Mike Puckett's Blog

Are Your Shadows In Your Model Just Not Right?

Do you ever create a model and the shadow that gets projected onto the floor isn't in the direction you would like?  Well its simple to fix this graphical issue in two steps.  Here is a model where the shadow just doesn't look right, it needs to be rotated:

 

To me the part looks to be on its side, so when I rotate the part, the shadow ends up disappearing:

 

With the model in the orientation I want, all I have to do to get the shadow to appear how I like is to toggle the "Shadows In Shaded Mode" button off, then back on (Highlighted):

 

I now have the shadow that looks correct to me.  This trick works in both realview and non realview modes.  You can add the Shadows In Shaded Mode button to any toolbar by dragging it from the customize tools menu (right click any toolbar and click customize):

 

You can make this change as many times as you like, and as often as you want!

Helping Other Users Via The SolidWorks Community

Online blogs are a very good source for information when you need it.  I myself have found information on various topics many times simply by reading technical posting on blogs on a variety of topics.

This weekend someone posted a question about sheet metal functions in SolidWorks:

 

Now I will be the first to admit that I am no expert when it comes to sheet metal tools in SolidWorks.  As a former mold designer, we simply never used them in out designs.  So I posted the question on twitter and within about 20 minutes or so had a few very good responses:

 

I also asked a colleague of mine who answered yes to question #1, and in regards to question #2, yes, but only in 2009 and newer versions.

Perhaps if anyone has any further input to the original question they can comment below.  Thanks to the Twitter participants for allowing me to share their responses.

SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 4.0 Available

The full production release of SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 4.0 was released into the customer portal today.  Full release notes along with the download itself can be obtained by logging into the customer portal at this LINK.

New Functions in SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 4.0

The upcoming release of Service Pack 4.0 for SolidWorks 2009 will include a few pieces of new functionality including:

Ability to dimension the length of an arc in a 3D sketch:

 

Ability to rename driven dimensions:

 

And the ability to delete faces from multiple bodies at the same time:

 

The early visibility release of Service Pack 4.0 has been available for about a week, and the full production release should be ready in the next few weeks.

Happy Time...

Without a doubt, one of the best parts about working for SolidWorks is that I get the opportunity to go out and meet users around the country.  Whether it's at SolidWorks World, a user group meeting, or on customer visits, this week I get the chance to once again go out and meet a couple hundred SolidWorks users. 

My travels take me this week to Happy Valley Pennsylvania for the SolidWorks User Group Network 1-Day Summit.  Think of it as a mini-SolidWorks World.  It's one of the best values going in terms of SolidWorks training.  It's a full day of loads of SolidWorks tip's, trick's and how-to's.  It really is a full day of learning.  The SolidWorks User Group Network does a fantastic job of putting several of these summits on around the country each year.  

If your in the Happy Valley area and can get away on Tuesday, definitely make your way to Penn State, you wont regret it!  

Happy Valley SWUGN Summit 

Look For A SWUGN Summit Near You 

P.S.

Congrats L.A. Lakers on Championship number 15, and number 10 for coach Phil Jackson. 

A Sneak Peek at the CSWP Event at SolidWorks World 2010

Thinking about going to SolidWorks World 2010?  Are you a CSWP? 

If you answered yes to those, here is a video to get you excited about SolidWorks World 2010 including a sneak peek at what the CSWP Event will be all about.  If your not a CSWP, well then watching this video may make you want to think about that especially if your going to Anaheim next year.  While SolidWorks World is mainly a learning event, we still know how to have fun at night.

Who Want's SolidWorks 2010?

 

The beta testing for SolidWorks 2010 is just around the corner and once again SolidWorks is looking for your input.  Each year lot's of new features are built into the new release of SolidWorks and most of them are based off user requested enhancements.  While these enhancements have spent months undergoing lots of internal testing and debugging processes, the beta period is the final leg of the process to insure that they can perform as intended on the almost unlimited hardware configurations that SolidWorks users have around the World.  It's also a chance for last minute input by beta testers to tweak new functions to make them work better.  Last year there were several changes to newly added features that came directly from user feedback during the beta period.

So if you have the time and resources to participate in the beta process this year, you can get notified when the program is launched.  Simply follow the instructions found at the SolidWorks Beta Program Page.  The first beta version is set to launch within the next two weeks, and if you don't have the time to participate, well then you will have to wait for the full release early this fall to see all the new features that will ship with SolidWorks 2010!

Using The Weld Feature in SolidWorks

I promised to do a tutorial on the weld tool to someone who left a comment a few weeks back, so here is the first installment of weld tools in SolidWorks.

Here is a simple strap that will get welded:

 

The weld tool is available to use in a part file, but the edge or joint you are going to weld need to be separate bodies.  In this part you can see there are three separate bodies.  The weld tool is found under the weldments tools and toolbar:

 

Clicking on this brings up the Fillet Bead tool with the following property manager:

  

By clicking the different face sets you will end up with a virtual edge as shown above.  Here is the resulting weld bead:

 

Now lets play with some of the settings in the Weld Bead tool.  Aside from simply changing the width of the bead, you can also create a staggered bead:

 

Once you put the part into a drawing you can then call out the weld bead by inserting a weld symbol:

 

This is just a small portion of the weld tools available in SolidWorks.  Next time we'll cover weld beads in an assembly.

Taking the CSWA Exam and Need Some Help?

Marie Planchard of SolidWorks has created a series of very usefull videos about stuyding and taking the CSWA exam.  You can access the YouTube Videos at this LINK.

Now Let's Configure Features

On Monday I wrote about Configuring Dimensions.  Today I will show you how to configure features.  Lets use an updated version of our familiar bracket:

  

As you can see we now have a mounting hole, and a strengthening rib.  Our intention is to have three configurations of this part.  One will be without the rib, the second will be with the rib, but without the mount, the third will be without either, and the fourth will be with both which will be the default configuration for this part.

So now you may be thinking its time to start suppressing features and creating configurations and then making sure they all rebuild correctly.  Well here is an easier way.  First Right-Control-Select the rib feature, and the mount feature in the tree and select configure features:

 

We get the Modify Configurations window:

 

You will notice that you can click to suppress features instead of typing in dimensions.  Now its time to add in the configuration names and select the features to be suppressed for each one:

 

You can see that its basically just selecting which features to suppress to get the resulting configurations you want.  That where the time savings really comes in for using this tool.  The final step is to select the rebuild all configurations button, the click ok:

 

Of course if you had any rebuild errors, the configuration would show up in red.  Here are the resulting configurations:

 

So next time you have some configurations you want to create, think about giving this tool a shot.  I have been using it since I discovered it at a SolidWorks User Group Meeting, and its a definite time saver for me.