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SolidWorks World 2012 Top Ten List

Ricky Jordan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:43:50 +0000

The SolidWorks World 2012 Top Ten List candidates are posted. You can log in to the SolidWorks Forums (link provided above – click the picture) and vote your favorite ideas up or down. Idea submission is already closed but voting will be open right up until just before SolidWorks World 2012 begins.

For the sixth consecutive year, I’ll be covering SolidWorks World as a member of the press, so stay tuned for more updates. In the coming weeks I’ll share some thoughts prior to the start of the conference in regards to what I think we might see. Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks 2012: Drawing Enhancements

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:48:44 +0000

In many companies, Drawings are still were “the rubber meets the road”. Let’s take a look at what I think will be some of the more popular enhancements to the Drawing and Detailing area of SolidWorks 2012. I’ve tried to keep the descriptions short and sweet because like me, I’m sure many of you don’t have time to read a long drawn out article. So lets get started.

Magnet Lines

If you’ve ever used 3dvia Composer, this one will look really familiar. You can place magnet lines AFTER balloons are created or DURING creation if you use the Auto-Balloon functionality. Magnet Lines are invisible unless you select a Balloon that is attached to one. The most efficient process if you are adding existing Balloons is to drag the cursor over each balloon that you want to include WHILE you are drawing the magnet line. Once it is created, you can set the Magnet Line to show equal spacing between Balloons or non-equal spacing through the “Free-Drag” option. If you like your drawings to be neat and orderly, You’ll like this enhancement.

Here’s a short video showing Magnet Lines in action.

Auto-Insert Center Marks

If you don’t want SolidWorks to automatically create centermarks upon view creation (Option in the System Options), this option allows you to perform this action as you need it. This is a huge time saver for those parts with LOTS of holes. All you need to do is call up the Center Mark command and check one of the options under the Auto Insert group box. There are some options with this…one of which I haven’t been able to get to work. I would expect the “Connection Lines” option to automatically draw the connection lines between Center Marks that are vertically or horizontally aligned, but it has not worked for me as of yet. I’ll update the article once I get some more information on this. Outside of this discovery, this is another nice enhancement that can cut down on mouse clicks.

Highlighting Changed Dimensions

Simply put… Turn THIS ON! This will alert you as to when dimensions change in a saved drawing when you open it by showing the dimension is a different color. At the moment I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t want to use this. You have to turn this on thru the Tools->Options->System Options->Colors area. (Screenshot shown below.) The drawing must be opened to take advantage of this functionality. If you hover over one of the changed dimensions, a popup box shows you the previous dimension. If you change the model WHILE the drawing is open, you won’t see the color change. Once you save the drawing, the changes are accepted and the color change and indication of the previous dimension goes away the next time you open the document. (NOTE: I tried to print a PDF of the drawing WHILE the dimension change colors were in effect and the color did NOT show up in the PDF.)

Open Assemblies and Sub-Assemblies from Drawing Views

This one is a nice little enhancement. When you hover over a component you have the option to open the top level assembly, sub-assembly, or component itself. Previously you could only open the component itself.

There are more enhancements…and you can see the complete list online HERE.

That’s all for now…stay tuned….more to come!

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SolidWorks 2012 Announced

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:24:19 +0000

I just got back from a 10 day road trip for some family commitments, so I’m sharing the news about SolidWorks 2012 a little later than most.

On September 6th, SolidWorks officially lifted the embargo on sharing details about SolidWorks 2012. You can read the official announcement HERE and you can browse the What’s New Manual online by clicking HERE. You can go to the SolidWorks 2012 Launch site by clicking HERE. (Note – New this year is a requirement to fill out quite a bit of information about yourself before you’re allowed to view the videos – Yikes!)

This first post I’ll mention a few items which as a CAD Admin I think will have the most impact. Of the items I’ve reviewed thus far, these are MY favorites. There are still a few features that I need to test drive a bit more before passing final judgement on their impact.

Equations - This area has been completely overhauled. The most requested feature I’ve heard when it comes to equations is the ability to type an equation directly into the Modify dialog box – and then be able to recall it later from the same interface. The two screenshots below show the initial entry of the equation and then the result of calling up the Modify dialog box again.

