The BIG news of the day on Monday at SolidWorks World 2013 was the announcement of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.  Over the last three years speculation has run rampant since the now infamous “Cloud” announcement was made at SolidWorks World 2010.  To begin with, I’m going to give you an overview on what was presented.  I’ll then follow up at the end with a few comments.  Fielder Hiss made the presentation for Mechanical Conceptual on stage.

This is the first product developed on top of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.  (Absolutely no mention of V6.  As best I could tell, this is the name of the new platform.)  The tool is complementary to all the products that SolidWorks users use today.

Conceptual

It is a tool for mechanical designers to do their concept design work.  Its specialty is with mechanisms (moving parts).  Its purpose is to help get ideas or concepts into 3D right away while fostering an iterative design process and maintaining multiple configurations.  According to SolidWorks, 31% of project time is spent working with concepts.  On average, there are 6 conceptual iterations in an individual design.  There are often both internal and external groups that are part of the conceptual process.  Ease of use in collaboration is important in making this process smooth, so that all groups can give input into the design.  This is where the Social aspect comes in, which we will talk about in a few moments.  The detail design process within SolidWorks can often limit creativity in the conceptual process.  This tool is designed to capture concepts digitally, provide capability to manage multiple iterations, and most importantly be easy to use and easy to change.

Social

Social integration is designed into the “foundation” of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.  Designs can be shared with both internal and external groups who are “stakeholders” in the project through “private communities”.  The example page shown appeared to be a derivative of a 3DSWYM page that allowed users to post comments on the design.  No other details were given.

Instinctive

SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual is always saving designs and capturing iterations as you work.  Not only does this allow you to easily go back and use a previous design, it also remembers how components were used.  Speaking of components, there is a BIG difference in this area.  SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual introduces a single modeling environment (which of course is quite different from SolidWorks).  This allows the user to NOT have to worry about the file structure, Bill of Materials, or subassembly order while developing the concept.  It was said to be a “more natural” way to do concept design.

Here a couple of key statements made about this software:

• “SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual merges the benefits of history, parametrics, and direct editing into a single interface.  It is the best of all worlds.”
• “It will be easy to make a change (any change) and respect the previous design intent that they had already put into the design.”

The software was said to be “instinctive” and is constantly learning.  Since everything is stored in a database, the software understands how you use components and becomes smarter with every use.

Motion Simulation is fully integrated into SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.  It uses this simulation to validate the function and to show life-like behavior in the design.  The example shows both motion paths and envelopes.

It also has integrated Structural Simulation.  This will allow the user to verify that the stress is within limits – all while still in the concept stage.

Connected

SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual is always connected online.  It prevents the loss of data due to deletion, application crashes, or accidental over-writes.  It provides a connected interface (without the burden of a PDM interface) to other team members so that screen shots can be shared within the interface and designs can be updated real-time for teams working in separate locations.

As a “complementary” tool to SolidWorks, the models developed in SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual can be brought into SolidWorks when the detail design process is ready to begin.

The information can be accessed anywhere at any time.  Mobile access tools can also be used to access this data.  The example on the screen shows a model being brought up with on an iPad via a 3DEXPERIENCE app.

Ricky’s Comments:

First and foremost.  The only thing I know about this software is what was shown today.  So the statements I’m going to make below are purely my opinion at this point.  To be blunt…I could be totally wrong on some of this…so bear with me.

As far as the modeling/sketching capability goes, the software looked very MUCH like SolidWorks in many ways and also very DIFFERENT than SolidWorks in many ways.  What appeared to be sketch relations shown on the screen looked very much like what we have today in SolidWorks.  Even the way they are applied (with a context menu) looks similar.  The way some of the sketch entities were created looked very different.  Some of the “elements” of the sketch appeared to be REALLY easy to create while automatically receiving a shading of sorts which looked to differentiate it as a separate element from other entities.  This fell right into quickly creating a 2D layout with full motion capabilities.

The direct modeling tools looked really easy to use.  Extrusions and cuts were made with simple push/pull actions.  This probably won’t be much of a surprise to many as many of the modelers out there that rely heavily on direct editing already do this.  You could see a list of features briefly, but no details were given on the specifics of how they worked.

The social aspect of the software looked very easy to use.  You could see many design cues taken from popular social apps out there today and since it is built into the software, generating these messages to other design team members looked easy.

There was a History Browser shown that appeared to let the user roll back to previous designs.  Again…looked pretty straight forward to use.

I was REALLY surprised to see both Motion Simulation and Structural Simulation built into this tool.  This is much more than I would expect to see in the first release of a concept modeler.  I’m very glad to see it there though.  Time will tell as far as it’s usability and capability.

The connected portion DID appear to rely heavily to an online connection.  There was absolutely no mention of the “C” word, but what I saw lead me to believe that online hosting was going to at least be one of the options offered with this package.  Nothing was said to indicate that a “database” couldn’t be installed locally as well, so we are just going to have to wait on see on this.  I don’t think we can speculate one way or the other as to whether this a “cloud” only offering at this point.  (There was more discussion at the press conference…which I was unable to attend.  I have the audio from that but having listened to it yet.)

