Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Where was everyone?

Friday, February 12th, 2010

This year,  SolidWorks World sessions were divided into one of the following tracks: CAD Administration, Customer Success/Designing Better Products, Data Management, Design Automation, Design Communication, Design Validation, Education, Modeling Essentials & Productivity Tools.

I decided to do something different, I followed the Data Management track for all of the sessions I attended. I am glad I did, there were some great sessions given by top notch presenters: Jerry Winters, Dan Burmenko, Joy Garon, Randy Simmons, Jeff Sweeney, … [though my name got left off of the program...what's up with that?! That's the real question we should be asking Kerri Dunne.]

Here is what I thought was interesting. The session Randy and I gave had 40 attendees – which was the most attended session I saw. One session had six attendees, the average was twenty. Where was everyone? Attendance was announced at 5,000, there were 20 sessions per time slot, taking into account people playing hookie or spending time in the Partner Pavilion, you’d still expect a hundred or so in these sessions wouldn’t you?

I learned several sessions had over 200 attendees, so people were going to the sessions, the presenters and topics were good, why is interest so low for this track?

Does this mean the average attendee takes data management for granted? Perhaps they are not in a position within their company to make decisions at this level? Did I screw up and all of the other tracks were that much better? Does the average attendee work for companies that have data management all figured out?

All questions no answers, just giving you something to ponder.

Jeff Sweeney

Jeff Sweeney

Engineering Data Specialist
3DVision Technologies

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Posted in General, PDM | 3 Comments »

2010 Simulation Studies Enhancements

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Hey everyone! Back for another 2010 Simulation What’s New Blog. This one covers a little bit of everything.

Auto-Recover
There is now an option to backup and recover mesh and solution data. To set this up, go to Tools, Options. On the System Options tab, select Backup/Recover. You will see the option to “Save auto-recover info after meshing and after running a simulation study”.

Sim Studies 0

If you use this option, keep an eye on how large your backup folder gets. I can imagine this could make this blow up pretty fast.

Solver Window Improvements
Similar to the changes that were made to the mesh progress window, the Solver Window has been upgraded as well. You can opt to see a condensed solver window like this:

Sim Studies 1

or a more extensive solver window like so:

Sim Studies 2

Fatigue Analysis
You now have to be in a fatigue study to enter an S-N curve. Not sure of the reasoning for this one yet. I wonder how it will affect the creation of custom materials. It is now possible to use the stress values from a specific solution step of nonlinear and linear dynamic analysis for fatigue studies. In a damage plot, damage is now shown as a percentage versus a fraction as it used to be.
A new Fatigue Check Plot has been added to static studies for Simulation Professional seats. It alerts you to areas of the model that may need further investigation due to fatigue issues. It is a “blue is good, red is bad plot” so the red area should get further attention in the form of a fatigue analysis. A single constant-amplitude fatigue event, either fully-reversible or zero based, is used to generate the plot.

Design Study
A new Design Study has been added. This is basically a combination of the old Design Scenarios and the Optimization module. Just as before, the user specifies variables, ranges and goals and the software goes through all the possible combinations to determine the best solution. There is an extensive tutorial on how to use this in the What’s New Document for further investigation.

Offsets for Composites
Previously, the software always positioned the surface used to define the composite shell in the center of the stackup. Now, it can be positioned either in the center, top, bottom or anywhere in between. This is done by specifying an offset ratio. An Offset Ratio of zero, places the surface at the center of the shell. 0.5 places it at the top surface of the shell. -0.5 places it at the bottom of the shell. Interpolation between these values can place the shell anywhere in between as well.

Sim Studies 3

Beams
Beams are now supported for Nonlinear Studies. They have improved the Neutral Axis Detection. Many of you may have noticed that Simulation previously had a hard time detecting beam lengths that were relatively short compared to their width. Anything with a length to width ratio of less than 3 was an issue. The Define Beam Neutral Axis command allows the user to over-ride this. It is now possible to edit the Torsional Rigidity and Shear Factor for Beams. Beams can now be bonded to curved shells and sheet metal bodies. Beam information can also now be added to reports and saved out as an edrawing.

That wraps up this blog entry. As always spay and neuter your pets and if you have any questions, refer to the 2010 What’s New Document or contact us on the support line. See you next time!


Seth Bischoff

Seth Bischoff
CAE Support Engineer
3DVision Technologies

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Posted in COSMOSWorks, General, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | No Comments »

2010 Simulation Interface Enhancements

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Hey everyone! SolidWorks 2010 is out! There are a lot of small improvements in SolidWorks Simulation. There is nothing earth shattering but there are a lot of long over-due improvements that make Simulation friendlier to use. I will try to put together a series of short blogs that outline the highlights. This entry will cover interface enhancements.

Study tree feature names are now more descriptive. It used to be, unless you manually renamed your features, you had to edit a feature to tell what you had actually applied. This is no longer the case. Most features have descriptions in parentheses next to them in the feature tree.

2010 blog 1

If you hover over an item in the Simulation feature tree, an even more detailed description pops up.

2010 blog 2

2010 blog 3

Hovering over a symbol in the design window also pops up the details.

2010 blog 4

Fixtures, loads, and connectors can now be organized into folders. To do this, right click on Connections, Fixtures, or External Loads and select Create New Folder. Items can then be dragged into the new folder.. When using the Connectors dialog box, and connectors that are created while the dialog box pushpin is depressed will be placed in a new folder. If this is not wanted, the items can be dragged out of the folder back into the general connections folder.

