This coming Thursday on the 11th of February at 3pm we are conducting an exciting webinar. SolidWorks can be applied to the furniture industry or to any industry using wood products. Highlights of this webinar include using SolidWorks standard features for building up wooden frames, using Library Features for wood joining methods and the use of Smart Components for mechanically fastening furniture. Once a standard design is completed, SolidWorks’ parametric capabilities can help you create similar designs very quickly. After attending the webinar users will be provided a link to download a special furniture design library. To sign up, go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/938107521
In SolidWorks 2010, there is a new option relating to creating new in-context components in an assembly that may reduce the blood pressure of many SolidWorks users. The new option is “Save new components to external files”. If selected, SolidWorks prompts you to name and save new in-context components to external files, like it used to prior to SolidWorks 2008. If cleared, saves new in-context components in the assembly file as virtual components. I can go on and on about Virtual components and how useful they are, but I will save that for another post.
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Posted by CAPINC author Michael LaFleche in SolidWorks
Tagged Assembly, SolidWorks, Virtual Components
Tagged Assembly, SolidWorks, Virtual Components
In working with one of my clients today, I discovered a hidden gem within SolidWorks Flow Simulation CFD software. My client asked me if we could walk around the model and probe temperatures at certain locations, like you can in SolidWorks Simulation FEA software. The answer is yes. But the tool is well hidden.
With the Probe tool you can see the values of parameters by moving the pointer over Cut Plots and Surface Plots in the graphics area. You can also create callouts showing the values of parameters at the selected point of the plot. Click Flow Simulation, Results, Probe Mode, Probe, or In the Flow Simulation analysis tree, right-click the Results icon and select Probe.
This activates the probe mode. In probe mode the pointer changes to and shows the parameter value at the point of a Cut Plot or Surface Plot, which is under the pointer at the moment. Move the pointer over the plot. You can see how the parameter value changes across the plot. You can create a callout with the parameter value by clicking at the desired point when the probe mode is active. To exit the probe mode, click Flow Simulation, Results, Probe Mode, Probe or in the Flow Simulation analysis tree, right-click the Results icon and select Probe. Once the probe callout is created, you can double-click it to select parameters, which values in this point are shown at the callout. Also, many other options are available by right-click on the probe callout.
I thought they did a great job with this tool. Give it a shot! If you do not have SolidWorks Flow Simulation, contact us for a live demo at your leisure.
Each year, SolidWorks asks you to vote on the top ten enhancements you would like to see in a future release of the software. They introduced a new Brainstorm tool for SolidWorks World 2009, and they have brought it back for 2010. It lets you submit your favorite enhancement ideas, and allows other SolidWorks users to vote on what they think is the most important. After the voting is complete, the top ten list will be unveiled at SolidWorks World, the biggest SolidWorks event of the year. I made sure to add my favorite enhancement relating to Flow Simulation. Log on and check it out at http://www.solidworks.com/sw/communities/2010_topten.htm.
21Jan10
I’ve got the power!
In my webcast today on Event-Based Simulation I showed how SolidWorks revolutionizes the way controls and CAD modeling work together. This approach allows you to directly integrate your models with the behaviors you desire, bringing mechanical and electrical design to the forefront while maintaining machine controls flexibility. EBS accomplishes this in a novel way: instead of defining specific times for events, you can start and stop each event in relation to one another. This translates into major savings. Companies can make and modify products in simulation rather than after manufacturing and can avoid a costly rework of the design process.
During today’s webcast I discovered how you can extract detailed quantities relating to components in the design. For example when an simulation is running, you can choose the “results” button on the MotionManager toolbar and then choose a motor component in the MotionManager tree. The selection choices are myriad to say the least. One selection most machine designers are concerned with is Power Consumption, so that they can pick the right sized motor or actuator to handle the movement of a component.
Another possibility is running a static stress analysis during and event-based simulation run. A user can choose to run the static analysis on one or more components during the event simulation. Users can specify if they want to run the simulation during the entire motion run (which may take a while) or choose to run the static study during a small portion of the motion run, during a critical time. This critical time can of course be found by adding a “result” plot to the component in question and running the static study only during the peak of acceleration or power consumption. To learn more, please contact us here at CAPINC.
