If you’ve ever been involved in a brainstorming session, then you’ve likely gone through the experience of sketching up your concept on a whiteboard or piece of paper, wishing that you could quickly convert it into a CAD model. Lucky for you, now there’s an app for that! SOLIDNAPKIN 2019 allows you to digitize your sketch and turn it into a SolidWorks part or even an assembly. You can put the parts created from your sketch into existing models, allowing you to quickly test design concepts without having to sink substantial time into modeling those parts. Not only can you insert it into existing parts and assemblies, but it will even wrap to the surface. When importing the sketches, it gives you the option to use a reference dimension which then creates the rest of your part in scale. It also has the option to draw directly onto a digital napkin allowing you to be prepared whenever an idea may present itself.

By applying NAPKINEMATICS™, you can add pin joints, sliders, etc. to make your parts into a fully functional moving assembly. With the proper SolidWorks add-ins, you can even apply physics and carry out simulations. This offers the potential for saving significant amounts of time. Rather than modeling multiple concepts and carrying out simulations on them all, you can quickly sketch up the concepts test them, and spend more time modeling the most successful concept for further testing. This is the beginning of a technology that could even further streamline design using CAD software. Watch this concept in action below.

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