Save a rotated 3D view

• When you go to View>Modify>3D Drawing View, you can choose any view and rotate it any direction.  When you choose a view that you like, it will stay like that.  That way you can get a great view on the drawing with a short amount of time.

Combine notes

• If you have multiple notes on your drawing but you want to combine them, before you would need to copy and paste the text.  All you really need to do is just drag and drop one note to another.  They get combined.  If the main note is numerically indented, when you drop the other note on it, it will follow the same order.

Edit multiple dimensions at once

• If you select a bunch of dimensions, you can edit them all at once.  You can add tolerance information, text, precision, etc.

I hope these tips help keep you productive.  If you have any questions about these, please contact 3DVision.

All you need to do is double click in the cell of the BOM and then you will get a message about keeping or breaking the link.

You will have to choose “Keep Link” to update the property.  Now whatever you type in the cell will show up in the component’s properties.

Let’s start with the first part of that, “What is Instant3D”.  It lets you quickly create and modify geometry by using drag handles and scales.  You can use Instant3D in parts and assemblies.  To turn it on, select the “Features” toolbar and select “Instant3D” which is on the far right end of the toolbar.

The second part of the question, “Why would you want to use it” is a little more subjective.  If you need to change a dimension, you have the ability to just select the model face which will show the dimensions making it very quick to modify the model.

 This option is great when you are not “sure” of the design and you have some dimensions on the model.  The dimensions have a small blue dot at the end of the extension line which is what you left click and hold on.  Then a scale will show up that you can “drag-n-drop” on for your new dimensional value.

Another great way that you can use Instant3D is when you want to create an Extrude.  When you are done sketching and exit, select a segment of the sketch which will activate an arrow. 

This arrow will allow you to drag it away from the model, creating a boss extrude, or into the model creating an extrude cut.

This is just the basics of Instant3D.  I suggest you try it out and see how it can help you be more productive.

How do you become a Beta tester?  You need to log into the customer portal and under user preferences, select to become a Beta tester.  Now you can download and test 2012 and participate in the beta events .  There are many great prizes that you could win if you find bugs in the Beta version of 2012.

Download it today and happy Beta-ing.

So now you have to go over each file and unsuppress it.   Don’t start yelling and getting mad about how long this process is going to take.  All you need to do is left click on the top level assembly and then navigate to Edit>Unsuppress with Dependents>This Configuration.

Now everything is unsuppressed with about 3 mouse clicks.  Now that’s pretty easy.

You should be careful about doing this.  If the assembly has a lot of components and your computer does not have enough RAM, you could have some performance issues.  This is because when you unsuppress all the components, they get loaded into RAM.  So you have been warned.

Always remember that when you are using a macro, be sure to test it out before using it in production.

You have this part (or assembly) file with multiple configurations that’s in EPDM.  You have named your configurations a good name that’s easy to find and identify.  You find the file in EPDM and then select it.  The data card comes up and all you see are a few configurations.  That’s fine because you know you can just click on the arrows on the right side and it will show you more configurations.

Well that’s great, but what if I want to see a list of all the configurations?  Here’s a trick taught to me by Jeff Sweeney. 

If you Right Mouse Click on any of the configurations you get a full list of all of them!!

Now you can click on which one you want and see its data card.  How cool is that?

I’ll give you some hints on the location:

1. This place has 70 miles of beaches surrounding it.
2. The GPS coordinates are: 32°42′54″N 117°09′45″W
3. The average high and low temperatures in February are 66°F/51.5°F.
4. There is an average of 6.6 rainy days and 228.8 hours of sunshine.

Tired of guessing? Well the location for SolidWorks World 2012 is….
San Diego, California!!!

I look forward to seeing everyone there.

(source for data: Wikipedia)

1. Right click on the component in the graphic area or on in the FeatureManager Design Tree.
2. Now choose “Replace Components”. This component is added to the selection box of components to replace.
3. Select the “Browse…” button and find the component that is doing the replacing.
4. Under Options, make sure you select Re-attach mates. This is what saves the time. Also, if you want to replace all the instances, checkmark the box “All instances” which is under the top selection box.

So now you clicked OK and you have a selection box on the left, a preview box with the old component in it, a little toolbar with “isolate” on it, and the assembly has the new component in it. Now what?

1. The preview window shows a face selected/highlighted. Select the same face on the new component in the assembly.
2. Doing this puts a green checkmark on the left.
3. Now either flip the alignment or move to the next red question mark.
4. If you can’t get to the required face or can’t tell what face to select, rotate the assembly and you will see the preview rotate too. You can also click in the preview window and rotate the model.

There you go a new tool that makes replacing components very easy.

Go from this: To this: