Go with the Flow
Flow simulation is pretty intense stuff. I have been asked if you can set up your SolidWorks Flow Simulation problem on your own workstation and run it on another, without leaving the cozy comfort of your desk. The answer to that question is YES! Users can run the flow simulation on a remote computer [...]
KAP’s Corner: Imaginary Parts
In the world of FEA, sometimes the answer has to be “Right” – and sometimes it has to be “Right Now”. This month’s topic is about getting answers Right Now. Every example I’m going to cover here is a cheat of some kind. Purists, Beware! In each of these examples, the key to the method [...]
Doll-House Techniques (Our Most Popular KAP’s Corner Yet)
Have you read Keith Pedersen’s article on how to build detailed design work on welded tanks, sheet metal enclosures, furniture, cabinets, architectural, etc. – in a single part file. It’s a technique he’s been using and teaching for about 4 years, but never could come up with a good name to describe it. [Click the image [...]
Renaming Configurations
Hey, they have been sneaking a lot of cool things into the SolidWorks service packs during this 2009 release. One of them is the ability to rename configurations. You can rename a configuration in a part or subassembly even when another open document is referencing the configuration. Previously, you had to close the parent document [...]
Hey, You, Get Off Of My Cloud…
A couple of SolidWorks releases ago, the company implemented a new way of licensing software called “Activation”. This will require SolidWorks and Simulation software to be activated each time the software is installed. You can think of an activated license of SolidWorks as a water molecule that is pulled from a central “cloud” in the [...]
My newest custom hotkeys… for Drawings!
I’m a bit of a nonconformist. I like to do things my way. So I guess it’s good that SolidWorks has a lot of customization options. I’m not a big keyboard guy, having grown up in the Mouse Age in terms of CAD, but I’m a big fan of Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Tab to switch applications [...]
Printing to scale, revisited…
If you remember, long ago in a far away place in the land of SolidWorks, one was able to print a drawing selection to scale. The SolidWorks user was whisked to the drawing allowed to move a picture frame on screen to print whatever they wanted to. For some reason this disappeared, for about 6 [...]
SolidWorks Tech Tip: Deleting Things
Most people know that you can delete lines from a sketch, or features from the Solidworks feature Manager, by pre-electing the object(s) and then simply hitting the DELETE key. But did you know, that over the last 4 years, the programmers have enhanced the intelligence behind the DELETE key, allowing it to react differently in [...]
