Quick! Switch your screen from the SolidWorks model of your house back to the spreadsheet that updates Mr. Manager coming round the corner on your task status.

Yep, you know what I’m talking about. Modeling your house in SolidWorks. Many have done it in their ‘spare time’. Or, maybe you actually work for a architect who models building with SolidWorks. Even better. I was a 5 day horse ride away from becoming an architect, so this topic is near the top of my “list of cool things I like to scream about into a fake microphone.”

Way back when I started this post, I saw a video from Deelip on Dassault’s Live Buildings. Then he post about Designing Building with SolidWorks yesterday. There are people doing it. We’ve touched on using SolidWorks for Architecture more than a couple times. But, what about the big stuff? We may be seeing more come out of SolidWorks and specifically Dassault as their V6 tech, their community and their collaboration tools find it’s way into SolidWorks.

Building in SolidWorks

Here’s an example of one building I started work on. An aircraft hanger. I was able to get a lot of the main structure, but eventually, the amount of patterns brought it to a crawl. I don’t have the best system, so I’d probably be able to do a lot more than what’s shown. I’d definitely approach it differently the next time.

If you see Deelip’s post, and the example a reader sent him, larger buildings with more detail are definitely possible.

When will better architecture tools come to SolidWorks?

Tuesday… or maybe the week after. Who knows really. Whenever it is though, many a SolidWorks user will be very happy. We’ll start to see sprinkling of V6 tech later this year with SolidWorks Product Data Sharing (PDS). From what supposition and wild-ass guesses I can stitch together, I imagine we’ll see a complete integration with the Dassault modeling kernel when it hits V7. A completely collaborative platform that integrates every aspect of the Dassault product line, including something special they showed off at the SwYm conference a few weeks back, Live Buildings. It’s Dassault’s take on conceptual building design. If you’re familiar with Google SketchUp or 3DVia Shape, it’ll remind you of those. Here’s the video.

So it’s coming people, sooner or later.

Oh, and I know there are some of you who do a lot of interior and architecture type stuff in SolidWorks. Maybe you do building, stadiums, houses or farms. If you do, I’d love to feature your work and show people the possibilities. You can contact me here.

Author

Josh is founder and editor at SolidSmack.com, founder at Aimsift Inc., and co-founder of EvD Media. He is involved in engineering, design, visualization, the technology making it happen, and the content developed around it. He is a SolidWorks Certified Professional and excels at falling awkwardly.