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!

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!

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!

In many companies with more traditional number systems in place, the drawing number and “part number” are shared.  The difference between the instances are often “dash” numbers added to the end of the unique identifying number.  For example, a drawing number would be 200345 and the part number for the item detailed in the drawing is 200345-001.  To add another flavor to the mix, variants of the part itself are often detailed on the same drawing.  200345-001 might represent the part with a blue paint applied and 200345-003 might represent a green painted part.  This no doubt can be handy in that changes to either part can be quickly made through a single drawing.  This makes a lot of sense when you have “families” of parts that are similar and the design of these parts are tied together.

When you take traditional approaches such as this and introduce the data into a PLM system, this is where things can get interesting.  The process I mentioned above has been in use in various forms at the company I work for for many years.  Currently I am working on defining how our SolidWorks data will be stored in our soon to be implemented PLM system.  SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (EPDM) will also play a role in this process, but will mainly be used as the MCAD data vault whose sole responsibility is to track the versions of the CAD data only.  One of the things I am interested to know from some of you our there is how you are doing this.  Our current train of thought would be to name the SolidWorks model (part or assembly) by the unique identifying number.  Examples would be 200345.sldprt and 200345.slddrw.  The variants (if used) would then be stored as configurations inside the Part or Assembly model.

In more traditional systems, a revision to the Drawing would be considered a revision to the part.  When you organize  your data simply from a CAD standpoint there are many situations where this would make sense.  A “side effect” of this though is that if you have variants for the model (i.e. 200345-001 & 200345-003), BOTH variants are often considered “revised” even if the change to the Drawing only effects one variant and not the other.  This is where the PLM system can add some capability in that it has the ability to track revisions of items, yet treat the CAD data as “reference” data used to build or manufacture a part.  Essentially, it can track the part itself and the CAD data for the part SEPARATELY.  In our example noted above, the PLM system can have separate entries for the variants (200345-001 & 200345-003).  If a change is made to 200345-003 (lets just say a color change in the paint) that doesn’t effect the 200345-001, then the CAD data (200345.sldprt and 200345.slddrw) would be revised with CAD revisions synced for both model and drawing.  The revision to the items (separately stored) in PLM does not have to be incremented for the part that did not change.  (200345-001 would still be at the original revision).  The upside to this is that handling the disposition of any parts in production or on the shelf is much easier in that you don’t have to make unnecessary revisions to components that have NOT changed.  The downside to this is that if someone picks up a drawing and sees a “Revision A” on the drawing, they can no longer assume that each variant (200345-001 & 200345-003) in the form of a final “part” is at the same revision.  In this case, the documentation has been revised but only one of the the two items in PLM have received a revision as a result to changes in the documentation.  Notation CAN however be put on the drawing to indicate this, but the biggest difference is that the PLM system will have to be the controlling authority on revisions of the component itself.   This is can be a big change for anyone that touches a component during the manufacturing process.  The biggest hurdle often is training people to separate items or “parts” from the documentation used to create them.  CAD data whether it is a 3D model or a drawing is still documentation used to create the final item.

So…after this long winded explanation…I get to one of the points of this post.  I’d like to hear how some of you have dealt with this when taking your data from the CAD/PDM world into the PLM world.  In particular, are you using configurations for part variations or do you treat variants as separate part files?  I’ve read where some companies get rid of variants altogether when using PLM.  (Personally, I think we would be giving up a lot of flexibility if we did this.)  I’ve even seen scenarios where CAD data is stored as a completely separate unique number altogether.  (Although it may sound foreign to some, I can see how this could work.)

So now…I turn it over to you.  I’d like to hear some of your experiences in this area if you have the time to share it.

Stay tuned…more to come!

You can now show Sketch Pictures inserted in models on the Drawing!  Below you’ll see a quick example I made of a picture frame.  With the help of Realview and a nice rendering made in Photoview 360, it’s pretty easy to quickly make something that is visually appealing.  The problem with an example like this is that when you take that model to a Drawing, the centerpiece (the Sketch Picture) was in the past lost.

In SolidWorks 2010, the Sketch Picture automatically comes into the Drawing and is shown in all views where the image is visible.

If you go ahead and turn on the Shaded views, you can show the full appearance in the Drawing!

Although this example is a bit “out of the norm”, this new feature might just allow you to document your designs in certain area with greater detail.  The application of it is up to you!

Lots of new stuff coming…until then….stay tuned!

Sometimes when testing newer versions of Software you discover some “unreported” enhancements that really can be a time saver.  That type of enhancement is the source of this post, but first we’ll take an overall look at the enhancements to Tables in SolidWorks 2010.

As reported in my SolidWorks 2010 Enhancements Highlight article, all Tables in SolidWorks 2010 now behave VERY similarly to Microsoft Excel.  You can now use the Tab key and arrow keys to quickly switch between cells during data entry.  In previous versions, you had to double-click EACH CELL to make a modification.  This could make entering data in any type of table a painfully slow experience.  Below is a link to a video that highlights the Excel behavior in tables.

Last week I got a question from one of our users concerning tables.  He was working on a cable drawing that contained a couple of “custom” tables that were produced in Microsoft Excel.  The tables were pasted into SolidWorks which utilizes standard Windows OLE (Object Linking/Embedding) to display the Excel information inside the SolidWorks Window.  In previous versions, we stored the Microsoft Excel document inside the Design Binder of the Drawing document.  The user noted that when opening a Design Binder document in SolidWorks 2010, the default behavior was now set to open Microsoft Excel WITHIN the SolidWorks Window which is similar to the behavior you see when you create or edit a Design Table.

