CAPUniversity » configurations

SolidWorks Tech Tip: Custom Part Numbers in BOM’s

Shuvom Ghose — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:14:24 +0000

Do you know….

You can make your Bill of Materials (BOM) in SolidWorks say whatever you want for the name of a certain part? But the command is not where you think it’d be!

Open the part you want to change, go to the Configurations Tab (no, that’s not a typo) and right click on the current configuration to choose “Properties”.

Change the “Bill of Materials Options” to “User Specified Name”, then enter ANYTHING you want to show as the part number in the BOM:

Use this to make custom internal part numbers, temporary names, or even “Blank” show in your BOMs while leaving your file names unchanged!

Rev Control on Multi-Sheet drawings or Configurations

Michael LaFleche — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:12:00 +0000

Is it possible to Revision Control a SolidWorks or AutoCAD Drawing with multiple sheets with different revisions, versions or workflow states?

The answer to this question is yes, this is possible. The reason to do this is most prevalent on process sheet drawings. A company may execute a workflow that approves each process of making a complicated part, and each process is either a drawing sheet or a configuration in SolidWorks. To check in and manage each sheet of an AutoCAD DWG or a SolidWorks drawing or a part/assembly with configurations, turn on support for “Items” in the Enterprise PDM Admin tool for the document types you need. Make sure you add “Items” support for the document “Category” in the Admin tool as well, then in the EPDM client, you can generate items. Here is a picture that shows the steps and workflow.

Furniture Design with SolidWorks

Michael LaFleche — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:35:25 +0000

SolidWorks has an array of tools for furniture and cabinet design. With SolidWorks “Weldments”, stock wood sizes for creating frame based geometry can be accomplished quickly, with accurate cut lists. Part Library Features for wood joining methods and Smart components for assembling systems with mechanical fasteners make assembling and specifiying a complete job easy. I would like to share with you several example models and libraries that go along with a webcast that I ran recently. To watch, go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/407230368 and you can the full story on furniture and cabinet design with SolidWorks. Here are the example files that I will be demonstrating during the webcast, uploaded to CAPINC’s 3DContentCentral Site. By the way, you can embed and post models to 3DContentCentral too. The link to the woodworking toolset and files used in the GoToMeeting webcast can be downloaded here.

Dining Table Example

Download

Side Table:

Download

Cabinet:

Download

By the way, you can embed and post models to 3DContentCentral too. I will update this post after the webcast with videos of key aspects of woodworking design with SolidWorks.

SolidWorks Enhanced Interrogation Techniques

Michael LaFleche — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:41:40 +0000

SolidWorks provides ways for you to get your assembly models to talk. You don’t even need to bring in Jack Bauer (a shameless and gratuitous “24″ plug). You will find that the SolidWorks AssemblyXpert will come to the rescue when your model is either behaving badly or not at all.

The most common use for the AssemblyXpert in SolidWorks is to ask the assembly how many parts it has. No need for Sodium Pentathol here. Just go to the Tools… pulldown menu or the Evaluate tab in the Command Manager and choose AssemblyXpert. You will then be presented with a host of stats relating to your design.
You will note it spills it’s guts relating to top level components, mates being solved, ect…

I got a great tip from my colleague at CAPINC Al Zullo while he was working with a customer. The customer’s assembly disappeared, all the components in the feature tree were still showing. The zoom to fit command blew the screen to infinity. Once again, we bring in the AssemblyXpert. The tool told us that there was a component “very far away from the origin” and showed a wrench button….click….moved the component into view and the zoom factor fixed itself. He didn’t even need to initiate waterboarding!

Can’t open a SolidWorks Assembly?

Michael LaFleche — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:23:33 +0000

This is an oldie but goodie that I showed to a customer yesterday who was having trouble opening a large assembly. In the SolidWorks File… Open dialog box there is an “Advanced” option when opening an assembly. In Windows XP the option is found in the configuration drop down list. In Windows 7 and Vista, there is a check box called “Advanced”. One you click the “Advanced” button you will be presented with a number of choices relating to configurations. Take a look at the pictures below to see this in detail:
The box above shows how a user can configure their assembly before they even open it. The best option here is to choose “new configuration showing assembly structure only”. This will create a configuration where all the parts and sub-assemblies are suppressed. Enter a name for this new configuration and choose “OK” You will see an assembly with no components resolved. Then you can unsuppress the sub-assemblies that you wish to work with.