Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ Category

Little known uses for the POINT tool (pt 1)

Monday, August 30th, 2010

A lot of people think that the POINT tool (you know, THIS thing * ) in SolidWorks may not be very usefull other than for the Sketch Driven Pattern command…
If SO, you are missing out on some cool things it can do !!

Now the first thing you need to know is that there are 2 different types of POINTS in SolidWorks.
There are the ones that you can make when you are IN a sketch and then the ones you can make when you are NOT in a sketch !
For this little known POINT functionality, we are talking about the one when you are OUTSIDE of a Sketch.
i.e. INSERT–REFERENCE GEOMERTY–POINT.

Pick ANY face on ANY model (planar or non planar), hit the Insert–Reference Geometry–Point tool and BAM! you get a POINT right at the “center” of the face !

By the way, while you are there, take a look at the “Reference Point” property manager at all the other cool stuff you can do with it !!
Arc Centers, Intersections, Projected Points, Spaced Along a Curve ! Oh my !!
I’m SURE you can find some uses for those…

Stay tuned for my next blog on points, where I’ll show you some little known things about the point tool INSIDE a sketch !

Randy Simmons

Randy Simmons
Application Engineer, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

Shortcut Alert! – Rotating Components

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Ever wish there was a faster way to free-drag rotate a component in an assembly prior to applying mates other than using  1) Move With Triad or 2) Rotate Component? Wait no longer. Thanks to the Ronco Division at SolidWorks, a this-can’t-be-any-easier method of Free Drag rotation has been included in your copy of SolidWorks. And with old-school technology.

A simple RIGHT-mouse button click/hold/drag on the component to be rotated will leave you as happy as a tornado in a trailer park.

Join us next time when Shortcut Alert! helps you route the super-secret back way to your favorite lunch establishment.

Chris Snider

Chris Snider
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies

No Inference Lines for Dimensions

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

When placing notes or dimensions on a drawing in SolidWorks 2010, you will notice that SolidWorks will try to align the note or dimension being placed with already placed dimensions – via the yellow inference lines:8-23-2010 7-53-10 AM

To prevent this, you have 2 options. The first is to change your System Options and they will never appear again for another drawing. (System Options > Drawings > ‘Disable note/dimension inference’)

The second (which I think is preferred) is to hold the ALT key down when placing the note/dimension. It will prevent those pesky inference lines from appearing for that particular note/dimension and you will be able to place the note/dimension anywhere you like with respect to other notes/dimensions.

Chris Snider

Chris Snider
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies

Too Many Edges

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Working with tangent edges can cause the graphic area to get a little confusing. You have a bunch of edges on your model and maybe you don’t know what they are. You can always turn “Shaded with Edges” off but if you’re like me, I like to see the model edges. Well here’s an option that you might not know about; Part/Assembly tangent edge display.
This option allows you to show, set as phantom, or remove tangent edges. This helps “clean-up” your graphics area.
Go to “Tools>Options>System Options>Display/Selection>Part/Assembly tangent edge display” to turn the option on.
Settings

Go from this:Visible To this:Removed

Josh Spencer

Josh Spencer
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies

Off-line mode – trick to keeping your vault clean

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

I’m often asked why sometimes when you add a file to the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM vault, it shows that the file is at version two, other times it shows as version one. Version one is what that file looked like at the moment you added the file, version two will exists if you modified the file in any way before you check the file in for the first time.

Most of the time this isn’t a big deal – who cares if you have one version or two.

However, It can be a big deal if the file has file properties in it that you don’t want to go into the vault. Consider making a copy of a part, then in the newly copied part you change  the manufacture part number from “123″ to “456″. Now imagine later someone does a search leaving the “Search in all versions” checked…

AllVersions

and does a search for “123″. Your “456″ part will come up, because that part was “123″ in version one. (The search results can display the version the information was found in, but if the searcher is careless/clueless —)

There are several other reasons you may want to modify information before it officially goes into the vault [and thus gets saved in the database forever -you can't ever change version one]. One last example: Perhaps you make a drop down list of all unique vendors in the vault…and because version one is created without any opportunity for validation, these “version ones” could quickly junk up your list!