Note – The modify dialog now has two entry windows. The upper window allows you to change the dimension name without having to go to the PropertyManager.

There are MANY more Equation enhancements, which I’ll cover in detail in a separate post.

Freeze Feature – This one is a carry over from early SolidWorks 2011 development. The details of the feature were not quite worked out in time for the 2011 release, so it’s here for 2012. This feature allows the user to freeze rebuild operations for a range of features in the drawing tree. This may seem like a bit of a niche feature, but I think it will have a GREAT impact for those who work with models that have a large number of features. The screenshot below shows a model with many features. This particular model has a large number of construction features that remain constant and a small group of features at the end of the tree that are changed for different designs. You can see quite a difference in the rebuild times.

Multiple Monitor Support – With monitor prices plummeting a large majority of CAD users have more than one display active for their CAD Workstations. Span Display will automatically extend the SolidWorks window to your second display without having to manually resize. A brief description is shown HERE in the online help.

Magnet Lines in Drawings – There always seems to be something in Drawings that really gets your attention. Most of the time it is one of those features that may seem little, but can go a long way in helping organize your drawings. This year’s feature is the Magnet Lines for Balloons. You can add them manually or make them automatic as part of the autoballoon feature.

Swept Flange – I haven’t looked at this one in detail yet (and I just don’t do much sheet metal anymore) but I couldn’t pass up the chance to mention it. Here’s a direct LINK to the What’s New Details if you’re curious.

That’s all for now, we’ll start tackling some of these other enhancements in detail in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

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SolidWorks 2012 Beta 1 is Available

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 05:22:09 +0000

Its a little later in the year than usual, but the time has arrived for SolidWorks 2012 Beta Testing. You can download the SolidWorks 2012 Beta 1 software from the Beta Site if you are currently on subscription service with SolidWorks. I highly recommend you visit the Forum and download the What’s New document for review before installing.

The NDA is still in place so I won’t be able to elaborate much until they take the wraps off in a few months. You can check out my SolidWorks 2012 Sneak Peek from earlier this year at SolidWorks World for a look at some of the new features, but it doesn’t cover all of them.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks Electrical Routing – Part 3 (FINALLY!)

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:34:57 +0000

Almost two years ago I posted two videos to the site detailing the use of SolidWorks Electrical Routing. I had full intentions of producing a Part 3 but life as it does sometimes had other plans for me. Finally after several friendly reminders from readers via e-mail and comments on the site, I have released Part 3. Sorry it took so long…but I tried to pack it full of content to make it worth the wait.

Part 3 introduces the use of From/To Lists. While they do require a little setup…From/To Lists can drastically reduce the time it takes to model electrical cables in SolidWorks.

I was already talking a bit about bandwidth in the first two videos…so this one is going on YouTube. My apologies if it is blocked for you at work, but the bandwidth was getting a little expensive. One REALLY nice thing is that YouTube recently lifted the 15 minute video length restriction. This video goes over that slightly (18 minutes) so that enhancement kept me from having to break it up into two parts. The video is shown below. If you go to the YouTube page you can watch it in HD.

I hope you enjoy it. It was nice to dive into the details of Routing again….hopefully I’ll find some time to do some more videos again soon.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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Tornado Relief

Ricky Jordan — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:42:09 +0000

It has been quite an eventful week here in North Alabama. For me it all started with an early morning wake up call last Wednesday of intense lightning and thunder. Those storms were just the beginning of what turned out to be one of the worst severe weather disasters in US history. We spent much of the afternoon and evening hours taking cover under the desks in our office. Mid afternoon we lost power and didn’t get it back for 4 days.

All of our family made it through safe and sound and we were VERY fortunate to not have any damage from the storms, but there are MANY here in North Alabama who weren’t so lucky. Many homes across the region were flattened by EF4 and EF5 tornados. The community is pulling together and is doing an amazing job in disaster relief. Since I’m BY FAR not the best writer in my family, I’m going to send you over to my wife’s site to learn more about what has happened and how you can help if you feel so inclined.