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Posted by CAPINC author Michael LaFleche in Simulation
Tagged Event-Based Simulation, Simulation, SolidWorks
Tagged Event-Based Simulation, Simulation, SolidWorks
I just ran a webinar that shows how BOM’s created in SolidWorks CAD software are passed intact to EPDM, reducing rework. “Named” BOMs, which can be used beyond the engineering organization, are now associated with the SolidWorks assembly. This means that if a designer changes a part, the BOM is automatically updated. In addition, named BOMs can now be automatically exported to XML format for fast and accurate data transfer to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
13Jan10
Create a new view in a Drawing
Have you ever wanted to to change the orientation of a view in a drawing after you have inserted a view? There is a little know function that allows a user to rotate / pan or zoom in a model view in a drawing. Typically one can use this function to add a dimension to a hidden feature. When you choose the OK button, it then reverts back to the original view position. However, if you want to save the view’s rotated state, use our old friend the space bar to invoke the old school view dialog box. Here, you can save the view orientation, choose the OK check mark and then change the view from the current view to the new view that you just saved. Cool huh? Click the following link for a video: new_view_drawing
12Jan10
Be a CTRL Freak: Part 2
One of my customers contacted me and gave me a great CTRL key tip when it concerns the user interface. It turns out that you can add a toolbar on top of docked toolbars without docking it, just hold the “CTRL” down and drag any toolbar from graphical area to the empty area of a docked toolbar and voila – it’s on top of it without affecting anything else. I thought this to be a cool tip for those toolbar mavens out there…
Have you ever wanted to have a nice equal mitre cut on the corner of a weldment? This is possible since SolidWorks provides tools to group weldment profiles together in one feature. The try this out yourselves, create a 3DSketch of your frame structure, insert a weldment feature, then insert a structural member. Select the top two consecutive edges in the 3DSketch and choose “Mitre” as the corner treatment option. Then, choose the “New Group” option and select the vertical member. You will notice that the default is the make a flat cut up to the mitered cut above it. This is fine on many weldments. But if there is a special situation where you need an equal mitre cut for rigidity’s sake, you have the option to choose from multiple corner treatment types. While you are still in the structural member setup, you will notice a blue dot on the corner of your weldment preview on your screen. Click the blue dot and you will be presented with a box. Here, change the “Trim Order” from “1″ to “2″ and gawk in amazement! you now have an equal mitre cut!
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11Jan10
What’s new in CircuitWorks 2010?
“To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past.” – Charles Givens. How true, but where do we begin on our quest to design the next generation of products and solutions that we all depend upon? How do you consider the mechanical and the electronic parts of your designs when you tackle a new project? Do you think of the electronics at the very get go? Do you know nearly all products contain some amount of circuitry? Even with this staggering amount of cables, transistors, chips and circuit boards, many CAD designs do not incorporate this information into the digital definition of their model. It may be the fault of the CAD developers not integrating the electrical/electronic side of things with the mechanical side, as they are typically produced by completely different companies.
I think we are getting closer though… If you own SolidWorks Premium, you have the CircuitWorks add-in. This is a product that has been around the SolidWorks community for quite some time developed by a group of Brits called “Zeal Solutions” as a gold partner solution. Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp purchased this company a couple years ago now and they have given the product some great new features on top of what has already been in place for years.
The CircuitWorks user interface has been enhanced to better integrate with SolidWorks. For example, the CircuitWorks feature tree is now available in SolidWorks. Also, CircuitWorks can now update an assembly that is open in SolidWorks when you make minor changes in CircuitWorks such as adding, deleting, or moving components. Previously, CircuitWorks rebuilt the entire assembly for any change. A huge new improvement for companies that modeled their PCB in SolidWorks without the aid of CircuitWorks is the ability to import SolidWorks assemblies that represented a PCB and add it to the CircuitWorks database, so that there more design reuse and less overhead. Finally, the CircuitWorks reader for Mentor Graphics® PADS ASCII (.asc) now imports files faster and supports plated holes.
One more thing that I would like to add is the fact the you can use CircuitWorks as a viewing application. Simply create a shortcut to C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks\CircuitWorksFull\circuitworks.exe and place it on your desktop or wherever you please. This will open the CircuitWorks Viewer, where you can open PADS and IDF format files without converting them to SolidWorks documents. You can even compare 2 PCB designs here and it will highlight the differences.
Please contact us here at CAPINC if you have more questions on CircuitWorks. We will be featuring this product in an upcoming webcast on Thursday March 11, 2010 at 3pm. Keep an eye out for it at the CAPINC seminar page. I will post a tweet about it as soon as we have a signup link ready to go.
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Posted by CAPINC author Michael LaFleche in SolidWorks
Tagged CircuitWorks, ECAD, PCB, SolidWorks
Tagged CircuitWorks, ECAD, PCB, SolidWorks