eDrawings > Measuring & Shading

In SolidWorks eDrawings you can view and animate models and drawings and create documents convenient for sending to others. The default installation has both measuring and shading turned off. You can easily turn these on by doing the following:

1. Open any SolidWorks drawing

2. Select File > Save As

3. In the Save As Type option, select the eDrawings file type

4. Select the Options tab

Turn on measuring and/or shading as required.

Eat all the holiday snacks or “junk food” you want and stay in shape!!!!

Aha I wish! But not exactly! Sorry, I’m talking about sketch geometry.

If you sometimes find it confusing, while working with sketches, that changing sketch dimensions disproportionally reshapes your sketch before you’re ready, here's a tip that you should find helpful.

Turn off “Automatic Solve.” This will allow you to change several dimensions on a sketch without having the sketch geometry automatically update. I find this extremely helpful when I've created complicated profiles that I'm going to use in a sweep or revolve!

See TOOLS - SKETCH SETTINGS - AUTOMATIC SOLVE

Merry Christmas!!!

Simulation Advisor

If you have been too apprehensive to learn how to use analysis tools like Finite Element Analysis (FEA), or, you felt you did not have the time to learn how to use the software for performing such analysis, then you may want to check out the Simulation Advisor in the Solidworks Simulation 2010 release. Simulation Advisor is a set of tools that guide you through the analysis process. By answering a series of questions, these tools collect the necessary data to help you perform your analysis. Simulation Advisor includes:

• Study Advisor. Recommends study types and outputs to expect. Helps you define sensors and creates studies automatically. 
• Bodies and Materials Advisor. Lets you specify how to treat bodies within a part or an assembly and apply materials to components. 
• Interactions Advisor. Defines internal interactions between bodies in the model as well as external interactions between the model and the environment. Interactions can include loads, fixtures, connectors, and contacts. 
• Mesh and Run Advisor. Helps you specify the mesh and run the study. 
• Results Advisor. Provides tips for interpreting and viewing the output of the simulation. Also, helps determine if frequency or buckling might be areas of concern.

Simulation Advisor works with the SolidWorks Simulation interface by starting the appropriate Property Managers and linking to online help topics for additional information. Simulation Advisor leads you through the analysis workflow from determining the study type through analyzing the simulation output. By following the workflow, you use, depending on your requirements, each of the individual Advisors.

To start the Simulation Advisor, click Study (Simulation CommandManager). The Simulation Advisor tab appears in the Task Pane.

To access individual advisors: 

• Click Study (Simulation CommandManager) to access the Study Advisor. 
• Click Fixtures (Simulation CommandManager) to access the Fixtures section of the Interactions Advisor. 
• Click External Loads (Simulation CommandManager) to access the Loads section of the Interactions Advisor. 
• Click Connections (Simulation CommandManager) to access the Connections section of the Interactions Advisor. 
• Click Results (Simulation CommandManager) to access the Results Advisor.

Just Another Face in the Crowd?

Very often designers and engineers create multiple versions of a particular design to look at different options or design alternatives. Keeping these different versions seperate AND knowing their differences can quickly become a problem. SolidWorks has tools for very quickly and easily comparing two design documents against each other.

SolidWorks can compare the two documents, their features or their respective geometry and immediately return a graphic analysis of the results which can be saved as a PDF and printed. You can even compare the BOM's of similar assemblies! In just a few seconds both models are displayed dividing the screen with their images and the comparison data.

Simply select Compare Documents, Compare Features, Compare GeometryCompare BOMs and you will literally see the difference!

Available in SolidWorks Professional and Premium.

Bend Lines in a Lofted Bend

So you have created a lofted bend that yields a great flat pattern only to find out that there is no bend information associated with it. What happened?

In order to have your bend lines created within SolidWorks for this particular feature, you need to make sure that "each profile includes corresponding curved and straight elements." To clarify this, not only do you need to have the same amount of "breaks" in each sketch creating the lofted bend, but those breaks need to be connected to like items, (radii has a corresponding radii, line has a corresponding line.)