Export to SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual models to SolidWorks:  The immediate question that popped into my mind was “Do the parts have features?”.  That was of course not shown, so we will have to find out those details later.

All in all, SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual looks like a very interesting package, but I can’t say how good/bad it is until I get some seat time with it.

Limited Beta testing with select companies will begin in May and an October/November full release date is the target.  No pricing details were given.

Stay tuned….more to come!

The image below shows you two new options, Point to Point and History, that have been added to the Measure dialog box.  The Arc/Circle Measurement options have been enhanced and now have more options when compared to previous versions.

The Arc/Circle Measurement setting now includes a “Custom Distance” option which allows you to combine Center, Maximum, or Minimum settings amongst the items selected.

The History tool allows  you to recall recent measurements that you have made in your session of SolidWorks.  When you select this option a separate window pops up displaying the previous measurements.  If the list gets too long, you have the option to clear the history via a button at the top of the History window.

The Point to Point tool allows you to select vertices or arbitrary locations of the model to get a linear measurement between two points.  The image below shows to model vertices that were measured using this option.

As I mentioned before, arbitrary points such as approximate locations on faces can be selected and used with the Point to Point tool for approximate measurements.  The image below is an example of this type of measurement.  (Note that the Normal Distance between the planes containing the arbitrary points is still shown.)

I believe that ALL of these enhancements will be quite useful for everyday functions inside of SolidWorks.

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

SolidWorks 2013 includes some GREAT enhancements in working with Mass Properties.  The first tool we will explore today is the Center of Mass tool.  Inserting the Center of Mass is very straight forward.  You activate the feature from the Reference Geometry menu and the center of mass tool is placed at the top of the FeatureManager.  The first example shown below involves inserting the Center of Mass into a Part.

As you can see, the Center of Mass (COM) is displayed on the screen.  You can make measurements to the COM at any point.

There is ANOTHER tool associated with the COM feature.  Since the Center of Mass is placed at the top of the FeatureManager, it is always calculating the proper CG as it should.  If you want to however display a reference point where the CG WAS located at some particular point in the FeatureManager, you can insert a Center of Mass Reference Point.  In the example shown below, I have placed a few points to show the progression of the CG as features are added.  (Note the position of the rollback bar as the point is added.)

As you can see, by adding these COM reference points, you can track the progress of the CG as you add features to the model.  Note that these are fully functional reference points that CAN BE DIMENSIONED to.  If a final feature must be added to a model and located off the CG at that particular point in time, you can dimension the feature to it!

Now lets go up to the next assembly.  If you insert a COM for that assembly, the CG for the part (yellow) and the assembly (black/white) display different.  As shown in the image below, you can turn the display of COM symbols on/off globally.

Now lets move to the top level assembly.  If you insert a COM feature, you’ll see the CG of the Top Level Assembly (black/white), the CG of the Subassembly (green), and the CG of the Part (yellow).  (You can also still see the CG Reference Points put in the part model (blue)).

If we move the slider assembly over to the far left, you’ll see that the CG of the Subassembly (green) and the CG of the Top Level Assembly (black/white) update accordingly.  (The motion of the slider is defined at the slider subassembly.)  (BTW – All of the files shown in this article are available in the “whatsnew” Samples folder.)

You can also show the COM feature in a drawing and can dimension to it!

Mass Properties Window Updates

In previous releases, SolidWorks would allow you to manually designate the CG of any part or assembly which “overrides” the geometry calculated CG.  (As part of this process, you could also override the mass.)  Unfortunately when you do this, and top level assembly that that part or assembly is placed in will NO LONGER be able to calculate the Moments of Inertia.  (I’ve talked to many users who found this out the hard way, yours included.)  Below is an example of what you would see when you run mass properties for an assembly containing a part with “Assigned mass properties” in SolidWorks 2012.  Note that NO Moments of Inertia are given.

In SolidWorks 2013, this limitation has been removed.  You can manually input the CG location, mass, and now the Moments of Inertia of any part or assembly.  When you do this, it no longer withdraws the Moments of Inertia calculation at assemblies upstream from the over-ridden component!  In the example below,  you’ll see how easy it is to over-ride the Mass Properties of this “motor” component.  (This is often a need for purchased components such as this.)

Below you’ll see the re-calculated Mass Properties (which includes the Moments of Inertia).  Note that the window indicates which properties are over-ridden.  (I highlighted them in yellow to make it easier to find.)

When you go to the top level assembly, we still get all of the Mass Properties and the components with over-ridden values are shown at the bottom of the report.

All of these enhancements to Mass Properties in SolidWorks 2013 can be HUGE time savers to those who design with these attributes in mind.  For those industries who rely on this type of data, an early transition to SolidWorks 2013 might just be in order.