I think I have two solutions for you:

  1. You could copy the new files to a location outside of the vault, get the file properties setup the way you want them, then move the files into the vault
  2. If you go to “Off-line” mode, copy the files directly in the directory you want them to exist, make all the changes you want and the database won’t see these changes. Then when you go back on-line, RMB click on the files and add them to the vault. Everything will be at version one, clean as a whistle.

I like the “off-line” mode option a little better, seems like less steps to remember and you are assured SolidWorks will be able to resolve all of the references properly.

Offline

Jeff Sweeney

Jeff Sweeney
Engineering Data Specialist
3DVision Technologies

A Way to Stay in the Middle

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Oreo cookies, grilled cheese, and jelly donuts. What do these things have in common besides tasting great? They all have stuff in the middle. You may have some designs where you need geometry between 2 faces. SolidWorks has a feature that you might not know about. It’s the Mid Surface feature. What it does is create a surface between 2 faces. The surface will move if the two faces move. It is located under Insert>Surface>Mid Surface.

With the surface in the middle, you can thicken it and make it a solid.
This helps build in some “Design Intent” and intelligence into your model.

Josh Spencer

Josh Spencer
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies

Rapid Dimensioning – turn it off on slow days

Monday, June 28th, 2010

 SolidWorks 2010 introduced a great little productivity tool for placing dimensions in drawings: the Rapid Dimension widget – you know, that little blue and yellow ball that pops up when you are placing your dimensions
 
RD widget

Well, it turns out that many people liked their level of productivity as it was, thank you very much, and wanted to eliminate the tool and toss it into the SolidWorks scrap yard. If you are one of those people, you need to install 2010 SP4.0 (rapidly).

You now have 2 options to rid the little widget from your screen:

1) press the ESC key to turn it off for the dimension you are currently trying to place. If you have a fancy mouse like mine (Logitech VX Revolution), you can program one of those extra keys you are not using to be the ESC key. (Very handy for all of SolidWorks world)

2) uncheck the new toggle switch in the property manager to turn it off altogether. This setting will ‘persist across sessions’, so says the Release Notes.

 

RD toggle

 So now you can decide how quickly your dimensions will be placed. Enjoy!

Chris Snider

Chris Snider
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies

Quick surface curved 2 directions

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Here is a super easy way to make a surface that is curved in 2 directions.
The Boundary Surface command makes you think that it needs 2 curves in each direction,
but all that is really required is one each way !

From THIS:
BoundarySurf01

To THIS:
BoundarySurf02

Piece of cake !!

If you want to learn other awesome SURFACING tips & tricks, you should attend 3DVision Technologies Advanced Surfacing class next Thursday & Friday (June 24 & 25) in the Cincinnati office !! See the website for details. Or contact Kim Foster (513) 745-2700 to register !

Randy Simmons

Randy Simmons
Application Engineer, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

Need an Intersection?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

This is a tool that you may have forgotten about or have never used. It is the “Intersection Curve” tool.
It finds the intersection and creates a sketched curve. Well this is great…but how does this help me?
Here’s an example:
I have a lofted part or a part with an angled face and I need to create a baffle/rib that is parallel with the bottom face and about half way up the part.
Intersection Curve
Ok, now how do I use it?
You will want to select the plane/surface that intersects the face then click Intersection Curve (Tools>Sketch Tools>Intersection Curve), and finally select the face(s) of the part. A 2D sketch is created at the intersection of the plane/surface and the face.
If you don’t preselect the plane/surface, a 3D sketch will be created.

I know you’ll find a use for this tool.

Josh Spencer

Josh Spencer
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies

eDrawings…3 Useful Tricks

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Here are some great tips when using eDrawings.

1. Open any SolidWorks assembly inside of eDrawings and press the “E” key.
The assembly explodes without an exploded configuration. You can rotate the assembly and measure it.
Press the “E” key again and watch it collapse.

2. Something else you can do in eDrawings is hiding components in the assembly. If you Right Click on any component, you have the option to hide it. This will allow you to see inside the assembly. Right Click again and you can show all hidden components. You can also make individual components transparent. You do the same thing that you did to hide components but choose to change the transparency.

3. Here’s one more trick. If you Right Click on a component in your assembly, you can choose “New Part Document”. This will create a new part inside of eDrawings. This is great if you only got the assembly from your customer but you need see the individual files.

Give these a try and let me know what you think.

Josh Spencer

Josh Spencer
Application Engineer
3DVision Technologies