Here is the sketch of the base, or squared portion of our halved square-round:

As you can see, there are 2 radii and 3 straight line segments.

In this first example, the half square round has the appropriate amount of breaks, yet the line types do not match up. This yields a correct flat pattern yet at the same time does not give us bend line information:

(Note: For dimensioning along an arc, check out our other posts!)

Here we have corrected our "round" sketch to contain the appropriate amount of arcs and lines:

Easy as that.

Flow Freezing

Did you know there is an option that will help speed up a Flow Simulation analysis that includes heat transfer?

Under the Advanced tab you can specify parameters controlling the procedure of saving the CPU time by freezing (i.e., taking from the previous iteration) values of all flow parameters, with the exception of fluid and solid temperatures and fluid substances concentrations (if several substances are considered), which converge more slowly than the other flow parameters, so the temperature and concentrations are calculated at each iteration. This option will be useful when a steady-state or time-dependent problem with substantial heat transfer and/or fluid substances propagation is solved.

To invoke flow freezing, click the Value cell of the Flow Freezing row and select either the Periodic or Permanent strategy for flow freezing.

Vote for Your Top Ten Wish List Items

Matt Lombard is asking you to visit his blog and vote for the top 10 SolidWorks enhancements you would like to see in the next version.

There are a lot of great suggestions you can give your feedback on such as:  full version compatibility, the ability to read Catia files directly, and being able to reorder groups of features not in folders, just to name a few.

Head on over to Matt's blog to vote!

SolidWorks 2010 Update

Valuable information for FISHER/UNITECH Maintenance Customers:

If you are current on your maintenance contract, you will receive physical SolidWorks 2010 media, i.e., SP0.

SolidWorks does not ship discs for intermediate service packs.  If you would like discs, you can request them from your FISHER/UNITECH Customer Care Representative.  The discs cost $15.

SolidWorks Corporation's turnaround time for disc production and shipment for every major product release is 30-45 days.

Questions?  Please contact your account manager, or Lisa Van Giesen, at lvangiesen@funtech.com.

Inspired Design -- The Often Overlooked Element

Here is an interesting article from The Wall Street Journal Blogs by Gary Hamel discussing how really good design is often overlooked: http://bit.ly/5FmnIS.

There was one paragraph that caught my eye:

"You have to start with observation because it’s the only way to illuminate the subtle nuances about how people actually get things done (or don’t get things done), and it’s these deep insights that lead to powerful new ideas. Intellectual experimentation is equally critical because there’s no way to generate real breakthroughs unless people are willing to explore a lot of options in a divergent way. Finally, rapid and inexpensive prototyping is the most efficient way to move an idea from concept to reality. By ‘building to think’ instead of ‘thinking about what to build,’ an organization can dramatically accelerate its pace of innovation."

Having access to rapid prototyping technology greatly improves almost every aspect of the product design cycle. Your designs will be tested, reworked and finished much faster than using traditional prototyping techniques. Using a machine like a Dimension Printer will take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to print a part an engineer or designer just created, as opposed to a few weeks or even a few months under traditional methods.

It goes without saying that using these rapid prototyping machines gives your design team MUCH more time to focus on design and testing rather than having to worry about rushing through a design because the prototyping phase is going to take months. This will lead to much more "usable" parts that add more value to your end users.

Customize the "Design Library"

Do you ever need to use a feature that you created before?
You should add that feature to the Design Library and drag it in whenever you need it!

Here's How:

1. Create a folder such as "My Features"
2. In the Design Library select the icon "Add File Location" and add "My Features" folder
3. Add subfolders (if you wish)
4. In the Design Library select the icon "Add to Library"
   

At this point all you have to do is select the Design Library folder you want the feature to reside in, expand the flyout feature manager design tree and select the feature from the current opened part you want to add. In this case it is a spline cut through.