Tornadoes – Your Help is Needed – Southern Plate

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New SolidWorks Logo

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:59:27 +0000

As I was logging into the Knowledge base earlier today I just happened to notice a bit of a change in the SolidWorks logo. As you can see in the image above, it is quite different than the old one. Is it newsworthy? …Well maybe not so much, but I thought that the fact that the SolidWorks logo (minus the DS) has remained much the same since the company was found (until now) was quite significant.

So tonight I finally had some time to research it a bit. The one and only place to get the latest on anything lately has been Twitter, and I wasn’t disappointed. I knew that many of my ultra sharp colleagues in the SolidWorks Community (especially @charlesculp) had to have noticed this as well. Here’s some of the Twitter Traffic on it:

The closer alignment with Dassault Systemes continues. The interesting part will come as we see more of the DS Technology make its way into the SolidWorks Products.

I’m finally getting some of my side projects complete so I’m looking forward to diving in soon for an in-depth review of 3Dvia Composer. I hope to start bring that to you here on the site very soon.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks Tip: Import DXF/DWG Set Origin

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:47:10 +0000

I ran across this today when importing a DXF file from a vendor. I’m not quite sure how long it has been there, but this is the first time I have noticed it.

When importing a DXF/DWG file you are presented in an import wizard with many options. The first screen is shown below.

In this case, I chose the “Import to a new part as: 2D sketch” option. Once you click next you come to a screen with an interesting new option.

In instances like the example shown above, the origin of the file is located far away from the geometry. There is now a “Define Sketch Origin” option that allows you to place the Sketch origin in a different location rather than the 2D file origin. You can use the view options to zoom in tight to the point on the model where you would like to place the sketch origin. This would be a REALLY cool option if it was able to employ ESNAPs, but for now it doesn’t. Still this can save a sometimes necessary step before importing the geometry. Below is an example of placing the Sketch Origin in a different location.

Once the file comes into SolidWorks, you can see that the sketch origin is placed correctly. (You still should do some fine tuning to make sure the geometry is perfectly centered about the origin.)

That’s all for now…stay tuned…more to come!

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DraftSight Officially Released

Ricky Jordan — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:16:33 +0000

Dassault Systemes today took the “Beta” wraps off DraftSight and have announced it’s full release.

With this full release you also get a few enhancements. Those enhancement include:

Trapezoid command
API Support (Only included with the paid Premium Pack)
Localization of help files
Command Variables – Enhanced to allow users to set and change system variables from the command line

DraftSight is available for FREE at www.draftsight.com

It is available for both Windows & OSX. A Linux version is said to be in the works and will be released soon. (I’ll see if I can get a date.)

Graebert GmbH (the company behind the technology DraftSight is based on) announced an upcoming DraftSight App Store at SolidWorks World last month. The SolidWorks World press release mentioned that 300,000+ users have downloaded DraftSight. It looks like that number has now grown to 400,000+ according to today’s press release.

It appears that the community is responding quickly to this product. Of course, who could blame them when it offers so much functionality for FREE.

On a personal note – I haven’t used DraftSight that much, but when I have it has performed well. There have been a few comments on previous posts mentioning some issues with Printing. I did some testing with the general release tonight and was able to print the test files I have. If you are still having printing issues, make sure you report it to the SWYM support site.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks 2012 Sneak Peek

Ricky Jordan — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:15:01 +0000

One of the favorite parts for many attendees at SolidWorks World each year is the Sneak Peek preview of the upcoming SolidWorks release. This year at SolidWorks World 2011, we all got a Sneak Peek of SolidWorks 2012. Like many years in the past, the new features were revealed in the form of a “skit”. This year it was CAD COPS. (Themed after the popular Fox show “COPS”. I’ve got to say this was probably the funniest one yet. Anyhow, let’s get started reviewing the enhancements. I’ve provided as much detail as I could as they were presented VERY FAST.

You can pin your most commonly used files inside the Recent Documents dialog. You can also open the folders those files are in from the dialog as well. (All of this is available from the file menu as well.)