As we were discussing the table behavior, a thought popped into my head.  I wonder if I can import the Excel data into a SolidWorks General Table?  Having the Table in SolidWorks will allow for easier table editing and more precise font and cell sizing options since OLE isn’t in use.

This table was HUGE.  About 5 columns wide and 49 rows tall.  As a test, I created a General Table that matched the column and row count.  I then editing the Excel table to where I could access the data directly in Excel.  I copied all the cells to the clipboard.  After exiting the Excel interface, I tried pasting the data from the clipboard to the new General Table I just created.  It worked!  All the Font sizes and type were perfectly preserved.

So with this little trick…it won’t take very long for users to convert OLE type Excel tables to General Tables!  There are lots of documented features to export tables, but nothing is shown for importing table information from a spreadsheet.  Below is a link to a video that shows off the Excel Import trick.

The new table behavior is a welcome change and this little import trick really completes it.

Stay tuned….more to come!

Today we are going to take a look at perhaps one of the most underrated new features of SolidWorks 2010, the Mouse Gesture Wheel.  While this new tool has gotten some good press in recent weeks, its hard to gauge how useful this command can be until you actually use it.  The Mouse Gesture wheel can be invoked by simply holding down the right mouse button and moving the cursor in any direction.  The wheel is available in two configurations: 4 Position and 8 Position.  Below you’ll find an image that shows off both configurations.

The great news about the Mouse Gesture wheel is that is it FULLY configurable.  You can add virtually any tool that has a toolbar button icon to the wheel.  To access the controls, go to Tools->Customize->Mouse Gestures (Tab).  The Mouse Gesture Wheel can be configured differently for Sketches, Parts, Assemblies, and Drawings.  The user interface to program the buttons is very similar to the interface for programming Keyboard shortcuts.  Below is an image of the Mouse Gesture programming panel.

Using the Mouse Gestures can be a little confusing for some at first, but once you realize the intent of the tool, the behavior makes perfects sense.  The Mouse Gesture wheel is designed to be a quick select tool.  Users will gain the most efficiency in its usage if they memorize the commands at the positions.  When the Mouse Gesture Wheel is invoked, you can move the cursor about the inside of the wheel to highlight the different options in the quadrants.  Once the cursor enters one of the segments, the command is immediately invoked.  The user does not have to release the Right Mouse Button to go to the command.  What this does is it allows you to quickly gesture your cursor in the desired direction to invoke the command.  So basically the most efficient use of this tool is to gesture in the direction of your desired command without looking at the wheel itself.  To better demonstrate this, I have posted a video showing the Mouse Gesture tool in action.  Click on the image to play the video.

Stay tuned…more SolidWorks 2010 Features to come!

As I said in my first post on SolidWorks 2010, Drawings received A LOT of enhancements!  Today we are going to take a look at a few of them that relate to dimensioning.

Rapid Dimension is a new option that allows for quick placement of dimensions in Drawings.  As soon as you select a edge (or two points) you immediately see a divided circle.  For example, if you attempt to place a horizontal dimension, a divided circle appears which has a top and bottom section (each being displayed with different colors).  If you select the “top” of the circle, the dimension is automatically placed at the top of the view.  If you select the “bottom” of the circle, the dimension is automatically placed at the bottom of the view.  SolidWorks intelligently places the dimensions utilizing the dimension spacing settings in the Document Properties.  Rapid Dimension will also MOVE existing dimensions so that spacing settings are not violated.  The dimensions are still completely adjustable so that you have the freedom to position them as you please.

The Dimension Palette is another enhancement that is sure to be a hit with users.  The Dimension Palette is a pop-up dialog that appears near the mouse cursor when a dimension is selected.  It allows the user to change common dimension properties right in the graphics area without having to make the changes through the PropertyManager.  Using this tool will result in less mouse movement and allow the user to focus solely on the graphics area when setting up dimensions in a Drawing.  The following adjustments can be made a dimension using the Dimension Palette tool.

• Tolerance Type
• Unit Precision
• Tolerance Precision
• Apply Styles
• Add text to the Left, Right, Top, & Bottom of the Dimension
• Add Parenthesis
• Center Dimension
• Inspection Dimension
• Offset Text
• Horizontal & Vertical Justification

Also new in relation to Dimensions is improved behavior for Center Marks in Drawings.  You can now place Center Marks on holes or arcs already dimensioned and the extension lines of the dimensions trim back to the Document Property spacing setting in relation to the Center Mark.  Another caveat to this enhancement is that you can now delete the Center Mark and the dimensions will no longer be left in a dangling state.  In previous versions you would commonly place Center Marks first and then dimension to them in order to get the proper spacing to the Center Mark for the dimension extension lines.  The problem was that if you delete the Center Mark, the dimensions were left dangling.  SolidWorks 2010 will allow you to dimension first, and place the Center Marks later with no negative effects.

Click on the image below to watch a short VIDEO demonstrating these new enhancements.

Stay tuned….much more to come on SolidWorks 2010!

With some help from Ben Eadie and the folks at SolidWorks we are working on providing a video of the presentation from SolidWorks World 2009.  As soon as it is available, I will post it here.

Stay tuned….more to come!

Stay tuned….more to come!