Christine's Blog

Knitting isn't just for wusses anymore

Did you know you can use the Knit tool to create a surface on a face or faces (equivalent to an offset surface at 0.000 distance, commonly called 'offset zero')?  Well you can.

If you are using it create a surface from multiple faces, the faces need to be adjacent, but not overlapping.  You can however offset zero non-adjacent or overlapping faces.  So, if you're planning on forming a solid out of the surfaces later, using the knit tool will tell you upfront if the surfaces are touching and not overlapping (some of the criteria needed to form a solid).

New Blog!!!!

My VAR Graphic Systems has started a Tech Blog.  You can check it out at: http://gxsc.typepad.com/  They have several of there instructors and tech support people writing regular entries.  It should be a great source for wide range of tips. 

MASWUG Meeting Review

Last night I attended the MASWUG (Madison Area SolidWorks Users Group) meeting.  The presenter was the well known and appreciated Ed Eaton of the DiMonte Group out of Arora, IL.  He did his presentation on Lofts that he will present at SolidWorks World in 3 weeks.  He’s still refining the details, but I was impressed.  As always, his presentation will be posted on the DiMonte Group web page sometime after SolidWorks World w/ DVD extras.

If you used lofts, you have had problems with lofts.  He talked about the common problems.  Why lofted sheet metal parts sometimes won’t unbend, how to get your parts to have nicer blends between their surfaces, why two surfaces that appear to be the same, but have a line between them and how to get rid of that line. 

When you don’t use lofts often it’s hard to remember what all the options are for and when you should use them.  On top of that the wording that SolidWorks uses is not easy to understand.  Ed talked spent a good amount of time talking about the functionality and more importantly why things work the way they do.  He coved are the difference between using surfaces and solids lofts, end constraints, centerline parameters, when you should use guide curves, when a sweep be more appropriate and more.

This was a great presentation and I recommend checking it out.

Modeled your house?

Just about every CAD jockey I know has modeled some part of or their entire house.  I have to admit I have too,  I've also modeled my future deck, furniture (for room layouts) and most recently a cat tree/scratching post.  What fun projects have you done?

Completing the Circle

I'm not sure when this changed....because I just tried it one day and it worked.  I know it works in 2006, your results for other versions of SolidWorks may vary. 

Say you have a arc in a sketch and you now want to change in to a circle.  Don't delete it and redraw it ....just drag one of the endpoints around the circle and drop it on the other end point.  Then magically both end points will disappear and you'll have a complete circle.

Upcoming User Group Meetings

The Milwaukee, WI group has a meeting coming up on Tuesday Dec. 5th featuring Jon Hirschtick, Founder of SolidWorks Corporation.  See their website for details: http://www.smart-wi.com/home.html  If you register soon their may still be room.

And of course the Madison, WI group has a meeting coming up on January 11th featuring Top Down Design, Sketching Techniques and an Open From.  See their website for details: http://www.maswug.org/Next_Meeting/next_meeting.htm

I'm still here and thinking about 2007

You all can't get rid of me that easily. J/K  Sorry I've need to take a break on the postings.

2007's been out for a while now and yet we still haven't upgraded.  Some of you are asking why not and while others are asking how do make the determination to upgrade. Typically we like to stay on the 1 to 2 SP lag.  And if everyone did this no bugs would be reported & fixed until SP 3.  So, I say Thanks You to those who make the plunge earlier.  SP 2.0 came out about 2 weeks ago now. Most part the reviews I've read about 2007 in general have been very positive like Ricky Jordan's blog:  http://www.rickyjordan.net/2006/11/sp_20_is_out.html  and even Matt has a somewhat postive tone about 2007 http://designsmarter.typepad.com/mattlombard/tech_tips/index.html

So I still really haven't answer either question. For the why, at this point it is mostly historical reasons and probably being overly cautious.  The beta testing wasn't as broad in the beginning and there wasn't as many users out there to report problems.  Now I hear more about many people upgrading very close to the time when they get their disks and not having too many problems.