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

In SolidWorks 2013, you can now create MULTIPLE Exploded Views within a SolidWorks Configuration.  In previous releases, only ONE Exploded view as allows per configuration.  Below you see a model which was created in SolidWorks 2012.  It only has one Exploded View.

In SolidWorks 2013, you simply select the Exploded View command from the Assembly tab to add an additional Exploded View.

Being able to have Multiple Exploded views will cut down on unnecessary configurations and allow more flexible file management.

We are just getting started.  There’s a whole lot more to come.  Stay tuned!

The folks at SolidWorks are doing something a little different this year in that they are releasing a few details of SolidWorks 2013 EARLY.  You can find all the details over at the SolidWorks Blog.

The first “preview” is the center of mass tool.  I put this one in the category of one of those “FINALLY” tools as I think it will be a welcomed addition for many users.  You can add a Center of Mass point in Parts and Assemblies.  It of course will update as parts are modified or as components are added or subtracted to an assembly.  You’ll be able to reference this point in a few ways in both parts and assemblies.  (Gotta error on the side of caution when it comes to NDAs.)  You can show the Center of Mass in a Drawing and dimension to it.  Check out the YouTube video posted by SolidWorks which is embedded below.  Make sure you check out the original post at the SolidWorks Blog by clicking HERE.

Stay tuned…more to come!

Its easy to overlook some things when you are browsing a 179 page What’s New Document. This was the case for me as I was looking through the SolidWorks 2012 What’s New document. SolidWorks 2012 adds a “Select All” feature that is pretty self explanatory. This is of course one of the handiest features in Windows programs today, and it gives SolidWorks users a few more options in selecting objects in parts and assemblies

The assembly functionality is pretty straight forward. The Select All feature (available from the menu as shown below or through the keyboard shortcut CTRL+A), selects all components within the assembly. This includes the any sub-assembly within that assembly, but it only selects the sub-assembly item, not the components individually contained within.

Part files are handled a little differently with the select all command. Parts honor the current settings on the Selection Filter bar. If you have “Filter Faces” turned on, the Select All will select all the faces. If you have “Filter Vertices” turned on, the Select All will select all the vertices. You can even combine selections to get the results you want. (Although I can’t think of too many situations where I would want to do that.)

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!

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.

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!

So why would one “new” feature necessitate having a Part 1 and Part 2?  Its mainly due to the many different ways the feature can be applied.  SolidWorks 2011 introduces a new “Weld Bead” feature.  While you’ll find just a few similarities between the PropertyManager options of the old “Fillet Bead” and the new “Weld Bead”, these two features are QUITE different.  Lets identify some key points of the new Weld Bead feature:

• Weld Bead is a “lightweight” feature that is primarily shown in the modeling environment.
• No Solid Bodies are created as part of the Weld Bead feature.
• Weld Beads CAN BE USED IN PARTS AND ASSEMBLIES! (And functions the same in both.)
• More complex Weld Beads are possible when compared to the Fillet Bead
• Weld Annotation automatically generated and are modifiable.
• Quick selection tool included for rapid selection

The strategy in which SolidWorks has gone about in developing this feature is somewhat different than other CAD Vendors.  The Weld Bead command is a lightweight feature that does not create an actual solid body in the Part or Assembly files.  Here’s a screenshot of what the feature interface looks like.

What you see is a graphical representation only. In addition to that, the graphical representation which is the bead, is NOT trimmed to fit the surfaces around the selection area. This is the big performance saver. On large weldments where you want to show all of your beads, it can take quite some time for the software to run calculations on all the weld beads. Another advantage of the Weld Bead is that since it is not trimming surfaces, the bead can be applied to a much larger range of face selection combinations.  You also have a useful but slightly simplistic way of calculating the mass, cost, & number of passes through the use of the Weld Bead Properties dialog box, which is shown below.

Here’s an example of a finished part with all weld annotated with the Weld Bead command.

Overall, I like the direction that SolidWorks has gone with this tool. SolidWorks has a reputation in industry for handling Large Assemblies very well, and this feature’s design approach fits right along with that.  With that said, I would like to see some things added to it in the next release.  We’ll cover more of that in Part 2 of the review.

I have made a video showing off this functionality.  (WARNING…It is quite long.)

Because of bandwidth issues, I will no longer be hosting videos on my site like I have done in the past.  Videos will be offered in two ways.  You can view videos via my YouTube Channel, or I will make the MP4 file available for view or download at archive.org  I realize that some of you are probably behind a corporate firewall and can’t see YouTube, so that is why I’m providing the download via archive.org.  Below is the embedded YouTube link.  (The video can be viewed in HD.)  Right below that you’ll find the link to view or download the file.  Please let me know if you have any issues seeing the video or downloading it from archive.org as this is the first time I have used this service.

If your corporate firewall has blocked YouTube, you can view or download the video at archive.org HERE.  (Note:  You may need the TSCC codec to view the MP4 file.)

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!