It is now possible to group edit like features. For instance, if you have 25 identical bolt connectors, you can either ctrl select or shift select all the bolts you would like to edit, right click, select edit feature, edit a value in the dialog box, and accept the change. The change will be applied to all the selected connectors.

These may seem like relatively simple interface changes but I think they will make Simulation much more user friendly. As always, if you have any questions about any of the enhancements discussed here, the What’s New documentation is a great source or I would be happy to answer your questions on the support line.

Seth Bischoff

Seth Bischoff
CAE Support Engineer
3DVision Technologies

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Posted in COSMOSWorks, General, Tips & Tricks | No Comments »

2010 Rollouts – Recap

Monday, October 19th, 2009

The “What’s New in 2010″ rollouts are nearly over. We have one prime time show in Dayton on November 5th, and a webinar tomorrow. I expect the Dayton rollout to be a huge success since it is in the evening and we don’t have to compete with Oprah.

SolidWorks 2010 seems to be very well received, many people I surveyed are planning on rolling it out in their companies very soon, a slight change from previous releases where many people planned on waiting a service pack or two before upgrading.

It is fun to watch the group’s reaction as they see the new features for the first time. I was rather surprised, but the  area where I saw the most high fives was with the drawing enhancements!

For those of you who like to put a face to the name, Keith Rice made an appearance at the Columbus rollout.

rice1

It’s always fun to get the new guy to wear a tie!

It was good seeing everyone again -till the end of January!

Jeff Sweeney

Jeff Sweeney
Engineering Data Specialist
3DVision Technologies

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Posted in General | No Comments »

Property Tab Builder

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

File properties. I’ve been singing their praises ever since I was a little Engineering Data Specialist Man. A few days ago when I was visiting a customer I noticed they were still using this interface to populate their file properties:

props

I asked if they were still rubbing two sticks together to make fire. That interface is so last year, yet after taking an informal survey I learned many are still using it! Do yourself a favor and look up the  “Property Tab Builder” in the help file. It will help you build an interface that looks something like this:

propertytab

Much nicer?! Checkboxes, radio buttons, drop lists all to make this boring data entry easier. It’s very easy to set up, you certainly will get a ROI after using it a few times. To help get you started, the file I used to create this custom tab is located here.

Jeff Sweeney

Jeff Sweeney
Engineering Data Specialist
3DVision Technologies

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Posted in General, SolidWorks | No Comments »

Keep your computer clean

Monday, August 31st, 2009

I remember back when I was a kid, my Dad received for Christmas a real nice set of screwdrivers. I really liked them. I used them all the time for: poking holes in jar lids so my lightning bugs could breath, as a paint can opener, chisel, cleaning the mud out of my shoes, digging up ant hills. One of the worst beatings I ever got was when I nearly burned through one when I was using it as an electrical switch for a 4-H project.

bentdriverI felt they never were very good at doing what they were supposed to do – driving screws. Turns out they were good at driving screws when they were new but my abuse made them worthless.

Your work computer is a tool. Certainly more important than a set of screwdrivers. Yet I see people abusing them too. iTunes, flying toaster screen savers, SETI servers, browsing to questionable websites, generally installing software that has no business being on a work computer.

Keep your computer clean and run routine maintenance on it. If it isn’t making you/your company money it shouldn’t be on your computer.

Jeff Sweeney

Jeff Sweeney
Engineering Data Specialist
3DVision Technologies

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Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Keeping up with the Joneses

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

The following is an interview with Jimmy, our top gun designer from Friday’s upgrade zone episode.

Engineering Data Specialist Man: You have a reputation around here as the go to SolidWorks guy, yet we couldn’t help but notice you did not use any of the enhancements offered in the new upgrade what happened?

jonesesJimmy: I always try to attend the 3DVision “What’s new” presentations, but this year I wasn’t allowed to go. Isn’t it interesting that companies offer tuition reimbursement but won’t let you take a half day to attend a What’s New presentation? They’d pay for me to take a pottery class (as long as I get a “C” or better) but they won’t help me keep my SolidWorks skills current?

EDSM: [Sigh] Some companies don’t understand that there is a cost to maintaining talent. Do you remember if your job description mentions that one of your job responsibilities is to keep up with technology? I know that is a typical statement at most companies.

Jimmy: I think it does, I always figured that was just something they put in so they could fire me if they ever needed to.

EDSM: Ahh…they have you paranoid, looks like your boss is doing his job; however that little loop-hole statement is a good thing! It is your ticket to improving yourself on company time.

Jimmy: I suppose that is true, but if I miss the “What’s New” presentations how can I keep up?

EDSM: Yeah, it is difficult without being able to attend the “What’s New”s -I always think of them as the best continuing education opportunity around, but they aren’t the only tools at your disposal. SolidWorks World, Technical Summits, the SolidWorks forum, SolidWorks blogs, the “What’s New” document (found in the help section of SolidWorks), and even trade magazines are good tools at your disposal. Remember as fast as technology changes, if you don’t improve, you are falling behind. Try to set aside time each week to devote to “keeping up with technology”. At the very least ensure you go through the “What’s New” document, even if you don’t think a chapter directly will be used in your company. You might find a new approach to an age old issue in your company.

Jimmy: I’ve been thinking of attending one of the SolidWorks user group meetings do they help?

EDSM: I’ve never attended one where I didn’t at least learn something. Besides, you cannot go wrong with free pizza!

Jeff Sweeney

Jeff Sweeney
Engineering Data Specialist
3DVision Technologies

Posted in General, Training | No Comments »