Once that is done you will always have access to this library feature from that folder. Just drag it in and off you go!

Looking to Fill Six (6) Sales & Engineering Positions

FISHER/UNITECH is in the process of identifying, locating and evaluating some of the strongest candidates in the area to augment and support our unprecedented projected growth and expansion.

Applications Engineer - Two (2) Positions available
Location:  Ft. Wayne, Indiana and Kansas City, Kansas
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Business Development Manager - Two (2) Positions Available
Location:  Kansas City, Kansas and Cincinnati, Ohio
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CAE Technical Sales Specialist - One (1) Position Available
Location:  Troy, Michigan
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PDM/PLM Sales Specialist - One (1) Position Available
Location:  Troy, Michigan
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Who says, "What's Normal Anyway?"

Often times, navigating around a complex part or orientating it "just right" as to understand a specific shape or feature can be difficult. Well here's something to try....

Select a particular face and choose the "View Normal To" option. This will align your part to a particular face. Selecting this face again, then choosing "View Normal To" will flip the orientation 180 degrees....

Using the Control Select and Selecting 2 Faces will result in the same, however, it will allow you to toggle between faces that aren't 180 degrees from one another.....

It's the little things...

Virginia Tech Students Use SolidWorks to Help Blind Drivers!

Here is a YouTube video showing a 16 year old blind driver getting behind the wheel of a small dune buggy for the first time!

Virginia Tech students, through the use of SolidWorks, have designed a "roulette" style click steering wheel to help blind drivers navigate their vehicles. For every 5 degrees the steering wheel is turned the drivers hear an audible click letting them know to what degree they are turning. They also wear a vibrating vest that signals the driver to either slow down or stop. There is also an on-board computer collecting further data of the vehicles surroundings giving even more detail to the driver about their path.

Next, the team will be working on a device called AirPix, which is designed to give the drivers even more independence. Rather than having to listen for clicks or feel for vibrations, the drivers will be able to make their own decisions on stopping, going or turning!

They are envisioning AirPix to work a lot like an Air Hockey table. AirPix will supply real topographical maps for blind drivers that they will be able to "feel" with their fingertips. The more obstacles in front of them, the more air pressure they will feel coming up through the pin holes.

For more info, click HERE and HERE for some really good articles about the Virginia Tech team.

A New Computer for Christmas?

So you want to ask Santa for a new computer for Christmas, but you're not sure what's the best set up for running SolidWorks. Here's some suggestions:

CPU

SolidWorks takes advantage of multi‐threading so it will take advantage of multi‐CPU systems where possible. Since most operations are sequential, like the rebuilding of images, the advantage of a multi-core processor is somewhat limited. Dual Core processors are almost as good as having two physical processors, are less expensive and have a definite advantage when processing FEA results.

3D drawing performance is primarily dependent on the speed of your processor and the amount of memory you have. Investing in additional RAM will be a better alternative to investing in a quad core processor.

Lightweight Components

You can load an assembly with its active components fully resolved or lightweight. Both parts and sub-assemblies can be lightweight.

• When a component is fully resolved, all its model data is located in memory
• When a component is lightweight, only a subset of its model data is loaded in memory. The remaining model data is loaded on an as-needed basis.

You can improve performance of large assemblies significantly by using lightweight components. Loading an assembly with lightweight components is faster than loading the same assembly with fully resolved components. Assemblies with lightweight components rebuild faster because less data is evaluated.

Lightweight components are efficient because the full model data for the components is loaded only as it is needed. Only components that are affected by changes that you make in the current editing session become fully resolved. You can perform the following assembly operations on lightweight components without resolving them.

• Add/remove mates
• Interference detection
• Edge/face/component selection
• Collision detection
• Assembly features
• Annotations
• Measure
• Dimensions
• Section properties
• Assembly reference geometry
• Mass properties
• Section views
• Exploded views
• Advanced Component selection
• Physical simulation

When a component is lightweight, a feather appears on the component icon in the Feature Manager design tree.