You can now change units with the Units Switcher in the right side of the status bar. (Can change on the fly anytime.)

Sheet metal flanges now have the option to be set to “Parallel to base flange” instead of vertex which allows for better control when flange angles change.

You can now reference the outside tangency to ensure flange lengths stay the same and corners close properly

Easier placement of Form Tools. You can also dynamically flip, rotate and utilize configurations of your forms! (Thumbs up for sure on the configurations!)

You can now select faces to ignore when unfolding sheet metal parts.

New Swept Flange feature for Sheet Metal (Wasn’t able to get a picture of this one.)

Place one diameter dimension and the sketch automatically locks into diameter dimension mode.

Equation Editor is all new. There is a single dialog box and the software not AUTOMATICALLY calculates the solve order. There are several different views incorporated such as Category, Dimension, & Ordered view. You can access ALL dimensions of a part from a list as well. File properties, functions, & global variables are all available from drop down boxes. You can also utilize the Measure tool from within the Equation Editor to create a reference dimension on the fly which can be used as part of the equation.

Exploded views are now available from the Drawing Pallette. They can also be enabled in the PropertyManager or from the Right Mouse Button Menu. (In current versions, the option to show an Exploded view is buried in the view properties dialog box.)

Bill of Materials can now be created without pre-selecting any views.

Balloons have several enhancements. You can Auto-Balloon sequentially. This will allow you to pick the location of your item 1 balloon and then your balloons follow in sequential item number order around the view (the placement shape is still based on standard Auto-Balloon options). The whole setup appears to be very configurable and will allow you to make adjustments to the balloon sequencing on the fly with all associated Balloons and Bills of Materials dynamically updating.

Balloons now have magnet lines. This is a very popular feature of 3dvia Composer. Balloons can be positioned along a magnet line and you have complete control over the spacing along that line.

View labels are now automatically re-used when views are deleted.

Centermarks can now be automatically inserted at any time for an entire view. (Not just during view creation.) You still have a variety of options for the insertion.

3dvia Composer has enhanced realtime rendering tools which result in a higher quality display image. There is also a Compass tool which helps you navigate and change the appearances of your models.

3dvia Composer also now features BOM highlighting. This allows the user to highlight components in a BOM by hovering over the corresponding components in the model view.

Much like the Magnet Lines mentioned earlier, SolidWork has incorporated some other 3dvia Composer functions. One of which is pressing the Tab key to hide components in an assembly.

SolidWorks 2012 includes a brand new Costing Tool. It analyzes the model (including the features) and gives breakdowns of cost by manufacturing process. It even includes areas where machine setup costs can be input so that quantity adjustments can update the individual component cost. All of this is based on templates which can be modified using an included Template Editor.

Simulation now supports motion sensors and Design Studies support motion simulation. Optimization is also now available in motion simulation.

There is a new Large Design Review mode which allows you to open large assemblies in seconds. (it was described as Quickview on steroids). When opened in this mode the assembly can be navigated as if it were a small assembly. Zooming and panning is also smooth. You can create or reuse Walk throughs and have full interactivity with the FeatureManager Designtree. Hide/Show status can be set from the tree or the graphics area. You can also use the Section View tool while in this mode! Components and sub-assemblies can be opened with full editing capabilities. If you modify the component or sub-assembly and Save it, it will update the Large Assembly already open in Large Design Review mode.

During the SolidWorks World Top Ten Enhancement requests, it was mentioned that the “Freeze Feature” that was shown at SolidWorks World 2010 will be included as part of the SolidWorks 2012 release. (It was in early SolidWorks 2011 alpha builds but was not included in the final SolidWorks 2011 release after some user feedback to questions posted in the SolidWorks Forums. It was held back primarily so that more features and options could be added to it (including support for configurations).

Probably my personal favorite is the Large Design Review mode. If all of the features described make it into the final release, it will be BIG for those with MANY components. Having the Units Switcher in the Status bar is my other favorite. (Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a difference.)

That’s all for now….stay tuned….I’ll post a synopsis of the rest of the Wednesday General Session soon.

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