages Siemens’ leadership in Model Based Definition (MBD), with a new Solid Edge Advanced PMI add-on that delivers high-quality consistent dimensioning for downstream applications that can take advantage of 3D annotated product data models.

The new Solid Edge Inspector add-on brings tools to automatically identify, label, and extract critical design and manufacturing characteristics for inspection and metrology purposes, automatically generates high-quality inspection data and reports that facilitate communication in downstream manufacturing processes.

Advanced manufacturing capabilities

New advanced manufacturing capabilities include new Roughing for 5-Axis Machining in Solid Edge CAM Pro, a new 4-axis Rotary Machining add-on and new wire EDM functionality. For those working at the leading edge of machining, the new Smart Machine Kits library provides easy access to standardized, professionally built machine simulation kits, enabling machinists to get up and running with full machine simulation in a fraction of the time typically needed.

Software as a Service

Also introduced with Solid Edge 2023, Solid Edge SaaS brings value-based licensing combined with cloud-connected, anywhere access through Xcelerator Share. The new flexible licensing option available through a Solid Edge SaaS subscription allows capabilities to be added when needed, providing access to integrated add-ons for generative design, point cloud visualization, electrical routing, PCB collaboration, advanced simulation and much more. All of these can be easily mixed and matched with a flexible token system.

Meanwhile, product engineering data can be stored securely in the cloud and easily shared by teams and wider value chain, anywhere, anytime, on any device using Xcelerator Share. Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities can be used to see that same data in the context of the real world.