To determine when to make the switch we look at the state of our projects.  It's never a good time to have a possible slow down, but there are better times than others.  We look at the major and critical project schedules to make this determination.  We also look at how much SolidWorks has changed.  Is the interface different enough that people are going to have trouble jumping over to it, if they haven't gone to upgrade training?  And are there new features in the software that would really help us out?

We have a lot of licenses.  It takes a while to do the install.  Because the files aren't backwards compatible, we need to have time to do a back up and the install on everyone's computer at the same time.  This grantees that the switch must be done over a weekend or holiday.  I'm not going to go through the best practices for installing a new version of SolidWorks because there are many good articles out there on the newsgroups, SolidWorks' web page and other blogs (again Ricky Jordan has a post on this subject).

Finally, I look at a training schedule for everyone.  Whether they go through the what's new on their own, we do something in house or go to the VAR's class, I think it's really important to do and to do it within a few days of the install date.  It's often difficult to get everyone to take the time for this, but we do our best.

Macros are for Everyone

You don't need to be an expert to use macros in SolidWorks.  With SolidWorks' ability to record commands it ends up being pretty easy to automate regular commands or groups of commands. 

Jeff Cope has written a column (Macros 101) in this weeks SolidWorks Community that takes you through the process step by step. Check it out.

Quick Comment

I highly recommend using SolidWorks' Comment feature.  Besides the obvious uses, I've found it really helpful in assemblies.  The nice thing about comments is they always show up when you hover over a part (or feature) that it's attached to, even if the item is suppressed. 

When you start an assembly many people give their parts descriptive names (hinge block, door handle, etc...), then your parts get assigned part numbers and now it's difficult to find those parts. If you add comments to the parts with the descriptive names then you'll be able to find them easier. 

Changing your Tree Display (RMB at the very top) and turning on deceptions will also accomplish this.  However, you may have to make your tree bigger to find what you're looking for and you have to have the description field filled in.

Both these techniques will work.  Choose the one that fits you best.

Budget Time

For many of us 4th quarter means budget time.  If you're not submitting a budget hopefully your supervisor asks you for suggestions.  Be proactive and let them know what you need. 

Here are some of the things I consider every year (kind of a check list).

1) Hardware

If possible replace your computers every 3-4 years.  I find the cost is worth the productivity increase.   For computers you're not replacing look at what's in them.  Think about increasing the RAM or upgrading the video card. 

How much RAM do you need?  It depends on what you're doing you can use Windows Task Manager to monitor how much you're using.  For me 2GB is a minimum for our current machines.  When I next buy machines there'll be more than that in them.

Every tried a 3D mouse.  They're not for everyone, but they can help you manipulate your model faster and alleviate some stress on your mousing hand.

The last hardware item is monitors.  I personally love dual monitors.  Most decent video cards support this out of the box.  If dual monitors are not your thing, consider getting bigger, landscape or an LCD. 

Many VARs keep up to date on hardware.  They are a good source to goto if you're debating on which video card to choose, how to get the best bang for your limited bucks, if you should go to 64 bit, etc...

2) Software

License Renewals, look at the list of Add-ins/solution partners and any other packages that may be specific to your type of business.

3) Equipment

Everything these days seems to be about getting to the market faster.  Check out the cost of Rapid Prototype Machines, 3D Scanners (Ricky Jordan has 2 blog's on this topic) or in-house machining tools and equipment.  This industry has changed a lot and you may be surprised how affordable some things have gotten.

4) Training, Certification and Books

This may be the most important category in this list and it's often over looked.  It is really worth the time & money to keep yourself up to date on the tools you use.  Especially if you in it every day. 

In this category I capture classes (update, adv. modeling, Geometric Tolerancing, DFMA, etc..), conferences, certification testing and books.  There are a number of SolidWorks Books (check out the SolidWorks Good Reads section of the SolidWorks Community Blog for a few), ASME standards, Machinery's Handbook, etc..

Many times if you don't budget for these things its difficult or impossible to get it approved when it comes up.  So, think ahead.